Wednesday, May 12

VOICE
Class was filled with little exercises. I can't remember them all, but here are some:

- We did movements while saying various consonant sounds.
- We did movements while saying various vowel sounds.
- We broke up the text of The Silver Swan so that each person in the circle would say only one line of it.
- We started taking the lines of text out of order.
- We used movements to shape how we said the words.



PLAYWRITING

We showed the scenes we'd been working on using the text from The Cherry Orchard. Remember, the only thing that we were supposed to keep in mind with the text was that one person wanted to propose to the other, and the other wanted the person to propose to them. We had some very different takes on it...

- Big Show & Newbie seemed to be splitting up. He was helping her take pictures of objects so that she could sell them on Craigslist. Sometimes, he stopped to take pictures of her.
- Iceman had just paid All-The-Way for sex and was doing cocaine. He took off his wedding ring to suggest he was going to leave his wife, but then suddenly left. (D-Train directed)
- Two-Shots-Up and Wifey were lesbian bank robbers. Two-Shots-Up decided she was going to give up the lifestyle. She couldn't find the loot that she had taken from the last heist. Then it turned out that Wifey had stolen it from her. (Killer directed)
- At the very end of the scene, you discovered that O.D. was the apostle John, and Thrill was Jesus. (Angela directed).

At the end, of each scene, we made notes of what was theatrically successful, and what was less so.

Here is my list of Things That Work:
- the use of a significant object to tell a story.
- routine (and the significance of stopping a routine)
- repetition
- moving forward
- mystery and suspense
- simplicity
- tell a clear story
- urgency
- twist
- slow reveal, to help the audience understand what is being told
- contrast
- intensity
- focus
- use the space
- once the space has been identified, exits and entrances can surprise
- "putting a clock on the scene"
- forget about symbolism (it gets in the way of humanity)
- reversals
- simple, clear physicality helps tell the story
- don't be too subtle
- point of view
- specificity
- costuming
- "what just happened?"
- rhythm

I also made a note to watch the movie "Reservoir Dogs".

The minimum requirements of things necessary to produce theatre are:
- space
- an actor
- a story
- an audience

When you get lost in your story telling, stop doing superfluous whatnot and remember those four basics.


Our homework is to be able to come into the space and begin to tell a story. We have to have thought of the following:
- a character to be (who can be inspired by someone from our own lives, or from pictures in magazines, or from stories we've heard)
- an object that is in some way significant to the character
- three people in the character's life
- three places in the character's life
- a reason that the character has two speak
- the first two minutes of the character's story (which we can have written down, or we can improvise)




EVERYTHING ELSE
There's a really lovely program in place in London called "A Night Less Ordinary". People aged 25 and under can get theatre tickets for free to shows from participating theatres. As my class is young, that means that 8 of us (me, Killer, All-The-Way, D-Train, Two-Shots-Up, Wifey, O.D., & Thrill) are eligible (I'm the eldest of those 8, and I turn 26 in October).

So the Barbican had its first preview of a Scottish production of Peter Pan, and some of us decided to go. Iceman wanted to come along (but is 27 and doesn't qualify for the program, so I split the cost of his ticket with him). Wifey, Two-Shots-Up, and D-Train came as well.

The best part of the production: Tinkerbell was a ball of fire. Literally. A flying ball of fire. She landed on things. People held her. She died and came back to life. It was a very cool bit of spectacle. There was some beautiful music in the production. And a lot of things that I didn't fully understand (Tigerlily was a pair of half-wolves/half-women). But I'm glad we went. And you can't beat free theatre.

Tuesday, May 11

VOICE
We did some breath work lying down, and started working with belly breathing. We've been studying Rib Swing breathing at our home campus. But actually, I don't think this is all that different. When we started with rib swing, we talked about filling from the stomach first. I didn't really adjust much, but Charmian said I was doing well.

At one point on the ground, she asked us to do some visualization involving the most comforting place in the world to us, as a way to aid in our release.

We stood in a circle and did some body releasing things. And we had an exercise where we connected with partners across a circle.

At the end of class, we each did a bit of Shakespeare so that Charmian could see where we are, and try to identify what we need help with. We all did things that we'd worked on with Acting Professoressa, but different things. Some people used sonnets, some used monologues, and some used parts of the scenes we'd worked on. I think I did something shorter than anyone else, but I thought it was enough for diagnostic purposes. It was part of my scene as Diana from All's Well That Ends Well (and D-Train kindly got up with me as a silent scene partner, which actually helped me to be a lot more calm and less nervous than I would've been otherwise).

Here's what I did:

"'Tis not the many oaths that makes the truth,
But the plain single vow that is vow'd true.
That which is not Holy, that we swear not by,
But take the High'st to witness: then pray you, tell me,
If I should swear by Jove's great attributes
I loved you dearly, would you believe my oaths
When I did love you ill? This has no holding,
To swear by him whom we protest to love,
That I will work against him. Therefore, your oaths
Are words and poor conditions, but unseal'd,
At least in my opinion."




OTHER STUFF
I went with Iceman, Two-Shots-Up, and D-Train to a show called Psy. And it rocked my world. WHOA.

An 11-member ensemble (just like my class!) are all characters with various types of mental illness (paranoia, insomnia schizophrenia, intermittent explosive disorder, multiple personality disorder, amnesia, sex addiction, agoraphobia, mania, hypochondria, & obsessive compulsive disorder) who are in group therapy. It's more of a show about acrobatics and circus skills than a traditional play, but the performers used their skills to tell a story. The circus work demonstrates their suffering, and with a couple of them, helps them to work through their problems. And it was gorgeous. Loved, loved, loved.

After the show, we went and met the performers. They were super-nice. And then we went out dancing with them. Let me tell you, there is no better group of people to go out dancing with than people with circus skills. They are so much fun!!! We mostly hung out with "Intermittent Explosive Disorder" (who is an American/Ukrainian), "Sex Addiction", "Amnesia", and "Schizophrenia" (who are all French). I don't remember the last time I had that much fun!