i like to pretend to be other people?

pursuing a major in theater, with a concentration in acting.

[marisatomay]

he’s so.

[boasamishipper]

😭😭😭😭

[wehadfacesthen]

Jeanne Moreau, Paris, 1949

“Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself.”

[actingblr]

Zoom Theater Review (an actor’s perspective)

PRO: after a long night of tech, u can simply put ur pajamas on and crawl into bed, no longer do u have to put on street clothes and have a scary little walk in the dark !

PRO: during breaks, u have access to allll the snacks u own :P

PRO: banter in chat dms DURING REHEARSAL without anyone telling u to shut up :D

PRO: u can totally go on ur phone or have a snack or do whatever during tech/rehearsal when ur camera is off and as long as u come back on at the right time NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW >:)

PRO: ur loved ones can all see ur show, even the ones who never normally get to because they live so far away, bc it’s all online !

CON: no banter during breaks as everyone just turns their camera n mic off :/

CON: there is simply. spike tape. on ur desk and on ur floor. bc that is ur “set”.

CON: if ur internet goes out u may simply be yeeted out of rehearsal. this has never happened in a physical rehearsal.

CON: when the rehearsal/recording process ends u will actively want to stay on zoom for the first time ever as u hover ur mouse over the leave meeting button and desperately utter another “goodbye” and another “thank you” and another “i love you all” because there will be no standing outside the theatre chattering and no last goodbyes shouted across dark streets and no lingering walk home but finally u have to click the button because the production staff needs to have their meeting and then u sit all alone in ur room in ur costume with the ring light still on and u have a little cry because that was it. it’s ended. but part of u feels like it hasn’t even happened yet.

if my math is correct, that is 5 pros and 4 cons. which, as 5 > 4, would seem to indicate that the pros outweigh the cons, however. the VIBES are simply. not the same :/

zoom theatre has been an adventure and a half, and i’m glad i’ve gotten to experience a more filmic style of acting, but i cannot wait until i can once again do live theatre in real life with real people in a physical place that is not my room.

[actingblr]

addendum:

PRO: on opening night u get to have a virtual watch party with everyone involved in the production and although there are obviously no hugs there are plenty of loving words of appreciation and during the stream itself the zoom chat will overflow with praise and banter and commentary from cast and crew and creatives alike because for once the show proceeds without any of u working on it in real time and so everyone can relax and enjoy the fruits of ur collective labor, together in time if not in space. and that’s pretty great :)

[exeggcute]

one of my favorite this american life segments of late is about the people who played orchestra pit for phantom of the opera on broadway and how, like, a sizeable majority of them had literally been playing the show since it opened in 1988 (on broadway. I know it opened in 86 on the west end, you random pedants, but I am specifically talking about broadway musicians) because their contracts stipulated that they'd have jobs throughout the show's entire run... but nobody anticipated that phantom would become the longest-running broadway show of all time.

and none of these people wanted to walk away from a guaranteed job, so very few of them ever quit. they just kept doing the same show eight nights a week... for twenty or thirty years... and by the time it finally closed last year most of these musicians (who had been working together for DECADES) hated each other and really really fucking loathed phantom. I can't stop thinking about it. it's indescribably hellish to imagine but also the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life.

[exeggcute]

can you imagine.

[babtest]

#two shows for the price of one...#phantom on the stage and no exit in the pit

[actingblr]

Zoom Theater Review (an actor’s perspective)

PRO: after a long night of tech, u can simply put ur pajamas on and crawl into bed, no longer do u have to put on street clothes and have a scary little walk in the dark !

PRO: during breaks, u have access to allll the snacks u own :P

PRO: banter in chat dms DURING REHEARSAL without anyone telling u to shut up :D

PRO: u can totally go on ur phone or have a snack or do whatever during tech/rehearsal when ur camera is off and as long as u come back on at the right time NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW >:)

PRO: ur loved ones can all see ur show, even the ones who never normally get to because they live so far away, bc it’s all online !

CON: no banter during breaks as everyone just turns their camera n mic off :/

CON: there is simply. spike tape. on ur desk and on ur floor. bc that is ur “set”.

CON: if ur internet goes out u may simply be yeeted out of rehearsal. this has never happened in a physical rehearsal.

CON: when the rehearsal/recording process ends u will actively want to stay on zoom for the first time ever as u hover ur mouse over the leave meeting button and desperately utter another “goodbye” and another “thank you” and another “i love you all” because there will be no standing outside the theatre chattering and no last goodbyes shouted across dark streets and no lingering walk home but finally u have to click the button because the production staff needs to have their meeting and then u sit all alone in ur room in ur costume with the ring light still on and u have a little cry because that was it. it’s ended. but part of u feels like it hasn’t even happened yet.

if my math is correct, that is 5 pros and 4 cons. which, as 5 > 4, would seem to indicate that the pros outweigh the cons, however. the VIBES are simply. not the same :/

zoom theatre has been an adventure and a half, and i’m glad i’ve gotten to experience a more filmic style of acting, but i cannot wait until i can once again do live theatre in real life with real people in a physical place that is not my room.

[reconstructionbaby]

so what do u think about plays

i like how in a theatre time and space are necessarily metaphorical. i don’t like how plays always have to begin with someone walking onstage and talking. too many directors try to work around this by having someone walk onstage and brood in silence for a moment before talking. this is worse. 

[sharp-tender-shock-deactivated2]

If you were directing a play, how would it begin?

[reconstructionbaby]

bagpipes at the back of the auditorium so everyone turns their heads and when they’ve turned back around the play has already begun

[hideyseek]

let me recommend to you the play stupid fucking bird, which begins instead with the audience talking

[actingblr]

SECONDED!! the main character (who in the play Stupid Fucking Bird writes a play titled Stupid Fucking Bird, it’s all very meta) walks onstage and just tells the audience “The play will begin when someone says, ‘Start the fucking play.’” and then the stage directions say they have to wait until that happens. There is no contingency plan for if the audience refuses :)

[et--cetera]

“This ruptured syllogism - If I understand myself, I’ll get better - made me question the way I’d come to worship self-awareness itself, a brand of secular humanism: Know thyself, and act accordingly. What if you reversed this? Act, and know thyself differently. Showing up for a meeting, for a ritual, for a conversation - this was an act that could be true no matter what you felt as you were doing it. Doing something without knowing if you believed it - that was proof of sincerity rather than its absence.”

— Leslie Jamison, “The Recovering”

[butchhamlet]

a month ago i picked up a book on stage directing in my school’s black box and opened to a random page and it was something about making shakespearean actors rehearse by adding the word fuck to their lines to turn the archaic language into something familiar for the emotional resonance (of course taking it out as rehearsals move along to fix rhythm/etc but just to start off) and the example it gave was the solid flesh speech. like. iirc it was specifically “but two fucking months dead”

and like. im obsessed with this. as a concept. not even for acting i just think it’s so fucking funny. to be or not to be, that’s the fucking question. is this a fucking dagger i see before me. this is the excellent fuckery of the world -

[purplemuskrat]

What fucking fire is in mine ears? Here is my fucking butt.

[socialshakespeare]

“Press not a falling man too fucking far!” - Lord Chamberlain, Henry VIII, Act 3 scene 2

[daughter-of-prospero]

One of my absolute favourite things in the world is a ‘fuck run’. If the energy is too low, or the intensity is dropping the director might ask you to run a scene, or sometimes even the whole play, and insert ‘fuck’ or any of its derivatives wherever you feel the urge to. I have never experienced anything so quickly and ferociously liven a scene. It’s like a defibrillator. 

Once did the last half of Oedipus Rex as a ‘fuck run’ leading to such incredible double entendres as: ‘Oedipus, son, dear child, who motherfucking bore you’.

Other highlights from times I’ve either taken part or seen a fuck run:

“I would eat his heart in the fucking marketplace” ”I have, of late, though wherefore I know the fuck not, lost all my motherfucking mirth.” “Your royal father’s fucking murdered.” “Fuckfuckfuck. O, by fucking who?” ”Gentlemen, remember that I am a fucking ass” ”Why the fuck did you bring these fucking daggers from the place? They must lie fucking there! Fuck! Go fucking carry them, and smear the sleepy grooms with fucking blood” “Screw your courage the FUCKING sticking place and we’ll not fail”

[english-history-trip]

I had a masterclass with an actor from the RSC who was talking about Shakespearean text through Hamlet’s first soliloquy, and she said that you should use the word “fie” as you would “fuck”.

Which makes the line:

“How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fuck it! ah fuck!”

[jojincitow-deactivated20210627]

[nora-adora]

Kidding (2018)

This is called

Shaynas Sequence

[arkham]

a lot of people are tagging this with “film” and “movies” or talking about the magic of moviemaking but i really want to point out that Kidding is a TV show.

i feel it’s important to make this distinction because there’s a common (sometimes subconscious) thought that TV is a lesser form of digital art compared to film, but television, especially recently, has been phenomenal and it deserves proper credit as a storytelling medium, as well as a craft just as capable of amazing work like this

[gailforcewinds-cgbk10]

THE AMOUNT OF WORK THAT WENT INTO THAT- HOLY SHIT-

[randomingoftherandomness]

I’ve reblogged this before but I will always reblog it. It’s amazing.

[hadeestown]

i say im fine then i remember this part of the original hadestown nytw production

[letsoulswander]

[ID: a screenshot of a script, from the end of Doubt Comes In,

EURYDICE:

Orpheus, hold on

Hold on tight

It won’t be long

The darkest hour of the darkest night

Comes right before the dawn

(ORPHEUS turns)

You’re early

Orpheus: I missed you.

End ID.]

[slyrivers]

I love this so much, I’m gonna start saying “nuts” we need to bring it back

[libralthinking]

I love b&w proper ladies breaking character with “sonofabitch”

[yooterus-deactivated20220126]

“OHH you’re following me, oUUhhh I didn’t know that!”

[cowboy-garfield]

It brings me such joy that people seem to have always done the *sputters and blows raspberries like you’re having a stroke* thing when they stammer

[crazycatsrebloggin]

Actors haven’t changed at all over the years and I love it

[i-remember-there-was-mist]

Shows every actor should know

It’s quite unlikely that you’ve read/seen/listened to each and every one of these shows.  I certainly haven’t!  But it’s a place to work off of–something you can go to and see what you should read next, what show you should try to see, what’s missing in your education!  And perhaps you’re a musical theatre artist and think you should skip the straight play section–don’t.  These are shows you should know too!  I’ve put an asterisk by shows that I particularly recommend and that changed my life as a performer, to give you a place to start!  Enjoy!

Note: If I’m miscategorized something or feel as if something is missing from this list, please don’t hesitate to tell me!  

Keep reading

[ratcarney]

musician orpheus is OUT. standup comedian orpheus is IN.

[princesshamlet-deactivated20210]

*auditions for julliard drama school with the john green cock monologue*

[actingblr]

why would you make me read these words with my own eyes

[if-only-angels-could-prevail]

again, there IS a problem of straight actors playing all the gay roles, but the answer isn’t as easy as “straight people shouldn’t play gay people” because a) it’s acting and there’s nothing intrinsically physical about gayness and b) it’s bad to insist that actors make their sexuality public information

[if-only-angels-could-prevail]

you know what that’s exactly it

[cortexiphanolivia]

Here’s some fun facts about one of my favorite stories being told in Hamilton: this is Ariana Debose, who plays a special role within the ensemble known as The Bullet. She’s killed for suspected espionage right after You’ll Be Back, and is the first one to die (not counting Hamilton’s mother or cousin who hangs himself). After this moment, she becomes an omen of death. At the beginning of Stay Alive, she carries a shot that narrowly avoids hitting Hamilton. In Yorktown, she helps Laurens kill a redcoat, shakes his hand, then Laurens is the next to die. In I Know Him, she’s the one bringing the message to King George about John Adams and symbolically heralding the impending doom of Hamilton’s political career. During Blow Us All Away, she’s the one who tells Phillip where to find George Eacker, (and flirts with him! Phillip is literally flirting with death!) then Phillip is the next to die. In Your Obedient Servent, she brings the desk on stage and hands Burr the quill to write the first of several letters that will eventually lead to Alexander Hamilton’s death. During the final duel, she again catches a bullet (fired by Burr), and if you watch her, she gets closer and closer to hitting Hamilton while he’s doing his soliloquy until Eliza pops onto stage. At this point, The Bullet is stopped by other members of the ensemble, the time freeze is abandoned, and we all know what happens‬ next. (soure: JC Payne)

[druid-for-hire]

i hear The Lightning Thief Musical is going to broadway.

this is most excellent news.

Keep reading