8/27/09

Thursday, August 27

My self-imposed bedtime of midnight seems to be not working out as well as I'd planned. It's the third day of school, and I'm totally going to miss it. Oh well.

MOVEMENT

We started by doing the first stage of "Little Bears" again, where you sink into breath with a partner and try to share physical impulses on your hands and knees.

I was paired with Killer first. We got into a shared breath pretty quickly and stayed with it through most of our time. We were pretty in sync, including with a negative thing: tension in our thumbs (how random, right?).

Next, I was put with D-Train. We thought we were in sync with breaths right away, but then we were wrong, so we shook the etch-a-sketch and started over again. After that, our impulses seemed huge. We sort of collapsed together, and then rose again. Movement Professor said that she wondered if we inhaled together after the collapse (which would've been the preferred way of doing things).

After that, we moved into the next stage of the game. I would call it "Shelterer and Sheltered". Movement Professor calls it "Shelter/Sheltie" (because she says that "Sheltie" makes her laugh. Big Show pointed out that it was like the breed of dog). Basically, the partners are still following each others physical impulses, but in a way where they search for negative space. Without touching one another, they switch off so that one person's body is "sheltering" the other person's. The journey between the shelter poses is just as cool as the poses themselves.

If I remember correctly, I was partnered with Iceman first, and then with Thrill. They not only have different body types and different heights, but also different movement vocabularies. After watching all sorts of pairings of my classmates, it really seemed like the possibilities were infinite.


VOICE
Today, we reviewed all the tremor positions that we didn't get to yesterday: Cobra, Camel/Arch, Bow, Pelvic, and Standing.

Voice Professor says that we have to be aware of the effects that the different positions have on our bodies. Some people don't get a tremor in the Camel/Arch, but it might really open up their breathing. Some people might be able to stay in the Bow for large chunks of time (i.e. me), but it might make their backs hurt the next day. It's important to recognize how each tremor works for your body so that you can make better choice about how to use them.


ACTING
Acting Professoressa says that one of the most important things that she hopes to instill us with is a good understanding of how to consistently "land" our lines (have energy all the way through the line, and make sure it's in an arc that will really reach the partner).

We started with a new version of a status game. One person was High Status, and was sitting in a chair (and had some activity or reason to be sitting in the chair). The other person, Low Status, had to enter the room and attempt to get the High Status person to get up from the chair.

D-Train and I went first. I decided to be his servant, and I said there was a grease fire in the kitchen, and we needed his help. I did eventually get him out of the chair (albeit after he put up quite a battle and asked "how much do I pay you?"). Acting Professoressa told him "Here's my note: don't play a prick." She said that her big note for me was that I lost some of the urgency of the fire as I was trying to talk him into coming with me.

We tried the exercise again. The second time, I walked out and said, "Were you expecting Barack Obama?" I then proceeded to tell him that appeared that the President had just arrived, and that there were Secret Service around, and a black car with a presidential seal outside. I said that he should come to the window to look at it. He got out of the chair. Success!

Later, I played the high status person. I was writing, when Thrill walked in slowly and carefully and said, "Don't move. Don't get out of the chair." He then said that there was a bomb underneath my chair, and that it had to have weight on it so that it wouldn't go off. He said that "they" wanted me out of there and had sent him to put his weight on the chair until they could disarm the thing. Slowly and carefully, we changed who was sitting in the chair. Acting Professoressa said that it was good, but that she couldn't understand why I had so easily believed that there was a bomb under my chair, or that I would trust this random man walking in whom I didn't seem to know.

Here's the full list of how things worked out (Low Status person listed first):

1. Me + D-Train: Fire in the kitchen.
2. Me + D-Train: Barack Obama has arrived.
3. Iceman + Wifey: Claude, her hairstylist, was ready for her.
4. Newbie + All-the-Way: A detective and police officers were downstairs with a warrant and had towed All-the-Way's car.
5. Killer + Big Show: Acting Professor (from 1st year) was in the next room and wasn't breathing, and someone needed to call 911.
6. Killer + Big Show: Killer hurt his back trying to move a box and needed help. When that didn't work, Killer played the sympathy card until Big Show came over to comfort him.
7. Two-Shots-Up + O.D.: Two-Shots-Up was a building inspector. But O.D.'s reason for staying seated was that he was an expectant father on a bus bench who needed $5 to get to the hospital. They couldn't resolve that conflict.
8. Two-Shots-Up + O.D.: Two-Shots-Up needed O.D.'s help to find a missing jewelry box full of expensive heirlooms that his dead father left him. O.D. was in the chair wanting to be alone to grieve.
9. Thrill + Me: Bomb under the chair.
10. Big Show + Iceman: Big Show announced that Iceman had to leave because he was clearing out the room so his bosses could hold a meeting in it. Iceman said he had a rehearsal there, but he eventually got up to try to hash it out with Big Show's bosses.
11. D-Train + Thrill: D-Train said that Thrill's sister had arrived with his nephews in tow. He then said that Thrill's sister had just left her husband, had a black eye, and seemed upset. Thrill called his sister, who was fine, and fired D-Train. It didn't work out quite right.
12. All-the-Way + Two-Shots-Up: All-the-Way fainted and Two-Shots-Up got up to see if she was okay.
13. Wifey + Killer: Wifey was Killer's servant, and declared her love for him. He laughed it off.
14. O.D. + Newbie: O.D. said "I love you". Newbie, the High Status person who was sitting, said she was waiting for the ladies room and needed him to see if it was free. It wasn't. Strangely, he couldn't get her out of the chair even though she seemed like she wanted to get out of it.
15. O.D. + Newbie: Newbie had just had back surgery. O.D. told her the chair she was sitting in was broken and needed repair. He brought over a new chair and helped her to stand up.


Only one Yin Yang exercise had time to start, and we didn't get very far into it. Big Show + O.D. were brothers whose father was in a coma. Big Show wanted to take him off life support, but O.D. refused. O.D.'s current life need was preparing to propose to his girlfriend. Big Show's new information was that their father had just been declared brain dead. They're going to try it again tomorrow.

Our homework is to:
- Make a list of 5 goals for next year
- Find 5 examples of antithesis used as a rhetorical device in The Greeks.
- Compose 5 examples of antithesis used as a rhetorical device.

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