This exercise is a little hard to describe, but think of being on stage with another actor. You do or say something "in the moment" and the other actor responds based on impulse. That's essentially what we were doing, only everything (our internal lives) was physicalized. At a certain point one pair would switch off with another and (try to) pick up seamlessly. We weren't limited to the reality of our props, so many of the relationships that developed between pairs became quite emotional and even confrontational. In any play a well-trained actor will use his body to illuminate his internal life, but in Chekhov it's arguably more important and more difficult that with any other writer; that's the point of why Joanne had us do the exercise.
After everyone had been up in a pair, she had us all go into the space as a group. As we reacted to what was happening and to our impulses, new relationships began and ended. Groups formed and split apart and storylines were played out. As individuals we had to make choices about how to lead or follow and how much or if we wanted to affect the group. If someone had come into the class and not known what was going on, it would have looked like a rehearsal for a sort of avant-garde dance/theater piece.
Now, still in our physicalized mode, we shift as a group into Three Sisters, when the officers and other visitors are at the house for the first time in the play. There had been music playing all through the exercise, but now it became Russian. So that took the group in a different direction as we assumed characters and changed relationships. Dancing broke out and loves were pursued and lost. I'd like to describe my experience in the class more specifically, but as I write I find that I can only remember it in terms of what was going on with the group. I suppose that means that at least for me the point was made, and judging by what many classmates said later in the day this was a class we'll remember.
The issue of physicalizing our actions came up again on a couple of scenes that were worked in Sam's class. He "directed" some adjustments to some scenes which were already pretty good in order to open things up and give the characters reasons to be more physical. (When I say "physical" I'm talking about anything an actor does with their body) What do you know, the scenes got better. Maybe there's something to this stuff.
This post is already long enough, so I'll save my thoughts on the "muscularity of my belly" until tomorrow. (Got you thinking, don't I?) Here, just to give you an idea, is the breakdown of our class time:
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