“In The Theatre We Love Strange Things.”

Today we came in costume with the intention of being completely unrecognisable. I went and bought an outfit with accompanying wig and moustache with the intention to emulate a Captain Cook British coloniser look (partly because I have an idea to do a show in this world, and also because I think I could have fun with it).

We played musical chairs as our characters, and when we missed out on a chair we had to first yell “Hey Dad! It’s me! Guy! Nobody recognises me! Watch me pretend to be my character now!” and then pretend to be our character. Say some text - sing a song - something.

When it was my turn I tried to discover something with no idea – tried to take that risk I was avoiding in mask – and hopefully find something. I ended up doing some bad remnant of a Spanish Il Capitano, dropped that, swung my long grey and black hair around, making my wig fall off. And then I tried to fit that into it. Bad. But oh well.

“The costume is good. But horrible idea of your character.”

I replied “I had no idea”, and Philippe said “We can see that”.

So…need an idea of how to play my character. And for me, my idea is to play a pompous British snob. So I’ll give that a go tomorrow. “But give suggestions little by little.”

~

“Be unrecognisable but you have to show your face.”

Some people covered themselves a little too much. And others not enough – we recognised them immediately. Others we sort of recognised, but their costume was so different from how they usually dress that it made us doubt that it was really them. As Andre said, Philippe will be looking for an actor’s potential to play. He told Christine her costume is too nice - “You have to be a bit ugly” – and this will be because he’s directing her towards discovering something new as an actor.

Emma was great as a sixty-three year old super enthusiastic Californian tourist. We loved her immediately.

~

“Be careful cause we see your idea too soon. You have to be subtle.”

I can see that like mask, with Characters we have to try many things.

“Have fun with your voice.”

“Everyday you have to open something new.”

“Give your imagination, pleasure and fantasy to your character.”

“Bravo the actor! Bravo the writer! You’ve created a show I could not imagine.”

Actor is like a puppeteer. He is not the character.

“We have to imagine [the character] in many different ways.”

~

“In the theatre we love strange things.”

At the end of class Philippe got different couples to dance together. It was interesting to see how particular pairings spark our imaginations and others don’t. When a pairing is surprising – something we don’t expect – it tends to ignite our imaginations, prodding us to ask questions of and come up with explanations for this strange thing in front of us.