The homestretch just got shorter. Today we found out that, contrary to previous terms in which we made our final presentations on the last day, this term we'll do them a week earlier. Ouch. And last Friday we found out that our Acro presentations will also be in Week 7 rather than Week 8. And on Wednesday to boot. That's a mere 9 days away. Double ouch. As if that weren't enough to mark the nearness of the end of term, a classmate bid us all adieu today. He's leaving Thursday and won't be back. Several classmates are thinking they won't return next year. I don't think it's a disenchantment with the school on any of their parts--more financial concerns, or life intervening--but we've already lost 3 or 4 people since the beginning of the year. We're all supposed to let the school know by the end of the week if we're planning on doing the second year. I don't think anyone will be told not to come back, but as it is we'll be significantly smaller, which is a loss.
¶ Last weekend I saw Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Simon Callow in Waiting for Godot. Yes, it's a truly odd play, but the actors played it with such humor that it was a treat to watch. I read an article a month or two ago in which comedians spoke of the influence that Beckett has had on them (the illustration was a famous photo of Beckett with a clown's nose added). I'd never known that so many people see his plays as comical, but it worked really well with Godot. Maybe that's the way it's always done, I don't know, but clownish or vaudevillian treatment really made the play move along, at times in a touchingly endearing way. There's a lot of cruelty in it, too, but that works well pushing hard against the comedic elements. It was also reassuring to see actors of that caliber stepping on each other's lines occasionally (once, anyway) and dropping their accents from time to time.
And yes, Robin, to answer your question, they pronounced it GAH-doh. Who knew?
¶ I've seen a few plays lately: another odd one (this by Wallace Shawn) called Aunt Dan and Lemon. A one-woman show called Kafka's Monkey, starring Kathryn Hunter. I'm too ignorant to know how famous or well regarded she is but it was an amazing performance. The character is a chimpanzee who's learned to pass as a human, who thinks and feels like a human, more or less, but who still moves and acts like a chimp. Then there was an experimental theatre piece that a few classmates were in and one devised, with all the aspects (for better and for worse) that "experimental theatre" implies. Overall recently, quite a range.
¶ Last night I went to a two-hour African dance class. What a workout, and what fun! Led by a Ghanaian god of a man with incredible stamina, and charisma, and what a body. Oh my Lord...
¶ And today, the 29th of June 2009, some eight months later than most of my classmates (the whippersnappers), I was able to consistently accomplish the headstand.
(He takes a long slow bow.)
Thank you. Thank you very much.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Into the homestretch
The lack of posts recently reflects, at least in part, the pace of things. With only three weeks ahead, everything is accelerating. Just a few notes here and then, I hope, more short posts in the next three weeks.
The schedule changes from here on out, to give us more time to work on our final group presentation (for me, that's the community folk dance thing) as well as individual presentations in acrobatics and what they call the 20 movements, which are choreographed moves that we each string together in a unique flow. Many are mime-type movements (like climbing a wall or punting a boat on a river), some are a succession of specific postures or "attitudes," some are acrobatic moves. Each is quite specific and some are complex, so we'll be getting a series of refresher sessions over the next week or two. The acrobatics presentations (one set routine, one of each student's devising) have me a bit distressed. I had to take it easy for a couple of weeks since I'd reinjured my neck (yet again!) and now there's not a lot of time left, especially for someone like me who really needs to do it on the padded mats that are in one of the classrooms, and the classrooms are almost always in use. I'm going to have to cut back on the hours I work at my job in the next few weeks to prepare.
A few brief notes:
¶ I may have mentioned earlier that we'd watched a film on CG Jung a while back. I've started doing some reading on him (finally getting around to Mary Ann Mattoon's book, for those back home who also knew her--and of course I wish I'd read it years ago). I'm seeing where some basic elements of the Lispa approach reflect Jung's thought. For example, that the unconscious is the source of creativity, and how the mask and countermask work that we did a bit ago parallel his ideas about persona and shadow.
¶ We also watched a film on the director Peter Brook a week or two ago. At one point he talks of contrasting kinds of improv. One is where they tell you you're so many years old, and you're dealing with these pressures at home and at work, and this is where you are, and these are the things around you, and this is what happens to provoke you. Now improvise. And the other is, Here's a shoe. Improvise. Occasionally we shade toward the first of those scenarios, but for the most part we deal with the second.
¶ So often my movements in improv are too small, too relaxed. A lot of that, I recognize, reflects my personality. But I also think it comes from my having watched so much more film than stage work. So much of film is amplified by the camera so the movements can be--have to be--small, and the intensity is in the magnification that the camera does of the small movement and gesture. Also, as an audience we often don't believe things on film that are done too big (regarding character, not action like blowing things up). So also with personal interactions, sometimes (at least in an understated culture like in Minnesota): smaller things seem more trustworthy, or at least there's a distrust of too much emotion or movement. You know the old joke: How can you tell if a Minnesotan is outgoing? He looks at your shoes when he talks to you.
¶ I'm only just starting to understand how live theatre is so much different from film. For example, if you see two people in a film who are hiding from (or looking for) each other backing up toward one another and then, butt to butt, pivot around each other, never knowing the other is there, it may be amusing but it's a bit like, C'mon, we've seen this before. Seeing it in live theatre is more enjoyable because you're part of it. Yes, you've seen it all before, but what's enjoyable is how well they do it, not that they do it. We watch differently because we invest differently in a play than we do in a film or a TV show.
More scattered thoughts later.
The schedule changes from here on out, to give us more time to work on our final group presentation (for me, that's the community folk dance thing) as well as individual presentations in acrobatics and what they call the 20 movements, which are choreographed moves that we each string together in a unique flow. Many are mime-type movements (like climbing a wall or punting a boat on a river), some are a succession of specific postures or "attitudes," some are acrobatic moves. Each is quite specific and some are complex, so we'll be getting a series of refresher sessions over the next week or two. The acrobatics presentations (one set routine, one of each student's devising) have me a bit distressed. I had to take it easy for a couple of weeks since I'd reinjured my neck (yet again!) and now there's not a lot of time left, especially for someone like me who really needs to do it on the padded mats that are in one of the classrooms, and the classrooms are almost always in use. I'm going to have to cut back on the hours I work at my job in the next few weeks to prepare.
A few brief notes:
¶ I may have mentioned earlier that we'd watched a film on CG Jung a while back. I've started doing some reading on him (finally getting around to Mary Ann Mattoon's book, for those back home who also knew her--and of course I wish I'd read it years ago). I'm seeing where some basic elements of the Lispa approach reflect Jung's thought. For example, that the unconscious is the source of creativity, and how the mask and countermask work that we did a bit ago parallel his ideas about persona and shadow.
¶ We also watched a film on the director Peter Brook a week or two ago. At one point he talks of contrasting kinds of improv. One is where they tell you you're so many years old, and you're dealing with these pressures at home and at work, and this is where you are, and these are the things around you, and this is what happens to provoke you. Now improvise. And the other is, Here's a shoe. Improvise. Occasionally we shade toward the first of those scenarios, but for the most part we deal with the second.
¶ So often my movements in improv are too small, too relaxed. A lot of that, I recognize, reflects my personality. But I also think it comes from my having watched so much more film than stage work. So much of film is amplified by the camera so the movements can be--have to be--small, and the intensity is in the magnification that the camera does of the small movement and gesture. Also, as an audience we often don't believe things on film that are done too big (regarding character, not action like blowing things up). So also with personal interactions, sometimes (at least in an understated culture like in Minnesota): smaller things seem more trustworthy, or at least there's a distrust of too much emotion or movement. You know the old joke: How can you tell if a Minnesotan is outgoing? He looks at your shoes when he talks to you.
¶ I'm only just starting to understand how live theatre is so much different from film. For example, if you see two people in a film who are hiding from (or looking for) each other backing up toward one another and then, butt to butt, pivot around each other, never knowing the other is there, it may be amusing but it's a bit like, C'mon, we've seen this before. Seeing it in live theatre is more enjoyable because you're part of it. Yes, you've seen it all before, but what's enjoyable is how well they do it, not that they do it. We watch differently because we invest differently in a play than we do in a film or a TV show.
More scattered thoughts later.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Have we really gotten that bad?
... I wondered after presentations last Monday. The criticisms were pretty pointed again, and interruptions were standard. I think we're all feeling a bit out of rhythm, and we've lost some of the fun of it all, which is coming through in the performances. But we've had an unscheduled two-day break yesterday and today because of a Tube strike in London, so maybe we'll come back a bit fresher.
Meanwhile, I've been back to the osteopath twice this week. The less-than-graceful forward-roll I ended class with last Friday caused increasing pain over the weekend. I'm feeling much better now, though still a bit stiff and sore. I'll be sitting out of much if not all of the Acrobatics work tomorrow and maybe next Wednesday and Friday, until I'm pain-free again.
The neck didn't keep me from going Morris dancing on Tuesday night. The long bike ride didn't do my neck any favors (again, Tube strike) but the dancing was a lot of fun. A friend and I went this week. We're hoping to bring along several others next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, I've been back to the osteopath twice this week. The less-than-graceful forward-roll I ended class with last Friday caused increasing pain over the weekend. I'm feeling much better now, though still a bit stiff and sore. I'll be sitting out of much if not all of the Acrobatics work tomorrow and maybe next Wednesday and Friday, until I'm pain-free again.
The neck didn't keep me from going Morris dancing on Tuesday night. The long bike ride didn't do my neck any favors (again, Tube strike) but the dancing was a lot of fun. A friend and I went this week. We're hoping to bring along several others next Tuesday.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Louie, Louie
It's been another week of character creation. This week Louie emerged. Louie wears aviator-style sunglasses and a shiny black shirt. I think he'd like to slick his hair with Brylcreem, but I haven't found any yet. He's from Harrisburg, PA, but runs a sex shop in Soho. Married three times, has two sons named Louie Jr. (He calls them Louie 2 and Louie 3.) Louie's a bit like our dog Finn in that he's just sure everybody likes him, but unlike Finn, Louie's confidence about that may not run very deep. He's been through a lot, is just who he is, and wants people to like him. But if you don't, who needs ya? (Life's too short, y'know?)
I'm enjoying this. I think next week we get into situations where we switch back and forth between our characters very quickly. Too bad that Louie and Bobby Lee won't ever meet face to face. I'm not sure how that would go.
Meanwhile we're back to handstands and such in Acro. A bit of a sore neck today, and I can feel the fatigue in the front of my shoulders from working on the handstands--a feat I haven't accomplished yet, but it's starting to come along. Slowly. I've learned (again but probably not for the last time) to pace myself better so as not to suffer too big a setback.
We also formed groups for the long-range project that will become our final presentation. I'm in a group that will be creating something that comes from participating in a community folk dance group. What a stretch, huh?
I'm enjoying this. I think next week we get into situations where we switch back and forth between our characters very quickly. Too bad that Louie and Bobby Lee won't ever meet face to face. I'm not sure how that would go.
Meanwhile we're back to handstands and such in Acro. A bit of a sore neck today, and I can feel the fatigue in the front of my shoulders from working on the handstands--a feat I haven't accomplished yet, but it's starting to come along. Slowly. I've learned (again but probably not for the last time) to pace myself better so as not to suffer too big a setback.
We also formed groups for the long-range project that will become our final presentation. I'm in a group that will be creating something that comes from participating in a community folk dance group. What a stretch, huh?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)