"I Want To Show My Humour, My Life, My Fun...Not The Text."

Thomas (Austria) worked on the opening speech of Twelfth Night. 

If music be the food of love, play on;

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,

The appetite may sicken, and so die.

Philippe got him to imitate a gay poet - to say one or two words and then leave a silence - to experience "the pleasure of the words". With the pleasure of this camp character, the actor (and text) comes alive.

~

Sam  - a young girl from Australia - did a monologue of Rosalind's from As You Like It. Philippe got her to imitate a good sellers from Australia. She chose 'Big Kev'.

She also imitated a Greek market seller, an Aboriginal, and a bad boy from London. Philippe then got her to yell. To really yell. And it was great for her! A lot of what he worked on with her was fixed point.

"When you give fixed point it allows the spectator to whisper to each other: Ah, very good actor...she was looking at me!"

"Fixed point is one timing to breathe. One timing for the house."

~

Andre and Anna presented a scene from Macbeth in which Macbeth tries to stop the planned killings before they start, but Lady Macbeth convinces him otherwise. 

Philippe got Andre to wet his hair, to paint his face white, and shone a spotlight on his face. Why? Because before his appearance was realistic, but "now it's strange...something special." 

"Your voice is too natural. We don't say that death is around the corner." He also got him to speak in a metallic/mechanic voice. And told him he doesn't need breathiness in his voice for us to understand he's afraid - the rhythm and text does that already.

He got Anna to play really calm and still, and Andre to go over the top crazy physically and with the text - as if in a real panic. "We have to see the crisis of the guy that doesn't want to kill...but soon, he can't go back."

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"The music of the silence of the play is so important."

"If you don't have tactics you are an idiot."

"The grimace destroys your beauty."

"Me, I have to say: You've taken a fantastic risk and I could never do that! It's so scary!!"

~

Finally Irena did a monologue from The Three Sisters. He got her to say the text whilst remembering having hot showers with her (sexy) ex-boyfriend. 

"I want to show my humour, my life, my fun...not the text."