A hungry Mycah asks the class, which meal you've had has been the best? Clams, lobsters, NOT pumpkin pie, for some its just what they ate last.

A lot of the class's answers to the best meal ever has a lot to do with the people we were eating those meals with and the places and times that found us satisfied and satiated. We had meals, but we told stories. <:o) (•́⍜•̀) D•:▶ (^⍜^) 

Everybody gets the same red nose. Coming from the Lecoq tradition of physical, mask-based acting, we review the basics of the mask that is the red nose. To wear a red nose is to:

• Be at the most vulnerable

  • Have a heightened sense of awareness

    • Not be a character

      • Have a bullseye for your face

        • Amplify the rest of yourself

          • Pare yourself away

We hang the noses around our necks. That'll be $20 at the end of the semester if you want to keep it, by the way. Today we'll be doing First Looks--one by one each student will face the class with their red nose on and clown for us. We will generate our clown bodies before each other. But first, warm ups.

A hungry Mycah asks the class, which meal you've had has been the best? Clams, lobsters, NOT pumpkin pie, for some its just what they ate last.

Each person gets three scarves and after a little bit of instructions attempts to juggle them. Some people can't, some people can. So we partner up--what's working and what's not? People start to teach each other, show each other, or just share their inability to juggle. This warm up is about hand-eye coordination, but it's also about letting people help each other, point out each others' mistakes, and practice togther to improve. 

Then we circle up. Let's see whatcha got! Some people show off and other show up! It's all amazing. Then we pair up again. Then we circle up again. Repeat!

Circle-up. What have people learned?

Mamadou learned to pace himself. Paul learned that he was more uncoordinated than he thought. Katie leraned that she makes intense faces sometimes--and she's getting better at juggling. Neil is not thinking too hard and trying to find rhythm and flow. Jessica is letting the scarves be scarves, which is slow. Mitch loves snatching the scarves, which makes her sweaty and hot. Matthew is finding this hard, but also getting good enough to think about their face. Kit feels refreshed to be bad at something! Michael pinches the scarves and shoots! them! up! Bonnie thinks she can do this just as long as she breathes. 

We've faced scarves, hands, eyes, gravity, air, each other, the whole class, and ourselves. We leave the scarves in a pile where we found them and start walkin.

Something about eye opening

A series of games shotguns out between Mycah and the class. First is just the walking around. Using those cross lateral movements from the juggling. We're expanding into our bodies and taking up the space.

The whistle around Mycah's neck blows twice. That's the cue to go bigger, to expand. Whatever emerges, we amplify it. AMPLIFY IT! Letting it yup yup. Whatever we're finding, we're trying to play it, and play it in a major way. 

Cirlce-up in 10 seconds--do it again, in 10 seconds. We're a circle of idiots, playing together. We're an in-group of idiots, we keep our game to ourselves. Escalate the game. It seems to be some sort of WOOOOO game. The whole body of the players comes alive. Make the whole body more alive! The challenge is this: what can you find in the game? To do this, the whole body must be alive, and the whole face should make the biggest face you can.

We circle-up again, and go netural. We close our eyes, taking time to step the circle closer together until we are shoulder to shoulder. Ten actors making a connected circle. Slowly, the noses go on. The red rubber ball goes right on your nose, and the white elastic string goes right over your ears. 

The preverbal clowns sit in a circle. Mycah asks them, "Where is the center of your energy?" Though they're relaxing now, they must be still fully engaged. If not the body, it must be the eyes. Put it all in the eyes. Their eyes tell us where the centers of their energy is. Chests, stomachs, feet.

Sitting in the circle, Mycah tells them to close their eyes. Let the waves roll out to sea. With no rush, the noses come off, eyes open, and we go on water break.

We all sit facing one side of the room. A few rules for first looks--a student goes out of the room into the hallway. They put on the nose out of sight. They knock to come back in, and without words, will clown in front of us! Five students get to go today, each to their own, in un-summarizable performances.

Mycah nudges, challenges, thanks, and praises them as they show themselves to us for the first time ever. A clown is born! They did a really good job!

The tasks for today, checking in, juggling, and first-looking, were exercises to build muscle. The muscle for being here, aware, offering, and responding. What we learned today is hard (it's the point), but the more we do it the better we'll be. We develop a relationship. A relationship with failure, joy, and triumph. 

If it was really hard, it's something to work around. The containers we build reflect ourselves. What t.f. was that? becomes Who am I? 

And we sow the seeds of our group by performing in front of each other. We'll have to eventually build a show together. Then go off to build our own shows, without each other or this class. 

Thank you for taking great care of each other! Ensemble collectiveness and truth continues to grow.