"An Actor Has To Want To Create Something In The Audience's Imagination With Every Gesture."

Today we did an improvisation in which a doctor (who has a secretary) tells a patient she/he is going to die.

I did a scene with Anna and Lauren. I played the secretary, and imitated Anna. Anna had a slower rhythm so I came on and spoke really fast. I wasn't on for long as I was the secretary getting the patient. But I tried to take my place in major. Philippe said "a bit" and noted the pleasure I had imitating Anna. "This is the fun actors should share all the time." I changed my costume a bit today - took away the moustache and swapped wig to a brown boyish one borrowed by Nadeer - which helped. I asked Philippe if it was any better and he said yeah but in 2 or 3 days I'll have to change. I guess there's a bit more (but not too much) for me to discover with my current look.

Thomas the movement teacher teased me at half time for being "so nasty" but that it's good for me. "Be more nasty!"

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"We do not see who plays major and who plays minor."

"You have to throw the game, or else everything else is falling down."

"Every time you want to do the exercise you are boring. You want to do the exercise to discover the fun." = This is the shift I need to make in approaching my work.

"You have to keep your rhythm to create conflict."

"An actor has to have a scene...don't be too small."

"When did you decide to be special? What did you do to be special?"

Philippe led Rik to pick up the phone for a second time, helping him to be special. Really slow. Isolated movement. Fixed points. Look at the audience. A bit more movement. Etc. "An actor has to want to create something in the audience's imagination with every gesture." Every movement. Every word. Like a dancer, like a poet...

"Opposite is always good."

"You have to change...to play and discover another part of the character through the game." If the game changes you must change too.

Philippe gives actors little games to distract them and help them feel pleasure. e.g. Getting Marco to imitate Berlesconi's voice as he receives a blow job and nears orgasm.

And on that note...Don't blow your load too early. Philippe got Charles to try and take Rodrigo's clothes off subtly, but it happened way too quickly. "When you open the coat it's finished. We want to see so many things before...[we want to see] your tactics."

"You enter as an actor, not as a character. Always ad an actor first, then the character."

"It's not hard to have pleasure. We are here. You are here. We are here to look at you."

"If you have fun we accept everything. If you are totally boring like the pope we hate you."

Franck was wonderful as a sadistic sex doctor. He put his finger in Claire de France's mouth to take her temperature, which he then sniffed. "Now where should I put my finger? Not the ears...so where?" Their pleasure was good.

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I was thinking about how at this school the truth comes out about performances really clearly, because the feedback is in definites:

Amazing or terrible? = clear

OK or not really? = unclear

And for theatre, where we strive for clarity, this teaching approach is really useful.