Last OCU Mainstage Auditions!

I know I haven't blogged for a long time now, so I have lots to catch you up on!

Three Sisters is over for now, but our show was nominated to move on for the American College Theatre Festival (ACTF)! The next round of ACTF will be held in January or February in Amarillo Texas! We won't know until the end of this year if we will be moving on or not. Generally they nominate shows that they think are at the level to move on and then select shows based not just on talent, but on the size and scale of the show and how easy it would be to mount the performance in another area. So, although I feel that our cast did an excellent job, there is really no way to know if we are moving on or not solely based on talent.

Last week I had my last auditions for the OCU Mainstage shows (there are still auditions for stage II when I get back)! My audition itself was not the best, but as I'm learning in my audition techniques class, it isn't always just about how well you do in your pieces. For one, my perspective of a "good job" on a monologue could be very different from the auditors.

Apparently that was the case this time because I was called back for several roles in the play, The Angelina Project. This play surrounds an Italian woman and her mother as the young woman is trying to find a subject for her senior thesis. Amelia (the young woman) is especially interested in one particular case about a woman who murdered her husband, a woman named Angelina. This play involves many characters, so some of the actors play multiple parts. Both roles I was called back for are roles with multiple parts. One role, is for the Italian aunt of Amelia and the other part is the mother of Angelina, both of which would require an Italian accent. The other role I was called back for plays the parts of the defence attorney, the foster sister of Amelia's mother, a news reporter, and a child services worker.

I would be thrilled to get the opportunity to play either role I was called back for. However, if Three Sisters moves on to the next level of ACTF I will not be able to be in any of the shows next semester.

Next time I will try to give you more of an update on my classes and plans for next year!

Love you lots,
Julia

Memorizing Insanity

So, this semester because I was gone this time last year, I am taking two performance acting classes. I am talking Acting Four which is Chekhov, and Acting Six which is period styles in acting. Right now, in both classes we are work-shopping our scenes. A workshop of a scene is basically when you and your scene partner come in with the scene memorized and a basic idea of the blocking in the scene, and the two of you perform this for the class. Afterwards the class makes notes on where improvement could be made, and you re-work the scene based on what sections need attention.

This past week I had a workshop for my Greek scene on wednesday, and my Chekhov scene on thursday. Both scenes went relatively well, however we started my Greek scene late in class so we are going again on monday. It has truly been a memorization overload. 

On top of this, I told my friend Louisa that I would be a part of her monologue show she is doing for Out Side The Box theatre at my school. The show is suppose to be a tribute to women, and all that they have accomplished. The monologue I am doing in called Night Luster, and I am absolutely in love with it. It is about this women who thinks that no one really sees her, and talks about wondering if she is really an alien who speaks a different language that no one else can understand. I am very excited about the show, I am not, however, all that excited about having to memorize it by Wednesday. So is life as an actor, I guess.

I think I'll end with a quote I love, and has been on my mind lately:

"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love makes the ride worthwhile." -Franklin Jones

Clear Glass Marbles

The cast lists went up today, and I was cast in "Talking With..." as the Clear Glass Marbles monologue. It just goes to show that you never really know how well you did. So yea! We start rehearsals in March, but I'm not sure exactly when the show goes up. Updates to come :)

Auditions and Call Backs

This semester is already up and running. I am at the end of the second week of school, and have already gone through auditions and callbacks for the second part of this season.

Auditions were last Wednesday and Thursday, which was the first week of school. I preformed two short monologues from Some Things You can Never Forget, and Invisible Friends. The first monologue I picked was about a woman grieving her father who died in a car accident after leaving the house to go get her some ice cream, and the second monologue is about an eighteen-year-old girl who still has an imaginary friend who consuls her about being lonely. At OCU, they generally allow two minutes for one or two monologues, which usually means doing two monologues that a just under a minute each. 

My audition itself went very well. The panel watching the auditions for this round was particularly friendly, especially in comparison to the stoic faces from the previous auditions. I got a few laughs from my semi-comedic monologue, and did a good job on my other piece as well. After I preformed my monologues I was asked to do one of my special skills, which in this case was me making the sound effect of a girl stuck in a closet, which if you haven't heard me do this you might be a little lost as to what I am talking about (ask me to do it sometime for you when we see each other.) 

Call backs went up the following night and I was called back for the following shows: "Tonia Campanella's Movement Piece", "Anton in Show Business" (for the part of Lisabette,) and "Talking With..." (for the Clear Glass Marbles monologue.) My first call back was for Lisabette in "Anton in Show Business". That call back was probably my best. Lisabette is an actress from La Vernia, Texas who graduated from SMU who taught third grade for two years until "in a dream the Lord Himself reaffirmed [her] calling" and she started acting again. I read for Lisabette most of the night, but when one of my friends, Sonia, came back from her musical theatre auditions, Dr. Pasto asked me to read with her for the part of Casey (who is in many was the exact foil of Lisabette.)

The next night I had my callback for the movement show, and "Talking With..."  Tonia is the movement teacher at OCU and she is choreographing a movement piece for this semester. Her show is completely silent and consists of both expressive acting and dancing. One challenging aspect of this show is that it is about a number of different kinds of love stories including both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. In the call back itself we mainly we asked to just move expressively to music, and then at the end we did a short improvisational scene with a partner. All I can say is that I had more fun in that call back than any other call back I've ever had before, and I honestly have no idea of who will be in the show.

After that call back I quickly ran over to the Black Box Theatre for the "Talking With..." call back. This show consist of a collection of monologues preformed by women. The monologue I was called back for was about a women talking with a therapy group about the days leading up to the death of her mother. In this call back we were asked to select ten lines from the monologue to read. After dancing around for several hours, I was pretty exhausted, but I tried to do my best with the monologue. After everyone in the group of late-comers to the call backs read Judy told us we were free to go.

And now, I am in the state of actor's limbo waiting for the directors to meet and decide who they do and don't want for their shows. I feel like I'm in a very good place right now. I felt like I did the best I could in both auditions and callbacks, and would be happy with any outcome. 

Why Blog?

I've decided recently that I don't do a very great job in keeping everyone up to date on my life here at Oklahoma City University (OCU.) I have never had a blog before, but I think that I will give it a try in effort to keep you updated! I think this will also insure that everyone gets ALL the information instead of my usual scatterbrained account of what is going on in my life.