It's times like these that I look at my daily life in awe. While many other spend their days typing away at their computers or shuffling around offices, I spent my day becoming the emotional quality of fruit and vegetables. Yup.
Our last day with Rona. We were asked to bring groceries and kitchen supplies to rehearsal. Upon arrival, we laid out our mass amount of cheese, veggies, fruits, and bottles of wine. Then we were asked to pick one with an emotional memory attached to it. I chose an apple at first. It reminded me of when my grandpa would do cider presses at his house. It would be a large amount of people, a truck load (literally) of apples, and we'd make cider and hang out all day. The smell of apples and gasoline will always remind me of him. That's a weird combo I know, but he also managed to spill gas inside his van at one point and so the garage would forever smell of gasoline and apples. Though he's been gone for over half my life now, I still can feel the slight chill in the air, the sound of the press, and the smell.
So then the director and Rona set up an improv that had absolutely nothing to do with fruit, but you had to have that memory/fruit with you and use it if it came up.
We then moved on to having a piece of produce picked out for us and having to take on it's characteristics. Example: I am a telemarketer with three others. There is a rumor that some of us will be laid off. My fruit is a tsatuma orange (a little tangy, a little tart, but sometimes sweet). I take on those characteristics and let that guide me through the scene.
Or I was also designated as raw meat at one point. It was a scene where my guy friend KT, whom I had known for years, just broke up with his long term girlfriend. His produce was white wine. The qualities of meat could be a bit primal, a bit animalistic, a bit sensual maybe. And you take the scene from there. Do I threaten to kick the ex girlfriend's butt? Yes. Do I possibly come on to said guy friend? mmmmmaybe. ...he didn't have a chance. :)
We also did a 30minute improv with the seven of us pretending that it was a real restaurant kitchen, with assigned duties and jobs, and some of us with backstories. We chopped ingredients, bustled around, created relationships, had tiffs, and made some rather disgusting food. But also got a really good feel to what natural movement and speech would be like. I find acting is always easier when your hands are busy.
But this was our day. Improv after improv. Supplying Rona with new and inspired ideas that have nothing to do with anything.
I felt a bit stiff and tired today. And a little sad. Didn't really have a specific reason which always makes me feel excessively dramatic. But the work today was fun and relaxed and creative.
We also did a thing that you probably wouldn't do on a normal day. We ate and drank our props in the end. Two and a half bottles of wine, chocolate bars, and two chunks of cheese later, we were happy campers.
We followed it up with a pub visit with Rona to Molly Malone's for one last drink. Rona told us about her upcoming projects but she also told us about her life. Her loves, her family, etc. And we shared ours in return. For a woman with such a beautiful reputation, it's so wonderful to be able to laugh with her and share stories. She is just one of those people who happens to be ornately good, even while seeing the bittersweetness of the world. I'm very lucky.
And so ends our first week back in Glasgow.
x
No comments:
Post a Comment