Class interrupted

THURSDAY 27 MARCH 2008

Today we had a much interrupted class. First of all, I was about a half hour late for class. The reason I was late is because we had a workshop for my journalism class and it too absolutely forever. It had finished at half past four and as I was rushing off to class, Ian Gaskell our course coordinator met me along the way and reminded me that I was late. What an embarrassing moment for me.

So I get to class and it’s like a cyclone blew through the TA space. There were cubes everywhere and flower pots, media centre sound system and tables too. All the monologue groups were scattered wherever they could sit, in the Space. Pritina was working with Anshu at the time so I just sat down and waited my turn, while running my lines through my head.

Speaking of that, a most interesting thing happened to me last night, I actually lay in bed for half the night because my monologue was constantly being replayed in my mind, line after line, I was trying to envision myself within the character and well, it actually worked!

So after Pritina was done with Anshu, she had her way with me. It was a bit weird doing my monologue in front of not only my fellow TA classmates but also a group of women who were setting up the space for a Gender Mainstreaming workshop that’ll be held tomorrow. You know how loud I can get? I had a few people staring at me during the class, I felt a little uncomfortable. Is this how you feel when you’re in the performance space, with the darkness all around and the spotlight is directly on you?

I think it was because I was so nervous and uncomfortable that I fumbled my lines. But despite it all, Pritina said that I was making headway with my monologue. She had me stand in front of the mirror to see myself and watch what I do within the character. She reminded me of the places that I had to emphasise words and other places where I had to variate my voice pitch to suit the line. I’m actually starting to get somewhere with this!

Our monologue presentation is next week Thursday so I’ll have to work extra hard to work it out and be within my character.