Training

I don't want to write a long post, since I'm in an cafe and really hungry.

To make a long story short, we have acting class 6 days a week for 3 hours and it really is how I wish we did acting classes in the States. Little homework, lots of classwork. Also, we have spent easily 10 days or so doing the same things, all of which we in the States would say are "foundational". For example, all actors have played the game where you "pass the clap", but probably only for one class or two. We have done that exercise everyday, or at least some version of it. We spend the first half of class doing nothing but tempo-rhythm and concentration exercises, like passing a clap in tempo and another game where we run around with our chairs and ask questions to each other and then we have to remember the question and the answer.
They have also started to make the exercises require you to focus on more than one thing at a time. For example, yesterday we played a game where two people were telling a story simultaneously, and then you had to be able to tell what the other person's story was about.

The second half of the class is devoted to "object work". It's tough to explain, but we do short etudes (no words) where we take objects and give them a life and a story. I'll explain by example, one girl did a fire extinguisher and the first part she is just waiting for fire, then she sees one and gets excited but no one comes to get her, then finally someone takes her off the wall and she gets scared, but puts out the fire and is proud of herself. That might be confusing, but I think you'll get the idea.

And we've done all this everyday for at least 10 days, which is what, 5 weeks at college theatre program? We also saw a show by second year students, and it's clear that these students have a much better concept of how a story is told through physicality and movements rather than words. I remember when I was on the baseball team, our first practice we didn't even touch a baseball, and it almost seems as though the training is similar to that here: they start without words.

Finally, I would really love to open the floor to any questions you have. If I can't answer them, I will do my best to ask them in class and figure out. It will also help me in my training too, since your questions will become my questions, and it's been so overwhelming actually just being here that I haven't asked a lot. So let me know.

-Eric