"You Have A Mask - You Show The Mask. It's A Rule. You Have To Follow This Rule...It's Funny But You Have To Do It""

Due to Philippe's request earlier in the week, today we all dressed up nice (as if for a wedding). Instructions: Try and match it to your favourite mask...maybe your mask actually has bad fashion sense...

We then spent the class on one exercise: an improvisation in which one mask is in their home (with table and chairs) waiting, and another mask arrives with the intention to ask the other mask to marry them. Nobody got too far in this exercise, and it felt as if Philippe was getting a bit fed up because a lot of things we'd learned earlier in this workshop (or other workshops) were being forgotten. It's not that we've forgotten them though. It's just that there are a lot of things to try and achieve all at the same time - and it's improvised - and scary. And lots of people got most things, but forgot one little thing like showing the mask. But you do have to show the mask. You do need it all at once or else it doesn't work. I mean, it does work, but it's not amazing. And at this school it's amazing or nothing. I love that. It sets a great standard for us all to achieve. But I think it's worth noting that even when people are not amazing, it's still pretty good.

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I got up with Thomas (Austria) and wore the mask of Il Capitano. I was a bit lighter, and was working on taking major - and then passing the game clearly. I found a funny moment where I started waving my sword in a silly way and then just kept on going in the middle of a sentence. I could have turned this into a fun game. But a wee way in Philippe stopped us. He told me I have to be more ridiculous. And led me to do the sword waving again and then on the beat of his drum drop the sword. And then look down at the sword - back to the audience - to the sword - to the audience...

"You have to calculate how to enter to be loved."

"If he moves a lot, I move a little. Calculate the game between two actors."

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Philippe was strict with Mia: "Why do you step forward?!? Why do you move your arms?!?" These movements are subtle, but important to be aware of. = Isolation and Purpose.

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Harvey was funny: "So what's the idea behind this? Do I know this person? For how long?" It seemed ridiculous because at this school we never talk like this. It doesn't matter. Make it up. Play. "This is not the Actor's Studio..."

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Rik was great as the dancing and singing and rapping character he eventually discovered.

Do this when you act." = Be free. Use your fantasy.

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Claire de France had real trouble rising to the performative and energetic level needed to bring the mask alive. But she got there in the end. "Now you have to start like this. Not to finish like this but to start."

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Andre was asked to sit down again, after first sitting down in a conventional way (for the old man character he was playing). But this time singing a sexy song.

He sang Tenacious D's 'Fuck Her Gently'.

"Do we prefer this mask when he thinks he's going to fuck someone? OR when he performs theatre for children in Melbourne in a Greek area?"

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Franck repeated his Arabic character from yesterday and we were rolling on the floor laughing. It was hilarious. The rhythm, and his face, and voice. The weirdness of it all. Philippe said "now you have found this you have to share the game".

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Share the game: "You have to send the message: It's your turn to play!!!"

"LOUDER!" Lot's of people got told to speak with a loud voice. A very loud one. It lifts them out the ordinary. And as an audience it lifts us out also.

"We need a voice with a problem." A lisp...speak as if there's a hole in your mouth..."We have to say this actor has a good fun to speak."

"You are not looking for the attitude of the mask."

"It's not good to start sitting...start doing something."

"You have a mask - you show the mask. It's a rule. You have to follow this rule...It's funny but you have to do it." You are the director of a puppet. Stop fixed point. Look. Fixed point. Text. Move. Fixed point!

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Philippe spoke about how in class everyday we need to "give a bit". Strive to be to be more free. Everyday! With this we will progress.

I also was thinking about Philippe's hate for the conventional.

A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom.

And I can see why. When something is conventional it is predictable, ordinary and boring. I must strive to find another way. My way. With fun and fantasy.