Oleanna

First off, I want to apologize for neglecting the blog. It sucks I know. I was doing a David Mamet play called, "Oleanna". I went very well. Initially, I was strugglin with the part but I eventually pulled it together. I'm sure how many of you are familiar with Mamet's work or have actually performed it. It actually made me question whether or not i even wanted to act anymore. i thought age was just kickin my butt and my mind was going. My younger co-star had no problem with it. She had it memorized weeks before I did. I then realized my problem. I didn't get his style of writing. My theory of acting is like this: The actor gets a line like, "I love my dog." A good actor can take that line and make it into enough action, emotion, movement, and expression to warrant 10 pages of writing. In the case of Mamet, the actor get ten pages of dialogue and through his ability he is supposed to condense all that verbiage and dialogue into the phrase of, "I love my dog." It was a true test of my "chops". After pulling it off in an effective performance, I now feel confident saying I have them. Now that I am freed up on time and my stress level is considerably lowered, I'll be back to posting regularly. If any of you have read the show, Oleanna, I think you owe yourselves. For the conversation it sparks alone. It presents the idea of a Learning Hierarchy. A theory that teachers are often abusers of power and the idea of education and teaching is one of Have & Have Nots, I know & You Don't, I have the power and What I say is right & You must listen because You know nothing. It is an interesting concept. I don't believe that teachers feel this way, but I sure that this mentality exists but I've never encountered it to the extent of the character I portrayed. This show also showed me that there are several people in the world who have serious issues with teachers and school. I'm surprised by this. Do any of you have experiences that have shaped your attitudes toward school, teachers, or the education process? If so please share them. I am amazed how much of an impact that one bad teacher or one traumatic incident can have on an institution that naively put so much stock in and found so much comfort with. But that's just my opinion though, and who the hell am I?