In Tuesday afternoon’s class, Tim and Migina had a fantastic rehearsal. They are working on a scene from Venus in Fur by David Ives. Both actors were solidly prepped, working well off each other and the scene took off. Tim found hilarious behavior to express his mounting frustration with the scene and with Migina’s character. In a particularly funny moment, captured above, he grabbed a couch cushion, screamed into it and banged his head against the wall for about 15 seconds. It was truthful, specific, ballsy and it really worked. Cay commented that Tim had made a huge breakthrough a few weeks earlier when he started using his real girlfriend as the person on the other end of the phone. She felt that he had learned the power of specificity as a force that will ground him while simultaneously freeing him and the improvement in his work was just staggering. Congratulations to Tim!

Cool rehearsal tip from Caymichael Patten:

Cay had Max doing some serious character body work in class this week. Before she led him through a physical exploration she had him do the “X” exercise to make sure he was physically connected. Here’s how you do it. First do a good physical warm up, focus on stretching, alignment, connecting your breath and freeing yourself from as much physical tension as you can on this particular day. Lie on your back with your arms and legs spread in an “X” formation. Wiggle your right hand. Can you feel it in your left foot? Wiggle your left hand? Can you feel it in your right foot?  Repeat going from side to side, hand to foot and foot to hand. Once you can feel the diagonal wiggle you are physically connected and ready to go!