Fourth Monkey is on fire it seems. Not actual fire, obviously. That would be terrible. But this season seems to be going down a treat, and it is a proud group of monkeys who stroll up to the Theatro Technis each day, albeit cursing the £2.85 they've just spent in Costa. Coffee is a vital ingredient of this season though so we justify it by reminding ourselves that "this is for our art".
If rep is the best training a young actor can have, then it is also the most fun that you can have. You only have to walk into our dressing room upstairs before Bacchae and listen to us being led in the fine art of rap by The Three Mad Dogs (that's right we have a Dionysus inspired group) to know that we're having a ball. It's a lady-haven up there with everyone happily doing each other's hair and make up, and generally getting glittery. I let the lady side down yesterday by accidentally gluing my eyes together with liquid eyeliner; a terrifying minute of my life, a clearly hilarious one for everyone else. Our rapping has extended itself into Psychosis prep and we have a jolly old time jumping about chanting "she is the couching place where I never shall lie" making that scene increasingly difficult during the show. The point is we're having a blast, I'm not part of Lord of the Flies but from the delighted squeals that come from the cast, and the energy they have on stage it is clear as day that they are having the time of their lives too.
The shows are all up and have all opened now and the responses have been lovely. I haven't been reading the reviews but it sounds like the earth ensemble are getting all the praise they deserve; with multiple special mentions for Leanne, Emma, Thea, Georiga, Max, Sean and Jack and so delighted that Katie Cherry has been pulled out for her excellent work in Psychosis! From what I understand it seems like the majority of the praise has been reserved for the ensemble as a whole and that is a real credit to the company and what we stand for. It sounds like Steve and Charleen's direction has been getting all the praise that they rightly deserve too, and Pablo-the-genius has been nominated for an off west end award for his lighting design of 4.48 and we couldn't be happier for him!
Bacchae is a colourful blur of screaming, laughing, dancing, singing, guitar-ing and cross dressing; it is strangely not unlike our dressing room beforehand. I think the show is growing every time we do it. The boys are doing a stella job and all of them were making me have to hide my giggles behind my fan as they well and truly rocked it last night. Especially as Stuart's dress was tucked into his tights for the duration and I definitely guffawed too loudly at the curtain call as I noticed he still hadn't rectified the situation.
Psychosis is a joy to be in. We're all so proud to be a part of it and know how lucky we are to be doing it. The power of the ensemble is evident in every element of this show and we are very close because of it. If ever the merits of an ensemble company were on display I think it's here.
I'm not sure how Abi hasn't died in the tech box during it but we are all very grateful to her for being so brilliant! Maria broke the set one night, but Maria can ad-lib her way out of anything and I hope the audience heard what she was muttering after she ripped the side of the stage off; it was hilarious! People have gone flying, costume has fallen off, and we've all shown off our nude pants to full effect. The hatch is smaller than anticipated and this combined with the necessary arse-shuffle to get into it means that when the lid is closed my kickers are well and truly in a twist. Literally and metaphorically. It's a right old eyeful for stage right when I do emerge and for this I can only apologise. Despite these little losses of modesty we abso-bloody-lutely love doing this show; recalling the wise words of a happy Hamish, "T.I.T.B; This is theatre baby!" It is a very joyful feeling in that little corridor backstage when we're all back there together again after the show.
My only concern as we near the end of the run are Maria's continued veiled threats to poo in the hatch. Given the size of it that would be a disaster!
Lord of the Flies is simply brilliant to watch. It's stripped back to the max, everyone is exposed and consequently everyone shows their class and shines! There are really stunning, stunning performances from everyone and Leanne's Piggy is just out of this world! The energy is unreal and their pre-show looks like so much fun and I am always so jealous watching it!
We're a very happy bunch of monkeys. Our lives have been made very easy by the hard work of the powers that be, the prime example being the ridiculously long hours our directors and designers put in pre-plotting and we're so grateful.
It will be a very sad day on Saturday (Sunday for LOTF) when this season will be over. I have never smelled worse (I had to buy f'breeze yesterday to spray my Bacchae costume with for the good health of Citheron) I will soon be lost without my Baccahe fan, I'll miss being 'dipshit bacchae' who wore the wrong outfit, I might even miss being in the hatch or losing my shoes every day, or repeatedly walking into the railings at the entrance to technis but I think it is very safe to say we shall definitely all miss doing this. With that in mind we are all determined to have one hell of a week and go out with a bang! If you haven't been to see the shows yet please pop along in this final week :)
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
"Hatch opens/ Stark koala/ Television talks/ Full of koalas"
When it all gets a bit too much we talk in Australian accents and replace words in the script with 'Koala'. Credit must go to Katie Cherry for inventing this simple, but effective game to bring us back at the 13th hour.
Rehearsals are well underway for all shows, and though I can't speak for 'Lord of the Flies' (Maria will blog it at some point) they all seem to be in a good place with about half the rehearsal process left to go. The Bacchae is beginning to take shape, yesterday we spent several hours dressing and undressing our Pentheus (Stuart Mortimer) who is a complete star and such a fantastic sport. As part of the chorus it is a delight, albeit a bleary eyed delight, to watch our leads work this one out. Sam is doing such a stunning job as the messenger, such a tricky part and he is the perfect man to do it! All the boys and Thea are marvellous and I defy anybody not to be moved by these chaps (very much including Charlotte and Nat) in the final scene. I can only watch in awe, and take my cap off to them.
Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sean. Yesterday Sean and Sam stayed with us until the end of rehearsals even when they were told they could go home hours before. Now that's ensemble for you and we all appreciated it!
Us chorus ladies are having a jolly old time, quite often returning to our default screaming with delight at Jack when we get a bit stuck, but we are getting there slowly but surely. We have some real musical talent in this cast. Sadly I am not part of this elite band of actor musicians but yesterday I did shake a maraca for a while! Then Natalie said it wasn't working out and us percussionists got the sack. Devastated. A couple of rounds of singing 'Come koala, come now, down from Olympus, come koala' sorted us right out though. Speaking of singing, the marvellous Rowan Beggs has been unofficially appointed musical director of the chorus. We have had some brilliant stuff composed for us by Assaf Noy but it can get rather complicated. (Particularly if you are in the band of the musically incapable) But dear old Rowan, with the patience of a saint is getting us all in order, and if I do say so myself I think we are sounding rather good. In my effort to contribute to this nice noise I have recorded it on my ipod and listen to it on the tube. Accidentally singing along to the most inappropriate line 'and either put his addled brains right/ or beat him until they are covering the floor' I got almost as many wary looks as when I was sat on the tube reading 'The Suicidal Mind' with a highlighter, sat with an overly large bag (filled with rehearsal things I hasten to add). I will soon be banned from the Northern Line I fear.
4.48 is motoring along as well. The shape of it is laid down now, we managed to have a run on Saturday, and although I was a bit caught up in the middle of it, I think it will be very special indeed. The movement stuff that the cast are doing is unbelievable, and once again I am absolutely in awe of everyone around me. It is turning into something quite stunning and all the respect in the world to Steve, Charlene and David for having the vision (and the patience) to do it. From what they have told us about the lighting and sound design it is going to look awesome!
We had a pretty intense week with it last week. With four extremely long days in a row and discoveries being made all the time it was quite hard to keep your head from spiralling off at some points. I definitely found myself brain dead for a few minutes each day. The 'Slash' backbends are giving all the girls sixpacks! Though they are certainly in pain from their gain.
I think the long days (44 hours in total) took their toll on everybody, I think most people had a little moment at some point. On an (EXCLUSIVELY) personal level I am very sorry for any of the teary moments that I had. I have no reason except frustration at myself and it certainly shouldn't have shown. I am loving every minute of it and there is nowhere else I would rather be, nor a group of people I would rather be in a room with. First morning off in christ knows how long and here I am blogging about it. I am also sat in our ball pool eating bread and butter and sugar and drinking hot ribena like a five year old, but the less said about that the better.
The text is tough and David and I snatched moments whenever we could trying to figure some of the more ambiguous moments out to have something to play with. David is a bit of a genius. A lot of a genius actually. And far too modest about it. With the bare bones laid down we now have got the lovely job of detailing which is going to be exciting.
Everyone is doing an amazing, amazing job. Whenever I am nibbling blueberries on the sidelines and watching everybody working I am stunned. Emma Hanson in particular is the most frightening thing (in the best way possible) I've seen for a while. The hours are paying off, and everyone is truly mesmeric. I wish I had a hundred eyes to look at them all and I know the audience will too. It is rich and detailed already so with the rest of the rehearsal time left I think these guys are going to go stratospheric.
Lou Lou has affected a new way of speaking which has us all in stitches, I often forget how to speak, Steve fell off a chair, Katie Cherry can't stop saying koala, Abby is a saint, Charlotte is probably the funniest person alive accidentally, Georgia can't lift up Lou Lou nor say her penultimate line without becoming hysterical, the girls have to go porno, I've eaten too many blueberries, Tash's boobs need a homing square all of their own, Rowan and Leanne have created two of the most memorable moments of the show, and you will see the best high functioning, intelligent, sentient cockroaches (not slow-mo, idiot cockroaches) that have ever lived.
Definitely not a blanket of koalas at that moment.
Hooray!
Rehearsals are well underway for all shows, and though I can't speak for 'Lord of the Flies' (Maria will blog it at some point) they all seem to be in a good place with about half the rehearsal process left to go. The Bacchae is beginning to take shape, yesterday we spent several hours dressing and undressing our Pentheus (Stuart Mortimer) who is a complete star and such a fantastic sport. As part of the chorus it is a delight, albeit a bleary eyed delight, to watch our leads work this one out. Sam is doing such a stunning job as the messenger, such a tricky part and he is the perfect man to do it! All the boys and Thea are marvellous and I defy anybody not to be moved by these chaps (very much including Charlotte and Nat) in the final scene. I can only watch in awe, and take my cap off to them.
Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Sean. Yesterday Sean and Sam stayed with us until the end of rehearsals even when they were told they could go home hours before. Now that's ensemble for you and we all appreciated it!
Us chorus ladies are having a jolly old time, quite often returning to our default screaming with delight at Jack when we get a bit stuck, but we are getting there slowly but surely. We have some real musical talent in this cast. Sadly I am not part of this elite band of actor musicians but yesterday I did shake a maraca for a while! Then Natalie said it wasn't working out and us percussionists got the sack. Devastated. A couple of rounds of singing 'Come koala, come now, down from Olympus, come koala' sorted us right out though. Speaking of singing, the marvellous Rowan Beggs has been unofficially appointed musical director of the chorus. We have had some brilliant stuff composed for us by Assaf Noy but it can get rather complicated. (Particularly if you are in the band of the musically incapable) But dear old Rowan, with the patience of a saint is getting us all in order, and if I do say so myself I think we are sounding rather good. In my effort to contribute to this nice noise I have recorded it on my ipod and listen to it on the tube. Accidentally singing along to the most inappropriate line 'and either put his addled brains right/ or beat him until they are covering the floor' I got almost as many wary looks as when I was sat on the tube reading 'The Suicidal Mind' with a highlighter, sat with an overly large bag (filled with rehearsal things I hasten to add). I will soon be banned from the Northern Line I fear.
4.48 is motoring along as well. The shape of it is laid down now, we managed to have a run on Saturday, and although I was a bit caught up in the middle of it, I think it will be very special indeed. The movement stuff that the cast are doing is unbelievable, and once again I am absolutely in awe of everyone around me. It is turning into something quite stunning and all the respect in the world to Steve, Charlene and David for having the vision (and the patience) to do it. From what they have told us about the lighting and sound design it is going to look awesome!
We had a pretty intense week with it last week. With four extremely long days in a row and discoveries being made all the time it was quite hard to keep your head from spiralling off at some points. I definitely found myself brain dead for a few minutes each day. The 'Slash' backbends are giving all the girls sixpacks! Though they are certainly in pain from their gain.
I think the long days (44 hours in total) took their toll on everybody, I think most people had a little moment at some point. On an (EXCLUSIVELY) personal level I am very sorry for any of the teary moments that I had. I have no reason except frustration at myself and it certainly shouldn't have shown. I am loving every minute of it and there is nowhere else I would rather be, nor a group of people I would rather be in a room with. First morning off in christ knows how long and here I am blogging about it. I am also sat in our ball pool eating bread and butter and sugar and drinking hot ribena like a five year old, but the less said about that the better.
The text is tough and David and I snatched moments whenever we could trying to figure some of the more ambiguous moments out to have something to play with. David is a bit of a genius. A lot of a genius actually. And far too modest about it. With the bare bones laid down we now have got the lovely job of detailing which is going to be exciting.
Everyone is doing an amazing, amazing job. Whenever I am nibbling blueberries on the sidelines and watching everybody working I am stunned. Emma Hanson in particular is the most frightening thing (in the best way possible) I've seen for a while. The hours are paying off, and everyone is truly mesmeric. I wish I had a hundred eyes to look at them all and I know the audience will too. It is rich and detailed already so with the rest of the rehearsal time left I think these guys are going to go stratospheric.
Lou Lou has affected a new way of speaking which has us all in stitches, I often forget how to speak, Steve fell off a chair, Katie Cherry can't stop saying koala, Abby is a saint, Charlotte is probably the funniest person alive accidentally, Georgia can't lift up Lou Lou nor say her penultimate line without becoming hysterical, the girls have to go porno, I've eaten too many blueberries, Tash's boobs need a homing square all of their own, Rowan and Leanne have created two of the most memorable moments of the show, and you will see the best high functioning, intelligent, sentient cockroaches (not slow-mo, idiot cockroaches) that have ever lived.
Definitely not a blanket of koalas at that moment.
Hooray!
Monday, 19 December 2011
Ho, Ho, Ho-ly crap dance monkey, DANCE! And Merry Christmas everybody!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS MONKEYS!!!! HAVE A LOVELY HOLIDAY AND EAT LOTS AND DRINK LOTS AND BE MERRY AND WATCH CHICKEN RUN AND DON"T FORGET TO LEAVE FATHER CHRISTMAS A MINCE PIE AND LOTS OF CARROTS FOR ALL THE REINDEER (not just Rudolf because that's not fair) AND LAUGH AT THE RUBBISH JOKES IN THE CRACKERS EAT 'CHEESELTS' EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T LIKE THEM AND WAKE UP STUPIDLY EARLY AND HAVE YOUR PARENTS SHOUT AT YOU FOR JUMPING ON THEIR BED AND SECRETLY EAT ALL THE CHOCOLATES ON THE TREE AND THEN BLAME THE CATS AND BE HAPPY AND JOLLY AND SLIGHTLY TIPSY AND WARM AND FUZZY WITH ALL THE FAMILY, YIPPEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
Anyway... Well done Debden. You well and truly redeemed yourself in the daylight. Even Charlotte (our official Debden-hate-specialist) had a complete change of heart and was sad to wave goodbye to it. Trudging up from the train station Natalie nearly gave Charlotte, Sam and I a heart attack by suddenly appearing in the doorway of the flats we were walking past. Charlotte (as per) found it very difficult to control herself. She was in a great deal of shock I think. So we were all laughing for about ten years which was a good way to start the day. Not such a great start to the day was the terrifying few minutes when it looked like it was going to be just us three in the session. There would be no escaping the individual dancing. Charlotte did a very convincing 'rigamortis' of which Steve would have been proud. Fortunately the others turned up soon afterwards. But there was still no escaping the individual dancing. Natalie had been asking us to bring in songs all week and 'move' to them... alone... while everyone else stood still... and watched. After you'd danced solo for the duration of your song (3 minutes IS a long time) you created a little routine and everyone else joined in and then elaborated on your sequence. Jack nearly killed us all with his running and jumping routine, I felt well and truly ready for a career in the marines after that one. Sam impressed us all with his secret dancer skills (not so secret now Sam!) and dear Charlotte has my utmost respect for biting the bullet and going first that day. Claudia instead of dancing sang us a song, walking round and connecting with each one of us in some way, and it was just beautiful. She has the most stunning voice and I was, strangely, having to fight back tears. Everyone produced amazingly beautiful things. I did most of my dying inside not during my song but whilst watching other people in awe, and terrified about when it was going to be my turn. But my turn came. Oh Dear God. Whilst walking over to Natalie's laptop I was thinking how I could break my leg and make it look like an accident, but damn it, I just wasn't quick enough. I also wanted to bury this demon. I think it's important to try to do the things that scare you so I knew this would be an achievement, as well as utterly horrific. Everyone was also quite aware of my crippling fear of this particular exercise and I had a lot of friendly smiles as I walked towards the gallows. Bacchae-ville is a very nice place to be. Natalie decided she was going to choose my music, which was quite alarming but I was resigned to my fate by this point. Well actually, I had a really jolly time and had a little happy rave all by myself, occasionally co-ersing people around me to jump around like idiots too. HA! So it wasn't so bad after all (I mean emotionally) -- I think my dancing was pretty shocking but perhaps that wasn't the point. For me anyway it certainly wasn't. That felt (personally) like a big hurdle to get over and now I feel a lot freer to try things out; I think it would be hard to produce anything more hideous than that dance so the skies' the limit now. We all know you have to risk making an utter fool of yourself in order to get where you need to but actually forcing yourself into that situation is quite terrifying. I often look to Mai for guidance in these things as she is truly wonderful and so generous and supportive with it.
Needless to say nobody made a fool out of themselves but really did produce beautiful things and it was really entrancing to watch, and I think The Bacchae will be very special with this talented bunch, and Natalie to lead us.
We then had a sort of dance-off in pairs. We had to take someone else's sequence that we had learned and developed and somehow connect it with what our partner was doing with their sequence. Again this was so so interesting to watch, and to see how expressive it is and how quickly a relationship is built up. Mai and Jack's was particularly impressive. Everyone was marvellous and dear Sam who was my partner is lovely to work with and didn't once kick me in the head as he was leaping over it, so thanks for that!
We also had a little go at some traditional greek dances and emotion type exercises; giving an impulse to another person stemming from a particular emotion. Charlotte and I eyeballed each other across the room and were making our way towards each other, emoting 'grief'. As we got face to face, looking very grief stricken, Natalie suddenly shouted 'joy'. We tried to change emotions very quickly but these confused facial contortions became the funniest thing in the world; we just about managed to stifle splutters, and had to work very hard to control ourselves whenever we caught each other's eye for the rest of the exercise.
To finish we had a little sit down and ran through the basic story of the script trying to action it, eg Dionysus 'manipulates'. Natalie want's us to use traditional Greek pronunciation wherever possible. Poor Sam still can't say Dionysus in our new greek style which is the cause of much merriment.
So we all left on Saturday in very, very high spirits indeed and as Charlotte and I trundled down to the train station we decided we quite liked Debden after all.
Sunday dawned and The Lord of The Flies chaps were in early for a workshop with Steve and Hamish; their new, exciting director, and from what everyone was saying it sounded like fun being 12 year olds. for the day :) Us non-flies people went down and watched Metal do some seriously great stage combat whilst the others were finding out their casting, and we then went up to hear all about 4;48. Steve gave us all a little pep-talk and geared us up for next season. Much to Charlotte's delight Steve came out with another classic, "... smack the fuc*ing arse out of this thing"which is a truly great use of the English language I think. Hilarious... and weirdly motivational.
Then off to the pub, scripts in hand for Carlotta's birthday celebrations and farewell Christmas bevvies.
Also, as I won't have a clue what is going on in Lord of the Flies, I was having a chat with Maria and she is kindly going to keep everyone posted on what is going on there, so this blogging business is now a team effort :)
Anywhooo, have a very, very, very, very Merry Christmas everybody and a Happy New Year :) xx
Anyway... Well done Debden. You well and truly redeemed yourself in the daylight. Even Charlotte (our official Debden-hate-specialist) had a complete change of heart and was sad to wave goodbye to it. Trudging up from the train station Natalie nearly gave Charlotte, Sam and I a heart attack by suddenly appearing in the doorway of the flats we were walking past. Charlotte (as per) found it very difficult to control herself. She was in a great deal of shock I think. So we were all laughing for about ten years which was a good way to start the day. Not such a great start to the day was the terrifying few minutes when it looked like it was going to be just us three in the session. There would be no escaping the individual dancing. Charlotte did a very convincing 'rigamortis' of which Steve would have been proud. Fortunately the others turned up soon afterwards. But there was still no escaping the individual dancing. Natalie had been asking us to bring in songs all week and 'move' to them... alone... while everyone else stood still... and watched. After you'd danced solo for the duration of your song (3 minutes IS a long time) you created a little routine and everyone else joined in and then elaborated on your sequence. Jack nearly killed us all with his running and jumping routine, I felt well and truly ready for a career in the marines after that one. Sam impressed us all with his secret dancer skills (not so secret now Sam!) and dear Charlotte has my utmost respect for biting the bullet and going first that day. Claudia instead of dancing sang us a song, walking round and connecting with each one of us in some way, and it was just beautiful. She has the most stunning voice and I was, strangely, having to fight back tears. Everyone produced amazingly beautiful things. I did most of my dying inside not during my song but whilst watching other people in awe, and terrified about when it was going to be my turn. But my turn came. Oh Dear God. Whilst walking over to Natalie's laptop I was thinking how I could break my leg and make it look like an accident, but damn it, I just wasn't quick enough. I also wanted to bury this demon. I think it's important to try to do the things that scare you so I knew this would be an achievement, as well as utterly horrific. Everyone was also quite aware of my crippling fear of this particular exercise and I had a lot of friendly smiles as I walked towards the gallows. Bacchae-ville is a very nice place to be. Natalie decided she was going to choose my music, which was quite alarming but I was resigned to my fate by this point. Well actually, I had a really jolly time and had a little happy rave all by myself, occasionally co-ersing people around me to jump around like idiots too. HA! So it wasn't so bad after all (I mean emotionally) -- I think my dancing was pretty shocking but perhaps that wasn't the point. For me anyway it certainly wasn't. That felt (personally) like a big hurdle to get over and now I feel a lot freer to try things out; I think it would be hard to produce anything more hideous than that dance so the skies' the limit now. We all know you have to risk making an utter fool of yourself in order to get where you need to but actually forcing yourself into that situation is quite terrifying. I often look to Mai for guidance in these things as she is truly wonderful and so generous and supportive with it.
Needless to say nobody made a fool out of themselves but really did produce beautiful things and it was really entrancing to watch, and I think The Bacchae will be very special with this talented bunch, and Natalie to lead us.
We then had a sort of dance-off in pairs. We had to take someone else's sequence that we had learned and developed and somehow connect it with what our partner was doing with their sequence. Again this was so so interesting to watch, and to see how expressive it is and how quickly a relationship is built up. Mai and Jack's was particularly impressive. Everyone was marvellous and dear Sam who was my partner is lovely to work with and didn't once kick me in the head as he was leaping over it, so thanks for that!
We also had a little go at some traditional greek dances and emotion type exercises; giving an impulse to another person stemming from a particular emotion. Charlotte and I eyeballed each other across the room and were making our way towards each other, emoting 'grief'. As we got face to face, looking very grief stricken, Natalie suddenly shouted 'joy'. We tried to change emotions very quickly but these confused facial contortions became the funniest thing in the world; we just about managed to stifle splutters, and had to work very hard to control ourselves whenever we caught each other's eye for the rest of the exercise.
To finish we had a little sit down and ran through the basic story of the script trying to action it, eg Dionysus 'manipulates'. Natalie want's us to use traditional Greek pronunciation wherever possible. Poor Sam still can't say Dionysus in our new greek style which is the cause of much merriment.
So we all left on Saturday in very, very high spirits indeed and as Charlotte and I trundled down to the train station we decided we quite liked Debden after all.
Sunday dawned and The Lord of The Flies chaps were in early for a workshop with Steve and Hamish; their new, exciting director, and from what everyone was saying it sounded like fun being 12 year olds. for the day :) Us non-flies people went down and watched Metal do some seriously great stage combat whilst the others were finding out their casting, and we then went up to hear all about 4;48. Steve gave us all a little pep-talk and geared us up for next season. Much to Charlotte's delight Steve came out with another classic, "... smack the fuc*ing arse out of this thing"which is a truly great use of the English language I think. Hilarious... and weirdly motivational.
Then off to the pub, scripts in hand for Carlotta's birthday celebrations and farewell Christmas bevvies.
Also, as I won't have a clue what is going on in Lord of the Flies, I was having a chat with Maria and she is kindly going to keep everyone posted on what is going on there, so this blogging business is now a team effort :)
Anywhooo, have a very, very, very, very Merry Christmas everybody and a Happy New Year :) xx
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Don't google Steven Green.
It was a violent day in Monkey-ville on Sunday. I learned lots of new swear words; my own attempt at an insult (fuc*ing poo-face) paling in comparison to plentiful, unprintable examples from the rest of the company; Lamb (the name rather ironic now) warned us in no uncertain terms that if we ever upstaged her she would punch us in the back of the head, and reliable sources (Google) insist that Steven Green is a murderer. A fairly sizeable bomb for Steve to drop in the middle of Charlene's concentration game. It must be noted that he did not deny the accusation, but left the room to get "Tea". A likely story. Highly suspicious behaviour is what I was thinking. After much careful consideration however... I have come to the tentative conclusion... that our Steven Green may not be the same Steven Green that committed that foul murder. My reasoning for this is four-fold:
1) He probably wouldn't be so forthcoming with this information were he the villain.
2) Nor would he have kept the same name.
3) Nor would he be running a theatre company under that name.
4) Last, but by no means least; surely he would not wear such baggy trousers were he the murderer -- they would be a foolish fashion choice in a get-away situation.
So I think we are safe. Even so... I am going to be extra vigilant from now on. First sign of a meat cleaver and I am out of there!
Sunday was COLD! The session began with the rather exciting news that we were going to be allowed to keep our shoes on!!??! Wow! I was excited! It's the small things in life.
Anyway (after being accused of wearing a pvc skirt-- UNTRUE) we began to walk around the space familiarising ourselves with the archetypes again. We were working up to putting all of the work so far into a piece of text. So after going through all of our friendly archetypes we had a little gander at the piece we were to be working on. And it was brilliant. "Elling". I am determined to read the rest of it at some point this week. Going through all the archetypes and taking sneaky 'foolish glances' or 'devilish stares' at people, everyone is just brilliant, and completely transformed and very different from one another. It is really quite astonishing.
We paired off. Lovely, lovely Georgia (the most wonderful person in the world who also happens to make the BEST cup of tea) was Kjell Bjarne to my Elling. For a while I couldn't stop laughing at the names but eventually I grew up. We sat (next to our new best friend, the heater) and read it through several times. We had to decide on two combined archetypes and a tension state to play. Here is where your brain begins to melt. My brain has turned to absolute mulch recently. (I am currently trying to rectify this by watching a programme on da Vinci at 2.30am) Anyway, speaking of brain issues, the scene is set in a mental home with Elling stepping out of a wardrobe. A classic opening if ever there was one. It took us all the way up to lunch time to even decide on which archetypes we wanted to play. Nothing seemed to feel right, perhaps because we were trying to play both archetypes equally. Steve reminded us that this was unlikely to be the case, which actually made things settle down a little. I opted for 'trixter mother' for Elling but I'm quite sure that didn't sit too well.
The text was fantastic and it was very very interesting approaching it in this way and something (I think) that was new to all of us. It's a great new tool to be learning. So whilst your brain feels like it's doing it's own rendition of rigamortis looking at the text in this way is very liberating once you hit the mark.... It's just hitting it that's the issue. I missed certainly more than I hit; it just makes you wish you had more time to play about with it.
Ah, that word, "play". (Stop laughing Max) With so much to think about I certainly forgot that that was the object of the exercise. And probably where I went so wrong. The majority of us got up to show what we had come up with and some people are simply out of this world. Sam, Emma and Rosa (to name a few) seem to have this stuff down. They make such interesting choices and are so precise. I got completely lost when George (who is excellent at this stuff) and I leapt up. I should have stayed with the coat over my head I think. We started off okay but then everything got a bit frantic. When I get a bit lost I just shove my head down and charge (how I incur so many injuries in 'movement') I was definitely trying to do too many things at once. The inevitable consequence of trying to hard perhaps. Or just being incapable. One of the two. Oh dear, perhaps I am Prufrock. Anywho, I'll figure it out, hopefully. I'd like to learn the text and then have another go. I think this is so exciting and I'd love to be able to get it right and use it. Steve often cites the actor Jonjo O'Neill as an example of an unpredictable, playful performer. I am very fortunate to have seen a lot of his work at the RSC as I fled Birmingham for Stratford for a few weeks to write my dissertation, so I hopped across to the courtyard most nights. Because I'm cool. He IS incredible, and probably one of the reasons why I could sit in that auditorium night after night watch the same three productions. You would think there were only a few ways to enter the space with a bike. Wrong. Apparently in 'Jerusalem' no one ever appears from where their supposed to anymore, and equally, last Friday I was happily sat in the Young Vic for the 5th time thinking I'd got it sussed. Nope. Michael Sheen went mental, chucked his book at someone on the front row and kicked a chair to death. All coming from a very real place, and completely true to his Hamlet; but it was a definite shift and so exciting. The company's energy bounced off the stage after that, everyone was on blinding form, and everything felt very dangerous; as it should in Elsinore. So, digression over, point is, I would like to figure this stuff out because surely that type of feeling you're after.
Quick break, which basically meant sitting by the heater, and then onto movement with Charlene :) After an unsuccessful bout of the concentration game we got down to business. We paired off and had to guide our blind partners around the room making them feel all of the different objects and surfaces in the room. It was a trust exercise as much as anything. I had a lovely old time with Em-J leading me about, hovering my hand above the heaters and making the lawn mower into a bongo. The blind Em-J drank a cold cup of coffee (I should of perhaps put a stop to this but she seemed keen) and returned to the group with a lot of coat-hangers. Standard. The rest of the session was spent on group work, collectively coming together, whilst being unable to leave the wall in a massive clump on the sofa. Creating the word 'Earth' with our bodies and then having to make the 3D version; tough being the arm of the E. My stomach feels a lot firmer after the 70 jillion year long plank that was necessary. Layering ourselves like a lasagne, making it across the room with only 11 pairs of feet on the floor, being as tall as we could be, and finally making a bridge all the way across the room that took 5 people to the other side. All great, great fun and further cementing the earthly bond that we've got going on.
We all then bid a sad, but very very happy and excited farewell to Charlene who is off on tour for a bit, and while we'll all miss her very muchly we are all so very pleased for her.
This week us Bacchae chaps are starting rehearsals with Natalie. Exciting stuff. And we've got the first half of our NEW translation from Ranjit Bold; which might have actually made my year!! We are a merry band and I think The Bacchae could be very special. The merry band do like to have a little grumble about Debden however. Charlotte is the Debden hate specialist. Today East 15 was renamed by our fearless leader as 'Chalet-ville' and so it shall remain for good I fear. (I hasten to add this is all in good jest -- we are very, very happy to have been given rehearsal space and time this week!)
We're also all going slightly mental, we've put this down to -- wait for it... Debden. I've certainly had my fair share of funny-farm moments on the everlasting tube journey home-- I think I scared poor Sam with my eulogy to the dead leaf that blew onto the train at Loughton and lasted until Liverpool Street. Tonight we all had a bit of an argument about a tree. I was having a highly intellectual conversation about Butlins when I heard Nat exclaim, "That tree looks positively sexual!" We all looked eagerly... and we all disagreed. There followed a heated debate where female anatomy was discussed in detail, as were monster claws, other (odd) suggestions were put forward before Rowan saved us all by deciding it looked like a toilet seat. How right she was. What a relief to get that cleared up. Genuinely.
This is what Debden does to you.
Also the advice in Debden if you are being followed by a car that flashes its lights at you is, and I quote, "Run like crazy." I think that's quite sound advice. The others are not so convinced.
The ACTUAL rehearsals are great fun also :) we were prancing about as animals today in usual eyes closed style. Max was highly alarmed when Natalie asked us all to look for a mate. Stuart and I had a lovely cat-date in the forest, whilst Vicky, who was being an elephant, told us she was very pleased she didn't encounter any other animals on her travels; as was Michaela who was very worried as she didn't know how penguins mated...... Research projects have been allocated also and we are all sharing our findings. Special commendation must go to Rowan who drew us all a lovely Satyr, and who knew that when Dionysus "came down" he in fact "came down from Bristol?"
Da Vinci programme over. He was a great bloke wasn't he? Bed-ward-bound. Night. x
1) He probably wouldn't be so forthcoming with this information were he the villain.
2) Nor would he have kept the same name.
3) Nor would he be running a theatre company under that name.
4) Last, but by no means least; surely he would not wear such baggy trousers were he the murderer -- they would be a foolish fashion choice in a get-away situation.
So I think we are safe. Even so... I am going to be extra vigilant from now on. First sign of a meat cleaver and I am out of there!
Sunday was COLD! The session began with the rather exciting news that we were going to be allowed to keep our shoes on!!??! Wow! I was excited! It's the small things in life.
Anyway (after being accused of wearing a pvc skirt-- UNTRUE) we began to walk around the space familiarising ourselves with the archetypes again. We were working up to putting all of the work so far into a piece of text. So after going through all of our friendly archetypes we had a little gander at the piece we were to be working on. And it was brilliant. "Elling". I am determined to read the rest of it at some point this week. Going through all the archetypes and taking sneaky 'foolish glances' or 'devilish stares' at people, everyone is just brilliant, and completely transformed and very different from one another. It is really quite astonishing.
We paired off. Lovely, lovely Georgia (the most wonderful person in the world who also happens to make the BEST cup of tea) was Kjell Bjarne to my Elling. For a while I couldn't stop laughing at the names but eventually I grew up. We sat (next to our new best friend, the heater) and read it through several times. We had to decide on two combined archetypes and a tension state to play. Here is where your brain begins to melt. My brain has turned to absolute mulch recently. (I am currently trying to rectify this by watching a programme on da Vinci at 2.30am) Anyway, speaking of brain issues, the scene is set in a mental home with Elling stepping out of a wardrobe. A classic opening if ever there was one. It took us all the way up to lunch time to even decide on which archetypes we wanted to play. Nothing seemed to feel right, perhaps because we were trying to play both archetypes equally. Steve reminded us that this was unlikely to be the case, which actually made things settle down a little. I opted for 'trixter mother' for Elling but I'm quite sure that didn't sit too well.
The text was fantastic and it was very very interesting approaching it in this way and something (I think) that was new to all of us. It's a great new tool to be learning. So whilst your brain feels like it's doing it's own rendition of rigamortis looking at the text in this way is very liberating once you hit the mark.... It's just hitting it that's the issue. I missed certainly more than I hit; it just makes you wish you had more time to play about with it.
Ah, that word, "play". (Stop laughing Max) With so much to think about I certainly forgot that that was the object of the exercise. And probably where I went so wrong. The majority of us got up to show what we had come up with and some people are simply out of this world. Sam, Emma and Rosa (to name a few) seem to have this stuff down. They make such interesting choices and are so precise. I got completely lost when George (who is excellent at this stuff) and I leapt up. I should have stayed with the coat over my head I think. We started off okay but then everything got a bit frantic. When I get a bit lost I just shove my head down and charge (how I incur so many injuries in 'movement') I was definitely trying to do too many things at once. The inevitable consequence of trying to hard perhaps. Or just being incapable. One of the two. Oh dear, perhaps I am Prufrock. Anywho, I'll figure it out, hopefully. I'd like to learn the text and then have another go. I think this is so exciting and I'd love to be able to get it right and use it. Steve often cites the actor Jonjo O'Neill as an example of an unpredictable, playful performer. I am very fortunate to have seen a lot of his work at the RSC as I fled Birmingham for Stratford for a few weeks to write my dissertation, so I hopped across to the courtyard most nights. Because I'm cool. He IS incredible, and probably one of the reasons why I could sit in that auditorium night after night watch the same three productions. You would think there were only a few ways to enter the space with a bike. Wrong. Apparently in 'Jerusalem' no one ever appears from where their supposed to anymore, and equally, last Friday I was happily sat in the Young Vic for the 5th time thinking I'd got it sussed. Nope. Michael Sheen went mental, chucked his book at someone on the front row and kicked a chair to death. All coming from a very real place, and completely true to his Hamlet; but it was a definite shift and so exciting. The company's energy bounced off the stage after that, everyone was on blinding form, and everything felt very dangerous; as it should in Elsinore. So, digression over, point is, I would like to figure this stuff out because surely that type of feeling you're after.
Quick break, which basically meant sitting by the heater, and then onto movement with Charlene :) After an unsuccessful bout of the concentration game we got down to business. We paired off and had to guide our blind partners around the room making them feel all of the different objects and surfaces in the room. It was a trust exercise as much as anything. I had a lovely old time with Em-J leading me about, hovering my hand above the heaters and making the lawn mower into a bongo. The blind Em-J drank a cold cup of coffee (I should of perhaps put a stop to this but she seemed keen) and returned to the group with a lot of coat-hangers. Standard. The rest of the session was spent on group work, collectively coming together, whilst being unable to leave the wall in a massive clump on the sofa. Creating the word 'Earth' with our bodies and then having to make the 3D version; tough being the arm of the E. My stomach feels a lot firmer after the 70 jillion year long plank that was necessary. Layering ourselves like a lasagne, making it across the room with only 11 pairs of feet on the floor, being as tall as we could be, and finally making a bridge all the way across the room that took 5 people to the other side. All great, great fun and further cementing the earthly bond that we've got going on.
We all then bid a sad, but very very happy and excited farewell to Charlene who is off on tour for a bit, and while we'll all miss her very muchly we are all so very pleased for her.
This week us Bacchae chaps are starting rehearsals with Natalie. Exciting stuff. And we've got the first half of our NEW translation from Ranjit Bold; which might have actually made my year!! We are a merry band and I think The Bacchae could be very special. The merry band do like to have a little grumble about Debden however. Charlotte is the Debden hate specialist. Today East 15 was renamed by our fearless leader as 'Chalet-ville' and so it shall remain for good I fear. (I hasten to add this is all in good jest -- we are very, very happy to have been given rehearsal space and time this week!)
We're also all going slightly mental, we've put this down to -- wait for it... Debden. I've certainly had my fair share of funny-farm moments on the everlasting tube journey home-- I think I scared poor Sam with my eulogy to the dead leaf that blew onto the train at Loughton and lasted until Liverpool Street. Tonight we all had a bit of an argument about a tree. I was having a highly intellectual conversation about Butlins when I heard Nat exclaim, "That tree looks positively sexual!" We all looked eagerly... and we all disagreed. There followed a heated debate where female anatomy was discussed in detail, as were monster claws, other (odd) suggestions were put forward before Rowan saved us all by deciding it looked like a toilet seat. How right she was. What a relief to get that cleared up. Genuinely.
This is what Debden does to you.
Also the advice in Debden if you are being followed by a car that flashes its lights at you is, and I quote, "Run like crazy." I think that's quite sound advice. The others are not so convinced.
The ACTUAL rehearsals are great fun also :) we were prancing about as animals today in usual eyes closed style. Max was highly alarmed when Natalie asked us all to look for a mate. Stuart and I had a lovely cat-date in the forest, whilst Vicky, who was being an elephant, told us she was very pleased she didn't encounter any other animals on her travels; as was Michaela who was very worried as she didn't know how penguins mated...... Research projects have been allocated also and we are all sharing our findings. Special commendation must go to Rowan who drew us all a lovely Satyr, and who knew that when Dionysus "came down" he in fact "came down from Bristol?"
Da Vinci programme over. He was a great bloke wasn't he? Bed-ward-bound. Night. x
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Toilet Roll, Rigamortis and Mulled Wine
I must begin with an apology. My housemates and I made mulled wine this evening and therefore everything is a bit foggy. When I say 'made mulled wine' I mean, of course, that we cut up some oranges and heated up the wine we bought in a wok. Dunno where all the saucepans are.
This morning did not start off well. We had no milk. My cup of tea was rubbish! And my chocolate-chip-wheatabix-mini-bites did not taste overly brilliant doused in honey. I thought honey might be a genius solution- I thought wrong. I then got on the wrong bus thinking I was going to work. I even ran for it. Christ.
However once I eventually got to Liverpool Street, and following my less-than-impressed-with-my-morning-so-far stomp down to the rag factory, the day picked up considerably.
Bikram has come to an end as of Monday, although some excellent little monkeys have kept it up. I am in awe of them. Sadly I have had to work all the hours God gave this week (at least British Gas will be pleased) but I intend to try and make at least a couple of classes next week. It's funny how much you can miss that sweat-fest-room-of-doom.
So (apart from the seemingly unending queue for the toilet) the morning began. We started to warm up and clown about with Steve. After last week, when I think we might have confused ourselves a little, Steve allowed us the time to revisit the things we've looked at over the past couple of weeks. "In the safety of numbers" we explored the archetypes once again, walking around the room together, cranking the various archetypes up to 100% one by one and beginning to bring them back down again. We were also asked to create a character for the archetype and play with that. Imaginations ran wild and people came up with really brilliant, out-of-the-box choices which worked wonderfully. We begin to interact with each other and finally, after finding them physically, we gave our characters a voice which made me very jolly and started to blow off the cobwebs of a long week. (When you are happily sat on stage door minding your own business, I think it is very rude for the dress rehearsal people to demand you isolate the fire panel in the auditorium. Especially when you don't know how to do it and have to read an instruction manual the size of Egypt in about 2 minutes to figure it out) Surprisingly this took us up to lunch time (unless in my mulled wine stupor I have missed something) but it was reassuring to spend a morning calmly refreshing the memory and setting a few things straight.
After a M&S bargain lunch (Georgia and I were feeling pretty smug about this) and a little conflab about the exciting future for fourth monkey, and the unfortunate incident when I stood on the box of blueberries (my socks will never be the same) it was back on our feet and on to the next step: combining two archetypes -- for example 'trixter-mother' or 'devilish-king'. Once more we began with all of us moving around the space finding how these two archetypes could sit with each other, discovering them physically and vocally, and then got together in small groups. In these groups we then worked on that dear old improvisation with the antique chair again, with one person taking on the role of boss clown. In our group this was Stuart who was brilliant. I opted to be a 'heroic-fool' which was quite fun although god knows how successful it was. I feel like the fool is the archetype I have the most affinity with: I have wisely decided not to dedicate too much time wondering why this is - it might be upsetting, but it is interesting to hear where everyone else's affiliations lie. Most people say they still have a struggle with 'the mother' and 'the devil' - although today really helped - creating a character and a situation seems to be the obvious solution to this problem. If anyone 'wins' (not that its a about that -- ensemble remember) at creating back stories -- it's most definitely Maria. Elaborate tales she did tell. I quite want Maria to write me a story (hint!). She was told to be wary of being too clever. What a lovely thing to be told. Especially when I seem to find my happy place lobbing about all over the shop being a fool with a very limited brain capacity... Oh dear
We then moved on to combining two new archetypes PLUS a tension state. Trust me, as a newcomer to this stuff, for a while it hurts your brain. I had to stand very still and clutch my head. It seemed I was not alone in this, so that was okay. Some people were VERY brave and combined some very tough things to great effect. I decided to try to combine things that I thought would sit well with each other, or at least be not impossible to execute at this stage. So I was a 'devilish-queen-neutral' person. They seemed to sit well together. My brain wasn't having to whirr at a million miles an hour to marry the three anyway. We then did an improvisation where we were soldiers about to go over the top. The next group were stealing anything and everything from a warehouse. Everyone steered clear of the tension state rigamortis; for very obvious reasons, as I found out near the end of class. We were reminded that the tension state must be driven primarily by the breath, so I felt I got off very lightly in neutral. Because of this, at the end of the day I decided it was high time I made life difficult for myself.
With a partner we had to choose two archetypes and a tension state to play and begin a conversation. During the conversation a certain word or phrase would make us change our tension state. We had to obviously continue in this new tension state until it changed again. So, paired with Lamb (both of us it turned out playing the 'heroic-lover') I decided to start of in 'one-thought-to-another' as a tension state. This then became 'exhaustion' in which I definitely didn't get enough oxygen, and then going for broke this became 'rigamortis' -- in which I DEFINITELY didn't get enough oxygen. I was concentrating very hard however on trying to tell Lamb that I was so in love with my own reflection in her eyes, fairly impossible when you are frozen and barely breathing. It was therefore only when Steve said stop I realised I was about to fall over. The world was wibbly for a while after that and I had very annoying pins and needles in my hands. Bummer. Don't worry though, I managed let the whole world know about my struggles with an involuntary exclamation of "Oh my God!" so I do apologise for that.
After a quick five minute break, which basically turned into another toilet queue we moved on to movement with Charlene. And another fairly rubbish attempt at the concentration game. We will manage it eventually. I have faith. Poor Charlene. I don't think she does anymore.
We were working on ensemble today, and natural progression from the partnering we did last week. This involved lots of games which required us to work and play together, passing movements around the circle, getting to a point where an onlooker wouldn't realise where the movement had originated, walking across the space, replacing people in the circle and... tying toilet roll around ourselves. Ironic I felt as a lot of the day had been spent in conversation about the lack of toilet roll in the loo. Anyway, half of us had to fix toilet roll to ourselves in some way. I opted for a bandana look. I hoped I looked like a teenage mutant ninja turtle. I'm sure I just looked like an idiot with toilet roll tied round my head but a girl can dream. Us cool kids with the toilet roll then had to fall when Charlene clapped her hands and hope that the non-toilet people would catch us. On the whole they did and many thanks for it. This then progressed to one person shouting 'Earth' (see what we did?) and starting to fall -- everyone would then rush to their aid and stop them from braining themselves. Walking round the space (us not them) Steve and Charlene would then call out someone's name and they would begin to fall, the rest of us had to catch them. It was about knowing where everyone was, and on the whole I think we did pretty well. We are a very trusting bunch of people, and as was mentioned a lot today I think it is with good reason. We then clumped together on the floor and had to move as one with our eyes closed. Apart from a slight misunderstanding about rotating 180 degrees (FYI she meant the entire clump- not an individual swivel) again we helped each other through and I think almost made it. We finished with getting the entire clump of us from one end of the room to the other. Ignoring our unimaginative collective shuffle with which we began, we then dragged and shoved and pushed each other along (with love) with no man left behind. Job done. Bed time.
Not quite. I got home and saw my housemate Hannah do a mad dash away from the kitchen window. I was concerned and mildly apprehensive but I needn't have worried. I opened my door to find them pissing themselves with laughter dressed as Father Christmas (Laura had an epic beard) and an Elf. Is it any wonder I lean towards a fool archetype? I was keen to get in on the action. They had a costume for me too and I spent the evening dressed as Mr Claus decorating our tree and drinking mulled wine. Hannah and I tried to create a grotto when Laura wasn't looking by trying to hang fairy lights from the ceiling but we decided to stop when it became apparent that our plan was shit. Laura is pleased. Han and I will regroup tomorrow.
This morning did not start off well. We had no milk. My cup of tea was rubbish! And my chocolate-chip-wheatabix-mini-bites did not taste overly brilliant doused in honey. I thought honey might be a genius solution- I thought wrong. I then got on the wrong bus thinking I was going to work. I even ran for it. Christ.
However once I eventually got to Liverpool Street, and following my less-than-impressed-with-my-morning-so-far stomp down to the rag factory, the day picked up considerably.
Bikram has come to an end as of Monday, although some excellent little monkeys have kept it up. I am in awe of them. Sadly I have had to work all the hours God gave this week (at least British Gas will be pleased) but I intend to try and make at least a couple of classes next week. It's funny how much you can miss that sweat-fest-room-of-doom.
So (apart from the seemingly unending queue for the toilet) the morning began. We started to warm up and clown about with Steve. After last week, when I think we might have confused ourselves a little, Steve allowed us the time to revisit the things we've looked at over the past couple of weeks. "In the safety of numbers" we explored the archetypes once again, walking around the room together, cranking the various archetypes up to 100% one by one and beginning to bring them back down again. We were also asked to create a character for the archetype and play with that. Imaginations ran wild and people came up with really brilliant, out-of-the-box choices which worked wonderfully. We begin to interact with each other and finally, after finding them physically, we gave our characters a voice which made me very jolly and started to blow off the cobwebs of a long week. (When you are happily sat on stage door minding your own business, I think it is very rude for the dress rehearsal people to demand you isolate the fire panel in the auditorium. Especially when you don't know how to do it and have to read an instruction manual the size of Egypt in about 2 minutes to figure it out) Surprisingly this took us up to lunch time (unless in my mulled wine stupor I have missed something) but it was reassuring to spend a morning calmly refreshing the memory and setting a few things straight.
After a M&S bargain lunch (Georgia and I were feeling pretty smug about this) and a little conflab about the exciting future for fourth monkey, and the unfortunate incident when I stood on the box of blueberries (my socks will never be the same) it was back on our feet and on to the next step: combining two archetypes -- for example 'trixter-mother' or 'devilish-king'. Once more we began with all of us moving around the space finding how these two archetypes could sit with each other, discovering them physically and vocally, and then got together in small groups. In these groups we then worked on that dear old improvisation with the antique chair again, with one person taking on the role of boss clown. In our group this was Stuart who was brilliant. I opted to be a 'heroic-fool' which was quite fun although god knows how successful it was. I feel like the fool is the archetype I have the most affinity with: I have wisely decided not to dedicate too much time wondering why this is - it might be upsetting, but it is interesting to hear where everyone else's affiliations lie. Most people say they still have a struggle with 'the mother' and 'the devil' - although today really helped - creating a character and a situation seems to be the obvious solution to this problem. If anyone 'wins' (not that its a about that -- ensemble remember) at creating back stories -- it's most definitely Maria. Elaborate tales she did tell. I quite want Maria to write me a story (hint!). She was told to be wary of being too clever. What a lovely thing to be told. Especially when I seem to find my happy place lobbing about all over the shop being a fool with a very limited brain capacity... Oh dear
We then moved on to combining two new archetypes PLUS a tension state. Trust me, as a newcomer to this stuff, for a while it hurts your brain. I had to stand very still and clutch my head. It seemed I was not alone in this, so that was okay. Some people were VERY brave and combined some very tough things to great effect. I decided to try to combine things that I thought would sit well with each other, or at least be not impossible to execute at this stage. So I was a 'devilish-queen-neutral' person. They seemed to sit well together. My brain wasn't having to whirr at a million miles an hour to marry the three anyway. We then did an improvisation where we were soldiers about to go over the top. The next group were stealing anything and everything from a warehouse. Everyone steered clear of the tension state rigamortis; for very obvious reasons, as I found out near the end of class. We were reminded that the tension state must be driven primarily by the breath, so I felt I got off very lightly in neutral. Because of this, at the end of the day I decided it was high time I made life difficult for myself.
With a partner we had to choose two archetypes and a tension state to play and begin a conversation. During the conversation a certain word or phrase would make us change our tension state. We had to obviously continue in this new tension state until it changed again. So, paired with Lamb (both of us it turned out playing the 'heroic-lover') I decided to start of in 'one-thought-to-another' as a tension state. This then became 'exhaustion' in which I definitely didn't get enough oxygen, and then going for broke this became 'rigamortis' -- in which I DEFINITELY didn't get enough oxygen. I was concentrating very hard however on trying to tell Lamb that I was so in love with my own reflection in her eyes, fairly impossible when you are frozen and barely breathing. It was therefore only when Steve said stop I realised I was about to fall over. The world was wibbly for a while after that and I had very annoying pins and needles in my hands. Bummer. Don't worry though, I managed let the whole world know about my struggles with an involuntary exclamation of "Oh my God!" so I do apologise for that.
After a quick five minute break, which basically turned into another toilet queue we moved on to movement with Charlene. And another fairly rubbish attempt at the concentration game. We will manage it eventually. I have faith. Poor Charlene. I don't think she does anymore.
We were working on ensemble today, and natural progression from the partnering we did last week. This involved lots of games which required us to work and play together, passing movements around the circle, getting to a point where an onlooker wouldn't realise where the movement had originated, walking across the space, replacing people in the circle and... tying toilet roll around ourselves. Ironic I felt as a lot of the day had been spent in conversation about the lack of toilet roll in the loo. Anyway, half of us had to fix toilet roll to ourselves in some way. I opted for a bandana look. I hoped I looked like a teenage mutant ninja turtle. I'm sure I just looked like an idiot with toilet roll tied round my head but a girl can dream. Us cool kids with the toilet roll then had to fall when Charlene clapped her hands and hope that the non-toilet people would catch us. On the whole they did and many thanks for it. This then progressed to one person shouting 'Earth' (see what we did?) and starting to fall -- everyone would then rush to their aid and stop them from braining themselves. Walking round the space (us not them) Steve and Charlene would then call out someone's name and they would begin to fall, the rest of us had to catch them. It was about knowing where everyone was, and on the whole I think we did pretty well. We are a very trusting bunch of people, and as was mentioned a lot today I think it is with good reason. We then clumped together on the floor and had to move as one with our eyes closed. Apart from a slight misunderstanding about rotating 180 degrees (FYI she meant the entire clump- not an individual swivel) again we helped each other through and I think almost made it. We finished with getting the entire clump of us from one end of the room to the other. Ignoring our unimaginative collective shuffle with which we began, we then dragged and shoved and pushed each other along (with love) with no man left behind. Job done. Bed time.
Not quite. I got home and saw my housemate Hannah do a mad dash away from the kitchen window. I was concerned and mildly apprehensive but I needn't have worried. I opened my door to find them pissing themselves with laughter dressed as Father Christmas (Laura had an epic beard) and an Elf. Is it any wonder I lean towards a fool archetype? I was keen to get in on the action. They had a costume for me too and I spent the evening dressed as Mr Claus decorating our tree and drinking mulled wine. Hannah and I tried to create a grotto when Laura wasn't looking by trying to hang fairy lights from the ceiling but we decided to stop when it became apparent that our plan was shit. Laura is pleased. Han and I will regroup tomorrow.
Sunday, 27 November 2011
"So... just die."
"Just die." Said our artistic director today. Okay Steve... Obediently we all slid down the wall and died. Now that's authority for you.
At the London Buddhist Arts Centre today for clowning and movement. A-woohoo! Sadly I had to miss the first couple of hours in the morning, but Thea and I arrived around 12 and tried to catch up as quickly as possible. These monkeys move fast, particularly with Steve at the helm.
I was reliably informed by the lovely Hattie that Earth had spent the morning working on simple clown and when we arrived they were just beginning to put this into practice in a scene. So two people. The simple clown was sent out of the room, the idea being that when they entered they would have absolutely no idea what was going on. The 'straight character' was given the scenario and then just had to play the scene. Obvious comedy gold ensued but as we start building on all the basics we have learned so far, this clowning malarky is getting pretty tough. But everyone did an absolutely stellar job. Hats off to Max and Tash who went first. Next time my radiator is leaking I'm definitely calling Tash. Even if the charge is "somewhere between £50 and £500". Vicky was infinitely patient with the hilariously ineffectual hit-man Michaela, Sam Elson and Sam Adamson went to town when Sam E called simple-clown-prostitute Sam A over for a bit of fun, and Natasha, Jack and Lamb had probably the most stressful home birth in the history of the world. Legends all of them!
The most important thing we are told is to remember to PLAY. The simple clown's lack of comprehension is obviously very funny but it is so hard not to become vacant and I'm still trying to figure this one out. I need to have a good sit down and have a proper think and get my head round it. (Maybe not the best idea as the motto of the day seemed to be "stop intellectualising!" but there we go.)
We then stood in the obligatory drama-circle :) and the 'intelligent people' were asked to put their hands up. I abstained from this particular label (Friday saw my maths skills tested to their limit and I only had to count to three). These intelligent people then became 'boss-clowns' and had to boss us simple chaps about, and using things in the room build the Eiffel Tower. Steve seemed less than impressed with our attempt which included pot plants and a Buddha head, but there we go.
We then put the boss clown in charge of organising five (simple) employees to guard an expensive antique chair, the instruction being, DON'T TOUCH THE CHAIR! It is very difficult for the boss-clown to remain a clown, whilst being authoritative, again, need to have a think about it. We likened the boss clown to a horrid slightly senior person in a 24 hour tescos who has been left in charge for the night. This comparison pleased me greatly as I am a little bit cross with my tesco metro! They told me off for wearing my pyjamas! All I wanted was teabags. I felt the dressing down I received (no pun intended) was quite unnecessary. Anyway back to the warehouse, for us simple people the game seemed to become who was brave enough to touch the chair when the boss left the room.
It was hard to marry simple clown, tension states, archetypes, dropping, clocking, bewilderment AND play. That's a lot to remember and everyone produced some lovely, lovely stuff and once all these ideas have settled we are going to knock it out of the park!
Blimey we got through a lot today. So next up we moved on to pathetic clown. This is where Steve asked us all to get on with it and die. So. We had to slide down the wall (having just been painfully poisoned) trying to convince an audience that we were absolutely fine. We then looked at a little speech and slid down the wall of death once more, this time saying these lines. We were told to trust that the action of sliding down the wall would inform the audience that all was not well and just try to say the words normally. Watching these it really, genuinely began to upset me. Everyone was profoundly moving, especially Sam A. Continuing along this track, Tash and I then did an improvisation where our best friend had just died, but we were tucking into a delicious feast. Again, it affected me quite a lot and from my snatched glances at Tash she was being wonderful. We accidentally went into the land of naturalism a bit, but Maria and Sam E's death by drowning in a cave whist discussing interior decorating was brilliant, and again very moving. Turning something like that on its head, and playing the opposite is so, so watchable and very affecting. Max mentioned playing Hamlet's final lines in such a way, and I'm sorry, not to keep banging on about it but if you're interested, Michael Sheen WILL break your heart by doing exactly this -- I got up at stupid o'clock on Saturday and got a seat for the matinee to see it again. Because I'm cool. My new saying 'give it a bit of Sheen', or 'channel the Sheen-machine' has now been adopted by Georgia and Thea and we are finding it very helpful indeed! (I shall not mention the thrust action that accompanies both of these -- but Thea did a brilliant rendition of it walking into her Lamda audition this morning.)
We then we joined by the lovely Charlene for a bit of movement. Jolly, jolly fun ensued as we continued to explore the use of the breath and impulses. Partnering was the name of the game once more, and we began to introduce lifts; these were often not the most flattering of positions to find yourself in. It's a good job we all get on so well. Everyone is forgiving bums in faces and feet in mouths.
We continued to try to move our partners across the space using breaths and impulses, which progressed to closing our eyes moving each other alternately to the other side.
The afternoon came to a close as we all tried to make it across the space attached in some way to our partners... rolling. Seriously, we are so very lucky to be having such lovely playtime on a Sunday afternoon. Whilst my initial rolling attempt with Rowan went quite well, in a group of three this proved a little more tricky. We got rather hysterically baffled but made it in the end! Also, mental note to self, watch out for Maxine, she has some kind super-human-strength-thing going on! What a lovely bunch of people to be spending all this time with, and we are so blessed to have Steve and Charlene with us guiding us through it. All these lifts, eyes closed business, cheering each other on and countless pats on the back goes to show the level of trust and friendship that us Earthlings have with each other, and chatting to people on the walk to the tube, we're all feeling pretty merry.
Back home to Clapham where my housemates Hannah and Laura had made me a lovely, lovely, lovely dinner (so a MASSIVE thank you) and Hannah's homemade apple crumble, with lashings and lashings of coconut rum embarrassingly made me quite wobbly. The important issue of decorating for Christmas was addressed. Hannah and I registered our objections to 'colour coding', to which Laura groaned "it's going to look like we've just thrown up Christmas", which I thought was rather brilliant and got hysterical to the point where I disrupted X factor! A sin in 11 Poutney Road. I am in the dog-house but have stolen more crumble so all is well.
At the London Buddhist Arts Centre today for clowning and movement. A-woohoo! Sadly I had to miss the first couple of hours in the morning, but Thea and I arrived around 12 and tried to catch up as quickly as possible. These monkeys move fast, particularly with Steve at the helm.
I was reliably informed by the lovely Hattie that Earth had spent the morning working on simple clown and when we arrived they were just beginning to put this into practice in a scene. So two people. The simple clown was sent out of the room, the idea being that when they entered they would have absolutely no idea what was going on. The 'straight character' was given the scenario and then just had to play the scene. Obvious comedy gold ensued but as we start building on all the basics we have learned so far, this clowning malarky is getting pretty tough. But everyone did an absolutely stellar job. Hats off to Max and Tash who went first. Next time my radiator is leaking I'm definitely calling Tash. Even if the charge is "somewhere between £50 and £500". Vicky was infinitely patient with the hilariously ineffectual hit-man Michaela, Sam Elson and Sam Adamson went to town when Sam E called simple-clown-prostitute Sam A over for a bit of fun, and Natasha, Jack and Lamb had probably the most stressful home birth in the history of the world. Legends all of them!
The most important thing we are told is to remember to PLAY. The simple clown's lack of comprehension is obviously very funny but it is so hard not to become vacant and I'm still trying to figure this one out. I need to have a good sit down and have a proper think and get my head round it. (Maybe not the best idea as the motto of the day seemed to be "stop intellectualising!" but there we go.)
We then stood in the obligatory drama-circle :) and the 'intelligent people' were asked to put their hands up. I abstained from this particular label (Friday saw my maths skills tested to their limit and I only had to count to three). These intelligent people then became 'boss-clowns' and had to boss us simple chaps about, and using things in the room build the Eiffel Tower. Steve seemed less than impressed with our attempt which included pot plants and a Buddha head, but there we go.
We then put the boss clown in charge of organising five (simple) employees to guard an expensive antique chair, the instruction being, DON'T TOUCH THE CHAIR! It is very difficult for the boss-clown to remain a clown, whilst being authoritative, again, need to have a think about it. We likened the boss clown to a horrid slightly senior person in a 24 hour tescos who has been left in charge for the night. This comparison pleased me greatly as I am a little bit cross with my tesco metro! They told me off for wearing my pyjamas! All I wanted was teabags. I felt the dressing down I received (no pun intended) was quite unnecessary. Anyway back to the warehouse, for us simple people the game seemed to become who was brave enough to touch the chair when the boss left the room.
It was hard to marry simple clown, tension states, archetypes, dropping, clocking, bewilderment AND play. That's a lot to remember and everyone produced some lovely, lovely stuff and once all these ideas have settled we are going to knock it out of the park!
Blimey we got through a lot today. So next up we moved on to pathetic clown. This is where Steve asked us all to get on with it and die. So. We had to slide down the wall (having just been painfully poisoned) trying to convince an audience that we were absolutely fine. We then looked at a little speech and slid down the wall of death once more, this time saying these lines. We were told to trust that the action of sliding down the wall would inform the audience that all was not well and just try to say the words normally. Watching these it really, genuinely began to upset me. Everyone was profoundly moving, especially Sam A. Continuing along this track, Tash and I then did an improvisation where our best friend had just died, but we were tucking into a delicious feast. Again, it affected me quite a lot and from my snatched glances at Tash she was being wonderful. We accidentally went into the land of naturalism a bit, but Maria and Sam E's death by drowning in a cave whist discussing interior decorating was brilliant, and again very moving. Turning something like that on its head, and playing the opposite is so, so watchable and very affecting. Max mentioned playing Hamlet's final lines in such a way, and I'm sorry, not to keep banging on about it but if you're interested, Michael Sheen WILL break your heart by doing exactly this -- I got up at stupid o'clock on Saturday and got a seat for the matinee to see it again. Because I'm cool. My new saying 'give it a bit of Sheen', or 'channel the Sheen-machine' has now been adopted by Georgia and Thea and we are finding it very helpful indeed! (I shall not mention the thrust action that accompanies both of these -- but Thea did a brilliant rendition of it walking into her Lamda audition this morning.)
We then we joined by the lovely Charlene for a bit of movement. Jolly, jolly fun ensued as we continued to explore the use of the breath and impulses. Partnering was the name of the game once more, and we began to introduce lifts; these were often not the most flattering of positions to find yourself in. It's a good job we all get on so well. Everyone is forgiving bums in faces and feet in mouths.
We continued to try to move our partners across the space using breaths and impulses, which progressed to closing our eyes moving each other alternately to the other side.
The afternoon came to a close as we all tried to make it across the space attached in some way to our partners... rolling. Seriously, we are so very lucky to be having such lovely playtime on a Sunday afternoon. Whilst my initial rolling attempt with Rowan went quite well, in a group of three this proved a little more tricky. We got rather hysterically baffled but made it in the end! Also, mental note to self, watch out for Maxine, she has some kind super-human-strength-thing going on! What a lovely bunch of people to be spending all this time with, and we are so blessed to have Steve and Charlene with us guiding us through it. All these lifts, eyes closed business, cheering each other on and countless pats on the back goes to show the level of trust and friendship that us Earthlings have with each other, and chatting to people on the walk to the tube, we're all feeling pretty merry.
Back home to Clapham where my housemates Hannah and Laura had made me a lovely, lovely, lovely dinner (so a MASSIVE thank you) and Hannah's homemade apple crumble, with lashings and lashings of coconut rum embarrassingly made me quite wobbly. The important issue of decorating for Christmas was addressed. Hannah and I registered our objections to 'colour coding', to which Laura groaned "it's going to look like we've just thrown up Christmas", which I thought was rather brilliant and got hysterical to the point where I disrupted X factor! A sin in 11 Poutney Road. I am in the dog-house but have stolen more crumble so all is well.
Friday, 25 November 2011
... 'Um, can we make pictures?'
No. Not the words of a toddler. But a chorus of young adult monkeys. That's right. When asked what we would like to do next we maturely bleated that we would like to keep 'making pictures'. Wish granted. God bless Natalie.
6pm Friday. Lots of cold little monkeys gathered in a room with an oddly hard floor (bruises will follow. I have a lovely one that looks just like Jesus) at E15, for a final movement class with Natalie. For those of us who are in The Bacchae this is certainly not the last we will be seeing of her, but as a company we definitely made the most of our last session together. Despite half the group bent double coughing and spluttering, the other half unable to speak due to sore throats, poor Thea nearly being sick in a corner, and Em-J randomly exclaiming "Harry Potter" with an intensity that would put Alan Rickman to shame, we managed to muster an admirable amount of energy for such a motley crew.
What did I learn? That I can't count. A sad revelation at the age of 22 but there it is. The instruction, 'Have three points of contact with floor at all times', is surely not that hard. So there I was, flamingo like, standing in the middle of the room on one leg. Perplexed doesn't even come close. I can assure you I was suitably ashamed and immediately rectified the situation by slamming into the floor with my face. A quick lowering of my hand and hey presto! Three points of contact! And possibly some serious facial damage. But that's okay.
Working on elements, we (much to my relief) spent a lot of time with our eyes closed, and staggered about (in my case - I'm sure other people were very elegant), occasionally colliding with the walls or each other, seeing how it felt to move as if in a capsule of air, water, hot chocolate, fizzy lemonade (we all got a bit bubbly at this point), oil, soil and countless others. This then progressed to actually becoming these states, finding out what it did to your body, the resistance/lack of it, how you (blindly) encounter other people; how you move with and around them. Apart from getting blown straight into a wall when I was being a particularly flimsy pice of paper, and definitely smashing myself in a similar scenario when I was being glass, I had a grand old time. Everybody else seemed to be in a similar frame of mind.
Then... the world's most terrifying sentence.. (apart from when your poorly next door neighbour tells you their children - who you have kindly offered to take to school - have... scooters!)
"Open your eyes".
(Almost as bad as "keep an eye on them, they don't really understand stopping yet.")
We all joined each other on the floor and with slight trepidation began flitting about as china, trying not break each other as we clambered around. The eyes open thing is beginning to bother me very little actually, Hooray! (Just need to get over small children pelting towards roads on wheels now.) We again moved through different elements and then chose our own to finish. I plumped for velvet and had a super time gliding about feeling expensive before we had a little break.
We then returned to something we did in the first session, balancing the space, both actually in the space and with physical presence. So, as I am feeling particularly stupid today, simply, a very tall person, someone being very close to ground and someone being somewhere in the middle, making a tableau ( or picture, as we seem to have adopted) plus trying to create some kind of obvious relationship between the three people. The space was divided into 9 (imaginary) squares, three sections vertically, and three sections horizontally. No one could be in the same section, nor in the same position in the space. This odd game of sudoku/ naughts and crosses was then made slightly more complicated by the introduction of a movable chair. I think it's safe to say that we are pretty inventive when it comes to playing with chairs. Claudia even gave birth to Mai! Hat's off to Max, a great midwife.
Natalie then gave us the choice of continuing with 'making pictures' or moving on to something else. Not to sound unambitious but we all wanted to carry on with what we were doing. It was fun, and collaborative and delightful both to do and watch. We began to create stage pictures with all of us involved. One person began in the space, and slowly more people would join them until the entire company had created a balanced tableau. Once again, in a moment of stupidity, alone on stage I decided it would be an idea to take my pose hurdling over the chair (2012 here I come). Needless to say after about 15 seconds I was in agony and making involuntary groans (much like bikram) as my hurdling leg began to fail (2012 dreams dashed).
I had a moment in bikram this afternoon when I thought I was going to choke because I was trying not to laugh during a 'backward bend'. The concept of Bikram yoga suddenly struck me as ridiculous (although I hasten to add, I know it's not!). But all of us lot, in a baking hot room, 'backward bending'; something which frankly, I don't care what they say, nearly kills me every time I do it, with a (lovely) bloke then telling you to 'lean back, fall back, way back,'. Hold on. Really? I don't think I'd like to fall over backwards with my arms pinned to my ears. Thanks though.
Fortunately I got over this moment of madness quite quickly and got on with it; I put my hands under my feet, my elbows behind my legs, squeezed my face onto my sweaty knees, and attempted to straighten my legs (to no avail) whist ignoring the shooting pain in my calves and the pins and needles in my face. No questions asked.
The overriding memory of Natalie's class was laughter too. Not in a naughty, moment of silliness way but in a particularly engaged happy kind of way. Plus, people were producing funny stuff, Em-J and Jack have a particular genius gift for turning a scenario on it's head.
On the tube home, Max, determined to win free bikram lessons, donned his sweaty bikram shorts and posed bikram stylee in our swinging carriage (empty except for fourth monkey chaps). And as we all cheered him on (and he fell over) had another go and succeeded in getting his photo (legend), I felt very cheery!
No matter that I then attempted to open my neighbours door instead of my own and their dog Simba nearly gave me a coronary.
6pm Friday. Lots of cold little monkeys gathered in a room with an oddly hard floor (bruises will follow. I have a lovely one that looks just like Jesus) at E15, for a final movement class with Natalie. For those of us who are in The Bacchae this is certainly not the last we will be seeing of her, but as a company we definitely made the most of our last session together. Despite half the group bent double coughing and spluttering, the other half unable to speak due to sore throats, poor Thea nearly being sick in a corner, and Em-J randomly exclaiming "Harry Potter" with an intensity that would put Alan Rickman to shame, we managed to muster an admirable amount of energy for such a motley crew.
What did I learn? That I can't count. A sad revelation at the age of 22 but there it is. The instruction, 'Have three points of contact with floor at all times', is surely not that hard. So there I was, flamingo like, standing in the middle of the room on one leg. Perplexed doesn't even come close. I can assure you I was suitably ashamed and immediately rectified the situation by slamming into the floor with my face. A quick lowering of my hand and hey presto! Three points of contact! And possibly some serious facial damage. But that's okay.
Working on elements, we (much to my relief) spent a lot of time with our eyes closed, and staggered about (in my case - I'm sure other people were very elegant), occasionally colliding with the walls or each other, seeing how it felt to move as if in a capsule of air, water, hot chocolate, fizzy lemonade (we all got a bit bubbly at this point), oil, soil and countless others. This then progressed to actually becoming these states, finding out what it did to your body, the resistance/lack of it, how you (blindly) encounter other people; how you move with and around them. Apart from getting blown straight into a wall when I was being a particularly flimsy pice of paper, and definitely smashing myself in a similar scenario when I was being glass, I had a grand old time. Everybody else seemed to be in a similar frame of mind.
Then... the world's most terrifying sentence.. (apart from when your poorly next door neighbour tells you their children - who you have kindly offered to take to school - have... scooters!)
"Open your eyes".
(Almost as bad as "keep an eye on them, they don't really understand stopping yet.")
We all joined each other on the floor and with slight trepidation began flitting about as china, trying not break each other as we clambered around. The eyes open thing is beginning to bother me very little actually, Hooray! (Just need to get over small children pelting towards roads on wheels now.) We again moved through different elements and then chose our own to finish. I plumped for velvet and had a super time gliding about feeling expensive before we had a little break.
We then returned to something we did in the first session, balancing the space, both actually in the space and with physical presence. So, as I am feeling particularly stupid today, simply, a very tall person, someone being very close to ground and someone being somewhere in the middle, making a tableau ( or picture, as we seem to have adopted) plus trying to create some kind of obvious relationship between the three people. The space was divided into 9 (imaginary) squares, three sections vertically, and three sections horizontally. No one could be in the same section, nor in the same position in the space. This odd game of sudoku/ naughts and crosses was then made slightly more complicated by the introduction of a movable chair. I think it's safe to say that we are pretty inventive when it comes to playing with chairs. Claudia even gave birth to Mai! Hat's off to Max, a great midwife.
Natalie then gave us the choice of continuing with 'making pictures' or moving on to something else. Not to sound unambitious but we all wanted to carry on with what we were doing. It was fun, and collaborative and delightful both to do and watch. We began to create stage pictures with all of us involved. One person began in the space, and slowly more people would join them until the entire company had created a balanced tableau. Once again, in a moment of stupidity, alone on stage I decided it would be an idea to take my pose hurdling over the chair (2012 here I come). Needless to say after about 15 seconds I was in agony and making involuntary groans (much like bikram) as my hurdling leg began to fail (2012 dreams dashed).
I had a moment in bikram this afternoon when I thought I was going to choke because I was trying not to laugh during a 'backward bend'. The concept of Bikram yoga suddenly struck me as ridiculous (although I hasten to add, I know it's not!). But all of us lot, in a baking hot room, 'backward bending'; something which frankly, I don't care what they say, nearly kills me every time I do it, with a (lovely) bloke then telling you to 'lean back, fall back, way back,'. Hold on. Really? I don't think I'd like to fall over backwards with my arms pinned to my ears. Thanks though.
Fortunately I got over this moment of madness quite quickly and got on with it; I put my hands under my feet, my elbows behind my legs, squeezed my face onto my sweaty knees, and attempted to straighten my legs (to no avail) whist ignoring the shooting pain in my calves and the pins and needles in my face. No questions asked.
The overriding memory of Natalie's class was laughter too. Not in a naughty, moment of silliness way but in a particularly engaged happy kind of way. Plus, people were producing funny stuff, Em-J and Jack have a particular genius gift for turning a scenario on it's head.
On the tube home, Max, determined to win free bikram lessons, donned his sweaty bikram shorts and posed bikram stylee in our swinging carriage (empty except for fourth monkey chaps). And as we all cheered him on (and he fell over) had another go and succeeded in getting his photo (legend), I felt very cheery!
No matter that I then attempted to open my neighbours door instead of my own and their dog Simba nearly gave me a coronary.
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