Actress Antics

2010-10-03T09:27:00.001-07:00

2010-10-03T09:20:00.001-07:00

Jitters

2010-04-07T12:20:00.000-07:00

I wrote a short play months ago, and my school decided to produce it. It performs on Friday and I'm SO NERVOUS! Last night I had a stream of nightmares about everything going wrong. *sigh* We have our tech rehearsal tonight. I trust my actors, I trust the director, I trust the crew. It'll be okay.

Right?

GIANT sigh of happiness

2010-03-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

Best. Audition. Ever.

I don't even really care if I make callbacks (though I do really want to). It was worth it just to audition.

Audition Time Again! Shakespeare style.

2010-03-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

Yay! I have an audition for my university's mainstage production. I'm super-excited. It's a Shakespeare play, and I'm using this monologue to audition.

Volumnia from Coriolanus

Should we be silent and not speak, our raiment

And state of bodies would bewray what life

We have led since thy exile. Think with thyself

How more unfortunate than all living women

Are we come hither: since that thy sight, which should

make our eyes flow with joy, hearts dance with comforts,

Constrains them weep and shake with fear and sorrow;

Making the mother, wife and child to see

The son, the husband and the father tearing

His country's bowels out. And to poor we

Thine enmity's most capital: thou barr'st us

Our prayers to the gods, which is a comfort

That all but we enjoy; for how can we,

Alas, how can we for our country pray.

Whereto we are bound, together with thy victory,

Whereto we are bound? alack, or we must lose

The country, our dear nurse, or else thy person,

Our comfort in the country. We must find

An evident calamity, though we had

Our wish, which side should win: for either thou

Must, as a foreign recreant, be led

With manacles thorough our streets, or else

triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin,

And bear the palm for having bravely shed

Thy wife and children's blood. For myself, son,

I purpose not to wait on fortune till

These wars determine: if I cannot persuade thee

Rather to show a noble grace to both parts

Than seek the end of one, thou shalt no sooner

March to assault thy country than to tread--

Trust to't, thou shalt not--on thy mother's womb,

That brought thee to this world.

Rebirth of the Theatre!

2010-03-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

I know not many of you have been reading my book blog for two years. But if you have, you may remember Actress Antics, my Theatre blog.

Well, it's back! As you can clearly see!

I find it ironic that I would bring it back now, when I am doing relatively little theatre, rather than last year, when my whole life was theatre. But, there you go.

However, unlike Squeaky Books, I am not going to feel any pressure to update this blog on a regular basis. I'm just gonna update when I have something to update it with.

And there you go. Welcome to Actress Antics

UTA Conference, Frustration, and more Doing good

2008-01-30T15:53:00.001-08:00

Phew. I don't have much time to update this blog anymore. My life is cRaZy and it's all I can do to update Squeaky Books.

On a happier note, tomorrow is the first day of the UTA (Utah Theatre Association [not the buses]) conference and I'm so excited! They're going to give us tips and pointer and we get to see at least one play a day and I get to miss two days of school! w00t! It's fantabulous!

So I was volunteered for another play George Washington Slept Here (which is ironically written by the same people who wrote YCTiWY) and usually that wouldn't be a bad thing. I love being in plays. But the rehearsal schedule is absolutely insane! Every day for 3 hours, and never ONCE have they gotten to my part. Which means I sit around for 3 hours doing nothing. I can do homework or anything because the play is so loud and distracting! I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that. They may kick me out because I already have such a busy schedule and can't come to a lot of rehearsals, but whatever.

Topic Change!

In You Can't Take it With You I have this amazing scene. Honestly. It's amazing. I get all the glory (but... uh... of course that doesn't matter) and I get to say some pretty HI-larious stuff. I made the director laugh a lot! I had a hard time not laughing myself (gonna have to work on that). I love it! My only trouble is memorization. There's so much! I'm pretty sure I can do it. I'm just a little nervous.

The End.
~Enna Isilee

The Goodness of Doing Good

2008-01-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

I'm finally starting to feel comfortable in my role in the play. As we've progressed the lines have come more and more naturally until this last practice I actually forgot that I was acting. That very rarely happens to me. I came onstage, said one word, and they other actors and director started cracking up. My heart felt like it was going to explode. I was so happy!

On the flipside that broke me out of character and I wasn't able to mimick it. But I'm sure that day will come.

~Enna Isilee

Voice Lessons and Cakes

2008-01-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

So I began voice lessons today. I. Was. Terrffied. I have this horrible fear of singing in front of any living creature (dead things are fine). My dad drove me up and I said, "Are you going to walk me to the door?" he gave me a you've-got-to-be-kidding look and I trudged across the icy driveway. Alone. I knocked and the teacher answered the door. She's really young (one of my friend's older sister) and really hyper. Honestly she talked like crazy! Which was awesome, because I got to talk less. She's also an amazing singer and dancer.

I didn't have to sing! We just did basic stuff so it wasn't bad. Breathing, support, posture, soft pallette. Ya know. Basics.

That's my story!

Oh, and it was the director(of YCTIWY)'s birthday. I baked her a cake and we had a party. I frosted an Orca on the cake because she loves Orcas. It was uber fun. Maybe I'll post a picture.

~Enna Isilee

American Idol

2008-01-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

American Idol starts tonight, I'm excited. The only part I really like is the auditions because then I can say to myself, "Well, at least I'm not as bad as them." Which I suppose is mean of me but... well... I'm really not planning on changing.

More posts after AI, and more about You Can't Take it With You.

~Enna Isilee

Awkwardness and Discoveries

2008-01-06T17:11:00.000-08:00

We read through the script as a cast on Thursday and it was a very interesting experience. I had never seen this play before so I didn’t know what it was like or who the characters were. I have a very major part, it’s almost frightening. I have to go to every rehearsal and have a million lines to memorize.

Another thing is that my character is a bit scandalous. I’m about 50 years old, and I’m obsessed with sex and use that in my plays. It’s funny, but awkward. The funniest scene in the play (in my opinion) is lead by me, and it’s all sexual humor. It’s not too bad, no one actually says anything, but there are a lot of broken off sentences.

Actually… it’s only awkward to me. I read it to my mother and some friends and they said “There’s nothing wrong with that!” and laughed like crazy, and they’re really good people. I guess I’m just afraid people will think I’m like that, and I’m nothing like that. Most people say “Of course they won’t think you’re like that” but everyone who says that knows me. Most of those people in the audience won’t know me.

*sigh* anyway. It’s alright.

But it’s amazing what you can learn about some people just through random circumstance. The fire alarm went off multiple times while we were reading and a warning strobe-light flashed. From this I learned that my long time drama teacher/director is epileptic (no she didn’t have a seizure). It was just a very interesting experience.

My dad wouldn't tell us what he wanted for Christmas because he said that we should just know by talking to him.

It's a very interesting thing, that the best way to learn about someone, is just to talk to them.

Blocking (staging) starts on Tuesday! Eep! I’m excited and nervous.

One last thing, the very first scene has me playing with two kittens, the director says that we can’t have actual kittens. I’m trying to convince her though…

~Enna Isilee

Odd Gagging Noises

2007-12-20T20:15:00.002-08:00

I was cast as the mother. Which is actually a substantial part.

Holy cow.

*More gagging noises and then passing out*

Up to Fate

2007-12-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well, I just got back from Callbacks and now it's all up to fate. It was all just cold reading (reading the script without preparation) and the director only had me read one part, but I read it multiple times. My thinking is that I'll either get that part, a random, extra part, or I won't get a part at all. It's kinda a major part so...

Well, the cast list will be posted tonight. Eeps!

~Enna Isilee

Audition Anxiety

2007-12-19T15:02:00.000-08:00

I’m telling you that auditions were created solely for the purpose of striking fear into the heart of man and keeping him humble.

Actually, I wasn’t as afraid as usual at this audition. I knew the director really well (she’s like the coolest teacher ever) and my monologue came really natural to me (good thing too, because I memorized it 10 minutes before the audition). When she called my group in a had a few butterflies, mostly because I hadn’t run the monologue past my mom (she’s wonderful at telling what I’m doing wrong).

I had to go first. I got on stage and gave my slate:
“Hello my name is Enna Isilee and I will be doing a piece from 'Blink of an Eye' by Jeremy Dobrish and I will be portraying the part of Celeste.”

I stepped back and began the monologue. I was a little fidgety and my blocking wasn’t that great but I think I did okay. My biggest error was that I think I was too fast, and I was stuck in a southern accent, but that wasn’t too bad. I didn’t come even close to getting the monologue word-for-word but it didn’t really matter ‘cause she’d never read it. And I didn’t hiccup at all.

Callbacks will be posted tomorrow morning! And then if I make it I’ll try-out again in the afternoon.

Eeps!

~Enna Isilee

First Audition of the Year

2007-12-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

Well it’s time for my school’s non-musical. Woot! I love watching musicals, but I have this irrational fear of singing in front of any living thing so…

Anyway, I’m really excited for this one because not only is it not a musical, but it’s a comedy! Last year they did a very depressing play and I didn’t make it (probably because I’m not so good at that) but this year it’s gonna be great!

Auditions are tomorrow and I’ve only partly memorized my monologue, but I have time… enough hopefully. Here’s the monologue I’m using:

~

BLINK OF AN EYE
Jeremy Dobrish

CELESTE: Well, you see, being a Guarding Angel is not the greatest job you could ask for. I
mean, yes, you get certain perks. Stopping time’s not bad, free fries, whatever, but basically it’s a pretty low self-esteem kind of deal. No matter how hard you try, you’re destined to fail right? I mean I can watch and watch and watch, and be your guardian and help out as best I can. But ultimately, one of these days (and I’m not saying it’s coming anytime soon OK? So don’t get all freaky and weird on me) but one of these days someone or something’s gonna act too quickly for me to react and you’re gonna get yours.

I mean it’s not like you’re my only client, you know what I’m saying? I’ve got a lot of people to look out for. Not to mention the animals. Although I must admit the cats are a little easier ‘cause at least I can blow it a few times with them so I don’t really watch my cats too closely… Oh, but don’t get me wrong, I like cats. People… they try to be in the past, present, and future all at the same time, while cats live only in the present, in the eternity of an instant. Ever notice that?

~

I hope that works out well. The call-back list will be posted on Thursday morning, call-backs will be Thursday afternoon, and final list will be posted on Friday. I’ll post about how I thought the audition went tomorrow afternoon (if I have time. Family Christmas party and all that).

It's been so long since I've been in a play. Over 2 years. I've just been way swamped. I'm nervous. Luckily the director and I are tight. ;-)

~Enna Isilee

Not an Original Idea

2007-12-16T13:09:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I know that this is not an original idea at all, I'm totally stealing from Miss Erin (who also has two blogs for reading and acting) but I'm an actress too and Miss Erin is just so brilliant I had to copy. ;)

I'm an actress, script writer, cinemetographer, and director, so hopefully there'll be lots to say.

So here you are, where you'll hear all about this aspiring actress's antics, which may be few or many depending on what happens in my future.

Tally ho!
~Enna Isilee