East 15 Assessment Mania!

Last week was a doosy! It was our end of term assessment time for our skills classes. First up we had our voice assessment with Edda. She rules. Not only can she do any accent under the sun, but she also works with MI5 (England's equivalent to the CIA) doing super secret things that she can't even tell us about. Accent work we are assuming. So cool. We were being assessed on our RP, Received Pronunciation. Basically, Standard British up a notch. Think posh! To apply this we chose a sonnet and worked on all of the consonant and vowel sounds, shape of the mouth and lips, and the placement of the tongue. It was a lot to digest. I actually did swimmingly. Everyone was pretty impressed at the transformation that I made. There is a girl, Joanna, in my class from Victoria, Canada and a girl, Linda, from Sweden. Our RP's were the most noticeable and it was pretty great to listen to. Watch out Dame Judi Dench, here I come! ;)

In the evening was our singing assessment. We sang "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from The Fantastiks for our first song. This was all 35 of us together and it sounded lovely. Then we split up into our 3 groups and sang the songs we have been working on all term. Lucky for me, we got the cheesiest musical theatre garbage ever - FAME! It delivered like dominos, to quote Kathy Griffin! We sang 2 songs from the show and it was cheese-tastic! We wore leg warmers and side ponytails to boot! I also put together some smashing choralography. We brought the hizouse down! It was so much fun. I mean, if you're gonna do FAME, do FAME, ya know?!? We want to do it again! The 12 of us are available for parties. Just FYI. Thanks to our singing teacher Jenny for that pick! :)

Next up was our movement assessment with Marcio. This was possibly the most random and arbitrary feedback session that I have ever had. He called us in individually, sat with us at a table, and gave us a mark out of 80 that represented what he thought our work was worth this term. He, himself, said that he didn't believe in having to give these marks. So, when asked if he believed that I was not giving 100% and what I needed to do improve, he said, "No, no! Of course not. You will just need room for growing for the rest of the year." Brazilian language barrier? Perhaps I just wasn't yellow enough. Oy.

Lastly, our other voice tutor, the fabulously German, Christina Gutekunst, assessed us. She's nuts but we love her. She always goes on about scooping your t'an tien (pubic bone) so it is in line under your larynx and the crown of your head and she calls out breaths holidays. A kick in the pants! We were to choose a Shakespearean speech and apply all that we have learned throughout the term (breath support, onsets, posture, etc.) to those lines. I chose Hermione from The Winter's Tale. Ever since my senior year in college when we did that show, I have wanted to play that part. Someday I will. It went really well for me besides the few things that I always have issues with due to my voice disasters in the past. But all in all, I achieved a grounded sound with strong, not breathy onsets. For me, a large triumph!

So, all in all, the assessments went well. We have been rehearsing our Chekhov scenes all week and preparing for our showings next week. Nothing much else. It's what E15 calls priority week - no skills classes, just acting, 9am - 6:30pm M-F. It's a lot. But it is fantastic. My scenes are beautiful and just keep getting better. It is a blessing to be able to work on this role.

I will update again post showings since nothing is changing very much on this end. I hope all is well with you and that the holiday season is shaping up to be a happy one. I can't wait to go home for break! I need a holiday! :)