Dell' Arte: Be Ferocious. Be Human.

Week #3:

This week we were re-assigned Nature Day for Friday's p-lab (performance lab).  Everything we did in the first week was to be thrown out and we were to start completely over.

Some people were not enthused about this.  Working with fifteen others on creating this nature day experience was hard the first time around. Now we had to do it again and people showed their true colors.  It made me extremely aware of how little tolerance I have for those unwilling to devote themselves and their time to the task at hand.  I also realized just how much I hate bad attitudes.  All of this is not productive and hinders the work.

We tried to create something real; a place where the audience could dwell.  However people ended up being bored.  We were very timid and safe with our work.  Our challenge: Be ferocious.  Yes we work hard and it's obvious we care about the work, but we need to be ferocious.  We were also comforted that nothing we do is worthless.  What is good today is terrible tomorrow. We strive to grow and improve.

In poetic voice I learned that emotions are not tied to an idea, but concrete descriptions.  We wrote for five minutes not stopping on different images.  Then the task was to imagine addressing a group of people at your dear friends grave.  Laura had music in the background and helped us along.  There were many humorous and sad moments, but what we found out was that words didn't matter when expressing emotion.  That what we feel can live on it's own and doesn't need to be told, but could just live.

This week opened my eyes to the idea that this place is more than a place to study theater.  Here we have the opportunity to learn to be human.  How do we think from day to day?  How do we be alive?  During our colloquium, we watched videos covering these things and discussing the way necessary to approach the work. Vulnerability is key.  Only there can we live whole-heartedly.  Yes it will hurt, but that's the only way to truly live.  A main point discussed was that we have to be gracious with one another and ourselves.  Our only duty is to show up and be here.  That's all.  Everything else will go as it may.


Below are the links to the videos we watched.  I was most taken with "This is Water".  BUT each one made me step out of myself and think about what it takes to be truly alive.  I hope you take the time to watch these, because I believe they apply to anyone. No matter where you are or what step you're at in life.

These are for you.

This is Water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaVrn1Sz0H8

The Power of Vulnerability
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

Your Elusive Creative Genius
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA

Dell' Arte: Being in the World

Week Two:

This week we started with a complete day in nature.  No talking.  No personal reflection.  We were strongly encouraged to focus in the work of observing the world around us and to experience the world simply as us moving through it.

Packed our food for the day the night before and woke up at 4:45 to meet at 5:45 at River Campus.  Once there we took our silence and headed on a path through the darkness and stars to the river where we sat and waited.  And waited.  It was very, very cold. There was a moment when I just wanted to scream at the sun "COME ON ALREADY!" But I didn't and of course it rose and when it did, a warmth grew all over.  I immediately smiled and felt warm.  The world had color again, literally...everything was black, white, and gray until the sun came out.  After this we headed to Patrick's Point for cliffs and crashing waves.  This was my favorite spot.  I found my own little perch high on the largest rock where the sun hit and the ocean air was brisk and free. Here I could just be. And that felt good.  Next was Fern's Canyon, where I took a mini shower in a waterfall and cuddled with some Redwoods. This location had the cleanest, purest air.  You feel fresh when you leave this place.  Sunset happened where the Mad River empties into the ocean.  It was beautiful and calm.  The moments that filled the time at the ocean, I will never forget.  It was one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. 

One thing that really stuck with me on Monday was that the past is gone. Done. Everything is ahead of me.  Death is coming.  And we need to make theater like everyday is the last.  With all we have, while we can.

The rest of the week followed Nature Day.  Our P-Lab (performance lab) for Friday was based on this.  

Assignment was to show our experience for Nature day.  And we struggled.  We have been playing with the concept of being nature and being these natural elements.  It is difficult because nature just is.  It is not trying to be something else.  It is nature.  We are working toward "being".  Not imitating or representing, but being. Our P-Lab did not go well as we all fell into making a nice little presentation-show-thing from beginning to end of our day.  This was fine, but not what we are striving for here.  Anywhere else, it would have been good. People would applaud it.  But here is where we push to the edge and aim to have audiences leaving asking, "what just happened" or hopefully lead them to asking bigger questions about the world and themselves.   So, we have it assigned for next week.  But in this failure, I was not discouraged, but challenged to go further and leap into the unknown and struggle, because here is where we grow.

One of the more powerful moments of the week, was when we practiced "seeing-seeing".  I was familiar with this exercise from a workshop at KC-ACTF that Matt Chapman and Nicholette Routhier led.  This exercise is what pulled me to Dell Arte in the first place.  In this exercise, you walk around a room with an awareness of the space and people around you.  Once you make eye contact with a person, you stop and look into one another's eyes. Then you move onto the next person.  Sometimes these interactions last 5 minutes, other times 30 seconds.  But you would be surprised what you learn about a person in this.  You get past the things people project to the world and get to the soul.  You have conversations.  One thing is for sure, that this inspires a great sense of vulnerability and love.  You can't help but fall in love with everyone you meet.  And it really is baring your soul and laying it out there. It creates a greater level of understanding and trust.  Our ensemble definitely felt more like a unite after that.

I continue to struggle with trying so hard to make sense of everything.  I'm fixed on the idea that there is a right way to do something or that I can accomplish exercises done in class.  When rather, it is that we need to experience it by being present and coming to class with hands open.  Not grasping to make sense of it all, but allowing it to come and go.  A student in the MFA program, who is in her third year, told me that majority of the things we do will not make sense.  And won't make sense until years later.  Ronlin continues to challenge us intellectually while Joe works with the physical body. It is an appreciated contrast, but both very very exhausting.  

We have started work with handstands and headstands.  In this one week, I feel like muscles are being used that haven't been used since my gymnastic years.  It is good to be back in this upside-down work.  We are also running three 5k's a week along with circuit training consisting of versions of push ups, sit ups and pull ups.  

We worked in vocal class and poetic voice this week too. Vocal will challenge me as I continue to fight with confidence issues singing.  Poetic I really enjoy, because we've been learning that what links people to stories are images.  So we've been sharing with one another descriptive writings in class and playing with reading in an engaging way.  That we want to share this with our fellows.

Anywho.  Week two done.  I've been gone two weeks and it feels like two months.  Everything is a whirl wind, but it is a great place to be and I certainly don't mind.

A Tale of Snow White : Getting Close!

This week we  had our first run through. We told them to try to get through it and have fun.

 They had fun.

It was an absolute joy to see them stumble through. Transitions they had previously wrote down blocking for made sense for some and confused others. Many times we had to wait for a kid to run from the house to the stage, as they had forgotten their entrances.
 
Right before the run through started, we reminded them they could call for line and explained to them we did not want to hear any apologies or excuses. We did not want them to break character. "Just stay focused and listen for the assistant stage manager to feed you the line." Of course, the problem wasn't the actors this go round but the assistant stage manager. It's very hard  to feed someone a line if you're are in a different room or talking to your friends.

All in all though, it was a very successful day. We understood what the play would look like as a whole and discerned what areas needed the most work. After this we were able to solidify a plan of attack for the next few rehearsals, which we had left open on the original rehearsal schedule.

Dell' Arte: Week One

I SURVIVED WEEK ONE! 

Alright, let me introduce you to what the schedule was like for the first week.  Our class schedule will change from week to week. But, everyday we need to be ready to work in the studio by 8:45.  Not too early!  We had classes until 12:30.  That was our lunch break and it lasted until 1:45.  After lunch we work from 2-5:15. We are technically done for the day, but we spend 2-3 hours rehearsing each night after supper, which we schedule ourselves. Classes include: Daily Practice, Acro Lab, Vocal Ensemble, A Study with Ronlin (which fills the 2-5:15 time block), Instinct for Play, Poetic Voice, and a Performance Lab on Fridays.

Each week, we have an assigned group task that will be shown to faculty, friends, family, and Blue Lake residents on Fridays.  Our rehearsals at night are for these tasks.  I remember thinking about getting a job while doing this program...HAHA, yeah...right.

For the first ten weeks, we are strictly working with understanding our body, how it works, and how to separate the mind from the body.  One of our trainers, Joe, spoke about how we need to train our body like a horse.  Being aware at all times on how each muscle is feeling, where the tender spots are, and how important it is to keep it nourished and healthy.  That is our responsibility, not his.  He only has an outward perspective.  Joe leads Daily Practice on M/W/F and leads my section of Acro Lab.  He is trained in the Alexander Technique and is extremely knowledgeable about the body, it's structure/physical make-up, and how it was constructed to move.  

The first week was focused a lot on what is practiced here at Dell Arte.  It is clear that this is not a school for clown, not just for commedia, but a school for actor-poets.  This place is about personal journey and growth.  We were encouraged to take our expectations for the year and throw them out. Burn them, because if you hold onto them you will be disappointed.  Here is a place where you need to take each moment one at a time.  Where we must fight not to clench our fists to understanding, but fight to keep our hands open and to receive.  Do not be concerned about understanding and making sense of things or worried about grasping what we do from day to day.  Leave it all in the space, do not take it home.  Here we learn about community.  We have to believe that what we do, day to day, matters in this world.  That what I do in my community effects the world at large and can make things better.

A lot of what was just talked about comes from Ronlin.  He is our teacher who works with us T/TH in Daily Practice and works our 3 hr sessions.  The sessions this past week were about: awareness, availability, and responsiveness.  What I have noticed about him is that when he shakes your hand, he looks straight into your eyes and sees you.  He is very good at seeing the physical tendencies of a person and where they need to grow.  He is also terrible with names. The first day he called me Francis. Two things that have stuck with me is the idea that harmony can only exist with contrast.  People today don't' know how to be themselves in a community.  Yes, blending is fine, but great things happen out of contrast of two parties. In that opposition, magic happens. Another thought is that in order to grow here, you need to abandon everything you know about theater.  Here you need to let go and live in the un-known.  In that fear, because only there will you learn anything.  Only there will you truly find the deep water we are searching for.  There is where you will fully lose yourself and in doing so, find something much greater.

James has been leading Instinct for Play.  James has a way of turning any game into a life lesson. Such as Tag. Never ever give up.  Fight like hell.  Because, what we love to see as spectators or an audience, is the rise.  The beauty lies in a persons ability to rise when they fall.  So for tag, we raised the personal stakes.  Each person engaged their imagination into the image of a loved one being in a air-tight tank.  And if they were tagged or "it", the count down started from 5 releasing poisonous gas into the tank.  The urgency by the players was incredible to watch.  Strive to make the kind of theater that makes an audience engage, sit on the edge of their seats, and move them...which is exactly how we felt watching.  We could see the fear and the fight to save a loved one.

The task for the week was to create a new game and that was what we were to present on Friday.  We divided into groups and got to work.  Our game was based on a game played by little ones called Seaweed. I won't go into the rules and explaining the game, but rather what I learned.  I learned that, like playing a game, actors need to go onstage and fight like hell.  Losing the idea that "people are watching me" and truly fight for your objective. That fight infects us as the audience and moves us.  The type of theater I would love to create would have the audience on their feet cheering for one side or the other.  Now I'm not talking about applause after the show, but a type of theater that moves an audience so that they can not help but cheer and holler and yell at the players! 

This is my goal, to strive to make this kind of theater. One that is exciting and alive.

A Tale of Snow White: Where are you?

     Attendance was an issue this week.

     At the very beginning of the production we have a parent meeting. The parents get all the information about the staff, a rehearsal schedule and a chance to make us aware of any conflicts the kids may have. We try to be reasonable, understanding if a child needs to leave early for a different practice or church. However, we rely on knowing what these conflicts our before we make the rehearsal schedule.

      This week, in one rehearsal, we had six unexcused absences. Only 1 of the 6 parents emailed me the day before to let me know that their child had "other plans". It upset me. They signed their child up for this. We have something very useful to teach them; how to communicate, focus, and work together. Not to babysit whenever it's convenient.

      For a show, where one of our prime educational objectives is building an ensemble, absences are a big deal. You can’t rely on somebody else to get you through a tricky spot on stage if they’re not there. As the stage manager, I felt bad because now I have to send out a very pointed email to address the issue.

Dell' Arte #1: Pure Joy

Pure Joy:

On September 28th I hoped on a train in Omaha to make my way to California.  Waved good-bye to my loving family and rode for 40 hours straight. It was a great experience that I advise everyone take at least once in their life time. I landed in San Francisco on the 30th where my friend from the PTP would pick me up and offer me a place to stay for the night.  I had not met her before, but had communicated over e-mail.  We picked up another PTP gal from the airport that night (she was arriving from Denmark).  In the next morning we made our way up the coast to the land of the Redwoods.

I arrived in Blue Lake on October 1st to a house filled with strangers.  I was the fourth to arrive. I live in a house with eight other PTP (Professional Training Program) students. Total Occupants are: three from the United States, two from Canada, one from Spain, one from Zimbabwe, another from Australia and one from Iran.  Jumping into this was terrifying and exciting.  Each one greeted me outside with a smile, handshake, and a helping hand.  We carried my stuff to a room and headed out to grab a beer.  I barely had time to take a breath and I was off again.  There was so many stories and moments to take in.  Very overwhelming and exhausting.  There are many different cultures and traditions that I am not used to.  One being my Spanish friend, who sleeps in the room next to me, always prepares a surplus of amazingly delicious food to feed his fellow PTP friends (notice they are no longer strangers, but dear friends).  I could go on and on about that, but let's fast forward to Orientation.

Orientation on Saturday!  Everyone was anxious to just get going.  We had enough of laying low and "me time" and wanted to get to work.  We started at 10 a.m. and had a tour of the main building (where the MFA 2yrs and 3yrs work), the downtown area which is all of a coffee-shop and world famous bar called, The Logger.  Then we walked down towards the river where the building the PTP and yr 1 MFA students will work.  It's called River Campus. Why? Because it's right next to the river.  
Once we arrived we began introductions,paper work, and procedures.  There are twenty eight of us in the PTP program.  Fifteen of which are international students.  This is unheard of, usually there are only 5-7 international students.  We already have the feeling our class will be a special one.  After all the paperwork, we received our first assignments: develop a 3 minute play by 6:45 pm Sunday night where it will be shown to staff, faculty, fellow students, and residents of Blue Lake. AHHHHH! We were numbered off and those were who we would work with.   But before you rehearse, there is a welcome potluck until 3:30. Okay.
Potluck, awesome. Great food, great games, and great people.

Rehearsal.  We worked well as a group and developed a story line pretty quickly.  We all agreed that we just needed to pick a path and go with it.  We had a list of this required for the 3 min play such as specific props, text, and a UDA AND A CLEAR BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END.  This was familiar to me which made me thankful for the a-tude work done in Matt Foss' acting classes.  As we worked, I realized that there are completely different ranges of knowledge in the room as to creating theater. This was a comfort and frustration.  Comfort that no one has the answers and frustration in communicating ideas and beats.  You get used to the way you have been doing things at University and being thrown into this new world with different people is quite different. You learn quickly to accept the given circumstances of the situation at hand and move forward.  Our idea was motivated by one of our girls experience making the choice to pursue theater specifically at Dell Arte.  Things went well.  We listened to one another's ideas and began building a mini-play.  I went to sleep feeling a little to comfortable about the whole thing.  Knowing me, I should be terrified about all of this? Why does it feel so comfortable?

Orientation Sunday!  Meeting at 11 a.m. going over procedures in the rehearsal space and why the faculty and trainers are here and what their job and our jobs are.  One being, my body is my personal responsibility. The faculty are trainers, not doctors.  It is their duty to improve our awareness and strength of our body.  We are responsible for taking care of it.  After the meeting, we began rehearsals again for the show that night.  So, now I'm terrified.  There it is.  I began to doubt everything we were doing, felt the need to try to "save" the show...although it did not need saving, and started to compare all we worked for to others as we saw them rehearse. Looking back, it was all silly.  Naturally these plays were going to be struggles.  The whole process was condensed to two days and on top of that, no one really knew what they were doing.  But it was beautiful chaos Sunday night.  I have never experienced that much pure joy before.  I will save all of the magic for a more personal setting, dear readers (Harry potter voice over reference shout out!).

I will say this- I am very grateful and humbled to be given this opportunity. After Sunday,  I feel apart of something much bigger in this world.  And I feel that I am necessary in it and that it is time to get to work.

A Tale of Snow White: Time

     We have finished blocking the show. This week we started working through scene by scene and wringing from each what we can. A lot of what we have do is slow the kids down. They can process information very fast, however, the audience has to be able to see and understand it. This is another reason why we have been incorporating rhythm so much. With a steady pace, kept by their fellow ensemble mates, they're less willing to rush forward. Rushing, as some of them have figured out already, makes you look "silly".
   This week we also discovered how important it is to make your rehearsal schedule as specific as possible. If you call people who aren't needed or assume you can do more than time actually allows, you have extra people. If you have extra people, they will sit in the house and unintentionally distract the people who are on stage.