Questions

I felt today's class was somehow different from the classes we've had before. We did play games, like we have before, and we discussed about a topic(this time honesty), as before, and we tried to tie it together with terms we already have learned(Le Jeu, complicity, creativity etc.), as we have done before. But especially after a certain game, the mood of the class somehow changed. I cannot quite describe it here right now, since I am not sure what the change exactly was, but I am sure something happened.

Describe the exercise: Just Be. Give your reaction.
We played a game, later named as Just Be. It is a game hard to be explained, as I realized later on the day when trying tell about my to my roommate. The game itself seems very simple played by one person at a time. They pick a spot on the floor and drawn by the spot they move to that place and then face the audience as themselves, but they can't do anything. Just stand in one place, relax and open themselves up to the audiences gaze. As simple as the game sounds, the game itself is not easy for everyone. I could see people tense up or put on a 'show'. You could see that people were not complitely comfortable standing on the spot, and as more and more people went up to the spot and came down with an embarrased laugh, I started to tread my turn. But as I stood up, focused on a spot and faced fifteen pairs of eyes, my mind suddenly fell blank. No panic, no joy, nothing. I am not sure if that was the point of the game, but just standing in one place, not supposing to do anything was almost like meditating, but rather than trying to shut down the outside world, I felt like my mind and my thoughts were wide open for everyone to see.

How can you apply any of today's exercises to your scene?
   If you'd know me, you would know that I am all about taking a breath and letting the audience's brains to tick for awhile during a scene. I really feel that we could use the Just Be- exercise to let the audience to really see a character and what really is in their mind. As a group we have also planned out a scene in our little play where we can use the 'Focus' game to our advantage. In the scene we introduce a servant who is having her first day at work, while the other more experoenced servant shows her around. She is quite clumsy and a bit ditsy, she goes around knocking a vase of its place, while the other servant follows her and cleans the mess the new girl has made. It could have the new girl changing her focus and going back and forwards the stage, while the other servant focuses on the new girl.

By the way, I played the 'Don't bumb into each other' game in town today. Unfortunately I lost, but as the only player, I guess I also won.