Day Four - "Do You Have Twenty Minutes To Come With Me In Private?"

Had a very interesting start to the day this morning! Went to Pigalle in the hopes of finding the second-hand shop Dimitri had told me about last night, but instead I found myself in the middle of the Paris sex area! Sex shops everywhere, including the Moulin Rouge! I strolled around for a while looking for the second-hand shop but after having little luck I thought maybe there'll be some leather pants in one of these sex shops that might go with the leather vest I'd bought earlier in the week. So I went into this huge store 'Sexodrome' hoping it might be like DVice in Wellington. i.e. clean. It wasn't.

'Sexodrome' - I didn't notice the 'LIVE SHOW', 'SALONS', 'PRIVES' before. Whoops.

The Moulin Rouge. Baz Luhrman was hanging out just by the front door.

I walked in to find two tired looking men on my left, they said nothing so I thought 'Phew! I'll be left alone and avoid any extra embarrassment.' Then I looked to my right to find a man and a scantily dressed blonde woman sitting behind a desk. The woman immediately started speaking to me in french, pointing to a sign with various prices on it. I saw what was happening, got a bit flustered, and said "je ne parles pas francais" hoping she'd leave me alone. Instead she just changed into English and carried on trying to sell me the various services she offered. "Do you have twenty minutes to come with me in private?" I made it clear I wasn't interested and that I just wanted some pants but she just kept on at it. So I made my exit out of the store's spinning door, but I was spinning it the wrong way. I went clockwise when the door spun anti-clockwise. Nevertheless I kept pushing with all my might and slowly got out of this incredibly embarassing (and funny) situation!

I didn't get any leather pants. Probably a good thing... So I went make to good old Guerisols to get a new costume. I went upstairs and came across a rack of army gear and thought 'that's simple and clear', so I went for it. In class today we had Thomas, one of our Movement teachers, who taught in Philippe's role. I really like Thomas because he has a nice and gentle way of being.

 

Today we got up in groups of six and lined up against the back wall, as our characters, and one by one were kind of interviewed or hotseated by Thomas. Thomas wanted to see our pleasure of not being recognised, the joy of playing somebody else. If we did something as our characters that resonated with the audience then we got to take one step forward. If something didn't work we had to take one step back. I decided to play with an American soldier character - a texas kind of guy. I was quite nervous and when it came to my turn it didn't go very well. I didn't have anywhere to step back to! However after Texas soldier man failed, and my change to a weird husky voiced american rambo type failed, and after he got two other characters to imitate me (which made me really mad and frustrated), and then got me to 'call in' to my mum and dad to tell them it wasn't working, I finally got a step forward when I hung up the phone and turned to the audience with a dismal look on my face as if saying HELP ME! Thomas said we liked that look. I imagine he may have given me that step to give me a touch of hope. But maybe it's because in that look was a bit of honesty, whereas I feel that most of the work I've done so far has been fairly external and disconnected. In general, what I was doing didn't seem to connect with the audience, or with myself. I think the fact that I was afraid of the audience was a major reason why this connection was lacking. I need to learn to love the audience - to feed off them. I was given feedback from Thomas after (interesting that when he works with characters he teaches with a high status kind of scary persona, but as soon as he talks to us as actors he shifts back to his friendly self) in which he said I have an aggressive kind of way about me when I perform in this class. It's too much. I'm pushing. I need to be lighter. He pointed out the ones today that were working and said to take a close look at what they are doing, and what I saw them do was be playful and subtle with their responses, not letting too much information out at any one time. Whereas what I did was give everything away immediately. 

We also did an exercise at the end of the day in which we put a screen in the middle of the room and threw all our costumes behind it. Then two actors would go and quickly put together a outfit and come out as a character looking for someone, then as they exit the second actor would do the same. Then whilst the second actor is out the first goes and quickly changes into a second outfit and enters as a second character. This exercise was meant for us to find the pleasure of playing somebody else. Again I got the feedback - a bit aggressive again. I have had this feedback of my aggression before. It's as if I get aggressive when I don't know what to do, or am frustrated. How can I transform this agression into a more useful form of energy?

After class went to Le Chiquito for une biere, then went and met Tui - a friend from NZ I used to flat with who is now living in Paris! It was really neat to see her and we had a great chat over a pizza (which had an egg on it! All the pizzas had eggs on them! Weird.) at this little Italian restaurant near the Poissonier Metro stop.

Me and Tui with these strange but yummy desserts. Cream then fruit then caramel then ice cream.

Tomorrow night - going with Ollie and Trigvi to a gathering of New Zealanders at the Eden Park Pub (?). Apparently every first Friday of the month NZers in Paris meet up there. And tomorrow for us will also be Waitangi Day. Looking forward to it!