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Technique Will Hold You . . . Joan's Voices Closes

By Christopher, On The Edge of America on June 5, 2006 11:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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A good friend Ivana wrote me after the close of the show on June 4th, Sunday, 2006:

Hey Christopher,

I'm so glad we came to see your play. You did a really nice job. It's a huge step for you to play that role after being at Weist Barron and you could definitely hold your own. I was proud of you:))

Anyway, stop by the bar when you get a chance.
Talk to you soon
Ivana

I wrote back:

Hey Ivana,

          that's very kind and generous of you to say that -- thank you very much.

          It was really a great learning experience, and what really helped was finding a very good coach/teacher (Deborah Carlson, 'Word Of Mouth Studios') who's teaching me (finally!) good physical technique. Performing and training at the same time -- it's tough, but it's the best! I'll tell you the two biggest lessons I learned (and you'll definitely appreciate one of them). On Sunday, the closing day, I was so "off" (I felt): couldn't concentrate on anything (except how bad I thought I was doing): not really listening or reacting, and just saying lines with nothing behind them, and for the first time ever, wishing I was anywhere BUT on that stage -- sounds pretty bad huh?

         The person I'm working with, Deborah, (Jill, the woman who played Joan is working with her too) was there, and after I told her that, despite how much I was trying to do what she was teaching me, I felt I was having a terrible performance, and she said -- she didn't see any of that stuff (?!). She said that I was learning exactly what I needed to do: that "technique will hold you" when all else fails. That's what she saw, i.e., she saw me doing my job (playing Charles to tell the story of Joan), and she never knew I wasn't "feeling it." Now, it wasn't a great performance (because I was so caught up in how badly I thought I was doing), but I was still "there" and she never noticed that I was having all these troubles because I was sticking with my technique -- in fact, I was clinging to it!

        The other huge lesson was Jill (Joan) -- Jill was doing a GREAT job: really listening and reacting to everything, better than I had ever seen her, and when she talked to me, she really TALKED TO ME, so much so, so real, that I HAD TO listen and react. In fact, she grabbed me a couple to make sure I was paying attention to her. If you have a partner that's really DOING everything, that helps you out so much -- it really helped me: it fact -- it saved me that afternoon.

       Technique and great acting partners -- you have those two things, no matter what, you'll be fine up there, even if you feel you're having the worse performance of your life.

      OK -- now on to the next part!

      - Cheers,
              Christopher

Overall, I didn't do too bad -- I consistently felt that I was now running up against some of my limitations, esp. with such a large role, and the lack of physical training and technique made itself quite apparent: without seriously improved physical training with my voice and breathe and applying that to text, I won't be able to reach the next level, whatever that is.

However, with the new things I've been learning, the new technique class I'm taking this summer with Deborah that should directly address all the weak spots I've been struggling with -- really -- since I began, I have a feeling that I'll soon be leaving my current level of performance behind forever and stepping onto a larger stage in terms of what I can do, what I can bring to a role, what I can bring to life.

A step unto new ground, into a new space . . . where I want to go . . where I need to go . . .