Tired and Inspired

I've been in Larry Moss' workshop all week. One more day to go. I'm up at 9am tomorrow, and I've got to be ready to scream the house down and eat my partner alive on stage. It's very exciting to be given permission to go nuts like that, but also takes a LOT of vocal and emotional stamina. Whew! As I said in a previous post, I'm working on Neil LaBute's REASONS TO BE PRETTY...I'd been having difficulties with how contemporary the language is (I do very well with Shakespeare, O'Neill, and Shaw...really heightened, complicated stuff). Larry was having me yell at top volume, and then shouted to me at one point, "Do it like Medea!" All of a sudden, I understood what I needed to do, dropped in, unleashed classical actor Amy, and felt MUCH better! It got a huge laugh from the class, because (aside from the absurdity of Medea screaming about flushing goldfish down the toilet), many people much prefer contemporary language to huge Greek and Shakespearian texts, but my comfort zone is a mite old-fashioned. It was a lovely moment.

I'm running to bed, but just felt like sharing...This has been a fantastic week. I love sitting and watching my fellow classmates (many of whom I take Karl Bury's weekly scene study class with, and have known, admired, and watched grow for years) ROCK IT OUT, and just take huge leaps forward in their work. So exciting. SO exciting. I can feel that I'm taking strides, too, and learning a lot about myself...I love acting so much. I love being involved in this community. I love artists. I love other passionate people. People who bring themselves and give of themselves. It's gorgeous, and makes me want to be a better actor and human being. It's also a blessing to work on a difficult scene like this with my dear friend and colleague Denis Lambert, who is brilliant, and the greatest scene partner a person could ask for. I'm so grateful for him.

Right, I have to go to sleep so that I can go full tilt boogie first thing in the a.m.