In Review

I'm on a quest to find more sources of exercise.  Yoga is great, Boot Camp is a love it/hate it good hard workout, but I need more cardio!!!!!  So, I've been checking out a few gyms in the area to see which have step classes.  Most seem to only have one or two step classes a week, at an intermediate level.  There is one in North Hollywood however that describes its Step as 'Advanced' - that's my baby.  Not able to get there this week unfortunately as it's on a Saturday morning and I had my final class with Rick and Russell; the end of a tumultuous 8 weeks!  So for this class we were to present our 'signature' piece; that's a lot of pressure on a 2 to 3 page script because one feels it has to be PERFECT, it has to show the world who I am and why I'm FABULOUS, and nothing seems to quite live up to that.  I went looking for something comedic because that is one of my strengths and I've had few opportunities to demonstrate that in this class.  Midway through the week I emailed R&R for some advice.  Rick called me back and got me thinking in a different way.  He said think about what inspired me to be an actor, what films do I love?  Find something you'll really enjoy performing.  Well, I fell in love with Hitchcock films, Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, and 'Gone With the Wind'.  So I dug up the screenplay for 'Notorious', the classic 1940s B&W Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in their prime.  It's so interesting to read the script of an iconic film, one that I first saw more than 10 years ago when I paid more attention to the actors and the costumes - the images - than the script.  It's a great script; it efficiently introduces the key characters and establishes the setting all while being sharp and slyly witty.  Sometimes this seems like a lost art in modern filmmaking.  The next classic screenplay I found was 'His Girl Friday'; Cary Grant once again, this time trading fast and funny dialogue with Rosalind Russell.  Bingo.  I picked a scene, trimmed it down to a manageable 2.5 pages and changed the names.  Loved it.  Performing this on Saturday morning I was the least nervous I've been in that room for 8 weeks, and it went over really well.  Hooray! 

After class, I got chatting with one of my fellow actresses, Bruna.  She felt like seeing a film, chilling out and taking her mind off herself.  Would I like to join her?  Sounded like a great idea to me.  It was good to chat to her and realise that I wasn't the only one eaten up by nerves in some classes.  That was something I missed in this course; usually when you spend that many weeks with the same group,  you get to know everyone.  But we never played any 'getting to know you' games so there were some people whose names I was unsure of right up until the final week, and after most classes we dispersed, eager to escape the black box we'd been sitting in for 3 hours and get something to eat.  There was one week when a few people gathered together for lunch after class, but that was the week I missed due to my improv show.  As a group we never had the opportunity to let off any steam about the classes, the feedback we were receiving, how we were feeling, the chance to discover if anyone else felt the same way.  Bruna and I saw 'Nine', the latest musical directed by Rob 'Chicago' Marshall with a star-studded cast; Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren.  Gorgeously shot, a tribute to the golden age of Italian cinema, fabulous costumes, charming performances but in the end less than the sum of its parts.  It's really not that great a musical; the songs are so-so and the plot is thin.  It's a showcase for the actors, each one gets a big number - their moment in the spotlight, sexy and fabulous - but there's not much holding it all together.  Nonetheless, it was far superior entertainment than the execrable 'Twilight'.

What possessed me to rent 'Twilight'?  I didn't expect it to be very good, but I thought it would at least be amusingly bad, something to chortle at derisively.  Alas, it took itself far too seriously and was not just filled with tedious teenage stuttering and mumbling, dodgy make-up jobs and even worse acting, it was slow-moving and BORING!  I had quite enjoyed the book. Teen-angst aside, it's an action-filled page-turner written from the perspective of Bella, the heroine, who reveals herself to be wryly funny (well, for an angsty teenager); sadly missing from the film.  I couldn't watch it all the way through.  After about 45 minutes of lip-biting, grey-skinned torture I switched off.  The most interesting thing to note was the young actress currently starring opposite George Clooney in 'Up in the Air' playing a supporting role as one of Bella's schoolfriends.  She's really good in 'Up in the Air'.

Last night I went to see my friend Anthony in the final performance of an independent theatre show called 'Pandora'.  It was based on the ancient tale of Pandora and her box, which upon opening unleashes misery on the world.  The show had parallel storylines - the classic tale and a modern take on it - and was a blend of music, movement, dance, vocal landscaping and conventional dialogue scenes.  In his program notes, the director says the show "should be seen and heard - absorbed on a sensory level."  Uh-oh, what am I in for? I enjoyed the movement and dance sequences more than the vocal work and the script, which was a bit clunky and sometimes redundant because the movement and dance told the story more effectively and more vibrantly.  Also, some of the acting was pretty cringeworthy.  I have to applaud any theatre company willing to create and explore original work, but overall the show encompassed many of the cliched characteristics of 'experimental theatre' and all the jaw-grinding, sphincter-clenching trepidation that inspires.

My blog would not be complete without a cat note.  Pearl (the kitten) is expanding her range of meows, she gives quite the tour-de-force performance each night from mournful cries through angry growls, hopeful trills and soul-searching mews.  Sometimes Pilot climbs the stairs and joins in.  Or perhaps he's just voicing my own thoughts; shut the f*%k up!