Mac

CLASSES
Movement:
We started off in Rhino, Freehold's black box theatre for about thirty minutes, reading and discussing excerpts from Joseph Chaikin's The Presence of the Actor and David Mamet's True and False. The first was very dense, talking about how the most articulate performances are those which have been pared away, to how the most extraordinary people have in common the exposing of an inner life which the rest of the world covers up. How tension leads to the limiting of possibilities ('trying' being a form of tension), to the idea that "When theater is limited to the socially possible, it is confined by the same forces which limit society." The latter was the most intriguing for me.

Mamet talks of living with uncertainty, saying it is not childish. Rather it is extremely brave, and those who are unequipped to understand it say it is childish as justification for exploiting you. He goes on to talk about his apparent bent that actors should be talking heads. I need to read more Mamet to figure it out. I've heard people say it is just a self-serving joy in being iconoclastic. We talked of the people who work with Mamet, and they are highly trained, experienced, and anything but talking heads. It makes me wonder if he is talking more along the lines of what we are learning with Shakespeare -- where the character lies in the text, and the first step in opening the character is in building synergy with the text, which allows the character to shine through you. His writing is dense and heightened enough so that can happen.

I suspect Mamet's apparent running down of the very traits which make his actors so great is a little of that classical mode of using the text, and a little desire for comeuppance. He trained with Meisner though he was not selected for advanced training. I suspect that experience gives him much of the ethic which make actors clamor to work for him, and some satisfaction in poking at the preciousness of modern training. Not that it really matters. He is brilliant, acts with integrity, and gives you lots to think about.

After the discussion we went down to Crow, the large studio room, to do more playing with the ramps for the woman's prison production. We warmed up with jump ropes beforehand, and that is a very fast way for me to build up a good sweat and deep breathing. I'm going to get a rope for using at home.

As a reward for helping develop the ramp work we spent the last forty minutes working with tennis balls, mostly juggling by ourselves or with a partner, finishing with trapping and bouncing them with our feet.


Combat:
We worked the unarmed sequence. Geof had planned to start with the rapier fight sequence, but the work lights in Rhino weren't working. ;) The tired old circuit breaker which usually needed to be flipped quickly several times finally gave out altogether and really broke. A nuisance, but I suspect we'll get a switch that works the first time, almost every time. Iridius, who is the new facility manager is extremely good about fixing and improving things around Freehold.

We're starting to fine tune the choreography, and while it is not overwhelming it is indeed challenging. Not only do I want to pass the certification tests, I want to have fun with it and make it look good.


Tutorial:
Lori and I got together at Vita's and started analyzing the text and scene. I'm Mac, and she's Lady M. We'll be doing Act I, Scene VII for this quarter's rehearsal. I think this is going to be a very satisfying scene. MacBeth is one of my favorite plays, so the stakes are high. I really want to do it justice.

OBSERVATIONS/CLICKS
The movement and stage combat classes, have kept me in a state of slight soreness for most of the quarter. Using the body, strengthening and expanding capabilities is very satisfying. While I'm often feeling a little fatigued which is also related to the day job and getting overwhelmed schedule-wise, this is the upside.

I am very excited about MacBeth. It's a short scene, but it will be performed. I really like this play, as I've mentioned before and I'm looking forward to working with my scene partner. It occurred to me I may never get to be Mac again. Not in a sad, regretful way, but in a way which makes me more delighted at the chance to do it now.