Last night was our first time doing the full exercise. Overall class went really well. I think we all were a little unsure about what we were to do if we were the ones entering the room…we’ve gotten so used to having an action problem that coming in with an objective that had to do with our partner rather than an object felt a bit foreign. One thing that I think we all had clarified from Jolene was that what we needed to get from our partners had to involve some sort of physical gesture. That was a bit unclear in the initial instructions.
I was super excited to do the IA with Kenny…he wanted to work on an idea that I had suggested to a few other scene partners, but nobody was interested. We were archaeologists in ATM cave in Belize. Having been to that cave a couple of times as a “tourist,” I felt immersed in the circumstances. Jolene allowed us to do the exercise in the dark with only headlamps and a couple of small portable lights, which helped in making the circumstances feel real. What surprised me was that Kenny had chosen as his objective to get me to sign an NDA. He came in hot, and it took me aback, but I thought I did a pretty good job of responding to his behavior (my Hot Who for him was that he was my Saving Grace). During the exercise I kept focused on getting my task done, but found myself getting tripped up on naming behavior again. I do find that other people seem to be able to name behavior much better than I am…it’s not that I don’t know what the behavior is, just that in the moment I can’t find the word(s) for it, which puts me in my head. I’m glad I said something during the critique because I often find that by stating something out loud it’s easier to address it. Jolene did mention that she thought that this is one thing that is holding me back, which I agree with. Now that it’s out there, maybe I can move past the block.
We did get to present our second exercise as well with Kenny having the IA. I had some problems with my crafting in terms of my Hot Who for Kenny not coming from the trigger, but from the circumstances. In retrospect I see that. I do think I did a good job of pursuing my objective to get him to hug me as a gesture of forgiveness.
Next week we finish up with this round of partners, then get assigned new ones.