"The score is a palindrome!"

Nearest and dearest, it finally happened: we did our scene for the class. It was truly the day of anxiety release for me. I didn't realize that it was such a source of stress for me. I was worried about what my peers would think and worried about being true and worried about so many things that come with being in a real acting class for the first time in my life.

In our class Alan opened us to the idea of doing "reality checks" where we describe what is happening to us physically, or another option is to tell a story... these things kind of take you to a place that you can go from to move into the scene and the mindset you need for your character, etc. (That is a poor explanation but I'm tired okay?) When we got up to in front of the class Matt shared a story. My heart was pounding and I felt nervous but I didn't want to voice anything because I wanted to use the energy for the scene. We started the work and it was unlike any rehearsal - we were both tremendously present - we dropped a good amount of lines and went off the text now and then but it served us. I stuck to my motives and objectives and felt the reality of the situation like I hadn't in our rehearsals. It was really good for us, I think. A very validating experience. Again, Alan remarked that I am "a great actress" and while he had a couple of suggestions for us he really felt that the rehearsal served us well and that our work was true. It was fantastic. I was so thrilled. We did that one run and then ... sat down. I think we had both expected to be up there for about a half hour going through exercises to connect us to the work or something, but we were kind of able to just enjoy the success of that rehearsal. It was a great relief and an awesome memory that I'll think of when I look back on this program.

After Dance I came back to my apartment with Christian, Regan, and Alex via the bus. We had a fun ride.

I made cookies for them.

Christian was making fun of my yellow rubber gloves and snapped this photo.

Back at school for Singing Technique. We have that big break from 2:45-5:30 so by the time we get back to the school we are all sooo tired and Christian and I always say, "Now time for the class at 8 o'clock at night" because we are in the basement and it's late and we are exhausted. I sang in class and got some decent technique work done, although I still struggle belting the C#. I think I'll just have to slide up to it.

Afterwards I went back to Regan's Boarding House (a place I'm considering moving into next summer) and we passed a gorgeous flower stand. Look at these beauties. Grow, you marvelous wonders!

Oh! On Monday in Sybil's class she chose me to read a scene where King Richard is in jail and starts to realize that his thoughts on Death are flawed - that Death is truly what rules a King's court, letting the King believe his skin is made of "brass impregnable" and that he will never die, but Richard starts to realize that his life is not as protected as he would believe. It was extremely difficult for me to do what Sybil was asking. The last time I worked for her she told me not to utter ANYTHING unless I was speaking from the loins. This time I held myself to that standard which resulted in a lot of pauses and some slow speech. She changed the rules and wanted me to pick up the pace but stay connected and all these other prompts she was giving me. I felt exhausted after reading 10 lines of text. After class I asked her why she chose me for that difficult speech. She said, "Because you get to the truth quickly, dahling. Don't expect to win with Sybil. I'm always changing the rules." I love that class.

Love to all.