“We Don’t Think You Have Fun To Ask Your Husband To Suck Your Bottom.”

Steph, Lee, Mike and Duncan presented the scene in which the wife gets stung by a wasp. 

It was bad: “Horrible - you can’t do it...not light at all...they hate each other...like this, it’s impossible.”

“[They] don’t love enough and she is not crazy enough.”

“We need a game between the two protagonists.” = She claim’s there’s a lot of pain - he claim’s there’s no pain.

Philippe ended up working with the group for most of the class. Trying to bring the scene and the actors alive. He ended up getting Steph to yell at and criticise Philippe (which was easy because she was pissed off) and then when he hit his drum she would say her text in the same tone. Trying to find “the pleasure to yell” but “she’s boring...we don’t see [her] fun.”

“We don’t think you have fun to ask your husband to suck your bottom.”

“If you want to be an actor, you have to be charming.”

~

I’d been feeling tired and unmotivated and anti-social all day (all week actually) and didn’t really want to go to school (but I did) and told myself to get up and present a Shakespeare monologue I’ve just learn of Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was really nervous and not 100% confident with my lines, I got up, and started the scene (I’d decided earlier to try it in the style of a conspiracy TV show host - as something to offer) but after two lines I blanked. I pulled out and said it’s not the day for me to do it. I shouldn’t have got up in the first place. Too tired. Next time, I’ll try to only get up when I want to, because when I get up when I don’t want to it’s a disaster waiting to happen!

~

Ben tried "To Be Or Not To Be" again today with Thomas playing drums behind him. Philippe got him to do it as a grand RSC actor, a rapper, and a Vaudeville actor. 


"You have to show the many possibilities to have fun with Hamlet."

"It's Not A Good Feydeau."

Movement was worse today in my opinion. Working on contraction and expansion. And having a sun emitting from inside you. And then talking about how it makes us feel. I see that the exercise helps the actor to be taller, and to engage their bodies with impulse and intention, which is useful...but how does it make me feel? Fucking bored. It’s a lot like what I learned in Movement at Toi Whakaari with Tom McCrory. It’s not an uncommon way to teach movement I’m sure. But I hate it. At this school, I want to warm up and stretch my body, and prepare my spirit (have some fun) for Improvisation. The kind of teaching we got today kind of goes against that I think. It’s technical and intellectual. And not fun. But I do see it can be useful for some people.

~

Lee, Vicky and Mia continued working on their scene from Le Dindon. We have to see Redillon pretentious, the two women both wanting to fuck him and him panicking!

~

Ben and Sophia showed their "Urals" scene again. 

The Ural Mountains

We have to see the wife being totally uncontrollable, and the husband in the shit.

"She has to be a snake...She enters and destroys everything." 

~

Thomas and Lee tried the A Flea In Her Ear 'Hotel Pussy Galore' scene between Étienne and Antoinette...with Thomas playing Antoinette in drag. What they presented was totally boring. "We need to have to fun to imagine something around them." But we didn't at all. Philippe got them to play a gay couple but still not enough came. They needed to give more volume, energy, and fun. Eventually they found a game with Philippe in which he was threatening to put them on the list of the worst students of the workshop alongside Mike and Steph and Akron. "No! Please!" screamed Thomas and Lee. They were crying and melting on the floor like the Wicked Witch of the East.

~

I offered a scene to read from a play called Le Système Ribadier (Now You See It) in which a husband hypnotises his wife and puts her to sleep, then has a revealing discussion with the husband of the woman he's having an affair with, in front of his sleeping wife...except this time she's only pretending to sleep. Philippe stopped us as we were reading it and said it's not so funny. I said it's Feydeau, but he said "it's not a good Feydeau." I want to find a new scene to learn - I'm feeling like time in running out now and I'd like to try a different kind of character - but this scene is not the one!

~

After class Philippe spoke briefly about being a writer and expressed the importance of having details. He said when he writes, it can take a long time to collect all the details, but when he has them all suddenly he can write very quickly. "You need all the details and then you can go."

“You Have To Know...For The Fun...Pretend To Know!”

A new Movement teacher today: Eléna, from Italy. She trained with Philippe back when his school was in London, and is an actor/director/teacher in Madrid currently. The class was a change from the usual playing games/getting warm/acrobatics that we’re used to. We spent the class walking around and checking in with our bodies, and then running from one class to the other and jumping in the middle whilst shouting our name. Concentrating on beginning, middle, and end. I found it tedious. Too much talking, not enough moving. I have a feeling I’m not going to love Movement for the next four weeks (this kind of thing doesn’t sit well with me) but I’m going to give it a chance.

~

Akron, Thomas and Vicky presented the Bouzin scene in which he tries to get a meeting with the singer. Thomas played the woman, Akron played Bouzin, and Vicky played the waiter.

Philippe said it wasn’t clear whether Thomas played a woman or a transvestite. “You have to decide.” 

“We don’t understand what you play when you enter.”

Philippe also worked with Akron, who wasn’t coming on stage with anything specific.“You have to want something.” Offer something. Make a choice. Have a game.

At one point, when he was trying to find something Akron could play in order to come across as crazy, he asked Akron who was a famous criminal from Canada. He couldn’t think of anyone. He didn’t know any. 

Later he asked Thomas to pretend to be Eva Braun but Thomas didn’t know what she was like. Philippe said “You have to know...for the fun...Pretend to know!”

“If a director asks you to do a voice and you say you don’t know you’ll never get the job because we will think ‘this person doesn’t have a half-arse-hair of imagination.’”

~

Mia, Lee, and Vicky also presented their scene again in which Lee speaks French. The text fell apart again. Philippe ended up various getting pairings up on stage to gossip - in order to get some lightness I think. We gossiped about Katy. 

If someone was bad Philippe would kick them away using the “boo-o-meter”. He would say: “Goodbye Mike!” and if there are big “booo’s” from the audience then Mike would stay. If not, he’s out. I had fun to play a gay guy with Duncan, gossiping about Katy and her various sex scandals.

~

After class I overheard Philippe talking about ‘knowing the spirit of place’ that plays come from. Ben wants to work a text by a famous South African writer, but can’t find a French translation for Philippe. And Philippe says he knows nothing about the spirit of South Africa so he’d be hopeless to direct the piece. Likewise he said he can’t direct Pinter because he doesn’t understand the spirit of London. I found this idea interesting. I guess as an artist you need to really know the context of the content you’re working with. If you don’t, you’ll miss the point and your work will be thin.

Feastful Weekend

Had an amazing dinner at Ling’s on Saturday night! She made traditional Malaysian food to say goodbye to Thomas our Movement teacher...Chicken curry...Beef Rendang...Mee Goreng...it was delicious. I ate way too much.

~

Watched the first episode of Frozen Planet, a documentary series about the North and South poles. Research for a screenplay I want to write. Really cool!

~

Amanda and I went to see The Iron Lady / La Dame de Fer on Sunday evening. Despite the Oscar hype I actually found it quite disappointing. The story covered too much and so everything was watered down or skimmed over. There were many moments that could have been really juicy and dramatic, but they didn’t take the time necessary for them to go anywhere.

~

We also got a caricature done of the two of us up by the Sacré Cœur. We had this fun idea to have us drawn on clouds surrounded by harp playing cherubs, like the paintings on the ceiling at Versailles...

And the guy said he could do it, but what he did was really average. We made the mistake of not checking his work first. And we paid too much. So we’re stuck with this shitty picture now! A waste of money. But it was fun. And now a funny story...

~

I also finally finished The Girl Who Played With Fire. Really good. Now I have to read the third!

"When You Learn The Vaudeville Style As An Actor, It's Fantastic To Play Shakespeare."

Sophia, Mia, Katy and I presented the scene we've been learning throughout the week from Better Late. The one in which the wife and mother-in-law pressures the husband into putting a potty on his head.

The first half - with just me and Sophia setting up the scene - was a bit flat. Philippe said it needs to be more ridiculous. But the second half with the mother-in-law, in which everything gets chaotic and over the top, was good. Philippe said "it will work" but said we need a director so that we can be clear about who's in major and when. Because it was hard for the audience to know where to look in our performance today. Because there was lots going on on stage at the same time.

~

Philippe continued working with Lee and Mia from yesterday. He led him to be more of an 'actor'. More controlled. More listening to the audience. More simple. Using how he looks to his advantage. And a louder voice (this seems to always help!). Lee's performance was more decided in a way - not restricted, just more deliberate - and it was better. Less pushed.

Philippe said if he were the director for this production he wouldn't cast Mia alongside Lee because she is too tall (Lee is tall also). "How we dream around two actors in the casting is really important."

~

Ben tried doing To Be Or Not To Be as the drunk character he'd done a wee while ago, but it didn't work. Philippe got Thomas to do his If Music Be The Food Of Love monologue whilst drumming and Duncan playing the harmonica, and then had Ben walk on and say his monologue like a real grand Vaudeville actor, whilst directing the music to suit his needs. 

"Something is really light. And you have this beautiful text."

"When you learn the Vaudeville style as an actor, it's fantastic to play Shakespeare."

 This is because Vaudeville must be played with real lightness, and when you combine this lightness with the beautiful dense text of Shakespeare, the text really comes alive. Whereas if you play the text in a deep heavy way it's too much. It's boring. Because the text is already deep.

~

There was a moment today when Philippe asked what else do people have to show today, and there was a big silence (nobody had anything), and Philippe said "you don't work enough." He said for a show that we have in a month's time, we don't work enough. I'm glad he said this finally, because now I feel like I don't have to say it. I've presented three scenes now, so I don't feel like I have a big problem, but the way the class has worked for this workshop has bugged me a lot. I'm sure that as time runs out people will work more, but hopefully now it will begin the happen!

"I Sell My Life - My Body - As An Actor."

Today we improvised a scene from Le Dindon (Act 2) between Armadine, a seductive woman, and  Victor, a seventeen year old pubescent hotel pageboy. Armadine seduces Victor, who doesn’t get it at first, but then can’t help himself from kissing her. But he quickly apologises saying he’s going through changes...he’s got strange spots all over his face.

I had a go with Christine in which I played a kind of American Jock with a loud Bronx accent. I entered jogging and stretched a bit as if I was a real sporty young guy. Mocking an old high school friend of mine (Julian Braatvedt).

It was an idea I had before, and it worked...luckily (I was aware it could flunk badly)! The scene quickly turned into Christine asking for working-out advice - what exercises she should do - and then me showing her...and then me helping her do it. 

So here’s Christine lying on her back thrusting her pelvis into the air, and me lying underneath her bottom pushing her upwards. Sexual-innuendo with my character totally unaware of anything sexual. It was funny. People were laughing and it was good. Which Philippe admitted, but said it’s not the scene from the play. And he said Christine’s character needed to get hornier and hornier throughout the scene, which would have taken the scene further (we kind of ran out of gas with the exercises gag). But we had fun.

~

We also did a scene later in the play (Act 3) between Redillon and Armardine in which Redillon is absolutely exhausted - "Everything he moves is painful" - and Armadine wants to have sex. So there’s conflict! Ben and Vicky did a great improvisation - really good games and lots of fun - but at the end Philippe said it’s not the scene. Because by the end it was clear they were going to have sex. But that’s not the scene. 

I got up and tried with Barbara but the first time it was bad. Coma inducing. We weren’t together and I wasn’t so funny playing exhausted/in pain. Philippe said we could have another try but he couldn’t see it going well. I made a snap decision to put Barbara in the shit by playing Redillon in a deep sleep. I just lay there snoring and didn’t wake up. So here’s her trying to wake me up, pushing me about, taking off my clothes, and I never wake up. 

Well, I did a few times - and shouted that what she was doing was causing me pain - but then I fell asleep again. Philippe let the scene go for quite a while, but ended it eventually (after he played the sound of snoring on his iPod first). Not a good idea!  I felt a bit bad afterwards, because I did a ‘nasty’ (but with fun) thing to Barbara. And she was upset afterwards not so much because of me, but because she doesn’t feel confident improvising. Especially in English. But as Thomas our movement teacher said to me after “you have to risk as an actor.”

~

Mia and Lee presented the scene from A Flea In Her Ear with the wife quickly sneaking home before her angry cuckolded husband arrives, certain that he saw her at the Hotel Pussy Galore. Their performance didn’t work. They weren’t ‘feeling it’, there was no game, they weren’t together. And they were stuck on how to change it. Philippe said they had to change - anything. They tried again (after a bit of a struggle because they didn’t know what to do) and Mia was more alive, and Lee was louder - pushing. Again it didn’t work. 

"We have to find something else. We have to find something different."

Philippe ended up working with Lee, getting him to stop presenting himself - Lee - as an idiot on stage, and instead present himself as an actor - Lee the actor - as an idiot on stage. A really good distinction.

"You have to think you sell your body as an actor - not as Lee...We have to come back to Lee who pretends to be an actor."

"If you believe you are an actor you could be a beautiful idiot on the stage."

"We think Lee is an idiot - not actor."

"I sell my life - my body - as an actor."

Lee looks like he's an idiot. When he walks on stage we want to laugh. He's a good clown. But Philippe was encouraging him to take ownership of himself. To give him control of his inner idiot. He is an actor using how he looks to take us somewhere. It's the choice of an actor. If Lee doesn't take that choice - pretending to be an 'actor' - then he looks like he really is an idiot. But as an 'actor' we think he's playing an idiot. Which is true. He's not an idiot at all. But it's good to know how an audience dreams around you and to play with that.

"The Silence After The Symphony Of Mozart Belongs To Mozart"

Barbara and Christine presented a scene at the start of class between a mother and daughter from A Flea In Her Ear. It was really low energy, quiet, and boring. No risks. No fun. Philippe worked with Barbara a lot, getting her to be simple and beautiful. "If in the scene you have this beauty...this dignity...it's possible. If it's just blablabla it's impossible."

Philippe also worked with Christine, getting her to imitate a witch from a ghost train ride.

He got her to leave a small amount of silence after Barbara's text before she spoke.

He mentioned a famous quote that goes something like "The silence after the symphony of Mozart belongs to Mozart", and said likewise, "The little silence after the actors line belongs to the actor who said it...so don't shit on it."

~

Mia and Vicky and Lee presented a scene from Le Dindon, all in French, which ended up being hilarious for the wrong reasons...Lee had only a few lines in French which he (understandably) stuffed up. And Vicky was stuffing up her lines too. So here's Mia whispering lines to each of the actors, and Lee saying one of the lines he could remember - "Bravo!" - several times, all at the wrong time!

~

Akron also presented the beginning moment of a show he's working on, in which he comes out dressed in a business suit, but quickly undresses into the outfit of a superhero. Ak-man! It was a good opening actually, but Philippe said it wasn't enough. We need more. Which is true. And he compared the performance to a shitty cleaning product commercial. 

But I was really proud of Akron. He never commits at this school like he does in his street shows, and today he did, so I thought that was a great step for him.

"You Have To Have An End."

Thomas presented Shakespeare's If Music Be The Food Of Love monologue today. He had Mia playing guitar and singing whilst he said the text (in German) in a deep 'beautiful' way. Philippe said it's "very nice but fucking boring for love."

"Not 'magic of love'. Too much boring."

Philippe got Thomas to play the drums, and be accompanied by Duncan playing the harmonica, whilst Thomas said the text. In this way Thomas comes more alive. He's lighter and has a lot more pleasure. The music helps a lot obviously, but perhaps if we took the drums away but kept Thomas in the same zone he's in with the drums, it would be a lot better.

~

Ben and I presented our erection problem scene again, with Ben imitating our movement teacher behind me whilst I played a deep british lord. It really worked. People were cracking up, and I was nearly cracking up myself. I feel a bit uneasy about the scene however, because I feel like the audience loves the scene because of Ben. If you took him away, we wouldn't love the scene. But after thinking about this (I'm writing this post a few days later than it actually happened) I've realised we both are important in making the scene work. We wouldn't necessarily love Ben without me either. He needs a fixed point to be funny. I need a crazy guy jumping behind me to be funny too. I asked Philippe what I can do to play better, and he said just for me to play deep. So I can do that. The pleasure of playing deep. And what Ben does behind me totally undermines my 'deepness'...which makes it funny. I asked at the end of class whether the audience actually hears the text - because I suspect that they look at and laugh at Ben but don't actually listen to the text (which is important for understanding the plot of a play) - but Philippe said yes they do hear it. I'm not sure I agree. He knows the text already, so it's not the same as asking somebody that has never seen the play, but I'll have to take his word. But even if the audience doesn't quite understand the point of the scene, they still laugh their heads off. And I'd rather go to a show and laugh the whole way through it but not have a clue what really happened, then go to a show and understand everything but not laugh one bit.

~

Lee tried a comedy number for the Cabaret in which he brought on a chair and then was never completely happy with how it was on the stage, and kept moving it. But it wasn't funny and it went on forever. Philippe told Lee he has to write it.

"You have to have an end."

"You need to have an idea of the story."

~

I tried improvising a scene between Camille (the character that can't pronounce words correctly) and Finache (the doctor) with Mike, but it didn't work because Mike didn't quite understand the scene. He needs to play that he understands everything Camille says, but he played that he didn't understand. And Philippe said Camille "doesn't need to be nervous" - which is what I've been playing a lot lately. I said I think it needs the text to work. It's really hard to improvise the guy that doesn't speak properly without it. And Philippe agreed. So I'm going to find a Camille scene and present it.

~

We decided not to do the cabaret this Thursday because there haven't been enough numbers presented. I am one of those that haven't presented anything, but with French lessons in the morning I just haven't had the time to work on anything. I could have presented something small, a poem or something, but I want to present something more thought out. More worked on. And I think we're all pretty in the world of Vaudeville at the moment, so it's hard to jump out of that. A bit disappointing, but also a relief. 

“Her, She Is A Dragon. She Always Has Something To Say.”

Ben and Sophia presented their version of the “Urals...Urals...” scene. They had previously been given the advice to shout more, so that’s what they did this time. However it was too much. “They love to shout, but là, it’s a war...It’s too much a war. Too much shouting.”

Philippe got Sophia to continue shouting, but have Ben play more of a gentleman. “Boring like Nadir...but happy with himself”. Ben played this smiling idiot who was much more slow and relaxed and in his own world, and it worked nicely alongside Sophia’s constant ranting.

“Her, she is a dragon. She always has something to say.”

“We need more games.” We need to see lots of different tactics.

“With her you don’t know how to attack, or to stop.”

“You will get it. We will get it. Because it’s not easy.”

 He didn’t say this for Mia and I. And I’m a bit scared he’s going to cut us and take Ben and Sophia for the show instead, which would suck. But we’ll stick with it.

~

Mia presented a number for Thursday’s upcoming Cabaret - a marionette puppet of Edith Piaf singing. She tried a similar thing last time, but Philippe said it wasn’t magic. We don’t think - “wow, it’s alive”. And that was the case again today. It’s nice, and the singing is nice, but the puppet doesn’t come alive. So Philippe again said no to this in the show. He tried having her just sing as herself, and it was better. And then he tried making Mia like a puppet with rope attached to her limbs and Mike controlling her from above, but it didn’t work. It wasn’t believable, or magic.

~

Vicky also presented a song, and then Ben had another scene for us to improvise for his Feydeau play. One in which the hotel manager approaches Feydeau about not paying his rent for the past six months. I played the manager - a bit nervous and official like I often play. I want to change this up. It’s conventional and boring. Philippe got me to play as if for  I feel like there’s a possibility Feydeau might kill me. This just made me talk more, and faster, and be more nervous, which wasn’t what Philippe hoped for. I think he was trying to get me to be more still. I could have done this, I just took a different take. 

~

Quite low energy today. Have been pretty non-stop lately. Didn’t let it get to me too much, but still feeling fed up with the class. All last week people said “tomorrow” and “next week” for presenting scenes...and nothing new was presented today. I don’t feel particularly inspired or driven by the energy of the class, and am feeling a bit tired of school. I preferred the pace of last year - in which there were lots of different courses and we had to work quickly. But this year it’s much more drawn out. We’re just doing Vaudeville for ten weeks, and I’ve kind of had enough. Of course I’ll keep going and exploring, but because the class isn’t that driven, and often nobody is presenting anything, it’s become a real drag.

A Weekend With Friends

Had drinks and dinner at Barbara’s place in Étampes on Friday night, and dinner and drinks at Mia’s on Saturday night.

On Sunday a bunch of us (including three of Thomas’ muso-friends from Austria) went to the Thai restaurant across the road from our place for a cheap all-you-can-eat buffet lunch. And after, a group of us went to see On Purge (Bébé)! at a theatre in Montmartre called Le Funambule by a company called Les Collectif Les Ames Visibles.

I’m glad we finally went, as I’d been meaning to go but putting it off for a while. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. There were some good moments and some bad. Most average. This situation, however, leads me to feel like it wasn’t good. Because if it’s just average, then it’s not good...so it’s bad. 

The actor who played the husband was great. Very likeable, charming, and full of life. After the show, we all talked about how we wanted him to be our friend! And the actor who played the baby was fantastic. He totally stole the show. Bizarre and unpredictable.

The actress who played the wife was too much. Shouting all the time but not much joy. We didn’t think the couple really were in love, or would have sex. We wanted to like her, and we needed to really because she was on stage a lot, but she pushed to much and never took any time to be with us. The actress who played the maid, who I think also directed the piece, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was in a real relationship with the lead actor, killed the show for me too. She didn’t play dumb like the character requires. And whenever she came onstage the complicité was cut. The game fell down. They had added these extra little bits in it, like the maid pausing the action and pushing the husband and wife together to kiss, that were unnecessary and strange. The show at times suddenly turned into experimental theatre. But sometime’s it really worked too. Like when the two lead guys started dancing and singing randomly. It was ridiculous, but great. It made sense of what Philippe has been saying about how crazy you can go in Vaudeville.

It was a young cast/company (about my age) and they were full of energy and fun, so that was great, but as a bit of purest for form, I wish they’d stuck more with the text. I think it would have been clearer, and better. But it was very cool to see a Feydeau played for real in it’s entirety. I felt like I could understand French whilst watching it, because I know the English translation of the text now!

“You Have To Feel ‘Ay Ay Ay I’m In A Corridor’ And Poff! You Change Immediately.”

More work on Ben’s Feydeau play today. This time exploring the character of George Feydeau. I got up at the beginning to play Feydeau, with the intention of helping Ben as a writer see the shape he had written on the page. Trying to improvise the text he had written - a monologue about writing plays. Philippe killed me in quite a gratifying way:

“I don’t say anything about the actor - but the character is horrible.” 

Then he asked me to do something completely different - not from the world of Vaudeville, but I didn’t change enough. “We can’t present Feydeau like this.”

Thomas had a go and came out quite dramatically, like Hamlet, with a serious stare, slow rhythm and deep voice. Philippe guided Thomas to create a compelling character - changing his rhythms and games often. Laughing! Stop! Low voice! Slow! Now fast! Now walk on your tip toes! Sing! Stop! Laugh! etc. It really shows how important it is for artists to change their rhythm - to offer something different - to surprise us.

“We don’t know who he is. We don’t know where we’re going...I’m curious.”

“If you play too much and you underline how you are strange, everything is down.”

= a clue for how I can play crazy.

“Something strange...something...I am happy to stay one and a half hours with this person.

“Need a secret. Mystery.”

~

He worked with most of the guys in class today. I didn’t try again - didn’t feel on form. Pretty exhausted and had had enough.

Duncan was frustrated again with what he was doing and asked Philippe if she should just focus on being beautiful for now. 


“To be beautiful means not to cheat. You cheat.”

“You have to feel ‘Ay ay ay I’m in a corridor’ and Poff! You change immediately.”

~

After getting through all the boys Philippe said he wouldn’t mind seeing a Madame Feydeau coming to divorce her husband. Vicky came on and presented something really alive and exciting - in a similar unpredictable vein to what Thomas had done.

“Vicky exists...Something that we say ‘Ahh, that is interesting’.”

“It’s Good To See The Play/Scene Immediately With Actors. It Can Give Many Ideas.”

Today was a bit of a slower, easier day due to the fact that Philippe (and many others) are sick with colds. Present. But not full energy.

For the first half of class we worked on a new script Ben had written for hs Feydeau play. I played one of two hotel servants alongside Vicky, who were approaching Feydeau’s room cautiously. We had to be light, with good complicité. To be a loved couple. “You go first!” “No you go!” “Why me?” “Because he likes you! He likes women!”

For a writer: “It’s good to see the play/scene immediately with actors. It can give many ideas.”

Philippe suggested that just as we entered the room looking for Feydeau, he would enter from the other side of the stage (as if he had climbed out the window of his room) and have a scene. It worked really nicely. A surprise. Just when we think he’s on the right, he appears on the left.

Philippe also suggested a scene with many actors who had set up a surprise birthday party for Feydeau in the corridor of the hotel outside his room. It didn’t work. Philippe didn’t explain his idea so clearly, and so we were all a bit confused. But he got Maria to go against the door and speak quietly, pleasantly, and quickly, to Feydeau...and for a long time. He spoke about how sometimes in plays the text doesn’t have to mean anything, but the rhythm and feeling of the text can create something else.

~

For the second half of class Sophia suggested we read and then improvise a scene from Feydeau’s Leonie Est En Avance (One Month Early). It’s about a woman/wife who is pregnant and is freaking out having contractions (I think it turns out by the end of the play that she’s actually just got bad gas) and she pushes her husband about, and her mother pushes the husband/son-in-law about as well. At one point, the wife recalls a dream she had the previous night which had calmed her and made her feel much better. She dreamt that her husband put a chamber pot (a potty) on his head. 

Then the wife and mother both peer pressure the husband to put it on his head. For a long time he refuses. He’s 38 years old. It’s ridiculous. But they get hysterical and eventually he puts it on. Then, after he’s put it on, they demand he takes it off. It’s upsetting the wife. It was a stupid thing to do. But the husband refuses to take it off. It took all this fuss to put it on, and now it’s staying on. Great conflict!

I played the husband alongside Sophia as the wife, Mia as the mother, and Katy as the maid. And we found many good moments in the improvisation. It’s a funny situation, a wife and mother in-law bossing about a husband! It really worked when I put this big blue bucket over my head. I couldn’t see anything (and several games came out of that), and I must have looked ridiculous. We lasted for quite a long time, and at the end Philippe said yes we could do the scene. So we’re going to learn it and present it. I’m really excited about it.

“Take Your Space. Wait For Your Space, Then Take It.”

Mia and I got up to continue to work on our scene from On Purge (Bébé)! today, with Mia playing the rough Swiss-Français character she discovered last time we worked. I played a bit gay - a bit whiney (perhaps not such a stretch from myself). Mia wasn’t able to find the same thing, the same energy and fun, that she had last time. There was no fun either. Philippe worked with Mia a bit, said nothing to me (other than he’s getting bored with hearing “Urals...Urals..” all the time - come on!), and then told Mia to go back to her normal rich and clean Vaudeville self. We’ll find another way.

Whilst Mia changed I asked if I could try with Sophia, since she knows the text as well. We gave it a go, but again there was no real game. “No pleasure to fight.” Philippe suggested that perhaps one of us needed to be crazy/bizarre, so I volunteered to try that as it’s something I want to develop. I ended up kind of randomly singing the text in high notes held for a long time - which was me trying something in the moment - but wasn’t something that funny or nice on the ears. “Goodbye.” 

It’s frustrating because improvising the scene really worked, but with text it dies. I think it’s because when we improvised we were really together, and we were actively searching for, offering, and playing games. But we don’t have that with the text yet. Philippe is suggesting we play it in a certain way - to shout, or with an accent, or as a character, etc - but I don’t think it’s enough. We need to get more technical with the text and decide when and where we play particular games. i.e. Hear you play angry and I play scared/trying to get away. It’s harder to discover those games with the text, because the text has the games inside them already. So the next step is for us is to do ‘actions & objections’ or ‘tactics and games’, and then present again.

~

Philippe then got us to create a coffin covered in black cloth placed in the centre of the stage. We all sat on benches against the side walls of the stage. We were at the funeral of George Feydeau and we had to make a speech as a great actor of Vaudeville. In the speech, you could perform a bit of text. “Play a bit.”

“Actors are always happy to go to funerals because everybody is going to see them.”

“To be an actor is not to be pretentious...it’s to have something special.”

Edith Piaf’s funeral was attended by many many artists.

I deliberately sat and waited for others to go before me, to test the class, and I was really disappointed. It took literally about three minutes of silence before anyone got up. People were really hesitant. And a few times Philippe had to warn us that he would stop the exercise if nobody wanted to get up. And then he ended up stopping it anyway because he got bored. 

Now I know I shouldn’t worry about what others do, because I can’t control them, I can only control myself. But it really annoyed me. Why are people here? It’s a waste of time, and it brings a bad energy in the class. I understand people are scared, and it can be scary to get up, especially if you haven’t been so good in the workshop. But to me, when you get up, you give something. You take a risk for the class. And there were a bunch of people today, and for pretty much the whole workshop, haven’t been giving nearly enough. It burdens the culture of the group. I don’t want to be the person who always gets up first. But I don’t want to wait forever until somebody finally gets up after three minutes as well!

~

Philippe then changed the exercise to the funeral after party, and had couples come on stage dancing and then make a speech as a Vaudeville actor, with a glass of champagne, and some fun.

With a couple on stage, “it’s always good to think they will fuck...It means the complicité is good.”

I tried, and got the proud, charming, ‘actor’ quality but it was “a bit too official...needs more fun.” Tell a story. Laugh a bit. Steph came on with me, and Philippe killed her for not speaking when it was her time. He played music, then the volume faded down, and there was a moment that was hers, but she started before the music faded. “Take your space. Wait for your space, then take it.”

"You Have To Convince Us"

I got pretty annoyed in class today. I offered a scene to improvise for a street show I want to write to eventually do in Paris. 

Guillaume owns a restaurant called ‘Guillaume’s’ and he dreams of it being a top restaurant with high-class clientèle...but he’s absolutely hopeless. His food is bad. His service his bad. It’s a mess. There’s a reason his restaurant is not popular! And the only customers he does get are cheap tourists that want to save as much money as possible. Guillaume is also completely jealous of his neighbouring competitor ‘Antoine’s’, who is super popular. Whenever anyone enters ‘Guillaume’s’ it’s to ask where ‘Antoine’s’ is. But one time, when a couple enter’s looking for ‘Antoine’s’  Guillaume lies and says that he is Antoine and his restaurant is ‘Antoine’s’. And the drama comes out of Guillaume serving this couple...very badly.

I didn’t have much more than that, and that’s why I wanted to have actor’s improvise. To see if we could find a funny conflict. I made the mistake of saying at the beginning that I wanted to write a ‘Vaudeville’, because after hearing my scenario Philippe then made life difficult by saying it’s not a vaudeville. A vaudeville has rich people, and it’s about sex. It doesn’t have poor people. 

“In Vaudeville they are rich. They take the best champagne.”

If Guillaume is poor it becomes “social theatre.”

I said ‘what about the guy that hopelessly tries to sell the porcelain potties, and he kind of dismissed it. He wasn’t happy my character wasn’t rich rich. I told him about Fawlty Towers, the soul of which I trying to emulate for this show, and how the playing is the same - with opening doors and everything - and he didn’t care. Linda, an actress Philippe worked with a long time ago and comes to class every now and then, chipped in saying the style of playing might be the say but it’s not vaudeville. I don’t care what it is! I just want to write this scene, and play it in the style of vaudeville. Fast and light. But for a long time Philippe wouldn’t let it go. 

I ended up changing the situation a bit, saying Guillaume isn’t poor, he’s just bad. And the customers he gets aren’t cheap tourists, they’re wealthy. This helped a bit but really it didn’t matter too much to me. I just wanted to see what would happen once the couple sat down. But it was evident pretty quickly that it was as hard for actors to improvise as it was for me to write. Because once they sit and Guillaume starts to serve them it becomes bla bla bla.

But some things came out of the improvisations, which we did three of. I learnt that I need to set things up clearly so we know where we are. And Guillaume can’t be on all the time. He has to leave so we can see the couple. “We need time.” With customers, then with Guillaume, then looking at the menu... I also found that it’s better if the customers are high class. A couple that were meant to go to Antoine’s. This makes the conflict better when Guillaume is so hopeless. And an idea came from a line Mike said as his dining character which was “it does look a bit different.” He had offered that the couple were coming for their wedding anniversary. This was good - because now characters have something to hold them. They think they’ve come back to the place they got engaged...but it looks a bit different...and over time they come to realise they are not in Antoine’s. And Guillaume has the game of trying to keep them in the restaurant for as long as possible - whatever it takes. Ben also did some great gags where he was fighting with an imaginary chef offstage behind the dining couple. So he’s flinging himself in and out of view, with things being thrown around. And it’s funny when you see the couple looking at each other bewildered. Maybe they are old?

Anyway, I did discover some good things, but the way Philippe was with me - dismissive and cutting - was really unhelpful. I didn’t want to hear that it was bad. I wanted to hear how it could work. But I suppose that’s how he always teaches. He doesn’t usually show you the way. He just says the way you are going is bad. Therefore, find another way! But oh well. I’ve learnt that trying to explore a developing idea in class with Philippe is not the best tact. It would have been better to just do it with actors in my own time, and when I have a script, or more of a full idea, then we could work.

Philippe said that he didn’t see my idea so clearly, meaning he couldn’t imagine what I’m trying to do. But he did say “you have to convince us.” Which is a good little challenge. Because I feel strong and clear in myself of the purpose of this piece - a street show for tourists of paris - and how it could work. I think the idea is good. But I see it more clearly in my head than anybody else does. So I need to work on it. I just was led to feel like my idea was bad, and that felt shit. To me, nearly any idea can be made to work. 

~

Before I offered my scene, Ben performed a piece from Hamlet. Philippe got him to try different ways of playing it. Avoiding the conventional. He settled with Ben playing a bit upper-class drunk. Still Vaudeville-esque.

“For me, this one could be Hamlet.”

“When you start to take the voice of the Royal Shakespeare Company you are boring.”

“Vaudeville could open many things. How we speak...how we have fun...”

“The Lightness of Vaudeville.”

~

After I offered my scene Ben also offered a situation he’d like to write and improvise. A play about Feydeau when he got syphilis and went mad. The opening scene was with two servants in the hotel where Feydeau lived, coming to get him out as he hasn’t paid his bills in months. But it’s difficult, because he’s mad, thinks he’s Napoleon, and is ready to fight. Yelling and throwing things from his room (off stage). 

“At the beginning of the show you can’t shout. We have to install the characters.”

This show Philippe could see. I got a bit jealous for a while. And started to doubt my ability to come up with good ideas. But no. My idea is fine. And I'm excited about it. I just need to get it clearer, and I'm only at the beginning stages.

“With God You Have To Be Simple.”

 Today Philippe offered some exercises that helped us be charming and gain some actor’s dignity. At first we started with a party of great Vaudeville actors after a show. Whilst drinking and chatting and laughing together, sometimes an actor will play one of their characters from the show. Not fully, not completely committed - just a taste of the style - doing it more for your friends than to be good.

“Just a bit the character. Don’t play too much.”

“We want to see you charming...so intelligent...so good education...”

Several ‘parties’ gave it a go but none of us got it.

“Not artistic enough. Not subtle.”

“No dignity. Actor dignity.”

~

Philippe then offered a slightly different exercise, this time just with one actor at a time. The situation: you were just playing Vaudeville on the stage in front of a great big audience, and you were about to finish the show, but suddenly you died and found yourself in the heavens. You arrive in the clouds, in the presence of God and her angels. 

You apologise to God for coming in your Vaudeville costume, and explain to her what happened to you.

“With God you have to be simple.”

And then begin to play some Vaudeville for her. Just a bit. Reminiscing. Giving a taste of it. Lightly and not too quick.

I gave it a go, entering slow and charming with classical music playing behind me. I spoke with a centred clear voice, and had good sensitivity. But Philippe soon lifted his drum and then killed me. He said the beginning was good but then it became just bla bla bla. He said I should try again, but this time walk around the room a bit. Speak to different angels. Mix it up. 

So I tried again. And did that. And started to dabble in Vaudeville text and characters. Just a bit. Slipping in and out. And when I slipped out I would chuckle to myself and explain to God what a pleasure it was to perform. I did bits from several different plays we’d done and characters I had played. Sometimes being a bit bigger, more physical, louder, but staying more with myself than any character. I did this for a while and then eventually left before saying thank you to God and offered to play again for her another time.

“It was good. We had pleasure. And he was beautiful.” 

Philippe spoke about how funny it is - how fine the line is between you and the character - and expressed the importance of the actor’s humanity.

“When it is just the character we hate you.”

In the playing of it, I felt really light. And free. Philippe also emphasised my freedom. It felt easy. And transition from me to a character was very subtle. Hardly anything at all. Just an accent, or a different tension in my body, or a faster rhythm. But still just me, playing a bit.

“When you work, don’t go too much to the character...If you go too quick with the character you don’t have freedom with the character and we don’t have freedom to watch.”

Be first with yourself, your other actors, and your audience, and then your character.

~ 

Duncan had a go after I did and also found some beauty and simplicity. Philippe spoke about how for Duncan, who is 21, “it’s not bad.” He said this exercise is easier to do at 26/27 years old. 


“At 21 you fight a bit. You are proud.” 

Philippe said it will fall down, but maybe not this year.

Restful Weekend

A much more restful weekend than usual, which was really nice.

~

On Saturday night Amanda and I went and saw The Artist (a French film, which actually played in Paris months ago but has come back after it's success in America).

I really liked it. It's pretty cool to see a real silent film made today! But Amanda got bored half way through, and because she didn't love either of the lead actors, she wanted to kill them. I didn't quite love either of them either, although the male lead Jean Dujardin was wonderfully charming. I wish they'd played a bit more with the form though. My favorite moments were when he dreamt that the world around him now had sound, but not him. And when he was drunk and saw a mini version of him with a bunch of indians.

We also watched Taxi Driver when we got home. Which was totally different to what I thought it was going to be. The psychological twist was particularly jarring. But De Niro was superb. Dark and simple. At times he wasn't really acting. Just speaking the text. I liked it a lot.

~

Reading The Girl Who Played With Fire at the moment. It's getting really exciting!