School!

Well, let me set the scene for you a bit. The students that I am staying with are at the drama school. It’s not part of the university here. It’s a competition-to-get-in kind of school. And they one have one group of students at a time, so the competition is only every 3 years. And yet people from other schools still apply and if they get in, drop out of the other school and go there. Like 900 applied and 15 got in. And it’s free because of the type of school it is. Yeah. Cool, no? I was stunned that the directors and profs were ok with me being there.

The day started off ok. I had set my alarm, but of course hit snooze once out of habit. Then when I forced myself to get up, THWACK! Ouch, yes, that is the cross beam of the low, sloping ceiling of the bedroom. I knew that. Wander downstairs, have a nice bowl of tea (side note: traditionally, morning drinks are served in a large bowl. Like probably holds 3 cups. It’s nice to have steam and a pleasant aroma in your face and a warm bowl in your hands.)

Then, to the metro! We get to school, and it is a small building. A former gym, actually, but with 15 students, that’s fine. It works because there are separate changing rooms and different spaces. The day starts with hip-hop class. It was only their 3rd class, so I wasn’t too worried. A little worried. Not the world’s best dancer, here. Was supposed to start with hip-hop class, anyway. Turns out the prof had car trouble and couldn’t make it. The students practiced what they’d learned for about 30 minutes (basically til it was confirmed that the prof was a no-show) and then went to the kitchen to have coffee, tea, and lament that they got up 1 ½ hrs before they really needed to. They are still students, after all!

After that, tai chi. Why so many physical things? Acting is all about presenting your body, so being able to use it in different ways and trying different things really helps to expand the ways you move. They have a strength training class once a week. And I think other physical stuff in other mornings. Some of the energy focus stuff in tai chi I had heard before myself, but the way their instructor explained it was really cool. He’s a real instructor in the area who comes for an hour (I think - maybe two) each week for their class. I had seen tai chi before had a teacher in high school who was into it, but all I remembered was that it was about slow, fluid movements. Well, it’s not really about slow. You start out slow, you practice slow, but it is totally a type of martial art. Practicing slow creates the muscle memory to react without thinking. The instructor spent about 5 minutes explaining how the placement of your arms is important - the angle from your shoulder to your hand. He showed us how to do it, and then demonstrated why with a large guy in the class. With the guy’s arms in the proper positions, the instructor tried to push him. No go. We could see both of them shaking a little. Then he had the guy lower his arm 2 inches. Pushed him back in about 10 seconds. Had another guy show it. I was impressed, but a little skeptical. These were guys, after all, who had been in the class. Were they cheating at all? Then he had me come up. Arms in right position, I could feel him pushing but it really wasn’t difficult to hold it there. Elbow lowered, I expected it to be just a little harder, so I didn’t prepare myself very well. Yeah, pushed back in about 3 seconds. By this fit, but not super muscley 71 year old man. Cool.
Then it was lunch time. Everyone ate there, some people went to get lunch, some people had things in the fridge. There was a double hot plate, so people also made lunch. We talked, ppl asked where I was from, why I was there, I asked them the same, asked them about expressions when they lost me (so rare now, it’s so cool and sort of unbelievable.) They had 2 hours for lunch (typical here) so after eating, they cleaned the kitchen started rehearsing scenes they’ve been working on, napped, or wrote thank you letters for a recent internship sort of thing.

Then, their current director came. They’re working on stuff by Marivaux, a **th century playwright. I didn’t recognize the name, but I am sure I know one of the plays. I must have read it in high school. It’s a sort of Adam & Eve ish story, where several people are taken and raised apart (or is it sort of ’created’ as adults? I forget) and then introduced to the world and each other. Two guys, two girls from what I recall. The scenes were so familiar, a guy and girl meet and are instantly attracted in an innocent way. The two girls meet and immediately hate each other. The two guys meet and immediately are friends. Le, V, any bells? I could have also read it in French or theater, tho…

Enfin, bref, the director is from Paris and comes to work with them on these scenes. They are almost done with this unit, so they rehearsed from 2:30 til 7pm. (or was it 7:30?) It was fun to see what they are doing, and how they do it, and what the director says. That length of a day is nothing new. Sometimes they work til 10 at night, rehearsing together. And some have part-time jobs at the local theater. It is seriously intense. They will be with the same 14 other students for 3 years. For a very large portion of their waking hours. They’ve been there about 3 months, and all get along. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have so few people in my world. Many are from different cities and regions, too, so the only people they really know are each other, so a lot of them end up hanging out after classes, too. Last night we all went to one guy’s apartment that lives about 15 min from here. (I had dinner with some girls, and we had an adventure on the way, so maybe later you can ask me about the Great Metro Escape.) Everyone hung out, we played a game. I know that loads of group games are culturally-based, and this one was somewhat, too, and I always wondered what it would be like to be the one who didn’t always know. I certainly found out. Although it was based around people, so I did know most of them. Trying to get someone else to guess a person in a second language, even if you both know the person but from completely different angles… it was fun. I’m glad I didn’t have a competitive partner. K, I meant to eat breakfast while writing and did not at all. So I’ll stop here. Maybe I’ll get something from the bakery… my hosts aren’t up yet (I wouldn’t be, if I were them!) and that may be a pleasant surprise…