The silliness continues.

[lastjacobin]

So today I did my Alexander the Great battle with little action figures, recreating the battle of Gaugamela. Awesome, right? Wrong. I thought it would be great because it would give me something to do and I wouldn't think about it. What was the problem? The problem was that I had already thought about it

Comments

[mmb2]

for what it's worth 'Night Mother depends hugely on the performances. You watch Edie Falco do it and suddenly its not quite so fucking cliche. But yes, in terms of reading it, ugh.

[lastjacobin]

See, that's what I figured. It's a different story watching it and reading it. Then again, I once saw Richard Dreyfuss reading the phone book on an interview and he made it sound like it was the greatest thing ever written.

[emiliasdiary]

God. I hate those people. Unfortunately, that's what almost every actor I know is like. Welcome to modern theatre.

I agree with Havens.

[lastjacobin]

Yeah. Welcome to modern theatre. It's so painfully ironic.... and that angers me.

[shakanaman]

... and this is the reason we'll never agree on anything art-related.

[lastjacobin]

Did you like "Night Mother"?

[shakanaman]

Yes, I saw it performed and liked it quite a bit.

But more to the point: As far as I'm concerned, the most important thing about art is that it should provoke emotion/resonance, which I do not find to be as commonly true of the more antiquated classics as they are farther removed from the present world. I will not dispute the literary value of Shakespeare, but I would certainly not dismiss more recent literature as trite because it is shaped differently.

What I mean to say is that iambic pentameter is not a good format for the confusion of the postmodern world, and does not resonate as well with people who live in an age of blurry nationalism and identity shaped by the recent history of the twentieth century.

That said, I am not a structuralist. I'm writing my thesis on postmodern literature, and really, that says it all.
Rock on, Rushdie.

[lastjacobin]

hahaha, I didn't mean that all plays should be written in pentameter. I meant that a lot of modern playwrights have decided that their crusade is to be "real" and "gritty" so they babble on about abortions and AIDS and homosexuality and what not, and they stick as many curse words in as possible to make it "real".

You know what I mean? If you take a David Mamet play and take out all the "fucks" and "cocksuckers" and what not, then half the play is gone. Tom Stoppard, I feel, manages to show people and stories without excessive profanity or some bizzare belief that if nobody has Herpes or whatever, that the play suddenly is no good.

[sweatervestman]

Damn, I actually liked 'Night Mother a lot when I saw it. Then again, you are different because you're fully cold and hollow inside and I'm only partially so.

We've started filming Cop/Detectives again, just to keep you posted.

[lastjacobin]

Hmmm.... maybe it's a lot better on stage or when performed well.

Oh... Was there ever any explanation as to how Peter died?

[broadwayhobbit]

Never read 'Night Mother. Am not inclined to do so.

Northwestern makes you do Meisner second quarter of your acting track. Other than having very silly conversations in class and homework that made people in the dorms stare at you, I didn't find much of it worthwhile. But I don't discount the need for impulse training, and actually may have gotten something out of Meisner. I think the turning point was when we Meisner-ed scenes we were working on-- we were encouraged to repeat lines if we didn't feel like we were pursuing objectives enough. Perhaps the sheer frustration of repeating lines indefinitely forces you to find something new in a scene (or at least fight harder so the scene can end). And our impossible tasks were pretty cool too. One girl tried to paint the entire stage blue in the five minutes before the next class started.

Anyway, what's the point of having everyone agree in an acting class? That's dull.