"Show the Game of the Mask. Not the Idea of the Writer."

Today we showed the 7 minute mask presentations we'd been set the task to create a few days ago. Rocio and I got together yesterday and worked out a little scene.

'Feeding the Birds'

I enter - it's a park. I see a park bench and go to it - sit down. I reach into my pocket and then pull out a paper bag which I take bread from and feed the birds. After three throws of bread I look up to the right, to the left, and then down at the bread. And then again. And then to the audience. There are no birds.

Then Rocio enters - she want's to seduce me. She comes forward, prepares herself, then stands in front of the park bench. She makes three sexy poses. On the third I notice her and then become nervous. She sits on the bench. She looks at me, I look at her, but when I look she turns away. This happens a few times until we meet each others' eye. Then we both look away in fright. She proceeds to slide closer and closer to me on the bench. Each time she moves I look at her, then to the audience, and my bread throwing pace increases. Until finally she places her hand on my thigh - at which point I throw the rest of the bread up in the air. We both look up, then at each other, and then to the audience. END.

In our showing, the audience laughed a bit at times, but was mostly quiet. Our story was clear however. But too clear. Philippe spoke about how you have to respect the audience:

"Show the game of the mask. Not the idea of the writer." We spelled everything out too much, rather than leaving room for mystery and surprise. He also got both Rocio and I to repeat our entrances, which were boring. Then got each of us to be kicked the bum from behind the wings - bending our body over - and to walk on stage like this. He led me to continue walking like this to nearly the other end of the stage, then lift one leg, and then slowly turn to the audience. I'm not sure exactly what this looks like, but I suppose it's more interesting than simply walking on stage and turning to look at the park. In rehearsing, I had the dilemma of deciding whether to keep the entrance simple or trying to do a funny walk. But I thought the funny walk would be deemed trying too hard to be funny. But there's got to be a line here. Because simply walking on stage isn't the answer. A funny walk is good - that's what the kick in the bum did for me - but it requires subtlety, spirit, and sensitivity to make it work.

..."Not extremely bad"...

~

Clarity was a big theme of the day.

Philippe seemed to deliberately play dumb ("I didn't get it") to make the point of how important clarity of a story is. "An idiot like me...he can't say I can't understand." Tactics have to be clear, and there need to be progressions of things. e.g. A tactic gets progressively stronger/bigger.

"Everything has to be a tactic. You cry not because the opera is beautiful, but because you want to seduce!"

Philippe referenced Buster Keaton as being brilliant for his good clear tactics:

• Keep still. "No Parkinsons tendencies!"

• Conflict is everything. "When you say 'OK, I made a mistake with the chair, you can have it' then there is no conflict...and there is no play." Philippe guided Andre and 'Claire de France' to make their skit clearer in which a woman comes to her seat at the opera to find it's been taken by a man. She makes a big fuss and finally gets it. But then the man who gave it up slowly throws tissue paper in front of her, infuriating her until she finally gets up to pick them up, at which point the man stands up and takes her seat again. - I love this stuff. So simple. And hilarious. And it could really go on like that for hours.

• "Everything has to be in the world of the mask." i.e. Mask underwear (not human). Giant playing cards (not small ones). Giant money (not normal money).

• Often today we heard "we see a bit the mask but the life is boring." i.e. Technique but no spirit.

• Conflict: "Play the Macho that can't be macho. It's better than just playing macho."

~

"To write for the mask is really subtle...PRECISE."

I'm quite interested in making a show with these masks and taking it to New Zealand. We don't get to see stuff like that very often and it's so special. The masks are joyous to watch and it's such a universal form - you don't need language to understand it. Maybe I could purchase some masks from Switzerland before I go home and then put on a show at BATS. Set up some simple wings, and do a series of little skits. That's the beauty! They can be so simple. The Opera. The Haircut. The Birthday Present. I love it.

"You need a good friend to watch and tell you if it's boring or not."