Relationships

Today Joanne's movement class started with the usual hour (it felt longer) of rigorous flexibility/stamina exercises. After a break to get some water and mop the sweat, Joanne set up a table and two chairs in the middle of the room. She put two teacups on the table with saucers and spoons. The assignment: to go into the space two at a time and establish a relationship through our physical actions.

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:

Warm-Up w/ Michael - 1hr. 3 days/wk.

Scene Study w/ Sam - 3 hrs. 4 days/wk.

Voice & Speech w/ Jason/Dusty - 90 minutes 4 days/wk.

Composition w/ Steve - 2 hrs. 2 days/wk.

Movement w/ Joanne - 3 hrs. 1 day/wk.

Maybe it was the elevator

Anyone who's an actor aspires to be as "free" in their work as possible at any given moment. That is to say, to play one's actions as purely as possible without being hindered by any mental or physical encumbrance. We all have our "good" and "bad" days, but I'd say any thoughtful actor would tell you that a feeling of pure freedom might be (at best) a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Today in Joanne's movement class we had a moment that really crystallized what the Adler program is all about (in my humble blah blah...). I've written before about my apprehensions about this class, my awareness of my own shortcomings in the areas of flexibility and physical fluidity. Well today the class just clicked, not just for me but the whole group. Focus was strong, the mood was positive and there was just a great relaxed feeling in the class. Joanne asked us to sit back to back with our scene partners and, while "feeling our text," enact our scene through abstract movement. This turned into a dance (picture a man who has wandered onto the stage of a very good modern dance company and you'll know what I felt like dancing with Venezuelan Girl), and eventually into a dance that each couple performed before the group.

I think our piece got the essence of The Proposal (a steadily escalating comic confrontation) even if it may not have been the prettiest, but everyone in the class really committed to what they were doing and the results were great. Because of an odd number in the class there was even a three-way dance which combined two scenes. THEN Joanne raised the stakes by repeating the exercise except substituting song for dance. So, that's what we did; everyone performed a (thankfully short) version of their scene in song, sometimes saying the words and sometimes paraphrasing. Again here, the group was very into the spirit of the work.

I describe this exercise in such detail because of the challenge Joanne threw to us at the end. We should make all our scenes, monologues, whatever as free as the dance and singing we had just done. We should integrate the physical into our work and stay out of our heads. It should always feel this good. And of course, that's a lofty goal but 100% right. It's usually difficult to have time to do a dance before an audition or rehearsal, but in a way we should - metaphorically if not literally.

Notes from Sam's class: Venezuelan Girl and I did the first rough run-through of our scene from The Proposal today, and Sam had us do it shouting in order to "loosen us up" and get us in the spirit of the the thing. I think I said yesterday that this scene has possibilities to me, we're working on it this weekend.

The Bravery Award for the day is shared by Class Secretary and Glasses Girl. Class Secretary was missing a scene partner so Sam had her do an in-character improv (Yelena from Vanya) imagining "the moment before" her scene with Vanya. She wasn't expecting it when she came to class today but pulled it off with authority. Glasses Girl is doing a gender switch version of the Anya-Trofimov scene I tried earlier with one of the guys in class. Today was the first work-through and I'm interested to see where it goes.

(Explanation for post title: As I was walking down W. 27th towards the studio this morning, I met Joanne and a couple of classmates coming the other way. The stairs were closed due to construction in the building - the elevators are off limits to Adler students - and so we had to go down the block to a freight elevator that took us to a different entrance to the studio. I'm not superstitious but the change in routine set a good tone for the day.)

Note to self: buy umbrella

The day started badly as I arrived at the Studio amid a drenching rainstorm. The cheap T-shirt I was wearing was so wet I just threw it in the garbage since I had some others with me, and at lunch I ran out and bought some more shirts, an extra pair of jeans, and an umbrella.

First class of the day: Movement Techniques with Joanne Edelmann. Strangely this is the class I feel the most trepidation about; what does it say that I'm more self-conscious about my lack of flexibility than my acting? We start with an intensive movement session that while it may not be yoga seems yoga-like to my inexperienced muscles. There's a kind of a free-form movement exercise that incorporates some of our Chekhov lines and includes a solo spot for everyone. Since I'm playing Trofimov in my scene that's the character I have in mind, but of course how does one portray such an intellectual character through movement? (Irish Guy follows me with the same character and does it brilliantly...)

The second part of the class is an exercise in the Alexander Technique and Ideokinesis. We partner up and take turns going through the exercises Joanne leads, which involves pulling stretching, and massaging various points to reduce tension. I'm partnered with a young woman from Nigeria who has some experience with the exercise, so there's not any awkwardness or messing up. When it's my turn to work on her I probably err on the side of being tentative, since when you're pulling someone's head up from their body you become very aware of your own strength. Joanne is our most "serious" teacher in terms of demeanor, and rides the ladies in the class about their hair falling into their eyes.

In our Voice & Speech class with Jason we read and discuss a poem by e.e. cummings, (see below) as a way of beginning to think about language and what actors can do with it. It's a change from lying on the floor breathing; not that that isn't valuable but I think everyone was happy to have a piece of text to work with. Jason told us in our first class that he studied literature, and he definitely seems to be interested in more than the technical side of acting.

My second crack at the Trofimov-Anya scene tomorrow...I feel ready....

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

- e e cummings

The suspense isn't killing me as much as the monlogue....

First a correction...yesterday I described a classmate's monologue and referred to him as Late Guy because he hadn't been there the first day. That was unfair, since he'd had an audition and a callback that evening...we'll change Late Guy to "Big Break?".

Now, I'm sure you're all wondering how my monologue for Sam went. As I'd planned I jumped up first today and we were off and running. I think I overcompensated because i didn't want to get the note that there was no emotion behind my words, so I came off very angry...which was a defensible choice but not entirely right for the piece. (Astrov's monologue about forests) As I do in these situations, I tended to rush - though not as badly as I have on other occasions. Sam gave me scene partners for another go-round (Big Break?, Class Secretary, and one other whose nickname is pending)...and that helped as it usually does.

The larger note that I got - which was absolutely dead on - was that I was thinking of the monologue as a speech to be recited rather than something to act. I rarely feel self-conscious or uncomfortable onstage anymore, but the artificiality of standing up in an empty room and doing a monologue for someone (or in this case a whole class) doesn't do anything for my game if you know what I mean. As Sam pointed out, even if a set was built for me and costumes provided it wouldn't matter if I didn't internalize.

So obviously I didn't feel entirely good about that, but it's something to work from. All the other monologues today were good and quite different, and everyone over the three days has benefited from the coaching. The biggest surprise to me was Throaty-Voiced Girl, a very quiet young woman who did a dynamite job with Nina's Seagull speech.

I'll be doing a scene from Cherry Orchard with the Tall One (these nicknames aren't easy), a tall blonde woman who is one of the people who hasn't done her monologue yet. It's from the end of Act 2 - Anya and Trofimov.

Today we had our first "Movement Techniques" class w/ Joanne Edelmann. This is by far the most physically demanding of our classes - so demanding we only have it once a week. The highlight was an exercise where we each perform a movement solo and then the group performs as one and becomes as ensemble, working together and finding a way to end the piece cleanly....A good way to build a connection with one's classmates...Tomorrow is another work-til-6.30 day...then a break..