We met in the basement of Nan and Billy Newman. (Thanks, Newmans!)
After warmups, we dealt with some housekeeping:
- Dale suggested that we commit to meeting at the Newmans until May 18, and that we continue to look for a more permanent, less invasive home. Marvel suggested the Newnan Hospital Fitness Center and offered to look into it. It was also suggested (later in the session) that we meet 7:00-9:00, for an earlier evening.
- We discussed the hesitation of some Mame cast members to join Lacuna for fear that it was too “weird” or too “hard.” We’ll reach out to them. Come, join us.
- We discussed the Contact Improvisation workshop being offered at Mary Frances’s dance studio. Dale encouraged everyone to attend: fears of not being “fit” enough were discounted, the whole idea being to find the tension and balance in any contact.
- We decided to decide by next week whether we will offer a performance of our Telling the Truth memories before June.
- Dale proposed devoting one session (or half of one session) soon to listening to William Blake’s Inn so that the group can make a final decision about working on it. Kim said she had tried to find it at bookstores but had been unsuccessful. Dale said he had asked Scott’s Bookstore to lay in some copies. (Ed. note: those copies are in.)
Having dealt with all that stuff, we worked on our Telling the Truth exercise. Everyone had worked on something and shared, and it was good stuff. Dale suggested, when the question arose of how to make them “better,” that we wait until Marc (who was in D.C.) returned to show us his methods of playing with text to worry about moving forward.
With about 30 minutes left in the session, Dale dragged out a box of scripts and asked people to go through an pick a scene for scene work, part of our acting 101 initiative. That was pretty unfocused.
For next week, continued work on Telling the Truth, plus William Blake’s Inn.
The floor is now open for discussion.
In attendance: Dale, Nan, Billy, William, Marvel, Melissa, Kim, Michael, and Kevin.
I accept full responsibility for the unfocused nature of the scene work section. I should have had scenes already selected and copied for people to peruse. My fault.
While getting the minutes up this morning, it dawned on me that I need to go ahead and share William Blake’s Inn next week: I’ll be out on May 11, and May 18 is probably my last session until August. (That could change, but with graduation and GHP upon us, that’s my best estimate.) So prepare to be puzzled and maybe a little delighted next Thursday.
Re: Art of Telling the Truth.
Tips:
It’s a process-oriented approach, so as you work through the exercise you will find new possibilities and ideas. Be ready to follow a new trail and turn on a dime. You don’t have to write it through the way it will ultimately be performed.
I decided upon my story. It was one short sentence.
I took a sheet of paper and divided it into five sections: time, space (place), body, intersubjectivity, object.
I thought through my event and wrote down descriptions in my five sections, in no particular order. Always asking myself, am I describing? Does it fit the category?
Then I wrote descriptions in my five sections about *how* the monologue event might unfold. In no particular order. I speculated about who is addressing, who is being addressed, where, why, etc (it wound up being me and a touch of not me–in fact the telling of the tale had a certain touch of “could happen but didn’t” to it.
Then I read through my sections and looked for ways to fuse the tale with the telling of the tale. What new words or images or events emerged? What got tossed? In what places did the rhythm of the telling take the place of a detail in the tale, for instance. Where did silence or ellipsis work better than words.
Example: in contemplating all of these things, I decided there would be no pronouns. Then I decided, no, the pronouns are merely being witheld, as a differed gratification for the “listener.” No logical reason, just something about the “object” involved in the telling, something about intimacy and resignation.
Only then did I decide to string my elements together in some kind of order, again guided by not only the needs of the story but also the “telling.”
Remember, you are creating a performance event, not just composing a story. Someone will be speaking your words before an audience, and that is the event. What is the event?
Regarding “weird” and “hard.”
Someone tell me the easy and comfortable way to start an acting ensemble. I vote we do it that way.
I only consider my private interests “weird” and “hard.” My interest in being a part of a acting group is probably no different from anyone else who is interested in such a thing. Everything I have written (and by writing too much I have aroused further suspicion, I fear) has re-stated that I am not trying to impose my “hard”ness and “weird”ness on anyone. I have been expressing some of the ways I play in this gathering of players. Read what I have written. I’ve been very transparent. I act. I enjoy doing shows. I have various enthusiasms. I enjoy finding ways to create. I’m one person writing from one point of view. If I can be odd and provoke or intrigue, goody. Who else wants to propose a game? Let’s do something that’s not hard and weird.
At my first grade Christmas party, I pitched a temper tantrum because the kid who drew my name gave me some wooden beads strung on a dried wiry reed. Everyone but me got normal gifts. One of the moms at the party got me to quiet down by giving me an extra matchbox car she happened to have. I never did find out the kid’s ethnicity, religion, or the cultural significance of the gift…
That was the first of a number of instances where I couldn’t encounter something due to a block in my ability to receive. I can count up the regrets and reasons for self-disgust since then.
I have been lucky, however, to have overcome some of those blocks (and not in ways which involved drugs, strange religious practices, or marginalized sexual behavior–pretty boring really) and now I have nothing to loose. And I drink beer. And sing in the Sunday choir. And I cry at the Lincoln Memorial. And I have fond TV memories from the Golden Age of Wrestling.
And the only reason I am responding explicitly to this matter is because it is being clung to as a way for some not to take the next step. Come on. And now to top it all off I’ve been indelicate. Another one that got away. And the lure has been snapped off the line this time, so no way to re-bait the hook. I shut up now, I promise.
Suggestions on how to proceed with Art of Telling the Truth:
1. We each compose a monologue using the process.
2. We play with performing them for ourselves–by each of us performing our own and then swapping with others. As we go through this phase we observe ourselves and note what is interesting. Make observations, notes and discoveries. Everyone will have a different interpretation performing each monologue.
Suggestions for protocol at this stage: a) everything created is perfect, no need to point out things we like or don’t like b)authors don’t need to explain or direct (any “do it this way”s should be contained in the final composition) c) let’s focus responses on what the thing (the monologue and/or its performance) causes you to think, feel, or do–let your questioning or explaining address that truth
d) let diversity of style and approach and subject matter thrive
e)let’s agree that all performing should be as natural an activity as drinking water and as disposable as the paper cup you drink from–no need to make issue of feeling vulnerable or exposed or judged, no need to get stressed by framing it elaborately–performing is just communicating, shaping thoughts and feelings
3. Then we can begin to elaborate our work in ways suggested by Turff et al. Performing some of the tales? Altering features? “Deconstructing” some of the tales? Weaving two or more tales together in various ways. Playing with unfolding events, with variations and contradictions. As we learn one another’s pieces, we will begin to share “lines” and stories and notions we can play with, exploring the shared material: the paradoxes of truth, telling of truth, telling as art, art as truth, art as something other than telling the truth.
4. Show Reflect Recapitulate. Compose our evening.
I really wish I could have been there. Dale, if you have anything that can be sent via. email like a script I could be working on, then I am at your disposal. I will work on it and be prepared next meeting.
I’ll take some time this week to pull together some scenes suitable for us, and then we can start over.
Actually, I may not get that done, what with Beauty & the Beast and getting William Blake’s Inn ready.