Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC)

I am at the SETC Conference in Chattanooga, and have had a full day already!

My Highlights:
-My paper "The Effects of Acting on Actors" won the Young Scholars Awards at the graduate level, so I will read that on Saturday.
-I have a callback audition for summer work with Great River Shakespeare Company.
-I am cast in the Getchell New Play Award reading of Will Coleman's Helvetica.
-I am taking part in workshops with Kristin Linklater and Synetic Theater's Paata Tsikurishvili.

I am so excited about the chance to learn and mingle this week.

Presenting at SETC This Week

At the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) in Chattanooga this Saturday, March 7, I will be presenting a paper I wrote entitled "The Effect of Acting on Actors". The paper was selected as the graduate winner of the Young Scholars Award. I am excited to share this topic with others, as I think it is so important for us to start understanding more about how our characters shape our character, and about how to thrive as healthy actors, doing great work while leading rich lives.

http://www.setc.org/young-scholars-award-awards

Updated One-Minute Reel

I have updated my reel on my acting website. Enjoy!

http://www.elizabethbernhardt.com/reel

First MFA Casting/New Headshots

First off, thank you to my dear friend Mary Beth Johnson, whose beautiful blog you can find here, for photographing my new headshots.  She was so comfortable to work with, and we had a lot of fun shooting in a field behind my parents' house in Austin.  You do good work, Mary Beth.

Secondly, I want to announce that I was just cast in the University of Alabama's production of The School for Lies by David Ives.  I will be playing the character Arsinoe.  I am excited to sink my teeth into the first role of my 3-year MFA program, which just started this week.  The show will run November 18-24.

New "Sweet" Home: Tuscaloosa, Alabama

We arrived in Alabama last week, and are in the midst of settling in.  Classes officially start August 21, but are preceded by meetings, workshops, orientations, and trainings.  My time here will include a graduate teaching assistantship.

We will jump right in on Day 1 of class with auditions for the first semester's shows, which include David Ives's The School for Lies, Lanford Wilson's Book of Days, August Wilson's Seven Guitars, and Alex Timbers's musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.

Amid the craziness, I will do my best to keep this blog updated.  Check back for future developments!

Great Video: Harrison Ford on Acting

I think this 1-minute clip about an actor's vulnerability is wonderful.  It is from the 250th episode of Inside the Actors Studio.

Well said, Mr. Ford!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/495335

The Big Move/Voice Concert Video

We are getting ready for the big move to Alabama!  I am excited to get started in the MFA in Acting program at the University of Alabama, and looking forward to meeting the other students.  This fall I will be taking Stage Dialects, Theatre History, Period Acting Styles, and Singing.  Really, those are my classes?  I have to take them?  This girl is happy!

Being part of the cast of Godspell last month was a very special experience, and I will cherish the memories of it.

In other news, I saw that the video is online for the voice concert I was a part of here in Tulsa with The bART Center for Music.  Click here for the concert link.  My piece, Puccini's O, Mio Babbino Caro, runs from 53:27-55:43.

While I do not see myself pursuing opera in the near future, I learned so much from John Townsend, my voice teacher, through the classical foundations of voice.  And I have to admit, it was fun to sing a bit of Italian opera--it took me back to a semester I spent in Tuscany in college.

Enjoy!