Great rehearsal tip from Caymichael Patten:
Cay gave this piece of advice to a couple of actors working on the scene from Arthur Miller’s, All My Sons, where Chris proposes to Ann. One of the main obstacles in the scene for both characters is the memory of Larry, Ann’s former fiancée and Chris’s brother who was killed in World War II. In order to make the obstacle of Larry stronger, Cay suggested that the actors do a rehearsal where they sensorally put Larry somewhere on stage with them. Really amplifying the presence of Larry will inform the scene and help the actors to discover how much the memory of the dead brother is really affecting them.
In Tuesday’s class we saw Shayna Albertson and Javan Nelson putting to use the rehearsal tip above which Cay had given them the week before. The scene made a huge jump forward. It was very moving; congrats to both Shayna and Javan on such a successful rehearsal and implementation of technique.
Next up was Max Miesel and me, Annie Grier, working on George Bernard Shaw’s, Arms and the Man. Cay helped us through a very guided rehearsal, showing us how necessary it is to land the moment to moment staging, for the scene to work. Max is approaching classical material for the first time and learning how to apply everything he has been working on with Cay to this new style. While I am not approaching this material for the first time, I am STILL learning how to apply everything I am learning with Cay, truthfulness, bringing myself to the material etc. It is a fun and exciting challenge for both of us!
Christina Dancu and Kim Maresca were up next with, Elaine May’s, The Way of All Fish. Kim had great success in this class with applying Cay’s previous note to bring herself to the text and not initially impose character on it. Check out Cay’s blog to read more about this note.
Migina Tsai finished the class with a monologue from, Loose Knit by Theresa Rebeck, a piece that she had worked on, but not recently. She was relaxed and allowed herself to explore the piece. She found something new and Cay encouraged her to do the piece again really exploring what she had found. The result was very full, spontaneous, moment-to-moment acting.