"When You Play With An Actor That Gives A Lot...Take It! Take It! Take It!"

Musical chairs to start today. When you miss out on a chair, with the pleasureful voice of a liar talk about how much you enjoyed dancing, and then move into a scene of choice from Chekhov or Shakespeare. A bit of a mass murder... 

"She is a great star? Or a church mouse?"

I got killed for being too noisy on my feet. Anna and Andre both got killed for belonging to the Royal Sydney Shakespeare Company... Mia did well though! And was beautiful for a long time. But at when she moved to being pissed off (in character) she "was not pissed off in a beautiful way...You have to find a beautiful way for everything." 

After dancing, Tom (Australia) also worked a bit on the scene from The Seagull in which Arkadina removes Treplyov's bandages. Philippe got Tom to sit tall and still in his chair, and to scream his lines (which were fed to him from the side, a sentence at a time). Philippe spoke warned not to play sentimental (even if the text is), and suggested playing with madness, or sickness - something strange. "It's better if the actor goes another way, And never explain the text. That's the job of a dramaturgy wanker, or a university lecturer. An actor gives another colour to the text."

~

After loo-loo break we had an 'audition' for Hamlet and Ophelia:

OPHELIA

Good my lord, 

How does your honor for this many a day?

HAMLET 

  I humbly thank you; well, well, well.

OPHELIA

My lord, I have remembrances of yours, 

That I have longed long to re-deliver; 

I pray you, now receive them.

HAMLET 

No, not I;

I never gave you aught.

Just a short moment from Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1), in which Ophelia is testing Hamlet to see if he's really mad or not. Hamlet play's up his madness as knows he's being watched/tested.

So the actor playing Hamlet needs to enjoy pretending to be mad. 

And the actress playing Ophelia needs to 

play the opposite of what Hamlet is doing.

Philippe worked with a few different pairings. Daniele and Mia were particularly good. Totally alive and unique. Full of pleasure too. Both were giving a lot.

"When you play with an actor that gives a lot...Take it! Take it! Take it!"

Interesting that each actor's madness is different. Philippe got Rodrigo to play super camp and it worked. We like him like that, and he likes it too. But each actor is different!

I chickened out a bit and didn't go up for this exercise. We didn't have much time, so hardly anyone did. But I wanted to - but started wanting to be good, and getting nervous about being bad. I can feel this problem creeping up on me at the moment. I want to do well. I want to be amazing. In an egotistical way, instead of in a discovery/learning way. So this is something to take note of and to push through. I am feeling, especially after Daniele was so good today, that it's about time I really lift my game. To start acting like a real actor. Making the decision to be a star. I feel like I haven't risen to the level I know I'm capable of reaching, and that really is because I haven't made the choice to do that. I've got to stop doing 'just okay' work and start striving for much much more. Ugh! I think Daniele being really good today, as well of a feeling of not being in-demand to do scenes with (from the actors I wish would approach me) has given me a little jealous spiteful push. Ha. So I'll have to turn this energy into something useful!