DAY FOUR

We are here not for the work of the individual, but the work of the person -  to create a community of persons. ANOTHER gem from Ronlin. GOSH What an awesome way to look at theatre. This is a quote that has really hit home especially today. 

One thing i LOVE LOVE LOVE about the work here is that we are constantly reminded to smile. "SMILE! THIS IS FUN!" is often yelled at us when we are running around like mad women and men, sweating and sore. Song is incorporated into our exercises a lot too. Rhythm is life as was explained to us. It is in everything. It is in the way the wind blows and grass grows, our heartbeats. If our work is to imitate life then it MUST have rhythm.  One song we sang today goes as such: (Bradley Theatre students will know this one from class *wink wink* *coughstevesnydercough*)

When I get drunk

On a gallon of Carlo Rossi

I lose control

And I beat people up

And spend the night in the cold hoosegow

Since this week is all about play, we do a lot of complicated ball-throwing games. When we seem to be stuck or getting frustrated, Ronlin makes us sing: YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE, MY ONLY SUNSHINE...Today we ended up singing this song for over a half hour while playing this game. And you know what? We got it! The game was so much easier! Ronlin says that sometimes we have to make difficulties more difficult in order to figure them out. By singing we get out of our heads so we could JUST DO. Another gem to live by!

The next exercise was part of The Showers that we were told about. The Showers are a series of exercises that Carlo came up with. They are called the showers because they are to be done like scales, like how often and habitually we take a shower.  We did a cool thing were we walked around the space and it went as follows: notice something "AH-HA!",  go to it, "IT IS!" (to the 'other', notice it isn't "IT ISN'T" (to the other), notice that it really is "IT IS!!!!' (to the other). REPEAT. We did a couple other exercises, but this was the most fun. We were running around like children on a sugar high. It was pretty fantastic. 

We also got a brief taste of masks. Some great pearls of wisdom from Michael, our teacher was: Masks don't hide, they reveal. Masks ask for physical support. The amazing thing about them, is that once the actress or actor inside the mask starts thinking or gets inside their head, the mask goes dead. You have to just do. I love that: just do. Michael briefly discussed style with us he said that style wipes away the mask of naturalism. We are going to go deeper into characters such as masks and red-nose next week!!!!!!!!!! 

Here is an awesome article (and one of the only writings by Carlo Mazzone Clementi). This was suggested to us during our discussion last night: http://www.dellarte.com/dellarte.aspx?id=257

ALSO: for those who have a Kindle (which you can download for free on your computer) the Delsarte System of Oratory is free to download! ENJOY

rush hour on this beautiful day in Blue Lake