The days get stranger and stranger.
This morning began with an intense yoga session. Followed by a military boot camp taught by two members of our programme who have knowledge of both the US Army and the Russian Army. ...I'm effing tired. But it was definitely an education. Yelling "Yes, Sergeant!" and dropping and giving 20 push ups every time someone screwed up a drill. Marching, standing at attention, saluting, about face, sit ups, mock raiding and assassinating the enemy, and doing a couple truly awful exercises. I was definitely not born to be in the military. But I did fairly well and would not have shamed my militial relatives. The director even said, "you did that rather well. It was like who you were completely disappeared." In truth, I reeeeeally hate it when people yell at me. And humiliation is a tactic that has never worked well. But it helped to make us all understand the military background of the play we are creating and the type of discipline that we need when creating certain rituals that will pertain to the world of Malfi.
The afternoon was a continuation of the mind numbing script text analysis. We are ALMOST finished. And Pete decided to take things in a different way and put a lot of it on its feet right away. One scene that I am in requires me to sedate and beat a 6ft fit man. Right. Pete has requested that I am now a sadist and am prone to severe violence. I do the dirty work myself.
But he didnt tell me how to do it. There was one point where I looked over to Pete for help because I was looking up at this guy from my 5'2" stature and wondering how the hell I was supposed to take him down. Pete gave me nothing. Ok... So ran at him, jumped, reached for his neck, and shoved him down towards the ground, then grabbed the back of his hair, yanked his head up, and threatened him. Now, did said 6footer help me out a little? Absolutely. But still, he went down.
I constantly felt a bit rubbish though because I really hate doing any sort of physical altercation without a proper fight coordinator. Yes, he's a big guy, but it doesn't mean I won't hurt him or push him over his comfort line. I think he was fine with it but I've never been able to really read this one so I'm not sure. I kept thinking "why isn't Pete stopping this?" But we pushed through.
Pete also decided that my character will have a British accent. Uh-huh. Something to the effect of Mary Poppins. I think I'm going to go for more of a Maria Von Trapp on crack.
This character has gone from concept to normal nobody, to sadist all in two weeks. But I'm glad that I finally feel like I have something to work with and somewhere to go. It's just a bit frightening to see how far Pete wants to push this. I think it's probably going to get quite sick. Which...could be fun. I will say, I may not say much, but I don't think many will forget what I do. oof.
And tonight, my homework is to plan what kinds of punishments my doctor role would give out to the madmen. Such as lashes with a riding crop, making one of them volunteer their hand so I can smash their fingers underneath my heel, burning them with a cigarette butt to the ear, straight jackets and restraints, and also training them to cower in fear everytime they hear me ring a bell or click one of those dog training clickers. Should be interesting...
Two more days of rehearsal and it's pretty much Spring Break. I'm ready for the rest but I'm petrified at how fast this year is going. But as Dory says, "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming. What do we do? We swim..."
Thinking of you x
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