ACTF Irene Ryans

[Bwaydreams01]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 4:30pm

Anyone going to ACTF for the Irene Ryans at Region II in New York Jan. 16-20?

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/26/05 at 10:51pm

I'm going to the one in Normal, Illinois Jan 10-15. Any other Region 3'ers here?

[Bwaydreams01]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 12:19am

Cool. What'd you get your Irene Ryan for? Do you know what you're doing for the rounds?

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 10:48am

I got nominated for playing Opal in Opal this past spring. It was our schools childrens theatre piece. Um right now I know I am doing a scene from Fat Pig by Neil Labute and for my "monologue" I am singing (part of) Say The Word by Kerrigan and Lowdermilk. You?

[Bwaydreams01]

Posted: 11/27/05 at 10:53am

I got mine for playing Mike in "A Chorus Line" last spring. So far I'm doing scenes from "Medea" and "How the Other Half Loves"... haven't decided on three selection yet.

[dramasuperman]

Posted: 11/28/05 at 11:23pm

Hey, I'll be at ISU for the region 3's Jan 10-15. What shows are playing? Wanna meet some crazy Eastern Illinois Theatre Junkies?

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 11/29/05 at 6:12pm

Region III! Maybe we'll actually meet this year, MC11.

I was nominated for playing the Stepsister Portia in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

I'm doing scenes from "Dinner with Friends" by Donald Marguiles and "Chapter Two" by Neil Simon (Do you have any idea how hard it is to find two contrasting scenes that fit the requirements that are 2F? One of the downfalls of my women's college.). And if hell freezes over and I end up in the third round, then I'll just do one of my Lady Macbeth monologues.

Last year I used "The Audition or Guilty in a Court of Love" by Jeff Goode, "Approaching Lavendar" by Julie Beckett-Crutcher, and some random monologue from a Jane Martin play that wasn't on the red list. I didn't move on to round 2. Region III is apparently the region with the highest turnout and the most competitive Irene Ryan nominees (the Midwest! who knew?), and only 10-15% of the nominees get moved to round 2, so I wasn't disappointed. And in the first round I somehow got placed in the musical theatre room, which I felt was kinda weird... they TRY to move a couple musical theatre people on for the sake of diversity, so I was pretty screwed from the start.

Break a leg BWD and MC11!

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/29/05 at 9:36pm

thanks FF! Yeah still looking for my second scene. I'm having such a hard time. oh well I know I'll find one. Good luck to you too!!

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 11/30/05 at 3:18am

I might be able to help you out with finding scenes. What are your strengths, and what is your partner like? And what is your other scenes like (so I can try to think of a contrast)?

For F/M scenes, look at the plays "Brilliant Traces" by Cindy Lou Johnson, "Chapter Two" by Neil Simon, "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, and "Frankie and Johnnie in the Claire de Lune" by Terrance McNally.

For F/F scenes, look at "Savage in Limbo" by John Patrick Shanley, "Laundry and Bourbon" by James McClure, "Antigone" by Socrates, and "The Odd Couple, Female Version" by Neil Simon.

Updated On: 11/30/05 at 03:18 AM

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/30/05 at 9:20am

I have a male partner. I'm looking for a comedic scene. My first one is from Fat Pig by Neil Labute and I am singing for my monologue. It's a song called Say The Word by Brian Lowdermilk and Kait Kerrigan from a show called The Unauthourized Autobiography of Samantha Brown. Both are very contemporary. Strengths would be, I don't know.I think I have pretty good comedic timing. I don't otherwise. You're awesome FF! Thank you so much!

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 11/30/05 at 8:04pm

So we're looking for a comedic, elevated-speech, female-dominant F/M two-minute scene...

Oh lord...
Give me a couple of days and I'll get back to you.

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 11/30/05 at 9:27pm

yeah, thank you so much FF. You're truly a treasure!

[pndmnd]

Posted: 12/1/05 at 10:26am

Did they change things? When I would go (for Region III) we had one scene and either a monologue or song. We did the same material for all three rounds.

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 12/1/05 at 4:16pm

Yes. The rules were changed last year.

Round 1 you have 3 minutes to perform a scene with your partner.

Then they cut down to about 10-15% of the actors they started with.

Round 2 you have 5 minutes to perform the scene you did in Round 1 and an additional contrasting scene with your partner.

Then they cut it down to 16 finalists.

Round 3 you have 6 minutes to perform both of your scenes and a monologue.




It really sucks because you have to really work hard to prepare things, and there's a good chance that no one will ever see 2/3 of what you've prepared.

This is my second year competing. My school only has 2-4 nominees every year, and no one in the past few years has even gotten to round 2. So this year, I talked with the other nominees, and we've decided not to bother memorizing the monologues. We know that there's no way that we will get to the third round (and if by some miracle we do, then we'll have a good 12 hours notice in which to memorize them). We'll polish our first round scenes, and memorize and block our second scenes just in case.

[pndmnd]

Posted: 12/1/05 at 7:56pm

Well, don't you at least have a monologue in your rep. that you already know and can use? Also, if you're a singer, do you not get to sing until the final round?

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 12:01am

no, you can sing in any round you want to. I'm singing for my "monologue" that would be in round 3. I just want to do my best and we'll see how far that takes me. It's all such a crazy crapshoot anyways, there's so many factors in who moves on. I'm gonna have a great time. I think my school is sending about 10 nominees or so.

[bially082]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 12:26pm

Last year at region 5 I made it to the final round. Didn't get the award though, but I got runner up, so if one of the two winners coudn't go, I would have gone to DC. Of course, they both went. But it was still fun, and an eye opener. I was nominated for Pastor Manders in GHOSTS. (See pic at left) :)

Updated On: 12/2/05 at 12:26 PM

[bially082]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 12:29pm

And as for singing. I didn't sing until the final round. I won that part of the competition. There was this girl that sang No Good Deed. I hopes she's not reading reading this because it was quite bad. Her acting was great, but then she kinda ruined it for herself when she sang that song.

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 2:23pm

Hey Flowery-If you read this you can stop looking or thinking about those scenes for me. My first one got nixed today so i'm starting over. But thanks so much! I may call upon your help again in the not so distant future

[pndmnd]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 3:36pm

Marin--you're so right about it being a crapshoot and their being so many other factors involved. One of my teachers was a judge for ACTF, and he told us that (at least with the old rules--this might have changed, too, I don't know) each room had a certain number of people to pass on (say 5), so if you were in a room with really good people, you might have been the sixth best, and not get passed on (which did happen to a friend of mine one year--and they told him, too). But, if you're in a room without very good performances, then five still get passed on, even if they're really bad. So, making it to semis is (to an extent) luck of the draw. I always viewed it as a fun week where I got to go seem some good shows and perform.

[marincrazy11]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 3:52pm

pnd-I feel the same way as you. It's a great to week to spend with folks, see some good theatre(usually), and have fun. That happened to a lot of our kids last year-where they were in a room where like 8 people could have moved on but they were in really good rooms. One of my professors was a judge in a bad room last year, she said they had a hard time finding 5 to move on. It's just a shame that there are those who get stuck in the good rooms and are just as good but don't move on. Oh well, it's so worth the experience!

[~FloweryFriend~]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 7:07pm

MC11 -
Here's my advice: Brilliant Traces and Macbeth. You can get strong, female-heavy scenes out of each of them, and the characters will contrast PERFECTLY. If I had a male partner, that's what I would do.

pndmnd -
I have monologues memorized, but they aren't 45 seconds long. You only have 60 additional seconds in the 3rd round, so you need something shorter than a minute. All the things I have memorized from classes, performances, and auditions are 1-5 minutes. Anyway... I'll worry about that in the unlikely event that it happens.


Other stories:

Last year my school-mates and I had the unfortunate luck of being placed in the musical theatre room (for people that were singing in the first round). The judges wanted to move MT people on so that there would be more variation in the competition. (One of them made it to Round 3... he was the guy who sang "All the Wasted Time" first)

The scene I used in the first round was about two roommates who were at an audition fighting over a monologue. When I went for feedback, each of the three judges told me that they wished we had spoken directly to them when the scene required us to make references to the people who were running the audition. This, of course, would have broken the unwritten rule to NEVER look at the judges. Two of the three judges gave me absolutely no other feedback whatsoever. The room was really strong, and they were looking for reasons to eliminate people, and that was the reason I didn't move on.

There were three other competitors from my school. The comments they got? One was told she was "too short to play that role". One was told she was "too pretty" and that her partner's naturally red hair was "distracting" and "took focus". The final one was told that her scene "didn't have enough conflict". Do any of these things have to do with acting ability?

This competition isn't just about acting. It's about learning the stupid things that go on inside judges heads. The judges have this weird little club and you have to play by their rules. If they need a reason to get rid of you, they go to stupid things. My advisor is a judge, so she's crazy about them. Like don't wear black on bottom, because it cuts you in half. Don't look at the judges. Wear a brighter color than your scene partner. Never match your scene partner. Ridiculous stuff.



Anyway. Break a leg. Have fun. Don't worry too much. :)

[bially082]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 7:48pm

Not having enough conflict is a valid comment. If there isn't enough conflict in the scene then your character doesn't have a strong enough opbjective to persue in that short of a time.

[pndmnd]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 9:07pm

Not having seen the scene, I would have to say that not having enough conflict is a valid comment, as vially said.

In terms of clothes, though, what we were always taught by our costume design teacher was to wear something that leads the eye to your face. So, for instance, a guy might where slacks with a white button down shirt and a medium to dark sweater. The light collar by the face would direct the eyes there. We also had to wear the same clothes on the second day if we advanced to finals.

[pndmnd]

Posted: 12/2/05 at 9:09pm

Double Post--I've never had that happen before! Updated On: 12/3/05 at 09:09 PM