Little Insights

CLASSES
Movement: I was cautious with my right knee, but I was able to participate in everything without worrying or hurting myself. We did a lot of core warmup, and did both the etudes for the stone and the slap to warmup. Then we went into the character exercise using the spine shape. I was still feeling off with the cold or kidney thing, so I didn't volunteer. I'm looking forward to going up, and assuming I'm mended will volunteer quickly on Sunday. I'm looking forward to exploring my first modern monologue with this.

Combat: We did some point work, parry avoids and such, including doublès. We then worked further on our choreography for the rapier test. We added a pommel hit (to me) which will be the justification for using my other hand to hold the sword. We'll likely finish the choreography on Sunday, and then or next Tuesday we'll be assigned our partners for the test.

Speech: More visualization type work this week to help connect to text and the Elizabethan world. We did last week's exercise as far as our name, then one word from one of our texts. I chose 'wasp'. Then we did a guided meditation of sorts, imagining ourselves moving first to green grass of Elizabethan England, then going down and picturing Hell with Satan, and his devils. Then back up and seeing the lowest aware beings, worms, beetles, etc. Then plants, weeds to oak. Then reptiles worm[sic] to boa constrictor. Insects, fleas to praying mantis. Then mammals shrew to whale. Finally people, beggar to royalty. Experiencing the hierarchical world of the time. Then we repeated the exercise standing up.

Then on to some Linklater work, using the placement of sounds. For example, the syllable 'zoo' was the thighs, 'whow' was the belly, ... to 'ree' out of the top of the head. Then we walked around doing our monologues playing with all this, and discussed them. It really helped using the sounds and texture to inform the character and actions. I found Caliban's delight in listing the different ways to do in Prospero, because the predominate sounds for each method killing resonated in different areas of the body.


OBSERVATIONS/CLICKS
My knee wasn't bothering me nearly as much as I feared, but the sore back which started Saturday was still draining me. I'm now wondering if it was a kidney thing, because I've been dehydrated, and having a little trouble watering up the last week. When doing the physical stuff I've built up a sweat much sooner than usual, eating my dinner during class break made me feel icky and sweaty. Maybe I'm fighting off something else which is affecting me in other ways. Creating sort of a general malaise. A couple of people have noted I look pretty tired. The morning after class I woke up feeling more myself. It is strange how feeling a little down somehow insinuates itself in a way that tells you that crappy feeling is the norm.

I wasn't at the top of my form yesterday. Still, the work in movement and combat was well beyond what I could have done not too long ago. And the exercises in Speech really energized me. I really felt like I was closed down, yet I still performed and grew. That as much as anything is a gift which this intense training has brought me. Getting rid of some or that precious thing. Yup, you can do better when you're feeling on top of the world, but you can also do better when you feel like the world is on top of you. I think this is one of the important aspects of the professionalism towards which I aspire. The chops to go on and grow even when the stars aren't aligned.

I'm still behind in this journal, this being the first entry in a month. Right now 1/24 is the next entry, but I plan to backfill them. When I was talking to Rachel it hit me that I didn't have to catch up before writing current entries. I think it had something to do with both her and Joseph saying I hadn't written anything since the slap etude. So, if anyone else is actually paying heed to this blog... That's a good thing for me, it creates a little need to keep this up.