"The Moment The Actor Wants To Be More Clever Than The Mask, The Mask Dies."

I secretly got a bit annoyed with myself today. A bit of a build up from yesterday too. I'm catching myself caring way too much about what the teacher (Nicole for improvisation today) and my classmates think of me as a performer - wanting to be 'good' or seen as 'good' - when I know it's irrelevant. It's about my learning and what I discover. Nobody cares about how good or bad I do. And I shouldn't either. I'm happy with my progress in courage and scale - I'm bringing all of me to the stage now, I give a lot - but I could play/risk more. And ride the flop more. Currently I'm avoiding it. Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself, but it's a good wee reminder for me to chill out and focus my energy in other places.

~ A few Le Jeu exercises today as the masks had gone missing for a while ~

Mock Your Classmate's Walks

This is a really fun little exercise to do with a group of people who know each other fairly well. Walk behind somebody and imitate their walk, and exaggerate things. Add a face. Be a bit nasty. Afterwards you can play 'guess who's imitating who' and it's hilarious to pick everyone out.

"When you don't know what to do to give life to your mask, try one of these walks!"

Imitate Foreign Singers:

In groups of 5-6 we stood up on stage and one by one imitated the singing of foreign music played through the speakers.

"You don't have to imitate well, just have fun with your voice."

Music from all over: Spain, Italy, France, China, Romania... Fantastic!

Great when Nicole asked people to pronounce the language they were singing (which was being made up) more precisely, and gets them translate. "And that word 'Fenchinko'...what does it mean?"

~

When the masks turned up 5 or so of us got up with a mask of choice and danced to music, and when the music stopped and we were called upon, we had to speak to the audience in gibberish. Pantalone had to moan about having no money. Capitane had to give a speech.

"The moment the actor wants to be more clever than the mask, the mask dies."

I wore the mask of Capitane. Had good pleasure dancing, but when going to speak I started to push. Nicole didn't pull me up on this, she didn't say much really, but I felt it. What I did was fine, but I know I could do better. I know I could have more fun, risk more, be lighter. I want to develop more sensitivity on stage than I'm currently performing with, so need to make an active decision to work on this next time.