Sunday, February 19, 2012

Cupids Arrow

This year on Single Awareness Day, aka Valentines Day, I was given an opportunity I had never even dreamed of. My voice teacher is an international opera singer and because of her career she knows many people all over the spectrum of our society. One of her friends just happens to be an Italian chief, at a restaurant in Iowa City, Iowa. This restaurant is called Baroncinni’s and is a cute little Italian restaurant with plenty of good food to choose from on the menu.
            The restaurant wanted to do a young artist program this year on Valentines Day so people could come eat Italian food and listen to Italian love songs. Karla’s friend asked if she had any students who would be willing to participate and I along with two of her other students were asked to sing on Valentines Day. One of her former students who now sings in college, also came back into town to be apart of this experience.
            It was a night of fun and it went like this. We all had to be dressed up and at the restaurant by 5:15, so we met dressed in our ball gowns, at our teacher’s house and drove out to Iowa City together. Our accompanist, Tony, was already there and we were all excited for a night of performing.
 I was up first, singing right after the guests had received their drinks and I sang an aria asking my father to let me run off and marry my true love! After I had finished and the first course had been served, it was my friend Lindsey’s turn. She sang an aria about how her love had betrayed her and how he had to choose to love her or the other woman. After the second course had been served it was Angie’s turn to sing. She sang an aria about how she found her true love and it was beautiful! After the third course had been served, Angie and my teacher Karla performed together and the song they sang was so beautiful and the harmonies sounded great in the acoustics of the restaurant. Lastly, it was Karla’s former students turn to perform. She sang while everyone was eating their dessert, the tower of love, and she sounded absolutely amazing, and the accompaniment Tony played was gorgeous, as his fingers scurried over the keys.
The last song that was performed on that very special evening was with all five of us! We sang a song in English asking the audience to accept the humble presents we were giving them. As we sang we handed out roses to all of the ladies. It was a glorious ending to a wonderful evening and I can’t wait to have another experience just like it!
 (462 Words)

Life Isn't Fair

No matter what you do, it is impossible to please everyone. Whether you’re telling a story, singing a song, or writing a novel, there is no guarantee that everyone who hears you or sees your work will like it. You may also have people who just hold grudges or strong beliefs against certain people or organizations. For example, if you write a book, the novel might be amazing and a great attention grabber. But if someone is holding a grudge against the publisher you used, they may refuse to even consider reading it. It’s just the way people are and everyone has to deal with the consequences that may come with one person’s bad attitude.
            Just this last weekend my show choir attended a competition in Davenport, Iowa at the Adler Theatre. We compete at this competition every year, but this year our competitors were especially good. The way we saw it we could give our best show and end up first or fourth. So, naturally we were all very nervous for our performance.
            As it turned out, we without a doubt gave the best show of our season. Saturday, we all felt so good about our performance and just hoped that it would be good enough to go up against the other 3 good schools there. However, because someone was too wrapped up in their own life, they wasted all of our hard work for nothing. At the end of day rounds we were spread across the board. There were two judges that had us tied in first with Waukee h
High School, one judge that had us in second behind Waukee High School and one judge that had us in SEVENTH PLACE! How is that even fair! Of the six groups he placed above us, three didn’t even make it into finals! Now can anyone tell me how that’s even remotely fair!?
 After all the scores were averaged, we were in fourth place. So much for the past three competitions we have been grand champ at, because this one judge, who cared more about his personal life than the lives of the 50 kids on the Adler stage, just ruined our season.
           
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The Nervous Poops Part 2

Auditioning for a musical is a little more challenging. To prepare yourself properly, you have to make sure that you are set in the three different areas of the audition. Acting, singing, and dancing. When doing an acting audition, for a musical, the same rules apply that are explained in paragraph two and three. But singing and dancing are a different story.
Being able to sing is the key talent needed for a musical. Yes, you need dancers too, but you can teach anyone how to do a few dance moves, singing is a different matter. If you have been told the song you are singing in an audition before hand, make sure you know it like the back of your hand. You don’t have to have it memorized (unless this is an audition requirement set by your director) but you have to make sure you are very confident with the rhythms and notes. Also, if you are auditioning for a Broadway type of show, don’t go in and sing in a tiny breathy voice, that’s not going to cut it. Sing the audition piece, how the character you are trying out for would sing it, not how you would sing it.
If the audition song is not picked for you, choosing a song to sing can often be the most nerve-racking part of the entire process. Make sure you pick a song that showcases your voice and pick a song that fits the genre of the musical you are trying out for. If you go to an audition, for a musical that contains only jazz music, you can’t sing opera at your audition. It just won’t work! So choose a song that will benefit your audition, not hurt it.
The last area to prepare for, before a musical audition, is dance. Obviously taking a few dance lessons before an audition never hurt anybody, but just cause they do help doesn’t mean they are absolutely necessary. However being able to dance without looking like you’re having a seizure, would be helpful. Make sure you know the steps. Before an audition, there will most likely be a dance clinic. Make sure you are there. If you can’t learn the dance, you can’t try out! Also, be sure you know what moves come on what counts, because if you’re doing all the right moves, just at the wrong times, you’re still wrong. Lastly, don’t forget about faces. Having a happy, fun loving look on your face while dancing is the best thing you could possibly do. If you mess up, don’t show it on your face! Continue to look like you’re having fun and make is seem like that mistake was supposed to happen. Having the ability to recover from a mistake is always a good thing.

(465 Words)

The Nervous Poops

Auditions can be very stressful, especially if you are really excited about the play or musical you are trying out for. For some of us, auditions come naturally. However, for many of us in the drama world, this is not the case. Before an audition my friends and I often find ourselves with the nervous poops or constantly having to go pee. Other people bite their nails or don’t sleep, but no matter what, there are ways around this nervousness. You just have to be prepared.
If you are tying out for a play, you in some ways you have it easier than those trying out for a musical. With plays, you only have to focus on acting. The most important thing about an acting audition is being animated. If you just go in and read the words on the page, there is no way you are going to get a part. You have to become the character, of the lines you are reciting. So don’t just read the lines in one monotone voice, add some inflection. Be interesting and engage your voice. You can speak loud or soft, whatever fits the character’s lines. Another key point is making sure your voice matches your face. If you have an energized excited voice, but a bored to death facial expression, your audience will be confused and the director, casting the show, will not like the combination.
The next thing to remember when auditioning for a play is engaging your body. If you go in and speak with animated tones and really get your voice into the part, but don’t move a muscle, the director is going to think you don’t know how to move your body. You have to be energized and move around! Whether you’re excited, sad, angry, or neutral there has to be some movements involved in your audition, otherwise your audience will most definitely lose interest.
(318 Words)

August: Osage County Review

Letts, Tracy. August: Osage County. Dramatists Play Service Inc. 2007.

I chose to read the play August: Osage County because I was interested in trying out a new genre of literature. My friend, Bailey requested I read this play and now I completely understand why. August: Osage County was so interesting I only wish I could see it performed on a stage. The play was also very challenging to read for many reasons; just because it was short doesn’t mean it wasn’t a difficult read. The hardest part about this play would have to be trying to keep all the characters straight. I also found it hard to tell when characters were being sarcastic or if they were really saying what they felt.
The hardest part about reading this play was trying to remember who was who. I was having a terrible time keeping track of whose husband/wife a character was and whose sister had a kid named Charles and so on. One thing I found that helped me was the casting page in the front of the play. It had a list of all the characters and told me exactly who this person was married to and how old they were with however many kids. However even with this page, it was still extremely difficult and confusing keeping the characters straight. When it would switch scenes, new people would enter the story line and I would have to, over and over, turn back to the front of the play to figure out who each character was. I feel as if reading books is easier because you’re only in one person’s point of view at a time and much of a book is thought and feelings rather than dialogue.
Another thing that was difficult with reading this play was the inflection. There was a lot of tension between the characters and sometimes I couldn’t tell if the characters were being nice, sarcastic, angry, or any other emotion we as people portray through the inflection in our voices and expressions on our faces. Because the play was written in the mind set of it being seen and not to be read as a book, I found it difficult knowing what mood the characters were in. This made reading difficult, because I didn’t know which characters I could trust to be telling the truth and which ones were always sarcastic and the jokesters. Also just the fact that I’m not used to reading dialogue made the experience far more challenging and new.
The last challenging aspect of this play was the medical jargon. In the play, one of the lead characters had cancer of the mouth. Throughout the play they would bring up her condition and sometimes they would use words I had never heard before. Also, sometimes because she had cancer in her mouth she wouldn’t always be speaking clearly. When these instances came up, the words would be misspelled and slurred so to show that she could not talk to the full capacity of other people, without cancer of the mouth. This sometimes made reading difficult because there were a few instances where I couldn’t tell what she was supposed to be saying.
All challenges aside this was a very interesting play. I really liked having the opportunity to try a different genre of literature and I am very interested to try reading some other plays in the future. I would definitely recommend this play to anyone who enjoys a good soap opera, for I imagine on stage, this play would be very dramatic and theatrical. It was a great choice to read and because it, like so many other plays, was so short, I recommend everyone try reading a play at least once in their life.
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