"You Have To Come And Say: I EXIST!... It's Your Job."

Christine worked on a monologue of Portia from Merchant of Venice.

I pray you, tarry. Pause a day or two

Before you hazard, for in choosing wrong

I lose your company.

Philippe was trying to get her to give more - "louder" - as she was holding back and not giving enough, but unfortunately she couldn't push through it today. Even to raise the volume of your voice is a risk, and requires courage.

~

Mia worked did a monologue of Nina's from The Seagull.

Philippe said "we need to see the pleasure of a teenager who does a show for the first time." He also got Thomas (Austria) to sit and play a drum in the back corner of the stage, looking at the audience and pretending to be Iranian. This was Philippe's way of mocking Peter Brook... "Look! It's new theatre!"

~

Ben did some more text from Hamlet. He set up a mental institute on the stage, and got various actors (dressed as mental patients) to sit and when called, go and receive their medication and then exit. And then Andre entered as a doctor and sat at a table with a notepad opposite Ben, who spoke his text with a speech impediment, as if he were mentally ill. 

"It's a question...Is it boring?"

Philippe then got Andre to stand at the top of some scaffolding, looking down on Ben, and he got him to do his text in the way he'd recently done Puck. He said "he has a special pleasure in this way" and from there he can go many ways.

I really like what Ben is doing at the moment. He's being really bold and trying things on a bigger scale - with set, costume, music, extras etc. He's new to our class yet he's being pioneering! Such bravery! I find it really inspiring. Good on him. He's really going for it, and you can see he will go somewhere because of it.

~

Finally Claire de France worked on a Juliet from Romeo & Juliet. Like with Christine, Claire had real trouble giving more. It was a volume thing mainly. But also an energy thing too. She just wouldn't come out of her shell. Philippe tried lots of different tactics to try and help her discover something, to play, to have fun. He got her to say her text whilst taking off Charles' shirt. "Normally when a woman takes the shirt off a man it's for something precise...we have to see Ooh la la something is coming." He got her to say her text whilst going in for a Hollywood kiss with Charles. And he got the two of them to play the catch-the-sock-in-your-partner's-pants game. But she never gave more. She never took a risk. "Claire doesn't want to sell." Philippe said she needs to explode. I was so annoyed with her actually. She took up a lot of class time but didn't give anything in return. And then when Philippe finally finished their time working together, then she decided to change something, but still nothing came. I know I'm being a bit harsh, and it's her right to have time to work on her, and sometimes we are stuck and don't break through and discover, but I wish she had risked something.

~

"Jealousy creates a good feeling to say: Why not me!"

"We have to know what you play."

"In theatre you have to show yourself, and to sell that."

"An actor, every night, sells his beauty."

"If you stay as you are on the street you are wrong. Theatre and the street are totally different."

"You have to come and say: I EXIST!... It's your job."

~

For the last few minutes of class the girls got to do an audition (jealous!) for Desdemona.

DESDEMONA

A guiltless death I die.

EMILIA

O, who hath done this deed?

DESDEMONA

Nobody; I myself. Farewell

Commend me to my kind lord: O, farewell!

[Dies.]

"You can do whatever you want, but we have to say: That is fantastic!"

~

Some NZ friends - Eli and Erin - have come to stay tonight. I acted alongside Erin in The Great Gatsby, and I acted in Bedlam written by Eli! 

Erin and I.

It's really great to see them! I've been hesitant about returning home lately, but seeing them and hearing from a few other good friends has made me really want to come home now!