A little late but no cigar? Thursday 6/19

So i've labored about what to write here over the weekend so I'll start by writing out a few things about how I was feeling after last class. Mainly, my feeling was centered around frustration. Obviously, there was technical difficulties and I understand that virtual classes are new to Jon and everyone. That said as I've thought about it since then have let go of that frustration and realized that there will be a learning curve for both mentor and student. Yes, I wanted to do the exercise and get through it and get some solid take-aways from it. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible because of technological syncing purposes.

I did, however, get some other useful information about better connecting to my inner world and giving myself the opportunity to focus and really connect. We practiced breathing and tagging, and using the finger to tag. We started with our eardrums and listening to the vibration coming from the sounds bouncing off of the eardrums. By starting on your inner world, you become okay with being vulnerable which then you can move into the out world. Also, by using your finger, it is the connection between the inner and outer world. You will have to be completely focused so that something from the outside world can be able to genuinely inform whats going on inside, this is practiced by opening your eardrums. What I find that I struggle with the most is getting caught up in thinking and not allowing myself to be completely present in the moment. THIS IS YOUR WORST ENEMY IN ACTING. It causes you to appear in authentic and unable to convey yourself as someone experiencing life in a state of randomness, which is what good acting looks like. Jon says, “as an actor, thinking is inherently selfish” and what that says to me is that if you were working with other actors you would be robbing them the chance to really connect with you because you have in effect put up a “wall of thinking” between you and them.

Now, back to the exercise. Although I personally did not have a great experience with the exercise it was awesome to see Lauren and Evelyn work. Evelyn started by humming Gladys Knight’s “Midnight Train to Georgia and then once Lauren picked it up she began humming and somehow involuntarily started humming RENT’s “Season’s of Love”. This was cool because I saw the connection of how rhythmically they were in tune, despite the technological issues, and I also found it interesting that Lauren without knowing changed songs that had the same time signature. Although Jon said that the time signatures matching wasn’t important, I just thought it was pretty cool that that transition happened to match time signatures, even though Lauren did not plan or look it up. What that says to me is that even though Evelyn and Lauren couldn’t necessarily be seen as matching (with the head bobbing and finger wagging) they still ended up having the songs, though different, have the same time signature. That was really cool to see, even if that may have been one of the two partnerships that was relatively successful. Anyway, I’m looking forward to this next class and further connecting the dots!

I really liked the class. Though there was tension, no one melted. I find it very helpful to push people at times. I want to get us to a point oh specific work. Sometimes, it feels a bit bad, but it creates higher expectations.

I loved your point about the time signature!
See, because of the lagging, I couldn't tell if yes, I recognized midnight train, or if I was projecting that onto the humming I was hearing in order to 'make it make sense' but then I just decided to go with it, then I saw Evelyn smile at one point and that smile made me feel ....right? validated I suppose that I had made the right 'choice' after all.
We then learned that was not the point- to be 'right' the point was to BE, be organically together in a moment.
I can't wait for the day when I can just turn my brain off and play!

xoxox