Looking back, Looking Forward

I finished reading Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen the other day. Even when I first started, I realized there was so much to acting that I didn't even know about. I knew that acting was hard, but I didn't know it was this hard. When I look at my actors and where they are, they're still nowhere near this level. By comparison, we are still just fooling around.

My goal this summer is to take this book and use it as our manual/textbook. The big challenge is time constraint. We only have 8 weeks to do training this summer. Summer is also usually jam packed with vacations and missions and other stuff. I'm not even sure who's going to be on the team next year.

One of the things that I definately want to do is to open up drama to everyone. The summer would be used, not only for training, but also as a long audition as well. It would give me a chance to see how people work and give me a better idea of their skill/talent level. At the end of the summer, those in attendance will have the option of staying on to perform during the school year.

Although CG.Drama has been around for almost five years now, it still feels like it's in its infant stages. There's still so much we're getting wrong and so much that needs to be done. I don't think we'll be a real established ministry for another two or three years.

Even though the team has been around for that long, we don't have much to sohw for it. Yes, there were the odd mimes here and there, but nothing bordering on real acting until this year. Even the stuff we do is just representation and not real acting.

Part of this is because we didn't learn to really act. We had all the training up to that point but then stalled. I had to take over and was thrust into a leading/teaching position before I was ready. I spent a year finding my footing and now am finally able to ramp up.

Still, we've had some great times. Sometimes when I think of CG.Drama, I'd rather do this than any other sort of real work. I guess, part of it is due to my love for movies/film. Knowing that I'll most likely never be able to produce a real movie (SupeRodd, Spanish Episode I, and Iron Simon don't count), I've "settled" on the stage. Not that the stage is bad, but there are limitations and other challenges to it.

Ultimately, I love writing. I love writing the sketches that we perform but wish I had other writers so I could take a break sometimes.

Sorry for the ramblings and incomplete sentences. Just musing to myself.