Freida's First Critique

• Color your scripts.
• The play begins in August and ends in February. We HAVE to see the change in weather, attitudes, etc.
• Lights and music transition good.
• At the beginning, lights on and music on. Allow audience to see silhouettes until all stage lights are turned on.
• 4 girls with opening lines. Do not hit each word with the same intensity. Step out, and say the lines with expression in voice, body and expression. Characters move after Clara's last word - might.
• Clara, establish part of the illness at the beginning. Remember that it has to increase as the story progresses.
• Village people, don't wait for each other. Step on lines. Greet one another. It is too staged. These are people you see everyday.
• Crowd scenes need human murmuring.
• We will think about putting those lines back into the play. Think about this and we will do this on Sunday.
• We need laughter more often. Bridget and Teresa at the beginning offer that. Find other places as well.
• Bridget, be more spirited throughout.
• Margaret, let us see the tension and hopelessness your character faces. You believe you are doing what is right to keep yourself and your friends alive.
• Townspeople react with murmuring during conversation.
• Shirtwaist girls, be proud when the villager asks what a shirtwaist is.
• Villagers, laugh good naturedly during the conversation you overhear among the girls.
• Remember, these are real people; this is a real town.
• Roth, shoulders back, chin up. Speak up and out. Bring shoulders in when speaking about Rosie so we can see what is in your heart.
• When Roth enters, we need to see how the girls feel about him.
• All people.... different accents - different gestures. Research your characters.
• Roth, levels - vocally - under your breath and threatening - "I can hire another like you...."
• Anya, be more into your character.
• Roth - keep coughing experience in your memory. All react... the threat could be toward me. everyone needs to have a different attitude about Roth's character.
• How does each person feel about each other, especially Clara?
• Roth - under your breath - Don't forget what I said.
• Anya, bigger build up to STRIKE. All lines from the beginning lead up to Anya's STRIKE.
• How do the girls feel about Margaret and the bodies should reflect this?
• Anya - win over the group with your message of 10 hours a week - $6. per week. Girls must react differently - apprehensive, hopeful, etc.
• Margaret - I'm too scared. Must hear this.
• Clara - your best line - "If you ask me to...." Let us see Anya's power and influence.
• All actors, make sure that you are always conscious about your blocking. Don't be in a straight line.
• Weights inside the pylon. I will try to fix this today.
• Lannon, stronger when saying "I declare this meeting..." Anya, why aren't you more timid, we need to see the weaker side of Anya during this meeting.
• JP, good - come on - adjourn
• Joe, see you want to help her out before you say the line through actions.
• Lannon, no pity on Anya, be stronger, shoulders back, and chin up.
• Anya, only men have jobs. Hit all the words in these lines.
• Guys, react to Anya in Lannon meeting, but not cartoonlike.
• Lannon, meeting adjourned. Stonger and smile. Must be a slap in the face to Anya.
• Joe, We need to see the caring side of Joe's character. We need to see Joe's concern.
• When we can see both sides of the character, it shows good acting.
• Anya, react to him. Glance at him as though he may be different.
• Painful - You don't know anything about us.
• We need to see Joe, the jerk after her line and with his last line.
• Joe, no hands in pocket.
• All men, no hands in pockets.
• "That's why women get married." Anya's anger needs to build with this line.
• Joe, caring, again.
• Joe, You're a dreamer - must see he believes the girls cannot succeed.
• Clara, look up the symptoms of tuberculosis. Mucus.
• Clara, pretend you are somehwere else. Close eyes, dreamlike.
• Justice, fairness. Everyone needs different ways of saying these words. The slogans must vary by inidividuals and in the group.
• Thugs, dirty. Don't stand up straight. You may have injuries. Be thuglike. Weasel, rat, fox. Lurk behind the pylons. Be menacing.
• Stolle, don't care how you get the job done. Be evil. No glasses as Stolle.
• Dance-fight. Use bigger gestures in the slow motion pieces.
• Girls, when Margaret makes a decision, we need to see reactions.
• I will work on the slides before tomorrow.
• Matron, good job.
• Gasp if accidents happen.
• Agnes and Sonia - be different from the society girls.
• Joe and Anya, too far right stage. Move center - downstage with girls and picket signs behind them.
• Joe, we need to see you remember Joe as a boy. We need to see the vulnerability. When does Anya realize he is the boy. We need to see that she knows.
• Bridget, remember more of "home" and Ma crying.
• Don't mess with costumes. The new costumes will be even more confining.
• Cohen, be more refined. Stoop shoulders as a thug. Everyone needs to react to Cohen's lines and the girls' lines.
• Bridget, lines to the audience about the money.
• Josh, use upstage hand.
• Society women, act with grace and dignity. Chin up and stronger. Research manners during this time.
• Roth, spit out and stronger.
• Judge. Last gavel is stronger. Start off in control with shoulders back, chin up and make us hate you. Color your script.
• All people in the judge hearing scene need to open bodies to the audience.
• Two society women need to come from the back.
• Crazy people, remain in the back and DO NOT upstage actors.
• Roth, color script. We need to see more variations. Use the doll, close eyes, practice touching the doll's hair. See the "sound of coughing memory" in his face. Must show your heart to the judge with -Ma, never should have given me and Rosie away. I won't let them - must be tough.
• Dream, don't anticipate the scream. Roth,enter, plant your feet and say your lines without bending over Anya. Say it from a distance.
• Violet, good job touching Clara.
• See Anya's changing to becoming weak in the face of the other girls. It scares them, etc.
• Crazies, we need to work on your costumes because we are not getting those from the costume shop.
• Clara's death - Joe - good job.
• Freeze, work on that.
• Joe, watch Texas accent.
• Newspaper people in back.
• Zack, I saw real hunger.
• JP, more personality selling papers.
• Freeze newsmen
• 3 guys on left stage. good.
• Roth, slow down
• What are we waiting for?
• Choreograph the end, we need to see strength in faces and bodies.

My additional notes -

• caps off or tipped when meeting women from the beginning through the end.
• Jail, need levels. Everyone is sitting but Joe.
• 9 more nights, cough
• Bridget, flirtier and more spirited.
• Kalynn, louder at all times.
• Speakers come out - stagger entrances. Begin when society girls enter. Roth, enter from USR.
• Tombs, bench on left of Clara.
• Rats, more feeling with that line. Look around, you have never been in a place like this, girls. None of you, even the immigrants. We need to see the revulsion.
• NOISEMAKING! I will SCREAM if I don't see you making noise and being excited. This gives you hope - takes you away from the dying, cold, It gives you a way to say XXXX to the government.
• Audible crying after Clara.
• NOISE makers after Clara is carried off. Remember that we are staggering the echoes and hitting the stuff.
• Fire behind girls. I will work on this.
• Coat and hat change as the newsman, Zack.
• Josh, bigger during the strike.
• More crowd reaction with Joe's news on his last entrance.

These are the only two times that we can have Freida. She is one of the best. Follow her leads. It will make us better. See you at 7:30 in the morning. Do not be late. We have to set the stage tomorrow because it has been struck.

Some of Stanislavsky's quotes.

The language of the body is the key that can unlock the soul.”
Konstantin Stanislavsky quote

“Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.”
Konstantin Stanislavsky quote

“In the creative process there is the father, the author of the play; the mother, the actor pregnant with the part; and the child, the role to be born.”
Konstantin Stanislavsky quote

“Success is transient, evanescent. The real passion lies in the poignant acquisition of knowledge about all the shading and subtleties of the creative secrets.”
Konstantin Stanislavsky quote

“Love the art in yourself, not yourself in the art”
Konstantin Stanislavsky quote

The theatre is the art of reflecting life. (92)
An actor must not “play” passions and characters: he must act under the influence of the passions and in character. (33)
Stanislavsky

I know this is a lot to read, but if you have read this far, comment - Respond to this. «Remember this practical piece of advice: Never come into the theatre with mud on your feet. Leave your dust and dirt outside. Check your little worries, squabbles, petty difficulties with your outside clothing -- all the things that ruin your life and draw your attention away from your art -- at the door».

1. What is acting?
   Humphrey Bogart:Acting is experience with something sweet behind it.
   Sir Charles Chaplin:Timing! My mother gave me that. I was born with it. I don't think you can teach a person to act. [Radio Times, March 1979]
   Glenda Jackson: You'd think is something one would grow out of. But you grow into it. The more you do, the more you realize how painfully easy it is to be lousy and how very difficult to be good.[People, March 1985]
   Vanessa Redgrave: I give myself to my parts as a lover. It's the only way.[Time, 17 March 1967]
   Robert De Niro: One of the things about acting is it allows you to live other people's lives without having to pay the price. I've never been one of those actors who has touted myself as a fascinating human being. I had to decide early on whether I was to be an actor or a personality.
   Lawrence Barrett, 19th Century American Actor: Acting is... forever carving a statue of snow.
   Robert Redford: A lot of what acting is paying attention.
   Jeff Goldblum: Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.
   Glenda Jackson: Acting is not about dressing up. Acting is about stripping bare. The whole essence of learning lines is to forget them so you can make them sound like you thought of them that instant.
   Acting advice
   Constantin Stanislavski: All action in theatre must have inner justification, be logical, coherent, and real.
   Marlon Brando: Acting in general, is something most people think they're incapable of but they do it from morning to night. The subtlest acting I've ever seen is by ordinary people trying to show they feel something they don't or trying to hide something. It's something everyone learns at an early age.[Newsweek, 13 March 1972]
   Gerard Depardieu: Concentration does not mean inhibition. One can and should be attentive yet appear nonchalant.[Cyrano de Bergerac, publicity release, 1990]
   Gene Hackman: Honesty isn't enough for me. That becomes very boring. If you can convince people what you're doing is real and it's also bigger than life-that's exciting.[Show, 1972]
   Jeremy Irons: You think, you don't just speak. The lines come off the thoughts.[American Film magazine]
   John Gielgud: One mustn't allow acting to be like stockbroker -- you must not take it just as a means of earning a living, to go down every day to do a job of work. The big thing is to combine punctuality, efficiency, good nature, obedience, intelligence, and concentration with an unawareness of what is going to happen next, thus keeping yourself available for excitement.
   What is Talent?
   Anthony Quinn: Having talent is like having blue eyes. You don't admire a man for the color of his eyes. I admire a man for what he does with his talent.[Sunday Express, 1960]
   Michael Caine: I'm a skilled professional actor. Whether or not I've any talent is beside the point.[Film yearbook, 1985]
   Stella Adler: It's not enough to have talent, you have to have a talent for your talent.
   Uta Hagen: Talent is an amalgam of high sensitivity; easy vulnerability; high sensory equipment (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting intensely); a vivid imagination as well as a grip on reality; the desire to communicate one's own experience and sensations, to make one's self heard and seen.
   Role analysis in 7 steps
   1. Read the play for the first time.
   2. Do some basic reading and research on the playwright and on the era in which the play was originally written and produced.
   3. Read the play for the second time and focus on your role.
   4. Analyze the structure and the content of the play.
   5. The 3 W. Ask yourself and answer these questions about your role:Who am I?Where am I?What do I want?
   6. Visualize your character's physical appearance.
   7. Fill in all character activity not provided in the text. (Where does he go when he exits? What he was doing before entering the stage?) This is subtext - what the lines do not say.

I love you guys, and I am so excited about this journey in life.