Let it Be Christmas Eve

This year’s Christmas Eve service is like nothing we’ve ever done before, and we’d love for you to be a part of it! We are basically producing a modern, edgy, Broadway musical that retells the Christmas story with Beatles music. In the past, Dan has put out an all-call for a choir, but this year, the team decided to go a different route. We are asking all the drama team and vocal team members if they can be a part of the production. We know you. We are confident in your talent and stage presence and know you will give it your all. You can even let us know if you want to involve your spouses, friends, or family members as well and make it a family activity. If you think about the weeks and weeks of rehearsals many other churches put into their Christmas Productions, this may not seem so huge! Still, we know this is a big ask for your family and time, especially on Christmas Eve, but an amazing opportunity to touch people with the true story of Christmas in a new and exciting way! (One of our cast members said she is doing it simply because it’s the only way she can get her family into church on Christmas Eve. They’re coming to see her, but she’s hoping they meet someone far more important!)

Here is the schedule:
Tuesday Dec. 11th 6:30-8:30pm

Tuesday Dec. 18th 6-9pm

Wed. Dec. 19th 6-9pm

Sunday Dec. 23rd 4-8pm (dinner provided)

Monday Dec. Dec. 24th 1pm -3pm (dinner provided)

Six identical Christmas Eve services at: 3:30, 5:00, 6:30, 8:00, 9:30 & 11 p.m.

Email kbaker@gccwired.com to let me know if you ae interested.

Local shows

Just a heads up if you're looking for a good date or place to take the kiddos:

Next weekend:

"The Nutcracker" is at the Morris and "The Wizard of Oz" is at the Elco. (I have a former student who is playing the scarecrow, so Lauren and I will be at the Sunday Matinee at 3pm.)

Any other shows you know of?

Great Meeting!

For those of you who missed the meeting, here's a quick snapshot.

We did a quick exercise on objectives with a short conversation in pairs where we had the same dialog multiple times with different objectives each time. Then we started the performances:
1.) Lori and Rebecca were hilarious and modeled great pacing, comedic timing, and team work in their scene called "The Exchange" where a simple transaction gets crazy with unnecessary red tape. (We've all been there, done that.)
2.) Paul and John tackled a more serious scene called "The Campaign" where John got to play the villain instead of his usual nice guy character and Paul got to play a more serious role as his wrestled with an issue of integrity in the workplace. They both did extremely well, especially due to the amount of difficult memorization. John used the "desk" (a rolling cart) well to assert his authority and show disconnect in his relationship to Paul's character. As Lori mentioned, we were tuned in from the beginning. They had some challenging dialog, and they made it work.
3.) Janet and Diana performed a scene called "The Intimidation" where they surprised us with their natural relationship as Diana took on a more nurturing/mentor role to Janet. Janet did a great job showing us a reluctant, yet desperate employee and Diana took her stimulus well and naturally slipped in with a calming voice to help solve the problem. Their objectives were clear from the beginning.
4.) Lisa and Anita's scene was another one that made us forget we were in a meeting and drew us in right away. In "The Accident" Lisa played a similar character to Paris Hilton (but not at all an imitation) and Anita was her lawyer as they discussed what was going to happen to Lisa's character now that she killed a young girl in a drunk driving accident. They added some excellent layers of duality as Lisa remained selfish and spoiled in the midst of a tragedy and Anita conveyed concern and disgust all at once. It was truly a memorable scene.
5.) Kyle performed a monologue where he played an older man who is concerned for his wife as he has been watching her slowly go insane since their son died of AIDS. While a pretty melodramatic situation and one very different from Kyle's experiences, he stretched himself to bring us a believable and compelling character and story.

Well done, everyone! See you at the Christmas Party on Dec. 17th!

Chapter 3 Conclusion

p. 55-64

In the beginning of this chapter, Richie introduced what he refers to as the "leading strain" but we'll call it the superobjective. This is when you ask: What is my character trying to accomplish or obtain? The student questions him on this with regards to a superobjective of love when there are fight scenes. His response is a great tip.

"I would make them remember it. I would ask them to have it behind every curse, every quarrel, every disagreement."

Like all of our speaking pastors, he looks around for an illustration to make his point clear and sees a tree:

"First, the main trunk, the idea, the reason. On the stage it comes from the director. Second, the branches, elements of the idea, particles of reason. That comes from the actor. Third, the foliage, the result of the previous two, the brilliant presentation of idea, the bright conclusion of reasoning."

We won't address what the lame joke he uses to make fun of writers . . .

After he shares the vision metaphorically, they replay their conversation like a play so he can demonstrate practically what he means. He asks her to define her actions and objectives. She uses words like "complained, scorned, piled up evidence, reproached" these are the actions and objectives she uses to support her superobjective of trying to solve her problem of struggling with working on camera. He reminds her that it is crucial to describe her actions in verbs.

In a nutshell:

When you are in a scene where someone dies, instead of thinking "I am sad" think of all the different stages and ways people grieve (an action) and choose certain points/lines to "deny" or "blame" or "argue" or "accept".

This is the crux of method acting. We're finally getting in to the practical ways of using the system. When method actors get a script, they immediately grab a pencil. Yes, they write down notes from the director and record blocking direction, but that's not all. They make intentional decisions about what actions and objectives their characters choose in their minds that affect their behaviors.

He then compares it to a piece of music. The author gives you the lyrics but you have the create and perform the melody. The superobjective is crucial, but who wants to hear a song with only one note? That's why we try as many different tactics or actions as possible to try to achieve our objective.

So . . . 2 Questions:

What is your current assigned character's superobjective?

What are some actions (verbs) that you will use to try to achieve this objective?

(If you already performed your scene last time, choose the most recent character you played.)

See you Monday night! Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I am definitely thankful for all of you!

Coming Soon . . .

Last weekend we shot the upcoming media "The Stories That Keep You Awake at Night" where six parents sit around a campfire and tell "scary" parenting stories. It was a great shoot. Thanks to Janet, Lori, Mark, Sherry, Paul, and Jon for giving their all and staying up late! And thanks to Jeff and Cody for helping out at the shoot. It's a blast working with all of you! This hilarious media produced by Russ Nelson will be premiering the weekend after Thanksgiving. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Great job, Callenders!

Let's take a moment to stand in awe together at the talented Callender duo! Great job, Becky and Jacob! Also, thanks to Abby (such a talented family!), Heather, Meagan, Hunter and Taylor Stevens and Lauren for adding so much to the energy of "kidtopia"!

Lori already sent an e-mail to Becky and I:

"Hey Ladies,

I couldn't get the blog attachment to work, but I had to let you know that I thought today's media "kidtopia" was great. Becky, you have a talented boy there. Tell Jacob he rocked. I was truly impressed.

Lori"

Chapter 3: Dramatic Action

Could you imagine me trying to write a live drama where I attempt to recreate this moment?Lauren and I stand on the black stage with a bright spot light in our faces and huge images behind us of closeups on our faces? I tell Lauren about God painting the sky just like He did when he painted her face when she was still in my "tummy" (She's too young to know about the uterus, work with me here). But without the visual of this breathtaking sunset, it would be hard for the audience to really tune in a "get" the beauty of the moment and the lesson we both learned that night. Thus, I am thankful for the wonderful invention of still and video cameras.

Media is a great tool for our team. This chapter begins with the student complaining about performing in the "talkies" versus on the stage. This discussion is incredibly fitting since we are continually realizing that our media appearances are much more frequent than live. We are now noticing that we are only averaging one live drama to every five medias in a given series! This seems to make sense since we have these ginormous, mutant screens, but as the student is realizing, there is a whole different type of acting required. See if you can't identify with any of her complaints, especially if you've experienced a late night video shoot . . .

"I waited for an hour and a half. We started. This time three lines from the big scene; three lines--that was all. After that again a wait of an hour . . . .machinery, electricity, lenses, microphone, furniture, that is all that counts. An actor? Who cares? Acting? A miserable accessory . . . How can you look for rare moments of beauty? . . . Even when you find them they are separated, disjointed, cut, uneven . . ." (p. 47-48)

Thankfully, Jeff and our media team usually do their best not to make us feel as jaded as she does, but it is still sometimes challenging when you don't feel like you know everything about the media as a whole. But the cool thing about having a great media team is that we don't need to. We just need to know what our character is trying to accomplish in the given moment and trust in the vision of the producers and editors. Just look at the beauty and hilarity that occurred with all the elements coming together for Office Safari!

Many of us love the rush of live drama and love the community of doing weekends together, but our tactics for reaching our target are shifting. And that's one of the things I love about our church! We don't keep doing things because we like them, we adapt things to make things more effective for bringing people to Christ! So if you've been reluctant to see media winning out over live, listen to Richie's powerful argument on p. 51-52:

It is the "instrument that gives to the theatre the precision and scientific serenity which all other arts have had; the instrument that demands of the actor to be as exact as the color scheme in painting, form in sculpture, string, wood, brass in music, mathematics in architecture, words in poetry . . . It is the preservation of the art of the actor--the art of the theatre . . . Do you realize that with the invention of spontaneous recording of the image, movement, and voice, consequently the personality and soul of an actor, the last missing link in the chain of the arts disappears, and the theatre is no more a passing affair, but an eternal record?"

QUESTION FOR YOU:

How do you feel about live vs. media acting? What differences have you noticed? List some pros and cons for both.

The student continues to argue about the "flow of the part" and how she can "build up an emotion" with all the stopping and starting. That's when he tells her about the structure of actions, which I also refer to as objectives. You use these actions and objectives to create a map of where your character goes in the scene. It's like mapquest. Your ultimate goal is the destination but you have many different smaller goals and actions you have to take to get you there. For instance, Julia's goal this past weekend was to figure out what to do about her friend Chelsey. But she did it in a hundred different ways that made it interesting.


Assignment: Before you perform your scenes and monologues on Nov. 26th, make a map for yourself on your script. What is your overall objective? (Stan calls it the "superobjective" and Richie calls it the "leading strain".) What different tactics can you attach to certain lines or moments that will help you achieve your goal?

More on Chapter three next week! Keep those comments coming!

Opportunity for Michiana Women

Thanks to Heather Novak for the heads up on a cool writing/acting opportunity!

http://www.michianamonologues.org/

The great thing about taking steps toward Christ together at GCC is that it often leads us out into the community to share what God's done for us. I hope some of you ladies will take advantage of this cool opportunity! I already submitted some monologues online and am considering auditioning if I can fit it into my schedule. It's a great idea!

Bravo, Frankenstein Family!