Neutral Mask
At school we begun working on Neutral Mask this week. We have been 
learning that all intention when wearing the mask comes from the 'Bassine' Cue Francois doing a class of Pelvic thrusting. We learnt something but i'm not sure what it was...
It's interesting to see that no one can hide behind the mask. It's the opposite to what you expect, everything is highlighted rather than hidden. I've loved it. On Thursday communication problems (i.e my shit French) meant I got an exercise consistently wrong. What I interpreted as 'Improve the mime with the barrier' was in fact 'Remove the mime with the barrier.' I turned round to start again and instantly did the barrier only with greater gusto. There was a sharp intake of breath by my class mates as they collectively groaned at my mistake. I knew I'd done something wrong but I didn't know what so I continued with the exercise. 'Oooookaaaay'. Once I was finally corrected I did it again, although i'm not sure with entire success...although I did get a 'c'nest pas mal' which is as near to a compliment as you get at school. Translated it means 'It's not bad.' And I sat down entirely happy. At no point did I feel awful that I hadn't got the exercise. Something about the mask stops me worrying about the silly things. In one lesson where our group had completely angered the teacher because we were too timid to get up. I have to add here, I got up several times. The teacher said to one student 'Do something. Stop thinking about it. Just do it. You'll get it wrong anyway so just DO it.' And it was some great advice. It didn't work though...he stopped the class ten minutes early in frustration. I haven't described Jos to you as he wasn't there during week one. Jos is a hard one to pinpoint. When performances are going badly on our Friday Auto Cour performances he takes great delight and whispers to Paola to keep the performance going to see what they do next. But he's not mean. He has no patience. He tells my group off for being so timid whilst at a Theatre school. 'Oh how terrible to expect you to perform.' 'You'll have a great career in a charcuterie' He pushes. He's moody as hell and his moods affect the class. When he comes in in a bad mood no one wants to get up to perform. But I think it's an act. All teachers adopt persona's and Jos has decided to be the scary teacher. But i'm on to him. He's quite nice really. Last week in his class we had to present to the class about a subject as if we were an expert professor talking to a convention. The subject I chose was complicated and I was getting lost. 'Start again...you're doing a talk on the Art of boiling an egg.' Ironic seen as I only learnt how to boil an egg about 3 years ago. He had me acting it out, getting cross at when I boiled my egg too hard and it was hilarious and fun. He helps you let go.
But anyway, let's get back to bottoms. Francois. Pelvic thrusting for one hour.
I received good news last night. The hour I have ahead of you means in Paris it gets dark later. So whilst you get night at 4pm...I don't get it till 5pm. True story.
learning that all intention when wearing the mask comes from the 'Bassine' Cue Francois doing a class of Pelvic thrusting. We learnt something but i'm not sure what it was...It's interesting to see that no one can hide behind the mask. It's the opposite to what you expect, everything is highlighted rather than hidden. I've loved it. On Thursday communication problems (i.e my shit French) meant I got an exercise consistently wrong. What I interpreted as 'Improve the mime with the barrier' was in fact 'Remove the mime with the barrier.' I turned round to start again and instantly did the barrier only with greater gusto. There was a sharp intake of breath by my class mates as they collectively groaned at my mistake. I knew I'd done something wrong but I didn't know what so I continued with the exercise. 'Oooookaaaay'. Once I was finally corrected I did it again, although i'm not sure with entire success...although I did get a 'c'nest pas mal' which is as near to a compliment as you get at school. Translated it means 'It's not bad.' And I sat down entirely happy. At no point did I feel awful that I hadn't got the exercise. Something about the mask stops me worrying about the silly things. In one lesson where our group had completely angered the teacher because we were too timid to get up. I have to add here, I got up several times. The teacher said to one student 'Do something. Stop thinking about it. Just do it. You'll get it wrong anyway so just DO it.' And it was some great advice. It didn't work though...he stopped the class ten minutes early in frustration. I haven't described Jos to you as he wasn't there during week one. Jos is a hard one to pinpoint. When performances are going badly on our Friday Auto Cour performances he takes great delight and whispers to Paola to keep the performance going to see what they do next. But he's not mean. He has no patience. He tells my group off for being so timid whilst at a Theatre school. 'Oh how terrible to expect you to perform.' 'You'll have a great career in a charcuterie' He pushes. He's moody as hell and his moods affect the class. When he comes in in a bad mood no one wants to get up to perform. But I think it's an act. All teachers adopt persona's and Jos has decided to be the scary teacher. But i'm on to him. He's quite nice really. Last week in his class we had to present to the class about a subject as if we were an expert professor talking to a convention. The subject I chose was complicated and I was getting lost. 'Start again...you're doing a talk on the Art of boiling an egg.' Ironic seen as I only learnt how to boil an egg about 3 years ago. He had me acting it out, getting cross at when I boiled my egg too hard and it was hilarious and fun. He helps you let go.
But anyway, let's get back to bottoms. Francois. Pelvic thrusting for one hour.
I received good news last night. The hour I have ahead of you means in Paris it gets dark later. So whilst you get night at 4pm...I don't get it till 5pm. True story.
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