Audition Prep - The Great Compromise

Audition prep session with Nancy 22/01/16

ArtsEd Workshop

On Thursday we had a workshop with ArtsEd, we didn't do a lot of practical but I enjoyed what we did. We started with the usual artsed warm up "hey my name is joe..." I really love that warm up, because it's so fun I think it gives you a lot of energy. Afterwards we walked around the room and started creating a character from a different walk. What I found especially interesting about that exercise is when we make the character talk. When we just walk around, I personally, started to think about what that person was like, what they'd eat, think, do, etc. but then when we started making them talk I discovered a whole new side of them, I didn't think about what their voice would sound like, what they'd say, how they'd say it, it just came out naturally and it fitted the character but also made them brand new which was really interesting.

Afterwards we watched artsed promo DVD and had a chat with the head of acting. ArtsEd sounds like a really great place and I'd love to go there. I think it something that suits me way more than East 15 for example, I have no doubt East 15 is a great place to be but I think isn't for me.

Mock Audition

On Friday we had our mock audition.
I thought the process was great, it was really what I expected, it was professional, the MD, director and dancer where really really nice and gave really good feedbacks. However I was really not happy with what I've done.

The dancing was better than I thought it'd be and I learnt a lot from it, this is what I was most pleased with surprisingly. She told us how she wasn't a dancer before and that it was all about acting through it and pretending you were doing great. I am definitely not there yet because I find it really hard to pretend everything's going right when all's going wrong but by the end of the session I managed to be more relaxed, have facial expressions and go for it which was a big step for me in dance.
The feedbacks I got for it was I needed to relax and stop stressing.

The singing feedbacks I got were not as bad as I thought they'd be but I still wasn't really pleased. I was told to go for it more and stop worrying so much about the notes. Vocally I was kind of ill so obviously it didn't help me being confident, What happened in the acting is that it was a song I can really relate to, and I started feeling like it was getting too "real" and to "me bringing my personal life into an audition" and switched to fake mode, which obviously wasn't the smartest decision.

The feedback I got for acting matched what I thought. I need to prepare more, know every detail of the play and characters. I also need to connect more with the character and not copy what I've done previously even though I felt connected before.

Laban Movement

Today we worked on our monologues with Laban's movement. I really found it useful as it showed my a lot of different ways to say the monologues, different though process, etc.

Name	Wight	Space	Time
Punch	Heavy	Direct	Quick
Press	Heavy	Direct	Slow
Slash	Heavy	Indirect	Quick
Wring	Heavy	Indirect	Slow
Dab	Light	Direct	Quick
Glide	Light	Direct	Slow
Flick	Light	Indirect	Quick
Float	Light	Indirect	Slow

12/10/15 Audition Technique

Today in Audition technique class I performed my Shakespeare monologue from All's well that ends well. I was really happy because I had really constructive tips, I changed a few ideas behind the text and I feel like I've really improved on it since I last worked on it. I performed it with one of my classmate being my step mother. It really helps having someone, I felt like I could connect more. However I still lose a bit of connection towards the middle.
Targets: work on the bits where I lose connection with the text and being able to connect as well as when I'm talking to someone when no one's here

06/10/15 Extra Session

Today I worked on my audition song "not for the life of me" I felt a massive improvement towards the end, especially on the belted notes.

memo:
relax the jaw
smile for the belts
tongue forward
sound forward
stand still

I also felt more comfortable with the song and started playing with it a bit more and discovering what possibilities I had with it.
I need to go over it while applying all of the memos above to see how it's like now and keep improving.

Audio:

Whole Session - https://soundcloud.com/anne-munoz-1/not-for-the-life-of-me-session-17-minutes/s-qWNFN
30 seconds bit - https://soundcloud.com/anne-munoz-1/not-for-the-life-of-me-30-seconds

24/09/15 R&P

Today in our R&P class we brought the songs we had to prepare during the class. I had prepared Always True To You In My Fashion from Kiss Me Kate (Cole Porter)
I didn't perform it as we didn't have enough time but it was interesting to watch other people doing it. I think the feedback Nancy got could apply to me (fully open the mouth and connect with the song). I have never acted through a song, for some stupid reasons related to fear and I'm hoping to change this ASAP as obviously there is no way I'm getting into drama school if I don't properly act through the song.

Earlier during the week Ike and I worked on Always true to you. I felt like the belt notes got stuck in my throat. Ike told me it was due to my tongue's position and made me do a few exercises which was really helpful. I try to focus on my tongue all the time now and make sure it's forward, I find it really useful and can really feel the change.

We also worked on my Shakespeare monologue (Helena from All's Well That Ends Well Act 1 scene 3). I felt really disconnected from that monologue before. We have practiced it as a "duologue" where I had to convince the person I was talking to to give me a hug. I found it really effective and it helped me engaging and connecting with the monologue.