Memoring

CLASSES:

Combat:
Geof was out, and we reviewed our sword fight with Heidi. It was a good review, and helped to get the moves into physical memory. Heidi is very good at that, and very encouraging.


Movement:
We warmed up then worked on slow motion fighting. It was very simple, and looking back on it several days later I'm struck by something. I've done this sort of exercise before, and the commitment and generosity is not something I've seen in previous classes. Pretty amazing. We did half the class at a time, giving the others a chance to observe. We are an odd number this quarter, and instead of working with three people which we did in my group for the initial work, I partnered with George. That was fun, a privilege given his experience, and we brutalized each other ending up in a comic dance.

The initial work before the split on the slow motion fight with three of us was very interesting. Even in slow motion you get surprised when going for one person and another zaps you. Again, the openness made it a enjoyable exploration. I think it could be very useful for warming up with a scene partner, if you are both willing to give and take hits.

We worked on a visualization, for earth, the second of the four elements. Following a cycle, rock->germinating seed cracking the rock->tree->leaf->returning to soil->dust->mud->clay->rock. That's not very close, and a bit shorter but gives you the idea for the different states of earth we explored being, eventually coming back to the starting point. For next class we are to explore more and build a character.

We finished up by walking out as our water character. Mine was a large bowl of water, the sloshing creating momentum determining my way of moving. I didn't have enough human on the form making it a bit too weavy, but like everyone else got suggestions from George to work it, in my case to bring more human into it. Watching and doing demonstrated for me how this can be used to create real characters.


Speech:
We worked more on the detail model with Jack. Starting off with a good warm up, and a lot of outlandish and omnish, to really get the articulators going. Then we worked in pairs to give each other feedback on one of our Shakespeare pieces. I splashed my ess's a bit, and blurred my consonants. Aside from getting things like splashing ess's, improperly produced vowels and consonants worked out, a lot is balance. Are you outside playing to an audience of 3,000 or in an intimate setting like a small black box theatre or film set? Too much detail in the intimate setting and you'll drive people bonkers with over-enunciation. Going the other way you drive people bonkers with incomprehension.

This work still surprises us. It sounds so dry, yet Jack makes it fresh and allows us to connect to the practical side. It will also help with accent/dialect work. My biggest problem is being able to hold onto an accent. I'll develop a good (or passable) accent, but lose the ones I'd worked on previously. I'm hoping a more defined approach with the speech class background will help, which would better facilitate working multiple characters.

OBSERVATIONS/CLICKS
I had more fun in classes today because of the little breakthrough on Sunday. I was feeling down with regard to ETI. The thing I need to work on with regards to that is to accept it and build on it.