Notes on today’s acting class. Theatre 126. University of Kentucky. Fall 2016. Professor Matthew J Schneck. These incomplete notes are not endorsed or proofread by Prof S or UKY.
Perform a Poem
On Friday, Schneck gave us this homework:
Find a poem you like that someone else wrote. Fifteen to thirty lines. Memorize it. Answer Stanislavsky’s seven questions. Email it to me so I can take notes before you perform on Monday.
Today six people performed out of twenty in the class.
Four Poems
Years ago, Chase wrote a poem called Gorgeous. He performed it today and it rhymed1 and had rhythm and emotion and made me put my feet on my chair. Schneck always wants to trip us up and make us rethink our characters, so he brought Jada up and made Chase speak it to her as if she were his lover. This made tension and was fun to watch.
Caitlin shook a spear. The first time she performed it to us, the second time Schneck made her speak it to Summer about Summer. “You are not very pretty but I love you anyway” was the feel. An interesting switch up.
I performed How to be a Poet by Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry. First I just did it straight to the class and that was okay. Then Schneck tried putting me in a campfire circle giving the poem as a lesson for my friends to live by. That didn’t work, so he put me in the corner on a box, as a priest yelling this to the chapel. (He asked the chapel to chatter amongst themselves if I was too quiet.) That was pretty different, thanks professor!
And Jada rose. She did a really good job on her first performance and the poem she chose is pretty dope. Schneck’s modification: the whole class did hand drumming on our chairs where the volume represented how angry her words were. Very fun. Jada seemed complete master.
He used a Brooklynish accent. He rhymed orange with door hinge.↩