Monday, week 7

Another day done,
Today I had a good feeling in movement, we sweat a lot through dance and stretching and games; it was lots of FUN.
Dancing with a partner in the middle of the circle the body moves without the head judging or trying to lead what's next, surely this lesson, if it could be applied to whenever I was on the stage would help me well on my way to regular acting work.
The problem is the head it seems and such a simple exercise as dancing, lost in pleasure and fun with the partner helps me to see how easy it is when the body does what it does in response to the music.
How to do it without the music is the challenge and the work.

Neutral Mask.
Playing with the rhythm of an animal.
At the weekend Philippe said we would need to study an animal for today.
I went to the zoo with a few classmates.
It was closed.
So to the aquarium we went.
I looked at fish.
Today I tried a fish.
Apparently my fish was "Omosexual".

After this we tried to be actors in Greece 2500 years ago.
The exercise, the actor warms up.
Banned were any actor stretches or bobbity bippity vocal warm up's we were to try and speak the text (the death of Hektor) as if we were backstage before the show.
Aha, a chance to play with the voice.
I sang the text a bit trying to have some fun and then came the drum.

"Mak, when ee touch iz stomach like this do we think he is a dramatic actor or do we fink eez advert for bad inglish sandweech?"

So don't touch the body.
I'm a numpty because only 20 seconds earlier he mentioned to Jamie about touching his legs.
He did the same exercise with several people.
He put on a part of Verdi's requiem when the horns build and build and build and it clamaxes in the human voice.
Philippe did this in Le Jeu to help us to be carried by the music.
I'm coming back to being carried again, something has to carry us on stage, then we are never alone.
Today several people played the exercise as if it was the one from le jeu and it wasn't.
After a while he said that we were too solemn ( I think that was the word he used) and that we need to have more fun.

Clown
Again we watched several numbers and even though they flopped Philippe used them to help demonstarte how necessary it is for the clown to look to his friend with admiration, without the feeling that my friend is a genius it falls down.
If your friend does something shit and you look at him as if he is a genius you save the show.
Quote of the day went something like this;
"You are two friends going out to do a number, not two people doing a number trying to find their friendship."

The last exercise of the day was this:
Romeo and Juliet.
For 2 clowns.
The actors due to play the show are stuck in an airport, 1 in New York, the other in Berlin, the planes have gone on strike. The audience are in the house and are getting restless.
It is at a rough theatre in Paris.
The show was due to start at 9 and it is now 9:20 they chant "money back, money back"
The 2 clowns sell ice-cream in the theatre and if they are lucky they may do 1 minute of material.

The theatre manager comes up to 2 clowns and says if you save the show I will ring the king of Sweden to see that you get the Nobel prize for clown and so 2 clowns go out on stage to save the show.

After being out with Ed we were boomed off.
Philippe said that he saw our panic and not the pleasure of the clown who might change his life.

I was chatting with Ben Cutler a few weeks back and he said that Philippe painted very visual images for the students in class and here was a brilliant example but I didn't enter into it.
The clown could change his life.
Once again it didn't matter enough to the clown because if it did I would have shown my pleasure.
The pleasure to play for the audience for an hour and a half.
The pleasure to play wasn't there.
No contact with them neither.
When will this click?
Will it click?
When will my pleasure shine through?
Will I make more discoveries?
When will I see this workshop as a new audience?
When will I roll up my sleeves, spit on my palms and make it matter?
Will it matter?
It has to matter.
Has to.
Or else why am I here?