Today was a big day. Felt like I did a lot of work and worked hard. Came home at the end of the day and basically collapsed on the bed and have only just now got back up.
Started off with my Dialects class, which admittedly wasn't too taxing (other than the 9am start time). Half an hour of Fitzmaurice voice exercises to begin and then into the Irish dialect work. We began by just reviewing all the signature sounds from last time, and repeating after David words containing these sounds. Most of the rest of the class was watching and listening to clips of Irish dialect speakers, and identifying and imitating the features of their speech consistent with what we're learning. There was an audio clip of David's auntie, a 70-year-old from a small West coast Irish town, that was great to listen to, in terms of her rhythm and idiomatic phrases particularly (she was also just very funny). Then we watched clips from a movie called The Secret of Roan Inish, which had some good and some bad dialect work. Then to finish up I suggested that we look at some clips of Dylan Moran, which actually ended up being quite helpful (plus he's just very funny).
Then was Svetlana's class. Overall, today was a really good class - much better than Monday's - and I learnt a lot, but I left feeling disappointed with myself. And she was much less gentle with me today. We were second on the floor to work today - the first group worked really well and were the first couple to be told to move on to a new scene - and we started off really well. We incorporated pretty much every note Svet had given us last time, and we were about halfway through the scene and hadn't been stopped at all. It was great. It felt great to be a part of. Then we were past the point that we'd made it to last time and we were still going, still doing really good work. And then we got into the start of the argument part of the scene and I got carried away - I let the feeling take over and just went way too far way too early. Svetlana stopped us straight away. "No, Jack. No, no, no. Why do you make that choice? You cannot go there, gives you nowhere to go for rest of scene. Is wrong." And she was right of course. She did praise the work we did at the beginning of the scene, saying it was beautiful, but it was only really to emphasise how bad that choice I made really was, because it undid the good work.
So we got to try again from a few lines back - she was happy enough with the start of the scene at least that we didn't have to start over. And I made sure I didn't make the same mistake again. But mistakes - or rather bad choices - came from both me and my partner more regularly now. Maybe it was because we were into the part of the scene we hadn't worked with Svetlana before, maybe because that part of the scene gets really difficult, maybe we just got a bit thrown, I don't know. But we were stopping far more often. We were falling into the trap of doing the same thing each time, or not sending specific action to each other, or not finding the words in the space truthfully. There were patches when it would come right - and it's a really tangible thing when it's working - but then a bad choice or just sloppiness or something would derail it. Svetlana was all the while growing less patient (and she's not a very patient person to begin with). Eventually we made it through to the end of the scene, but it was a very mixed bag. Svetlana had a lot of criticism and a lot of things for us to work on. To me she said: "You are too much in self-pity as Konstantin. It is passive and ugly to watch. Don't go to self-pity, go to action. When I have to watch man with self-pity on stage it is horrible and I don't like him." And when she put it like that I knew exactly what she meant, I just hadn't known how to make the right choice in the moment of performance.
So we finished after about 40 minutes of working, told to rehearse more and show it again next time. Then there were two more groups who got to go before class finished - both were now on their third time up on the floor, and both did really well and are now moving on to new scenes. The first pair particularly were just absolutely stunning to watch. Through their whole long scene they were only stopped a handful of times by Svet - and these stops were just for small nudges in the right direction. It's so hard to put into words other than to say that it is just so obvious when Chekhov is working, and that when it is there isn't a lot that's more compelling to watch. Many people in the class were in tears by the end of the scene. They finished and Svetlana simply said, "Now that is how you act Chekhov."
After the last group we had time for a quick discussion of what we'd learnt, and much of the discussion was around the work from the pair I was just talking about. I was talking about Joey's work in that scene, and how it made it very clear to me what she was talking about when she said "don't go to self-pity, go to action". He did this beautifully in the scene, there was always a sense that he was fighting, looking for something, not just sitting back and complaining. Svetlana agreed with me and said "You are very talented actor, is obvious, but right now you make weak choices and scene becomes shallow."
One thing in particular that Svetlana said today really stuck with me. She was talking about the difference between theatre in America, England, France, Italy etc and the theatre in Russia (as she is wont to do), particularly talking about Chekhov as a writer. She said: "I do not choose to do theatre to be entertaining. I choose it as my platform to wake people up. That to me is valuable."
Then into Camera Techniques class with John, and filming my scene from Rounders. I was already pretty drained from Svet's class, and was developing a headache, but just had to dive into it. And it really was good fun and I learnt a lot. It's so great to work on film here with proper equipment and support and a department that has the resources to make practising film work easy. Even just the ability to have a convincing set, appropriate lighting, and props on hand at the drop of a hat really makes a huge difference to the work I believe. And John and the technical tutor, Ross, have so much experience that they just make things happen quickly and easily.
So after a while we were all set up and ready to start filming. We were beginning with all my coverage (ie: the shots of me), so I had to be on my game straight away. John's first note to me was "I love what you're doing, but do less", which I've had before. His way of directing the scene was really great - he just kind of nudges and pushes gently in the right direction, giving little manageable and specific notes one at a time so the actor is really able to take it in and put it in practise. Slowly, over a couple of takes, he kept giving me little notes and adjustments until my performance was in an easeful place that he really liked, at which point his advice was "Now you've got it, I want you to forget it all. It'll still be there, everything I've asked you to do, but now within the limits of what you've got just let loose a little and play."
And that was great advice. I think at points I was really able to do just that and find some great stuff. By the time we finished my coverage and started setting up to do Nick's, John came and said to me "I'm really happy with what we got there, and I think you will be too."
So then we did the same for Nick. It went a bit quicker now coz we were all in the swing of things and the scene had really found its feet. It was funny - and a bit annoying - to notice in myself how much more ease I found once I knew I wasn't on camera any more, but just supporting Nick. I was able to play a lot more freely inside the limits of the scene. Then, once we finished all the coverage and we thought we were about to pack up, John got up and said he wanted to do one more thing quickly before we finished. He swapped me and Nick around so I was on camera again and then said "Ok, just for fun, we won't actually use it in the edit, but let's give Jack something to take home and show everyone how much of a Yankee he's become - I want to do one take with you in your American accent." And it was such great fun. I don't know how it will come out in terms of performance, but I kept so much of the ease I'd found during Nick's coverage and then found some more, I think the accent somehow allowing me to play more and be a bit freer. And I got overwhelmingly positive feedback about my accent from everyone, and it was very cool how genuinely delighted some of them were to see me do that.
So all in all it was a BIG day. Tomorrow isn't quite as big but there's a still a bit I need to do to prepare for it. Phwoooar. Bring it on.
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