Thursday, August 28

I got to school this morning around 8:45am. I left school around 8:45pm.

I'm pretty tired, but it was a good day.

In Movement, we started with our 5 minutes of jumping rope (although I think that "5 minutes" is suspect... it feels like far longer, and we made it through two full songs...), and then went straight into running laps. I think everyone is having leg pain of some sort as a result (I'm feeling it in my ankles and heels). We turned in our "personal injury report" (I just wrote about my back pain, TMJ, and stress stomachaches). We have a test tomorrow over "The Second Circle" by Patsy Rodenburg, which I haven't finished reading. Wish me luck.

In Voice, we started the "destructuring" process, through something called "tremoring". If you saw it in action, you'd think we were all delving into lunacy. It's actually really neat, but trying to explain it doesn't serve anything. Basically, you put your body into unnatural positions in order to induce shaking. It helps free up your breathing from learned behaviors. We're in the very early stages of learning it, so we're not shaking very much yet. I somehow managed to hurt my back when I was coming out of "child's pose" (like in yoga... it's a rest position, and there is NO reason that I should've hurt myself from it. I'm obviously talented in the self-destruction department). We have a test tomorrow on our first two FitzMaurice packets.

In Acting, we began to explore our space with the quality of flying and freedom. It was pretty much the best class ever. About 9 of us were just running around the room acting like 6 year olds (the others had different interpretations). I love re-entering states of child-like wonder, and that's exactly what we were encouraged to do today. We also had an exercise in which we rediscovered an object in the room. I picked a table, and by the end of class, I had named him Gino and felt a deep emotional connection with him. I know that sounds nuts, but I seriously cared for that table. I kind of miss him now, actually, as bizarre as that may be.

Textual Analysis wasn't nearly as intimidating as last time. We discussed our first reading of "Poetics" by Aristotle. At one point, we were on the subject of how Aristotle said a play was structured, so I said, "but that's using the assumption that you're dealing with a well-written play and a good playwright." That ended up being a far larger comment than I had anticipated, and led into an intense tangent. It's fascinating being surrounded by intelligent people. It feels like it's been so long since I've been under the shelter of academia, and I missed it. At my core, I am a student.

We had our first Tech class today from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. By that point, my whole class was exhausted and loopy. Luckily, we were only going over basics and getting a tour of the technically oriented parts of the theatres (catwalks, the booth, dimmer rack, storage spaces, and the like). We all wrote our technical experiences down and wrote our preferences for future assignments. I think I wrote that I preferred being a stage hand, working costume crew, or assistant stage managing (over house managing, light board operator, sound board operator, etc.). We'll see what happens.

Off to go study for tomorrow's tests!

~A~