"You Have Good Pleasure - You Will Find..."

Philippe took his garage day one day earlier so we had Thomas for improvisation today. Thomas is great - he's encouraging: "just try it", is very clear and on to it, and he gives a lot.

~

We started in groups of 8 dancing to music and throwing a ball between each other. If somebody drops the ball, or does a bad throw, the music stops and they have to do something to 'save their life'. Or sometimes Thomas would just stop the music on people when they caught the ball.

When it was my turn to save my life I tried out a ridiculous upper class British voice. "We don't like your voice." I ended up trying about 8 different voices as Thomas kept on saying "no no no" to each new one that I tried. He then hit me with quick fire questions: Who's your mother? Who's your uncle? Aunt? (Beatrice, Philip, Camilla by the way). With this I found a good rhythm and started speaking in a British growl that jumps all over the place in pitch. "We start to like you."

"You're strange..that's not a complement."

"You look a bit like a vampire."

Admittedly it is a vampire wig. But I've tied it back into a pony tail.

"Your pleasure is good."

"Costume is good. You can discover with this. Now find a voice we like."

I didn't get the voice today - but I feel good in my ability to constantly shift and change in order to discover. I was quite free and playful in doing this. I had fun searching. This is something good to remember. And not worry - soon I'll hit something close...

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Anna: "The character has many sides - not too closed off...This is good."

If you're not happy change right away. It's good to try lots of different costumes.

"You have to propose. Just try."

"Be more unrecognisable. It frees you."

~

We then played a game of Musical Chairs with couples.

"Use the music to really dance around and to relax a bit...you don't have to play the character."

I went with Rocio, who is playing this scary/sexy/fat Cuban dance teacher. I played with a bit of a snort for the character, which didn't work. Keep searching... Rocio was great though. She's found some lovable things. Whenever she was in major the scene was working. Thomas said "when someone is good let them take the lead" (ride off it I guess). But "no sexual chemistry" for us as a couple.

But some pairings sparked our dream engines. Like Emma's character and Australian Mike - as her son. "We can imagine them. We can see stories already."

Then we finished with a quick-fire survival line in which you do something and if the audience likes you you step forward and if they don't you step backwards. I stepped forwards once, but mostly backwards. I tried a lot of voices today. But maybe something drastically different tomorrow..

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Get my body engaged! I tend to constrict my body at this school, probably due to nerves and generally feeling uncomfortable when I don't know what to do - but I know that I'm better when I'm engaged and free...So play there.

I'm already trying to be good/get it right a bit. I can feel it. Just need to be free and explore. Sketch bigger and risk in order to discover. I did have some fun today though.

"You have good pleasure - you will find..."