Remind me never to wait three days to blog again. We live lifetimes in a single day here and now I feel like there's just too much that has happened. But here's the gist.
We met all three of our writers that will be writing plays for us. No matter what happens, I know I will not be disappointed. All three writers have something so solid about their pieces, with actual things to say. I'd say, if I were to categorize them: Rona Munro is a writer for fanciful and whimsy, Lewis Hetherington is the intellectual, and Ollie Emanuel is the grit. I wouldn't mind being a part of any option.
Annoying annecdote of the day. Our fire alarm at housing has gone off three times this week. (And NO, before you say it, none of those were my fault.) But really, if you cry wolf that many times, when there is a real fire all of us will just stay in our rooms, throw up our hands and say "f&ck it. burn the effer up." The first two times I would start down the SEVEN flights of stairs and it would always go off before i even managed to get to the third floor. One of those times it went off three times in a span of 10 minutes. I was going up and down the steps like a freaking Chutes and Ladders game. And all it did was give me buns of steel and a bad attitude.
Our major class for Tuesday was in Neutral Mask. For those of you unfamiliar with mask work, it involves putting on a mask (that has a neutral face on it) to cover your features except for your eyes. In this, you do not rely on your facial expressions to do the acting for you. You rely purely on your body's movement. It's also an exercise to bring you back down to the very basics of movement. How do you move with the most purpose but using the least amount of excess. Economical, unembellished, movement. In this way, you have a blank slate or canvas upon which to build a character on. After all, not every character will have your bad habits, your mannerisms, your gestures. Many of which you don't even realize you have. For the most part, it was very useful. I had already done some mask work at Studio 5 in Brooklyn and was semi familiar with it. There were times though when you just felt stupid. (i.e. pushing your way through imaginary fog. we spent a bit of time on the difference between the movement of pulling back a curtain, pushing fog, and swatting at a fly. Apparently, all are similar but not the same....AKA zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).
Wednesday we dealt with two classes. A voice technique class and the stanislavski class again. The voice class, usually something that I look forwards to was a bit stressful. We were required to use our lower register (the low male voice) and at full volume, recite a monologue from Taming of the Shrew. Our teacher was convinced that what we were doing was healthy and safe for our voices and that the pain we were feeling was just the muscles being unused to working. However, as a singer and trained actor I can tell you for certain. This. is. not. true. I have been horse all day today. Sure I feel the onset of a cold as well. But there is a definite difference between healthy and unhealthy tiredness in the human voice. Some of my other cohort felt the same way.
The Stanislavski class was once again frustrating, but as with the last time, it was a bit more organized and had more of a purpose. We all sat in chairs randomly around the room. We take in our surroundings. And when we are ready, we go with impulse. It could be anything. A piece of tape is on the wall and you want to pull it down. So you get up and do so. Then you see the piano in the corner. You want to bang on it. So you do. You want to tip all the chairs upside down. So you do. But even more so, if you don't want to do anything. You don't. If you want to watch someone else do something, you do. It's all about listening to the THOUGHT, FEEL, ACTION that we naturally work with. You see the mirror. You want to blow on it and draw. You go do it. 23 people exploring and playing in a room for a half an hour is pretty entertaining. People chucking tennis balls, one girl made a make shift car out of the chairs, another made a huge tower out of them. One guy put a small table on his back like a turtle while a girl decided to use it as a drum. It was like being in a playground at recess all over again. What is the point you ask? We work with impulse every moment. Often we stop ourselves from acting on it, but it's still there. By releasing it, you have the freedom to try things without censor. And you can create emotional memory between each other, relationships that can translate into your characters later on.
Though it was a ten hour day, it was also K's birthday. So most of us went to the Flying Duck (pub in a shady alley way. totally awesome place) for some libations. Slowly I am getting to know others. The jack and cokes helped pave the way, naturally.
Today was more of the nerve day. We shared our monologues. My monologue was one of my audition pieces from Henry VI part 3- Shakespeare. It went well. I felt good doing it. Did I freak out before hand? absolutely. Did I panic about words? Yup. Was my heart beating so hard at one point that I heard it in my ears? Oh yeah. Did I mess up? No. For as Faith says, Never let them see you sweat.
I am happy with what I put out there. It was polished and it served it's purpose. And I'm thankful that I held my own. It had been so long since I performed anything for anyone. And I certainly didn't want to be the weakest link among these new colleagues. I do feel that I still am missing that certain something. That "it" factor. I still am very much a representational actor. But a good one. Looking forward to getting better and hopefully finding a way to become the experiencing actor that I want to be.
The others in my cohort...well let's just say I'm very excited to be working with them. There is definitely some wonderful talent and humor in this group. It's reassuring to know that I will be pushed by them and challenged. We then were assigned our first play as an ensemble project. I am in the play "Pool (No Water)" which will be going up in two weeks. It's not a formal performance but more of a collaborative two week workshop exploring contemporary theatre written in Greek Chorus Style. yeah...I don't quite understand it either.
After class we headed for one quick beer at the Walkabout(ended up turning more into a two hour talk about disney films and sex. not together). 1.50GBP beer, which tasted as cheap as it cost but did the job. Lot of laughter and felt good and comfortable for the first time in a social setting.
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