"It's Not True, But It's True...It's True, But It's Not True."

Today in Movement I learned how to do The Worm!!! 

I'm now an 80's breakdancing star. A 'B-Boy'. Call me 'G-Guy'. 

Plus, we also did this amazing exercise where you lie on a yoga mat with a pole underneath on one side of your spine, and then the other, and then under your coccyx, then your shoulder blades, and finally under the bottom of your head just above the neck. It hurts at first but eventually your muscles give in and relax. Smile through the pain. Ahhh! Feel fantastic afterwards.

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At the start of class a few of us were dancing around for fun before we started, and then spontaneously we all just got up to dance. Then Philippe turned it into an exercise. Dance around to music and when the music stops say some text from Shakespeare keeping inside the pleasure from dancing. I put up my hand to go first, but got killed very quickly. Not listening to the music and too heavy on my feet. Can't forget about lightness and sensitivity! Bummer, but an important lesson to keep relearning. Starting to get a bit frustrated with myself at the moment. I can feel it coming. I'm trying not to get fussed, or jealous, or worried about being bad/wanting to be good, but it's creeping up on me! I see other actors I consider to be at a similar technical level to me, doing better work, and I start feeling left behind - worthless. An ego battle with myself. But I've just got to remember it's good to be bad. I might also stop going first, as I feel like I take it for the team a bit, and everybody else learns from my mistakes. Got to think - to get into the zone in a way - before I perform. Right now I'm rushing and being a bit clumsy with what I do. But I shouldn't be. It's sensitive work.

Philippe mentioned that when you're good it's best to not to destroy that. You don't want to do good work, and then do something else and bomb because then you'd leave feeling 'ah shit'. If you're good it's good to leave feeling that. "It does many things... it helps you dream..." The opposite works too...

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Irena worked with Philippe on a scene from The Seagull. Philippe got Irena to take off her glasses, and to change into a dress. This is because immediately, from the way she dresses, we see her as a primary school teacher.

"When you arrive on stage *SHUM!* in one second we have a sort of story in our head."

It shows the importance of the choices we make on our physical appearances and what effect it has on an audience. Philippe sometimes teases people in the class who have 'bigger bodies' than others, which is pretty nasty. But in a way I think he's saying 'this is what we see, so know that, and own it'. 

He got Irena, who comes across as quite shy and timid, to say "I want to make love to you" to Thomas (Austria) who was onstage with her. This sparked a light in her eye, and made her alive and beautiful.

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"Always you have to show something special."

"Some directors prefer ideas over life. But an actor, he wants to show the beauty of life."

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Charles and I got up and worked with Philippe on the opening scene of Romeo & Juliet. 

GREG:

The heads of the maids? 

SAMP:

Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads. Take it in what sense thou wilt. 

I started our scene with the end of the opening prologue, and then Charles entered and I changed into Gregory. But Philippe said we can't do this. They serve different purposes. I'd need to leave, and then come back. For the sake of clarity I suppose.

He said what we performed at first - which was boyish/brutish - was too much 'hooligan'. "You can't have hooligans playing hooligans".

He got us to do the scene to the Westside Story music 'When You're A Jet' - to listen to the music and dance a bit. Then at a point he changed the music to Opera. We were more together here - lighter and offering a different colour from the text. "With a director it could be good like this."

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Daniele worked a monologue of Shylock's from The Merchant of Venice (Act 3 Sc1). 

Philippe got somebody to pour water on Daniele's hair - making him look poorer, and a bit mad. He also go Thomas (Austrian) to hold down Daniele's head on a table as he spoke text - A 'Nazi' holding down a Jew - as Daniele said he text yelling and laughing.

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Claire de France and Ben (cool new guy from Manchester/South Africa) worked on a love scene from Romeo & Juliet, but it was boring at the start: "Shitty middle-class education...and middle-class education is absolutely awful."

He said "we have to see something fantastic" and got Claire to lie on top of Ben on the floor, and then for them to roll around together kissing, whilst the saying the text. Now it comes alive! We see their fun, the pleasure. We see the pleasure of sex and being in love. Fantastic.

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At the end of class I asked Philippe whether he read 'sex and violence' in the work Charles and I did today - in the lighter musical-theatre stuff we found. I can see that the text does one job, and we should do another, but it felt like the musical-theatre-ness could distract from the actual meaning of the scene. But he said for him it didn't. And then he went on to talk about what we did at first - hooligan stuff - was too real. People thought we might really hurt each other. But theatre isn't real. It isn't true.

"It's not true, but it's true...It's true, but it's not true."

"When reading a book, its true in our head, but it's not true."

"We don't dream around the truth. We need a lying truth."

"People that say the truth are horrible...they are dangerous."