Progress for No Country For Old Men

I think that my audition piece needs a lot of improvement. I think that the biggest thing that Alexis and I need to work on is creating tense energy and how to make our puppets act realistically. I also think that we need to create facial expressions for our puppets and how how to physically do that. Another thing that we have to achieve is how to hold our puppet. While it might seem simple, I often notice Shannok or myself letting my arm down. This will make our puppet look more like a growth than a person. Whenever I catch her or myself, I will say something (even in the middle of the scene) so that we can correct it. Its also a challenge to figure out how to make my puppet eat and toss a coin. I have decided that I have to learn how to flip a coin with my left hand and how I can make my puppet look like he is eating without being very distracting at the same time.

Right now, we are trying to develop the movements by paying attention to subtle actions with our puppets and by working with a metronome to monitor our pauses. This strategy is working for us and I think we are progressing in a steady pace. We work with little movements in our arm and hand to achieve what we want for our puppet, in a learning-styled process. It’s extremely fun, whenever Shannok and I stumble upon something new with our puppet, we have to stop what we are doing and show each other. It's amazing to realize everything that a simple sock puppet can do facial and expression wise. Even though it is taking longer than I would have hoped, I love getting to work with the puppets and explore a new type/media of acting.  

Yet this piece is helping me to develop as an actor. I can truly notice when I have to push myself in my scene by doing something new (such as being more eery and slow). While it is hard for me to get into the head of my character, I enjoy the challenge. I think this piece fits perfectly for what I wanted to do because of it’s challenging steps. My concrete goals are: 1. To be more creepy, 2. To develop tense energy between me and Shannok (which is hard for us because we are very comfortable around each other), 3. To work on my puppet’s facial expression, and most importantly, 4. To prove that puppetry can be a serious type of acting and skill.

So far I have really enjoyed working on this piece with Shannok. I think that the dialougue stands out because it is so uncomfortable to watch as an audience member. I hope that we will pick up the pace as far as progress, but I know that Shannok and I will put in tremendous effort to make the piece as best as we can.