Back Down To Rock Bottom...

Straight into scenes today.

• Maria and Rocio - Maria dressed as a secretary. Philippe said she looked like an air hostess, and so got her to do safety announcements in spanish, and then again as if the plane was about to crash, and then with Greek Tragedy text. "This one is good...you are open...we see your fun...we see many things." Rocio is still having trouble getting out of traditional theatre acting - which seems to be a big thing right now in class. We have to do something different. Something surprising. Something unconventional. Something unique to us. And that's really hard.

"You don't have to start in theatre. You don't have to wear the hat of theatre. You can't need the theatre. The theatre has to need you."

"If you enter in a normal way, that is bad theatre."

• Brette - Her pink wasn't working last like time. This, in my point of view, is because she wasn't really playing pink anymore. She had practised it and got stuck in a rhythm. So what she did was the idea of what she did last time. As opposed to just being in the moment. Philippe played music in the background - opera - "Listen to the music." As actors we need to be able to 'listen to the music' all the time without there actually being any music there. That's why it's so important to have the imagination engaged and free.

• Mia and Ling - Philippe got Mia to dress like a cowboy and Ling like a bar maid at a saloon. We also made a little saloon set. And Philippe played western music. Ling was brilliant just mucking around playing with two bottles of water we set up for her. Stealing the show just shaking them and pouring water from one bottle to the other. "She's a bastard. She plays very well. So you [Mia] have to take the game. It's your turn to be major. So take it." (This is the frustration I had doing The Great Gatsby earlier this year. I tried to propose that we work together in this way, but it seemed like it was being encouraged to be 'supportive' by dropping the potential scene stealing, rather than present a challenge for your scene partner to meet and beat.) But also, when it was Ling's turn to be in major and Mia was approaching Philippe said "Let her have it. Don't enter in her game". Mia eventually found something in this frustrated rant she was doing in french, which she then put text over. "In this way we see something beautiful coming." And Ling was incredible. Really stunning. And Philippe said so too. She was alive and unique, small and then big, with different rhythms and good fixed point. I don't know exactly what she was playing but it was beautiful.

And then back down to rock bottom...

Actually, not nearly this bad.

At the end of class Steph and I got up to do out Medea/Jason scene once again. We set up the scaffold tower, and had the guards, and were in costume. I didn't do any element movement this time. Just tried to do it from the inside. I initially chose Water, which was stopped because it was so boring. I then changed it and chose Ice. Which didn't get stopped. I went with it, and then I kind of got a bit out of control. Well, I wasn't out of control, I was controlling what I was doing. But what I was doing was awful. Jumping between icy voice to screaming with anger and tension. Trying to be dramatic and different - trying to be a bit like Ling when she was great earlier today - but not really doing the simple things I'd learned to do over the course of this workshop. And then when it came to Steph's text she was stopped for being boring. Philippe compared me to someone who had been constipated for 6 weeks. "Ugly Ugly Ugly. Pushed Pushed Pushed."

And now, I'm feeling a bit rough. A bit because I feel bad about getting up and working when there were others who haven't been up as much as me. But I was getting up to work with Steph, who hasn't worked as much. And people knew that. But I also felt bad because in the scene that was the opportunity for Steph to work, my long monologue at the beginning of our scene took up most of our time. But hey - we didn't have long on stage anyhow. And last time when Steph and I worked it was mostly Steph who spoke text and I took the back seat. So I don't need to feel bad about these things.

We just finished on a downer because we were bad, and then the class was over. Whereas everyone else was bad, then worked with Philippe and found something, and finished fairly positively. But I know what I did that stuffed it up. I rushed and didn't take my time (because I knew I had a big monologue and wanted to get to a place where Steph could work), which meant that a) I spoke too fast like a washing machine, and b) didn't sink into playing any specific element. I kind of played the idea of something I thought might look good. But really, I threw out a whole lot of things I've learnt in this course. Which is a dumb thing to do.

• Take my time.
• Know what I'm playing and play.
• Don't talk too much.

- "Don't talk too much" is a question for me though, because others have been able to sometimes (and it has only been sometimes, actually) speak a lot of text really quickly. Whereas I always feel like when I speak with space between words it is slow and unnatural. But maybe I should just trust that it's not. Because I haven't been told that it's bad when I've done it.

Also thinking that Steph and I should have rehearsed more. We haven't really rehearsed, and that's been mostly because I have been of the opinion that it's fine for us to explore and discover on stage. Which is partly true, but when it comes to showing something it's not so valid. And also, even with rehearsal you should still be able to explore and discover. Perhaps even better. Plus, if we had rehearsed we may have developed a better complicité with each other. Although Claire and I did no rehearsals together yet we still made the scene work and have complicité so I'm not sure.

But I am sure that I can do what I didn't manage to do today. I need to get back to the simple things. The only challenge is getting the rhythm and voice without the movement. Or with much smaller movement. But that's not impossible.

We show our scenes tomorrow in order to be picked or not for Friday's showing. I'm going to have three things to show tomorrow. Which is more than anyone I think. Feel a bit silly about that. But oh well. You gotta grab it and run I say!

Also noted some things that are good to have as a teacher

1. Good collection of music in a variety of genres
2. A bunch of costume items for quick transformations
3. Simple set objects like tables, chairs and ladders.