Hello readers!
Yes, I fell of the face of the planet. It hurt. But 3 shows and 6 weeks later, I can say I survived with only minor bruising. Whew!
Kristi and I have talked-well we emailed-about the fact that (here comes the deep thought...) if you're performing and working as an actor (and working somewhere else to pay the bills), its not the most convenient time to find new material. Now, you may say, "You lazy actor!" Yes, I admit, we could be dedicating *some* time...but when you're trying to learn your lines, it takes alot of will to not just stop there.
So the good news: we're working! Bad news: The blog (and our monologue collection) gets all dusty from disuse.
We have made great strides so far. KK has really helped us (she's helped me alot!), and the fact that we've been incredibly lucky using the material we've found, the outcomes are positive--I think we were just a bit too ambitious to set our deadline this year.
We are extending our project of 50 monologues to next Memorial Day (2012 for those of you living under your comfy cozy rock ;)).
On a side note-I just auditioned for another musical last night and got cast! Information has not been posted on the theatre's website yet, so I won't say much--but I am SYKED....SIKED....SYIKED (however you spell it). I was so excited, that I had a really really hard time sleeping last night.
And you know what? For this audition, I had to sing. And ONLY sing. Usually, I'd rather have at least one monologue or dance number in my back pocket...but I sang. And I sang two songs. And I survived. Whoa.
And I accepted something that's been touched on here (another deep thought-you can handle it--deep breaths)--you have to ACT your song just like a monologue. So therefore, I'm claiming these two songs as part of my top 25 list. Because they worked, they were active, and they were a heck of alot of fun to perform.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming....
-Whit
Showing posts with label KK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KK. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Its raining...
...rehearsals, y'all! So my plan to be in one show this year happened...three-fold. For the last two weeks, and into the next 4 or so, I'll be performing and rehearsing 3 shows! One has past already--the theatre co I work for partnered with our city's symphony. Whilst they played excerpts from Prokofiev's Cinderella, we acted out the story without words. I was an ugly stepsister--it can't be better than that! ;) (And if you're looking to listen to some GORGEOUS classical music-check out this music.)
I'm now in the works of Charlotte's Web, and Sunday I start Bat Boy rehearsals. Whew! When it rains, it pours.
So- I am working on getting you that lovely KK checklist. I promise. And I'm also venturing more into the TV show monologue realm. If y'all haven't watched "Big Love" get thee to your Netflix queue (or your local library). It. Is. Grrrrreat! Now not all of the actors are totally with it (some are amazing. Hello, Jeanne Tripplehorn), but the characters are fascinating, and there are some awesome hunks of text to explore.
Alright-onward and upward. Have a great week, friends!
-Whit
I'm now in the works of Charlotte's Web, and Sunday I start Bat Boy rehearsals. Whew! When it rains, it pours.
So- I am working on getting you that lovely KK checklist. I promise. And I'm also venturing more into the TV show monologue realm. If y'all haven't watched "Big Love" get thee to your Netflix queue (or your local library). It. Is. Grrrrreat! Now not all of the actors are totally with it (some are amazing. Hello, Jeanne Tripplehorn), but the characters are fascinating, and there are some awesome hunks of text to explore.
Alright-onward and upward. Have a great week, friends!
-Whit
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Well?
I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited (bated?) breath to find out how my audition went.
Overall, I felt it went well. My monologue was awesome. If I didn't love it before, I love it now. TV monologues are just SO PERFECT for this situation. They are short, sweet and to the point. I think with a little KK work, I can take it to the next level for Midwest Theatre auditions in two weeks. Judge away, but I'm sticking with it.
My song is another story. I just didn't feel good about it. Specifically, I didn't feel good about one note. (For those of you who are musically inclined, it's D4) It's hard to explain what makes that section of the song difficult without using a bunch of music jargon, but I'll say this. In a performance situation where I would be adequately warmed up and singing throughout the show, it wouldn't be a problem. In an audition situation where I warm up before I go, but then sit around for an hour and don't have anywhere to sing and keep myself warm, it's not ideal.
I still haven't decided if I'm going to change my song or not. I have another audition this weekend and I'm going to give it one more go. If it doesn't work out, I'll change it. I've got some songs on reserve, just in case.
In completely unrelated news, how are you all dealing with the the blizzard aftermath? Have you dug yourself out yet? Chicago got walloped with snow and now we've got no where to put it. Some of the cars in my neighborhood haven't even tried to dig out. My coworker said she'll just take the train until spring. I don't have a car, but it would be really nice if people would plow their sidewalks!
In news that is more related, I think I'm going to begin a program called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron in the coming weeks. I won't say too much about it now, but I'm hoping that putting it out there publicly will give me the motivation to actually do it. :)
With love and gratitude,
Kristi
Overall, I felt it went well. My monologue was awesome. If I didn't love it before, I love it now. TV monologues are just SO PERFECT for this situation. They are short, sweet and to the point. I think with a little KK work, I can take it to the next level for Midwest Theatre auditions in two weeks. Judge away, but I'm sticking with it.
My song is another story. I just didn't feel good about it. Specifically, I didn't feel good about one note. (For those of you who are musically inclined, it's D4) It's hard to explain what makes that section of the song difficult without using a bunch of music jargon, but I'll say this. In a performance situation where I would be adequately warmed up and singing throughout the show, it wouldn't be a problem. In an audition situation where I warm up before I go, but then sit around for an hour and don't have anywhere to sing and keep myself warm, it's not ideal.
I still haven't decided if I'm going to change my song or not. I have another audition this weekend and I'm going to give it one more go. If it doesn't work out, I'll change it. I've got some songs on reserve, just in case.
In completely unrelated news, how are you all dealing with the the blizzard aftermath? Have you dug yourself out yet? Chicago got walloped with snow and now we've got no where to put it. Some of the cars in my neighborhood haven't even tried to dig out. My coworker said she'll just take the train until spring. I don't have a car, but it would be really nice if people would plow their sidewalks!
In news that is more related, I think I'm going to begin a program called The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron in the coming weeks. I won't say too much about it now, but I'm hoping that putting it out there publicly will give me the motivation to actually do it. :)
With love and gratitude,
Kristi
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tomorrow Is The Big Day!
It's finally here. The day I've been dreading working toward the past few weeks.
Illinois Theatre Auditions.
To tell you the truth, I actually feel completely prepared. I have a great song (Holding To The Ground from Falsettoland) and a monolouge that I enjoy (a piece from Grey's Anatomy) This audition is one of those cattle calls where you have 1 minute 30 secs to give a song and monologue performance. This year, for quite possibly the first time ever, I'm not worried about time. I ran my whole audition last night and it came in at 1:40 the first time. I cut two sentences, ran it again and wham, bam, 1 minute 27 seconds.
Although I am hopeful that something will come out of these auditions, I'm considering this a warm up for Midwest Theatre Auditions which happen in mid-February. My goal right now is to get out of Chicago for the summer and there will be plenty of summer theatres at Midwest auditions.
I haven't had much time in recent weeks to apply the entire KK method to the monologue I'm using tomorrow. I've been doing KK Light; taking some of her ideas and trying them out, but not going through the full boat. Once I see how the audition goes tomorrow, I'll know what worked and what didn't and I'll start applying the full method to my monologue so it's fool-proof for Midwest.
Wish me lots of (figurative) broken appendages tomorrow. Say a prayer, light a candle, kiss up a good wish and keep me in your thoughts!
Kristi
Illinois Theatre Auditions.
To tell you the truth, I actually feel completely prepared. I have a great song (Holding To The Ground from Falsettoland) and a monolouge that I enjoy (a piece from Grey's Anatomy) This audition is one of those cattle calls where you have 1 minute 30 secs to give a song and monologue performance. This year, for quite possibly the first time ever, I'm not worried about time. I ran my whole audition last night and it came in at 1:40 the first time. I cut two sentences, ran it again and wham, bam, 1 minute 27 seconds.
Although I am hopeful that something will come out of these auditions, I'm considering this a warm up for Midwest Theatre Auditions which happen in mid-February. My goal right now is to get out of Chicago for the summer and there will be plenty of summer theatres at Midwest auditions.
I haven't had much time in recent weeks to apply the entire KK method to the monologue I'm using tomorrow. I've been doing KK Light; taking some of her ideas and trying them out, but not going through the full boat. Once I see how the audition goes tomorrow, I'll know what worked and what didn't and I'll start applying the full method to my monologue so it's fool-proof for Midwest.
Wish me lots of (figurative) broken appendages tomorrow. Say a prayer, light a candle, kiss up a good wish and keep me in your thoughts!
Kristi
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Short and Sweet
Hi everyone! Happy 1/11/11! Wouldn't it be cool if you were turning 11 years old today? It'd be like a golden birthday, only better.
I have a video in the works that I will be sharing with you hopefully in the next day or two. I'm introducing the first two worksheets that Whitney mentioned in her last post, so stay tuned for that!
Today, I wanted to share a note about what I call short and sweet monologues. (I talk about this some in the video, but I wanted to elaborate here)
It seems to me the standard audition is one monologue, under 2 minutes. This is pretty basic for most non-musical audition situations, but I've noticed lately a lot of companies have been asking for something under 1 minute.
To a non-actor, 1 minute might seem like forever, but it's really a very short amount of time. There's not a whole lot you can do with 1 minute. Take a paragraph out of your favorite book and read it out loud. It probably takes you roughly a minute to read it at normal speed. See how fast it went by? Now try to pack something of substance in those 60 seconds.
Part of this project has been to look for monologues in non-traditional places and a great place to go for short and sweet monologues is television shows. I know, I know, it seems weird, but think about it. TV writers have 45 minutes to tell an entire story. So any monologue they write has to get to the point and get there quick.
The current monologue I'm working on is from Grey's Anatomy (my fave show :)). The show is in it's seventh season. My monologue is from season 5. If you chose to do a monologue from a currently running TV show, it's probably a good idea to go one or two seasons back. One of the problems you run into doing a monologue from television is that your auditors may have preconceived notions about what this character is supposed to look and sound like. After all, someone is already playing this character in front of millions of people weekly. If you chose a past season, most likely no one but the hard-core fans will remember that speech. Also, since characters tend to change from season to season, there's a good chance that your character in season 5 is not the same character in season 7.
I always stayed away from doing TV monologues in auditions because I was embarrassed to say, "My name is Kristi and I'll be doing a monologue from *insert TV show here*" However, my friend Brandon, a fellow actor, gave me a great tip recently. He uses a monologue from a popular TV show quite frequently and when he does, he states the title of the episode not the title of the TV show. If they ask, you can certainly tell them what TV show it's from, but by telling them the title of the episode, you hopefully keep them from passing immediate judgement.
I mentioned above that the auditors might have preconceived ideas about who this character is, but it can't be denied that you do as well. I watch Grey's every week and have been living with this character for 2 years, so I certainly have an idea about how she should be played. However, I'm doing everything I can to rid myself of those brain worms*. I only watched the episode once and that was so I could get the story. I got the text of the piece off the internet, but I couldn't quite remember the context, so I watched the episode exclusively for that. During the scene in which my monologue occurs, I didn't pay any attention to the acting, only to the text of the piece to make sure I had it written down correctly. After all, the internet isn't always right. ...
Once I had done that, I put the DVDs away and I won't pull them out again until after I have finalized my version of this piece. In the video to come, you'll see that I've done some of my KK homework and I'll be finishing the rest this week. It's so incredibly helpful and I can't wait to share with you how I feel her homework has impacted my audition. We know it's done well for Whitney! She got cast in a great show!
Have a great day everyone and don't miss my next video, coming soon!
With gratitude-
Kristi
*Does anyone remember that Private Practice/Grey's cross-over episode when Addison's brother had parasites in his brain?! Intense.
I have a video in the works that I will be sharing with you hopefully in the next day or two. I'm introducing the first two worksheets that Whitney mentioned in her last post, so stay tuned for that!
Today, I wanted to share a note about what I call short and sweet monologues. (I talk about this some in the video, but I wanted to elaborate here)
It seems to me the standard audition is one monologue, under 2 minutes. This is pretty basic for most non-musical audition situations, but I've noticed lately a lot of companies have been asking for something under 1 minute.
To a non-actor, 1 minute might seem like forever, but it's really a very short amount of time. There's not a whole lot you can do with 1 minute. Take a paragraph out of your favorite book and read it out loud. It probably takes you roughly a minute to read it at normal speed. See how fast it went by? Now try to pack something of substance in those 60 seconds.
Part of this project has been to look for monologues in non-traditional places and a great place to go for short and sweet monologues is television shows. I know, I know, it seems weird, but think about it. TV writers have 45 minutes to tell an entire story. So any monologue they write has to get to the point and get there quick.
The current monologue I'm working on is from Grey's Anatomy (my fave show :)). The show is in it's seventh season. My monologue is from season 5. If you chose to do a monologue from a currently running TV show, it's probably a good idea to go one or two seasons back. One of the problems you run into doing a monologue from television is that your auditors may have preconceived notions about what this character is supposed to look and sound like. After all, someone is already playing this character in front of millions of people weekly. If you chose a past season, most likely no one but the hard-core fans will remember that speech. Also, since characters tend to change from season to season, there's a good chance that your character in season 5 is not the same character in season 7.
I always stayed away from doing TV monologues in auditions because I was embarrassed to say, "My name is Kristi and I'll be doing a monologue from *insert TV show here*" However, my friend Brandon, a fellow actor, gave me a great tip recently. He uses a monologue from a popular TV show quite frequently and when he does, he states the title of the episode not the title of the TV show. If they ask, you can certainly tell them what TV show it's from, but by telling them the title of the episode, you hopefully keep them from passing immediate judgement.
I mentioned above that the auditors might have preconceived ideas about who this character is, but it can't be denied that you do as well. I watch Grey's every week and have been living with this character for 2 years, so I certainly have an idea about how she should be played. However, I'm doing everything I can to rid myself of those brain worms*. I only watched the episode once and that was so I could get the story. I got the text of the piece off the internet, but I couldn't quite remember the context, so I watched the episode exclusively for that. During the scene in which my monologue occurs, I didn't pay any attention to the acting, only to the text of the piece to make sure I had it written down correctly. After all, the internet isn't always right. ...
Once I had done that, I put the DVDs away and I won't pull them out again until after I have finalized my version of this piece. In the video to come, you'll see that I've done some of my KK homework and I'll be finishing the rest this week. It's so incredibly helpful and I can't wait to share with you how I feel her homework has impacted my audition. We know it's done well for Whitney! She got cast in a great show!
Have a great day everyone and don't miss my next video, coming soon!
With gratitude-
Kristi
*Does anyone remember that Private Practice/Grey's cross-over episode when Addison's brother had parasites in his brain?! Intense.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Speaking of dropping that ball...
Happy New Year! Well, Kristi wasn't the only one. I dropped the ball too--off a steep cliff--into a mile deep canyon. But as a New Year's resolution I promise to be better (or atleast try) at keeping this blog afloat.
I left you hanging after that last audition-I got it! I performed my Cow monologue again, and this time with more confidence and success. I do believe KK would be proud (I did my KK homework after all). I also sang...did you guess it?..."Keys" from Passing Strange by STEW. If you haven't listened to this autobiographical, small cast rock musical, you have an assignment. Listen. Look it up on PBS (they filmed a performance). Just brilliant.
So the audition yielded a part in another rock musical. One about a bat who's half boy, or is it the other way around? Who knows. But I get bitten. Then I die. But not before singing and dancing my little heart out and dressing in drag. I'm excited. The cast and creative crew are awesome, and we start in February.
But on to those pesky monologues. Playwrights-seriously. All of you blossoming young Ionescos, Becketts, Parks, etc. send us your stuff! What about this: we won't video tape our rehearsals--we'll SKYPE WITH YOU!! Live feedback!!
Come on-you know you want to. :)
Also-look for some KK worksheets in the future. Kristi and I are hard at work making some "cheat-sheets" for you "auditionees" that we think might help.
I left you hanging after that last audition-I got it! I performed my Cow monologue again, and this time with more confidence and success. I do believe KK would be proud (I did my KK homework after all). I also sang...did you guess it?..."Keys" from Passing Strange by STEW. If you haven't listened to this autobiographical, small cast rock musical, you have an assignment. Listen. Look it up on PBS (they filmed a performance). Just brilliant.
So the audition yielded a part in another rock musical. One about a bat who's half boy, or is it the other way around? Who knows. But I get bitten. Then I die. But not before singing and dancing my little heart out and dressing in drag. I'm excited. The cast and creative crew are awesome, and we start in February.
But on to those pesky monologues. Playwrights-seriously. All of you blossoming young Ionescos, Becketts, Parks, etc. send us your stuff! What about this: we won't video tape our rehearsals--we'll SKYPE WITH YOU!! Live feedback!!
Come on-you know you want to. :)
Also-look for some KK worksheets in the future. Kristi and I are hard at work making some "cheat-sheets" for you "auditionees" that we think might help.
Monday, November 22, 2010
We want YOU!
All right, playwrights. I know you're out there. I might just start naming names...maybe. Maybe I'll just tag you on the book of face. We still need your submissions here at Monologue Mania! We will TAPE our rehearsals! We will put a voice to your story! Submit at monologuemania@gmail.com. Do it. :)
Anyhoo-I've got an audition tonight. I'm using the Cow poem again in a more edited and concise version (because that's the process my friends: find, edit, perform, tweak, edit again, and test), and I'm singing (because this audition is for a musical!). I'm not going to reveal what I'm singing quite yet, but I'll give you hints: Its a newer rock musical, its by a man with only one name (because he is as cool, if not cooler, than other one-name wonders-ie. Prince), and the musical is about his life. Can you guess the musical?
I'll tell you the answer in my audition update, but otherwise, get thee to an iTunes store and download this music (if you've guessed what it is yet). IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. Well, I loved it anyway.
Happy Monday!
Anyhoo-I've got an audition tonight. I'm using the Cow poem again in a more edited and concise version (because that's the process my friends: find, edit, perform, tweak, edit again, and test), and I'm singing (because this audition is for a musical!). I'm not going to reveal what I'm singing quite yet, but I'll give you hints: Its a newer rock musical, its by a man with only one name (because he is as cool, if not cooler, than other one-name wonders-ie. Prince), and the musical is about his life. Can you guess the musical?
I'll tell you the answer in my audition update, but otherwise, get thee to an iTunes store and download this music (if you've guessed what it is yet). IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. Well, I loved it anyway.
Happy Monday!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Ode to KK
Hello readers!
Boy, Kristi is the champ of bloggity blogs, is she not? Video blogging. Who knew?
Kristi pretty much summed it up: KK (Karen Kohlhaas) is blowing our little minds. I am seriously sticking post-its all over the book. Unlike Kristi, I got it from the library, and folks there don't take to kindly to highlighting and underlining in their books. I've decided I will be buying this after all.
I keep reading and realizing that I've been leaving out key parts of the audition process, namely the part that I love the most when I direct or act in a production: blocking. I'm taking notes on a few other things, but this is the kicker. She suggests you work within a 6' box-not the entire stage. In the past I've had no problem staying in the box, well, because I don't move. At all. Note taken, KK. I will reform!
Onward-my dear friend Taylor works for a local publication here. She described an essay she published about the trials, discomfort, and embarrassment of couple's yoga (I had never heard of such a thing...). Apparently, the article is hilarious, and I can't wait to splice it into something I can use. Talk about a lovely monologue to break out that better blocking!
I'm trying hard to listen to everything, read everything as though it could work on stage. I'm hoping that even though my next audition probably won't be until January, I'll be continuing to push myself not to slack through active listening/reading. Can't hurt right?
Have a great week!
-Whit
Boy, Kristi is the champ of bloggity blogs, is she not? Video blogging. Who knew?
Kristi pretty much summed it up: KK (Karen Kohlhaas) is blowing our little minds. I am seriously sticking post-its all over the book. Unlike Kristi, I got it from the library, and folks there don't take to kindly to highlighting and underlining in their books. I've decided I will be buying this after all.
I keep reading and realizing that I've been leaving out key parts of the audition process, namely the part that I love the most when I direct or act in a production: blocking. I'm taking notes on a few other things, but this is the kicker. She suggests you work within a 6' box-not the entire stage. In the past I've had no problem staying in the box, well, because I don't move. At all. Note taken, KK. I will reform!
Onward-my dear friend Taylor works for a local publication here. She described an essay she published about the trials, discomfort, and embarrassment of couple's yoga (I had never heard of such a thing...). Apparently, the article is hilarious, and I can't wait to splice it into something I can use. Talk about a lovely monologue to break out that better blocking!
I'm trying hard to listen to everything, read everything as though it could work on stage. I'm hoping that even though my next audition probably won't be until January, I'll be continuing to push myself not to slack through active listening/reading. Can't hurt right?
Have a great week!
-Whit
Monday, October 11, 2010
Face Time
This was supposed to be posted last week, but I had technical difficulties. Better late than never!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
"You ARE still blogging, right?"
Someone asked me this yesterday and I felt compelled to respond.
Yes, we ARE still blogging!
I think blogging about the process of finding and learning 50 monologues in a year's time is a tough one. There's a lot of repetition in this process, none of which makes for interesting reading after the first time you write about it.
Also, I don't have internet at home, so to update the blog I have to type out the post at home, save it on a flash drive, then bring it into work and post it. Or I have to go to the library with the slow-as-molasses internet and post. Ahh the life of a poor actor...
To be honest, I haven't been doing that much with this project for the past few weeks. I...well....let's just call a spade, a spade. I've been lazy. That's right. You heard me. The project all about not being a lazy actor has been inhibited by, let's say it together, "A lazy actor!"
Instead of making excuses (the fall TV season is back, creativity is not inspired by a long and boring work day, I think I have adult ADD....) I'm just going to promise to get better.
I started reading KK's book over the weekend and I love it. I will definitely be writing about my initial reactions and this fantastic quote that has made me happy we are doing this project.
I am going to commit myself to posting at least once a week. I won't commit myself to a day just yet, (because of the no internet at home thing), but you will get an update from me faithfully once a week! I promise!
Consider this post a fire being lit under my ass.
Onward!
-Kristi
Yes, we ARE still blogging!
I think blogging about the process of finding and learning 50 monologues in a year's time is a tough one. There's a lot of repetition in this process, none of which makes for interesting reading after the first time you write about it.
Also, I don't have internet at home, so to update the blog I have to type out the post at home, save it on a flash drive, then bring it into work and post it. Or I have to go to the library with the slow-as-molasses internet and post. Ahh the life of a poor actor...
To be honest, I haven't been doing that much with this project for the past few weeks. I...well....let's just call a spade, a spade. I've been lazy. That's right. You heard me. The project all about not being a lazy actor has been inhibited by, let's say it together, "A lazy actor!"
Instead of making excuses (the fall TV season is back, creativity is not inspired by a long and boring work day, I think I have adult ADD....) I'm just going to promise to get better.
I started reading KK's book over the weekend and I love it. I will definitely be writing about my initial reactions and this fantastic quote that has made me happy we are doing this project.
I am going to commit myself to posting at least once a week. I won't commit myself to a day just yet, (because of the no internet at home thing), but you will get an update from me faithfully once a week! I promise!
Consider this post a fire being lit under my ass.
Onward!
-Kristi
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
New Material
Whitney is back, fall is here (officially at 11:09pm EST today) and I'm about to dive into to some new material!
Over the weekend, I decided that I want to move away from non-traditional monologues for a while. The impetus for this came from a list I found while cleaning out my file box.
In most college theatre programs, you are required to take some sort of theatre history. Both Whitney and I were fortunate to have the marvelous John Tammi as a professor for both Western and American theatre history. He gave us all sorts of resources for both of these classes, but the list I found was one we recieved in American theatre history. It is a list of great American plays (many of which won awards, many of which did not) from the early 1900s to the present. A good many of these plays were marked, "If you haven't read this, do it now!".
Well I did not read them them (I was a senior and college was busy!) but fret not, gentle blog readers. JT's advice did not go amiss. I'm doing it now! I've got a date with the Chicago Public Library tonight and I'll be traveling back to my homestate of Michigan tomorrow. Classic plays make for great commuter train/2 hour car trip reading.
Stay tuned because I also recieved KK's book (remember her?) yesterday and I'm already convinced that it's going to be an excellent resource. I'll be back with more about the book soon!
--Kristi
Over the weekend, I decided that I want to move away from non-traditional monologues for a while. The impetus for this came from a list I found while cleaning out my file box.
In most college theatre programs, you are required to take some sort of theatre history. Both Whitney and I were fortunate to have the marvelous John Tammi as a professor for both Western and American theatre history. He gave us all sorts of resources for both of these classes, but the list I found was one we recieved in American theatre history. It is a list of great American plays (many of which won awards, many of which did not) from the early 1900s to the present. A good many of these plays were marked, "If you haven't read this, do it now!".
Well I did not read them them (I was a senior and college was busy!) but fret not, gentle blog readers. JT's advice did not go amiss. I'm doing it now! I've got a date with the Chicago Public Library tonight and I'll be traveling back to my homestate of Michigan tomorrow. Classic plays make for great commuter train/2 hour car trip reading.
Stay tuned because I also recieved KK's book (remember her?) yesterday and I'm already convinced that it's going to be an excellent resource. I'll be back with more about the book soon!
--Kristi
Monday, August 9, 2010
My Journey Begins Tonight
I've been kicking around the idea for a monologue for some time, but it's a little HOT in my apartment, which makes concentrating kind of difficult. However, my building in Chicago has a lovely courtyard and portico out front, which I'll be taking full advantage of tonight. Cross your fingers for a nice breeze....
The monologue is coming from a song called "Calm" by Adam Gwon. For those of you not familiar with his work, check out this YouTube video of my friend Kate. Kate and I met in the spring of 2006 when I was living in New York City and she's hilariously funny.
The song is a great one and a perfect story with a beginning, middle and end. The problem is, it's not that suitable for auditions. Generally in a musical audition, you sing 16 or 32 bars of something. There's not a good cut of that length from this song. But, I love it......
So what do I do?
"Turn it into a monologue!" shouted the chorus of blog readers. You catch on fast.
It's definitely going to take some editing. After all, it is a song and songs are rhyme-y. That sounds a little silly in most non-musical audition situations. It's also a touch long, so I may have to cut a little bit. Overall, I think it going to be a great character piece when it's finished.
My other goal for the week is to explore more of Karen Kohlhaas's (whom I'll probably refer to as KK from this point on) website. I eventually want to order her books, but payday is not until Friday. :)
Away we go!
-Kristi
The monologue is coming from a song called "Calm" by Adam Gwon. For those of you not familiar with his work, check out this YouTube video of my friend Kate. Kate and I met in the spring of 2006 when I was living in New York City and she's hilariously funny.
The song is a great one and a perfect story with a beginning, middle and end. The problem is, it's not that suitable for auditions. Generally in a musical audition, you sing 16 or 32 bars of something. There's not a good cut of that length from this song. But, I love it......
So what do I do?
"Turn it into a monologue!" shouted the chorus of blog readers. You catch on fast.
It's definitely going to take some editing. After all, it is a song and songs are rhyme-y. That sounds a little silly in most non-musical audition situations. It's also a touch long, so I may have to cut a little bit. Overall, I think it going to be a great character piece when it's finished.
My other goal for the week is to explore more of Karen Kohlhaas's (whom I'll probably refer to as KK from this point on) website. I eventually want to order her books, but payday is not until Friday. :)
Away we go!
-Kristi
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