"Risk Is The Best Thing"

Risk is so important for artists. It's how discoveries are made. It is scary, and it is safer not to risk, but we never get anywhere quickly that way. Since the beginning of my time at this school I'm getting better at risking. I'm risking often. I'm training myself to risk. And to commit to the risk - to follow it - to see where it goes...even if it flops...

Today we started by imitating Cacti. Most of us were bad (I was "too mechanical").



Philippe then also gave us the option, if we thought a Cactus was too difficult, or if we just didn't picture ourselves as a Cactus, then we could be a potato.

• "The text is the music of the movement" (they are different)

Rocio and Maria showed their Clytemnestra/Elektra scene. Again, he got them to go and dress up. Rocio in white with a whitened face and red lipstick, and Maria in Greek Tragedy cloak. Jamie ('the assistant') said he does this because it gives the actor something extra - it helps them fill the role. To start, he got Rocio to play the colour white and Maria the colour orange. Jamie questioned his choice and Philippe replied: "When you're a teacher and you suggest something that could be an idiot idea...DO IT! DO! IT! Something beautiful may come. We don't know. You never know."

He got us to tie Rocio's hands between two scaffold towers and told her not to struggle, just to accept. Rocio then spoke, and he asked her not to talk so much (as Spaniards always talk too much) but she couldn't really get it. She kept talking too often, not leaving spaces in between.

"Take a risk. Everybody is happy when you have done something unconventional." Rocio could have risked by leaving much bigger gaps between her speech. She may have discovered something. But not today. It's frustrating. She was visibly upset afterwards. With herself I'm sure. But this reiterates to me that risking is really hard to do!

• "The risk is the best thing. In an audition, if you take a risk you'll wake up the director and get the part."

• "You have to be special otherwise you don't exist."

Whilst Rocio and Maria went and got costumed up I went on stage with Claire and did the same scene as I did on Friday with Steph (as Claire's partner Akron didn't have his text ready yet). "International actor" Philippe joked about me. We got to choose materials to play. I chose Black. I did a kind of tense open body, and spoke in a loud whisper. "You were not so bad...I'm annoyed because I wanted to say something bad about you." I've actually been surprised lately because I've been getting a lot of 'not so bads' when doing this element work. I think it's because I'm getting better at trying something, committing to it, and exploring it, and not doing conventional things (maybe I suck at animals because I fall into conventional ideas where as there aren't any conventional ways of playing the colour black are there?). Anyway - Philippe says stay with Black. "You have something to explore with black."

Philippe spoke a bit about being unconventional today. He said you have to be special. Not of your culture or tradition.

• "We don't dream around traditional theatre. It's awful. We have to find something else."

• "You can't imitate something. You have to do something special for you."

I find this way of approaching acting so inspiring.