Brittany A

9/23

Hi,

My name is Brittany Alston. I am a sophomore transfer student from Prairie State College in the Chicago-land area. I play the doctor as well as the eccentric Viennese urologist Dr. Todesrocheln. I am so incredibly thrilled to be in this show. This past Tuesday, we had the read through, which was AWESOME! It’s obviously going to be a hilarious, but though provoking show. I, like the character Anna, am terrified by the language that my character has to use! There is a ridiculous amount of medical jargon I have to memorize and I’m not entirely sure I’ll ever be about to pronounce correctly, even though I consulted some of my friends who are majoring in various sciences. There’s an Austrian accent that I’m going to have to acquire as well. Though both the medical jargon and accent scare me a bit, I am really stoked about growing as a performer.

Wednesday night we watched The Third Man, a movie that is highly referenced in the show. It was an interesting look at some of the characters in the show, and it gave me new ideas for the way I want to portray my characters.

As I said before I could not be more thrilled to be in this show, and to work with Professor West and my other cast mates.

10/1

The second week! The show is blocked! How terribly exciting! I don’t think I’ve ever moved so fast in a show before! …Or ever used so many exclamation points whilst talking about a show! I have so much to think about in terms of characterization… for the past couple of years I’ve either been in the Chorus of a musical or done something ridiculously dramatic, comedy is somewhat new to me… and a tad bit frightening. But, I have so much confidence in my fellow cast mates, that I am sure I’ll get what I need to be able to pull off an eighty year old, Austrian Urologist with no problems.

10/6

Can you believe it? Week three of rehearsal has come and gone! It’s time to start getting off book and really dive into my characters head’s. We started off the week working on building our characters by walking a certain way and figuring out the weight of the character. That was really pretty cool. Then the next day we worked on diction and articulation and taking good breaths and repeating some rhymes like, “I am the most pleasant mother pheasant plucker…” and of course hilarity ensured.

I think I’ve learned a lot about myself as an actor this week. As I mention in the previous blog, I’m used to high drama… now I’m going to absurdist comedy and not only am I able to do it, but I love it! Though, it is really pretty hard to keep a straight face when I or someone else has done something funny. And I’m a little worried about when we’re finally all giggled out in rehearsal, but then we have an audience that laughs. I just hope we don’t start cracking up as well… and by we of course I mean just me.

All in all it’s been another lovely rehearsal week- running from Austin to HT to Austin to McMike to the Library… and of course not getting sleep… but who needs sleep anyway?

Week 4 of Baltimore Waltz! Wow! Time is going so very, very fast. This is the time when I remember why I love theatre. This is the rough patch, we’re all beginning to get off book, calling for lines, really finding our character’s shapes and tempos, gestures, nuances… I LOVE IT! Everything that we’ve done on those Sundays, the moving, the sweating, the running around, is beginning to make so much sense! …Not that I thought it was pointless, West, It’s just all coming together now.

Over fall break, I of course, was supposed to be completely off book… and for the big moments I (mostly) am, however, I still have not memorized my third man lines… which are definitely important.

I’m beginning to realize: Wow! I’m really going to have to pay attention during the performances. This is not a show where any member of the ensemble can “check out” We all have to be “on-point” for all the performance, and really, all the rehearsals up until we close.

I can’t wait until we’ve got it seemless!

-Brittany