O Captain! My Captain!

Day 13

First day of classes today. I had all theatre class. Two acting (period styles and principles II) plus a lighting class. I'll probably have a lot more to talk about later, but I'm just going to talk about my first day in principles.

I really wanted to take this class again, even though I did last year. Last year I learned so much over the semester, and when I found out that a falculty member was teaching the class, I knew I had to do it. And not only any ordinary falculty member, a very distinguished member of the theatre community that never teachers undergrad courses. I walked into the class nervous as hell because I really didn't know what to expect. He began talking about his life and some of his experience in theatre. He's one of those men that can talk for hours and I could still be sitting at the edge of my seat, enthralled as ever. He has that sort of power. It was so interesting to listen to.

Then he began to explain the class and his mini-discussion about his philosophy on acting. I kept listening and listening, and the more I heard the more excited I became. He really isn't about one specific method of acting, he believes in everyone exploring their own way to characterization. I'm thrilled with this! I'm a very avid believer that there is no one right way of acting. I like to take different aspects of different styles of acting that work for me. And that really is what all this training is for. We get to try all these different approaches (mainly within Stanislavski) and activities. Sometimes they work for you, sometimes they don't. I can even think about last semester in Principles II with some of the activities we did. There were some that I absolutely hated because I just didn't get it; for some reason it didn't click in my head. But then there were others that changed me as an actor. They impacted me so deeply that I couldn't help but be affected by it. It was truly astounding how it could go from one extreme to the other in only one class.

So, needless to say I'm optimistically looking forward to this class. I have no earthly idea of the things he will make us do, but I'm ready and willing to participate. I want to learn from this man so much. I guess there is nothing better to say than "O Captain! My Captain!"