Well, this wonderful summer is coming to a close. Last night we had strike until the wee hours of the morning, but all 4 sets have been taken down and moved to storage.
I had such an incredible experience working for the Neil Simon Festival this summer. I learned A LOT about what it's like being an actor as my job instead of just for fun. I learned that it's not always very glamorous (sometimes you have to move your set on and off the stage each night, or participate in strike, or do your own costume laundry) but it's definitely worth all the hard work. And sometimes it is glamorous (sometimes you get to stay for free at some beautiful condos in Park City.)
I got to participate in post-performance talkbacks throughout the season as well, and it is amazing to get to hear back from the most important people in the theatre, the audience! Hearing how the shows impacted them and made them laugh and feel things...there's nothing like it. Just another reconfirmation that THIS is what I want to do with my life.
I love the theatre and I love acting. I'm so grateful for this experience and because of it, I'm one step closer to taking on the world!
Monday, August 10, 2015
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Opening Weekend!!
We opened, at last!! What a whirlwind this rehearsal process has been.
Of course, dress rehearsals and opening for Foreigner wasn't a very big deal. We just re-spaced the show for the bigger stage of the Heritage Center and made sure no one had forgotten any lines. Opening was wonderful and the audience seemed to love it as much as they did in Park City. Good to know we're still funny! ;)
The dress rehearsals for I'm Not Rappaport were a little more rough. Some people were still struggling with memorization and the way the show is set up, if you forget what happens next, you could easily skip over a large section of the script. The set also didn't get finished until last minute, so I only recently got to start practicing walking/sitting on it and climbing down the stairs off of it to do the fight choreography.
Besides all that, I think the opening went pretty well! Hopefully as the run progresses, memorization will become even more solidified and we will get more and more used to our set.
This was useful to me as I'm in training to be a professional actor because I learned that even professional companies sometimes have things that go wrong or don't get built in time, so working together as a cast and staying flexible and easy to work with is essential.
Of course, dress rehearsals and opening for Foreigner wasn't a very big deal. We just re-spaced the show for the bigger stage of the Heritage Center and made sure no one had forgotten any lines. Opening was wonderful and the audience seemed to love it as much as they did in Park City. Good to know we're still funny! ;)
The dress rehearsals for I'm Not Rappaport were a little more rough. Some people were still struggling with memorization and the way the show is set up, if you forget what happens next, you could easily skip over a large section of the script. The set also didn't get finished until last minute, so I only recently got to start practicing walking/sitting on it and climbing down the stairs off of it to do the fight choreography.
Besides all that, I think the opening went pretty well! Hopefully as the run progresses, memorization will become even more solidified and we will get more and more used to our set.
This was useful to me as I'm in training to be a professional actor because I learned that even professional companies sometimes have things that go wrong or don't get built in time, so working together as a cast and staying flexible and easy to work with is essential.
 |
| Me on opening night of I'm Not Rappaport! The show takes place in the 1990's, so I got to let my curly hair do it's thing! |
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Benefit Night
WHEW! We open our Cedar City run tomorrow!! How crazy is that?!
I wanted to post really quick about the Preview/Benefit Night we did this week. Every year, NSF does a preview night for all their show. Each play performs a scene from the show and actors can perform separate musical numbers as well, to show off the talent we have in our company. The best part is, all the proceeds from the night go to a few different local charities!
I participated in the scene from The Foreigner as well as sang "Much More" from The Fantasticks! I loved getting a chance to sing, because neither show I'm in is a musical, and I love singing.
It was also cool to see the scenes from the two shows I'm not a part of. It looks like we're going to have a very strong season, possibly the best NSF has ever had!
Speaking of shows I'm not a part of, I guess that's not necessarily true. I am featured in Chapter Two, one of the Neil Simon plays in the season. The main character has a wife that recently passed away and so the director asked me to do a photo shoot with him so he can have pictures of the wife hanging up around his apartment. So, technically, I'm a character in 3 shows this summer.
I'll do a separate blog post about dress rehearsals and opening weekend in a few days!
I wanted to post really quick about the Preview/Benefit Night we did this week. Every year, NSF does a preview night for all their show. Each play performs a scene from the show and actors can perform separate musical numbers as well, to show off the talent we have in our company. The best part is, all the proceeds from the night go to a few different local charities!
I participated in the scene from The Foreigner as well as sang "Much More" from The Fantasticks! I loved getting a chance to sing, because neither show I'm in is a musical, and I love singing.
It was also cool to see the scenes from the two shows I'm not a part of. It looks like we're going to have a very strong season, possibly the best NSF has ever had!
Speaking of shows I'm not a part of, I guess that's not necessarily true. I am featured in Chapter Two, one of the Neil Simon plays in the season. The main character has a wife that recently passed away and so the director asked me to do a photo shoot with him so he can have pictures of the wife hanging up around his apartment. So, technically, I'm a character in 3 shows this summer.
I'll do a separate blog post about dress rehearsals and opening weekend in a few days!
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Back home again
Well, we've been back in Cedar City for a little over a week now, and although I'm missing the tour life of Park City, it's nice to have a much lighter rehearsal schedule. I am also working my normal on-campus job, which is suddenly so un-glamorous! ;)
The first day back we had a company barbecue with all the actors, directors, crew, and Board of Directors for NSF. I moved into company housing and met my roommate, Melissa Nield, who will be performing with my in I'm Not Rappaport, the other show I am cast in.
Speaking of Rappaport, we started rehearsals for that as well! My role is much smaller in this play, so the memorization and time spent at rehearsal is less. This is a play about two old men, one Jewish, one African American, sitting on a park bench in Central Park. Throughout the play, they face and discuss the many difficulties of aging. I play Laurie Douglas, a young artist who spends much of the first act perching up on the bridge working on my art, with no lines. In act two, when I finally speak, the two old men (and the audience) learn that along with being an artist, I am also an ex-druggie who has substantial debts owed to a terrifying drug dealer called The Cowboy that she can't pay back. He threatens to kill me if I don't get him the money, and the climax of the play is reached when the two old men try to rescue me from him.
Doesn't sound as funny or uplifting as my other role, does it?
The biggest challenge I think I'll face with this role, is creating a character without many lines of dialogue and also learning the patience of sitting onstage for a long period of time with nothing to do but sketch (which I'm not very good at, by the way.)
However, those are challenges I'm excited to go after! Playing this role against Catherine is very exciting as well as I've always wanted to try repertory theatre.
The first day back we had a company barbecue with all the actors, directors, crew, and Board of Directors for NSF. I moved into company housing and met my roommate, Melissa Nield, who will be performing with my in I'm Not Rappaport, the other show I am cast in.
Speaking of Rappaport, we started rehearsals for that as well! My role is much smaller in this play, so the memorization and time spent at rehearsal is less. This is a play about two old men, one Jewish, one African American, sitting on a park bench in Central Park. Throughout the play, they face and discuss the many difficulties of aging. I play Laurie Douglas, a young artist who spends much of the first act perching up on the bridge working on my art, with no lines. In act two, when I finally speak, the two old men (and the audience) learn that along with being an artist, I am also an ex-druggie who has substantial debts owed to a terrifying drug dealer called The Cowboy that she can't pay back. He threatens to kill me if I don't get him the money, and the climax of the play is reached when the two old men try to rescue me from him.
Doesn't sound as funny or uplifting as my other role, does it?
The biggest challenge I think I'll face with this role, is creating a character without many lines of dialogue and also learning the patience of sitting onstage for a long period of time with nothing to do but sketch (which I'm not very good at, by the way.)
However, those are challenges I'm excited to go after! Playing this role against Catherine is very exciting as well as I've always wanted to try repertory theatre.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Look how cool!
Today I was featured on the Neil Simon Festival blog as the "Player of the Day"!
For some reason, seeing this really made it sink in that I'm performing with a professional acting company! Yes, it's still in Cedar City and one of my theatre professors owns the company, so I had a huge "in" at my audition, but if I can do this while I'm still in college, think about all the possibilities my post-college career holds!
For some reason, seeing this really made it sink in that I'm performing with a professional acting company! Yes, it's still in Cedar City and one of my theatre professors owns the company, so I had a huge "in" at my audition, but if I can do this while I'm still in college, think about all the possibilities my post-college career holds!
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Park City!
Hello again! Sorry I've taken so long to post, I've been caught up in Park City! We have our final show up here tonight and then we head back down to Cedar City after the show tonight to start rehearsals for the rest of the NSF season.
Park City is beautiful! I loved exploring during my free time. It is like a town in California that was somehow transplanted to the mountains of Utah.
The rest of rehearsals went well! We pulled this show together so fast, but everyone was somehow so prepared for opening night. There were a few emotional breakdowns (including from myself) but that is to be expected from such an intense process. In a way, the craziness of the past three weeks has really prepared me for anything in the professional world, because I've learned the stamina and healthy habits I need to start forming now in order to survive in any repertory theatre.
Our set is SO COOL, by the way! I am completely in love with it. Our set designer/builder really came through and created a quirky, adorable little Georgian lodge.
Opening night was probably my favorite performance we've had so far. There is no better feeling than performing a comedy for an audience for the first time. You remember how funny the script is and you get a boost of adrenaline and confidence when they laugh at anything you do, because it means you maybe actually know what you're doing!
 |
| The view from our condos! |
Park City is beautiful! I loved exploring during my free time. It is like a town in California that was somehow transplanted to the mountains of Utah.
The rest of rehearsals went well! We pulled this show together so fast, but everyone was somehow so prepared for opening night. There were a few emotional breakdowns (including from myself) but that is to be expected from such an intense process. In a way, the craziness of the past three weeks has really prepared me for anything in the professional world, because I've learned the stamina and healthy habits I need to start forming now in order to survive in any repertory theatre.
Our set is SO COOL, by the way! I am completely in love with it. Our set designer/builder really came through and created a quirky, adorable little Georgian lodge.
 |
| Not the best picture of me (far right), but you can kind of see the set and how cute it is!! |
I have really grown so close to this cast. I'm glad we still have a nice long run in Cedar City yet to come, because I'm not ready to say goodbye.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Park City Dress Rehearsal
 |
| Yay dress rehearsal!! (I get my own dressing room, how cool is that? Perks of being one of two girls in the cast!) |
I don't have much time to post, because it's in the middle of a show, but I wanted to upload this picture I took of my Scene 1 look. Look at those pearls and curls! ;)
Friday, May 29, 2015
First week down! Park City to go!
Sorry I haven't posted all week! This rehearsal process has been very intense! We have been going from 9am to 6pm every day. The show is blocked and everyone is (almost) memorized, including myself! There have been some bumps in the road, but overall I am really enjoying this process. I already love my cast so much and I'm really excited to get to perform with them all summer!
I've been really falling in love with Catherine, she is such a fun character to play. Sassy and sarcastic and bratty, but open-minded and kind as well. Her journey over the course of the play is really well-written and beautiful. I've been learning what this show is about through her, and I think it's about how everyone feels like outcast or "foreigners" for different reasons, and the only way to overcome that is by coming together. All the main characters in the show are outcasts in different ways, Catherine being an upper-class debutante now fallen and an orphan. But by the end of the show, they find love and support with each other, and through that they learn how to love themselves. It is a surprisingly powerful message for such an upbeat, comedic play!
But anyways, on to the biggest news!!
We leave for Park City on MONDAY! We will be staying in fancy condos near the performance space and we'll spend next week rehearsing onstage, which is really nice because we will be able to get a feel for the spacing and acoustics early on in our short rehearsal process.
I've never been to Park City before, so I'm also hoping for some time to explore!
I've been really falling in love with Catherine, she is such a fun character to play. Sassy and sarcastic and bratty, but open-minded and kind as well. Her journey over the course of the play is really well-written and beautiful. I've been learning what this show is about through her, and I think it's about how everyone feels like outcast or "foreigners" for different reasons, and the only way to overcome that is by coming together. All the main characters in the show are outcasts in different ways, Catherine being an upper-class debutante now fallen and an orphan. But by the end of the show, they find love and support with each other, and through that they learn how to love themselves. It is a surprisingly powerful message for such an upbeat, comedic play!
But anyways, on to the biggest news!!
We leave for Park City on MONDAY! We will be staying in fancy condos near the performance space and we'll spend next week rehearsing onstage, which is really nice because we will be able to get a feel for the spacing and acoustics early on in our short rehearsal process.
I've never been to Park City before, so I'm also hoping for some time to explore!
Saturday, May 23, 2015
First rehearsal!
Today was a very exciting day, because it was our first read-through as a cast!
So basically how this summer is going to pan out is that we are starting The Foreigner rehearsals today and rehearsing 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 2 weeks until we open up in Park City on June 11th. (Each year NSF tours one or two shows up to Park City and performs at their beautiful Egyptian theater.) We have a four day run up there and then we drive back down to Cedar City and start rehearsing the rest of the season. So for now, I can focus on one show, which is very nice!
I had such a fun time at the read-through today! I'm playing Catherine Simms in this production, and she is the leading lady of the show. She's a Southern ex-debutante and engaged to Reverend David Lee, who we find out at the beginning of the show got her pregnant. But she later learns David is not the man he claimed to be and she finds independence for the first time with the help of Charlie, a mistaken "foreigner" staying at the B&B lodge run by Betty Meeks.
I already know some of the cast because they are my classmates at SUU. Keaton Johns is playing Ellard Simms, my little brother, Henry Ballesteros is playing Charlie Baker and Nathan Smith is playing David Lee. The rest of the cast seems like a lot of fun and based on the read-through, very talented as well! The director is Clarence Gilyard, of Die Hard and Walker, Texas Ranger fame.
One thing I'm worried about (besides getting all these lines memorized) is learning a good and accurate Georgia dialect. I can do a basic Southern accent, but I know dialects vary depending on way in the South my character is from. Hopefully I'll be able to somewhat master it within the coming weeks.
Official rehearsals start Monday! We have a lot of work ahead of us in order to pull this show together in such a short rehearsal time, but with our cast I'm sure we can do it.
So basically how this summer is going to pan out is that we are starting The Foreigner rehearsals today and rehearsing 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 2 weeks until we open up in Park City on June 11th. (Each year NSF tours one or two shows up to Park City and performs at their beautiful Egyptian theater.) We have a four day run up there and then we drive back down to Cedar City and start rehearsing the rest of the season. So for now, I can focus on one show, which is very nice!
I had such a fun time at the read-through today! I'm playing Catherine Simms in this production, and she is the leading lady of the show. She's a Southern ex-debutante and engaged to Reverend David Lee, who we find out at the beginning of the show got her pregnant. But she later learns David is not the man he claimed to be and she finds independence for the first time with the help of Charlie, a mistaken "foreigner" staying at the B&B lodge run by Betty Meeks.
I already know some of the cast because they are my classmates at SUU. Keaton Johns is playing Ellard Simms, my little brother, Henry Ballesteros is playing Charlie Baker and Nathan Smith is playing David Lee. The rest of the cast seems like a lot of fun and based on the read-through, very talented as well! The director is Clarence Gilyard, of Die Hard and Walker, Texas Ranger fame.
One thing I'm worried about (besides getting all these lines memorized) is learning a good and accurate Georgia dialect. I can do a basic Southern accent, but I know dialects vary depending on way in the South my character is from. Hopefully I'll be able to somewhat master it within the coming weeks.
Official rehearsals start Monday! We have a lot of work ahead of us in order to pull this show together in such a short rehearsal time, but with our cast I'm sure we can do it.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Introduction
Hello world! This summer I will be participating in a very exciting thing that I've decided to use for my EDGE project as well. I wanted to document my experiences and writing it all down on a blog seemed like the best option. But first, a little about me!
My name is Amber James and I'm heading into my senior year at Southern Utah University, majoring in Theatre Arts and studying in the Classical Acting BFA program. I'm originally from Glendale, Arizona but I'm been living in Cedar City since I started school here. After I graduate, I'll probably move out to the Washington D.C. area and pursue the theatre scene out there for a while.
As I am set to graduate this coming spring, I wanted to spend my summer doing something in the professional world of theatre that would help give me a boost in my post-college acting career. That's when I realized, that's what the EDGE program is for!
Here is a summary of what my project is and what I'll be doing this summer (SPOILER: it's very exciting!):
Here is a summary of what my project is and what I'll be doing this summer (SPOILER: it's very exciting!):
As a current student studying acting,
the most important thing for me is to gain real-world professional experience
even before I graduate college. The Neil Simon Festival is a local professional
theatre company and I have been cast this summer in two different plays. My
idea for my project is to complete this acting internship, perform with this
company, and gain that necessary experience to graduate and become a successful
performer and get work in my desired field.
I will start rehearsing towards the
beginning of the summer and tour up to Park City with one of the shows I am in,
where we will perform for audiences in that area for one weekend. After that, I
will return to Cedar City and continue rehearsing for our local opening. Then I
will perform four times a week for the entire run, as Catherine in The
Foreigner and Laurie in I'm Not Rappaport. On top of that I will get
to participate in other company events as assigned by my supervisors.
Last summer I was a member of the Utah Shakespeare Festival acting company as an SUU intern, so it is extra amazing that I get to keep learning more things about professional companies while still in college! Rehearsals start tomorrow, so from here on out I'm ready for a busy, wonderful summer!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)