#thestudyofdrama

[thestudyofdrama]

Top Seven: Websites

I’ve scoured the internet high and low for some fantastic websites you can spend time on, without feeling like you are missing out on theater stuff during the pandemic.

1. For Podcasts...Broadway Podcast Network

So. Many. Podcasts! That focus specifically on theater, Broadway, and the West End! Did you know that Tim Rice, Donna McKechnie, and Kerry Butler all have podcasts? Listen to them here, along with podcasts on backstage happenings, show-based series, and even some Dungeons and Dragons played by thespians!

2. For Streaming Shakespeare...Globe Player

I am personally having a war with myself to switch from Netflix and Hulu over to subscribing to the Globe’s streaming service. Not only do they have shows in English, but in performed in other languages too! Lithuanian productions of Hamlet with subtitles, a South Korean production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and one of my favorites, Twelfth Night with Stephen Fry as Malvolio and Mark Rylance as Olivia!

3. For Book Box Subscriptions...Dramatists Play Service Book Club

I, again, personally have not used this service. It’s a quarterly (and somewhat pricey) book subscription box, at $34.99 for a box of  seven plays delivered four times a year. I’m not someone who has book box subscriptions, but if I ever become one, it would absolutely be this one.

4. For Brushing Up on Your Shakespeare (Scansion)...Precanned Shakespeare

Are you performing Shakespeare soon and haven’t the faintest idea on how to score your lines? Thank goodness for Precanned Shakespeare! This site, presents each play and sonnet by Shakespeare with each line of verse scanned with syllable notes, indicating where the emphasis in lines and words belongs.

5. For Reading Plays Online...Scribd

If you subscribe to any reading-focused website, it should be Scribd. There are so many nonfiction, fiction, and audiobooks here for your enjoyment. Know what else they have, at the price of $9.99 month for access to everything? Hundreds of plays and musical theater books.

6. For Finding DVDs and CDs of International Shows...eBay

I’ve found a million different cast albums for Wicked, Elisabeth, Tanz der Vampire, and more, that you can’t find on Amazon. There is far more memorabilia from various productions than on Amazon.

7. For Finding DVDs and CDs and Sheet Music and More of International Shows...Sound of Music-Shop

Goodness I love this website. I can’t find sheet music for Die Päpstin anywhere else but here! You can use their advance search to filter shows by country, which streamlines your quest for more international musicals even quicker!

[thestudyofdrama]

Clothes All Thespians Should Own

1) An all-black outfit: Black shirt, black pants, black socks, black shoes. Long, short sleeve, and tank top. This is number one on this list, because it’s the thing you will need most often, no doubt.

2) Character shoes.

3) Ballet shoes (for dance class), tap shoes (if in tap class or in a tap show)

4) Hair ties and hair clips for people with long hair

5) Your show/company/school will either give you a show shirt, or request that you pay around $20ish to order it in. In my experience it hasn’t been a requirement, but I like to have a collection of show shirts nonetheless

6) Comfortable undergarments. Unless you are doing a period piece in which you are wearing period accurate underthings that will be shown, comfortable undergarments are an absolute must. You are moving around on a hot stage for usually two hours at least, sometimes more, sometimes less. The last thing you want is to be taken out of character because your underthings are making you uncomfortable.

This last one is a tip: Be aware that some shows will ask you to bring in your own clothes to wear as a costume, and that you will be leaving those clothes in the dressing room, and that they will need to be laundered, and that you will need to wear other street clothes to rehearsal if you are changing into the other outfit.

[thestudyofdrama]

Acting Masterclasses on Youtube

Michael Caine Teaches Acting in Film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZPLVDwEr7Y

Ian McKellen: Acting Shakespeare (one man show/masterclass) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6eztyfrWo8&t=523s

Uta Hagen’s Acting Class Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SseJhOPV9nY

Uta Hagen Acting Class Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfeAcUyZk0I

[thestudyofdrama]

Character Analysis Worksheets for Actors

Character Analysis Worksheet https://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0111/8928/CHARACTER_ANALYSIS_WORKSHEET.pdf

Character and Role Analysis Questions https://www.deceptionary.com/ftp/CharacterAnalysis.pdf

*will reblog or edit with more later

[thestudyofdrama]

Skills I’d Like to Have

Polyglot: I’d like to speak several languages. Specifically, at minimum, Spanish, French, German, and Dutch. There are others, but I’d like to be completely fluent in those four. Why? There are a ton of plays and musicals I love in those languages that I would love to direct or act in.

Dance: I love musical theater, and I love dancing, but I have two left feet! I’m aiming to take more dance classes in the future.

Athletic ability: I’m a total klutz, but if I can lift a bit more or a run a bit faster or be able to swim, there are more roles and possibilities open to me.

Piano/guitar/harmonica/instrument playing: There are so many roles that either include or are improved by the actor being a proficient musician. Currently, I play piano, I’m working on acoustic guitar, and I’m about to start electric guitar, but I’m aiming to get a harp next year or in 2022 and take lessons.

Baton twirling: Because it’s fun, that’s why!

Whistle with my fingers: So I can hail a cab in the Big Apple!

Moonwalking: So I can show off at parties!

Juggle” Party trick!

Tie a tie: Because I want to wear tuxedos and look hella dapper!

Say the alphabet backwards: Tongue twister for vocal warm ups!

Stage combat: So I can be in ALL the Shakespeare! I want to be Mercutio! I want to be Hamlet! I want to be a sword wielding Beatrice!

Morse Code: I don’t know, it just seems like a cool thing to know and put on a resume!

Start a fire with tinder and kindling: In case I’m ever in a survival movie!

Knitting: It’s cute stage business!

Swimming: So I can be prepared in case I decide to work as a professional mermaid

[thestudyofdrama]

Books You Should Prob Get If You Are  Theater Major (to buy)

-Collection of Shakespeare (preferably annotated with modern english translations)

-Collection of Greek plays (also annotated possibly)

-Whichever anthology your intro classes require. I normally just interlibrary loan all my textbooks but I PROMISE you that almost every class up until your senior year, you WILL be using the same anthology

-An Actor Prepares by Constantin Stanislavski

[thestudyofdrama]

So, I’ll be 26 this winter. I’ve been trying to get my undergrad degree since 2013. So far that’s seven years. It’ll be another 2 or 3 before I have enough money to return to school to get my Bachelor’s.

I want all of you to know, specifically all of you who are studying to be actors or trying to make a career in acting: It’s okay to take a break and do other things for a while.

The industry and the people who run it can really suck sometimes. I’ve struggled for a long time with the fact that I will not be a bright eyed teen or youth when I finally graduate and get to start my post-educational professional career. It happens sometimes. No matter your journey to having an acting career, your journey is your own.

I’ve had and will have careers in fields other than acting before I get to be an actor. Right now, I’m working in a museum, for an indie film company, and a full time job in retail, in order to gain some kind of nonprofit experience (the first two) and to have a steady source of income (the third).

Being an actor and trying to have an acting career these days is not easy. The pressure to look a certain way is immense, and sometimes you drop an incredible amount of money to try to achieve The Look or get The Education or The Social Media Following or The Brand to catch casting’s attention. And that sucks, because actors have, for the most part, always been working class workers. It angers me to no end the amount of money it seems like you have to pour into acting to see even a tiny bit of output - headshots, reels, clothing, makeup, health, living in a big city, etc.

Despite all this, I still have optimism and hope and faith in my abilities. I know that I’m good, castable, a hard worker, someone who can take direction, works well with my cast and crew, and studies like none other. So even if the journey to get to my intended career as an actor takes a bit longer, I know I’ll get there.

[thestudyofdrama]

Send me asks/reblog this post with what you wish you had learned more about in your theater classes and I will add resources for those in my coming masterposts. Right now, I have about 109 drafts to finish with links to international musicals, sites where you can view shows, info about performers I wish people knew about, links to theater company audition sites, and more. What do you want to see more of?

I’m a pretty good researcher, so I can probably find resources on stuff you’d like to see/learn about.

[thestudyofdrama]

Hi thespians!

I have a ton of posts in my drafts, but the hiatus is still ongoing as I figure out some stuff going on in my life. Will keep you posted, but hopefully will get this blog going during the academic year!!

[thestudyofdrama]

Summer 2020 Goals

Professional

Get a full time job.

Get a part time job.

Complete my internship.

Submit 5 grant applications for my grant writing job.

Academic

Apply to 10 scholarships.

Financial

Pay off my library fines.

Pay off my community college fees.

Pay off $3000 of the money I owe my current school.

[thestudyofdrama]

Acting is half shame, half glory. Shame at exhibiting yourself, glory when you can forget yourself.

John Gielgud

[thestudyofdrama]

21st Century Play Recommendations

1. The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez

2. The Jungle

3. Ear for Eye

4. The Lehmann Trilogy

5. The Humans, Stephen Karam

6. Network

7. Boudica

8. The Comedy About a Bank Robbery

9. Farinelli and the King

10. The Play that Goes Wrong

11. The Legend of Georgia McBride

12. The Flick, Annie Baker

13. Peter Pan Goes Wrong

14. Wolf Hall, Parts 1 and 2

15. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

16. Wit

17. Peter and the Starcatcher

18. Red, John Logan

19. War Horse

20. God of Carnage

21. Doubt: A Parable

22. Golda’s Balcony

23. The Lieutenant of Inishmore

24. The Laramie Project

25. Proof

26. Venus in Fur

27. Constellations

28. Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play

29. Eurydice

30. The Pitmen Painters

[thestudyofdrama]

Working on a huge masterpost of European musicals. It’ll take a bit, but should be up sometime this week, if not today.

Got sucked into watching Elizabeth Das Musical and I’ve remembered my love of Euro musicals, and I figure I’m not alone.

Plus as theater students, it’s always good to know what’s going on in the international scene!

[thestudyofdrama]

Who all is taking theater history, and who still needs to take it? I’ll be sharing my etsy store soon, and there shall be PDF study guides galore. Once I acquire a good printer, I will sell (at some point this year), flashcards on various theater subjects.

[thestudyofdrama]

Back to School Shopping: Theatre Major Edition

So, you’re a theatre major, now what? There are a few extra things you should add to your back-to-school-shopping list this fall.

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Theatre Tech

Chances are, you will have to take some kind of stagecraft or theatre tech class, regardless of your specific track. Plus, you’ll have to help with strike, or even building the sets for production. With that in mind, you will need the following items:

Goggles - mandatory in any shop. You need these for eye protection.

Mask - not mandatory, but if you are asthmatic or have allergies of any kind, mandatory. Sawdust, Styrofoam dust, paint, and other smells will cause coughing and irritation.

Measuring tape - absolutely mandatory. There are usually many people working in the shop on any number of things at the same time. And a limited amount of tape measures. Buy your own and put your name on it.

Gloves - recommended. My shop at school has plenty to go around, but if you don’t like sharing or have an allergy to particular fabrics, you should get your own.

Theatre Performance

Ben Nye makeup kit - mandatory for anyone who appears onstage in any production, no matter how large or small the part. You need a good makeup kit. Lots of people use regular makeup, but trust me. You will want this. Plus, theatrical makeup kits will potentially last you past graduation or into the summers and into your theatrical/performing gigs outside of school. Usually costs around $50, but worth the cost.

Acting/directing/design journal - mandatory. It’s likely your professors will suggest or require a journal of some kind for one or some of your classes, but you should keep notes for acting progress, character work, quotes you like, directing notes, and/or design ideas, among whatever else you like. This can be any type of notebook or journal, or even on your computer or Drive, whatever you like. Just make sure you have one.

Microphone/voice recorder (optional) - recommended, so you can record your progress with singing/speaking/dialects. Most, if not all, smartphones either come with a voice recorder installed or you can download one on the app store. However, if you want a higher quality sound, you should invest in a proper USB mic that you can plug into your laptop or a voice recorder with an SD card slot.

Camera + tripod (optional) - recommended. If you are into short films, or want to record your acting progress or scenes you direct or act in, or if you put on a recital of any kind. Not mandatory, but I like looking back at my work to compare, though not all actors do.

Honey (optional) - recommended. Hot water and honey is a great way to sooth a sore throat.

Tea (optional) - recommended. Tea is another way to help alleviate a sore throat or colds.

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Next time, I’ll cover books that acting students should read.

All the applause,

Mia

[thestudyofdrama]

I’ve been AWOL for a while, but I am happy to announce that I have begun to outline, write, and queue posts for 2020. You can expect two posts per week on anything from actors to watch to recommendations to study tips tailored to students of English and Theater, as well as helpful links to theater publications, audition conferences, and helpful sites.