Crystal
- This is my first ever blog on the internet. Scary times!
Here comes my first ever sentence let’s hope I don’t lose the data again.
I AM HAVING NIGHTMARES! And not the pedestian type where you get cheated on or you eat bad Thai food etc. (Please note that I am not devaluing personal nightmares) These nightmares are truly frightening.
Now you may be thinking, “What the hell does this have to do with “Rimer’s of Eldritch?!” WEll my answer to you is “Everything”.
It all began with the Imaging, first exploring in class and then at home and that was when the night time shenanigans began.
Now I’m not going to share all of them but this is the scariest one (and the most screwed up). Ok it begins in my bedroom and I was Mary Windrod (who I am absolutely in love with!) and I was doing things around my room and then all of a sudden this little creature runs up to my back glass door and I thought ‘how cute’ so I opened the door and put my hands out and then as it got closer I realised that it was actually a baby Tyrannasauris Rex (T-rex, not sure if that’s the right spelling) and then I thought I have to kill this thing because if it grows up it’ll eat me and then I’ll be powerless. So I started the horrifying ordeal of wringing its neck but the bones were so hard it wouldn’t break and so then I started crying as I bashed its head against the concrete and when I thought it was dead I put it down.
However it then gets up and runs off and I said, excuse the French, “F@8k, I’m so dead”. I hear its mother approachin I go inside close the door and fall to the ground just as its head rears round the corner and glares in the window. All I knew as it stared into my soul was that I had to stay still and thankfully I didn’t die and off went Mama TREX.
Freaky hey, I couldn’t sleep for ages. So I just lay there and Mulled over it and then I thought ,what if Mary kills all her animals on purpose, what if its because she finds them more beautiful than when they’re alive, and perhaps they are more use to her fertilising her garden and making it grow. Maybe she thinks if they grow up they’ll destroy her. Or perhaps she likes the fact that it gives her something to talk about to be proud of when people walk by - it could be her only way to get attention purely because its the only thing she remembers, its the constant thing in her life.
I think the big TREX could also be related to Skelly looking in through bedroom windows, creeping around corners etc. Gives me the heeby geebies especially cause my glass door backs on to a soccer field,anyone/thing could walk up.
Ok I have to go to class now. Hopefully I’ll post more crazy stuff asap.
Thanks for reading Dudes and Dudette’s!
ok i hope this works
yaya it worked
Hi Crystal. Upload an avatar (picture of yourself). It will identify your posts and let me know who you are!
Interesting character choice for Skelly… A skeletal T-Rex peering through the windows at Witch Hour…. Skelly could also be the BFG!
lol you know it!
I had a really crazy day last week that I’m finally ready to Blog.
It all started at Scriptwriting where we were watching this Nazi film, and I got really angry, not because of the film but because of the manner in which our lecturer spoke of Hitler. So for the first time ever, I left a class which under any other circumstance I would’ve sat through, but because I, as some of you know, am Jewish, I was deeply affected.
Anyway I was fuming and of course I had to find a way to let go of this before acting, so I warmed up and did some extensive breathing and meditated on what had just happened and then I was good to go, or so I thought…
During an exercise someone mentioned the Hitler thing again and its difficult to explain but I started having an extreme panic attack where I couldn’t even understand that I could leave the room and I couldn’t breathe and I had these thoughts that the Eldritch community are like a lot of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, they are essentially there until they die, in a way Skelly was lucky to finally escape.
THE END!
First of all Imaging has finally clicked in for me, yaya!
I really enjoyed the sense memory exercises we explored last week. We began by taking in all the elements of Q138 by using all of our senses. It was so excting to be so fascinated by simple things. There was this little brass box on the wall that I was obsessed with, it smelt like a battery and I could even taste it in my mouth and when I touched the silver bars on its side it felt like guitar strings in my fingers and sounded like a dull ukalele.
TO BE CONTINUED….
ok i have no idea as to why my last two blogs are anonymous eek!!! but they are from me crystal! I swear!
I enjoyed auditioning today, I think the problem is that I build it up to much in my mind when realistically this is our job as actors - to audition - that is our chance to perform.
In an effort to keep my focus and energy at a decent level I wandered from room to room using the long wait to do extra work on the Nelly and Mary scene.
I really love Mary I just completely connect with her, maybe its because I know older women who have similar qualities to her. I can’t wait to find out the casting! I really love the fact that we find out tommorrow and we don’t have to wait soooo long to find out, very professional indeed.
I am also excited to find out who everyone is and to hear us all read. The first read through is probably my favourite moments from shows I’ve done previously because its the first time (and sometimes the only time - until dress run etc) that everyone is together and its also the foundation of the extraordinary explorations to follow in the rehearsal room. I love it!!
plus we get the opportunity to work with two directors. Good times!
The First Read
I left today feeling really disatified after using the Gen Am accent with Mary’s dialogue. I couldn’t get it at all in the beginning until I did this weird thing with my hand and even then it kept slipping into ’southern’. I also found it difficult to marry the accent with the characterisation I’d been working on so I think I’m going to need to listen to some lovely older ladies speaking Gen Am. I don’t ever want to have to go through the horrible ” OMG I DON’T KNOW THIS ACCENT?” feeling again, it was ridiculous and I felt it made me rush my reading and it blocked choices I wanted to reconnect with.
Easter Weekend work
During the weekend I rented “A FISH CALLED WANDA” what a cool movie! The fish is clearly the link, although in the movie its an angelfish and in Eldricht Mary has a gold fish. Maybe Mary just had a thing for John Cleese… saucy!
I had an interesting vocal session where I played with a Gen Am cd from a book called “Speaking American” it was a great resource to find the phonetic vowel substitutions. I also did a massive drilling session with the cd of practice sentences - my favourite was “Everyone knows Americans take vacations not holidays!”. It was interesting to feel my mouth moving in this new way. After the drill sesh I sat down with my text, starting with mary’s monologue and wrote it out in phonetics. After doing this I felt a lot more comfortable working with the accent, the next step is going to be bringing back all of the things I’ve already found.
Tuesday - Units
Today we unitted the script. My wisdom teeth were causing me pain though and by the end of the day I couldn’t make any sense out of myself. I felt really awkward not being able to appropriately articulate my thoughts it was one of those afternoons where words are coming out, but nothing… It just led me to become genuinely frustrated with myself and I left feeling down, I really dislike those random days and I’m not sure how I can better take advantage of them. I felt absolutely useless. my bad!
And again the problem of connecting the accent to Mary became a problem I think I really need to get up and do something, I will try some more work at home.
okey dokey, glad to get that all out!
omg i hate edublogs!!! i just tried to add all these awesome you tube videos with lovely old ladies and regarding alzheimers so frustrating!!! now i have to findd them all again.
OK, you should read the help page on edublogs and see how to upload videos. Easy … really!
These last two weeks have been really frustrating due to my wisdom tooth which is growing into my cheek, how lame! But now I’ve seen a doctor I have enough medication to see me through til my dentist wreaks havoc on my mouth. Sweet!
On Wednesday I thought I was required to do a Robert scene, so during the break I took the opportunity to do some imaging. It was probably the best imaging session I’ve ever experienced and I found so much within the text that I don’t think I would’ve found otherwise.
Mary really dislikes other adults, she has difficulty talking to a lot of them. And she feels like the whole town is watching her, she mentions “All the buildings bowing and nodding.” Almost as though the whole town is closing in on her home, eavesdropping on her. She really doesn’t like the invasion of ‘new’ people either.
I found that to her the coal is the root of all evil in the town, it is the darkness that seeped in and destroys everything. It was the reason so many buildings were built – replacing the trees.
This image also came through that her husband worked in the mines and he may have breathing difficulties due to prolonged exposure to the coal dust. I researched this and found out it is called ‘Anthracosis’ or the ‘black lung’.
http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/English/Miners.htm
(reminder to me - write about nelly imaging in next entry)
Friday
This week has been difficult again. Shame! I had my two wisdom teeth out which has made it very awkward to learn lines. The first few days it was too painful to get my lips into the Gen Am positions so I substituted those sessions for some mulling and imaging which was productive but I don’t feel like the words are in my bones yet.
Saturday
I was desperate to get stuck into the text so I did some voiced work with imaging scenes. I found my vocal quality was really slushy I hope this doesn’t embed itself in my muscle memory. The Gen Am proved awkward again but I know this will improve with healing.
Sunday
i worked through the monologue with the Poggi exercise we did in class with Kate - I just didn’t feel it was ground breaking for me - when I repeated the exercise numerous times there were thoughts that just weren’t connecting for me.
Afterwards I went through and physicallised each word I found this extremely helpful and by doing this I felt layers building around certain words.
I have to admit I been a little bit afraid of Mary for the last two weeks. I worry that I will come back in to the space and not remember the feeling of her spirit. I wish it wasn’t that way but this fear fills me, she is such a challenge and I worry that I can’t fill her shoes or house slippers… But then everytime I go to rehearse - she just comes back! I’m sure its fine but I wish I could calm myself to know she’ll be there, not just randomly wander in and out. Oh Mary, will you ever learn lol!
I have so much more to write!!! Oh well manyana.
crystal,
your work grows in depth from day to day. well done!
can you and hannah please re-examine the stage directions related to the opening of the first nelly and mary scene on page 15. the directions say “…Nelly forward, avoiding the raised hand threatening her”. i think this actually means that while nelly may have a hold of mary’s arm, mary is also threatening to strike nelly. check it out and get back to me : )