Studies and Preparation
| I've been a little quiet lately because: a) I got a cold. No one wants to hear the extent of that whining. b) I am getting ready for THIS:  I'll be catching a train to Fort Worth next week to meet up with the Susan Gibson tour van so I can merch girl my little heart out across the Southeastern U.S. So excited! I've never been to that part of the country before, aside from a weekend in Atlanta in college, so I will be soaking in every bit of Southern culture I can. Plus my buddy from Georgia tells me I have to try the phenomenon that is boiled peanuts from a roadside stand. I like peanuts. I like boiled things. What's not to try?In the meantime I'm having fun at Red Leaf and with Folk Music Grad School. Dan gave me homework...my first reaction paper since college. He said he hoped I didn't mind and I said, "Dude, my degree was built on reaction papers to chapters in random books...it's cool." I enjoyed using proper citation of sources in my writing again (Dan didn't require that, of course, I just threw it in for good measure). We are reading "An Actor Prepares" by Constantin Stanislavski...I'm only on chapter 2 but so far it's discussing the ways in which an actor presents material to the audience, how he approaches his role, and how he turns what he does into real art instead of just mechanical motions. All of it applies to the performing songwriter, too...we have to re-live the little one-act plays of all our songs over and over again and truly live them every time. Otherwise, the audience gets gypped. And perhaps throws tomatoes. Which ties in nicely to my work with my stage performance teacher, Jess, who had me on a yoga mat inhaling and exhaling while singing with my knees pointing one way and my head the other. My assignment this week is to study two of my songs and play them for her with every emotion and intention examined and displayed. Very excited. ...And then comes the suSANG tour, which is kind of like the Folk Music Grad School Field Experience course. Or something. Many cans of Starbucks will be consumed. I have no time for a cold! Time for some Nyquil. |
posted by jana at 9:17 PM
Comments on "Studies and Preparation"
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Christina said ... (September 9, 2008 7:23 PM) :
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Phil said ... (September 9, 2008 9:34 PM) :
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jana said ... (September 9, 2008 10:03 PM) :
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Heather said ... (September 11, 2008 10:40 AM) :
post a commentBoiled peanuts are good! But be prepared to shell them...that caught me off guard :)
Feel better! That looks like an incredibly fun tour. Pictures! Pictures! Pictures! Can't wait to hear all about it.
Also, that acting book has some good points. I haven't gotten to do much theater out here in LA, but my last couple of years in Albuquerque I got pretty involved, and even did a couple of shows at some local theaters. I never imagined acting could be what it is, and I love it. :)
NOTED - Thanks Christina! I would not have thought they would need shelling after all that boiling. :)
Phil - you never think about how much you have to think about acting and performing...until you do. The pros make it look effortless I guess. :)
Oh that's a good book! (I was a theater major.) And the whole thing about performing songs being different from writing them is something that so hit home for me at Song School. It's kind of embarrassing it never hit me before, but I guess I just assumed people knew how to do it intuitively. And there probably ARE some people who are like that, but now it's pretty clear, if someone has a good show it's because of the intentions behind it.
Oh and the whole thing about learning technique so you can forget about it when you go on stage because you've already put it in your body. And then you have something to pull out of your bag of tricks when you're having an off night...