Carmen

Here are a few productions of Carmen to check out. They are too long to post directly so follow the links.  The Act II finale is found around 1:20 in the complete opera videos.

Carlos Kleiber 1978 Complete

Wichita Grand Opera Complete

Maria Ewing Act II Finale   (This production is all uploaded, but just in separate chunks)

Maria Ewing Card Trio

Little Women link

Little Women For some reason, I can't post so it will play here (might be a length thing) so just click the link to get to youtube video.  Our scene starts at about 1:50:50.  Make sure you are still spending time in the practice room and not just listening to these.  Like everything, it's not perfect. :-)

Another one: Little Women ending only

Good work, Megan, on all the posts. I've never blogged before...that I know of. I'll try to get with the program soon. To those of you in the Carmen trio, I'm sorry it took me so long to get you your diction recording. Looking forward to musical rehearsals tomorrow. I'll try not to throw so many bad cues.
Richard

The Medium

To inhabit your character...

In addition to the ten ingredients for any scene/life encounter that I gave you in class on Tuesday, here are some thoughts from the Stanislavski System to help create your character:

1. Given Circumstances- These are all the relevant facts about the person that influence the person's behavior. 

2. Magic If- This is putting yourself inside that person's life perspective, ("if I were ____, I would ____")

3. Super Objective- From the person's point of view, determine what he wants most in life. The range of lesser but still important goals, unconscious and conscious, is the objective hierachy. 

4. Through-line of actions- experience the character's way of dealing with issues and obstacles. Find the connection between all the moments when a psychological motive prompts a physical impulse, through experimentation, until a pattern emerges. 

5. Score- Write down the results in manuscript form and mark the script into workable units.

6. Endowment- Project onto people and objects, real and imagined, qualities from your imagination and experience that bring them to life.

7. Recall- Awaken memories using your five senses of both physical sensations and emotions that can be filtered into the character's feelings. 

8. Images- Add to your constantly playing interior monologue a film of the mind, and speak to your colleagues to their eyes, not their ears. Try to get them to see what you see.  

9. External Adjustments- Alter your own tendencies (physical and vocal) to suit those of the character, particularly your sense of time and intensity of experience (tempo-rhythm) so none of your inappropriate mannerisms are imposed on the role.

10. Creative Mood- Allow yourself to use all the previous research to free your entry into the heightened reality that allows you to discover and control simultaneously. 

(Ideas taken from my notes and from Robert Barton's Acting: Onstage and Off)