I always get to this point with a blog, where I get busy and it’s hard to keep up. So, to let you know what I’ve been doing lately, I’ll jump right in.

Wedding

No, it wasn’t mine. My brother, 29, finally got married. It was a little short on the notice, but I missed my Friday classes, piled in a car with my older sister and her husband and drove the 8 hours to Branson, MO. Ryan (my brother) had the service at Silver Dollar City, and we stayed in these really nice cabins that were in the outlying Ozarks. We had a waterfall right behind our room – I found it rejuvenating (I’m a romantic, if you couldn’t tell).

It poured the day of Ryan’s service – several family members sat drenched in a church built in the 1860′s. But, once Ryan and Brandy arrived, everything was great. The minister went and bought towels at the gift shop to help people dry off (I hope he got reimbursed). Being the best man, I had to present the new husband and wife, and I was proud and happy my brother found happiness.

Rehearsals

So, I started rehearsals for Little Women on the 17th, right before the wedding. So far, I’ve had a blast – look for updates in the theatre journal section in the future if you’re looking for that. I love the cast – they’re all talented, fun, and just good people. Our dramaturg, a good friend of mine, has done an excellent job; he has a website with so much info that I’m not sure where to start. I’ll post that in the journal section as well. We had an entire week of music rehearsal – I’ve learned a lot about my voice and just how different it can sound based on the kind of support I lend it. I love it.

I’ll leave you with a quote from our director, Beth Turcotte. The context is her explaining to cast mate Cole (playing Laurie) about singing, since he’s never done it before, that if he let go, had fun and kept the intention, magic happened. And once that magic happened, “Singing is a piece of, shit, cake!”

There were some events leading up the announcing of who got into showcase that have me a little irked, to be honest. I won’t get into them here just yet, as my department’s rumor mill is powerful and far reaching, and I’d rather not get yelled at for utilizing my first amendment rights.

I have NY and LA showcase auditions still to go. I think this time around I will risk overworking the scene and will have more people come look at it. Now begins the mad dash for finding material, which will be a glorious time given my brother’s getting married this weekend, I have a departmental fund-raiser to do next week, and I start rehearsals on Thursday. At least I’ll have some stuff in the theatre journal for you once those pick up. Peace be with you.

I’ve had my scene since July, in all honesty. I’ve poked around with it, cut it down, thought about it, and pondered partners a lot. My friend Ashley did me the honor of being my partner (she was wonderful), and I auditioned yesterday – no bad nerves, just some confidence and a bit of useful butterflies. I did my work (wouldn’t call it my best, but hey, auditions are fake to begin with) and I was myself. I’m not ashamed of what I did in there.

Lists still aren’t up. Twenty-seven people auditioned, they take fourteen at the most, usually nine to eleven. I can understand why they aren’t up yet. It’s not like only five of the auditioners have talent – everyone that auditioned is good at singing or acting, if not both. All of our character types are pretty much different; I’m the only tall, lanky, awkward, smart type. Others can play that, but that’s what I most easily tap into.

So as I move into doing this professionally, there’s a few things I either already knew and have relearned, or things I learned fresh this weekend. 1) I need to figure out a way to deal with the time lapse between auditions I deem important and when I find out about casting, since in the real world it could take weeks/months. 2) If I don’t get in, it isn’t the end of the world – they take less than 50% of those that audition this year; my life as an actor will be rejection. At least I’ll get used to it early. 3) I am proud to call my fellow auditioners my peers, friends, and fellow collaborators.

Good luck to everyone, if you’re involved with this as well; hopefully we’ll hear something soon.

Acting is easily the hardest and simplest thing in the world. Be natural, be yourself; all characters are based on truth. It’s not really the performing that’s hard; once I get in a groove doing performances, while exhausting, is easy. It’s the process of figuring out someone else’s life that’s hard. There lies the eternal doubt.

For example: I’m playing Professor Bhaer in Little Women this fall. The book for the musical, to quote the director, “isn’t Chekov.” However, to figure out why Bhaer likes quiet, dislikes the violence of Jo’s first stories, was hard. I could easily make it up off the top of my head, but that’s risky.

So I research 1831-1859 Germany, when the Professor would have lived there. I study his lines, figure out what double and triple meanings could exist, how he could be just a little different here and there. I think about his speech patterns, his gait, what makes his heart bloom, what causes his soul to wither. I take all of this and compare it to myself; where am I the same? Where am I different? What motivations and perspectives can I relate to and easily use, and what ideologies will I have to ponder until I can at least understand his perspective?

I know I’ve a lot to learn. I’ve got talent. However, there are days where you stumble and fall, realize you’ve backslided a bit, like today. I had my second voice lesson this week and found out all the singing technique I worked on in high school has disappeared. While a little disappointed in myself, I’m confident I can get it back and whip myself into shape in a month and a half. You have to constantly check in with yourself.

It’s all about knowing yourself and where home is for your personality, I suppose. You have to be comfortable in yourself, even when looking at the darkest of characters. When I struggle (I once played one of John Guare’s characters – Durwood. One step away from insanity) I ask myself two questions. 1) What did you do for yourself today? 2) What did you do for your art today? Sometimes they’re the same. Sometimes not.

For now, I’m going to either nap a bit or kill some aliens in Halo for myself. Then, I’m going to glance at my monologue for showcase.

Last night was my friend Sarah’s going away party (she leaves to study this semester in London). Her best and mutual friend Olivia put it on at their house – a small soiree with no more than 12-15 people at a time. English themed decorations with English only music – the Stones, Elton John, Beatles, etc.

While jamming to some Queen, the dancing in the living room got a little wild – some stomping, some flailing. About a minute into the song we hear a loud shattering and amongst everyone’s sandal clad feet are prismatic shards of glass. I don’t think it was just our friend Matt’s fault, but he was closest and he’s a big guy, so we gave him shit about it. The lamp that broke was apparently only a $0.10 lamp, so no one was mad.

I went and found a broom while everyone carefully left the area; of the people there, I had on loafers, so I figured I’d be alright to crunch around on the glass. Plus, I was dancing too (maybe not quite so frenetically), so I guess it was partly my fault.

On Tact

So, I thought about this last night (a friend of mine has been debating universal health care via facebook, and I finally had to tell him to just drop it) and I realized that maybe this is how society should function. No one was mad because of the mess – we acknowledged fault, carefully moved away from the hazard, and the person that was best equipped to deal with the situation at the time (me) dealt with it. It took me 5 minutes to clean up the glass and make sure none had wandered into the carpet.

Last night it was me that was stuck with cleaning up the mess; I was okay with that. I’ve been the guy to cause the mess before. Hell, I’ve been the guy that needed to be carried up the stairs because he had too much to drink before. Let he who is without sin, I suppose.

All and all, a great party, I’m glad Sarah’s excited to go and Liv and her roomies were such good hosts. A good start to labor day weekend.

I figure I can keep the more personal anecdotes here (as Ken will have his personal stuff at his website), but when we come across something we think the other will like, it’ll appear at http://renaistre.wordpress.com. Where we’re both headed is a little shaky too, but, once you know a thing or two about us – open minded, intellectual, cultured (or so we like to think) young men – maybe you’ll help us do that. I won’t speak for Ken, but I know I welcome all commentary provided it doesn’t sponsor hate or doesn’t boil down to something along the lines of “you guys are stupid and ignorant and completely wrong.” I’ll do my best to behave myself, cause let’s face it: it feels good to point fingers and name call. Being five was one of the best things in my life; I had thirty puppies. Yes, I know, I win the childhood contest.

As for the name of the blog? I call it Nocturne since, as a theatre major, I have class, work, and rehearsal well into the evening. Thus, I will get to write at night for the most part. Additionally, my favorite pianist/composer is Chopin, and he has some p-r-e-t-t-y sweet  etudes by that name. Just sayin’.