24 hour play festival

Our Warehouse Theatre decided to have a 24 hour play festival. It was a full day of completely new student written, performed and designed shows. It was a heck of an experience....WATCH


but before you watch go, go and VOTE FOR STEPHENS COLLEGE at:

http://www.showusyouretc.com/movie53.aspx

NOW HERE IS THE VIDEO!!!!!!!!!

THANKS FOR WATCHING

DW

PLEASE VOTE!!!!

Hey everyone!! So I need some help. My college has entered a contest called 'Show Us Your ETC." The winner will receive a brand new light-board. HERE IS WHERE I NEED YOUR HELP.....

Click this link!!!

http://www.showusyouretc.com/movie53.aspx


WATCH THE INCREDIBLY AMAZING AWESOMEST SPECTACULAR VIDEO EVER!!!!!!!!!


Then "like" it.

and finally go tell everyone you know to do it too.

THATS ALL YOU HAVE TO DO!!!!

Please help Stephens College. Thanks so much and incase you are just reading this and not caring. Would it change your mind if I told you that people spinning fire on stage in the video...seriously.....WATCH...VOTE!!!

THANKS
DW

When Your Last Resort Is To Break Out In Show Tunes...

After one of the nights of Victorian Christmas earlier in December, a woman got in touch with my friend Emma. She said she was going to need some actors to work at her parties that she holds at her bed and breakfast. Well these past two weekends she has been hosting a speakeasy murder mystery party. Now since Emma and I were both cast in Lady Windermere's Fan we weren't able to come and work for her last weekend. But according Barbra, the lady who runs the B&B, said they had close to 14 people a night for two nights and they were excited for this weekend to see how it goes.

Emma Carter and I in costume for Lady Windermere's Fan

Since we couldn't be there the first weekend to help we were more than excited to come out and help with the party. Upon arrival to the house I was immediately taken away by all the beautiful furniture and antiques that filled the room. She lead us back into the kitchen where we were briefed on the order of the evening. We both got characters and costumes. She sped through the itinerary and we were off to making salads for the guests. Rather than what we expected to be 14 or so like the previous events we would be serving only two lucky guests this evening. While Barbra hurried herself around the house preparing the finishing touches Emma and I discussed what exactly our characters were. 

Emma was playing Amanda Moleron (idk how to spell her last name). Her father Lorenzo was the owner of the speakeasy and was brutally murdered, not the murder we were investigating but still murdered. She isn't taking it so well so she is crying pretty much all the time. She is secretly seeking revenge which makes her a suspect. Don't let the black clothing and tears fool you. 

My character was Claire Butt...I don't pick the names....She is the french maid. She is hated by a lot of people merely because she is a sarcastic brat (I think I could handle that part) and she smokes. She is very mysterious and we don't know much about her past. Later we find out and she is actually hunting down and investigating members of the mob. It's an intense job, she secretly wants to be an actress. 

Other Characters we had were, the movie casting director/hostess, which was Barbra. Barbra's husband played the butler/Mob boss' right hand dude/murder victim. The two guest played the Norelli family. Norm and his sister Natasha were the head of the mob. And of course we had a P.I. on duty, who was played by Barbra's father-in-law. So the stage is set the cast is present and the show must go on. Emma and I who had only be told what our job was very quickly seemed a little.....no....REALLY confused. But we began serving. So during the first course, Barbra the "film director" was introducing all of the characters, she asked for Emma and I to come out and meet the guests. She said she was making a movie and for our "audition" we had to sing. She never said to us during the pre show process that we were going to have to sing. As she starred at us with that look that says, "You all said you were actors, so sing." I looked at Emma with a look that said, "How did you get me to do this?" After the exchange of "alright we are going to sing" glances to one another, Emma and I did what any logical person would do. We broke out into showtunes. More specifically we started singing "Somethings Are Meant to Be" from Little Women. After screwing up the words terribly I realize I got some work to do for Okoboji audition.  After the salad was served, the lights go out, or according to Barbra, someone "mysteriously" forgot to pay the electric bill. While the lights were out we hear two gunshots and the lights came back on "mysteriously"...of course. And there on floor laid the dead butler, after the guests "taped him off" they returned to the seats to read clues and start creating suspects.  Then the guest began question "suspects." Of course the foreigner was suspected first, so not knowing I was going to have to answer questions, I attempted to answer them like I do with anything else, with a hell of a lot of sarcasm. When I told them I was innocent, and I wasn't crying because according to fergie big girls don't cry, they said I had done it because I wanted the butler's job. I told that why on earth would I want the butler's job, I was a maid, on the perspective job ladder a butler wasn't going to do much for my future career path. When they brought out Emma for questioning she handled it incredibly (well duh...she's Emma Carter) and since her character was so distraught over her father she was crying all the time. I found the guest giggled when I called Emma a cry baby or a wimp, so I insulted Emma more in one hour then she has probably been in a REALLY long time, and yes I feel real bad. When they began questioning the P.I., he was just not having any of it. When Barbra wondered why he wasn't going to come get finger prints or investigate, he leaned in on the lazy boy he had been sitting on the whole time, and said "I don't know what I'm doin here'" "I just woke up from a nap" "I'm not an actor." So Emma and I realizing we are the last hope for these two guests evening, created our own clues, and passed around bribes. The murder mystery continues tomorrow morning so we won't know how it ends but we left plenty of clues to keep it moving along. It was a wonderful night at a magnificent B&B everyone was amazing and it was a true test of improv and accents skills. One of the most interesting parts the evening was just talking with Barbra's father in law. He told us a lot about his time during the war. Emma said something and with in 3 seconds he turned to her and said, "Are you german?" She responded yes and he turned to me and told me that I didn't look german. I was hoping that that was just because I was in a french maid out fit. But when I began talking to him he turned to me and asked me, "Are you german?" Why indeed sir I am. He told us of the times he was stationed there, about his hunting adventures, and his wife. It was fantastic evening. So many laughs, so much food, and so many unsuspecting aspects that make me excited to work their next party. So if you ever want a good dinner party look up the Victorian Country Inn Bed and Breakfast. Who knows maybe you will have a cry baby heiress and french maid serve you dinner. 

haha this is like the first blog post that doesn't have some message. Nope here it is: When you get yourself a really good friend, find a song you can do together perfectly you never know when you are going to randomly need a musical number. This is perfect for working at murder mystery dinners, and it is probably a nifty party trick to shoe off to your friends. 

DW

17 Page Paper Was Easier Than A Quote!

So I have acting class tomorrow....or well today....During the last class we were given a sheet of paper with famous actors and quotes or better yet philosophies about acting and theatre. I love quotes!! As we went through each quote it was interesting to hear the different views and approaches to acting from people who know. for example.....

Dame Peggy Ashcroft said, "You have to live in order to act and what you put into your performance is what you've learned from life."

Glenda Jackson said, "Acting provides the fulfillment of never being fulfilled. You're never as good as you'd like to be. So there's always something to hope for."


Helen Hayes said, "Childbirth is easy compared to giving birth to a role in a play"

Michael J. Fox stated, "The oldest form of theatre is the dinner table. The same people every night with a new script."


My favorite is a quote from Bob Hoskins, he said, "Whoever I play, whoever I become, I must have a starting off point. I must be sure of who I am before I become someone else."


This was the one that resinated with me the most. I was on the phone with my mother today discussing the big issue in family right now.....how old I am getting. ......its a national problem....It is weird to think that in about a month and a half I will no longer be a teen, I will be a junior in college, and searching for grad schools or places to move after graduation. The "Who I am" is a constant change process in college. You don't enter and exit as the same person. But we all have a starting off point we all came from somewhere and the stars and famous people we idolized all started and made it. And we look on their words of wisdom  to help, inspire and steer us to bettering ourselves and our knowledge of the art. Their experience is acknowledged, their success is admired, and their philosophies are appreciated.

That's when Beth dropped the bomb. We had to create our own philosophies that would be shared with the class and faculty. Now some may see this as a simple assignment. But for me it racked my brain. The philosophies I have always followed were things older people had told me, or people who had been successful. Who was I to philosophize a craft in which I am constantly learning and who only a few short years ago had very little knowledge of at all.

Its was about 1 in the morning and it came to me. I was starring out my window and in the dark blue almost black sky I notice a small dot. The star glimmered and was the perfect procrastination opportunity. as I pulled the shade to expose myself to to more of the night sky I saw it, the moon. I remember laying in my hammock during summers and just watching the stars appeared and the moon would become the bright beacon in the sky. The breath taking universe slowly took over the plain canvas of blue. Stars came to view looking like a jewelry store blew it contents to the sky and they stuck, but no matter how many of the sparkling stars filled the sky it could not compare to the giant moon. I never wanted to be an astronaut, but I always found it comforting to know that there was a world outside of ours, that we aren't confined to this one place that we live in, that there is literally no limit to anything.  I'd like to think that this is what Neil Armstrong thought when he first gazed at the moon. This is how I look acting, I see a show of any kind and it is like I'm gazing at the moon. I amazed by its existence, I see and am captured by the world that is developing before me, and I want and need to be part of it. When you seen a universe stretched before you, you know that anything you want to accomplish is possible. Because if the stars and moon can perform a show every night and entertain generation after generation, why can't I?


 Then my homework was done.

DW

P.S. Lady Windermere's Fan opens Friday at 7:30 in the Macklenberg Playhouse!!! Get your tickets now and see this amazing show it will be fan-tastic!!!!