I would give this another semi-colon title, Committing to the Groundlings, to play on both the post mortem and the Groundlings themes of the blog, but since I have about two or three already, I don't really want to have title overkill. I thought it I would have the Groundlings post mortem today since today was my last Groundlings class ever, at least the last one I can pay for.
As some of you may know, Groundlings is the high school drama program at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company; Groundlings is an ensemble building program that culiminates in, shocker, a performance of a Shakespeare show. I am going to break my own rules here with not going before July 2009, as this is not just a post mortem for the year but for my Groundlings experience.
I met Jeremy at Ashland University for an Ohio Summer Honors course in comedy sports. I was misled in the fact that not only was this a course in improvisation but Shakespeare. Now, I had just finished freshman english, in which the class read A Midsummer Night's Dream...which was taught piss poorly, so naturally my perception of Shakespeare was skewed in a rather negative direction. So I was less than pleased that I would be working with Shakespearean text and I was given a scene from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, it was a fun scene but nothing spectacular. What really changed my perception was there was a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was absolutely hilarious, still some of the funniest Shakespeare I have ever seen. Jeremy is an Artistic Associate at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company as well as an ensemble member there, which explains his expertise in the field.
Jump two years later, I decide to join Groundlings at the pestering of my friend Ali Y, which I thank her for. I met some really great people there who I hope to keep in contact with during and after the summer. The first semester is what I generally liked: improvisation, acting exercises, text work, and cold reads. With each I learned a little bit more about myself as an actor as well as the other members of the class. The second semester is when we start the rehearsals for the final performances. My first year it was Julius Caesar and my second year it was The Hamlet Project.
Julius Caesar was extremely interesting considering when the day casting decisions were made, I was given the role of the man himself. Of course, I learned that Caesar is more of a supporting character in the play, makes sense as he *spoilers* he dies halfway through the play. This role was still a big deal for me, considering that Caesar is contained, in control, and an imposing figure...three things that many would say are not my primary traits. I did everything I could, with the help of our director Justin, to embody and transform myself in Caesar: deepen my voice, stand taller and broader, walk with purpose and stride, and to quiet my talkative hands. I'm still unsure of how to feel about this role aside from my death and my ghost scene, which both really kicked ass. Where I am unsure of is during the other scenes, I loved my lines, I had a really great monologue right before my death but I felt like I was simply saying the words rather than putting life into the lines. Also I didn't really get too much praise, to be expected considering the majority of praise was being heaped upon our Brutus, Cassius, and Marc Antony, which makes sense as they are the main focus of the play and the actresses playing each of them were phenomenal.
Jumping to the fall of the next year; I'll do a camp retrospective when camp has come and gone. I was there for the majority of the fall semester dates but my main focus was on the behemoth that was Epic Proportions. So Groundlings was more of an escape from my overarching stress. There was a change in the format this year in terms of the performances where instead of full plays, we performed "projects." These projects were either a selection of scenes from multiple plays or an abbreviated play. The Hamlet Project, was the latter. In The Hamlet Project I played Claudius, my first villain role. Here's where things got complicated, a lot of my saturdays, the day groundlings meets, I was either auditioning for colleges or working towards my Eagle. So I missed A LOT of rehearsals, to the point where my director said that one of the group pieces would become my own soliloquy. Granted this meant more personal stage time for me, but I felt bad that I was really letting the group down by not being there. So for the last four rehearsals, I kicked into high gear. Our director let me go a good deal over-the-top with the role, to the point I actually laughed maniacally at one point. The result, from my own personal opinion and some of the accolades I received...to put it bluntly, I kicked ass! Not only did I really feel good about the role but I received some really great genuine compliments. It's fairly easy to tell when some when is saying "good job" (here's a participation badge) and "really great work/you're awesome/I love you," (sincerity). Last year was the "good job," and this year was the latter. You can see for yourself(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrqLfqKaLoI), start at 3:07 and you can see my whole soliloquy. I think this is my best Shakespearean performance so far.
I think over the course of the four years Jeremy has been my teacher, I have really grown as an actor in terms of my abilities in Shakespearean text and as a result, contemporary drama. I think Groundlings really gave me a great environment to really explore my facets as an actor. I could not have done this without the tremendous ensemble: Katie, Daniel, David, Callie, Margaret, Ali, Sarah, Mattea, Katherine, Carmel, Murray, Rosie, the list goes on and on. I also felt that I didn't need to censor myself in terms of my energy and my passion. At school, people see me a bit more under control, more of a quiet intellectual who monitors what he says and does. At Groundlings, I am an unbridled ball of energy and it is awesome. I just hope that I can apply this energy to my time in college theatre.
"But if the while, I think on thee, dear friend/ All losses are restored, and sorrows end." Sonnet 30, William Shakespeare
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