“Too Much Idea, Not Enough Game.”

Did I say it’s good to be back? Hmmm...

It’s funny because after one bad day I’ve swung into a mini crisis. It’s ridiculous. Especially after writing what I wrote a few days ago. I think right now I just feel embarrassed and bare again, which I haven’t felt for a while, so it’s a bit of a shock. I am here for a year of this...so I better get used to it!

~

Today we started by dancing with a partner, and when the music goes down a pair improvises a scene of a jealous rant in the style of Broadway Musicals (when they don’t sing). I was with Steph. Philippe killed me for my voice. It needs to be warmer. Not my voice - but a voice for the theatre. “And you play too much.”

~

We then did a scene between a couple that had been happy together for twelve years. But the man recently met another women, who is boring...but very rich, and he’s decided to marry her...tonight! And in the scene he has to break up with his current girlfriend...but she won’t accept.

Everybody had a go and most of us got a few attempts as we have the luxury of time with a smaller group. Philippe helped us out a bit too. Because we were making mistakes that led to a lack of drama. e.g. He says “sit down” - don’t sit down! If he says “it’s over” - laugh and say “oh you’re so funny.” “It’s good to put him in the shit.”

There were a few very funny scenes. In a scene with Thomas and Barbara (from Mexico) it was great because whilst Thomas was still and clearly looking distraught, Barbara was dancing and chanting all over the place. “It’s good to be opposite.”

And in a scene between Mia and Duncan (dude from Canada) they started dancing in order to express their feelings, and Duncan had all these pushing away and neck slashing gestures. It was hilarious! “You have to play together and little by little you discover the game.”

~

www.ina.fr is a good site to watch videos of Vaudeville productions.

Vaudeville is not played in a big theatre for the masses. It’s played to an audience of fifty rich people.

“Beautiful women...they sell tickets.”

“The text is not to explain the situation. It’s to give life. Fantasy. Fun.”

“If you don’t have a game with anyone you cannot speak.”

~

I went up towards the end and Vicky was my partner. I was quite nervous by this point and beforehand couldn’t help but calculate a bit in my head. We danced with our partner with music before the scene started, and I couldn’t get complicité with Vicky. I was stiff and blocked. I wasn’t having fun. Then the scene was loud and heavy on my behalf, and I was playing by myself. “Does he underline with a red marker?” Yes. We had another go and again I wasn’t much better. “Does he break your balls?”

I just couldn’t shake out of it and have more fun. I’m not sure that I wanted it to much. I think I thought I could do it all myself. Which is wrong! It’s unlikeable. 

“Too much idea, not enough game.”

I really took this particular bad moment to heart, which I’m surprised by. It’s continued affecting me into the next day. I felt embarrassed, frustrated, and disappointed essentially - because I knew I could be better, and I felt like I let down Vicky, and I felt like the whole class was judging me (which is not really the case). I’m sure I’ve experienced this before! It was a shock though. I’d forgotten just how crap you can feel. A bruised ego. But looking at what I’m writing now, and after speaking with Amanda, and taking into consideration what I saw in my friends via Skype whilst I was away...it’s nothing. A bruised ego? So I was bad? So what! It’s a pathway to learning. You have to fall before you can stand. And it’s the second day of the workshop. It’s as simple as that, and I need to remember it.