"I'll Go Everywhere With You...But You Have To Take Care Of My Curiosity...My Sensitivity."

Tim presented a scene from his version of Steph's story, which starts way before mine: when Steph is young at primary school having to write father's day card to her father.

"It's funny to direct. It's not easy. It's a challenge. But it's good fun."

~

Amy's version of Christine's story was also shown. In the scene an ambulance comes to pick up Christine who has mysterious bruises on her body. They doctors asked the mother if she hit her daughter - which the answer was a quick and horrified "no". But it plants immediately in our head a suspicion of the mother. This could be good - to plant various options in the audience's head - but it also may not be what the writer wants us to think. It shows how particular a writer has to be with what his characters say and do.

"Everything...every second is important...for us to have time to imagine in this way...or in this way..."

Philippe also got various actors to play the role of Christine. Steph, Vicky, Sara and then Sophia as her snob character from 'Characters'. 

"They bring another world. When an actor enters - POFF! - We have another world in our head."

~

Philippe then spoke about casting: "You have to choose an actor who has a good fun. He can't be boring. If he is boring the show will be boring. And he has to work well with the other actors."

Be aware of "what they world they bring and which one we have more fun with."

"Of course you have to calculate the fun for two hours." = We need many different qualities - many different kinds of fun - over two hours.

"To audition is really difficult. If you are an actor - you come - you have to bring something special. Otherwise goodbye."

This is awful...

~

And as a director and theatre maker: 

"If you do a show you have to think you do something new." Make people say "we never saw that in my country."

~

And on the subject of blackouts (which along with flashbacks, Philippe hates):

"It's really tiring the blackout. It's not good for the show."

"The writer has to know every time he writes 'blackout' the audience comes back to the theatre."

"It's really really tiring for the spectators this blackout."

"After half an hour is okay...but after ten minutes...you kill your show with that."

~

Briefly: A thought on marketing and the power of word of mouth...

Recently, there have been two theatre shows I had been interested in and was planning to go to - but then I heard that they were bad - and so I didn't go to either. Whereas in the past when I've been told something is very good, then I make an effort to go.

Show's how important word of mouth really is influencing our consumer decisions!

~

Mike worked on his version of Mia's story. "You are precise. It's good to be precise." His work had good differences in rhythm from scene to scene. Different musics is important! The issue with his script was that we stay too short in Australia. The characters "go to Australia - Uhhhp! Me - I go to Australia" = audience's travel in their imagination, but they don't want to leave straight away - they just got there!

"I'll go everywhere with you...but you have to take care of my curiosity...my sensitivity."

"I don't give a shit about the idea of the writer. I give a shit about my pleasure to go to Australia."

"To write is for the pleasure to tell a beautiful story to the spectators."

~

In the last five minutes of class I jumped up and asked if I could test some writing I had done yesterday. It was of a road trip scene, in which Steph and her friends travel throughout New Zealand pointing at all the different landmarks and tourist spots in a deliberately 'hammy' kind of way. I got some actors to read it for the first time - which was a bad idea, because I'd written it with certain rhythms in mind to make it work - and it's hard to know that on a cold read. Anyway - it was a big flop. People were laughing - but because it was so bad! Lesson learned: Don't present something that needs to be worked, as a cold read. And don't rush and do something in five minutes at the end of class, when really you need more time! It's my impatience coming out. I wanted to get up throughout the whole class, and so when there was five minutes left I took the opportunity. But it was a dumb idea. I should have just waited until tomorrow.

But today before class, as I was making photocopies of new scripts I had written, Philippe said to me "You like it? You have a good eye for writing and directing." And I do. I really like the process of making theatre. The idea, the writing, the realisation, and then the performance. I love it all.