Skip to main content

goodbye, otis nikels, man of mystery. hello, carmine "snaps" scardino

    It's clowning time!

    I was looking forward to this unit because creating a character through physicality and movement has always intrigued me. I think of performers like Toni Collette or Meryl Streep where they just inhabit their characters in such a truthful and physical place. Their characters walk and move around differently and you can see the difference. I've always been interested by how that works and how your physicality can affect your acting or what you're doing, so I was looking forward to trying it out.

    However.

    Hehehe.

    I got. So. Uncomfortable doing the poses and little vignettes in class on Tuesday. I want to make the distinction that it wasn't a bad uncomfortable. It was a, "I am in new territory and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing and that makes me uncomfy" territory. Not, "I am in physical danger and pain and need to stop" uncomfy. I was fine, I just was struggle bussing with it all mentally and emotionally.

    In coming up with poses, I felt like I had to come up with the absolute bestest most incredible poses ever and I was pulling complete blanks. I don't know how to use my body and create from a blank slate. If someone gives me something or some sort of choreography to do, I will do my darndest to replicate that. But creating something movement related from scratch on my own? Scary. So I was struggling with that and what I was doing didn't feel like it was in line with what I had created for the character. The poses I were doing were feeling too cartoony for what I had created for Otis and weren't conveying the sexiness or broodiness I was feeling with the face. 

    And then on top of all of that, not being able to see very well? That really weirded me out and messed with my brain. I couldn't see how my classmates were reacting to my poses. I mean I could hear them, but not seeing them really just threw me off. And then the fact that I couldn't see what my partners were doing in our little vignette also made me feel frustrated. Since I couldn't see what they were doing, I felt like I wasn't able to play off of them and add to the scene. So yeah. Overall, it was just. A weird day for me BUT! I learned a few important things:

    A) I rely on sight a LOT. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I also have other senses like hearing and touch and so on to gather info on and learn from. 

    B) I need to trust my body even though I can't see it. I was fighting myself a lot while I had my mask on and I could feel it being manifested in forced or un-true poses.

    C) When you can't control circumstances, just give in and play. It'll be better and more enjoyable :)

    

    So with all this, I decided Otis needed a lil revamp. He wasn't fitting with what I thought of the mask or what I was feeling the day I chose the face. So. Otis Nickels is now a mobster/gangster in Chicago in the 1940's. And Otis... the name isn't sticking too well for me, so as of now, I'm changing his name to Carmine "Snaps" Scardino. I've shifted my character into this new spot and I've found some costume pieces that help me feel settled in this man's world.

    I definitely felt better about what I did on Wednesday after this revamp. I think there's still some fear and uncertainty playing into what I'm doing, but I'm in a better spot than I was on Monday, and for that, I'm grateful. Going forward this week, I want to give in a little more and just have fun.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

symbiosis? i haven't heard that name in years

    Okey dokey artichokey. Symbiosis. Yes. Cause I definitely know what that word means... This is one of those words that I can vaguely recall learning about in a middle school science class, but the word itself is. Forgotten. Lost knowledge. My own personal, burnt, destroyed Library of Alexandria.       So before I looked up the definition on Google, the first thing I was thinking of was two organisms living together in some way. I was initially thinking it was one of those relationships where one party benefits, and the other neither benefits nor is harmed in the relationship. But after looking it up, symbiosis is, " interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both." or, " a mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups." Coolio. That's what Google has to say about the definition, but what are my thoughts on it?     When I think of symbiosis, I think of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

they see me rollin'

We are moving and rolling! I was not anticipating the soreness I am feeling from doing somersaults, but lo and behold, I am sore. Specifically, my lower back is sore. I don't know what I was thinking or expecting, but I really wasn't expecting soreness lol.  I am having a lot of fun with the things we're doing though. I've never done any dance classes or anything with the body, but I do enjoy moving my body. Whenever I've been in a show, I've always enjoyed learning and doing choreography, I enjoy running and other various activities that push the body, etc. Doing light tumbling has been really exciting for me. There have definitely been moments of fear or hesitation, but it's mostly excitement. Nervousness and excitement are just the same emotion though, just perceived differently given your perspective and circumstance. Trying out the dive rolls yesterday was super fun for me. There are obviously lots of things to fix on it, but I think I'm headed in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

community (not the show)

  So. Contact improv. Visually, to me, contact improv is all about the movement of the body in tandem with the movement of somebody else. You feed and go off of each other's touch and movement and create from there without words. Only your bodies. Oo. Sounds kinda saucy. ANYWAYS. Watching a few other videos, contact improv is obviously about more than just moving with somebody else and making stuff up. After watching several videos, I feel like a big part of contact improv is community. A lot of examples I saw online showed large groups of people doing contact improv together, even if they were still in duos, and several videos showed the people practicing, showed them hanging out, eating together, etc. These people are finding connection with others without speech, they are just fully experiencing each other in the moment and pushing and pulling with them like the moon. They are connected to each other and create something together. It is unique to the individuals, and unique to t...
Post a Comment
Read more