It has begun
Man, today was long. I got up at 7, got to work at 8, knocked off work at 4, went home and ate a quick dinner, left for Ft. Worth about 5:20, started my lesson at 6:50, left my lesson about 9:45 and finally got home at 10:50. That left just enough time to watch The Real World and The Osbourne’s before I updated my blog and got ready for bed. I’m worn out and my back’s a little sore ’cause I drove about 150 miles today.
As for acting, the first lesson was, as I expected, an introductory lesson where we talked about where I’m trying to go, what I hope to accomplish and what I want to focus on–technique or the art of acting. We decided we’d spent pretty equal time on both, but put more time into the art up front. We talked about beginning to look for an agent in about three months in hopes that I’ll have an agent in six months. That’s all good and well, but first we gotta’ see if I can act.
This week, we’re reading a scene from Swingers (the one where Trent talks Mike into going to Vegas) and I’m basically supposed to mark up the script and try to be prepared for a read next week. I’m focusing on learning the lines well enough that I can deliver them without thinking about the lines themselves, so I can concentrate on reacting to the way the other character delivers his lines. As I understand it, I need to learn lines well enough that I can say the words without thinking. An analogy that comes to mind is singing while playing the guitar. It took me a long time to be able to do both and the way I did it was ultimately pretty simple: I learned the guitar well enough that I could play that part without thinking about it, so I could focus almost completely on singing over the melody I heard coming from the guitar. If I learn my lines well enough, I can focus almost completely on the situation and what’s happening in the scene.
I guess I’ll just have to see how that goes. I’m pretty nervous, but I think that’ll subside as I get more comfortable with this stuff. For now, I need to get comfortable with my pillow as I’ve gotten less than 12 hours’ sleep over the past couple nights.