Week Two

Back into it again. My group started with Suzuki this Monday – it felt really odd to get back into it after a few days off. The first thing I noticed was how tender the bottoms of my feet were. I certainly haven’t built much up there yet, but it felt a bit like not paying guitar for a while and then playing – tender fingertips. We reviewed – staring with my favorite stomping in a circle, falling down and then rising slowly. Fearing that I might struggle to make it though I didn’t put in enough energy and so consequentially, I didn’t get the same rush at the end. The rest of the class was about learning a sequence of walks – each a bit more painful than the other. Most of the moves require control – and these do too, but there is a great deal more swinging the hips and twisting the foot. Kinda woke up some muscles I haven’t used – maybe ever.

Viewpoints was fun – broke into groups and each group slowly put together a sequence of semaphore signs with their bodies – each person adding another one to the sequence. We the performed them as a group at once, and then a representative from each group. Interesting new combinations emerged. It is fun to watch which people want to play and which have an agenda. I must admit going into these group things I tend to map out a few options just as a place to start, but then really try to react to what is around me. The only downside is that almost immediately in Viewpoints my right calf cramped up. Not sure why – its not something that happens often. May have been the bike ride or jump rope on Sunday, or not enough liquid or potassium. So – eating and drinking and putting on the Tiger Balm and hope it is OK by tomorrow.

So – we showed our first compositions today. It seemed to go really well. I really did feel proud of what my group had created. Great process and wonderful result. Watching the other three pieces was great – all very different. Some used space and landscape well, others not as much. In some I could see many many possibilities. The notes section was interesting. We really spent a great deal of time focusing on the composition – and we got some great feedback on specific moments. The one thing that caught me off guard were acting notes. I was like, Oh yea – right – we are all hear as performers. We got so caught up in the images we never really talked about that. But all in all a wonderful experience.

A few choice comments by Anne: 

She is dedicated to making theatre that would look ridiculous on film or TV. 

For every piece she asks "who's dream is it?" - what perspective is it from?

You can only see movement in relation to stillness. 

We also discussed how to transcend ideas - the observation that all ideas should be taken farther.  

The deck got reshuffled and I am in a new group – which is nice because it is with folks I really haven’t had a chance to talk to yet. Our assignment is to create a 12 minute presentation that covers the whole of act I – we can cut and compress, but need to account some how for all the major action. First meeting was tonight and we read through the act and talked about images. I actually think we are quite a bit farther than we were at this point last week. We have a vague direction and some work to do on our own before we all get together tomorrow. The trick with this project is one of our group is the director. We will see what the week brings.

Oh and an interesting anecdote from today. So - walking between locations today we were encouraged to view everything as performance. We came up on the third piece and there were two folks wheeling a cart loaded down with food stuffs. The sound the wheels were making as they rolled over the breaks in the cement were fantastic. So I plopped down on the ground to listen and immediately like three people were by my side assuming I had collapsed or something. So - yea - next time I'll do a better job of like cocking my ear or putting a hand to it or perhaps not sitting down.