So I’m starting to see how difficult this year is actually going to be.

We had our first class of the day with Mr. Smith, but instead of doing exercises, we started learning our “group warmup” and then we sat down and took notes.  Well, I took notes.  I think some of the kids didn’t but that’s their problem and not mine.

So it seems like we’ll be warming up together on a daily basis.  This was done in a circle, not a semi-circle, because it’s meant “for the cast and the cast alone.”  He said that it was “important to observe ritual and tradition” and started teaching a routine with yoga, stretching, voice and focusing exercises.  He said it’s going to get easier the more that we do it, but today was a little challenging.

First of all, we followed him in Sun Salutations.  A bunch of the class started giggling when he explained what we were about to do; they also giggled at what he originally called it (I had him spell it – Surya Namaskar) and then he started calling it Sun Salutations for our benefit.  The real name is in some other language or other.

So this yoga warmup is supposed to warm up your whole body!!!!  They say that you should start your day with Sun Salutations (so called because you’ll be “saluting the sun!”) and you’ll be ready for any challenge the day throws your way!

Then we started “lip trills.”  Everyone looked silly with their lips vibrating so quickly you could see their teeth through the movement!  Some of the kids couldn’t make it happen; I couldn’t make it happen for very long.  It’s like, I would get it going and then my lips felt like they had pins and needles it tickled so much.  Then we started yawning (to “lift our soft pallet”) and making silly faces.  By the time we finished my face felt numb….

Then we started making “soft, low hums.”  By this point my lips felt like they were tingling with every single vibration, but it felt weird and warm and … hummy.  I don’t think that’s a word?  But my whole face felt it and we were supposed to send that feeling down into our chest, and then our bellies.  Either way, a lot of the class kept getting corrections that they were using too much of their throat (how else are you supposed to make vocal sounds without using your throat???????) and that it had to come from lower.

Then we started “sighing on pitch.”  This also proved troublesome for some of us, myself included.  Again, we were forcing it too much.  Finally, when I was so exhausted at being told I was doing it wrong I groaned a little to loudly and then he yelled that I was doing it right!  Then we moved on to the next exercise.  I’m still not sure why that last sigh was correct or how to reproduce it in the future, but apparently when I stopped concerning myself with how to do it, it just happened naturally!

He also had us follow him in saying tongue twisters.  I have no idea what we said, there was something about a sock and another about weather, but he said he’d give us a handout of them at a future class.

The last game we played before we sat down was something called “Zip, Zap, Zop.”  I was talking to some of the other students afterward and they didn’t really get why we were doing it, but Mr. Smith said it was something about “impulses” and “listening to the group.”  Funny how some people complain why they “don’t get” exercises designed to help us learn to “listen to each other.”  I wonder if they were listening….

Anyhow, “Zip, Zap, Zop” is a series of “sending the impulse around the circle” without breaking the pattern.  One person says “Zip” as they send an impulse (a clap “with intention” and eye contact) to the next person, that person says “Zap” while sending it to another person, then that person sends it to someone else with a “Zop.”  And that goes around and around and around the circle until someone messes up.  Then we start over.

Anyhow, this year we’ll be learning about different theories of acting (WAIT, it’s not just getting onto stage, walking around and reciting lines?????  Get me out of this program! Just kidding.) and a history of theater.   We’ll also get some “skills classes” (which started after Mr. Smith’s class today) and some “practical” knowledge about everything else that goes into making a production.  We have to work on three shows before we can get cast in one and we’re not allowed into the set or costume shops unless a teacher explicitly invites us.  If we come to class late, we have to sit down and observe until we’re invited to join the group; if it’s during our “ritual warmup” that will probably be the moment we walk in, but we “shouldn’t ever assume” this.  We’re also supposed to buy Uta Hagen’s “Respect for Acting” for next Monday’s class.  Thank goodness for Amazon Prime!!!!

So after Mr. Smith’s class today we took Dance.

That’s all I’ll say about that.

 

Tomorrow is another day!!!!!!!

Love,
Aubrey!