The Theater Door

I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!

First of all, there’s no way I could have expected THIS, it’s so much better than I could imagine.

Second, I LOVE MY THEATER CLASS!  It was only the first day and it already feels like I’ve known everyone for years!

Our teacher, “Mr. Smith,” a tall, raggedy man with dreamy blue eyes, is, like, the nicest guy I’ve ever met.  He’s kind of unpredictable – at one point he jumped up onto a desk like a pirate on a ship – and he’s pretty obviously not from here, as he has some accent from some other country and I’m not really sure which one.  But he was really patient and gentle and kind and he KNOWS SO MUCH about theater!

We did a couple exercises that he called “getting to know you” exercises.  It wasn’t exactly like the audition, where I guess we worked with the old theater teacher, but we stood in a “semi-circle” instead of a circle so we could still see all of the group but also “invite the audience in.”  He said that the job of an actor is to always “invite the audience in,” so he believes that, even when we’re doing exercises, we should always leave room to remember their future presence.

Anyhow.  So we’re standing in a semi-circle and we played “The Name Game.”  First, the girl over on Stage Right said her name and added some personalized pose to tell us a little about herself and also for us to remember her name.  So our first person was “Julie” and she curtsied.  I guess that means she was telling us she’s polite.  Anyway, so we all had to curtsy and say her name, “Julie.”  EVEN THE BOYS!  It was pretty funny.  Next to her was a boy named Ian and he did some kind of martial arts kick, so after he said his name we all had to martial arts kick “Ian” and then curtsy “Julie” again.  Next to him was another boy named Michael and he did, like, this sly winking smile thing.  It seemed super flirty.  But then the entire group had to wink and smile “Michael,” then martial arts kick “Ian,” and curtsy “Julie” yet again.

I may always curtsy to Julie when I see her in the hall from now on.

So yeah.  When it was my turn I had planned on doing a dance move, even though we were told to try and not plan what we were going to do.  I still did a dance move, but it wasn’t the one I thought I was going to do.  Instead of doing a turn, I did a leap.  LIVING  ON THE EDGE.

Actually, it was kind of cool.  As we were getting nearer and nearer to it being my turn, I felt my heart pounding harder and harder in my chest.  I was actually getting nervous.  But somehow, focusing  on the names of the other students made me the tiniest bit less nervous.  So by the time it was my turn to add to the routine, I had already forgotten what I planned to do (a pirouette type thing) and had to JUST ACT in the moment.  And, instead of my original plan, I did a leap and sang out “Aubrey!”  It sort of surprised me but it was kind of freeing, really.  And I think it actually captured my upbeat, life-loving nature better than my original plan!  But the BEST PART came afterward, as I watched the other students leap out “Aubrey!,” and some of them looked really natural and others looked kind of klutzy, but all of them “committed” to it – “owning” the action as if it was their own.  I immediately felt as if I belonged.

After everybody added their name and movement to the pattern, we reversed it – we STARTED with “Julie”-curtsy, “Ian”-kick, “Michael”-wink and on and on over to the last person “Kenny”-frog-jump.  It was a little hard but we managed it.

Then we paired off (I went with “Andy”-yawn) and did something called a “Mirror Exercise.”  We had to stand and stare into each others eyes (it was super uncomfortable at first but it got easier) and follow the movements of our partner while still looking ONLY at their eyes.

Some of the other couples got corrections to move slower – that the point of the exercise wasn’t to “leave your partner behind,” but make sure that they stayed with you.

Andy and I did pretty well at this, although I personally found it much easier to follow than to lead.  When I was leading I was so worried about making sure that Andy was ready and able to follow me, but it seemed like everyone else preferred leading to following.  I wonder if that says anything about our personalities…

Soon Mr. Smith had us switching leaders in the middle of the exercise.  So, I might be leading Andy to a place with our arms up above our head and then he became the leader and changed the motion.  I really liked working on this exercise with him – at one point Mr. Smith told us to “both lead and follow at the same time,” which sounded like the most ambiguous and ridiculous instructions on the surface, but somehow, I think we figured it out.  We were moving our arms and I felt like I was following, but then I bent my right arm and Andy’s arm bent as if he was initiating the movement.  Then I wasn’t really sure if I initiated the shoulder raise or if I was following it.  Honestly, it felt like he and I were thinking the same thing at the same time.  It was really neat!

So yeah.  I think Mr. Smith had one more exercise for us to do today but we ran out of time.  He apologized for taking so much time to talk at the beginning of class (Mr. Smith, if you read this, THERE IS NO REASON TO APOLOGIZE!).  I feel really good about what is expected of us this year and what we’re going to do.

I can’t wait for tomorrow!

Love,
Aubrey.