"Guy, Until Now You Are The Genius Of The Class"

I'm doing okay at this Neutral Mask stuff! I feel less nervous and more free. I also have good control of my body and a strong sense of rhythm and music - so it's coming fairly easily. Learning to be big - bigger than I really am - to have a large aura. I can do this with my body and movement, but not so much with text...yet. I can afford to risk more (a recurring theme?). I'm finding myself playing within a very small field - trying to get it right - when it seems that the field is potentially much bigger. So rather than taking small subtle steps, take larger ones, to get a sense of the playing field of this form.

Exercise:

• Move as if you are in the streets of a big city. Adjust to the different musics played through the stereo. Play with rhythm, pace, and space.

I got up in the first group. I decided to wait and let others go first today. But then nobody gets up. And it's really such a simple exercise so I think 'what the hell' and get up anyway. I was selected from my group: "Guy, Until now you are the genius of the class...shows the level of the group..."

"We have to see the mask. Everything is for the mask...The mask is the star."

So let the audience see the mask before you move. And when you move, move for the mask. Don't drag it behind you. Otherwise we just see a body moving about the space with their face covered.

"Remember in theatre it is never you. It is you through something. The mask, the character, the aura...Give something beautiful through your aura."

I liked how Gaulier said "we will see [the form] little by little". He trusts that over time, gradually, we will come to know (and experience) what is required to bring Neutral Mask and Greek Tragedy to life. A lot like making any work of art. Over time things become more and more clear. Requires a lot of trust and comfort in the uncomfortable. Great to have a teacher that knows this so well - and has worked with it for 40 years!

• Move as if you are a lake. (Gaulier stressed that unlike some psychotic schools, he does not want us to 'be' the lake, but rather just 'pretend' to be the lake!)

Steph from Canada was gentle, subtle and slow with her movement. She stood up with the rhythm and qualities of a lake - of still water - and spoke text. Very watchable.

I moved too much as a lake. I was more of a river! Philippe said my movement reminded him of "a mop cleaning up the vomit of the ten litres of beer and the bad chinese food with beef and pineapple pieces that everybody drinks and eats at the Munich beer festivals", to which I replied "...so there's still liquid?".

Just to reiterate. My movement was like the vomit of all of these men, after ten litres of beer each, and bad chinese food...I'm doing good!