"That's It?...1...2...3...Goodbye."

We played 'Mask Musical Chairs' with Nicole today. A bit harder when you can't see! Very funny when somebody get's so close to an empty chair and then goes somewhere else completely missing it! If you didn't find a chair then you had to try and save your life - in anyway possible. And if we don't love you, then you'd hear: "That's it?...1...2...3...Goodbye."

"When I count, it's to make you change. Try something else. Change your rhythm."

• You have to listen to the audience. Find out what we like and what we don't. Do the stuff we like! Explore. Play. Discover.

• Interesting to notice that when masks react directly to Nicole it starts to be good.

"It's strange. When people have to leave the stage they become good."

"Often when you have a problem and you're in big shit you discover something."

"When you try to explain stuff to us you start to be fucking boring...it doesn't give life to the mask."

When I went up I was having a good time dancing to all the different genres - being quite free and playful with the mask on. I missed out on a chair, but didn't realise immediately, so I kept on dancing around (without the music playing) trying to find a chair as I danced). Nicole said "do you want the music again?" and I nodded - and then kept dancing. Then Nicole got me to enter and come and flirt with another female mask that was sitting down. So I grooved over and did various dance moves to try and catch the female masks attention. Stopping after each one and looking to the mask, then the audience, and back to the mask. I was slightly concerned that I was flopping big time because I couldn't hear much laughter from the audience, but they were with me. "You have saved yourself Guy, well done."

Then the next time the music stopped I missed out on a chair again! This time it was a bit harder - I got into a situation like so many others where the audience are waiting for you to do something, and whatever you do makes no impact. But in watching others, I noticed that it's not what you do that makes us love you but rather how you react after you've done something. e.g. I did a little break dance on the ground and then struck a pose (fixed point) and looked at the audience = Laughter. Eventually I died, but I stayed on for a long time essentially because I had good spirit. I was having fun, playing, being a bit silly and not caring too much. And this comes across. Of course I was working on technicals too but as I learnt on the auditions for Greek Tragedy - you need both!

"You start to understand something."

It's become clear that there are hard rules to make a mask come alive on stage. It depends on lots of things. The mask, the actor, the body, the clothing, the gestures, the movement, the rhythms, impulses, spirit...

"It depends with which spirit you move the mask."

We started to see how some masks demand a certain kind of movement (for example, the sharp pointy nose mask works well with sharp pointy movement) but it still depends. Some masks/actors (like Vicky) were better with smaller movements and others (like Andre) with bigger ones.

• Don't show the mask strap.

• Don't come too close to the audience.

• Don't hide the mask with gestures in front of the face. Keep them low or wide.

Again, you have to give a lot. More life. More fun. More spirit.