Any acting advice?

[JTF]

OK, here's the situation I find mice elf in: I'm taking classes at a community college. The only class that I didn't drop this semester is Acting II. The class was to be focused on Shakespere and I did the "To Be or Not To Be" monologue (Got a "B", I had a bad headcold or maybe woulda got an "A")

After the monologues were done, we had to pair up and do a scene. I have never done a scene before, other than a small no-lines part and a church play over a decade ago. I got paired with this woman who did an Ophelia monologue, and we are to do a scene from Hamlet. The problem comes in where we have only got the chance to read thru it TWICE in the past month. Until a week ago, she had never even looked at the scene, much less read it. This lead to a great reading in front of the class that went like this:

HAMLET: Soft you now - THe fair Ophelia. Nymph, in thy orisons, be all my sins rememb'red.

OPHELIA: Where are we? What's my line?

HAMLET: Right here, where it says "Ophelia." That is you and you read the line after the name.

OPHELIA: I know that!

So, other than the fact that we are not likely to get much practice time in before we have to perform this (about 3 weeks) The scene is mostly me ranting and her coming back with one sentence. I actually have most of the lines. I am having trouble remembering them. On top of it all, the period of inactivity and her not even contacting me (or returning any emails) made me not even want to do the scene or even work with her on it, but it looks like I'm stuck.

Any advice? (I'm mainly taking the class as a means to overcome stagefright. I really have no fantasies about being the next great thespian.)

[SweetLuchia]

JTF,

Man John I'm not an actress but if I were in your situation, I'd try and get a friend or a neighbor to practice with. Even if it's a guy, have them read [/i]her[/i] lines so that you can at least get a feel for how the scene should go-with any luck, she'll be practicing too so that when you finally do perform the scene, it works.

I'm sure you'd prefer to just practice TOGETHER but by the looks of it, you're not going to have much luck with that

That sucks man but it's also exactly what attracted me to Stand Up Comedy--you're completely ALONE! YOU are the writer, director, producer and performer! It's very nerve racking to put an act together. It takes A LOT of time, effort and patience. Patience, patience PATIENCE! Did I mention patience?
But once you go on stage and hear the laughter, it's worth every mila-second of it

[JTF]

SweetLuchia,

You ever do your thing here in the city?

BTW, we were supposed to practice today. She never showed. I've been trying to practice by watching the scene from a movie...