Week 7: Meet me Halfway

Already halfway there. Doesn't seem real. This week was dedicated to a bit of clean up before we leave for Spring Break. We talked about animal work in Acting, and visited the Zoo to look for our animals. Also rediscovered the craft in a small but significant way in both Acting and Shakespeare-thinking about what leads to a line, what compels this character to say this line in this moment. In Shakespeare, how I can learn to just "be" and not "indicate" so much. I get that. It's the whole "show, don't tell" concept I've heard over and over again-except for "be" instead of "show." I know the concept. I don't know how to put it in practice. And it is frustrating. So many ideas, "meet the audience 50/50" or "be, be how you feel, don't tell me how I should feel." And I understand it cerebrally, but I need to experience it for myself. We all get our scenes for showcase soon. Very impatient. I just want a piece of text to work with-I have one for Acting...but I want more.

This week, we visited the London Coliseum again-this time, for Peter Sellers' The Indian Queen (again, very conceptual.) The set consisted of a painted floor of various warm and cool colors, almost Monet-esque in its rendering. It had a series of painted, abstract backdrops, and various medium sized abstract paintings pulled down into place and then lifted up again with a change of scene. I need to digest this one and get back to it. But my first impression is a good one. It was very long, by American standards-about 4 hours. The most vivid remnants of it consists of two scenes-the scene after the massacre, where the mass of people were lying down in a formation as if they were floating in a bloody stream, with a huge red backdrop and red lighting. They were singing as their murderers looked on from stage left. They were singing a song that made my heart melt. As cliche and sentimental as that sounds. That is what it felt like. Not "melt" with love or ardor, but with a complete and heavy sadness. They turned house lights on for intermission after that, ironically. The second one is the very last moment of the opera, the Indian Queen rises from her deathbed into a single spotlight just on her, darkness on the rest of the stage. She looks up and raises her hands-undulating them gracefully, looking like a woman swimming to break the skin of a large body of water. Stunning.

So, again, a lot to learn from this. I sense a formidable pattern with the ENO!

Some pictures from the week:

There is a willow grows askant the brook.

The cast of The Indian Queen taking a well-deserved bow!

bit o' tube fun.

look at that floor! Very visually appetizing. 

In Regent's Park-a great oasis in the middle of a busy city.

Next up: quick recap on Spring Break!

cheers, 

M