Working

For the past few days I have been reading the original text in spanish of the play La Casa De Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca. Although I technically can speak Spanish, the reality is my skills are very limited. All that I know is what I learned from speaking my grandmother. Although Spanish was my first language I never truly learned the grammar, reading and writing. However, I can figure it out. Basically, I am reading this play as if I was dyslexic reading in English. I like this better though. When I read in English words are almost meaningless and often I will skip over a part or read over quickly because I can. Here I need to read, process and accept the word and its meaning before I can move on. In truth, meaning is no so much the problem as figuring out how to pronounce and read a word. This is something I have never experienced before. Although I studied French I was learning the word, its spelling and pronunciation at the same time whereas here I already know a word but I have never learned how to spell it. It it so odd to read a word and be so confused at to what it means and read it a different way (different inflections, ways to pronounce letter ex: "ll"= sounds like "ja"… silla= sijya or chair)

Besides the learning about the technical part of the language, I also am learning about the play. I have already read a translation version. I know the plot and the general direction of the play but there are so many more little details and a richer text that a translation could never capture. I can see how translations of sacred texts, the Bible, the Quran are better in their original text because the meaning could be slightly altered with each translation.

Finally, I read a spanish biography of Garcia-Lorca and what really stood out to me was his community. Every few lines it was a name-dropper bomb of different people who he studied with, meet with, lived with. Throughout his life he accumulated more and met different people. He traveled a lot as well to make these new encounters and his work reflected every change. This was very important in the development of his career and life. Right now in my community I have people I can truly trust to ask questions and not feel as though I am exposing myself. My mother wants to help me with my Spanish and grammar. My father has studied Garcia-Lorca in addition to various Spanish and Latin American important figures. My aunt has done a lot of research and studies in Latin America having taken various trips and has even won grants to study the history of various Latin American subjects.

Fourth Quarter Project

This quarter I will be continuing with the development of my acting but also trying something new- acting in spanish. To do this I will have to open a whole new scope of performance that I have never even attempted. It's exciting and it makes me nervous. I have already read a play, "La Casa de Bernada Alba" by Federico Garcia Lorca a Spanish playwright from the 1930's. This play deals with issues of motherhood, mother-daughter relationships and the idea of an elite status because of money. These three motifs are ones that stick out to me and relate to me the most throughout the play. In the play there is a monologue by the youngest daughter who wants to rebel against the strict reign of the mother. I think this monologue will be helpful for me not only because it is in spanish but because it is of the right age range and topic. I also want to find more influences for my work as an actress and a bilingual actress so I will be watching various plays at the Repertorio Espanol, a theatre company in the city that does plays in spanish by various playwrights from different parts of the spanish speaking world. I've only had a day to truly think about my plans for the this performance project but I think I am at a good start for what I am able and what I want to do.

Acting Intensive Quarter 3

Pertaining to this specific acting class I see that I am able to use the techniques of part 1: objectives and tactics in my scene with Kalli directed by Ilana. I am able to apply the techniques at the start but do find myself moving away from them which is normal. I started off with an objective but I really could not stick with it my mind wandered to other things and I did not feel natural to think about an objective while also trying work off my partner. This would be the clash of using intellectual techniques and using more a “the Method” thinking. I do like that there are many ways to approach the situation and I can see how perhaps using many will help in the end but I can not say that I have reached a complete understanding of it all so I can use the techniques in a seemingly simple and certain way.

Part 2: I do enjoy using Meisner technique more but after this class I see that there must be a combination of pure working off the scene and what you have with a sense of preparation going into the scene. It is also much harder to learn lines if they have no meaning whatsoever, as we did one day in the 2^nd week of training. Working with unknown and forgiving text (I say forgiving because there were monologues that we kept repeating and trying out new ways so that a screw up was not a big deal) was more physically and mentally tiring but also more difficult to retain. The key was to ignore the words being said and instead put inflections based on thoughts. I suppose this is more interesting for viewers but not completely living truthfully because everyone has some awareness of what they are saying.

In this acting intensive I felt we focused more on intellectually analyzing the text. I do realize how important this is, but I have not mastered this skill yet.  Perhaps the intensive was not intense enough.  I have learned what the skills mean and somewhat of what the finished product of annotating and finding the best objectives and tactics for a scene and character looks like, but I do not think I am ready to do this perfectly for whatever script is thrown my way. In this way, I am excited for college to teach me more. I am satisfied with the knowledge I know now because I will soon be working to practice and work at it on a daily basis for the next four years.

            This thinking is actually similar to the way I was evidently thinking at the start of this acting class. http://vivsblogging.blogspot.com/2011/09/acting-class.html I was ready to keep working at my skill: working at my 10,000 hours. I still am ready to keep working and doubt there will be a day when I will not be able to keep working at it.