Piano Prodigy Shuan Hern Lee on Australia's Got Talent

Sheer insanity how good this kid is! =D

Singing Cats -- not the musical!

A few months ago, my classmate Kelly's daughter, Melissa showed me a video of two boys singing as cats. It is insane, and the fact that this is live makes it all the better! Today I also found a "music video" of sorts, featuring the same two boys. It's absolutely hilarious, but it's also a great piece to show off their voices.

RENT Libretto and Rosie is Awesome =D

So last week, I finally got my RENT book in the mail. It's awesome! I got it through the Barnes and Noble site from used bookseller for about $5, which is amazing, especially considering it should have cost me about $40 and despite being 'used', the book's binding had never been cracked open. So it was like getting a brand-new book for only $5!

What makes it even more awesome is that besides the behind-the-scenes background information and interviews with the original cast, the Larson Family, and the many people who collaborated on RENT, it also included a full libretto of a musical, which I listened to on the entire 4 hour trip to my cousin's hometown. She graduates from UC Davis tomorrow morning.

Anyways, so the book was published in 1997, at the height of RENT's critical acclaim. The musical had successfully survived the death of Jonathan Larson, author of the book, music, and lyrics, moved to the Nederlander theatre on Broadway, and in 1996 received 4 Tony awards out of 10 nominations: Best Musical, Best Book (Jonathan Larson), Best Original Score (Jonathan Larson), and Best Actor in a Featured Role (Wilson Jermaine Heredia).

I was introduced to rent my Freshman year of college at De Anza. By that point I was heavily into musicals, especially Wicked, a musical that pulled me out of depression and basically saved my life. Besides my idol, Kristin Chenoweth, the other leading actress in the show was the absolutely stunning Idina Menzel, who of course played Elphaba. I was really excited to find out that she was also in the musical RENT, a movie that my family already owned but I had previously been reluctant to watch.

I watched the movie. I fell in love with the actors, with the music, and especially with the story. Although I had initially watched the movie for the purposes of seeing more of Idina, I was absolutely floored by all of the other actors in the production. I especially loved the character of Angel (portrayed in both the obc and the film by Wilson Jermaine Heredia) and the song Seasons of Love, performed by a show-stopping Tracie Thoms (who later went on to portray Joanne in the closing cast of RENT on Broadway in 2008. Her performance in Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway is undoubtedly my favorite performance of Joanne. I love Freddi, but Tracie steals the show.

I don't have time tonight to look up 5,000 videos of RENT, so I'll just post one. This is the video on YouTube that inspired me to write tonight. It's a clip of Rosie O'Donnell on The View, talking with a 12-year-old girl named Stephanie who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis whose favorite musical is, of course, RENT. Rosie gives her a very special surprise:

You Got a Friend in Me

One of the people I'm subscribed to on YouTube is danwright32.
He put this vid up today, and it totally made my day! =D

Les Mis is going to be a movie!

Saw this and now I'm beyond ecstatic! This cast is AMAZING Hugh Jackman! And Anne Hathaway! And Amanda Seyfried! And not to mention Helena Bonham Carter! =D

I can't wait for Christmas!

The Gavilan Press (and me) on Commedia dell'Arte

I am especially excited about this article because I think it talks about something that not too many people (outside of the theatre community) are aware of:  Commedia dell'Arte.

Commedia dell'Arte is a theatre performance style that originated in Italy in the 1500s and is best known for its use of stock characters and slapstick comedy. It also had a profound influence on our production of The Taming of the Shrew.

Because of my budding interest in the theatre form, I decided to write an article for The Gavilan Press discussing Commedia dell'Arte and said influence on our production. It was a great opportunity for me to talk about the theatre, something I have a strong passion for, and to educate people about Commedia. Here is the link to the published article on The Gavilan Press.

Through this article, I was also able to talk to some very cool people about Commedia - namely Connor Clark and Dr. Kate Booth. Connor was one of my castmates - he played Tranio, and for his senior project for GECA (the early college program at Gavilan) he researched a great deal on Commedia. Dr. Booth was my theatre history teacher this semester, and I was very excited to talk about Commedia with her because I knew she'd have something to say; she'd taught it in our class just a week or two prior to our interview.

In the photograph above, taken by my own brother, Kevin, on opening night of our Shrew run, you see Andy Garcia as the dottore character, Hortensio, Talia Vlaovich as the Pantlone, Gremio, Alaric Lund as an Innammorato, Lucentio, and me, Megan Brittani Nacionales, as Petrucchio's head servant, the Zanni, Grumio.

Vintage, Lullabye, and Libera

Today on Facebook, I somehow managed to drag myself to the group page for De Anza's Vintage Singers, the advanced choir that I proudly sang with for two quarters while I was there. About halfway down the page, I found that Pauli, one of my former classmates, had posted this video on the page:



It brought back so many memories from being in Vintage because a small group from within the choir performed this piece during my first concert in the group. The performed it a capella, and I've since fallen in love with the sound of the King's Singers. We've used their music several times in Vintage, including the arrangement for You Are the New Day, which was my favorite piece last Spring Quarter. I enjoyed it because it was a challenge: I'm what we lovingly referred to as a "Sopralto," which meant, thanks to the fact that I have about a 3 to 3-and-a-half octave range, (depending on the day) I can sing just about anywhere in Alto and Soprano. This usually meant I got to sing the Soprano II splits, which I loved. With this song, I had to switch between first Tenor and Soprano I range multiple times. I loved it. I always loved the sound of clear, high male voices, be they counter-tenor or tenor, and being able to sing the tenor part was just so great. This was our performance of You Are the New Day: (I'm the really short one sandwiched between two really tall people... Lol!)



Anyway, so back to Lullabye. I remember absolutely loving the song from the very first time I heard it in Vintage. I didn't realize until afterwards, when I started looking up videos of the song, that I actually had heard it before then, only a short time beforehand, sung by Joshua Madine in Libera.



I realized today that I haven't talked about Libera on my blog yet. Which is practically... sacrilege! Lol. Just kidding. But honestly, I really love the sound of treble voices. (To those who don't know, a treble singer is a boy soprano.) My favorite has got to be Libera, a boy's choir from South London. They do contemporary arrangements of both choir songs and popular music. They've even done the occasional classical music piece. Here's a showcase of some of my favorite work from them:

Sanctus: Set to Pachelbel's Canon in D. This is one of my favorite versions from them, with Tom Cully on the high note solos, and I prefer this ending to some of the other ones.



Salva Me: Ohmigod, Joe Snelling! It's such a shame he didn't stay with the group longer, but at least we have these: a testament to his gorgeous, clear high soprano!



How Can I Keep from Singing: Liam O'Kane, one of the original soloists, back when Libera was known as Angel Voices. Another soft, high tone that is so pure and clear. It's just beautiful. This video doesn't embed, so you can watch it here: Click!

You Were There: Tom Cully's beautiful voice, just a little lower than usual, since this was at the end of his time with Libera. Still, it's so beautiful. This is the song that I ended up singing over and over to comfort myself after my Grandpa passed away last January.



And finally, the song that started it all. This was the very first I ever saw of Libera, on a PBS broadcast - one of those specials where they ask you to donate. I think I was only like... 15 or so at the time, so obviously I couldn't buy it, but the style and the sound stuck with me all those years until I found them again.

Stay With Me: Ed Day's gorgeous soft high tone, and Liam O'Connery's incredible soprano riffs!

Electricity!

Billy Elliot is amazing. I really want to go see it. It's probably one of my longer-lasting obsessions that has something to do with Musical Theatre. (Other ones include Wicked, RENT, and West Side Story.) I know I already talked about the amazing Liam Mower in a previous post, but I'm not even kidding - every time I watch Electricity, I get chills. It doesn't matter if the boy (or boys, as the case may be) playing Billy are from the West End, Australia, the U.S., or even Korea, the same chills rush up and down my spine. It's a combination of the message of the song, the surge in the music when the dancing begins, the ridiculously amazing spin at the end, and the fact that all this acting, singing, and dancing is being performed by a boy who is around 10 to 14 years old.

This post is mainly a showcase for some of the amazing performances I've come across in the past several months while dying to see the show live. First, once again, Liam Mower, original West End Billy, performing Electricity.



I think this performance is probably stronger than the one I showed previously, for several reasons. First, Liam's a little older, a bit more comfortable in the role and the dancing and performing live. I think I read somewhere that the one I showed before (where he missed his singing cue) was at the very beginning of live performances to promote the show, so he was quite nervous. I this one, he's settled into the character better, and he is more relaxed, so his lines are crisper and more defined. I also really enjoy the performance from the dad in this one - the emotions on his face absolutely make Liam's passion show more.

Next up is the three original Broadway Billy Elliots: Kiril Kulish, David Alvarez, and Trent Kowalik, performing Electricity with Elton John at the Broadway Launch event.



These three boys are amazing, and each has his own style and strengths. I really enjoy Kiril because he is a solid, all-around performer. He can sing, dance, and hold his own in the acting. David, I really enjoy watching because he is such a graceful dancer. His lines and his turns in his ballet are absolutely gorgeous - and little details, like the extensions of his hands and fingers - simply breathtaking. Trent is the tapper. He had already trained in Irish step dancing beforehand, so his Angry Dance is just... so powerful. It also really helps that his cries define and punctuate beats in his performance. This is his performance at the 2009 Tony Awards.

Next up is Leon Cooke, also from the West End, in his performance in the TV show, Anything Will Do, which I probably will talk about at some point, because this series is also incredible. He's a little older than most Billys, so his voice is a bit low, and he's quite a bit taller than most Billys. However, his lines are incredible, and that spin at the end is just great. I think he got to 19, which is quite a few turns compared to most performances I've seen on YouTube.



And this is David Bologna, who is absolutely hysterical as Michael, Billy's friend. He has such great personality and energy, and from the interviews I've seen of him, he seems like a really great kid. These are highlights of his performance of the song Expressing Yourself, opposite David Alvarez's Billy. It's a hoot!



Now, we've come to the section which explains my inspiration for this post: the Korean Billys. First off, I get ridiculously happy when I see Asian Billys. It might have something to do with being Filipino, but who knows? xP Anyway, I remember when I saw that J.P. Viernes was a Billy Elliot, I was seriously spazzing. (Not even kidding, I was like, "Oh my God! There's a Filipino Billy Elliot! YUSSSS!") I wish I could have gone to see him. He was in the touring cast when they came to San Fran last year, but I didn't get to go. I wish watching shows wasn't so expensive, or they all had a $20 lottery for the front rows like I hear RENT used to have.

But anyway, I stumbled across the Korean Billy Elliots while surfing through a bajillion YouTube videos, and they may just be some of my favorites. First up is Ji-myung Lee, who has one of the most heartfelt performances of Electricity that I've ever had the pleasure to watch. He dances the "street" version of the dance, which incorporates more hip-hop inspired moves and gymnastics for those Billys who are perhaps not as experienced with ballet.



His voice is so good, and I can just feel the emotion pouring out from him, even though the tiny little stage makes it quite difficult to do full choreography. He has one of the best voices of all the Billys I've seen. It doesn't even matter that it's not in English. In fact, I think it adds to the story's impact - it truly is a show for all cultures.

And finally, this is Jung Jin Ho, who gives what is possibly the strongest dancing performance of Electricity I've ever seen. His lines and extensions are just... about as close to perfection as you can get in a young boy, or perhaps in anybody. I really don't know - I'm not a dancer. I just love to watch people who can dance.. He is also an incredibly strong singer, and while I may appreciate the emotion of Ji-myung Lee's Billy a bit more, the fact that he has such a strong voice and the a combined version of ballet and "street" for this song makes him one of my favorite Billys of all time.



Seriously! It's like 29 turns at the end!!!! It's amazing! So, on that note, I will conclude my day's worth of obsessing over Billy Elliot. Until next time, then!

The Gavilan Press on Cabaret-TADA!

I haven't written about it before, but at school, I'm both the copy editor and the online editor for our newspaper, The Gavilan Press. While I love writing for the paper -- and I did, both this semester and last -- I really enjoyed learning the behind-the-scenes stuff that went into putting the paper online. I didn't have time to take the class with all the other students, so I took it as independent studies and spent a fair few of my Fridays working with our adviser, Jan Janes, on getting the brand-new website up and running. A lot of this involves me being all techie and detail-oriented, which I personally love and which suits me just perfectly.

The article that I'm linking now was written by Allie Sordello, one of my classmates this semester, and was originally printed on Monday, February 27, 2012 in Spring Volume 49, Issue 5 of The Gavilan Press.

It technically went live just this month, but since we're scheduling articles to appear a week after they are published as newspaper, it says that it went up on March 5th, instead.

The article covers a little of the behind-the-scenes work for Cabaret. The picture is actually of the cast (I'm in the red) and our director, Maria Candelaria-Bagula (front and center, facing us) working on our final number for the show: Seasons of Love, from RENT. I really loved this number because (1) Dymond and I suggested it, and (2) I got the high riffing solo at the end, which involves hitting a C#6. It was awesome. ^_^

This is the link to the full article on The Gavilan Press.

Cabaret Pictures!!!

Finally got my pictures from Cabaret - TADA! They turned out pretty great, I think. ^_^

I really love these pictures of Sierra Sowders, Maria Gomez, and myself. They're from our West Side Story number, I Feel Pretty. Maria played Maria, Sierra played Rosalia, and I played Consuela. On an interesting note, I thought it was pretty cool that all of us actually would fall under the "sharks girls" categories. Maria and Sierra are both half-Latina (not sure if it was actually Mexican or something else, but still. And I'm Filipino, which got conquered at some point by the Spaniards, so it counts! I mean, my last name is Nacionales...) The first picture is just about perfect because it perfectly explains the feelings of the characters during the song.

It was actually one of the better numbers of the show, because it's a very soprano-oriented song, and all three of us have very strong head-voices. Also, I think the second picture is hilarious, because Sierra looks like she's about to kill somebody, I'm freaking out, and Maria's just off in her own little world because she's in love. It's brilliant.

This is me in my black dress. I wore this dress for the opening number, There's No Business Like Show Business! I've had this dress for what seems like forever and a half, so I'm really glad it still fits. I think the last time I wore it was for my Halloween costume a couple years ago - I was Jane, from Eclipse. The evil, sadistic child vampire played by Dakota Fanning. The one who can make people feel pain just by looking at them... o.O

And here are my pictures of me as Elphaba, from Wicked. I was SO excited to be able to sing The Wizard and I in the Cabaret, because I identify so much with Elphaba, and this song (amongst many others from the musical) was one of the things that really kept me going when I was really depressed about how my life seemed to be unfolding. It was really fun, and really funny, because you can barely see the green due to the flash from the camera. In reality, I had green matte all over my face, and a green paste that I rubbed all over my hands like lotion that took four days to wash off completely!

 

The Hokey Pokey, Shakespeare Style!

So much dancing in Shrew rehearsal today! (We're working on curtain call.) So in honor of both Shakespeare and dancing, may I present The Shakespearean Hokey-Pokey!

O proud left foot, that ventures quick withinThen soon upon a backward journey lithe.Anon, once more the gesture, then begin:Command sinistral pedestal to writhe.Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke.A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl.To spin! A wilde release from heaven's yoke.Blessed dervish! Surely canst go, girl.The Hoke, the poke -- banish now thy doubtVerily, I say, 'tis what it's all about.

Isn't it awesome? (Courtesy of HistoricalLOLS.com)

One Direction, Accents, and Electricity

Okay, so my younger cousin Vanessa's new obsession is One Direction, the boy-band from the UK. They apparently placed third in the UK version of X-Factor, and they've been touring in the US. (Her friends who were able to sign up for their school's Washington D.C./New York trip got to see them, apparently?) I listened to their songs, and I think they're not bad. I especially like their song What Makes You Beautiful.




I agree with her, they're adorable. ^_^ I also think it's kind of funny, because it absolutely invokes nostalgic memories of boy bands I grew up listening to, like N'SYNC, the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees, and so on and so forth. And, like Ness, I thought their accents were adorable, and it reminded me of Gwion from Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's TV show, I'd Do Anything. Gwion was one of the three boys who won the role of Oliver in Oliver! in London's West End, and he was Welsh and adorable. He's the blonde-haired angel with the solo in this clip:



And all the talk of accents reminded me of another musical with awesome accents, in this case, what's known as a "Geordie" accent. It sounds very Scottish, but apparently it's still another variation of the British accent. I read somewhere that it's because the people who live where the Geordie accent is most prevalent live really close to the Scottish border, so it's seeped into their accents, or something? Anyway, the show is Billy Elliot.

I'm dying to see Billy Elliot live on the stage. Ideally, I'd watch it in the West End, where getting the accent right is apparently more stressed than in the American version. On Broadway, to make it more easily understandable to the Americans' ears, they tone the accent down. I think the accent's awesome, though, and after I'd watched the movie, I ended being accidentally in an accent mode for several hours. Not quite Geordie, but definitely more British/Scottish than American.

Anyway, here's the clip I meant to show when I began typing this post: Electricity, by Liam Mower, one of the original West End Billys. He missed his cue to start singing at the very beginning, but his 17 non-stop pirouettes at the end more than make up for it:



I love this song so much because, besides being a great showcase for a boy's talents in singing, acting, and dancing, this song so perfectly explains the jolt I get from acting, and especially singing on the stage.
Electricity sparks inside of me, and I'm free, I'm free!

Popular! =D

I've been sick all day, so I'm not really up to a full post. So, to make up for it, and to showcase the tip of the iceberg for my Cheno obsession/awe, here's a clip of "Popular" from Wicked.

Pie Jesu, Water Night, and Sleep

I miss Vintage Singers. I admit it. As much as I love being in a college that has an actual theatre program, I so miss singing with the choir. If only De Anza had had a theatre program or Gavilan had an advanced choir. (We have a choir, but while it's good, it's made up of mostly seniors and is not nearly as awesome as Vintage.)

It's actually funny, how I ended up in Vintage. I was in my second year of college at De Anza, and fall quarter was ending. I had recently become reacquainted with choir music, especially choir boys and the South London boys' choir, Libera.

I had stumbled across a show on YouTube called I'd Do Anything, which originally premiered in the UK and was later shown on the BBC in the USA. The show was a talent show designed to scout out the West End's newest stars: Nancy and Oliver for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's new revival of the musical Oliver!

While the actual voting competition was only for the Nancy actresses, a group of 12 boys were also being looked at as potential Olivers. After a great deal of whittling down, three boys would eventually be chosen from this group to share the role on London's West End. Each time a boy was selected to move forward, he would show off his musical prowess with a song, and one of these boys, Chester, I believe, sang Pie Jesu, a beautiful soprano piece that simply floats through the air.



When I saw that video, needless to say, I was very impressed, and quickly learned the song and began singing it pretty much everywhere I went. Toward the very end of the fall 2010 quarter, I had it down fairly well. I was on my way home, walking through what I would later know to be the arts quad, and singing this song, not paying attention to how loudly I was singing.

All of a sudden, from behind a car parked near the building, a tall man with a full brown beard popped his head out from behind one of the doors and said, "Was that you singing Pie Jesu in the quad?"

Properly abashed, I ducked my head in a slight nod and said, "Yeah?" rather embarrassed, because my mother was always telling me not to sing in public because it was "embarrassing" and by singing in the quad, I was directly disobeying orders.

Instead of chastising me, however, he said, "You hit a high C. That's Soprano 1 range. If you want to join a good choir, you should come join Vintage Singers."

Now, I hadn't really been in choir before that (I'd sung one song with the choir club in high school, but that hardly counted) but I figured I'd give it a go. I signed up for Vintage the next quarter, and even though I hadn't realized it was an entrance-by-audition choir, I made it. I quickly found out that the bearded man who'd invited me was in fact Dr. Ilan Glasman, the choir's director.

I remember that during our first section rehearsals, Katie, one of the girls in the choir asked, "So, everyone's been in choir before, right?" and I was the only one really shaking my head. I laugh at the memory now because she was so surprised, and she was like, "You've never been in choir? How the heck did you even find out about Vintage?" and then the whole "singing in the quad" story came out.

Anyway, I had the absolute best time in that choir, surrounded by music nerds (De Anza has a music program, so a lot of the people in advanced choir -amazingly- know what they're talking about.) It was a great experience, and I learned so much in the two short quarters I spent with them.

My memories concerning Vintage came to the forefront of my mind today because today in my "subscriber uploads" list on YouTube, this video was at the very top:



I first learned about Whitacre through Vintage Singers, where in my first quarter, the theme of the concert was "Music of the Night". No, not Phantom of the Opera, but songs related to music. One of these songs was Eric Whitacre's Sleep,  a gorgeous little piece with amazing dynamics and those wonderful clashing chords he's so well known for. My friend Stephanie, knowing of my interest, directed me toward a video she thought would interest me: Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir's performance of "Sleep". It was breathtaking, and of course I immediately subscribed to that channel.

Here's the video of that particular performance. It still gives me chills every time. The dynamics are just lovely, and it really brings out those clashing chords. Enjoy!

Advice to myself at 17

My best friend asked me for advice on choosing her major. This is what came out. Then I realized it's probably the best advice I've ever given. I wish I'd known this a couple of years ago when I was 17 and starting college and torn about what to do with myself...

"From experience, the only advice I feel comfortable giving at present is that if you know it's not for you, don't do it. Don't do it to please your parents, or your family, or peers. Don't do it for the bragging rights. Just do it because you know that's what's going to make you happy for the rest of your life. Because you can't put a price tag on that."

It took me literally 2 minutes to come up with that, and as soon as I typed it out, I knew it was right. Being on the stage is not just a past-time for me. It's not something I want to do here and there. It's something I do all the time, every waking minute of the day. I get a rush from performing like nothing else gives me. Words seem inadequate beside the multitude of feelings I experience whenever I sing and act, and I know nothing could possibly replace it.

Paloma Garcia-Lee

Not too much is happening right now... Just the normal "I'm going insane! Why did I decide to be a theatre major again? Oh yeah, because I love it." That type of stuff. You know... We ran the last three scenes of "Shrew" today, our Tranio is back after an extended bout of Bronchitis (eugh!), and I'm working on memorizing everything... On the upside, here's Paloma Garcia-Lee to tide us all over. She's so gorgeous, and I am so jealous... I always wish I was a better dancer...

May the odds be ever in your favor!

I know this isn't exactly theatre-related, but hey, I do enjoy watching films too, sometimes. Like today. (Or yesterday, if I don't get this post typed up quickly...) As of 11:45 pm, I've only just got home from watching The Hunger Games, and I have to say I really enjoyed it.

In addition to being pretty much the only theatre geek in the family, (and I use that term very loosely, because I know there are much worse cases than myself out there,) I am also one of the more avid readers. I've been hooked on reading probably since I was three or so, but I know my parents had been reading to me since I was a baby. (And now, it is I who reads to them. I'm seriously my mom's audio book.)

Because I read a lot, I like seeing how books get adapted to the screen (and occasionally the stage, but that doesn't seem to happen nearly as often). My opinions on these adaptations vary, and I've noticed that I'll generally be more forgiving of changes between book and screen if I watch the film before reading the book. For example, I really enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha, which I didn't read before watching; however I detested the movie Angels & Demons, which was actually my favorite book of the Robert Langdon series. Sometimes I'll watch the movies first and prefer them to the books, as in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and others times I will watch the movie and after reading the book, feel that the book was so good that the film pales in comparison, even if I initially liked it (i.e. The Time Traveler's Wife). Sometimes the books and movies have drastic differences, but I feel that they're ok, such as My Sister's Keeper, and other times I'll be really annoyed with the changes (Harry and Ginny's romance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). And sometimes, the changes between book and screen are so minute or the movie so well reflects how I feel about the book that I barely notice that there were changes at all, such as in The Five People You Meet in Heaven.

Such was the case with The Hunger Games. The film adaptation stayed very true to the book, and although there were a couple of changes, I felt that the essence remained the close enough that I quite enjoyed it. For example, the first "Oh, that's different!" moment I had while watching the film was how Katniss received the Mockingjay pin. In the book, it's from her friend Madge, the mayor's daughter, and its importance is played down at first only to be brought up again and again in the following books. In the film, Katniss receives the pin from one of the old lady sellers (I guessed Greasy Sae) while trading goods in the Hob, gives it to Prim "to protect her from anything bad," and then receives it back again when Prim and her mother visit her after the Reaping. After that, you see it once before the Games begin (Cinna apparently sneaks it into her clothing) and then it's never mentioned again.

The other major change I saw between book and film was the inclusion of the outside world in the film. In the book, the narrative is in first person, so we the readers only get to experience what Katniss sees, hears, and does. In the film, the audience also gets to see the "behind-the-scenes" work that goes into the Games, specifically how the Game Maker has the power to influence the arena. I think the film uses the deviation very effectively, using it to explain new concepts, add tension, and get us out of being only in Katniss's mind.

Even with these changes, though, I thought it was a very faithful adaptation, and although they had to omit many of the finer details that we learn in the book, I felt that the essence of the book was preserved. I would probably go watch it again in theatres if movie tickets didn't cost so dang much. I personally would've liked to see a bit more of Rue, since she was actually my favorite minor character in the book, but what they did include was enough to satisfy me, for the most part. I should also mention that that part of the film did make me cry, which is not the most common of occurrences for me. (Not saying I don't cry at movies, just that I rarely ever get past the point of teary-eyed-ness and make it to actual teardrops.)

For some reason, it won't let me embed the trailer, so here's a link to the YouTube page of the official theatrical trailer: The Hunger Games. Until next time, may the odds be ever in your favor!

Thursdays are Busy...

Today is a Thursday. That means basically my schedule went something along the lines of:

7:30 am - Wake Up, Take Shower
8:00 am - Leave House, Drop off cousin at school, Drop off AAA bill, go to school
9:00 am - Arrive at school, Go to Student Center, Eat breakfast
10:00 am - Cup Stack, Play Piano, Sing, Cube
11:20 am - Arrive in TV / Film Acting class, shoot generic monologues
12:40 pm - TV/Film over, Walk to Theatre Acting class
1:00 pm - Pick new monologue, Cold Reading, Perform Physicality of Monologue
3:00 pm - Theatre Acting over, walk to Student Center, Buy / Eat Lunch
3:50 pm - Sing 4 chords with Sierra
4:00 pm - Walk to Theatre History class in Music Hall
5:20 pm - Theatre History over, walk to Theatre, Surf Net in Green Room
6:00 pm - First Costume Fitting for Shrew
6:30 pm - Run "Play-Within-Play" 2x, Run final scene 1x
7:00 pm - Run Act 2 from beginning, Realize have 90% of Act 2 lines memorized
8:30 pm - Dr. John Gives Notes
9:00 pm - Go home with Maria
9:15 pm - Arrive Home, Eat Dinner, Watch latest elimination on American Idol w/ Mom
11:00 pm - Go upstairs to bed (and blog for at least an hour)

Yes, that's four classes in one day. Yes, I'm insane. I'm a theatre major, I have to be insane. Lol.

So needless to say, I had a very busy day, and a lot happened. The original title for this blog post was going to be "Monologues, Costume Fittings, and Memorization" so in that order:

1. Monologues

In Julie James' theatre acting class, we've begun working on monologues; always a good thing. One can never have enough of those under one's belt. The last time I auditioned with a monologue was for Taming of the Shrew, and I used Jane Eyre's rebuttal to Rochester's proposal for my audition. Dr. John's initial reaction to it was that it was, "a very intelligent reading", so needless to say, that pleased me. I'd actually picked that one myself, and prepared it last semester for my TV/Film Acting class. I liked my performance much better on the stage. Anyway, so to contrast with my Jane Eyre piece, which is a Dramatic Classical piece, I asked Julie if she would help me find a Comedic Contemporary to contrast with it.

She actually did look for me, and on Tuesday suggested a rather funny piece by a character called "Zatz" from a play I'm unfamiliar with. It was funny, but it didn't seem quite right, and K.C. is going to use it, so I kept looking. (Not to mention it's really long... like 3 pages long... like 10 minutes long. K.C.'s going to cut a lot of it, she said.) So I kept looking, and found one I really liked, from a play called, "Tomorrow's Wish" by Wade Bradford. [Click here to see the monologue.] I liked it a lot, and actually, I did a cold reading of it on Tuesday and had a pretty good reaction.

But then I found this... [Click here to see the monologue.] To avoid giving away the shock value if you don't want spoilers, I'll just call it the "Jenni" monologue. I read it and got this amazing reaction from the class. They couldn't stop laughing. Actually, even I had a lot of difficulty keeping a straight face, which is necessary for this monologue. I did it later for my mom, and she said she thought it was "cute," which I think is a good comment from her, but I'm not entirely sure because the monologue isn't really supposed to be "cute".

2. Costume Fittings

We had fittings for Shrew today. I play Grumio, so I'm one of I think three girls playing guys in this show. (The others are Talia playing Gremio - have fun not mixing up our names - and Peanut playing Christophero Shrewd in the play-within-a-play bit we've incorporated into Lucentio and Bianca's wedding reception.)

To sum it up, this is what I posted on my facebook when I got online:

Costume fittings today... Went something along the lines of:
1. Walk in, introductions. Get handed a shirt and "hoe-melons" (or something like that... that's what it sounded like Dr. John said, anyway...)
2. Shirt is a wee bit small, shorts (the HMs) are a bit large.
3. Shorts pinned. Try on new shirt, HUMONGOUS...
4. Try on old shirt, short in the arms, very short in the length, shows curves.
5. Try on new shirt, still wee bit big, but sleeves rolled up works.
6. Try on 3 different vests, biggest one sort of fits, curves still showing. Roxy decides doublet will be created for me.
7. Am told will be wearing my "Elphie-boots" and a funny cap w/feather...
RESULTS: Apparently there will be two men in this play wearing tights. One of them is me. xP

 It's going to be awesome! =D (Oh, and the "Elphie-boots" referred to are the pair of boots I own that I also used when I sang "The Wizard and I" as Elphaba in the Cabaret.)

3. Memorization

And finally, (YAY!) memorization. I have so much to memorize in the upcoming two weeks: We're running the second half of Act 1 of Shrew on Monday, off book, I have to memorize my part in an extra-credit sitcom I'm participating in for Teresa Widdowson's TV Production class, a scene for Julie's TV/Film Class, my monologue for Theatre Acting class, and Act 2 by what sounded like Wednesday or Thursday next week... EEK!

On the upside, I decided to try Act 2 off-book today when we ran it, and I did pretty well, actually. I only hesitated twice, and when I checked off of Spencer's script to see what my lines were, I found I'd actually been correct in what lines I thought were next. So on the upside, hooray! for 90% memorization of my lines, and it's still a month 'til performances. I'm so excited. =D

Movie Night for "Shrew" (ACT 1976)

Tonight, Dr. John had a meeting, (he's the president of the academic senate or something of the sort, very important stuff, of course. hehe...) so the cast of Gavilan's The Taming of the Shrew got a movie night. Woot!

We watched the American Conservatory Theatre's (ACT) 1976 version of The Taming of the Shrew which utilizes the Commedia dell'arte humor that we are incorporating into our adaptation. I loved the wit of the Shakespeare that they did keep, (because, being filmed for TV, it had to be shortened to 2 hours long) especially for Kate and Petruchio. Marc Singer and Fredi Olster are absolutely hilarious as the leads, and play off each other very nicely. The physicality of their roles is very impressive. I will say, though, that I probably more enjoy the acting and chemistry of our production because we allow Mike and Katie the time to process the words and bring out the innuendo and hidden meanings, whereas Singer and Olster are speaking at breakneck pace the entire time.

The absolute hysteria of the slapstick that Commedia brought to the production was beyond awesome; we were howling in our seats with it as we compared our own roles to those as played in this adaptation. I especially enjoyed all the servants tumbling about: Grumio and Biondello, especially. I'm really looking forward to incorporating some of that slapstick into my Grumio; here's hoping I get to add a bit more, now that Dr. John is letting me keep the tumble during the "beef and mustard" scene. I will say that I'm really glad Mr. Randall let me keep a lot of great Grumio/Petruchio, Grumio/Kate and Grumo/Tailor lines that ACT ended up cutting out of their show.

Anyway, I know this post was a wee bit on the shorter side, but that's because I've got a bit of a headache from sleeping only about 4 hours last night (that time change has really thrown me and my schedule for a loop). I will leave you with an awesome clip from ACT's production, though. Here is Marc Singer and Fredi Olster as Petruchio and Katherina at their first meeting. Enjoy!

Act 2 of Shrew: Blocking, Stumbling, and Falling

Because this is only post #2 in the blog, I probably should give a (very) little bit of back story before launching right into it. I'm a theatre major (because my current college doesn't have a musical theatre category) and one of the requirements of being a theatre major is participating in a class called "Actor's Workshop" aka. the show that gets performed at the end of the semester. Our spring show is "Taming of the Shrew" by a certain William Shakespeare, and it's been adapted (to make it more modern) for our class by Randall Stuart, who is a close friend of Dr. John, our director / professor. // End of back story.

Okay, so today we began blocking for Act 2 (our adaptation only has 2 acts, rather than Shakespeare's standard 5). For us, act 1 ends on Petruchio's incredible monologue about how he will "kill his wife [Kate] with kindness" by denying her food and sleep on their wedding night. Act 2 opens with Grumio (that's me) torturing poor Kate by teasing her with an offer of beef and mustard, which is quickly withdrawn.

It's a lot of fun, and I love that I get to come out with a somersault. Initially Dr. John had just said, "Come out yelling, and then I want you to trip and stumble and fall over. To that I replied, "Like a stumble like this... [insert trip forward with arms spread wide] or a stumble like this?" And then I did a no-hands somersault over one shoulder. It was hilarious because when I looked up, he had this awesome grin and said, "Oh, I didn't know you could do that!" So I get to do the awesomesauce flip in the show which looks and sounds very painful but really isn't. Hehe. It's not painful for me because (1) I'm young. I don't feel it... yet... (2) I taught myself how to do no-hands somersaults in elementary school, and (3) I took Tae Kwon Do and Kuk Sul Do for a few months each in middle school and they taught us how to fall and roll. It came in very handy last week when we did stage combat in "Fundamentals of Theatre Acting" aka Theatre Acting. Did I mention "the fall" is my favorite. I always like being on the receiving end of the stage combat stuff. It's so much more fun, in my opinion.

Speaking of falling, though, I had several in class today that were NOT on purpose. When we ran through the opening of Act 2 for the first time, we hadn't yet added me standing up on the line, "Why then, the mustard without the beef," so when Katie (who plays Kate... go figure) chased me, I had to scramble to stand up and I kept dropping my script and my beanie and tripping over my own feet. The second time through, I did stand up, but when I was backing up from her railing at me, I tripped backwards and landed on my back. Lucky for  me, the stage combat falling stuff came in handy, so it didn't hurt, and my friend Ignacio (who plays Curtis) told me he'd thought that was on purpose and that it was just a stage fall.

After running through the beginning of that scene, we moved on to where Mike (our lead, Petruchio) berates and terrifies the poor tailor, who has come bringing a hat and dress for Katherina. The tailor and Grumio get into a rather heated (and silly) argument over how the dress was ordered...

TAILOR: Item: A loose-bodied gown.
GRUMIO: Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown ... beat me to death with a bobbin of brown thread. I said "gown".
TAILOR: Item: With a half-circle cape.
GRUMIO: I confess the cape.
TAILOR: With two wide sleeves.
GRUMIO: I confess two sleeves.
TAILOR: The sleeves curiously cut.
PETRUCHIO: Ay, there's the villainy.
GRUMIO: Error in the bill! Error in the bill!

And during this, I needed to stand up (I was sitting at the edge of the stage) and confront the tailor. While catching my balance from standing up, I stepped off the stage and it really threw me off balance. Luckily Mike and Jacob, (our stage manager) who was sitting just off the edge of stage right, were there and caught me quickly, so no harm, no foul, and no bones broken. Whew!

And because Mike and I are not in scene 12, we got to go home early: 8:30, instead of 9 pm. Woot!

And now, as I depart, I give you some good ol' slapstick comedy: The Three Stooges (in honor of KC, Alaric, Connor, and Andy) in their famous, "Niagara Falls" skit:

A Little Backstory...

Hi. My name is Megan, and I'm an exceptionally bad blogger.

Haha. No, but really, I've done a blog like this two times before and I had so much trouble with them, but I'd really like to get into this properly. I really enjoyed writing the posts when I was able to, though, so I figured third time's a charm.

I figured that perhaps I found it difficult those past two times because I didn't have a set schedule for blogging, or even a set theme. So this time, I'm going to attempt to have both. I'm a full-time college student who lives in a 10-person household and participates actively in the Theatre club at school, which means that in between homework, shows, and helping out with four children age 13 and under, I can barely find time to eat, let alone blog. However, I do have a decent amount of time to work on stuff each morning before classes, so I suppose now is as good a time as any to work blogging into my regular schedule.

I want to try and keep as active as possible, so I've decided that to remain so, I'm going to need to keep a posting schedule and an organized . I'm going to post at least two or three times a week with updates on my daily life in the theatre (right now, I'm playing Grumio in my college production of Taming of the Shrew, and I've just finished participating in the theatre club's Cabaret variety show). I'll also be posting pictures and videos of myself in performance, hopefully with little side stories to go along with them. And finally, I am a bit of a theatre geek, so a few times a week I'll post with interesting tidbits and videos from the world of theatre, including YouTube videos from Broadway.com, Seth Rudetsky, and lots of fun stuff from around the 'net.

And to kick us off, here's an awesome video from Seth Rudetsky, who is Obsessed! with Sierra Boggess.