"It's Not Necessarily Your Story, But We Have To Receive A Shock!"

Today Philippe got us to go onstage and sing a 'little idiot's song'. I sang My Old Man's A Sailor which I know because The Gas House Gang sang it.

But The Smother's Brothers did a great version too! 

These guys were The Flight of the Conchords of the 60s! Awesome!

Philippe said I was a good idiot, but "you need a tiny moment for the audience." 

He also got people to sing a 'romantic song'. And then in the way of the song say: "What is it my pet? Time for love?" This was a key into Nel from Samuel Beckett's Endgame. 

Philippe mentioned that the woman that played the old lady in Titanic (Gloria Stuart) could be 'Nel' - the woman in the bin. A bit upperclass...into sex.

At one point he got Mike (who was dressed up to look like a baby) to say "I lost my tooth" with the feeling: Ooh la la a poo is coming = A key into Ned from Endgame.

Nel is lighter - dreamier. Ned is grumpy - a grouch - more of a realist.

If the romantic song singer was a man, he got them to say: "I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever." This was a key into Vladimir from Waiting for Godot.

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"Why don't you take your time to tell your story? To be charming...to have fun... You go too fast."

"When we work on a story we have to see something human...fantastic."

"We have to think: Ay ay ay it is something fantastic."

"It is okay if it's not from your life but you have to be involved...We have to say there is something fantastic."

"The dream is important."

"It's not necessarily your story, but we have to receive a shock!"

~

Claire told a story (actually an urban myth she'd heard) about a suitcase being stolen which had a dead dog inside. The story was kind of funny - but it wasn't enough for a good play. "We don't see her. We don't see her with a lot of emotion."

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Sara told a story about her ancestors, and the dramas that arose from having a black person somewhere along family the bloodline. Details like a husband putting flour on the doorstep to see if a wife is sneaking out at night are fantastic.

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After class I asked Philippe about how to write my Captain Cook story, considering the idea that we have to write about something that is important to us (to me he said "you - it was important after three hours" alluding to the fact it took a while to see why I wanted to tell the story). He said he didn't know what I should write (fair enough), but my shame of being Pākehā (living in another culture's 'stolen' land) has to be the engine. It can be about Captain Cook but we must feel my issue Why Am I Standing In This Country? (we killed and cheated Māori - now we say we love them) in everything that happens in the play.

~

This evening I went to see Semianyki ('The Family') at Théâtre du Rond Point .

It was a clown show by a Russian company.

Unfortunately I really didn't like it. 

It was heavy, violent at times (e.g. knocking heads off toy dolls)...

...it had really loud sound effects

 ...they didn't give me the time and space to laugh. And I didn't, once. 

But there were some good scenes (like the one above in which he directed an orchestra - us) (this guy was the best actually)

And some fun surprises - especially with audience interaction.

And good images and a cool aesthetic.

It was very slick and professional. And others liked it. But not me. Although, I did like how they used a curtain at the start of the show, which hung on a string attached to either side of the stage. At the start the mother clown simply pulled it off the string and voila! we have a set. They string then stayed up for the duration of the show, which we just forgot about. This would be the easy way to have a curtain at BATS or Downstage...