The first in some time...

My dear and loyal fans... ::grin:: Okay, maybe not. Anyway, I'm writing because several of you requested a description of my drama camp and what I am doing in it. Following is an account of exactly that.

We just finished the third week of five. It is three days a week, for a couple of hours each day. It doesn't sound like much, but we get quite a lot of learning done in that short an amount of time. I'm in the advanced class (don't know how I got there, I haven't acted that long), and there are seven other students besides me. It is a miracle seldom seen in theater, that we actually have more boys than girls in this class. Amazing! There are five boys and three girls.

We started out with the teacher putting two of us across from each other in center stage. He would pick one person to begin, which he or she would do by making a simple physical comment like, "Your shirt is green." Then you immediately repeat what they said until an emotion emerges (such as saying "tsk" or sounding aggravated when you repeat the color of your shirt for the fifteenth time), at which point the person comments on your emotion. The point is to be able to play off of each other's emotions without any actual subject matter. So, a repeating stint may sound like this:

"Your shirt is green."
"My shirt is green."
"Your shirt is green."
"My shirt is green."
"Your shirt is green."
"My shirt is green."
"Your shirt is green."
"My shirt is green."
"Your shirt is green."
"My shirt is green!"
"You sound annoyed."
"I sound annoyed!"
"You sound annoyed."
"I sound annoyed!"
"You sound annoyed."
"I am annoyed!!"
"You are annoyed."
"Why are you smiling?"
"Why am I smiling?"

And so on. I won't torture you poor readers with the same cruel and unusual punishment that the eight of us had to endure. That was the beginning. Then...

Shakespeare!! Yes, after three years of intermittent acting, I finally get to play with one of my favorite authors. I have wanted to act Shakespeare for many years, ever since the first time I read The Bard at the age of nine. The teacher who introduced me to the famous inhabitant of Stratford-upon-Avon truly loved literature in general and Shakespeare in particular, and so instilled that love into me as well. I then went on to totally besmirch her teaching by writing a sonnet (in proper iambic pentameter) on the most dead-horse-beaten topic in poetry: spring. But that's getting off the point. We had to do a few cold readings of a scene (The first scene from Hamlet- I played Bernardo), and then got to pick out our own monologues to work on. I originally picked Julia's monologue from the beginning of The Two Gentlemen of Verona (written out in full from memory below) and Portia's famous monologue "The quality of mercy is not strain'd." I picked Portia because I love her name, not because I'd ever read The Merchant of Venice. Unfortunate, but true. I did, however, read The Two Gentlemen of Verona so I understood what Julia (another name I like) was talking about. My teacher liked that one better for me, and we were off to the races. One of the boys is doing Henry V's speech to the French embassador ("We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us..."), and is doing an incredible job. One of my best friends is doing Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy, and he also is doing wonderfully. Those are my favorite monologues out of the group of us.

We were also split up into pairs and given scenes to work on together. I got stuck with playing Princess Margaret from Henry VI, in the scene where she is captured by the Earl of Suffolk. For any of you who have not acted, or at least not acted anything romantic, you haven't the slightest how difficult it is to sit there and look someone straight in the eye who is calling you such things as "nature's miracle," "fairest beauty," etc. ::gags, quotes "yick," and wishes she could throttle her teacher:: It's horrible, but I suppose it's what I get for wanting to act Shakespeare. It's either play a Lady MacBeth or a Helena. Wah!

The only other things we've been doing are theater games, which are "raw-ther" fun. In one of them, you have to watch and listen to the whole group (standing in a circle, of course- if I forget to say that in any of the game descriptions, assume we're in a circle) while you try to count to twenty without any two people saying the same number at the same time. It sounds easy, but it is actually quite difficult.

In another game, the teacher walks around the group and throws an imaginary ball into the circle, saying "Student A, blue ball." Student A then "catches" it, says "Thank you, blue ball. Student B, blue ball," and "throws" it to Student B. It goes on with one ball for a while, and then the teacher "throws" in a different colored ball. The trouble comes when you get two (or more!) balls "thrown" at you at once, or if you're concentrating on where all the balls are in case you get "thrown" one, and then say one color when you got another. You can end with two pink balls when it was originally one pink ball and one blue ball. So it's difficult, but fun.

That's what I've been doing, anyway. I'm also going to have to audition for the really advanced class. Ipe! I've never had to audition for anything before, and if I have to do it with Julia's monologue, I think I'm toast. Not quite roasted, just slightly overdone all 'round. ::grin:: Like a really bad sunburn. Like the one I'm getting over from going golfing (across my cheeks and above my socks).

So I hope that answers all your questions. I will talk to you all soon-hopefully!

Love,

~Eowyn, the White Lady of Ithilien