They have begun to put Christmas decorations up around the city and have posted holiday sales. I used to think it was horrible when Walgreens used to put out Valentine's Day candy at New Year's but this I think tops that. October 20th...Happy Xmas.
It's now dark and dreary almost all the time. I get to class at 930 and don't leave till about 6pm. I don't think the sun and I have seen each other in a few days. And so far, I don't really mind. Although I do wish we had a bit more fresh air considering we've been stuck in a basement like rehearsal room that smells of musty socks and sweaty wet dog. Which I suppose is the equivalent of hundreds of musty sweaty actors rolling around on the floor. I know. You're jealous. I can tell.
We began both yesterday and today with the "warm up" from hell. Two of our cohort were put in charge. It just so happens that these two are the most fit in the class. What we thought would be leisurely stretching and humming turned into a bootcamp that involved planks, pushups, running (you remember how I feel about running) with knees up, then touching the ground then with kicking your own butt then touching the ground then running then pushups then running then kick back push ups, etc. By 1030 we all were sprawled on the ground as we'd become panting puddles of exhaustion. Then came class.
Yesterday, after reading through our play "Pool (No Water)" we had our session again with Lucien and Benedicte. This time instead of the elements, we studied Materials. We observed and then became rubberbands, cardboard, bubbles, cellophane, and finally sugarcubes when plopped in a glass of water. I know. You're jealous. I can tell. lol. But believe it or not, these materials (when stretched, ripped, popped, crushed, or crumbled) move in a way that when duplicated through the human body can reflect human emotion. Now that doesn't mean that when your role calls for you to collapse after hearing that your brother died that you tell yourself "Beeeeeeeeeeee a sugar cube." That's not the point. But to understand and use all objects around you, to interpret that in your body, you can then expand your knowledge of what your body can do. So that when you feel tension stretched between two characters, you can remember how that rubber band felt before it snapped. You can feel that childlike wander of a bubble. You feel the burst of release after releasing the crumpled piece of cellophane and the twitches that follow as it tries desperately to return to its original shape but never quite making it and it can resemble a sort of distorted pain in the body after severe injury.
Funny tale about that particular cellophane exercise. The idea was that your partner (mine was PB. wonderful guy) has to fold and crumple your body tightly into a ball, then release it like the cellophane. Than it is your job to release and twitch to return almost to your unfolded position. Ok. No problem. Then we tried it together. So here's another moment where you'd never be in this position in real life. I am laying on the ground with PB, completely intertwined and wrapped around each other, we squeeze each other as tight as we can, then release each other and twitch. Totally immersed in the exercise I thought nothing of it. It was only later that I thought...Gee, I'm really glad we both like boys. That coulda been...awkward.
Today we worked with L and B again (after another rendition of the warm up from hell.) This time it was a workshop on Jacques Le Coq's Le Plateau. It's a bit difficult to explain but basically it's all 23 of us sitting in chairs along the edges of a large rectangle. We pretend that the rectangle is a plateau or platform that is balancing on top of a ball. One person gets up and walks around, UNbalancing the plateau. So, another person gets up and sets themselves in the space to balance it back out. The movement continues, every so often adding people. We adjust our spacing as we react to the imaginary tilt we feel when the plateau/stage is unbalanced.
During lunch, half of us met up with the marketing team for RCS. They discussed with us how to market ourselves around the community, to agents, on social networking sights. We divied up responsibilities and my plate is fairly full, I'm pretty happy with how much the group is putting forth. If everyone pulls their own weight, we should be in VERY good shape.
Finally our afternoon session began and it was the first Actual rehearsal for Pool (no water). This process is very much from the ground up. We spent a couple hours running around and improving the entire piece. Since it is written like a modern day greek chorus (we speak all at the same time or in intervals or make sound effects or make the scene with only our bodies) it's a huge group effort. So far we are working incredibly well together. If we keep on track like this, we should be able to have something really impressive by performance...which is next friday. woof.
Well, I think that's about it for today.
Thinking of you.
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