Sans AH once again.

More line learning. And some really good work in my humble (and biased) opinion.

Section 16

Lots of work with Paul and Tristan on this. We played games, some old and some new, they were:

The Three pauses game
Say each line three times. - Not as an exercise, but as if they were the lines. So the challenge was to find three different things to do with each.
Conversely then, picking one word from each sentence that summarised or encapsulated the thought and playing the scene only with these.

Some general observations:
Exercises are best played so that no one would be aware you are playing a game. They should think it is the scene.
Be wary of cutting off contact with the other person at the end of each line. It stops the drama. Cutting off contact was often done by thigh-slapping, looking back to the script, moving away and cutting off awareness of the other, stopping wanting what it was you wanted in the line.

Section 15

The Good, Yes, Ok game. Some great playing here. A great example of how adopting this approach, using/needing the other person to help solve the problem in the scene, does not mean you are always being nice or helpful to each other. Some great playing. A nice thougth from Paul too 'However bad it gets in the cell, they would all still prefer to have other people in there with them.'

The Overlapping game. A great exploration here off lines that could be played to the police/audience too.

Then we had to pick up a word from the previous line and say it at the start of our line. This was great at helping find the argument. E.g.

Gandhi: ****.
Mark: ****? I'm sorry.

Section 23

We repeated this exercise again here.

Then with the Good, Yes, OK game.

Then with overlapping. Time limits coming in to play here, as only five minutes left.

Then with each actor only allowed one move each as they played the section. But allowing whatever position and spatial relationship they found themselves in to constantly inform the scene.

Script Change

PG 34 Tom Half way down. Cut entirely the line that starts 'Benjamin Franklin wasn't fighting Al Qaida...' and replace with 'But we need laws.'

So far as I know the only sections we haven't gone back over in these sessions are 17, 1+2, and 35.

During the first half of this session Alan and John worked together on lines, playing the shopping list game ('I went to the supermarket and I bought a cheese toastie, I went to the supermarket and I bought a cheese toastie, a jam sandwich, I went to the supermarket... etc') with lines from Tom's long description of Mohammed Hasa's death. And I think some Meisner work.

Happy learning!

xx