Last night’s class was in the Basile Theatre. Highlight of the night was Christine and Lukas’ exercise (can’t recall the name of the play)…really good work from both of them. Deb and I both struggled during our exercise. We got off to a rocky start and Jolene actually stopped us and had us start over. Even the second time through it was rough. I felt like I was having a difficult time connecting, and even though I remembered my lines, there were a couple of slow cues that threw the rhythm off for me. Deb was struggling with her lines, but seemed to do a better job of remaining emotionally connected. One thing that I was finding challenging was staying true to my objective (to get her to take the dress back) while still dealing with the fact that she is upset with me. It may have to do with my crafting…I’m working with being afraid that we’ll lose our home due to her extravagant spending. It would be easier to just follow the anger, but I think that this is too simple. I think that the anger he expresses is a reaction to shame of not being a good enough provider, and fear of financial ruin. I was also working with Hot Who’s for other people mentioned in the scene: the daughter, the shopkeeper, Mavis, and the Werpel sisters, as well as endowing the dress with the quality of representing half of my mortgage. Overall not my best work, but a decent rehearsal and good learning experience.
Jolene will be out for a few weeks so we will have Bill Simmons teach the class. We’re supposed to bring in 5 Mother Goose nursery rhymes next week to start our 2nd year work. We won’t know how those are to be used until next week. I’m sure it will be interesting.