Grad School Year 2--Half Way Through

This first semester has flown by, and tomorrow is the beginning of second semester of my second year of graduate school. The second year began with Translations. Which was really about devising adaptations of films and novels, and 'translating' them to the stage. We worked on Melodramas, Commedia, Balinese masks, Bouffon, and Cabaret.

We cover so much so quickly in this program, and most of it will sound like nonsense if you aren't a theatre person or even if you are a theatre person but you live in America. Our school is grounded in the pedagogy of Jacque Lecoq who started a physical theatre school in France. Mask work, melodramas, and critical, mocking pieces of theatre are not the norm here in the west. These are usually labelled as traditional, old, and definitely not for a contemporary art audience. I think if I had seen mask work a few years ago, I might not have understood it. Now, it's one of my favorite things about this program.

Here is a brief summary of the semester:

We were partitioned off into small 'companies' or ensembles that we worked within for 10 weeks. We learned the inner workings of how to communicate effectively, attempted to agree on a universally accepted aesthetic, and tried our best to make work that we found exciting, bold, and new. I felt we were successful, but this is generally a tumultuous time. Outside of school most of us hope to form companies, and when doing this we'll choose the people we want to create with, who have a similar vision, but hopefully enough difference of opinion to never become complacent. Inside graduate school however, they choose companies for you and this can make it difficult when working with people who want different things or whom you don't function well with.

I had an overwhelmingly positive experience and learned a lot about myself as a creator, more about what I enjoy making aesthetically, and even more about how I like to work and function in a group. I also can't stress enough that this was finally the point in the program where we learned what it really was to make fully fledged shows. Putting an entire show together from just a nugget of an idea, and sometimes no blueprint at all is really an amazing process. I've learned that this is a form of theatre that I find exhilarating and important. Six months ago, I hadn't really done this yet. Crazy how time flies.

My company translated the film Baby Driver to the stage, as well as the novel Oryx and Crake. We created a melodrama that was loosely based on a real life woman who operated a lighthouse with her family in New England. We learned to write musical scores, and play foley (Which means creating real sound effects on stage with items that wouldn't normally create these real sounds. Think: how do you make it sound like waves are crashing on stage? What does a shipwreck sound like? The slosh of a boat on water. No computers allowed). We learned how to function as an outside eye (Which, after much debate, is different from the role of a traditional director, but that's another story), and play a mimeur (A body that creates space on stage, sets a scene, and can be the inner desires of a character).

We did a crash course in Commedia Del Arte masks and Balinese masks. And then we started a very long study (which we're still in the middle of) on the bouffon. The buffoon, in English. These characters mock everything and everyone. They can be ugly and grotesque but they always think they're beautiful. Their truth is beautiful. They know when they've gone too far, and they always apologize. But their goal is to make the audience understand how hypocritically they live their lives. It's a daring and dangerous form, and few can do it well. When you see a master at work, it's something to behold.

Cabaret wrapped up the semester. I created a character who left modern society to live on her own in the wilderness. I sang Survivor by Destiny's Child. It was something else.

I stretched. I grew. I failed. I don't fully understand all that I've learned. However, that is the beauty of my school. You learn it all, and then you choose what to gravitate towards.

We start taking a pedagogy course in our second year as well. This is really helpful because we continuously review what we're learning and learn to teach it. So, often, it's an opportunity to go back over something you might not have understood the first time. It's a time for exploration and innovation in how best to teach the work. This is a course we'll continue as we go through the program.

This second year focuses on performing. We'll be performing our bouffon pieces soon, then taking a showing of our favorite pieces to New York. We perform a clown show back in Philadelphia. The final show of the semester is called Dares. The faculty here will individually dare us, and we create our own shows surrounding these dares. We can be in them or we can direct them, but they'll be devised by us. Last year, the Dares showing was the best thing I'd seen in the city all year, not just at the school.

There's a lot to look forward to. I think it's easy in this program to get so wrapped up in the crazy that you can't take a step back and savor everything that's being learned. It's a whirlwind, and sometimes I wish it would slow down so I could catch my breath and remember more. But some things can't be changed, and the pace is part of how this program functions. I'm sure I'll be running around just as crazy as I was last semester starting tomorrow.

Wish me luck!