A group of days... UPDATED W/PIX

WITH PICTURES!!

Just curious… since I will not always have internet everyday, would you – my readers – prefer a short-ish post a day (or most days depending on the business of my day) for each individual day? Or a post every now and then that includes maybe more than one day’s activities? Leave me a comment with your preference.

27 July 2011

Yesterday we walked into Arezzo town. It’s about a twenty minute walk, so it’s probably about 5 miles! Upon leaving campus, imagine forty-eight people walking along a tiny street made for one-and-a-half European macchines (mah-key-nah = cars), so when there actually is a macchine, imagine all of us huddled against an ancient, dirty wall. It was grand. We walked all the way to the Arezzo Cathedral.

 

History of Cattedrale di Arezzo (kah-tay-dra-lay dee ah-reht-tsoh):

In the early 13th century, there was a famous and well-loved Pope, Pope Gregorio IX, who was traveling around Italy, when he became ill and died in Arezzo. The people didn't want to 'ship' him back to Roma, so naturally they decided to bury him. When a Pope dies, he cannot be buried in un-consecrated earth, so they buried him in the heart of Arezzo and built the cathedral around him.

This well is famous because of the unfortunate story of Toropol. Back in the day, there was a man and a woman who lived in this villa and the woman soon became bored with her husband and began to cheat on him. One day, the husband got wise to her extramarital affairs and when she sneaked out, he locked the door on her. Upon her return, she was unable to get in, due to the locked door and the husband began to yell out the window about how she had been cheating. His proof was that she was locked out at such a late hour that she should have been inside. The wife, getting worried for her life, hatched an idea. She grabbed the biggest rock she could find, dropped it in the well and hid behind the door. Thinking she jumped into the well out of shame, he ran out to her aid but when he had gotten to the well, the wife sneaked into the house, locked the door, ran up to the window and continued the husband’s yelling that the husband was a cheat. He was the arrested and eventually the well was covered and locked in memory of her deceitful and his unfortunate tale.

Fashion is only a little different here. I was told not to wear white tennis shoes or my beloved Converse, but it turns out – at least here in Arezzo – the fashion is quite similar to the local styles of the Central Coast! Casual and unique to the person.

I love some of the older peoples’ styles too though. That’s definitely different from our older people. Sometimes it feels like in the States, older people are deliberately trying to dress like the youngsters, which is fine, but I would like to see a few more people dressing how they did when they were younger, not trying to be like today’s young.

After the Cathedral, our final destination with Monica was the Gelatería. It was delicious!! I got some kind of Créma gelato and Biscotteri gelato in a coppetta medio (koh-peh-ta meh-dee-oh = medium cup). Delicious!

After the gelatería (gel-ah-teh-ree-ah), Monica said goodbye and left us all to explore on our own, in our own little self-chosen groups. My little group decided to just walk around and we walked for awhile, looking in various little shops. We stopped at a pet store once and gawked at a huge parrot that was desperately trying to get out of its cage. The pet shop owner told us in Italian that the parrot was small and would get much bigger because he was only un año (oon ahn-nyoh = one year). Whoa!

Then my camera died. Otherwise, I would have taken a picture of the toilette publica (twah-let-tah poo-bli-kah) that you should know NEVER to use while in Italy!

I needed to use a restroom and there weren’t any in any of the stores, but I was expecting to pay about a euro. We asked around and Rebecca used her pretty decent Italian to find out where the nearest public restroom was. We walked there and it was a tiny little building with a metal door and on the outside was a coin machine. It was .20 and said clearly in many languages that it doesn’t give change back. So I got .20 out and put it in. Then the door slid open and I walked tentatively inside. Everything was dirty and metal, with a couple of yellow handrails. I stood and just laughed. There was no where to put my purse. I looked back at my friends and immediately the door began to close! So I hurriedly took off my purse and threw it to them before the door closed on me. It felt like an Indian Jones movie or the door to the Egyptian cave in The Fifth Element. Very funny! I looked at the toilet bowl, which was without a seat, and realized there was no toilet paper! So, I called out for my friends to give me some tissues from my bag. (I had just used a tissue to wipe off some bird poop that had fallen onto Rebecca upon leaving one of the stores, so thank goodness they knew where to look. They shoved it under the door and I quickly went just in case the door decided to open again on its own, deciding for itself that I should be done. Once I was done, there was a little red button, so I pushed it and left, using some hand-sanitizer and wishing I had just waited for the trek back up the hill to the campus.

All of the buildings are made of stone and many have old, bricked up windows from Medieval times.

27 July 2011

Today was the first day of classes. This morning, our Comedia class was only ‘introduced’ to Comedia, its history and characters. Then lunch! And after lunch we moved a little bit in a little more introduction to the kind of physicality we’re going to be employing.

Wow… I remember now what it was like to be at PCPA in Santa Maria and be in so much pain doing the ballet class and movement and jazz classes; there’s so much movement and I had to get my Enbrel out of my system, which meant I was doing all of these classes without medication in my system. Now, I’m in the same situation, except add walking up hills and on cobblestone to the mix. At least I’m smart enough now to realize using ice packs is not “weak.” Class was very difficult for me today. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the toughest and practically about to collapse, I was at about a 9.5, to put it into perspective. I’ve been taking a pain killer with my morning meds and a different kind of pain killer just before bed, constantly heating the rice pack I brought (which I need to remake because it only keeps heat for about five minutes… doh!), and using the ice packs that are stored in the Accedemia freezer! Thank you, God!

Many of the physical actions we learned today required much wrist and ankle and toe action in bending to basically do half hand stands. So I know that I can’t put my hands flat on the ground because of my wrists, so I used my fists, which ended up badly inflaming my knuckles and toes. But, you know, after we stopped and I stretched my leg muscles a little and went back to the Villa (class is in a separate building called the Teatrino (tay-ah-tree-noh) – Little Theatre – just across the grassy area from the Villa), I iced my hands and my feet didn’t even seem to bother me. I felt like a normal person, with normal aches, but no really excruciating pain. So, there’s hope for me yet!

Beginning last night, it was raining! There are huge puddles all over campus but apparently this is not the normal weather, especially for Summer. I assured them it was because I was visiting.  ;)

For lunch, a couple came to visit the Accademia, although they were not introduced to us all. After lunch, as I was walking back to the Villa from my room and there was a woman standing next to a huge puddle that had her macchine in the center of the puddle! Thankfully she spoke English, so I was able to ask if she needed help. She was in sandals so I stepped with my lovely boots into the deep water, unsure of how well-made they might have been, or not, and they held! I opened her door, tossed her stuff in and then helped her maneuver her foot onto the edge of the car and aided her jump into the car! It probably seems silly, but it was actually funny and she was very grateful. I felt good helping, too. I feel bad when the language barrier hinders a helpful act.

Also tonight, because it was raining so much, some of us took a Taxi to Santa Prisca (sahn-tah pree-skah) Grocery Store for some soap and supplies. I got some yogurt, kiwi, water and what I hope it is rubbing alcohol for homemade ice packs. At the grocery store, the frutta is huge! All the fruit is about twice the size as fruit in the States, like they’re on steroids, but the good kind. When the taxi got here, turns out they started the meter from when they left wherever they were so the tab was already 7.10 euro! We went a little more than 2 km and the final tab ended up as 11.80 euro. For the trip back, we walked in the rain to the train station and picked up a cab there so the initial fee wasn’t so high. It started at 3 euro, but only ended up 7 euro. And both times there were four of us, so at least we could split the tab.

It was a good day overall.

28 July 2011

First Lesson: Space and Bubbles.

Today in class we learned about the empty space, filling it and being aware and focusing on it. Unfortunately, much of what Micheala said went in my ears and was put in some hidden files, easily reachable in the moment, but when trying to access out of context will be quite difficult. However, I am a writer and a teacher in my own right, as many of you will notice, so once I start going I made explain his teachings in such a way that it made sense to me, but also embellishing with lessons from other life and acting experiences – including, but not limited to, experiences in shows, classes and technique from PCPA, and my general life knowledge, learned from someone else or on my own.

Lesson One

Basically, the main focus of today’s lessons was the focus of the body and mind. As taught by Konstantine Stanislavski, the actor has three circles of focus while on stage. The first is the actor himself, the second is the other or others on stage. The third is the space. According to Peter Brooke, the empty space – which could also be Stanislavski’s third space – is more important to the actor than the space in general. It is the empty space that calls out to the actor to fill it and the actor, if in tune with the empty space, will hear that call and try to fill it.

As a person you have a bubble around you. This is your space. Your body, no matter how big or small, can only fill as much space as your body can fill. Whether you stretch your arms, extend your legs, widen your mouth… it doesn’t matter. You still only fill as much space as your body will let you. As children, our space is extended! Why? Because as children, we allow our imagination to be an extension of our bodies. Our imagination allows us to be huge dinosaurs in a future city with small flying cars to grab and eat, or tiny little bugs in a world filled with only giant tires to squash us. No matter what the story or character, our imagination really allows us to be any size, shape, color we choose. If we allow it to!

As an actor, it is easier for us to tap into that imagination. “Normal people” (the everyman) rarely allow themselves the opportunity, let alone the experience, of using our imaginations to change ourselves.

Micheala prefers to encompass Stanislavski’s second and third circle and combine it with Brook’s empty space to result in the first circle being the actor’s perception of himself, his own space – whatever space the body is able to take up, including the space the actor’s imagination can occupy. And the second circle is no longer simply the other or others on stage, but the space that also includes the others. This way of thought not only allows the actor to focus on what is going on around them – the other actors’ feelings and actions – but more importantly for their own space is the empty space that is calling to be filled with either their physical body or their overall presence, both physical and spiritual. In Comedia dell’Arte, specifically, there is no fourth circle, or more commonly known as ‘fourth wall.’ In Comedia, the audience is part of that second circle; they are another character.

The empty space is in every situation, whether you are an actor or not. How often do you look around you and see yourself or someone else move because it feels like someone is in your space? The reality is, it’s not your space. Your space is feeling cramped, so the empty space in the room or area in which you are calls out to you, “Hey, I’ve got room over here! Come fill me.” And you do.

So it happens in real life. It’s not just “an actor thing.”

The exercises for today’s lessons consisted of first exploring our own bubble. Our personal bubble’s center is our core, which is located in the center of our balance. This can be the spine, which starts at the nape of our necks and extends to our tailbone, and when we turn, we turn based on this, not twisting anything but merely allowing it to move the whole body. Or if you are trying to find the center of the sphere of our bubble itself, it is the pelvis area; the center of the pelvis, between our genitals and the bottom hole. From that singular point, the sphere extends up, side to side and ALSO down through the ground, where we can’t even see. Much of our bubble is invisible to our eyes. For you to be fully aware of your entire bubble, you have to allow yourself to feel your bubble and it’s contents.

Have you ever wondered why tvs and Widescreen is 16:9? It’s because our line of sight tends to be 16:9 ratio. Stand straight, focus on one spot on a wall in front of you and wiggle your fingers at the edges of your sight; find your natural line of sight. Your lateral vision as compared to your vertical vision on average is the 16:9 ratio. Why does this matter when talking about our bubbles? Because if you can only see what is in front of you, but you can’t even see all of that, it means your sight is even more limited than you think! Your bubble includes what is above you, what is below you and what is behind you, not just what you can see. So when you are looking at any spot, you are still unable to see most of what else is in your bubble. This is a problem if you are still not aware of what’s in your bubble.