Unscripted - A Blog for Actors - Backstage

Baby Steps

I have never been one to get weepy when a show closes.  I like to joke around that that will most likely change once the shows I'm doing are how I make my living, but until then I've always been proud that I'm ready for the next challenge.  I like being thankful for the experience that I had and being able to learn from it and let go, promising myself that whatever I learned in the last show I will take with me to the next.  But as we took our last curtain call for Picnic, I could feel the tears welling up in all ten of our eyes.

Early Thanksgiving

This weekend, five very important things happened in my life:

1. Picnic opened on Friday night...these are pictures from Acts 1 and 2!  (no Act 3 ones yet)

2. Richard Fisher of Abrams Artists Agency in NYC came to UNCSA this weekend to see Picnic and St. Joan.  Studio IV also did monologues for him on Saturday, and a few of us sang as well.

3. Ayo Davis, the Vice President of Casting for ABC primetime, put all 20 members of Studio IV on film.  The tape will be edited down to 3-5 people and will be shown in the casting office!

4.  My dad's father made the trek from Kentucky to North Carolina to see me in Picnic.  This was the first play he'd ever seen me in at school!

5.  My boyfriend travelled from New York and saw me work for the first time ever.

The Show Must Go On

My time in NYC last week was a whirlwind of activity – my experience with Manscape: The Musical was the perfect first acting experience in the city.  I was working with wonderful, well-respected actors as well as people I knew.  That, combined with the fact that I was playing a small supporting character, kept me from being overwhelmed and nervous.  The producer of the Algonquin Theatre even asked me for my headshot and resume!

Manscape: The Musical!

On Tuesday morning I will leave my comfy, warm covers at 3:15 am to get up and do full hair and makeup.  Then I will leave the apartment, that has at times felt more like my permanent living arrangement, at 4:00 am to catch a 5:20 am flight from Greensboro, NC to Laguardia, NYC.  After I arrive in New York City at 8:00 am, I will travel to the Algonquin Theatre for a 10:00 am rehearsal, followed by a 2:00 pm reading of a new musical that's being pitched for a run off-Broadway!  (Of course, on Wednesday I must travel back to Winston-Salem to open Picnic in a more-than-slightly zombi-fied state...what better way to celebrate Halloween, right?!)  But it's all worth it, because this will be my first NYC acting experience.

Vocal Rest: Good For The Body, Bad For The Soul

Three Wednesdays ago, I missed my first ever full day of classes and rehearsal at UNCSA.  It was very infuriating for me, because I didn't even really feel sick.  I just had a very severe chest cough that literally wore me out.  I was coughing so hard and it was so aerobic that I literally broke sweats from it!  I couldn't laugh without breaking into a fit of coughs.  I play a little monkey in Picnic, and everytime I ran, rode my scooter, or hula hooped, I would break out into a fit and deliver my lines through a nasty cough.

Profound Audition Techniques

Last week my Film Workshop teacher Caroline Kava (who you may remember as the mom who shouts "DON'T SAY PENIS IN MY HOUSE!" to Tom Cruise in Born On The Fourth of July) broke her hip!  This is obviously devastating news, so those of you who pray keep her in your prayers, and those of you who send good energy send some positivity her way.  Because of Caroline's accident, Laura Henry (who I studied with all summer in L.A.) has taken over her class for the rest of the term.  Laura overheard me mention that since she is teaching Caroline's class, along with a Meisner class, and is directing Picnic, ten of us fourth years spend nine hours a day six days a week with her, and now teases me relentlessly.  Before she  begins talking in class, she now prefaces it with something like, "I know that you all have to hear me talk a lot, Jasmine, but here I go again!"  Of course, it is all in good fun because I certainly wasn't complaining.

Function Over Style

Last week Studio IV of UNCSA's School of Drama held mock auditions.  Since we don't audition for  plays at school, this was kind of a big deal and pretty nerve wracking for us seniors.  Some of us hadn't even auditioned for anything since we auditioned for UNCSA!  We had about 5 days notice, which is more time than we'll often get after graduating, but with our schedules that didn't leave us a lot of time to prepare the two monologues (a contemporary and a Shakespeare) and 16 bars of song.

Vicarious Living

I started my career at the Jenny Wiley Theatre in 1998.  I had always loved dancing, but I got interested in being in plays because a girl from my church performed in JWT's youth company.  Brit convinced me I should audition, I was cast, and we were friends from that point on.  Brit was gorgeous.  She had thick blonde hair like a Barbie doll and ran cross country.  She was the sweetest girl you'd ever meet, equally friendly to the popular crowd and the 'weird' kids.  And she was truly talented.  She had this charisma that just drew you to her.

Building Bridges

As an actor, it's easy to forget that the average person doesn't read plays, they go see them in the theatre.  And they are right not to read them; the play is not a finished art form until the actor breathes life into it.  Plays are meant to be seen and heard, not read.  It is our job as actors to become an open vessel through which a character can exist.  Since I've started rehearsing Picnic (William Inge), I've discovered that there are two bridges to a character:  The first is an emotional connection with the character, and the second is what the character does.

New Traditions

Something that every new first year in the School of Drama at UNCSA knows about is the first year  parties.  For decades, it has been the tradition that the first weekend of school opens with the Fourth Year/First Year party, followed the next weekend by the Third Year/First Year party and the next by the Second Year/First year party.  These parties are not your average party; planning them and keeping the extravagant themes secret is comparable to a CIA mission.  Last year, the third years (my class at the time) made our party theme "The U.N.".  The first years each drew a place to dress from (such as the Islands, Tokyo, Wine Country - which had a chef - and Africa) and there was even a Customs room they had to go through before entering the actual party (which is pictured).  After the first hour, the rest of the School of Drama - and sometimes even kids from other schools at UNCSA - would show up.  Like I said, these parties are huge.