It is hard to write a blog entry the last few weeks without mentioning the play.. All I am doing is rehearsing, memorizing, eating and sleeping.
No time for anything else.
Monday night I hit the wall. The task of memorizing was just too daunting and impossible.
So I called up the director and quit.
He laughed and said, "be over at my house tomorrow morning and I will teach you how to learn lines."
So much for quitting!
I worked with him for 2 hours. And, he did show me a few things that will help a little, but it is still a shit load of work...work that I don't enjoy and I am stuck with now.
He did show me that people in the verbal arts LOVE WORDS! He pointed out all these clever little things about how cute or ingenious the author wrote a line in the play. "See, every phrase starts with a "S", or this is iambic pentameter..." Who gives a shit? Really.
This is the problem. I am memorizing words, just words. Not clever words, or inspiring words, or intelligent words.
Just F$#@#$!!! words. Not wonder I have problems.
I had an English teacher as a sophomore in college who taught drama and poetry. He told me I was so bad at the literary arts that I deserved an "F" because I have NO talent, but he would give me a "C" because I worked hard.
So all the fancy word stuff goes over my head. No real help.
It is simply back to the impossibly hard task of memorizing all this crap.
Shit! I am not happy.
And you are now tired of hearing it from me. Sorry. It is either write about this or not write at all for the next 3 weeks.
Now, what's really embarrassing me is that many of my friends are experiencing financial disaster and incredible hardship. And, I'm bitching about the terrible time I'm having doing a play.
A PLAY!
Pretend! Fairyland! Make Believe!
I need to get a grip.
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3 comments:
Yep, you damn sure do.
Tom, i know you to possess an amazing talent for both listening and understanding the meaning of other peoples words as well as for expressing your thoughts and brilliant ideas in words. According to this website http://tomwerder.com/ you are a master of words and you offer exuberant speeches full of - words! I find it hard to believe you hate words, maybe you just like to bitch!
;-)
Interesting that you say that, Allan. I can write, prepare and polish my own speeches in a week. That's an hour long keynote. Brand new one.
The trick is I don't memorize it, I generate it freshly each time I present it.
Memorizing is a different skill...one I have little off. I have watched the main character--fewer lines than me but the focus of the play--AUTOMATICALLY learn her lines in a week simply by rehearsing. Now that's memorizing skill at it's best.
I envy her.
Anyway, we read lines yesterday for 7 hours and made some headway to getting the first scene solid.
P.S. I do like to bitch!
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