Kateyn Rabak History Lesson

Katelyn Rabak performed, “History Lesson,” which was about a woman who was giving her last tour at Mount Rushmore, after her boyfriend had told her she was fired. Katelyn’s voice carried very nicely this time. Also, her beats were more defined, and differentiated. However, Katelyn has a tendency to fall into a certain inflection pattern from time to time. In regards to what we learned this unit, she used the 90-to-10 rule very well, and she positioned her imaginary partners downstage (and in a way that made sense). I wished she worked on her “need” more. She did very well at spewing out odd facts that would surprise people, but I didn’t feel like she was trying to get a reaction from them that would backfire on the touring company. To make the monologue more humorous, she could’ve added more physical gestures, and those would’ve helped her vary the moments. Overall, I believe that Katelyn had a solid performance, she just needs to push herself more so that she’s not just scratching the surface. Will Stimpson
performed, “Scrambled Feet,” which was about an actor who was preparing for his one-line performance, and ultimately messed up. The first time he performed this there were several aspects that were mushy, such as the locations and transitions. This time around he eliminated the one-note nature, cleared up where the character was from the beginning, and made it much more enjoyable. I feel like Will didn’t really emphasize the character’s polarities when there were several key opportunities. For example, the character was so excited to go onstage, but becomes bored within a few lines. Will made the moment humorous, but it didn’t feel like there was enough of a beat to showcase the change in attitude. His physicalization as the nervous actor, and the Roman soldier, were nice and clearly different. However, Will’s big issue is that it seems like he’s never acting spontaneously, everything seems very planned and calculated. Natalie Mullanaphy performed, “Conspicuous,” which is a monologue where a young lady publicly speaks about her experiences as a person who has been raised by gay parents.
I wasn’t able to see her first rendition of this monologue. However, in this performance I really noticed that her blocking lacked motivation. When she would move it was more like she did it out of discomfort for staying in a spot for too long, rather than to accentuate a point. Natalie’s big dilemma is that she falls into that “as is” actor trap. She tends to be one note, and expresses more than she experiences. What I did like in this performance is that she had moments where I felt like she was tearing down that wall a little. Another thing she needs to focus on are moments. She can’t continue having two modes: exaggerated and barely worth mentioning. Considering the shift in composure the character experiences in the monologue, Natalie didn’t play with that as much as she could
have. Marvin Stearns performed, “Stop Kiss.” Marvin is a very strong actor, and has a good grasp on using tools such as moments and endowment. However, the physical aspect of his acting isn’t congruent with the internal/emotional aspect. The character is looking at their loved one on a hospital bed, but I didn’t feel like Marvin physically conveyed that need for her to wake up. He was in the chair for most of the performance, and when he got up it didn’t seem like the right time. Plus, there was one moment where the pace dragged the it down for a little. Nevertheless, Marvin delivered a powerfully dramatic performance, and fully utilized the given circumstances of the scene.