So I'm a fool. At least I feel like one. I knew that over Christmas break I procrastinated preparing monologues that I would be using at the beginning of the semester; however, I didn't realize how foolish that was until the middle of KCACTF...
I realized this as I was preparing in my hotel room for my professional summer stock audition that I was so unprepared. Sure, I had multiple monologues to choose from depending on how I was feeling that day, but a couple of them were definitely not up to par. I then looked back and asked myself when do I work on my craft? When I get cast in a show? Sure, that's important, but I need to hone my craft before I get into shows.
I spent all semester last fall in an independent study with Bartruff working on analyzing and performing Shakespeare. It was fantastic! Very rarely does a student get one on one time with the Beard. It was probably the most rewarding time I have ever spent. I felt like I was straight out of the RSC workshop when John Barton aired a television series about how to play Shakespeare. However, I haven't worked on anything else. I feel like that is completely necessary of me as an actor. I spend time in the costume shop working and expanding my skills. Music people are constantly practicing their craft. I need to spend more time in the studio in front of the mirror. Or.... eek! the dreaded camera!
Also, even though I studied some Shakespeare monologues and Jim gave me his vote of confidence by recommending I use my Lady Macbeth purple speech for callbacks at URTAs, I still had a serious slide of confidence at summer stock auditions at KCACTF. I thought to myself, "How often have I performed Shakespeare? What the hell qualifies me to even audition for it?" So clearly my work needs to continue in this area...
It was one of the few perks of working with Jim Ryan: practice was absolutely constant.
ReplyDeleteWhen you start working on your monologues, get them into your blood. Seriously. I dusted mine off after a year and found I still had them in me, and I was able to add much more to them since I learned so much about my acting in the past year.
I'm sure you'll get to that point with your monologues if you truly love performing them. I still love performing mine, even if it's just for myself.