STAC website assignment - rough draft

We had to write about something that STAC did so far this year to be put up on the STAC website. This is my rough draft:

This past November, STAC kids had the opportunity to work with professional actress and coach, Joy *insert last name here*. Think of the kindest, most generous, knowledgeable person you have ever met. That’s Joy. Each student in her workshop was responsible for finding a monologue that he or she would like to spend time working on with Joy’s help and expertise.

One of the lessons that Joy taught us was how to use subtext. Subtext is what the character is thinking underneath the spoken lines. We have subtext all the time in our every day lives. Subtext is just as important to an actor, if not more important than the words that come out of his mouth. One STACie wrote the following about watching a fellow classmate during the subtext exercise, “I noticed a huge difference when she used subtext…The character went through [a journey], rather than just playing the mood of the piece, and it was very honest when she did this.”

Memorizing lines are to an actor what measuring flour is to a baker. It’s the tedious task that has to be completed in order to get to the fun stuff. In acting, the fun stuff is the subtext and what happens to the character when an actor engages in the use of subtext. All of the students in Joy’s workshop were encouraged and required to explore subtext. I think it’s safe to say that each individual was pleased with what they were able to accomplish with this new acting tool.

A simpler, but just as important lesson that Joy taught us was to breathe. To breathe is to give life to yourself and to the character you are playing. Actors often forget to breathe when they are performing. This only constricts your body and limits how far you can take your performance. Breathing forces “you to get the subtext going because you're not saying anything [when you’re taking a breath.] You're just "looking" at the person you're talking to and…you're able to focus on what your little mind is saying behind what the monologue tells you to say.…It adds life to the piece. It can [also] add contrast, but in a simplistic way.”

Everyone in the workshop really enjoyed the time we spent working with Joy. She pushed each of us to our individual limits, so that we could grow as actors and actresses.

2010?!

So it's that time of year again. People start making New Year's Resolutions. Would I be correct in saying that weight loss is probably the most common resolution, and also the most unsuccessful one? I haven't made a resolution and I don't know if I will. I used to make them each year. In fact that was the most important part of the New Year to me when I was younger. But I don't know if it's really all that important for me to make one this year. Most people don't keep their resolutions anyway. And then they end up feeling all sad and sorry for themselves because they couldn't keep their promise to themselves. I didn't make a resolution last year, and last year was one of the best years of high school. I learned how to sing the healthy way, and grew as a singer in ways I had never experienced before, I had the opportunity to do Into the Woods and 42nd Street - two shows that taught me an incredible amount of things about singing, dancing, acting, and life as a theater geek. I took classes in the city at Steps on Broadway, in fact I danced so much that I lost inches - becuase I built muscle in my legs and my core (something I was very proud of when I went to the beach haha), I applied to college and received a few academic acceptances. I'm pretty proud of last year, and I didn't have a new year's resolution. Maybe that's the way to go.

I've been doing a lot of abstract, huge thinking. Thinking that's bigger than me. Life goes by so fast. And I know it's cliche, but we shoud live it up as best we can. What's that saying? "Life is short, so...." I forget the rest of it, but that's what I'm getting at. Maybe that cliche saying actually has a true meaning that we should pay more attention to. Maybe instead of stalking people on facebook and twitter, we should spend time doing things that are worth posting on facebook and twitter so that those who are stalking us can see what we're up to and be impressed.

Blogging is fun. The more I do it, the more I like it.

I had the time of my life.. so why not blog about it?

December break. Wow. Is it actually possible that 2009 has gone by this fast? I spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week suffering from an allergic reaction to what I think was a wool hat (I haven't exactly gone to the allergist yet to get tested but so far that little demon is my only suspect) and sleeping. And I mean REALLY sleeping. Last week with Nutcracker and all consisted of everything but sleep and so I made up for it these past few days. Literally. Sleeping until 1 pm, waking up to eat, falling asleep again and sleeping until 6 pm waking up and falling asleep at 10 pm and then doing the whole thing the next day again. I wasn't sick, although many people probably would have thought I had the flu. I was just tired, and itchy, and didn't wanna deal with being cranky and allergic, so I took all the antihistimines the doctors told me to take and just slept. I wasn't even really awake enough to celebrate Christmas, which is my FAVORITE holiday.

But anyway, now it's Sunday. My allergic reaction has subsided and I've gotten so much sleep that it's 4:13 AM and I'm not even the least bit tired. (I need to get back on a normal sleep schedule.) A week ago I was still swept up in the magic of the Nutcracker and I remember through it all thinking to myself, I have to blog about this I have to blog about this I have to blog about this. Well of course, I didn't actually have any time to sit down and blog about it while it was happening and then the few days right after were spent sleeping so now it's been a week and I still haven't blogged about it. And honestly, I wouldn't even know where to begin. It was amazing. It was fun. It was emotional. It was inspiring. It was hard. And I mean, I'm onstage the entire second act. I sit there and watch the whole thing onstage, and I think that was harder than any of the dancing or pantomime peices I had to do. To be in a ballet, and to be watching the ballet (mind you I've seen these pieces done over and over again for six years and I know most of the choreography by heart just from watching it so many times) and it wasn't boring but it was hard. To sit with my back straight with a regalness and to watch my friends and fellow Nutcracker-ees perform was physically painful. Not to mention when they would start talking to us. Sometimes the dancers when they're facing upstage would say things to me and either my sister or Lexi, whoever was playing Clara at that performance, and it was just so hard to keep a straight face. They're fun. They're real people. Even the professionals like to play around. It keeps the energy alive and playful. And that's what this ballet is. It's playful.

I could go on and on and on about this and maybe one day I'll post another blog with more stories or details - like when our 72 year old artistic director got up on stage, crouched down on his hands and knees and acted like a mouse so one of the 8-year-old boys playing a mouse could understand what his correction was. But since this was my last year with the Nutcracker, I wrote a letter and gave it to all my close friends at the company and I thought I'd share it here:



The Eglevsky Ballet’s The Nutcracker 2009

As you all know, this is my sixth and last Nutcracker. It has been a pleasure to work with all of you and I have been honored to dance alongside all of you on the Tilles Center Stage time and time again.

The Nutcracker holds a very special place in my heart. I love the holiday season (CHRISTMAS!) and since I’m technically Jewish, Nutcracker is my way of celebrating Christmas with the people I love.

The memories that we have created together over the past six years are priceless. From stepping on the Mother Ginger skirt and almost ripping it in two, to watching the soldier doll fall out of his pants in party scene, to decorating the apprentice dressings rooms this year and last, it has been a blast! These memories, and many more must remain alive in our minds and in our hearts.

This summer when I did 42nd Street at Hofstra University with the Gray Wig, the director, Amy Dolan Fletcher, who danced in 42nd Street on Broadway gave an extremely important opening night speech. The show 42nd Street is to her what Nutcracker is to me. She told us not to take advantage of the memories we create and the opportunities we have when we get to perform in a show. At the end of closing night of any show, we always say “until next year”, or “there will always be another one.” But the thing is, that may not always be true. This is my last Nutcracker with you guys, so there won’t be another one for me. That is why I feel that it is so important for me to relay this message to you guys. I hope that you can try and understand the significance of what we have going for ourselves with this ballet company and the opportunities that we have been given. I hope you can see how special it truly is. I hope you can see how precious it is and I hope you can fully embody the magic of it all. It’s so special and unique an experience, that it’s almost impossible to express it in words and do it justice. It’s a feeling that you either have or you don’t, and all of us have it. It’s like we’re our own private little Nutcracker club, a Nutcracker family, and I have been so grateful to be apart of this club and family for the past six years. Even though I won’t be back to perform with you all next year, because of the way I feel in my heart, I will always be apart of the Nutcracker family.

I love you all endlessly,

Becky Kalman - Prince 2009

Eglevsky in the New York Times

Last weekend a reporter and photographer from the New York Times came to our Nutcracker rehearsals. Today there was an article published in the newspaper about Marina Eglevsky (Andre Eglevsky's daughter) and the 2009 production of the Nutcracker.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/nyregion/13artsli.html

Is it possible to be too excited?

Today after school I went shopping with my Mom for a dress to wear to the gala. In the ballet world, there's always an opening night gala. It's a fancy party after the performance where all the dancers get dressed up, and there are little itsy bitsy snacks, and people who can afford the pricey ticket (because essentially the whole evening is to raise money, even though they don't tell you that when they send you the fancy invitations), and silent auctions, and big accomplished well known ballet poeple are honored and they give speeches and it's a wonderful evening. So I went shopping for a dress to wear, and I ended up buying presents for my close Nutcracker friends, yet another tradition - everyone gives and receives presents opening night. It was the most time I'd spent with my Mom since Thanksgiving. This Nutcracker season is really close to my heart, so naturally when I get home I'm too excited to function. I managed to get through my homework, but honestly I couldn't have cared less about operant conditioning, taxes and economics, and the gender issues present in A Midsummer Night's Dream. These are things that I usually would have some sort of interest in, well at least the ap psych and ap lit homework, maybe not so much with the eco, but that's besides the point I think. I'm just sort of an excited hott mess (a phrase I picked up this past summer at Grey Wig) and Doug suggested I blog about it. I'm not even sure why I decided to do it. None of this is artistic or intellectual, and blogging about this certainly isn't helping - it's not calming me down - if anything it's making me even more excited. And the one thing I should be doing right now is sleeping, but I'm not. But at the same time, I'm scared to publish this post because I know that the minute I do, I'll be tempted to put the christmas music back on and dance around my room again, which will wake up my Mom whose sleeping right below my room. And I also don't want to walk away from my computer because my room is a mess from all the festive excitement and I'm really tempted to clean it up, but that too will be taking away from my sleep time. Then again, blogging is also taking away from my sleep time. I'm also scared of going to sleep because the sooner I go to sleep the sooner the morning will come, and time is flying by and I don't want this December to be over. I'm really scared above and beyond anything else of this December ending. I'm scared of finding out what it's going to feel like to have a six-year relationship with a company and a ballet come to an end. I've thought about it, but I'm scared to live it. But meanwhile all of this is coming from excitement and jittery-ness and the need to just talk and talk and talk. I hope none of you actually took the time to read this. It was an unsuccessful attempt to calm myself down, but now I'm even more excited and worked up. And it's almost midnight. I feel like I'm going to turn into a pumpkin soon or something.

Julie Kent Quotes of the day

"Remember that confidences comes from within. It's not given to you by words of praise or compliemtns; it's a trust in yourself, a belief that you know what you are doing and are capable of doing it. If you don't feel it naturally, you must work on it, just as you would work on any technical skill. You will need it and rely on it throughout your career"

"You will make mistakes, but if you surround yourself with the right people, you will learn even more from them than from your accomplishments."

Let The Right Ones In

All of the wide shots engage you and pull you in even more. The first couple of times these types of shots happened I kept expecting the camera to zoom in really fast and show something gory and terrible, which is what would probably have happened in any other horror movie. It also gives this feeling of being watched. When the shots are close-ups on the actors face you feel like you're invited to be in the scene with the actors because you almost get the real perception of what the other characters can see based on how close they are standing. But when it's farther away you feel removed, like you're spying on the characters and you weren't invited.

In AP Psych we're learning about learning and how we learn through associations. The use of sound appeals directly to that. Since the director isn't going to appeal to our visual senses with blood and gore, they instead appeal to our hearing. We see a guy hanging upside down with red staining the snow underneathe and the sound of pouring liquid makes us automatically think that the guy just had this throat slit open. The sound could have been water pouring into a bathtub or juice coming out of a jug, but since we've experienced sound affects in movies before, and since we see the red in the snow, our brains put all the information together to come up with blood.

I think the second plot point is when Oskar slits his hand open in front of Eli. That causes her to thirst for blood, to lick it off the floor, and for him to figure out that she's a vampire. Their relationship and the story continues because of his ability to come to accept the fact that she's a vampire.