Day Twenty Four - "Your Pleasure Leads The Character"

This morning I went to the Musee Rodin! It was very small - which was great because I only had an hour to spare. His sculptures are stunning. Quite rough/bumpy in texture (I liked to feel them) and they seemed to me to really capture human emotion.


The Thinker.


The Kiss.


I loved the absolute need of this figure.


I liked the gentleness of this sculpture.

In class today two pairs showed their prepared scenes. The first by Fabricio and Judith was painful. No pleasure or complicite. They were falling back on things that had worked once but don't anymore. The second was by Oli and Ingaborg. It was delightful! They played wonderfully subtlely, allowing the story to develop over time. And when the game was obvious, they played it with immense pleasure!


The lettuce and whipped cream sandwich they enjoyed together!

After the two showings he then got three of us at a time to go up on stage, ready to be executed. The gunman called "Ready! Aim! Fire!" On "aim" we had to do something to save our lives. I tried several times and each time got shot. Too much. Too little. It was hilarious though. Everybody got shot! What Philippe said after was that we need at that moment to show our beauty. And when the gunman sees our beauty he stops to take it in. But nobody really hit this. Maybe two people did for one second, then BAM!

After the mass killing of the entire class Philippe set up a new improvisation that helped to answer my question about entering not knowing anything. He said we need to think before going on: "No problem. I know what happens in this play. Everything is okay". We have to pretend this, and have pleasure pretending this. This is like a plumber entering a room full of water. "No problem. I know what to do". Or a teacher: "I know what I am going to teach today". I got up several times and each time was bad. "Did you think no problem?" No. Well I did but I didn't believe myself. Or trust myself. I don't find entrances too hard when somebody else is already on stage, but I find entering a bare stage incredibly scary and difficult. The first time entered alone, hoping something would come, but I ended up going and sitting at the table. Which was boring and a bad choice. But what do you do? It seemed that everybody that came on first went to the telephone, and called somebody so they would have somebody to play with. What else can you do? Unlimited things. But it's scary. I think commitment is important.

• "Some people think this place is a brothel...It is not a brothel!"

• When in solo - you always listen to your audience (and by listening you learn how to play tonight), and you always have complicite with your props/set.

• If you are not happy on stage you are not an actor. What do you do? Study pharmacy. Have complicite with aspirin.

• "You can't be too heavy. You want too much." Philippe gave the example of being invited to dinner at a friends house and they announce at the end of the night their son will play piano for you. But when he plays he is playing more so that you think 'wow he plays piano' rather than having genuine fun with you.

• "You lose one millimetre of height...ugh! Not an actor anymore."

• We start not to love you when the actor starts to play the character.

• This workshop is to say your pleasure leads the character.

• If you feel boring, why do you stay? You have to feel the audience - ooh la la - I am bad. I will come back later.

After class I felt quite upset with myself. A minor crisis I guess. I think when I can't get something right straight away I am too hard on myself. I also got quite worried about tomorrow's showing because Juli and I still haven't managed to put anything together and I definitely want to try something tomorrow. I guess I feel pressure to suddenly be perfect on my last day, which is ridiculous. I've decided to try the exercise "Maestro! Stop the music!" again as a solo 'showing' if we don't whip something up tomorrow, because I want to give that exercise another go and it's something. I feel bad for not having something prepared, but it didn't really work out. But we'll see. I need to relax and just play tomorrow. Who care's if it's terrible and I get killed? I just need to go out with the aim of enjoying myself.

After class I went to see a show at Theatre des Abbesses called 'Oper Opis'.




A moving stage which can pitch and roll is the unsteady base on which Martin Zimmermann and Dimitri de Perrot, together with five circus artists, give shape and energy to a burlesque type of theatre. It is a medley of countless pictures and sounds, where acrobatic virtuosity, far from being an end in itself, opens onto a world of fantasy for our senses.

It was a mix of dance theatre and circus with a moving stage (it was unbalanced and when a performer went to one side the whole stage would tilt) and a live DJ making sounds that complimented the performers. It was cool for a while, but it got quite visually hectic for me. There was lots going on at one time, so I switched off and lost interest. But after four curtain calls I'd say the majority in the audience loved it! Afterwards I went back to my new local - Le Refuge - for a repeat of last night's awesome meal. Yum.