...and scene

Tonight is my last class of this session and I'll kind of be glad when it is over. I have enjoyed this class and enjoyed the scenes we have all worked on, though I think it might have been nice if it was a nine week class and we worked on three scenes each instead of an eight week class wherein we worked on two scenes each. I don't know that there was enough script analysis time to merit working on one scene for four weeks - we'd read it one week and talk a bit, and then come in and perform it three times. I'm not sure what to do differently tonight, but I guess that is to be expected because it is moment-to-moment work so I can't know what to do or what is going to happen until I get there. All I can do is prepare my background information and know my lines and know what I want from my partner when I enter the room. Beyond that, it's anyone's guess.

My other class ended on Saturday and I will miss that one a lot. It was sort of the last in the series, and probably my last with that group of people, many of whom I'd been in class with for almost a year now. I have grown to love my classmates deeply and trust them immensely and I will be sad to not be in class with them anymore. It's funny - it occurred to me on Saturday that the scene I was working on was kind of about losing a friend and I've grown to really love the woman I was working with this session and here was our last performance so it was doing a scene about losing a friend knowing that I'm losing my scene partner. I'm not losing her losing her - I know we'll stay in touch - it just seemed appropriate. We did well, too. Granted, it took us three times to get into it, but once we were there, we were really there and it felt great. After the scene, the teacher kind of took me aside and told me not to lose this because there was some really good work done. I think the most important things I need to remember from this class are that I need to speak my point of view, I need to speak my point of view clearly, and to always choose connection. I want to play around a bit with my warm-up technique, though, so it won't take me three tries to really get into it. I do my homework, I cast my characters, I build my private life and I'm up there on stage full of history, but I want to be able to hit the ground running and I need to figure out a way to get myself there. Be it looking at a picture or reading over a list of my important points or whatever. I need to figure out a way to get there at the drop of a hat instead of gradually warming into it.

But yeah. I maybe be on a bit of radio silence as I take the rest of the summer off from classes. But I do want to thank all of my teachers and classmates for working with me, pushing me, challenging me, being there when I had my little breakdowns and my big breakdowns, encouraging me, loving me, and accepting me as we all went on this journey together toward becoming fuller, more complete performers. I love you and hope all we get to work together again someday. Hopefully on a play involving monkeys.