Thursday, February 4

STAGE COMBAT WORKSHOP
We've now blocked our entire exam fight, which is cool. In order to do so, we had to review safe ways of falling, elbowing, strangulation, throwing, etc.

The fight goes kind of like this:

- Person A pushes or shoves Person B.
- Person B pushes or shoves Person A.
- Person B slaps Person A with their left hand, and Person A does a clap knap (they use their hands to make the sound of the slap)
- Person A backhand-slaps Person B with their right hand, and Person B does a clap knap.
- Person A walks past Person B and bumps their shoulder as they go by.
- Person B puts their upstage hand on Person A's downstage shoulder to stop them.
- Person A pivots around, and raises their upstage arm to meet Person B's extended arm, and then throw it off.
- Person A uses their right (upstage) fist to try to punch Person B, which Person B blocks with their forearm.
- Person B uses their left (upstage) fist to punch Person A in the latissimus muscle.
- Person B uses their right (downstage) fist to try to punch Person A, which Person A blocks with their forearm.
- Person A throws a punch to either the back of Person B's head, or to Person B's right ear. Person B does a clap knap.
- Person B takes a couple of steps backward
- Person B preps for a sidekick (by chambering the leg at the knee), and then kicks, and Person A uses both hands to block it.
- Person B tries to take a big swing at Person A, which Person A blocks with both forearms.
- Person A tries to elbow Person B, but Person B steps in towards them.
- Person B reaches around and begins to strangle Person A.
- Person A reaches a hand up through the crook of Person B's arm to get away.
- Person A turns around and punches Person B. Person A uses a slip-hand knap.
- Person A pulls Person B's hair
- Person B reaches over Person A's shoulder to get into a grappling position.
- Person B flings Person A around
- Person B knees Person A in the stomach twice.
- Person B pushes Person A, and Person A falls backwards to the ground.
- Person A tries to side-kick Person B, and Person B avoids.
- Person A tries to heel kick Person B, and Person B bats it away.
- Person B steps in toward Person A
- Person A kicks Person B in the groin
- Person B falls to their knee
- Person A tries to crawl away
- Person B grabs Person A's shoulder and throws them back onto the ground
- Person B begins to strangle Person A
- Person A uses their arms to break Person B's hold
- Person A throws Person B off of them.

And from there on out, we can block whatever we want in order for our scenes to make sense and for the right person to "win".



SEARCHING FOR EDEN
I went back to see it again today, because 1st-Year JaS had to go on as an understudy for Adam. (As in Adam of "Adam and Eve"... in a two person play.) It's the largest role that an understudy has had to go on for at our theatre in YEARS, so a bunch of us who had time went to support him. He totally rocked it, and made the Conservatory proud. Great job, JaS!

MACHINAL
Another one of our "usual" games is a "switch places" game. We all stand in a circle, and one person makes eye contact with another, letting them know that they're going to take their place in the circle. The person starts walking, and the person they've made eye contact with has to find someone else's spot to take. The goal is that people are always moving, and that no one ever gets to anyone else's spot before they've found someone to switch with. It might not sound complicated, but it really is, as you kind of have to see a couple of moves ahead... And then the Director throws someone a tennis ball... And WHILE all the other trading spaces stuff is occurring, we have a second objective of throwing the ball around. So you're constantly looking around to see if someone is making eye contact with you, either to take your spot or to throw you a ball. We're getting better at it, but it does require a great deal of concentration.

We started blocking the Prologue, sort of. At the beginning of the play, a woman talks about her journey to work on the subway, so we're going to stage it as part of our production. We haven't gotten very far on it yet, but I'm interested to see what direction it goes in.