"We Don't Work Vaudeville For Vaudeville. We Work Vaudeville To Discover The Best Actor Lightness."

I presented Puck at the beginning of class. Yesterday (before my lines fell apart) I had tried to do it in the style of an American Conspiracy TV Show Host with a slow rhythm and cigarette in my hand.

But Philippe said that that is too heavy - that Puck is light! So I aimed for light and magical today, even though I knew it would be naff. Philippe asked me to do some text from Vaudeville and then do Puck in the way. Then to imitate Ben - so I was kicking my legs about shouting "oooh!" and making a "zzzz" noise with my teeth biting my tongue - it was fun! And then to do it the same way, but a bit gay. 

Then he got Vicky (Hi Vicky...I know you're reading!!) to play a little flute sitting on a chair, and he got me to be a cobra that comes alive with the music. So I was wiggling my body - a bit gay - hissing and licking my tongue a bit - and saying the text with a breathy voice. 

I felt light, but I didn't feel fantastic, or completely free. To be honest, for me it felt pretty cringe-worthy - pretty Am-Dram - because I'm playing over the top magical kid's theatre, really. But Philippe said I'm good like this. Light and mysterious. Interesting. And I listen well to Vicky (who played with me well). He told us to "work in this way". So I guess I should just take today as a starting point.

It didn't feel like a great success like it sometimes does when Philippe works with others in this way, but I feel like a made a good step in committing to what is being asked of me and exploring on stage. Not being stuck in a box like I've felt in the past.

~

The notorious 'wasp scene' was shown again today. Philippe was pretty rough with them from the start, which didn't make it easy after their tough day yesterday. Unfortunately they didn't show anything particularly different from yesterday. Philippe got Thomas and Vicky to accompany them with drums and flute, which ended up sounding like The River Dance, and got the actors dancing in this way too! But it wasn't enough. "Put it in the bin." 

~

Barbara presented a monologue from a Spanish text - I'm not sure which one. She was dressed for the role! She looked like a Spanish musketeer, with tight black pants, boots, a loose white shirt, belt, and sword. Topped off with her fantastic wavy black hair.

Philippe got her to perform the piece as if it was the opening of a great old American movie, like Ben Hur. "Arrive on the top of a hill...speak for the whole country...I am here!" And Thomas suggested some fantastic music to go with it:

"It has to be a beautiful hero coming."

He led her to play a strong female warrior: Still. Big warm voice. Big aura - arms in the air. To speak just one word and then leave a pause. Two words then pause. One word. Three.

"She could be fantastic if she is not natural."

"When you are on the stage it's not a natural situation...so why be natural?"

~

Mia and I tried our "Urals" scene again, but we ran into the same problems again. The fight is too serious. "They don't fuck." He only gave Mia feedback, and we tried it several ways but it we couldn't get it to come alive. It's really difficult. To play the impossible wife is not easy. It's a fine line! Ben said both Mia and I and him and Sophia have struggled to get it to come alive like we did in improvisations and Philippe spoke about how "the text has crisis" - it works and then it doesn't.

~

After class I spoke to Philippe and asked him what I can do for the Urals scene with Mia, but he said I'm okay. I'm light. The issue is more with the role of the wife. And as Puck? It's good. It's light. Have fun to be silly. I told him I'm feeling a bit bored at the moment, that I want a challenge and wanted to him to suggest other characters to look at, but he said we can go more light. See how light we can get.

"We don't work Vaudeville for Vaudeville. We work Vaudeville to discover the best actor lightness." I like this. It makes of sense of the choice of studying styles, because they require different actor qualities.