Robert Paterno
MFA 2010
So I know I said that the Parisian Excursion would be the topic of discussion today. I also said that would blog yesterday, so that just shows you what my word's worth at this point. Well, here's the quick and dirty of Josh's and my trip to Paris:
Lyon
Train
Paris
Married chicks
Brazilian dance club
Wall walking
4:30 am
Typewriter
Do you speak English?
Chibekia (Holler!)
Good people
Frog Pen
Montmarte
Love the British
Eiffel tower
Soaked
Train
Lyon.
On to the next order of business. We started a really awesome workshop on Monday with Eric Masse and Guillaume Marmin doing theatrical work incorporating multimedia and camera work. We're writing what's called Auto Fiction, which is exactly how it sounds: pieces that combine autobiographical and fictional material. We have had to come up with a piece that runs about three minutes, which was difficult. Our entire time here is focused on identity and our pieces are focused specifically on scars or physical parts of our body with which we have some kind of emotional attachment. I chose my spine, since I still have yet to learn how even sit down comfortably, much less stand up straight on stage without effort. Everyone has chosen really interesting and personal stuff, and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. We will present our pieces to an audience tomorrow, and we had our first 'tech rehearsal' today. Eric and Guilluame have really great instincts and have really found a way to make the most out of all our pieces in a very short time frame. And we've leaned a lot of really great physical listening exercises through this workshop that I will definitely incorporate into my teaching next year. We also worked with a Dance artist, Alex Roccoli, who taught us a very interesting method of dance that is along the lines of the physical listening and organic dance done by avant-garde groups like De La Guarda. Some really interesting things came out of the group work, and I learned a lot about different ways to move through space and abut teaching. I admit that I was a bit confused by the methodology and that caused me some frustration, but the final product ended up being very interesting.
I'll post more tomorrow after our pieces with Eric and Guillaume tomorrow. It's hard to believe that we've only got two nights left here in Lyon. It's been pretty great so far. I'll definitely give a full processing and recap when it's all over. Hope everyone is doing well back home. Have a great night!
Seacrest. Out.