Kateyn Rabak History Lesson

Katelyn Rabak performed, “History Lesson,” which was about a woman who was giving her last tour at Mount Rushmore, after her boyfriend had told her she was fired. Katelyn’s voice carried very nicely this time. Also, her beats were more defined, and differentiated. However, Katelyn has a tendency to fall into a certain inflection pattern from time to time. In regards to what we learned this unit, she used the 90-to-10 rule very well, and she positioned her imaginary partners downstage (and in a way that made sense). I wished she worked on her “need” more. She did very well at spewing out odd facts that would surprise people, but I didn’t feel like she was trying to get a reaction from them that would backfire on the touring company. To make the monologue more humorous, she could’ve added more physical gestures, and those would’ve helped her vary the moments. Overall, I believe that Katelyn had a solid performance, she just needs to push herself more so that she’s not just scratching the surface. Will Stimpson
I wasn’t able to see her first rendition of this monologue. However, in this performance I really noticed that her blocking lacked motivation. When she would move it was more like she did it out of discomfort for staying in a spot for too long, rather than to accentuate a point. Natalie’s big dilemma is that she falls into that “as is” actor trap. She tends to be one note, and expresses more than she experiences. What I did like in this performance is that she had moments where I felt like she was tearing down that wall a little. Another thing she needs to focus on are moments. She can’t continue having two modes: exaggerated and barely worth mentioning. Considering the shift in composure the character experiences in the monologue, Natalie didn’t play with that as much as she could