Recently in Tristan Mills Category

The performance is done! Since March break Jessica and I have been working on our scene from the dining room. At Artsaround(s)us we performed our scene and I'm pretty happy with the way it went.

            It started with a half hour wait backstage. For thirty minutes we waited while all the other scenes were happening. Then when it was finally time and I stepped out onto the stage. I got a laugh right away that I wasn't expecting and I had to try to not laugh with everyone. The only logical reason I could think of is because so many people know me, seeing me look like an older man is amusing. I couldn't think of what else they might be laughing at because all I was doing was looking around.

            Jessica soon came on and everything was good. Right after we sat down though, Jessica forgot her line. I could see subtle panic in her eyes, as she stared at me. I mouthed the words "you love this room" but she didn't appear to understand me. I didn't want to make a bigger movement but luckily she started speaking. She skipped right to where she told me about leaving her husband, which wasn't a bad place to skip to. She only missed one line and it wasn't terribly important. We continued on and the rest of the scene went fine, but the whole time I felt like I could see terror in Jessica's eyes.

            Anyway, after the beginning it flowed quite nicely in my mind. I'm having a hard time remembering details about the performance. After the initial panic everything was happening without me thinking and I let go and let it happen. It's kind of similar to my experience with the play. It's almost like I wasn't in control, I was on autopilot, and I could just relax and enjoy the ride. Overall it's a very strange and almost surreal experience and it's one of the reasons that I've taken a liking to drama this year.

            This performance was the final major aspect of drama this year so I find myself looking at the difference in myself. At the beginning of the year I had terrible stage fright and would not do anything that involved standing in front of people. But I remember wanting to take drama to make myself more comfortable with that. Between the classes and the play (and other stuff) I've come far this year and I really see the difference after this performance. A first big step is that I waited a long time before my scene and I didn't get myself worked up in nervousness. Second, when I performed I was good at it (I don't want to boast, it's just in comparison to my past self). And third, I relaxed while I was performing. I've come a far way and I'm proud of myself because of this performance. I not only improved to a point where I could perform it well, but I actually did perform it well. I overcame the challenges of playing my character and improved even more from this experience.

            The other thing that I wanted to mention was actually the challenges I found. I was playing an older man, which had a few aspects to it that tested me. The first thing about playing an old man was the actions. I had to move slower, which wasn't terribly difficult. In order to keep myself from moving like I do now, I acted like I was very tired. This slowed me down and gave the appearance of someone who has lived a long(ish) life. I also found that I used hand movements a lot. I made sure that they fit the character's age though. After the performance my parents commented on how I used my hands in a way that made me seem like an older man. The other thing that I did was changing my voice slightly. This was the hard part, not making the voice, but making it consistent. I found that I wasn't able to practice it very well and that I just had to go for it when I got on stage. This was a little tricky because for half an hour I waited without a word, and then I spoke with a deeper and rougher voice. In practice and in the actual performance, I would try my best on the first line and make subtle adjustments after to make it better, but stay consistent. The rough voice I used to sound older was probably the only thing that made me nervous. I wasn't very nervous but only a little bit over the voice. After the accent I had to do earlier in the year though, this wasn't that bad.

            Overall I feel like Jessica and I did a good job on our scene in spite of a few difficulties. We went out and performed our scene well. The whole experience was fun and I can't wait to see what future drama endeavors I get up to.

           Now that Jessica and I have a grasp of whom our characters are we have been focusing on improving our scene. We're one of the only groups who have had every class to work on our scene because we are both always here. This makes us feel good about our scene because we feel better prepared, but we are also starting to get a little bored of it. But that aside, things are going good and there are three specific things we've been working on.

            First is getting the skeleton of the scene solid. We accomplished this a little while ago. The basic layout and actions of our scene are figured out and we've gotten them to a very good point. At first things seemed awkward because there wasn't enough interaction between the characters, but after going through it a bunch of times, we thought things through and made it work. We found a nice mix on conversation and separateness for the characters that made up the base of the scene. This is the first thing that we worked on and figured out.

            The next thing that we started working on was making the small moments of the scene better. There are some spots throughout the scene that allow for things like movements or expressions that really bring out the characters. One example is when Meg goes to make a drink. Jim gets up from the table and thinks for a moment before telling the Mimi Mott story. The look on Jims face as he ventures the story is one of those little things that add to the characters. Almost everything that we've added shows the relationship between Jim and Meg. They show how Jim wants to dismiss the craziness in Meg's life as just small little things that she has to deal with, while Meg tries to convince him that she needs his help. We've got some of these moments to a good point, but there are a few that need a little bit of work.

            The third thing, which we're mainly working on right now, is really being thinking and acting based on the characters. This seems like it's the whole point of acting, and it is in a way, but there are parts to that which are more difficult. To make that sound clearer, I play an old(ish) man who is the classic serious and funny old guy. I have to think about my character that way and act accordingly. It's hard because I don't have much exposure to that type of person so I have to formulate my own ideas about how to deliver the lines and get advice from Mr. Newman. I do have a few lines in place that focus on Jim's personality though. One is at the beginning where he says that the reason his wife might want a drink is because she's handling the children. I have to say to be funny while still meaning it. I also switch rather abruptly between being funny and serious a few times throughout the scene. But the reason for that is that Jim wants to make things seem less important than they are to make it easier to help Meg. It's a tricky thing to pretend to have a different personality but I am making progress.

            Things are going well and the practice on Sunday will really help getting the scene ready to perform.

Jessica and I are partners performing the scene from the dining room with Jim and Meg. It's a scene where Meg is trying to convince her father to let her live at home a little while along with her children. It can be a serious scene but it also has a few lighter moments.

            It's very clear that Jim is trying to avoid his daughter because he knows something along the lines of what she is going to say. But at the same time, with kids in the house (chaos), he wants to get some peace and quiet. The dining room is a logical place to go because no one is there. He hears Meg coming and quickly makes it look like he's getting a drink for her mother. He continues to try and avoid talking but is trapped into it. Jim is almost cautious in the scene because he doesn't want to tell her the wrong things. At the same time though, he does try hard to help her without giving too much.

            Jim gives a few pieces of advice, but Meg keeps explaining things one after another. All these things add up in the scene and make Jim almost uncomfortable by the end. Meg is desperate for her father's help and acceptance though.

            At different points in the scene, Jim changes subject in the conversation or fully delays it. The first time it happens is when he asks for a drink. It buys him time to think, and after a pause he tells the story of Mimi Mott to Meg in the kitchen. He tries to make a point of how any relationship can work if you work at it. Meg shrugs it off as only being his generation but he disagrees slightly.

And this brings me to another point. The difference in generations is somewhat apparent in this scene. Meg has children and is with three different people (in a way), and is trying to find love and happiness. Jim sees this matter as you find someone, and you stick with them for better or for worse. This also fuels their clash in opinion on Meg's difficulties. Jim thinks that Meg needs to go back and figure things out, and Meg just wants support and another option.

             Meg really wants to come home to regroup. She wants to figure herself out while giving her children a good and happy childhood. She says that she wants to do all the things with them that her father and mother did with her and her brothers. That's the main thing that Meg wants in the scene, and Jim is conflicted because he wants to help in some ways but not others.

            So far our rehearsals are going great. We had all of our lines memorized a while ago and we have the basic skeleton of the scene worked out. What we're focusing on now (with help from you Mr. Newman) is flourish and expand on some of the more important moments. There are many spots that can use this improvement; many of the spots are after Meg says something new about her life and Jim processes it. There are more spots than that, but those are ones that really do need something more. 

It's been another week and Andie and I only had one more rehearsal time. I feel a little nervous at this point but I'm going to talk to Andie and see if we can practice someday at lunch. The lines are solid in my head but the accent is still weak, but that isn't really important anymore. Though I would still like to perform with the accent because it's awkward to talk about living back in Italy without the accent. For now I think we just need to put in more practice for the scene to be good.

            In class on Tuesday we did an exercise where you put a verb next to your line that describes what the line does to who you are talking to. Both Andie and I found it very difficult, especially on one-word lines. We still managed to do it and the result was very interesting. Having to think about the lines made you think about why the character was saying them. This also led us to some of the sub-text of the scene.

            At the beginning especially, there is a lot of sub-text. Catherine asks if Rodolpho is hungry and he responds by saying: "not for anything to eat". This combined with the fact that they exit the stage in the direction of the bedrooms at the end of the scene makes it very clear what he means. But at the same time he wants to sort out whatever it is that is bothering Catherine. He then tries to recover conversation by explaining that he has $300 to try and show her that things could be okay. The beginning of the scene has a lot of sub-text that can be hard to convey, but Andie and I think we can do it.

            The other thing that I've done is starting to mark in pauses and emphasis in the scene booklet. I find that I have to think about how I say the lines normally and if it makes sense that way. There were a few spots where I changed my mind about a pause but for the most part the way I say something works and I just write it in.

            Those are the things that I've noticed since last week. The scene work is going well, I just think that Andie and I need more rehearsal time, but we'll work that out. 

A week into rehearsing our scenes and we had only one rehearsal. But even though there hasn't been much actual time to rehearse, Andie and I have been very productive. We have a generic plan of movement and are almost off book.

Because there is a lot of emotion between the two characters, we put in a lot of movement to make it seem more natural. There is also movement built in like the embrace at the end or how they move away from each other and then back. The movement is the aspect of the scene that we probably have to work on most right now. Getting the movements that we put in seem natural is the next step for future rehearsals.

When it comes to lines, I know that I have mine memorized and Andie is pretty close. The hard part is saying the lines in an accent. My Italian accent is mostly there, but I lose it sometimes. For me, I think I just need more practice speaking with the accent and the same thing probably goes for Andie.

Other than the accents, and getting the movement right, our scene is going well and even with only one practice we seem to have a feel for it. It will be nice to have more time than one isolated class to work on our scene.

I'm not sure how much I have to say on the topic of our scenes, most of what I had to say I said last week. So basically, the scene is going well but there are still some things Andie and I have to work on.

            In a few weeks, us Grade 10s will be performing scenes from A View From The Bridge. Each of us are in pairs and we do a scene together. I'm paired with Andie, and we're doing the scene where Rodolpho and Catherine argue about living in Italy, and Catherine's worries about her uncle.

            I think that Rodolpho is tries to not upset Catherine, but needs to make his point clear. He really cares about her and when he hears her side of the issue he lightens up and tries to be nice and supportive while still refusing the possibility of living in Italy. The scene is full of emotion and it will be fun to do in accents.

            But that brings me to one of the things I find hard about this scene. I have to speak with an Italian accent. For some reason I'm finding this very difficult and I'm constantly seeking advice on it. Right now my plan is to speak like Mario (the video game character). He speaks with a way over the top accent, but then tone it down as needed. Aside from that I just know that in the accent every consonant is pronounced and the vowels are big, open and, round. While I'm at Bark Lake I'm going to practice the accent.

            Aside from the accent, doing this scene should be straight forward for me. After being in the play my confidence practically doubled when it came to performing so I'm not worried about the actual performance of this. But if we were performing before the play I would probably not be looking forward to the day we present.

            We haven't spent a huge amount of time yet working on the scenes so we've only really begun to memorize the lines, and think about the characters and the deeper parts behind the scene.

            For memorization I've only just started, but I'm not really worried about memorizing it. After a lot of lines in the play (almost all of which I can still remember), and The Cremation of Sam McGee, I think that memorizing this short scene will be fairly easy. Especially once I have the accent down.

            When it comes to the deeper parts of the scene, it's really about the relationships between the characters. Catherine and Rodolpho are in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together. But Catherine dearly loves her uncle Eddie and does not want to make him worried, mad, or distant from her. Rodolpho, after hearing Catherine's side, feels that Eddie does not give Catherine enough credit and has too much of an influence on her. So at the beginning of the scene Catherine tries to get Rodolpho to live in Italy, which she knows would make Eddie feel better about them being together. Then Rodolpho refuses to go back to poverty, but Catherine explains why she would want to go there. The scene finishes with Rodolpho convincing Catherine that Eddie needs to be happy of her no matter what she chooses.

            I can't wait to work on the scene and perform it because it has a lot of emotion to it and it will be very powerful.

            I've never been one for stepping out of my comfort zone. I always know what I want to do and what not to do for in terms of my convenience. I also don't try new things very often, because they rarely ever work out to my advantage. Upon entering high school, I realized that I would only be here once. I began to think of things to do so that I wouldn't feel like I didn't do anything. Inevitably, I decided to do something that absolutely scared me. I decided to participate in the school play.

            Time quickly approached in my grade nine year but I wasn't sure if I was up for it. So I decided to help with the lighting for the play that year, that way I could get the lay of the land and find out if I really wanted to act in future years. Long story short, I was very jealous of the actors and I told myself that no matter what, I'm going to be in the play next year.

            From that moment onward I had the excruciating fear of the coming onslaught. I knew that I would be stressed and utterly terrified, but the knowledge of how great it feels after a performance pushed me on. And then September came, and we were quickly rushed into auditions.

            I never had a true audition; singing the monkey version of happy birthday and getting a lead role in the lower school play does not count! I asked for some advice from Mr. Newman, and it all went pretty well. I found a good monologue that I can relate to, and I wasn't very nervous, giving it. Now that I had what seemed like the hard part done, I waited to see what part, if any, I would get.

            I knew that the play had a lot of characters, and if I got a part I would have more than one. When the roles were finally put up I was so happy to see that I had got in with five roles. Then I realized that they were all either big or important (or creepy).

The first, Midas, had an opening line that took up a little more than a page in the playbook, and continued to speak every other line for the rest of that scene. The second was a narrator with a lot of large lines. Then a character named Orpheus who didn't talk much, but had a lot of repetitive movement. Then came Cinyras, basically, he has sex with his daughter without knowing it. Finally my last role was Apollo, who actually had to sing during most of a scene. After learning about each role, I was a little intimidated by what would be required of me.

Rehearsals started and it was fine. After the first few I had to get my lines memorized, so I took a lot of time to memorize them. Even though it took me a while, I found memorizing lines easy and I just went through them and repeated until I could say everything. With the lines fully memorized and the rehearsals going very smoothly I was quite comfortable with everything. And none of my roles were as bad as I thought they were (though Cinyras wasn't great).

The day of opening night came closer and closer and I felt sort of prepared. I knew what I was doing and all, but I knew that the nervousness would hit me closer to the performance. I pretty much figured that if I didn't think about the performance much that I wouldn't be nervous. So I didn't think about the performance and I only focused on what I had to do in my roles.

Sparing the details about first few times stepping into the pool, it was the dress rehearsal. I don't have anything to say about it, except that it just felt like another rehearsal.

Then finally it was opening night. To my surprise I didn't feel nervous. There was a long wait backstage until we were to take our places but I just didn't think about it much. My parents, and a neighbor were there to see me that night, but I didn't really think about that either.

Finally I was in my spot backstage, all alone. The lights went out, Andie started talking, then Emma, and finally Michael... then my cue to go on.

It felt weird walking onto the stage, I wasn't nervous, I felt ready to act my parts, and it all felt right. I don't really know how to describe it other than that. It felt right.

Some lines went on, though I wasn't paying attention, and I just had to stand there for the moment. It occurred to me that I wasn't shaking. This is odd, I thought. I've never, in my entire life, stood in front of even a small group of people without shaking. When I give speeches I shake, when I sing in the choir (even when I'm not alone) I shake, and even just standing at the front of the chapel without any focus of any kind on me, I shake. Even if I'm calm and not nervous, as long as I'm in front of people I just lose control over my legs. But not at that moment.

I snapped out of my brief daydream and proceeded to speak my first, and longest, line. It just happened, and the words flowed out of my mouth. I even yelled at Laurel when I had to, which surprised me. It's not like I wasn't going to, but up until that moment I wasn't angry. But at that moment I had no need to be, but I was. It was all so strange.

The scene eventually ended without a hitch. Jacob and I were in the change room, high fiving, because of how awesome we were (I'm not boasting, and at the time no one else was there to hear us).

The show went on and I watched a man eat himself, I lost my wife and almost got her back, I had figurative sex with my daughter, I sang and watched my son set the world on fire, and finally I saved my other daughter right as the lights went down.

My first ever true performance was done. But I did it two more times.

On the second night there were more people, including a few of my friends. The only thing that I did different that night was I thought about the performance. I didn't get nervous like I thought I would if I thought about it. And I wasn't shaking this night either.

My aunt and uncle were there, along with my parents again. Also my best friends Liz was there, I thought that I might be nervous performing in front of her, but I wasn't.

The performance that night went just as smooth and I felt awesome afterwards. Now there was only one left.

Now, the next night was different for three reasons: one, it was a Saturday and I had a lot of time to think. Two, nothing major had gone wrong yet, despite some people, who will remain nameless, who said the full Maccers without breaking the curse. And three, my sister was going to be there that night.

By that point, I figured that I could perform in front of any one. Eccept my sister.

I'm not sure why her being there made me nervous or if was just a big combination of the other things. But either way, I was nervous that night.

A fourth reason for being nervous at that point was a dry mouth. Mr. Newman gave everyone chocolates on the last night, right after telling everyone not to pull any pranks. I see what happened. Anyway, we all had dry mouths as we said our lines that night but it was okay; I just drank a lot of water.

The lights went down, Andie spoke, and eventually, I went on. When the light came onto me, I wasn't nervous anymore, though I had been very nervous before coming on stage.

Although I was shaking a little, though it was more of a twitch, I felt like the final performance of the play went smoothly as well. I saw my sister afterward and she congratulated me. I was on some sort of adrenaline high at that point so I felt pretty good, but that made me feel better.

My first experience in the school play was amazing, and I can't wait for next year and the rumored musical. I am kind of glad to have it out of the way, but I'm very glad I did it. And why my sister, of everyone, made me nervous when nothing else did, I don't really know. I'm just glad she got to see me under the lights.

            I've never really been great with standing in front of a crowd and doing something. But recently, with the other grade 10s, I performed some dramatic poetry in front of the upper school. Here are a few of my thoughts on the experience.

            As soon as I decided to take drama I knew that I would have to participate in the Remembrance Day service when the time came around. I was dreading it originally, and I was very worried about what would happen. As the day quickly approached and we started to do research for material that we could use I got even more worried because I knew that we would have to make the performance ourselves. But on the first day of creating our routine, I was pleasantly surprised by how much everyone was contributing and it went very smoothly. We gave the poem different points of emphasis and began brainstorming other dramatic things to do to it. From there we were productive and got things done and I was less and less nervous about the performance.

            And finally the big day arrived when we had to perform. As a group we did quite well. The whole performance went according to plan and no one stumbled on their lines or anything. That was one thing I was worried would happen, but everyone knew their part well. The one thing though that I think we could have done differently is to be a bit louder. From my perspective a few of the lines were quiet. The people in the front heard us clearly and those were most of the important guests so that is okay. Other than volume I think we did our dramatic performance successfully.

            Personally, I was happy with my part. I felt that I was loud and confident with my words. But like I said in the beginning, I've never really been great with standing in front of a crowd. I was shaking quite noticeably despite my best efforts to remain still. It's not like I was freaking out or anything, I actually felt calm inside but simply being in front of people made me shake. At the end of the first poem, Lizzie puts out her hand for me to shake it, and when I saw her hand during the performance, hers was shaking too. I was glad to know it wasn't just me shaking but I still felt a little worried about people noticing it. Thankfully, afterwards, nobody commented on any of us shaking so at least it wasn't a distraction.

            The experience I got from presenting the poetry in dramatic form with my classmates was a good experience. I was worried about how the whole thing would work, but in the end it went well, especially considering that during the performance we didn't make any mistakes. And even though I felt that I did well myself, I would not willingly choose to do this again.

The Monologues

Just this Thursday, us grade 10s were able to see the monologues of the higher grades. Overall I was very impressed with all of them and I can't wait until next year when I can do one. But aside from being fun there is a lot of work and focus involved.

            One of the monologues that stood out to me was Jacob's. That's because of the unique situation the character of his monologue was in, and the strange acting that was required.

            His character was a very rich man who really appreciates art. And when he buys a painting for a lot of money, he wants to burn it because art is only a number to people. This is the strange situation that Jacob had to make sense of in some way. At first, this doesn't make sense; the art lover wants to burn a beautiful painting because art isn't appreciated the way it should be.

            I found Jacob suited to this role because of his straightforward honesty and simple personality. I'm not saying that he would do the same thing in such a situation, but that he understands it and can make it seem like he would. The way he spoke about his frustrations helped you to understand his character and even appreciate his decision. And when he hesitated to burn it made you wonder if he actually would.

            Jacob's actions also helped with the monologue. Not just the obvious lighter or drenching the painting, but in simple hand actions. It may have been a little repetitive, but some of his hand and arm movements worked well with what was going on in that scene.

            Another aspect that Jacob did well that I know that I would struggle with every once in a while is to stay in character. Jacob remained focused even when he had a few rather funny lines about his predicament. Even though it's such a simple thing, the focus on what he was doing was a very important part of his monologue.

            Over all I think Jacob did a good job with his monologue. Although he could have been just a tiny bit clearer with his words at times, he successfully displayed his character. So kudos to Jacob for his interesting and thought provoking monologue.

Tristan Mills

Mr. Newman

ADA2O

November 1, 2011

Candida

On the trip to the Shaw on October 15^th, I got to see the play Candida at he Royal George Theatre. It was a sweet and funny play with some serious parts. Candida was directed by Tadeusz Bradecki, and designed by William Schmuck.

The plot of this play is about Candida, her husband Morell, and a young poet who has feelings for her named Marchbanks. This love triangle is introduced early on in the play, leaving room for many different interactions between characters to happen later on. Morell is a reverend and is always preaching, even when he is just having a conversation. And when Candida decides that she wants to teach Marchbanks about what true love really is, Morell isn't crazy about the idea and worries that Marchbanks might win her over. But the reason Candida wants to help Marchbanks is because he is young and she worries that he may not become the right kind of man if he does not know what love is. Competition rises between Morell and Marchbanks, and in the end they decide to let Candida choose who she wants to be with. Candida chooses the "weaker man" which actually turns out to be Morell. This plot is presented in a fairly light hearted way with many jokes laden throughout, but at times, such as right at the end, the tone of the play is much more serious. I feel that the changes between these two styles made a clash that brought your attention in at just the right time, and overall worked quite well.

I haven't seen many plays, but in my opinion the acting in Candida was amazing. The characters were so unique in the way they spoke and moved on the stage. One character that I especially liked was Mr. Burgess, played by Norman Browning. Mr. Burgess was Candida's father; he was old and very cynical about a lot of things. He was one of the funniest characters because of his frequent comments into conversations that he was not a part of. Even with the strangeness of his character he still seemed natural, as did all the other characters. Another feature of the characters that I liked was how they interacted. Each character has a very specific personality, and the way they all react to one another on stage is astounding. It takes a lot of skill to bring the characters such a sense of realism when they're all put together. The acting in Candida was my favorite part of the performance because of how well executed it was.

Another aspect of Candida that I found pleasing was the design of the play, though more specifically the set. It looked like a real room in a house, and there were so many details that added to the realism. Even though I haven't seen many plays, that set, I can tell, was a very good one. As well as the set were the costumes which, although they didn't stand out to me, I felt they were also appealing, and fairly realistic. Yet another aspect of the design that I found worked well with the play was the music. This music was played before and after each scene. It was a simple melody that just seemed to flow into the scene as it faded out. Reza Jacobs composed the music used in Candida. The design of the play was very realistic and worked very nicely with the characters in it.

Overall I found Candida to be an amazing play. All of the different aspects worked together to form a very complete work. The play written by Bernard Shaw himself is a lovely play about a love triangle between the title character and "her two boys". The actors chosen to be part of this production made the characters lifelike. And the set of Candida was a great sight when you first walked into the theatre. I enjoyed Candida quite a bit and I believe the play was executed successfully.