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.

Getting it right

WEDNESDAY 19 MARCH 2008

Well, I missed yesterday’s class and most definitely would get in trouble with Pritina for not showing up. We had to meet today for one hour but because Elizabeth didn’t show up, I worked with her for two hours. Since I still hadn’t learnt my lines properly, she had me stand in the middle of the performance space and read, then recite, my lines over and over again, until paragraph by paragraph I knew them by heart. She also cut out a few lines that she felt were unnecessary to the monologue. She also did this to make it easier on me when I started my memorisation.

It was long and hard work. By the end of two hours, I could remember four of the five paragraphs. Which was pretty good, Pritina felt that finally she was making headway with me. She reminded me that we would work some more in class but I told her that I had a dental surgery appointment tomorrow so I wouldn’t be able to come for practice. So she gave me the extra long Easter weekend to study my lines thoroughly and also try to work out who the character is talking to and what the monologue is all about.

This was going to be a truly LONG weekend.

I'm in deep trouble

FRIDAY 14 MARCH 2008

Well, I met with my director Pritina today at the TA space and well, despite all the time I was given, I still hadn’t learnt my lines. You could say she was a little disappointed in me. I showed a lot of promise especially with the monologue I chose but I still don’t know my lines.

So Pritina had me read my lines out from the page while trying to get into character. To be honest, I lack the ability to truly understand what my character is all about. When I try to variate the way I say it, I still sound monotonous. It was truly a frustrating thing for me.

We didn’t have much time because she had to go over the monologues of my fellow group members. So Pritina did some work with Anshu, trying to get her to speak loud enough to be heard with the quiet space of the TA room. After a few tries with Anshu, it was back to work with me and my unlearnt lines.

This meeting was a truly difficult thing for me and maybe too for Pritina, I don’t know but I’m sure she must’ve felt frustrated with me for not learning my lines despite the fact that I had the whole long weekend to learn them. I know I can do better next time, my homework from Pritina was to learn my lines by heart and practice in front of a mirror so I can better understand my character and also work out a few facial expressions that might work with each line or sentence.

This is going to be a truly difficult exercise for me.