Eve's Blog

That’s the beauty of college theatre… we don’t get paid but when we can tell a story that touches lives, there’s nothing better.

The Diary of Anne Frank has come to a close tonight. As we bowed for our last curtain call and the audience stood, I had to hold back tears. It was our last show. We had two shows today and both had a full house. What can I say about my family, my cast… words cannot possibly describe their dedication, creativity and love for this show. Every show we’ve done we were all in it to drive the show forward as if we’ve never told the story before. Each time was for the first time. For instance: The Frank family had a “Frank family goal” set as we stood in place before entering on stage. It helped.

It’s so hard right now. Anne is still with me, but I honestly feel like I’ve been removed from my family. That’s how tight we were. Our cast was wonderful. Our director, Drew… well, besides the director I feel like he was a father figure for our cast… our tall, tough-loving Jewish Dad. I learned a lot, that’s for damn sure.

My father in the show, Otto Frank, or rather my friend Dan, both agreed that we kinda don’t know what to do with ourselves. It will be odd… What the hell are we going to do with all this time on our hands!? Homework? psht! Ha… yeah it’s definitely time to play catch up. Only this really breaks it down for me, I see how different life is when I’m involved with a show whether it’s tech work or acting. Life is more brilliant and full of energy! Of course it gets tough, but making it through those rough times makes the outcome of the show that much better. This is why I know I need to be involved with theatre, there’s always room for progress, the team work, and there’s always something else to look forward to.

See, here’s my next question for myself and for Drew (I just laughed at myself): “What’s next?” Sure thanksgiving is next week, only I don’t want to fall out of this high. I won’t let myself. I’m already in line to act in a play with Dan (Otto), our stage manager jeanette, and co-blogger Megan, who will direct us. I’ll write more about that production later.

Wow. So this show is over with, huh. Crazy. I wish it wasn’t. Christ I’m psyched that I get to see my fam tomorrow for strike!

“July 6th, 1942. A few days ago father began to talk about going into hiding. He said it would be very difficult for us to live cut off from the rest of the world. He sounded so serious I felt scared. ‘Don’t worry Anneke, we’ll take care of everything. Just life your carefree life while you can.’

“Carefree…”

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that’s what my body feels like it’s been hit by: a mac truck.

after my voice and movement class on wed. my prof. gerry gave me some advise. Since I’m comfortable wtih Anne I have the opportunity to experiment on stage with breath and voice techniques. It isn’t every moment that I focus on technique because watching an actor work on their technical process is BORING. However, at a couple over the top emotional scenes I allowed myself to see what else I was capable of. Of course Gerry was right… he’s always right. Ha! I know I can breathe into my backribs for support and a full voice with a full range. When I let the muscles totally relax and use my back ribs the emotional stakes are higher, taking my acting to a nerve racking place. It’s horribly uncomfortable because I feel like I’m utterly out of control yet I still know my lines and blocking. Muscle memory is an actors best friend.

I was talking to “Mrs. Van Daan” - my friend Bethany about that “being out of control” feeling. It might feel awkward but it looks great to the audience. Hopefully something good happened. Drew wasn’t at the show because he’s slowly gaining his family life back after directing our family, so the cast won’t get notes about the show tonight. Notes are what the director gives a cast after a rehearsal or show. He/She will say likes and dislikes, what needs to be worked on, suggestions, advice… etc etc.

Some good friends of mine came tonight. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Posted by Eve at 12:15 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

That’s actually a line Peter says in The Diary of Anne Frank which sums up our first week of shows. First of all I survived and secondly it was WONDERFUL! Every night I was thrilled to get on stage and move the story ahead. There’s no end to what can be accomplished in a play… it’s different every night if you allow it to happen. What I’ve learned during this past week, incorporating the nerves and excitement, was not to push. I’m Anne, I’ve faced that and have completely accepted this so all I have to do every night is be me on stage… there’s no need to rub it in the audiences face - “I AM ANNE!” They get it, i’m sure. It sounds simple, and really it is, but it was hard to recognize when I was “allowing” to make to distinction from when I wasn’t. Once I grasped that concept I had the capability of letting the pieces fall into place, trust myself and the text, and run with it. Acting becomes not acting and - wham, bam! - it’s you on stage with a different name. If i’ve confused the reader, my apologies.

At the moment I’m sitting in my living room after a quiet evening of movies and a trip to Wegman’s. Tomorrow morning is our last performance for high schoolers. This morning was awesome - they were so into it! I was really blown away… I was extremely doubtful that they’d have manners. Luckily I was wrong and had such a great time performing for them. I fed off of their energy… it was fantastic. Even during my one diary, standing alone on my diary post talking about getting my period and going through the strange hormonal craziness of puberty, I knifed right through it. In all honesty I completely accepted their uncomfortable laughter since I could tell they were listening. Best part of all this morning was when Peter and I had to kiss in the attic - all the students flipped and applauded us. What a riot! It was such a high… I almost laughed out loud!

The “talk backs” were wonderful as well. Students asked about the “period diary”, learning lines, how Drew cast the show, the kissing scene - rather “the romantic scene”… I loved it. I could have stayed there all day to answer questions, talk about our process. God i’m psyched that I get to do it again in… 10 hours. I’ll write more about it tomorrow… let me finish about the first week of the show.

So. Preview night we had a standing ovation, opening night we had a standing ovation… and well every show after that. And yes I’m mentioning that because IT’S AMAZING and because we are working hard to tell this story to the best of our ability, to engage our audience, have them learn something… so yes I believe we deserve it. It feels awesome. Then I want to hug everyone so i quick change out of my costume to run upstairs and meet friends/fam/profs. Let me say I’ve never seen so many people smile and cry at the same time. It hit me hard. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen how deeply theatre can affect people, even those I’ve never met. The Diary of Anne Frank has brought out sides of people that i’ve never seen before. Everyone who either knows me or doesn’t has let me and the cast know how much they’ve appreciated the show. The smiles I’ve seen! Smiles on faces wet from tears… it’s mind blowing.

Speaking of mind blowing: next to having my whole family, + close friends, travel to see this performance… it’s the best when my professors come to see it. I finally get to tell them a story, let them experience something new and then learn from it. For everything they’ve given to me, I feel good saying that my success is because I’ve had amazing teachers and mentors in my life.

Ha! And it’s not all bubbles, candy and kittens… Yesterday was a crap day. I definitely hit rock bottom with a good ole stress attack, if you will. Pretty much the bottom fell out from underneath me after doing 12 shows, tech week, lack of sleep, piling on work, knowing damn well I did not do very well on an exam…. all this lead to a melt down. It only lasted about 2 hours. Thankfully I know wonderful, caring people at BSC who always pick me up when I’m down. I can’t say enough about them. Now I’m happy and motivated.

Well, it’s bed time for bonzo. Did you enjoy my novel?

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Today is the day! Tech week begins tonight and runs everday until opening night, which is the 8th. I am excited to see what is being incorporated into the show when it comes to lights, video, sound, etc. Our costumes will come this weekend I believe… and the challenge of allowing all of the newly added elements to complement my performance, not hinder it. I’ll be honest… I’m nervous about getting distracted. Sometimes I wish I could sit and watch, but I can’t. Ah, well.

We will have 12 consecutive shows in a row.

Starting tonight we cannot call for lines anymore… we get to suffer through the confusion, but I’m glad for that. It will raise the stakes since everyone will be on edge pursuing objectives like crazy. I will read over my script two more times to find where I most often leave out a line or say it wrong. We also have an audience tonight. It is crew view which means everyone who has been designing and building, or who will be running the lights/sound, or on props and costumes (dressers), will be able to see the show for the first time. This gives them an idea of what their work will be like, and what the performance looks like since they’ll be behind the scense running the show.

I have to go finish a paper and run lines with myself.

I did manage to squeeze in some Halloween fun though… which was very important. Some friends and I ate candy and spooked each other out as we walked the perimeter of the psych centre. Always a good, creepy time.

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