Today was another great day in class. During the morning improvisation class I was becoming a little disengaged because some of the exercises seemed to be repeating themselves. However, I just allowed myself to enter into the exercises and make the most of them. I've really become engaged in the writing class in the afternoon and our teacher Jay (female) flies through the work at a breakneck speed. I love her energy and how quickly she attempts to cover as much material as possible. During class she asked how the improv class was going and I said 'well', but then I asked to speak to her about it. I told her that some of the exercises were not as challenging as I would like and I was hoping to go back to my high school ready to teach some basic improv work to students. She was nice enough to stay after class and give me some extra pointers on things I could bring back to my students in addition to what I am learning in the class. She said sometimes her students say she is going too fast while other say the improv teacher is going a little slow; so I was glad that she understood where I was coming from. Even though the activities in the improv class are helpful and useful, I have worked on many of them before and I was hoping for a little bit more advanced training, but anyone who comes in must start at the ground level. She was also advising me on what I might do if I try and come back in a future summer for additional classes. I wasn't sure if the second level class would be what I was looking for or not. I'm going to follow up with her some more tomorrow with recommendations. The writing class is going great and we had some great discoveries in the improv class as well. Each night in the writing class I have to complete homework which is truly one of my favorite parts of the class. It is specific and we are asked to complete it in a specific amount of time. In a moment I've got to get cranking on it.
Tonight I saw a production of Neil Labute's play In The Company of Men by Profiles Theatre. It is a horrifying look at people who do bad things just for sport. The play opens with two men in the company bathroom who have been jilted by their girls. There are 3 main characters: Chad, Howard and Christine. Chad instigates the plot by telling Howard it's time they find a victim and ruin her life. He says they must find a woman who is vulnerable and then both seek out her attention (separately) and then break her heart, just for the heck of it. Howard seems less eager to do this, but eventually agrees to assist Chad in this sick game. They find Christine, a temp at the office, who is deaf and Chad decides this is the perfect target. Chad first courts her and then Howard steps in soon after. Chad sleeps with her Howard really falls in love with her. When Howard tells Christine how he feels she says that she's in love with another man. Howard is so upset he tells her their entire plan. The Profiles Theatre is a small theatre in Northern Chicago and it is celebrating its 24th season. The playwright did a re-write of this play for the theatre and this was the World Premiere of the revised script. Here are pictures of the set before the play.
The character of Chad was truly a disgusting person. Christine helped close the play out with a monologue about something that happened to her when she was 15 yrs. old and how her first date had told a distasteful joke about deaf people on their date. She didn't acknowledge that the joke affected her in front of her date but went home and balled her eyes out. She made a point of saying that the first date had come back to her house with a box of chocolates and apologized (he was forced to by his mom). The point was made clearly that even when people like to say they are 'joking', if it is hurtful to someone else, it is not acceptable. The play was outstanding and you really wanted to slug Chad in the mouth by the end of it. However, we all know someone in our lives who is simply hateful, just because. Maybe they do it to your face, maybe they simply ignore you when you've tried on numerous occasions to reach out to them, or maybe it's all done in hushed whispers behind your back. Whatever the case may be, it hurts and it's human nature at its worst.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment