Community Theater Green Room Discussion Board: Earnest is cast...almost

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mrslifeofreilly
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Topic: Earnest is cast...almost
Posted: 9/19/06 at 11:27pm

Yesterday was first day of auditions. There was a huge turnout and we were there for a long time. A lot of talent, but not all suited to this show. I did find a Gwendolen, Jack, Ms. Prism, and Lady Bracknell. LB is going to be interesting to work with. The girl has a very strong and dominant personality, but I need to condition the moderness out of her and replace with some upper class 'Victorian-ness'.

Tonight was a much smaller turnout...and also less auditions that I enjoyed watching (to put it nicely). Found my Dr. Chasuble, Cecily (to the T), Algernon (a perfect dandy, Oscar Wilde would be proud), and a Merriman (had to cast a woman). Still looking for a Lane...just not enough men to go around.

Our first rehersal is Thursday, and boy have we got a lot of work ahead of us! Thanks to everyone who replied to my previous post (1st time director needs advice). There was some great advice.

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 3:10am

Best of luck - you will love it!
One little trick I use when an actor with a fairdinkum ocker accent plays a toffee nosed Pohm, with a plumb in the gob. Is to get them to highlight & annunciate all the vowels, also slow down their speech & pause more!
Which should be easier for your mob as they tend to stretch vowels anyway, especially with ?e? & offer a slight hiccup emphasising the balance of the word as though it were two. Vehicle [Vee -hicle] & Police [Poe-leece] comes to mind! The only vocal tweak they will need is to go up on the vowels & pronounce the continuance . but do it slower! {said the actress to the bishop!}

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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TonyDi
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 7:06am

Originally posted by Gaafa

an actor with a fairdinkum ocker accent plays a toffee nosed Pohm, with a plumb in the gob.

CAN I STEAL THIS?? I have no clue what it means or how to use it - but I love it. I might just spout this someday to confuse someone who hasn't a clue in hades what I'd be talking about. Well, neither would I but it's just a stitch. THIS, Gaafa, is much too deep for me but it just trips off the tongue so well. LMAO.

TonyDi

"Almost famous"

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Joan54
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 8:29am

Okay.....Joe don't tell us what this means and we'll all try to guess....I was raised in Canada ( doncha know) so I have a slight advantage as a cousin...A fairdinkum ocker must be an Austrailian......fairdinkum is an Austrailian ( or maybe New Zealand?) expression? A toffee nosed Pohm is an Englishman......( don't know what a Pohm actually is but I imagine a little yapping dog who shows his teeth) "a plumb in the gob" is simply a plum in the mouth? ("shut yer gob" has been heard in our family). I think "toffee nosed" is similar to our "brown-nosed".

My advice to lessen an American accent is to make them pronounce the constanants.......after I had been in New York for a few years my dad pointed out that I had dropped most of the "t's"....saying "winner" instead of "winter" for example.

"behind a thin wall of logic panic is waiting to stampede"

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Shatcher
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 10:36am

Gaffa, You crack me up!!!

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 11:58am

Go for it Tony.
She?ll be jake Joan, I?ll be ridgidig ?n true blue as a dinkidie chook raffle!
In actual fact although being still British, not having under gone the operation. I have no accent at all, not even a touch of the Kensington gore as such!
I lost a lot of the Geordie tyneside twang I was born with, touring in theatre there. The balance was neutralised all together, arriving on my Todd here, as a 14 years old.
Luckily I can do most of the 50 or so separate dialects & accents there are in Britain. With an ear to be able even place Aussie accents by state, along with our once suxth Kiwi state.

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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dboris
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 1:07pm

Originally posted by mrslifeofreilly

LB is going to be interesting to work with. The girl has a very strong and dominant personality, but I need to condition the moderness out of her and replace with some upper class 'Victorian-ness'.

One thing we did when my theater did this show was to do a night we called "finishing school". The actors just spent the night learning and practicing the mannerisms of the period, how to sit, how to eat, how to great people, etc. We ended the night doing an improv dinner party using everything we learned.

Dan

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Joan54
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 4:28pm

What a great idea...I'm going to use that one!

"behind a thin wall of logic panic is waiting to stampede"

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POB14
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 9:36pm

Originally posted by Joan54

Okay.....Joe don't tell us what this means and we'll all try to guess....

I decided long ago that Joe/Gaafa is not Aussie at all, but in fact is subject to simultaneously suffering from Tourette's, several small strokes, and the gift of glossolalia. I therefore suspect it means "The Kaiser is stealing my string."

POB
Old Bugger, Curmudgeon, and Antisocial B**tard

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Gaafa
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Posted: 9/20/06 at 11:20pm

Originally posted by dboris

We ended the night doing an improv dinner party using everything we learned.

Dan

Ah a Hyacinth Bouquet [Bucket] candlelight supper with Liberum ad arbitrium.
"Richard! My Royal Daulton with the Periwinkles".
G?done Dan!

Joe
Western Gondawandaland
turn right @ Perth.
Hear the light & see the sound.
Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"}
May you always play
to a full house}

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