Woman in Mind: a cast member point of view

 

 

Choosing this play was a very complicated process. First we were doing a musical, but that didn’t work out, then it got changed to another musical, which again didn’t work out and finally it morphed into a fine piece of theatre. The rehearsal process is going really well. We had good run throughs the first week. The week of the 21^st we had one of our cast members gone to ACTF and it was a little rough with him gone. We were all hard at work getting our lines memorized, perfecting our blocking, and getting used to interacting with each other. We’ve all been having fun with the lines, making a few jokes and getting a good laugh at some of the lines. It makes the whole process easier. We’re still getting our props together, but that takes time of course.

 

My character, Muriel, is a very needy character, but I pictured myself as her as soon as I read it, not that I’m too needy or anything. She’s a character who wants to be the center of attention; she wants everyone to hear her problems and pay attention to her at every second. She’s a widow who doted on her husband and mother who probably never got the recognition she deserved. She also lives with her brother and his wife and basically just wants attention. She tries in vain to be a good house keeper, but fails. She also tries to contact her dead husband to know avail. The challenges for me are to act needy and try to distract my brother (Gerald) away from his wife, and then make him listen to only me. I don’t consider myself a needy person so that’s difficult for me.

 

I think some of the biggest challenges for the entire group are getting the lines down, picking up cues and getting used to the props. We haven’t started with the props yet and there are quite a few places where we need them, but once that gets straightened out I think it’ll make things easier. But like I said before, it’s lines and cues, mostly anticipating the line right before ours. If you don’t pay attention to the script and what your partner is doing, then you’re going to lose it. Also entrances are an issue, especially for me. I’m getting distracted by other things, my computer mostly, and not anticipating the entrance. That’s a thing that should be easily remedied.

 

As stated before, this play was supposed to be a musical, but things didn’t really work out. The cast was already set so Bob and Jeremy were just going to use the same people; I’m sure if would have been difficult to recast the show. I was originally going to be one of the assistant stage managers, but Bob sort of sent me an accidental email, thinking I was part of the cast. I was of course glad to accept a role; I love acting. We had the first meeting and we were given a script and asked to read through it and if we still wanted to do it we accepted a role. Two of the original cast members for the musical dropped out due to personal reasons so we had to recast. Bob actually wanted our opinions on who to cast which was great because he valued what we thought. We started brainstorming on who would be right to cast as Rick and Gerald who were interesting characters as were all the characters. We shouted at a few names, one in particular stuck out (Steven Van Overbeke). So we auditioned three guys and after seeing their auditions chose our Gerald and Rick. So we had a full cast. Another surprising fact was that Bob kind of let us choose our roles. After we read through the script, he asked us who we would like to be and our thoughts almost perfectly matched up with Bob’s. It was scary! I thought it might be nice to be Susan, but I didn’t know if I could handle a lead role just yet (I’ve never done one before), so I opted for Muriel. She’s really quite funny and desperate and not so much a central character; she’s more of a supporting role, like a side character, which is nice and easy for me. Well not exactly easy, but not as involved, like Susan. I hope everyone will enjoy this show; it’s another good one I’m adding to my belt.

Elizabeth Simon

Woman in Mind

Hi all,

It is once again Steven here to let you know that the next few posts will be about the play Woman in Mind. This first one is from one of the cast members Liz Simon. It details her thoughts of the whole rehearsal process from beginning to now.

Moving on, this will be the third show of our season here in the Theatre Department and it will from February 12th-16th at 7:30 pm with the box office opening a 7:00pm. Tickets are $2.00 for Waldorf Students, $5.00 for students and seniors and $7.00 dollars for adults.

Here is a brief explanation about the show: It is a show that is revolves around a woman named Susan who has an accident It is a comedy as well as a psychological mystery. Unfortunately, I can not give too much else away for fear of ruining the plot. So if you want to know what else happens then you will have to come see the show.

So, if you need something to do during the week again, come check out our next play Woman in Mind, by Sir Alan Ackybourn February 12th to the 16th. It is sure to be enjoyable

Steven Van Ovebeke

Head of Communications for the Waldorf Theatre Department

Made the paper and Theatre Application Online

Hi all once again,

This is once again Steven here to give those reading this some miscellaneous information on what has happened in the Theatre Department recently that has not been related to people yet.

The first thing is that the Theatre scholarship form has now been put on-line at Waldorf College’s Website. All one has to do is click on the Apply for a scholarship on-line link, and it will open the scholarship form that is in Adobe PDF format that you can fill out and then send in. For those that are interested here is a link to the site:

http://www.waldorf.edu/finearts/theatre/theatre.htm
Just follow the directions above by clicking on the Apply for Theatre Scholarship online. Then, just fill it out and send it in with a recent photo of yourself. On the Theatre Department’s Homepage you can also learn some biographical information about the Theatre Faculty, and see what and when our next shows are. You can even download and print off a season ticket order form. There is also a link to this blog on there as well.

The other random piece of information that I wanted to let you all know is that the Theatre Department made our town’s local paper the Forest City Summit’s website for our Vintage Clothing Sale, even a picture of Thor, our viking who showed spirit for the Theatre Department’s Vintage Clothing and Costume Sale by being clothed in a pink dress had his picture taken, and that was put up on the newspaper’s site. Thor being put in a dress did cause a couple people to do double takes as they were driving by campus during the week that the event was held.

If you are interested in the story here is a link to that story here as well:

http://www.forestcitysummit.com/articles/2008/01/18/latest_forest_city_news/latestnews04.txt

Well that is just some of the random things that have been going on during the past couple of weeks of craziness that always comes with the start of a new semester. I hope all of you have a restful weekend, and I hope you all stay safe as well.

Until the next post,

Steven Van Overbeke

Head of Communications for Waldorf Theatre Department

Vintage Clothing Sale

Wouldn’t you like clothes like this

Hey guys,

Once again it is Steven writing another blog to let you all know that today and tomorrow the theatre department will be having a vintage clothing sale with insanely cheap prices. They’ll even take any offer with in reason for the clothes that on sale so please stop by the theatre shops today and tomorrow from 3-5 pm and buy some new clothes. For those that do not know where the shops are stop by the theatre office suite and someone will take you down to where the sale is being held.

Steven Van Overbeke

Head of Communications for the Waldorf Theatre Department

KCACTF Again

I’m really looking forward to being able to showcase my talents at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival in Omaha, Nebraska in a few weeks. I’m very excited to spend the week with my friends from Waldorf and see friends from other colleges, as well as make new ones. I was always heavily involved in Speech competitions in high school and have attended the Iowa Thespian Festival; they were all so much fun! One of my cousins has been to ACTF in the past and auditioned for the Irene Ryan scholarship. He said it was a lot of fun and just to make the best out of everything that happens, which I’m going to do. I’m really excited about meeting new people. It’s not just about me going to audition for a scholarship; it’s about making new friends and hopefully seeing some great shows and learning more about theatre in general. It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to actually get nervous, which doesn’t happen very often when dealing with theatre, because the festival is getting so close. I want to send out a quick thank you to Dr. Bob AuFrance and Professor Jeremy Fiebig for believing in me, being fantastic directors/teachers and helping me to choose my scenes. I couldn’t have possibly done this on my own and they’ve both been so helpful.

I’m very blessed to have such an amazing acting partner, too. I feel privileged to have Chris Parcher to share this wonderful experience with. Chris has been a great friend of mine since the beginning of the school year and it’s very easy for us to act together; it helps when you’ve already got that special bond with someone. I’m looking forward to acting alongside Chris for many years to come. I think it really helps to have somebody you can trust and share things with for this festival to go along smoothly. I’m excited for people to see my talents, but also Chris’s and Manny Elliott’s and Katy Snow’s talents, as well. I was so happy for Manny with he got nominated for the Irene Ryan scholarship; he really deserved to. I know that we’re sort of “competing” against each other for it, but, honestly, if Manny got it over me, it wouldn’t bother me one bit. Manny deserves it just as much, if not more, as I do. Katy’s also a very talented performer and deserved the spot as a partner. This next week will be hectic while getting things finalized and ready for ACTF, but I’m so incredibly excited for it all! I mean, a week off from classes, being around amazing friends, acting alongside some of the best, and meeting a ton of new people. What better experience is there? I can’t wait for this festival to begin!

Jessica Schiermeister

KCACTF

Hey all again,

I am just here posting a note about the post I am putting up in a few minutes. This next post is by Jessica Schiermeister, one of our nominees for the Kenndy Center’s American College Theatre Festival about her feelings on the festival and what it is like to be nominated. I hope you enjoy it.

Steven Van Overbeke

Head of Communications for Waldorf Theatre Department

New Semester

Hello again all,

This is once again your friendly blog administrator Steven Van Overbeke saying that I hoped you had a wonderful and restful Holiday Season. We here at the Waldorf Theatre Department are already hard at work for the new semester that started just this past week, and what a week it has been!

In this past week we have had our musical of Putting it Together, by Stephen Sondheim switched into the play Woman in Mind by Sir Alan Ayckbourn. Then, following that, we then had emergency auditions for this play in order to fill two roles. As to who was cast in said roles one was Jason Homard, a freshman who will be playing Gerald,and myself Steven Van Overbeke, who will be playing the protagonist’s son Rick.

The next thing on the agenda of this crazy week was the auditions for the following shows True West, which is the main stage show and three other student directed shows Mint, Pillow Man, and Two Rooms. These shows excluding True West, by Sam Shepard are all part of an event that the Waldorf Theatre Department decided to do this year called Three-atre in which those three shows will all run with a different one going each night the week of February 24- March 1st.

For those who do not know what any of those shows are about fear not I will be putting up a blog either by me or one of the other people that are involved in the shows that will give people a brief synopsis of each play including Woman in Mind.
There is one other thing in the department that we are now focusing on that being a regional and national event in theatre known as KCACTF or the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival. What this is is a festival at which college kids involved in theatre that are nominated by a judge or their college go and perform and they can win awards and scholarships. Along with that this also a place where a person is able to get connection to either internships or they are even able to find work in summer stock plays which are plays that are put on during the summer here.

Now, as to why I bring this up Waldorf for the past several years has been participating in this festival. This year as well is no different. We had two people in the Theatre Department at Waldorf be nominated. They were Jessica Schiermeister, who had the role of Feste in Waldorf’s production of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare and Immanuel Elliot, who played Malvolio. These two along with their partners Chris Parcher who was Sir Andrew Augecheek in Twelfth Night and Jessica’s scene partner, and Katy Snow who was also in the show as Mariah and Manny’s scene partner will be traveling to Omaha Nebraska in order to compete in the Regional Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival for Region V from January 21s through January 26th. To these four I say break a leg on your scenes.

So, that is what the first week of the new semester here at the Waldorf Theatre Department has brought us. In three simple words I can sum up what this week has been for us here in the Theatre Department: Crazy and Hectic.

In closing I would to say that I hoped everyone had a safe week, and to see you for our next post.

Steven Van Overbeke

Head of Communications for Waldorf Theatre Department