Les Subsistance

Hey guys...needless to say, we got pretty busy over the rest of the trip. I recorded entries in my journal, and have transcribed the remainder here all at once. Enjoy!

Friday, April 11, 2008
I don't think there are many ways to describe the experience most of us have had over the past two days, but I personally could try to sum it up in two words: life-changing.
We worked yesterday and today with Laurent, who works with Turak, the same group that presented the work with the puppets that all of us loved so much at the festival last weekend. He introduced us all to a new way of working with objects and puppets that produced some interesting, thought-provoking, and fascinating results.
We started the morning with two lines facing each other from across the room, each person partnering with the person across from her. He explained that we first would learn the technicalities of working with these particular puppets in order to improv, discover, and play with them later.
I suppose I should stop here to try to begin to explain the semantics of the puppets. Each one was made of a man???s suit jacket with special holes cut into the backs of both sleeves for the arms to slip in through. Attached to the top of the jacket was the neck portion of a man's dress shirt, and attached to that was a head with a face made of latex. There was a hole in the back of the head for a hand to slip into, and a wooden rod in the center for the hand to grasp. There were no movable features on the face of the puppets, which means (you guessed it) that the only way for them to express any motion--or emotion, for that matter--was solely through the movements of the operator.
But before we could even take out the puppets, Laurent wanted us to grasp exactly how difficult our task would eventually be. He had each set of partners work with only their hands at first, using just a fist to symbolize the head and the other arm as their puppet???s arm. This exercise proved way more complicated than I think any of us ever thought it would be. You find yourself keeping several balls in the air at once. While making sure the head is always looking on-target at the audience with a life of its own, the arm must also have very specific and direct movements that match the personality you have created. On top of it all, your legs become the puppet's legs--or at least it seems--so you've got to constantly pay attention to your walk.
After doing this for awhile, with frustrating results, we then did an exercise that would end up helping us later, as there would be more than one person operating a single puppet. One person stood apart as the "puppet" while four others stood at a short distance, each of the four holding an ink pen. Each person holding a pen controlled a different part of their ???puppet???s??? body: eyes, head, and each arm. After awhile, something really interesting started happening. Instead of it appearing disjointed, like four people each controlling their specific body part, everyone began working together. The result was that the person playing the puppet began to take on a life of his own--completely controlled by four other people. This taught us all a huge lesson in listening to each other without necessarily speaking, and about paying attention to the physical result of our interactions with each other.
It was then time to get out the puppets and begin to play. Laurent paired us up in twos and gave us a puppet. Some chose to have one person work the head and one arm, while the second worked the other arm. Others chose to have one person use both arms, while the second operated only the head.
After a few hours playing and improvising, we all finally began to get the hang of things. Each person eventually found a partner that he interacted well with, and the next two days became a time of intense play and exploration. I quite accidentally got paired up with Elsa, one of the French students working with us. I say "accidentally" because Laurent originally wanted us to pair up with someone of a similar height. After others chose their partners, Elsa and I were the only ones left. Thus, the girl who was not five feet was combined with the girl over a foot taller than she. I think the results surprised everyone--especially me.
Unlike anything I've ever experienced, these puppets started to teach us huge lessons in the basics of acting. For me, working in this new medium spoke volumes to me. When operating these puppets, I couldn't hide behind my voice or facial expressions. In order to be successful, every ounce of my energy had to be completely focused on the way my body moved, so as to give a piece of cloth and a latex head a fascinating life. This experience taught me to pay attention to my partner. It taught me to narrow my focus of attention. It taught me that the simplest and most direct movements can often be the most interesting. Most importantly, it taught me that I am not only capable of using my body in an effective way, but that I can be quite good at it.
In short, I think the two days with Laurent forced us all to directly confront one "acting demon" or another. We walked away inspired.
Needless to say, this was my favorite workshop so far.

April 14, 2008
After a relaxing and eventful weekend in Lyon, we met today with Eric Masse, the artist who's been brought in to help us create the final project that we will present at the end of the week. Before this, however, we met in the morning to warm up our bodies and our minds.
We did several exercises with disassociation, when a part of the body is doing one thing, and a separate part is doing another. For example, we would do the old "pat the head and rub the stomach" routine, then he'd tell us to continue, only without the hands touching the body. To complicate things further, he'd have us switch actions, so that our hands were doing the opposite action of what they'd done before. We did several exercises like this and, believe me, they are definitely harder than you'd think! We continued the morning by playing several "theatre games" that forced us to work as a team, stay on our toes, and communicate. I definitely came away from my experience with Eric with some concrete ideas of exercises I plan to do with my class next year when I teach.
In the afternoon, he introduced us to Guillaume, the video/multimedia guy who would also be helping us with our final project. They explained their basic idea, which was loosely based on the writings of a French guy named Federman, who wrote what Eric called "auto-dramas." Each chapter contained stories of a specific body part (or scar) that was special to him. He talked of what made each body part special, and the excerpts we read were filled with humor, sensitivity, and just plain old good storytelling. Eric explained that some of what is in an auto-drama isn't always entirely true, that Federman wrote for artistic/entertainment purposes, as well.
They then laid out their plans for our project. Similarly to Federman, we would each choose a specific body part that held special significance to us and write an auto-drama about it. With Eric and Guillaume's help, we would come up with a creative way to present this story using video and images, then piece all of our stories together to create one collective "body."
At lunch, we all couldn't stop thinking and talking about what we wanted to do. We were all very excited about the prospects of this project. I immediately chose my eyes, for reasons that will be revealed when you read my auto-drama. :-)
The afternoon was filled with writing and planning. Guillaume took us one at a time to an area where he photographed each person's chosen body part. He explained that he planned to stitch all of these together to create a literal image of what the form would look like if all of our body parts were combined. I don't know exactly what that will come of that, but I think it will definitely be interesting!
In short, I'm pretty sure I can speak for most when I say that were are incredibly stoked about our final project. I can't think of a better way for us to express ourselves in a creative way that will combine our English and French skills.