Class started with a little experiment. Philippe got two volunteers to come on stage and whisper to each other bad things about Vicky, without letting the audience hear what they say.
Mike and Charles did this, and they looked particularly happy with each other while they were doing it.
Philippe then announced that this exercise proved that when people say bad things about other people they are happy - all around the world. "So you have to be happy to say bad things about bastards" - and that's what we did today.
~
We came up one at a time, and spoke as ourselves to the class/audience telling them about a bastard of our choice. Sometimes we would dip into playing the bastard for a bit - to imitate and to mock. And Philippe would ask questions here and there, and ask to see the bastard in a particular situation. e.g. Whilst having sex, or going to the toilet.
I got up and presented a step-father of an ex-girlfriend. A dairy farmer. Fat (although he does drink Diet Coke), lazy, awful to his wife, ignorant, and intent that the dairy industry is the important thing in the world. I had fun actually - I felt pretty naughty talking about this stuff, so I got the giggles a bit - but I had trouble to imitate him. I had trouble to exaggerate and destroy. I felt a bit stuck. "Your pleasure to say bad things is not enough."
"We don't see 'Ah! I'm going to destroy this bastard in front of my friends."
~
"Never you play the bastard. Always you imitate. You don't enter the skin of the character. You just imitate...like a puppet."
"A Bouffon is ready to say bad things. You want details? No problem!" You can invent too. It doesn't have to be true.
It's good to have the sentence of your bastard. You say it and POFF we see the bastard.
The actor is not far from the Bouffon at all. You should be able to go from you to the parody and back to you instantaneously.
"The Bouffon - he plays with the spectator, having fun." You need to look at the audience. See if they like it as well.
~
Sam was great imitating an old high school teacher of hers. She started to create a whole story of her seducing a student - even though it was just a joke rumour for her initially. Soon we see her complaining about Aboriginals whilst having sex with this boy, saying "You've got to mount me! Mount me Jesse!"
~
At the end of class it became clear to me that you can go really big and far with this form. Really exaggerate. As an audience, we want more!
I got up and presented a step-father of an ex-girlfriend. A dairy farmer. Fat (although he does drink Diet Coke), lazy, awful to his wife, ignorant, and intent that the dairy industry is the important thing in the world. I had fun actually - I felt pretty naughty talking about this stuff, so I got the giggles a bit - but I had trouble to imitate him. I had trouble to exaggerate and destroy. I felt a bit stuck. "Your pleasure to say bad things is not enough."
"We don't see 'Ah! I'm going to destroy this bastard in front of my friends."
~
"Never you play the bastard. Always you imitate. You don't enter the skin of the character. You just imitate...like a puppet."
"A Bouffon is ready to say bad things. You want details? No problem!" You can invent too. It doesn't have to be true.
It's good to have the sentence of your bastard. You say it and POFF we see the bastard.
The actor is not far from the Bouffon at all. You should be able to go from you to the parody and back to you instantaneously.
"The Bouffon - he plays with the spectator, having fun." You need to look at the audience. See if they like it as well.
~
Sam was great imitating an old high school teacher of hers. She started to create a whole story of her seducing a student - even though it was just a joke rumour for her initially. Soon we see her complaining about Aboriginals whilst having sex with this boy, saying "You've got to mount me! Mount me Jesse!"
~
At the end of class it became clear to me that you can go really big and far with this form. Really exaggerate. As an audience, we want more!
No comments:
Post a Comment