Workshop Day 3 and a swim in the Sea!

Workshop Day 3

Friends I am learning so much here and I can’t wait to come home and share it all with you. I hope that you are following my blog and being inspired as I am by Keith’s experience and insight. There’s so much more to tell.

This morning I went swimming in the Baltic Sea (my first time in a Sea!!) I was so very cold, but awfully refreshing after an evening of Danish beers with some of my new friends. Life here is very idyllic and if you have the opportunity to take an artistic workshop you should jump on it. I can’t believe how much better you can absorb information when that is your sole duty. Run; don’t walk to be in the presence of someone that can inspire you. Look for ways to be inspired every day.
This water was so cold, but WOW!!!!!!!!!!

Learn, improv, eat, learn, improv, eat. That is my basic schedule. Now that swimming is added to the mix (and bicycling to the nearest town) I may not come back as round as I thought.

Today’s quips from Keith:

We don’t want a good start to the day. We want a great ending.

One way you can tell someone is acting (and badly) is there’s no sound (and I don’t mean words.)
Words aren’t as tied to movement as much as sounds are.
Keeping the sound going sustains the mask. Sound helps you get more physical.

It is important that you leave people happier than when you arrived.

Sit at a bus stop, open up a newspaper and say, “that’s my sister.” Anyone will be happy to talk to you.

There are hostile jokes and then those that make you doubt the nature of reality. The latter is the better.

Your bottom teeth are really important. They are aggressive when you flash. American presidents do that. Obama has yet to.

If you’re busy taking control, your body will lose its spontaneity.

If you set a person up right they will look talented. If you set them up wrong they will look untalented. It makes you wonder what talent really is.

Sound pushes the body into movement

Kittens have to turn into cats, but it’s not true that we have to turn into adults. It’s trained.

When you busy yourself making sound you don’t have to worry about what to say.
The body knows what it wants to do if you stop messing about.

Your defense system is untalented.

Directors should create problems for actors. Actors should welcome the challenge. Most actors want to take the problem away.

You gossip so you don’t have to alter yourself in any way. Gossip is the illusion of a relationship.
Gossip makes nothing happen.
Anytime you meet someone in your life you can be transformed. It’s terrifying. Gossip is a weapon against altering yourself.
Gossip is not in the moment. Bring gossip into the moment and you have interaction
Turing gossip into interaction is not about being clever. Remove your pride. By trying to find the BEST idea you suffer. Take the first idea and run, absurd or not. Trust and go.

Godot needs to be a play about status.

Theatre of the Absurd is all about HUGE status gaps.

Looking for the best idea destroys you. Any idea works if it does the job. Accept the first idea that comes to you.
No shame. Take whatever does the job.

You can’t be an improviser if you have to have the BEST, MOST CLEVER, or FUNNIEST idea. Take what is offered and develop it.

An irrational tilt has more mileage than a rational tilt. Irrational tilts force you to explain more. The audience wants to know.

Crazy ideas produce mysteries that need to be solved.

Question everything, that’s how you learn.

Stay truthful to yourself. If you are a Christian be that, if you are a racist be that. The audience doesn’t want to see you being what you think they want. They want you.

Finding out how to do something by copying other is not a good idea. Copying another theatre’s work will make your work a museum.
Ask questions, hear the answer and then try it out without discussion. Discussion will kill every good idea.

Voting is horrible. Voting is apologizing.

Don’t say no to ideas. Allow people to try it and see if it works. If it does, yea. If not then you move on.

I think women should practice working by themselves. It’s a different experience. Men compete.
Put 3 men in a room and 2 will work to leave out the 3rd. Put 3 women in a room and they will work to include each other. It’s a different method of connecting.

Say yes to every idea if it can fill your theatre.

It’s more powerful to have a mouse in a karate suit than just a mouse.

The more obvious you are the more wonderfully creative you can be.

Drama is A changing B
Characters have to change, that’s what makes drama.

Watch movies to learn about status. How many times does the character blink? Move its head? How much space do they take up? The body tells a story by itself. Watch silent films.

Find a gesture that is central to your character and build around that.
Actors worry too much about emotion. Crying isn’t ever for them; it’s for the audience. Actors ruin plays by working so hard for emotion. Find a gesture and there it is.

Emotions are so annoying. You can’t laugh at a person you feel sorry for.

You don’t cry, that’s the audience’s job.

You can either have knowledge or certainty. If you want certainty you have to make up a religion.

The end of today’s last session was spent watching Keith’s movie Trance Mask, all about the mask workshops he used to do with Loose Moose, his former theatre company in Calgary. Mask work is a wonderful way for beginners and people with stage fright to create a character. Keith finds it quite annoying nowadays, but it really does work. It’s closely related to voodoo and religious rituals where the Gods would possess a person. A mask will tell you who they are the minute you look at yourself in the mirror with it on. This work can be very emotional and terrifying. It is not for everyone. The more frightened you are of a mask the more connection you have to it. It’s best to just work it all out and face the fear. The mask will not kill you.

I want to share a video with you that Keith told us about. You MUST, MUST, MUST view it even if you never read my blog again. It's called Little Girl Giant. A perfect example of spectacle. I wept when I saw this and I'm insisting she come to Pittsburgh. We must all see her and be inspired by her peaceful presence. Click below and Enjoy!

Little Girl Giant

The meals today were fantastic. They even give us a tea and cake break every day at 3PM. It is a glorious way to live; practicing your craft and eating well. Now I will to sleep. That is important too. Until tomorrow friends.