"In France, When You're With A Beautiful Woman You Don't Read A Book!"

Showing day today, but not for me. My scene partner, Maria-Luisa, went to the hospital this morning after suffering severe stomach pains over the past few days. We were worried it was a hernia, but luckily she's only ripped a muscle. But she couldn't make it to class. So before class started I offered my services as a director to whoever wanted one. And during class, I was the secretary.

The Auto-Course scene this week was from The Seagull - the scene at the end of Act 2 in which Nina and Trigorin flirt - basically setting up their affair to come.

"A young girl lives all her life on the shore of a lake. She loves the lake, like a seagull, and she's happy and free, like a seagull. But a man arrives by chance, and when he sees her, he destroys her, out of sheer boredom. Like this seagull."

Again - it's a fine line! 

"It looks like it's his first fuck, but it shouldn't."

"Since the beginning he wants to fuck her. And her - she's okay too. But we don't see that."

"We don't see any flirting. And in France, when you're with a beautiful woman you don't read a book!"

"With some couples, we would be happy to know how they fuck...But not this couple!"

"Pornographic. Totally boring!"

~

At the end of class Philippe got David and Steph (who had done their scene together earlier) to say their text whilst going in for the kiss. But do it over three minutes. The game of tugging on the audiences heartstrings. As kids we used to watch movies and shout "Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!" and when they finally do it's fantastic!

~

Interesting watching the showings today and not performing. As Sophia and I discussed earlier, you watch in a totally different way. There's no nervousness (or relief) and no comparing. You see the mechanics of things more. I was more aware of the choices people had made and how they were working with them. It feels so scary when you're up there, but from the seats it's just a show...with a grumpy man who interrupts sometimes!