Day 15

The Apprentices surprised Yo-el with a chocolate mousse cheesecake for his birthday! Happy (EARLY) Birthday, Yo-el!

Thanks Kyle W. Porter for making this happen!

Week 2

It’s the end of week two! This week has been so eventful, and the pace is only going to pick up before our Fourth of July break!

Last Monday, we had a meeting with Actor’s Equity Association to learn more about what it means to join the union. Meeting with Tom Miller from AEA & Boston actor Michael Dell’Orto was interesting and insightful, and definitely gave me perspective on my own acting career. Michael Dell’Orto reminded us the importance of the time commitment when it comes to choosing a life in the theater. He also suggested we…

So, in short, I learned a lot from our AEA meeting.

This week was not only a big week for the Apprentices, but also for the cast of the mainstage, Twelfth Night. They had their first readthrough and the Apprentices got to sit in and watch. I was so impressed by the professionalism I saw, not only by the actors but also by the entire production team. The vision that the creative team has for this project is remarkable. 

During the design presentation, I was captivated by Yo-el’s innovative choreography for the prologue. With the play starting out with a shipwreck, Yo-el has created choreography to tell the story of the storm that tears Viola and Sebastian apart. Watching him develop symmetry and the breaking it, I couldn't stop thinking of Trisha Brown's Sololos.

I've worked on this piece before, and I performed it with a guy who could've been my twin. I remember the feeling of being in perfect unison and then feeling the obvious moments when we were not.

But all this leads me to the English major in me. I’ve reread Twelfth Night several times now and I can’t stop thinking about elements. Earth, wind, fire, water…and if characters embody qualities of these elements throughout the play. And I think the most interesting character to look at through this lens is…Olivia. Yikes. If you didn’t know, I have a hard time with Olivia’s character…and I make that pretty clear to everyone. Maybe I’ll learn to love? Get ready for the English major analysis of Olivia coming shortly.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to more of my one on interviews with the Apprentices. If you haven’t seen “Wherefore art thou,” check it out! I’ve finished a couple so far, and I’ve learned so much!

My favorite experience this week? I’m constantly impressed by the work of my peers in Paul’s class. He asked us to draw pictures of our voices as we see them now, how we want them to be, and what hinders us. I don't want to get too specific, but these moments in class are so intimate and beautiful, I just feel lucky to be able to witness the work that I see. It's courage.

CC

Week 1 Pictures

Pictures from Week 1!

Introducing...

I'm introducing a new section of the blog! It's called:

Wherefore art thou,

This portion of the blog will consist of one on one interviews with me and all of your favorite Apprentices. 

The basic set up? I play Frank Sinatra and ask the Apprentices to reveal their secrets. 

Easy enough.

Kyle W. Porter's interview has been posted, so enjoy!

CC

Wherefore art thou, Kyle W. Porter?

Wherefore art thou,

Kyle W. Porter?

State your name.

Name is Kyle W. Porter.

What does the “W.” stand for?

That is my stage name. It is also the first letter of my middle name.

Which is?

Which is a secret.

Where’s your hometown?

Uxbridge Massachusetts

Where did you go to school?

I just graduated from Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts.

With a degree in?

A Bachelor’s in Theater…and a minor in English.

What attracted you to CSC’s Apprentice Program?

I had a lot of friends from Dean who had done the program before. They just told me about their experience and what they did and all the workshops and I was like “Wow, this is…this sounds really insightful and helpful.” And it was a lot of training that I never encountered at school or before, so I wanted something like that. To get exposed to new ideas.

And I’ve never been a New York person, I’ve always been a Boston person. So to work with a Boston company, in Boston, on one of my great loves, Shakespeare, is just, you know, the ultimate money shot, the pot of gold at the end…it’s everything.

Your great love. So what’s your favorite Shakespeare play?

Hamlet. For a lot of reasons. It was my first Shakespeare that I ever read. We read it when I was in the eighth grade and I got to be, read for Hamlet…for like the whole class. I got to be Hamlet for the whole thing. I did the death speech, “The rest is silence.”

And the characters in the play, they’re so interesting, because there’s so much going on. Not just with Hamlet and the great debate, is he really mad. But there’s a lot going on.

(Kyle spends the next 5 minutes giving an in depth analysis of every other character in Hamlet.)

Is your favorite character in Shakespeare from Hamlet? Is it Hamlet?

Of all the characters?

Of all the characters. Of all Shakespeare.

Of all Shakespeare? Ah, that’s a good one. Wow. Tricky question, Caroline.

If not him. It’s Hamlet, Dogberry. Dogberry really intriguing to me, I just love Dogberry. And the clown from Twelfth Night.

Curve ball. Now have you had any experiences this week that really inspired you?

You know. You were there in class when these things happened.

But from your voice.

Yeah, in voice, Paul, was it the first day of classes? When we just did the honest scanning of yourself and relaxing and investigating and telling how you feel in the moment and trying to describe it. It was just I never like had an experience like that and I can’t…the only way I can describe it is an out of body experience because as I was doing it I physically felt tingly. No really I feel like, you know when your foot falls asleep and the pins and needles kind of thing, it felt like that, but it was all the way up the length of my arms. And then Paul was trying to have me describe it, and I couldn’t describe it.

I feel really good and like everyone needs to try this, but I want to share this with people.

I said something like “I have something to say, and people are listening to what I have to say and it’s what I have to say and not what anyone else wants me to say. And that has weight and that has meaning and someone is out there actually listening to it and I get to share it with another person. And that is just, I don’t know how to describe that feeling, that tingly feeling.

I’ve never come close to anything like that. It’s what you dream about happening.

What character do you want to work on?

I have a Romeo monologue, if you can believe that.

Your favorite piece of advice. That someone gave you.

Two pieces. Never be afraid as an actor. As one. And be spontaneous. Explore the unknown.

I have this quote from a Chinese fortune cookie and it says explore the unknown.

Day 9: Snapchat

The Apprentices love Shakespeare and snapchat! 

Tonight they got to meet the rest of the cast and creative team for Twelfth Night at the first company readthrough and design presentation!

Week 1

Can you believe it? We’re at the end of our first week as Apprentices at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company. This week marked the beginning of our exciting journey, as we dived into explorations of movement, voice and of course, Shakespeare. But before I get too far into what I discovered this week, I think a good place to start is with an introduction.

My name is Caroline Casey and I graduated from New York University this May with a B.F.A. in Drama & English. While in school, I studied at the Experimental Theatre Wing as well as Stonestreet Screen Acting Studios. Between these two studios and the experience of moving to New York City, I learned technicalities of acting as well as how to trust my impulses. But with graduation approaching, I was feeling pretty lost as to what my next step as a young actor would be.

One night this spring, I had seen a production of As You Like It at Tisch. The beauty of the language and the relationships between the characters overwhelmed me. I nearly wanted to jump onstage to play Rosalind. Incredibly inspired, I grabbed my phone to explain this to my Mom but before I could dial, I saw an email from Adam. He offered me a spot in the Apprentice program. Having never studied Shakespearean acting before, I realized that this might be a new acting frontier I could explore. The program would let me work with text I had only studied as an English major. Without thinking twice, I emailed Adam that night.

And only a week into the program, I can honestly say how excited I am to be here. We’ve had inspiring movement classes with Yo-el, moving voice classes with Paul, and thought provoking discussions with Adam. In just one week, it’s incredible to feel and see the impact of this program on not only myself, but also the others around me.

As I figure out the format of my posts, I know I want to write about an experience each week. So for my first week, I think it’s appropriate to describe Yo-el’s movement class last night. After days of classes divided by section, this was the first time all 24 Apprentices were moving together again in space. As we were walking, I was so happy to see faces I had missed over the past few days. Yo-el tossed 3 tennis balls into the space and asked for us to catch and throw the tennis balls with our cores. As the tennis balls were moving through space, I realized my responsibility to the task, but also that it didn’t matter who threw the ball or caught the ball. Even though it was a movement exercise, it was also an exercise in trust. I knew the 23 other Apprentices would be there to catch the ball if I dropped it.

Which leads me to my favorite part of the program. The Apprentices. Not only are they hard working and thoughtful, they are inspiring artists who engage with this program passionately. They take me by surprise every day and only encourage me to delve deeper into the work.

Because of this, I think a large part of this blog will be dedicated to the work of my peers. Who better to write about?

Maybe Shakespeare.

CC