You wear the mask. You pretend the movement of an element or material.
You exit backstage. Then you reenter and you must tell the audience of a bank robbery you witnessed.
The text cannot overpower the movement.
You must have pleasure in your movement. Your own special pleasure.
Or maybe you come on the stage to perform a cabaret song. Same challenge.
Why is it so hard to keep the physical rhythm once the actor stands on two legs?
Or you tell te audience of falling in love. If you play love. If you play an emotion. Adios immediately.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Feedback
A question.
Only a simple question.
Do you know that sport, where you go on the bridge. And then you jump off, with the rope. The bungie? Yes, you do?
Well lets say that we take Madame to the bridge. We say oh yes my little friend, I will pay for you to go. 20 euros? Not so bad! There you go. And jump!
Then we cut her rope.
Would anyone here be sad to see her die? Or would you be happy to kil her and her horrible voice? This whole group was terrible, but she was top level. I ahd to think up a special death for her.
Bon. We put the whole group in a van. Maybe we give them some morphine to make things easier. Then we lead them to the bungie jump. Come my friends. Then snap snap snap. Who here says oh no nonono! They were beautiful!
No one? Bon. Thank you for that horrible moment. Adios immediately.
Only a simple question.
Do you know that sport, where you go on the bridge. And then you jump off, with the rope. The bungie? Yes, you do?
Well lets say that we take Madame to the bridge. We say oh yes my little friend, I will pay for you to go. 20 euros? Not so bad! There you go. And jump!
Then we cut her rope.
Would anyone here be sad to see her die? Or would you be happy to kil her and her horrible voice? This whole group was terrible, but she was top level. I ahd to think up a special death for her.
Bon. We put the whole group in a van. Maybe we give them some morphine to make things easier. Then we lead them to the bungie jump. Come my friends. Then snap snap snap. Who here says oh no nonono! They were beautiful!
No one? Bon. Thank you for that horrible moment. Adios immediately.
The Pleasure to Pretend
Prof: "When you do these exercises, you are looking for your own special sense of play. How is my play with this element? With this material? If my play is good, if I love to play in this way, maybe I can use it to build a character. If my play is blahblahblah, then maybe no one will like to see me on the stage playing this way.
This is how an actor builds a character. They bring things to the character that are fun for them to play. That is where the actor starts. We do not care about the ideas of the play, the horrible analysis of my balls. No, the actor creates the character out of their pleasure to pretend. And so we have this workshop to find different ways that you have the pleasure to pretend.
Of course, the impulse is always first. The impulse guides the movement. And then on top of the movement comes the text. In this way, we do not have blah blah blah theater. We have the theater of impulse. The theater of game. The game, the impulse, it starts and we do not know where it is going. It will be a surprise.
I do not care if you are funny. Only that you are surprising. This way, you follow your impulses, wherever they lead you, And you cannot know where you are going.
We come to the theater to see you play. We don't care about your pain, about your suffering. This is the secret of your life. It is not for us. Your play is for us. You have the pleasure to play a character who suffers. But if you come out to the stage to suffer with your private pain, you break everyone's balls. "
This is how an actor builds a character. They bring things to the character that are fun for them to play. That is where the actor starts. We do not care about the ideas of the play, the horrible analysis of my balls. No, the actor creates the character out of their pleasure to pretend. And so we have this workshop to find different ways that you have the pleasure to pretend.
Of course, the impulse is always first. The impulse guides the movement. And then on top of the movement comes the text. In this way, we do not have blah blah blah theater. We have the theater of impulse. The theater of game. The game, the impulse, it starts and we do not know where it is going. It will be a surprise.
I do not care if you are funny. Only that you are surprising. This way, you follow your impulses, wherever they lead you, And you cannot know where you are going.
We come to the theater to see you play. We don't care about your pain, about your suffering. This is the secret of your life. It is not for us. Your play is for us. You have the pleasure to play a character who suffers. But if you come out to the stage to suffer with your private pain, you break everyone's balls. "
Theater of My Balls
Push push push. This is how I ever got things in life was to push push push.
So then I go onstage and of course it is push push push.
Prof: "You are doing theater of my balls. You are too aggressive on the stage. There is no play, just aggression."
My god. My god. My god.
I sit in the cafe in Paris. I have wine. I sit for three hours and don't worry about doing anything. Maybe I enjoy my life a little...
Maybe I don't push so much now.
Theater is much more interesting when the impulse is alive.
Theater of push push push is theater of my balls. Everyone leaves the theater and their balls have bruises.
So then I go onstage and of course it is push push push.
Prof: "You are doing theater of my balls. You are too aggressive on the stage. There is no play, just aggression."
My god. My god. My god.
I sit in the cafe in Paris. I have wine. I sit for three hours and don't worry about doing anything. Maybe I enjoy my life a little...
Maybe I don't push so much now.
Theater is much more interesting when the impulse is alive.
Theater of push push push is theater of my balls. Everyone leaves the theater and their balls have bruises.
Be More Alive Than That
You wear the neutral mask. You go on the stage.
You interpret with you body the movement of the elements. Earth, fire, wind, water.
You interpret materials: glue, acid, vinegar, oil, bleach, glass...
Prof: "Your movement, it is too mechanical. You find one thing to do with your body and you repeat it. It is like the traditional theater. You find one thing that works and then you repeat it after your impulse has died. You must be more alive than that."
The students go up. They play with their bodies. The drum is hit and they freeze. Their masks are removed. They ontinue to move.
The students are told to speak text as they move. The text must not guide the movement. The movement informs the text. The student has the pleasure to play with the text as the element. The text does not take over the element, the text does not take over the physical impulse.
The impulse. It changes. It is alive. We start with the impulse and we never know where we are going.
So I wait to begin the exercise. I do not knw what will happen. I try not to think, only to stay open and know that SOMETHING will happen. Then I begin. I look for the play. How do I play?
I play with vinegar.
Prof: "You are the homosexual vinegar. We put you in the museum for top level homosexual vinegar."
I play with acid.
Prof: "Before, when you played with homosexual vinegar, you were light. You had your special pleasure. Now you are militant heterosexual. This is so terrible. John Wayne in Vietnam aggressive. Horrible. You must be light, not aggressive."
You interpret with you body the movement of the elements. Earth, fire, wind, water.
You interpret materials: glue, acid, vinegar, oil, bleach, glass...
Prof: "Your movement, it is too mechanical. You find one thing to do with your body and you repeat it. It is like the traditional theater. You find one thing that works and then you repeat it after your impulse has died. You must be more alive than that."
The students go up. They play with their bodies. The drum is hit and they freeze. Their masks are removed. They ontinue to move.
The students are told to speak text as they move. The text must not guide the movement. The movement informs the text. The student has the pleasure to play with the text as the element. The text does not take over the element, the text does not take over the physical impulse.
The impulse. It changes. It is alive. We start with the impulse and we never know where we are going.
So I wait to begin the exercise. I do not knw what will happen. I try not to think, only to stay open and know that SOMETHING will happen. Then I begin. I look for the play. How do I play?
I play with vinegar.
Prof: "You are the homosexual vinegar. We put you in the museum for top level homosexual vinegar."
I play with acid.
Prof: "Before, when you played with homosexual vinegar, you were light. You had your special pleasure. Now you are militant heterosexual. This is so terrible. John Wayne in Vietnam aggressive. Horrible. You must be light, not aggressive."
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
The Pleasure to Pretend
The actor wears a neutral mask.
The actor must pretend to be water.
Prof: "You see these actors on the stage pretending to be water. They pretend to be a lake. Bon. Which lakes are clear and which are dirty? Which lake would you swim in? This student has a clear and beautiful lake, but this one absoloutely horrible. I would never go in that lake. Dirty water. Spiders. Plastic bags. To go in this lake, I would be dead."
Questions from the exercise:
How does embodying movement change the way that an actor plays with the space and their text? How does the change in the impulse to movement shift the way the actor plays?
_____
You have to embody the lake.
So you do the exercise.
The professor says it is terrible.
He lets you try again.
Oh god this again. "be a lake" "be water" what a load of hippie bullshit. Like I'm in a meeting of transcendentalist vegans in Berkeley California.
And then something happens to you. You stop thinking about how to do the exercise and you become aware of the room. You imagine for a moment the size of a lake, its immensity. Your body stops moving so much and feels somehow supported by this imagined size and immensity.
Your mask is removed. You are told to rise to your feet while maintaining this quality, and speak a text.
So you rise, you speak, and this size it stays with you. And you feel free.
__________
Prof: "He was beautiful, wasn't he? He had a good face. All the time on the stage you look like an idiot. An American optimist with a big idiot smile, with the American flag in the background. Absoloutely horrible. But now you are on the stage and you are open. Much better to see you this way than to see the horrible American who thinks that everything will be ok."
The actor must pretend to be water.
Prof: "You see these actors on the stage pretending to be water. They pretend to be a lake. Bon. Which lakes are clear and which are dirty? Which lake would you swim in? This student has a clear and beautiful lake, but this one absoloutely horrible. I would never go in that lake. Dirty water. Spiders. Plastic bags. To go in this lake, I would be dead."
Questions from the exercise:
How does embodying movement change the way that an actor plays with the space and their text? How does the change in the impulse to movement shift the way the actor plays?
_____
You have to embody the lake.
So you do the exercise.
The professor says it is terrible.
He lets you try again.
Oh god this again. "be a lake" "be water" what a load of hippie bullshit. Like I'm in a meeting of transcendentalist vegans in Berkeley California.
And then something happens to you. You stop thinking about how to do the exercise and you become aware of the room. You imagine for a moment the size of a lake, its immensity. Your body stops moving so much and feels somehow supported by this imagined size and immensity.
Your mask is removed. You are told to rise to your feet while maintaining this quality, and speak a text.
So you rise, you speak, and this size it stays with you. And you feel free.
__________
Prof: "He was beautiful, wasn't he? He had a good face. All the time on the stage you look like an idiot. An American optimist with a big idiot smile, with the American flag in the background. Absoloutely horrible. But now you are on the stage and you are open. Much better to see you this way than to see the horrible American who thinks that everything will be ok."
Monday, November 5, 2007
Porte le texte comme un chapeau
The actor wears a neutral mask.
They sleep, wake up, see the sunrise, and rise to standing with the sunrise.
Prof: "You move like you have Parkinsons. Too fast! Too idiot!"
"You move like a camel in the desert. Your head bobs up and down. The neutral mask did not get drunk last night or smoke hashish. The neutral mask is neutral. It goes to bed, it wakes up, and it gets up. Nothing else. When you move with the mask you bend your head like the virgin mary."
So.
The actor rises. Slowly. "Neutral." They attempt to suggest nothing.
Drum beat. The actor freezes. The mask is removed. Drum beat. The actor continues moving.
Now, the actor speaks. But the actor does not embody the text. The text is placed on top of the movement. The text follows the impulse of the body and never shapes it.
The actor is focused not on the text but the movement. The actor has the pleasure to put the text on the movement.
There is no life in the text. The text is text. The life is in the actor. If the actor cannot have life seperate from the text, then the actor is a zombie idiot servant to the text. The actor only knows how to make sense of text and break everybody's balls.
There is only life in the actor. And the actor's impulse. The impulse is not the text. The actor puts the text on the impulse. The actor wears the text like a hat.
They sleep, wake up, see the sunrise, and rise to standing with the sunrise.
Prof: "You move like you have Parkinsons. Too fast! Too idiot!"
"You move like a camel in the desert. Your head bobs up and down. The neutral mask did not get drunk last night or smoke hashish. The neutral mask is neutral. It goes to bed, it wakes up, and it gets up. Nothing else. When you move with the mask you bend your head like the virgin mary."
So.
The actor rises. Slowly. "Neutral." They attempt to suggest nothing.
Drum beat. The actor freezes. The mask is removed. Drum beat. The actor continues moving.
Now, the actor speaks. But the actor does not embody the text. The text is placed on top of the movement. The text follows the impulse of the body and never shapes it.
The actor is focused not on the text but the movement. The actor has the pleasure to put the text on the movement.
There is no life in the text. The text is text. The life is in the actor. If the actor cannot have life seperate from the text, then the actor is a zombie idiot servant to the text. The actor only knows how to make sense of text and break everybody's balls.
There is only life in the actor. And the actor's impulse. The impulse is not the text. The actor puts the text on the impulse. The actor wears the text like a hat.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)