Week one - Did you say overwhelmed?

Lire cet article en français.

Hello lovely people!

So here I am ready to give you a condensed (if possible) report of the first week of classes ... yeeha, hang on and here we go!

First day, nine o'clock in the theater for the briefing with Colin, the director of the school. We, the geeky first years who had met the day before for a picnic in Central Park, kind of huddled in the same row, comparing our schedules. Mine is pretty well balanced : from 9am to 18pm every day except Wednesday when I start at 11am and on Thursday/Friday when I finish earlier. The second years make a hell of a racket, and are clearly too happy to see each other again.

Sunday afternnon ... All these beautiful people, only Ali (blonde) and Brittany (far right) are in my group. 

Colin gives us a rundown on the school where we understand that this is not going to be a walk in the park, and before we have time to breathe we find ourselves in Voice with Lucille Rubin. For now, it's not too hard, as she's introducing the program, but on Wednesday it starts getting serious ... :)
Right after we have Alexander Technique, where we go into big philosophical discussions about posture. We  eat lunch with a slingshot then re-topo with Paul libbin replacing the late Theodore Mann as artistic director of the school and the theater. A passionate and intelligent man, it is a pleasure to listen to him.

To get a true idea of ​​the atmosphere, you should add the volume ... 

After that we meet Mina Yakim, our Mask teacher who worked with Mime Marceau and Stella Adler in her time. She asks lots of questions and start a discussion on the usefulness of the neutral mask for an actor. Some of my co-students have great reflections, it's fun!
Then our first Speech class with Elizabeth Loughran where she takes a moment to talk about her approach and goes on asking everyone questions to start creating our profiles.

Finally, Singing Interpretation with Sara Louise Lazarus. Eager to work, as always, I go first  and sing "I read" with a lost pianist and an out of tune piano... I must have spanned three different keys in one song! But, as nervous as I was, I enjoyed acting it, so it was alright. I followed with my Miss Marguarida's monologue and had a blast ! So glad that I could do it in front of an audience, as I was frustrated with not having had a chance to audition with it.

Second day! Voice again with Lucille's assistant, Kristina, who doesn't tolerate lateness (in fact, no one does: 3 latenesses = 1 abscence, 3 abscences = you're out). We run to dance class with Jeanne Slater. Frankly, I've never seen a class conducted as efficiently ... Even if I wasn't struggling with the steps, I had to hang on her every word to get everything she wanted (the downside of being a foreigner!). Those who had never danced gave a hundred percent (like everyone always do here) and followed somehow. Personally I am delighted because she works in depth and sensations, so I'm not disoriented even if it is more "straight jazz" than what I'm used to. We did a routine on "Too damn hot" from Kiss me Kate ... Yummy !

An "advanced" class should start within one or two weeks, on Friday morning at 7:30 am (!). What can I say? This week has confirmed what I already thought: French people are lazy artists.

After that, Acting Technique with Jackie Brookes. Such a joy to study with someone so rich of life and presence... Then Acting Workshop where we choose a partner and a scene to present in the coming month. As I am here to work and Silas, my partner is also eager, we will be the first to go next Tuesday with a scene from Venus in Fur (there is no words to say how happy I am about this).

The first day was pretty laid back. At the end of the second, our state of mind could be summed up like this:

(Gotta love Audra)

We already have a pile of homework and rehearsals lying ahead, and it's not going to get better. The next day, our first two classes are canceled, so we come to Scene Study class with Alan Langdon. He takes most of it to take us on a detailed "tour" of the room, each piece of furniture, every hole in the wall, observing our reactions and trying to elicit responses. I observe and smile. I smile less when he gives us a list of scenes that we can choose from: out of the 30 plays I barely know 4 ... A lot of reading in perspective. I knew my lack of knowledge of American plays would be an issue, but it's still frustrating and makes me feel unprepared, even though I did my best to read as much as possible in the last few months. I still sign up for next week with the imposed scene (Pinter) and in two weeks with a scene from A loss of Roses.

From Wednesday on, I begin to struggle to meet my translation quota  in the evenings as we already have a lot of things to read, memorize, research, write. Thursday adds a new sonnet for Classical Text with Edward Berkeley. We present all our Shakespeare monologues, this is the first time everyone performs in my group of 17, well,I tell you, there's talent to spare. The other new class is with Terry Hayden, acting technique, 95 year old. The way she deconstructs people in two sentences is fascinating. I think we're all going to break down in this class because she is unsentimental, while still being compassionate.

Terry in her younger years ... a beauty.

So, at this point, I'm already working in the subway in the morning, in the evening, any time I can.

Just when we think we cannot have more homework, Friday shows up with the Text Analysis class. And then, how do I put it ....

We only have this class for the first 4 months, so Larry Gleason tries to do his best to prepare us in this short amount of time. We are divided into two groups, each with a different play, and in two weeks we have to make an interactive presentation  about the historical/literary/artistic/etc... context. It would not be so bad if we were not already overwhelmed by the work for other classes...

My homework for the next two weeks ...

Fortunately, after that, we go to Stage Combat with the legendary BH Barry, who is funny, friendly and efficient, and allows us to unwind by throwing each other on mats while screaming in (fake) pain .

That's it, we've seen all the teachers, the week is over (though not really, because I spend Friday night and Saturday rehearsing). My feelings in no particular order: my group is great, very friendly, hardworking and most of them introverts, which is relaxing. I wanted a real training, and clearly it would be hard to find one better. Also, thinking of some french students I know who think they work so hard, I can only smile... No comment! You'd better be well organized to become an actor in the U.S. If you put 30 actors in a room, the volume is equal to that of an airplane taking off. New York is beautifully random, and the rare times we go outside, there is always something unexpected happening ...

I'm exhausted, behind, overwhelmed, and it is only the first week. But nothing can match the joy of being on a roof in New York after an exhausting week, amidst the lit buildings, rehearsing a scene from Venus in Fur in the dark with a guy I can actually believe in front of me. Or start working on a nonsensical scene from Pinter only to discover learning it that the writing itself gives all the information you need about the characters. So there's only one thing to do before tackling the second week:

On those words, I'll go learn a sonnet, read a play, start my lists for Alan, learn IPA, and research on contemporaries of Calderon de la Barca. I do not guarantee such a detailed account in the coming weeks ... but I try to do the highlights!