Day Twenty Five - Final Day Of Character Workshop

I had a very restless night last night. Panicking over today's 'showing' and the fact that I don't have anything good prepared. Which is silly I know, but I guess is part of the internal process Gaulier expects us to go through, and it is good for our learning to see how we come through in these times.

This morning I went to the Luxemborg Gardens for a stroll.


Luxemborg Gardens.

I spoke to Cherie on the phone which was really nice, and I planned out something I would do solo for the showing if Julie and I couldn't come up with something when we met at 12pm. I decided I would try the 'Maestro stop the music!' exercise again because the last time I tried it I got killed in 2 seconds. Also because I have a hunch that my strengths may be in tragedy rather than comedy. I met Lib on the train and we had a good chat about Le Jeu and the use of games in Philippe's work. I asked her how Julie and I could try it out today in a scene, and she suggested we play a simple scenario - a blind date - and play three games within the scene: 1) looking for eachother 2) checking eachother out 3) meeting and deciding whether we want to go home together. These are simple playable games. It's kind of like splitting a scene up into units of action, but that is predominantly an individual actor's approach. Splitting into units of games is great because it includes other actors and or the audience. The idea of playing several games in a scene make the idea of improvising much less scary and much more fun, in my point of view.

When I met Julie at school she had also spoke to somebody on the train and pitched the idea that we play a scene in which I am a genie (my character does look like a genie) and Julie's character asks for three wishes. I said 'yes!' and we got to working out a structure. I called on Lib for help in defining the games we could play. We decided on 1) the game of finding the genie (basically hide and seek) 2) the game of persuading the genie to grant the wishes 3) the game of receiving the wishes. Perfect! We then went and tried it out a few times, and decided on a few givens. One was that the 1st wish would be 'I want to be beautiful' in which I would slap her (yes really slap her) to achieve. This was Julie's idea and was meant to be a joke commenting on what Philippe had done with Julie a few days earlier - he got Ingaborg to slap Julie which eventually resulted in Julie dropping her acting habits and just being there with the audience...showing her beauty.

Today the energy of the class was definitely different - nervous, excited, a tad manic! Philippe was dressed up nice, the second years were in attendance, and some guests (ex-pupils I think) were also there. Funnily enough by the time class had started my nerves had basically gone and instead I was focussing on just really enjoying my last day of class. I had written 'Play Your Heart Out' on my hand which really helped me get in the right place for the day. (Thanks Cherie). Some performances were brilliant (Adriano's 'strong black woman' stuck on a raft with camp husband and geeky son was fabulous) and some were boring and were the performers were killed, as usual. Julie and I got up fourth. I went up with the aim to have fun, play, and try and to be light. To my joy and relief the scene was a hit! The audience were laughing their heads off. I was in a great zone - lots of pleasure, I was light, and I was playful, and Julie and I had great complicite. The scene went great until we passed the first wish (everybody loved the slap joke by the way - I was nervous that this would come across as an idea but it didn't, it was fun) when our complicite started to shake and the audience started to get bored. The audience clicks their tongues when they get bored at Ecole Philippe Gaulier - quite a scary sound! However we stayed in it, sensed the flop, and exited the stage ending the scene well. The audience still loved us. Feedback for me: "Lot's of pleasure. Good fun. You were light - this a good lesson for you to take away". So that was a fantastic way to end the workshop for me! I was lucky to end on a high note feeling good, and what I did today was a good step for me, but I know that being bad is just as valid as being good. And that being bad is where the learning is most extreme, and where we all are most of the time!

Notes:

• Note to self: Often on my last day of class or last night of performance I tell myself just to go out and have fun...and I have the best time and perform very well. This says something, doesn't it Guy?

• "What did you do to make us dream around your character?"

• "If you don't do anything to be beautiful as your character, you don't do your job."

• Lib drinking wine - "if you're character drinks like this [with delicacy and class, in her slutty alcoholic costume]...I dream. If you drink it like Diet Coke then you underline and we stay stuck. No surprise."

• "When an idiot understands the show, it's bad. Theatre is for people who like to dream around things."

And so the course has come to an end. I have had the most amazing experience, working with incredibly talented people from all over the world, and with Philippe Gaulier. I have learnt so much - about enjoying myself on stage!, about playing, about being light, about listening, about what it really means to be present on stage. There are things that I am still sitting with (most things really) but I know that there are definitely changes happening within me as a performer and as a person which I am very excited about. It's sad saying goodbye to everybody after making thirty five new friends, but after this experience I feel almost certain that I will return to do at least another workshop at the school, if not the whole first year - so I will see people again I'm sure.


Eddie (Richard) and Shane (Adriano).


Unique (Fauv), Graeme (Trygvi) and Gerta (Jamie).


Monsier Gaulier.


After class I went to the Tibetan restaurant with Mark, Lib and Oli before saying goodbye. Then went to dance the night away at a club called Alimentation Generale. It was so packed, you had to squeeze through a sea of people to get anywhere!