"You Have To Play OPPOSITE....One Is Nasty. The Beautiful One Is Opposite."

In Samuel Says today I tried to stop Philippe from punishing Katy by saying that she's my wife and that she has already been dealt great blows in her life. "You have to cry in a more artistic way."

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We played scenes with the nasty bailiff and the nice poor woman together today. Playing opposites is key.

"Every pute [translation: 1. whore 2. bitch 3. slut] is nice in Mélodrama...Police are bad."

"Every nasty [character] is to make the people say Oooooh!"

"You have to play OPPOSITE....One is nasty. The beautiful one is opposite": 

Bailiff: "FUCK YOU WHORE!!!"

Woman: "Yes sir...I'm sorry..."

Beware of negative waves: "A little is enough to make everything cold." e.g. "When you pushed her we didn't say Ah! It's for the fun."

I had a go with Rocio - we were picked first for complicité whilst dancing... The key is then to keep this complicité once the scene has started, because often as soon as it's 'time to act' it all goes away. I did a big nasty voice with rising inflections, showing myself to the audience as an actor. "Not too bad."

Danced with Sophia too. This time it was "not fantastic". I pushed a bit. Too loud and harsh. Q: How do I provoke the audience without this painful voice?

I wanted to have a go playing the poor person, as nobody seemed to be getting it. It requires playing opposite - but also a strong sensitivity and commitment. To be loved by the audience for being good in comparison to the nasty guy on stage.

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Later, we moved the benches around to make a kind of in the round staging, and we had people in couples dancing as if they were all at a party. And the audience were at the party too. And everyone were ex-students of Monsieur Dumas' school. And scenes started as a fun way of remembering what we used to do at school. This gave a sense of playing for fun, and for everyone else in the room. It helped us be lighter, to have more pleasure, and to be with the audience.

Kiiiind of like Dancing with the Stars...

I danced with Claire de Canada. She was quite nervous (I could feel her shaking a bit) and I focussed on just trying to be with her and playing together. We did a great job. Taking our time and listening to each other. Philippe played different music behind us, to help us out with changing rhythms and energy. And at times he'd tell one of us to stop, and then to give the game to our scene partner. Essentially guiding us to share the game at the right times. I found other ways to be nasty and to provoke without using the extremes of my voice (holding notes, or almost singing, helps) and also played with bigger gestures. It feels much better to engage my body! (This is a clue to why I felt blocked in Mask and Character...always free up my body).

 "Not bad...not really in the party anymore...[we drifted to more of a show]...but not bad at all."

We were together and exploring and being 'actors' whilst being sensitive and having fun. This is the feeling to constantly look for. :)

"When you have a good complicité, a scene...a game...is not far."

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Note to self: Read Les Misérables as it is a "beautiful book"...

...but avoid the West End Production as it is a "horrible musical."

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Had Thomas (Austrian) over for dinner tonight and we ended up watching this film I heard Anna raving about called Withnail & I. We couldn't follow - it was just very strange. 

What the hell Anna?