Geri's Game a la Meisner

Juggling Today: GOT IT BITCHES! I just have to pull to the left with most of my throws and I'll be fine. It's all about going steadily and slowly concentrating and keeping the rhythm in my body. Relaxing and concentrating. It's actually quite fun.

We started off the class a la Meisner and had conversations with ourselves. We were told to react naturally to the questions, and to ask the difficult questions that haven't been answered. I asked a lot of questions to myself about Nate and Nick. What was going on in my mind, what I was thinking about the situations. What life was going to be like, what I could stand to say, and even what I couldn't stand to say. It was very difficult, and after a time it was hard to listen, you didn't want to after a while. I just wanted to get up and leave or just sit there, but I had to force myself to talk and just word vomit everything up.

It helped a lot, to be honest. It really helped. One more step in the right direction.

Then we paired up with a partner and started the random sound exercise (a VERY different version than what we did last semester, which I was paired with Jordan for), Christina and I started off singing 'Row Row Row Your Boat' then harmonizing, then moving to La's, and Ta's, and Ka's. We made percussive noises then. AND THEN! As I was getting perfectly getting comfortable with everything, Lank said for us to start a monologue. I almost started to cry. I can't just "start a monologue" becuase I don't have any fresh in my mind to save my life. I looked down and wasn't able to remember any of my Shakespeare monologue that I had done a mere month before. I could see the disappointment in Christina's eyes just stabbing me in the gut, and I stopped and looked at her as she continuted with her percussion and Ka's. Then it was her turn. Needless to say, she was perfect and did a beautiful job with a monologue from Romeo and Juliet.

We got up and squished as a group and continuted with our KA's and percussions. Reconveining on the square with everyone we just did it and listened to eachother... Then went back to our respective partners (Christina). We talked about it and people noted that when we were doing sounds and random things like that we were fully able to loose ourselves and just do it, but the SECOND he said monologue, we all flew up into our heads and it wasn't a giving... it was a taking and pulling match for all of us. It was just plain uncomfortable for me. I got very scared, and felt like I was being squeezed in a box.

Lank told Taylor Shurte and I to stand up and stand at opposite sides of the room. She could only say Yes. I could only say No. We were to get what we wanted without moving. eh. It was okay. Lank made Laura and Nick hold us back. This changed everything, as I knew it would. I kind of found it silly, but I could see Taylor's face and body struggling against Laura, and I suddenly stopped thinking about it. I picked Nick up (Nick who's fucking built...), and got as close as I could before Lank said stop. I was out of breath by that time, too. I hadn't realized it either. It took me by surprise, to be honest. I didn't know I would randomly work that hard for something that I didn't know I wanted so badly. The class observed the same thing.

After the break we lined up one behind another and followed the leader. We were to accordian-style do movements that the leader dictated, down the line and back up again, while walking in a non-patterned way. It wasn't as easy as it looked, by any means.

Following the Worm exercise, we lined up on either side of the space and were told to imagine something that meant the world to us in front of us just there on the ground, just to think of what it was. Now give it to the other person across from you... you'll never see that again. I chose my Teddy Bear Billy, and Ellen chose something with a strap, possibly a bag of some sort. It was hard for her, I know, but her reactinos were real, as were mine, I think. Other folks were kind of playing it up you could tell, and that kind of irritated me. Not in a bad way, I just wasn't in the mood for 'playing' I wanted the real stuff.

Taylor Bailey caught me off guard, though. It was interesting.

We sat down and talked about it a little, and how some characters are willing to give things easily, whereas other people have a harder time, and consequently it means the shit-ton to them that they're giving it. Giving, recieving, isn't the point, it's how we go about the giving and recieving that matters. And how that conflict manifests itself in the body that's imortant.

So yeah. That's all for today...

A parting Image... Geri's Game... The conversations with ourselves made me think of the Pixar animation before Toy Story...

Juggling Today: GOT IT BITCHES! I just have to pull to the left with most of my throws and I'll be fine. It's all about going steadily and slowly concentrating and keeping the rhythm in my body. Relaxing and concentrating. It's actually quite fun.

We started off the class a la Meisner and had conversations with ourselves. We were told to react naturally to the questions, and to ask the difficult questions that haven't been answered. I asked a lot of questions to myself about Nate and Nick. What was going on in my mind, what I was thinking about the situations. What life was going to be like, what I could stand to say, and even what I couldn't stand to say. It was very difficult, and after a time it was hard to listen, you didn't want to after a while. I just wanted to get up and leave or just sit there, but I had to force myself to talk and just word vomit everything up.

It helped a lot, to be honest. It really helped. One more step in the right direction.

Then we paired up with a partner and started the random sound exercise (a VERY different version than what we did last semester, which I was paired with Jordan for), Christina and I started off singing 'Row Row Row Your Boat' then harmonizing, then moving to La's, and Ta's, and Ka's. We made percussive noises then. AND THEN! As I was getting perfectly getting comfortable with everything, Lank said for us to start a monologue. I almost started to cry. I can't just "start a monologue" becuase I don't have any fresh in my mind to save my life. I looked down and wasn't able to remember any of my Shakespeare monologue that I had done a mere month before. I could see the disappointment in Christina's eyes just stabbing me in the gut, and I stopped and looked at her as she continuted with her percussion and Ka's. Then it was her turn. Needless to say, she was perfect and did a beautiful job with a monologue from Romeo and Juliet.

We got up and squished as a group and continuted with our KA's and percussions. Reconveining on the square with everyone we just did it and listened to eachother... Then went back to our respective partners (Christina). We talked about it and people noted that when we were doing sounds and random things like that we were fully able to loose ourselves and just do it, but the SECOND he said monologue, we all flew up into our heads and it wasn't a giving... it was a taking and pulling match for all of us. It was just plain uncomfortable for me. I got very scared, and felt like I was being squeezed in a box.

Lank told Taylor Shurte and I to stand up and stand at opposite sides of the room. She could only say Yes. I could only say No. We were to get what we wanted without moving. eh. It was okay. Lank made Laura and Nick hold us back. This changed everything, as I knew it would. I kind of found it silly, but I could see Taylor's face and body struggling against Laura, and I suddenly stopped thinking about it. I picked Nick up (Nick who's fucking built...), and got as close as I could before Lank said stop. I was out of breath by that time, too. I hadn't realized it either. It took me by surprise, to be honest. I didn't know I would randomly work that hard for something that I didn't know I wanted so badly. The class observed the same thing.

After the break we lined up one behind another and followed the leader. We were to accordian-style do movements that the leader dictated, down the line and back up again, while walking in a non-patterned way. It wasn't as easy as it looked, by any means.

Following the Worm exercise, we lined up on either side of the space and were told to imagine something that meant the world to us in front of us just there on the ground, just to think of what it was. Now give it to the other person across from you... you'll never see that again. I chose my Teddy Bear Billy, and Ellen chose something with a strap, possibly a bag of some sort. It was hard for her, I know, but her reactinos were real, as were mine, I think. Other folks were kind of playing it up you could tell, and that kind of irritated me. Not in a bad way, I just wasn't in the mood for 'playing' I wanted the real stuff.

Taylor Bailey caught me off guard, though. It was interesting.

We sat down and talked about it a little, and how some characters are willing to give things easily, whereas other people have a harder time, and consequently it means the shit-ton to them that they're giving it. Giving, recieving, isn't the point, it's how we go about the giving and recieving that matters. And how that conflict manifests itself in the body that's imortant.

So yeah. That's all for today...

A parting Image... Geri's Game... The conversations with ourselves made me think of the Pixar animation before Toy Story...