Lecoq: Finish the year
Paola was as happy as could be to see us back, and so were we, to see each other. We were termed - the year exceptionnelle. Attendance was taken, as we took the time to acknowledge everyone's presence, even the 5 who left us: Alexandra, Anna, Martin, Penelope, Titi.
Monday:
Autocour this week is passion, with three literal levels of stages. I'm still unclear about the details, but we are to choose a situation, play 4 passions, and have them change and affect each other, perhaps one in major while others in minor, and we are to use the space in an abstract manner to convey the emotions. So our team started off by exploring how Jealousy, Love, Pride, Fear and Joy moved in the space.
With Frederick, we explored the two versions of Pride: Proud of, and Pride; and Vanity. There was minimal difference, but with more people in the space, we began to see the camaraderie that exists in being Proud of. There is an intention towards another, and a relation to another in the space for being Proud of. Pride was a lot more lonely, and there was less relation to others in the space, a verticality that arrived. Vanity was a lot more curvy, spacious, light, and flirtatious.
In improv with Anne, we explored a director that arrived with an award for two protagonists. I am reminded of the beats that were to be taken - we first see the two protagonists and their relationship (and emotion) to each other, and then the director that arrives should take a beat to share the mask to the space. How can the director profit from playing with the audience? Perhaps he is playing vanity? Or more pride? How can the director also stall for time before saying who won. How does the protagonist feel upon winning, and does it increase and change? We saw a pride that came close to becoming hate. Is it possible for a protagonist to be in love with the director? An interesting note that I was given: As the father of the protagonist - instead of stepping towards her or gesturing when being thanked, is it possible to sit down and share all of my emotions with a head raise? (HJ) to be sensitive to the emotions and less demonstrative, because otherwise it dies. We should be sensitive to our emotions for it to be jus, and then we can aggrandise, and share it with the audience. (X) whenever a choice in the scene is made, it is interesting to either heighten the emotion or change it.
In LEM movement with Francois, we re-discovered the colors, and then movement with the batons. First, one person moves a baton, and the other person embodies the baton. We explored the directions of the movement of the baton, and then the qualities of the movement of the baton; even the quality of the handling of the baton. Then we moved to two people holding a baton between them, and figuring out how the baton wants to move. How do we serve the movement of the baton? When we switch directions, it should be intentional and purposeful. After, we moved to 2 people moving 2 batons (a plane), 3 moving 3, 4 moving 4, and eventually to 5 (batons, then squares). We were reminded of fixed points, and organic transitions, the rhythm of the object... During the last episode, we attempted to find if there was space for the comedian to arrive. As we switched space between the 5 squares, there were magical moments where we discovered a comedian in a house, then transitioning to two jail cellmates, and then to a pickpocket. Exhaustion sets in. The first day is over.
Tuesday:
With Anne, we warmed up a few lecoq movements, and then moved to throwing the baton to each other in pairs. We were in service of the batons. Then we moved to chairs - how do we disappear while we place the chair on scene. Or perhaps we appear without the actor on scene noticing? Or we are obsolete until the actor on scene gives notice to us. Maybe we are in servitude, and then we change into a character on scene. Possibilities.
With Yasuyo we explored emotions in an experimental space. 5 people closed off in 4 benches, and 5 people started off with different emotions. Then we explored Pride, Jealousy and Shame, and how they affect each other, and how they heighten. It's difficult to maintain shame at a level, because it falls, it's better to think of it as a roller coaster and to ride it until perhaps it changes. What is important is that we play ONE emotion at all times. It is interesting to differentiate being welcome to attention, and attention-seeking. We should exist in the emotion and be accepting to the degree in which the emotion relates to others, and not look for input from others to maintain our emotions.
Autocour found us playing with the three levels and the space, and how we can create images with the emotions in the space.
With Eric in the afternoon, we revisited object theater. The object in play was a circular hoop, the size of our heads. We started off as a group, passing hoops between us. Then we began to serve the hoops, as though they were passing us between them. How do the hoops move? One by one, we went up to play with the object, what the hoop could become. A steering wheel, an alarm clock, a laptop, bowling ball, a cut in the ice, how do we enter and be underwater? Two by two, we begin improvising, when do we become characters, when do we become servers? There are worlds where one person is the server and another, the character, and another world where we play and mix them. Lastly, in 5, we played a situation. Timing was what we had to look out for, when do we switch? Objects live for a certain time on stage before they lose their illusion. Le jeu nous donne le solution. The play will give us the solution of what our next image can be. My note: I have to decide if I am neutral and in servitude of the helmet, or the imaginary friend (character) behind Agat, and play that.
Wednesday:
We began with autocour, and we began creating the piece in earnest. Found some more images, and found some that worked. I especially like interpreting Joy.
With Anne, we continued our work with object theater, working on the transitions between images. We were to create three images in groups of 5, with one type of object of our choice, of a day in the life of a man or/and woman. In the first group, we saw how the first image made us want to know what happens next in the near future - the time leap that transitions allow. A pregnant couple in the car makes us want to know what happens at the hospital for example. With the time machine group, we saw how the actor needs to carry the space, and how we need to know the specificity - perhaps the voice arrives to help. With the fishing group, we saw how moving against the motion of the boat can make the server come to live as an actor. How we also need an accent in the movement to move into the transition (harpooning the fish) and how we need the actors to move (in accordance with the movements of the objects) sufficiently so that space changes.
With Eric, we examined the mechanics of objects, and how we can embody them. No idea what the names of the items are, but they were sufficiently bizarre and intriguing. We had a circular cheese grater, which had a really beautiful interpretation with cartwheels and rolling of the shoulders. We had a thing that pushed quickly to the front and back - like a big stamp. 5 layers of containers that were rolled. A wine opener. My team had the long stick with a clamp. It was cool to work on creating an interesting form that sufficiently embodies the item, and to separately work on the dynamic of the part that we were embodying. On top of that, we worked on how one part leads to another part. The interesting question was how do we port the long stick that hides all the interior mechanism that allows the clamp to work?
With Paola in the afternoon, we started with characters at Gallerie Lafayette - all gift wrapping books with a chief. List of characters (not in order of appearance): Angry, manic (OCD?), enthusiastic, joker, susceptible, timid, afraid, nervous, sentimental, caricature (everything is too much), failure (everything fails), fragile (everything hurts), vain, bavard... etc. Yours truly was enthusiastic, but in fact, Paola just told me to be more enthusiastic at everything, and to engage more. So perhaps more speech, and more initiation to another character to push their game. I definitely could have pushed Olga to be more angry. Also, an enthusiastic character doesn't need to suck at gift wrapping, although in retrospect I think I did that to push Jeremy's OCD.
The day isn't over.
LEM had us moving the text of The Elephant Vanishes. Some moved a paragraph, some moved a story or two, and some moved the book. Everyone's interpretation was really beautiful. Humanity, absurdity, folly, fighting, hopelessness were some themes that emerged. Bridget's cracking, Qiao's electricity, Mykola's knocking, Ivet's rolling into a surprised sit, Nicky's dots and faces, Leonore's buffoon, Xiao's compression, Theo's circularity. Amazing. Mine was an interpretation of what I remembered of the book, mixed with my Covid nightmare. Frederick saw in the performance that there was something out of reach, and that I was blind. Which... is insanely on point.
Thursday:
ACROBATICS!!!!
With Paola, we entered object theater with cardboards and long sticks. We first explored how cardboards moved in space, and then attempted to manipulate them with an actor to create some improvised object theater. We discovered how we had need of the manipulators to be ahead of the actor, and even if they weren't, they need to discover the quickest efficiency to get to where the actor needed them to be. We enter the time of masks, which is not in real time, so timing was extremely important to find the impulse of the transitions. We also had 10 people move the baguettes in space, some even with speech, which ended up being extremely poetic. Perhaps it was the length of the sticks that contributed to the fragility of the movement which curved and flailed and whipped, and which veered towards poetry when accompanied with text.
Autocour found us writing further into our situation. Keep being available.
With Anne in the afternoon, we moved the emotions, starting with Joy. Perhaps it's easy to exist with Joy by ourselves, but it was way easier to heighten it when it is in relation to other people. Anissa, Nicky and I did Joy together, so it was interesting to see the complicity that arrived between each of us among the three. Then we explored walking into each other to find anger. Perhaps there is a level that arrives in our body after the first exchange, which we keep, until the next bump, and we guard that level again. What happens when a level 7 meets a level 2? We also attempted to frustrate our partner to mount the anger - I have never seen Anne flirt to frustrate - super cute. Then in a similar exercise, we argued in numbers. After, we worked with chairs to find joy, anger and fear. How do we switch up the rhythm, how big can we be, and how direct? Lastly, we found sadness in the space. The chair belonged to a loved one that died. There is first the reaction of seeing it, then the reaction while interacting with the chair. While aggrandir-ing, there was a sadness that I began to tap into, and to allow to wash over me. When I sufficiently dug into my core with it, the tears arrived. The contractions came, like regular cuts spaced over a smooth surface, then a shaky breath in, a shaky breath out, and back to the space of contractions at the end of the breath. When enough cuts had happened, an uncontrollable rage set in - I wanted to tear the chair apart, make it disappear. How dare it make me suffer so?
In LEM workshop, fresh in my vulnerable state, we worked on drawing our movements yesterday. I managed to capture some feelings on the paper, and lo and behold, what do I see but a stethoscope. I definitely take this as a sign to continue working on my covid nightmare.
Friday:
With Eric we continued our work with emotions - laughter, sadness and fear. We lied on the floor and practiced breathing with our core, warming up the contractions and the range of our voice. Then we began to laugh, watching how the contractions hit us. It seems easier for me to connect to the laughter during the harder contractions closer to the end of my breath. There is a long journey through the breath. Then we tried sadness too, with a different sound. The movements are similar - even in different positions - baby, dog, standing up, sideways, there are quick openings and closings. Next, in groups of 5, we explored the stages of fear. In a soiree, one by one, we go backstage, and see something, and then we come back and share it with the group. Slowly the fear mounts. Last, in 5, we sit on the bench in a row and share the laughter and heighten it. Interesting how in the last group, there was a fear that stopped the laughter, that got passed back down the bench.
With autocour, we began to understand the theme, which is how passions move in the space. They use the platforms to demonstrate their heights. Which is different from what most of us thought. I originally thought the platforms were used to show the level of passion we had.
Next week, we invent our very own characters!
Saturday:
With Eric, we worked on emotions with acrobatics. First, joy, then anger, and sadness. How does the movement continue in the space beyond our bodies?
With Anne, it was
Scenography was a treat - we each had a theme - envy, fear, pride, joy, love, sadness, jealousy, vanity - and we worked with objects to create a space that embodies that theme. It is the work of the stage to create a space that invites the actors in to play.
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