Being in a successful Off-Broadway play for a few months is equally exciting and tiring, but then add the fact that you are playing a teenage soccer player- yelling, running and stretching all over the stage and you have a recipe for utter exhaustion! Amazingly though, Paola handled it all with ease and grace. Check out what CWVS student Paola Abreu learned from her experience in the cast of THE WOLVES at Lincoln Center.
What did you learn about yourself and what your body needs over the course of rehearsals and performances?
It’s funny. I think that every time I do a show I relearn preparation skills. So I’d say that I was reminded that every day is different; some days my body felt warm already, and all I needed was a quick foam rollout and lip trills and I was ready to go, other days I would need a solid 20 minutes to reset, breath, and get juicy. But everyday asked me to tune in to what was necessary to be present for the work to be done. Same goes with the cool-down (which we performers often forget to do). After some shows, icing and self massage was super necessary, some shows a hot tea and a warm bath, some shows I just needed to go out and dance.
How did your vocal and physical training/preparation support you in the run of THE WOLVES?
Oh well vocal and physical training is acting training. There is no way that I would have been able to efficiently, wholly, and generously tell this story without the gifts training taught me. The voice and body work together. After all, your voice is in your body! When your body is warm and ready, often so is your voice. Learning how to tune in and bring myself to relaxed, attentive openness allowed me to be a vessel for the words and the story to come through me, rather than forcing things to happen the way I think they should. If you have been blessed with a solid piece of writing, the way that Sarah DeLappe blessed this script, then the work is already done. You just need to be able to get your body, heart, and brain to a place where the work can easily move through you and shape you throughout the rehearsal process. Then when the play starts running, the rest of the work is being present, open, generous, and trusting that the story already lives in you, and nothing more need be done.
Read the review of THE WOLVES here.