I think I really like the evening Daily Acting Workouts better than the morning sessions. Students in the Advanced Program (the next level after Boot Camp II) go to the evening DAW, and the energy is so different, so much higher.
And here's the thing, last Tuesday night I was in the evening DAW, repeating with Advanced students and keeping up! Several of the students commented that I was doing really well, they were surprised I had only finished Boot Camp I. And I'm finally fully understanding the "Pinch-Ouch" concept, letting the other person's behavior really affect you, and calling only the behaviors that affect you.
But yesterday, I went to the morning DAW with the new BCI people and some people from the BCII that finished the same time as my Boot Camp. And we were repeating in a circle, and I called on one girl, and the repetition between us got so boring so fast. And I can't quite figure that one out, how I can be so alive and connected in one set of circumstances, and be completely boring in another. I really wasn't seeing anything in her behavior to call, or to react to, and I think I stifled my frustration at that. But the thing is, no one in the morning DAW seems to want to take a chance, no one seems really alive, every one is being so cautious, and no one wants to stand out. There is no "Pinch-Ouch", everyone is simply calling behavior that they observe.
So yesterday in the DAW, we were working on enunciation most of the class. The instructor gave us a very interesting tongue twister that we can use daily to help us speak more clearly:
And here's the thing, last Tuesday night I was in the evening DAW, repeating with Advanced students and keeping up! Several of the students commented that I was doing really well, they were surprised I had only finished Boot Camp I. And I'm finally fully understanding the "Pinch-Ouch" concept, letting the other person's behavior really affect you, and calling only the behaviors that affect you.
But yesterday, I went to the morning DAW with the new BCI people and some people from the BCII that finished the same time as my Boot Camp. And we were repeating in a circle, and I called on one girl, and the repetition between us got so boring so fast. And I can't quite figure that one out, how I can be so alive and connected in one set of circumstances, and be completely boring in another. I really wasn't seeing anything in her behavior to call, or to react to, and I think I stifled my frustration at that. But the thing is, no one in the morning DAW seems to want to take a chance, no one seems really alive, every one is being so cautious, and no one wants to stand out. There is no "Pinch-Ouch", everyone is simply calling behavior that they observe.
So yesterday in the DAW, we were working on enunciation most of the class. The instructor gave us a very interesting tongue twister that we can use daily to help us speak more clearly:
"If a Hottentot tot taught a Hottentot tot to talk, 'ere the tot could totter, aught the tot be taught to say 'aught' or what aught be taught her?"
I'm not sure that word 'Ere' is spelled right, it's pronounced "air", and it means "before". Anyhow, the focus of this exercise is to over-enunciate the whole thing, focusing on the consanants especially the t's, and that d at the end of "could", it's really easy to overlook. And you have to make sure you're pronouncing "tot" differently than "taught". Tot is an "ah" vowel, where as taught is an "aw" vowel. Fun stuff. Yeah.
Today in the DAW, we went through some imagination exercises (Chekov technique?). Creating different environments for ourselves in our imagination: Bus station, park, library. How each of these places looked, how they made us feel, time of day, tempurature, etc. This is one of my skills that needs strengthening. I could feel the ambience of each place inside of me, but actually making it real outside of myself was difficult. Such as in the library, I tried to pull books off the shelf, and it was so freaking fake, I could not imagine the books really being there. I could almost see them, but touch them, hold them? Nope. *sigh*
When we got to repetition at the end of class, I decided I was not going to allow myself to be sucked into the half-dead state of repetition again. But it was hard when everyone else, especially the new people who haven't learned yet, aren't giving you anything. And I'm still struggling with being nice, because I don't want to slam them the way I was slammed when I first came into DAW. That's not to say I wasn't just sitting there complacently, I did express my frustrations, just in a nice way. I think nice is okay as long as it's an honest nice, and it's not you being nice because you don't want to yell because your angry or you don't want to insult someone (telling them they look like a bum, or they're a smarmy bastard, or they're boring, or even that they're really freaking cute) or something the other person said bothers you, but you smile and pretend like you're okay with it, laugh it off. So I don't know if my being nice today was okay or not. But I believe I succeeded to some extent in not allowing myself to be sucked in, especially when I got into a three way repeat with two of the BCII students (who are going into the Advanced Program later this month.) We got a nice, genuine connection going, with some Pinch-Ouch. Yay!
Today in the DAW, we went through some imagination exercises (Chekov technique?). Creating different environments for ourselves in our imagination: Bus station, park, library. How each of these places looked, how they made us feel, time of day, tempurature, etc. This is one of my skills that needs strengthening. I could feel the ambience of each place inside of me, but actually making it real outside of myself was difficult. Such as in the library, I tried to pull books off the shelf, and it was so freaking fake, I could not imagine the books really being there. I could almost see them, but touch them, hold them? Nope. *sigh*
When we got to repetition at the end of class, I decided I was not going to allow myself to be sucked into the half-dead state of repetition again. But it was hard when everyone else, especially the new people who haven't learned yet, aren't giving you anything. And I'm still struggling with being nice, because I don't want to slam them the way I was slammed when I first came into DAW. That's not to say I wasn't just sitting there complacently, I did express my frustrations, just in a nice way. I think nice is okay as long as it's an honest nice, and it's not you being nice because you don't want to yell because your angry or you don't want to insult someone (telling them they look like a bum, or they're a smarmy bastard, or they're boring, or even that they're really freaking cute) or something the other person said bothers you, but you smile and pretend like you're okay with it, laugh it off. So I don't know if my being nice today was okay or not. But I believe I succeeded to some extent in not allowing myself to be sucked in, especially when I got into a three way repeat with two of the BCII students (who are going into the Advanced Program later this month.) We got a nice, genuine connection going, with some Pinch-Ouch. Yay!
1 comment:
I just wanted to say that I really love reading your blog! I kind of stumbled upon it. You have a lot of great stuff to say! I'm moving to Cali at the end of this month to start on the journey known as acting so your blog really speaks to me.:) Keep up all your hard work!
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