We had a bit of spare time before class afterwards so we went to St Michel Notre Dame and had lunch and a coffee together (I've started having these little coffee shots - I don't know what they're called - espressos? - because they're cheaper - and they taste good with enough sugar!) outside the Notre Dame. Then we went to this awesome book store called Shakespeare & Company which is an English book store. Super cool! A real funky little jungle of beautiful books. And upstairs there is a little library where you can read, and a piano which you can play.
Andre turns out to be an AWESOME piano player, and totally made me melt when he started playing gospel and blues chords. What a star!
Then first day of Neutral Mask & Greek Tragedy!
Movement was a bit of a let down for me cause within the first 5 mins I cut my foot on a little shard of glass which was on the floor. Some glass was broken on Friday night at the Clown showing and it hadn't been cleaned up well enough. Oh well. After lots of prying about with tweezers I finally got them out! But we had a new teacher who will be with us for the rest of the year. Pablo from Spain. I liked how he talked about the stretches we did. "You don't need to be amazingly flexible. We are actors, not gymnasts. It's just good for us to know our bodies well."
There are a few new people (from Brazil, Greece, and Switzerland) which is cool. And the groups (morning and evening) have slightly changed so there'll be a nice little subtle dynamic change.
Philippe got up at the start of class and did a little stand-up routine and explained how neutral masks came to be: basically Jacques Copeau (I think it was him) got fed up with all of his actors having this permanent grimace on their faces, and he went home and complained about them to his wife. And she suggested covering up their faces, from which he got the idea to make a neutral mask, with no emotion on it, and had sex with her in the kitchen to celebrate the inspiration!
The Neutral Mask.
We did two exercises with the masks on.
- Walk on a straight plane forwards and backwards.
- Wake up to the sun, rise from the floor as it rises. Take it in. And follow it back down again as it sets. Go back to sleep.
It's amazing how much you read from an actor when you can't see their face. I still read character. Every single person is different when wearing the mask, because their body and the way that they move is so different.
It was very funny when some people walked, because you could clearly see peculiar traits - like walking like a cowboy. Philippe emphasised that the purpose of the neutral mask is not to fix you - not to neutralise you. But to highlight your imperfections - your differences. And then we should have fun with those!
I did alright today. "Not extremely bad." But really, all we had to do is walk in a straight line! But it does require balance and presence and body control. I really like the feeling of having the mask on. It's quite surreal. A bit like there's a wall between you and the audience. Like you can see them, but they can't see you...except they totally can!
Things I learned today that make neutral mask work, just from observing:
- Fixed point - especially with what you are looking at. Actors that kept their eyes on fixed point drew my attention.
- Body control
- Pace - Not "too fast"
- Keep your head up tall - to the horizon. When it goes too low we lose the life of the mask. Too high and it looks posh.
Exciting!!! I've never done anything like this before really! Awesome!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment