Farm Animals...(uh oh)

Exercise: Play a Farm Animal

I actually didn't do as my father advised me to do the next time we Langfords get forced to sink to the lowest levels and evoke animals for artistic purposes and say:

"Les animaux ne sont pas d'accord avec moi, ni je les ai. Je vais être autre chose qu'un animal, mais un animal je ne serai pas"

"Animals do not agree with me, nor I them. I will be anything BUT an animal, but an animal I will NOT be"

But instead gave it another go...

I played a dog. With hips swinging, a loose tongue, panting mouth, and fast steps. Incredible stuff. Really.

After a bit of animal time we were asked to stand and humanise our animals. "Make a character with the details of an animal." Philippe would then ask us questions like "what did you do this morning?" For my group, we had to sing a song for a cabaret. I barked and growled out Twinkle Twinkle. Forgot to humanise my character! "But good pleasure". Then after I humanised my barking dog it was agreed by all that I was "a pain in the arse". I played a bit and barked out answers to Philippe when he asked me questions about others later. "Guy! Stop with your character!"

• "Remember cows are actually very beautiful. They are really precise."

• "You always have to show your pleasure." - Daniele got the 'have a pretty girl rub your stomach whilst you speak' treatment today as he is comes across as very depressed onstage.

• Successful animal/humans were ones with clear rhythms and good pleasure.

For the second half of the class we started scene work of Greek Tragedy scenes.

Philippe asked the actors having a go which elements/materials/colours they enjoyed/were good at. "You have to find something good for the two actors...this is the job of a director" and then if they made sense for the character/scene we saw them at play together. "You don't have to be good now...now we discover."

• Ling played Clytemnestra as 'snow' whilst Mia played Elektra as 'orange'. First with bodies moving and then still. Really clear.

• Brette played 'pink' in an Elektra monologue. Philippe played music behind her, got her to walk slowly, but keep the jumpy light girly rhythm and voice of pink going. He then got her to say "fuck you mother...I'm going to kill you" and it was fantastic! Really surprising and mysterious and exciting and scary!

• Rocio played Clytemnestra as 'steel' and Maria played Elektra as 'air'. This didn't gel so well. Philippe said it was because he felt aggression from Maria (I didn't notice, but he said it was in her eyes and her mouth). "A game is never aggressive...it's just opposing rhythms - I play this, you play that...but not nasty."

Brrrr... It's been snowing more and more over the last few days. Getting cccccold!