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#Post#: 52--------------------------------------------------
Make a Fool of Me
DIR By: StoryGod
Date: December 17, 2019, 10:29 am
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Miella watched the afternoon class file into the small upstairs
gym in Rapinoe-Connolly-Brinker. This was the second improv
workshop of the day and she felt warm and fluid in all her
joints and calm with that good emptiness of mind that comes with
preparing for a role. It had taken seven or eight years,
starting in middle school, to learn this state of mind, and to
start others on the road to it would be a gift. The morning's
class had been full of know-it-all boys and girls who wanted to
be stars in Drama Club. Miella had spent most of high school
drama club with bit parts in musicals and working endlessly on
dance steps. She even begged her parents for dance camp and
dancing lessons in the summer. Well, they could snarkily say
where it had all landed her, but at least she wasn't starving,
and in a year or two she'd get back to the stage, probably come
summer. She'd get someone to cover and go to tryouts in the
spring.
This afternoon's class included a soft looking Suite Advisor and
eight very young looking girls. Miella breathed a sigh of relief
that she had fourteen year olds in her suite, though it had
taken work to make sure they all behaved like decent human
beings instead of selfish and self-absorbed little things.
"The most surprising thing about acting," Miella began after the
greetings. "Is that it is a team sport. Unless you are doing a
monologue, you'll need someone else who knows the script and in
improv, where you don't have a script, you have to become
sensitive and empathetic to those around you....Now who knows
what improv is?"
A girl in a University of Vermont t-shirt raised her hand. "It's
short for improvisation. It means you do what you want."
"What you want within the constraints of putting on a show and
communicating. Is communicating a team sport?"
A hand went up even though the question was rhetorical. "What is
empathetic?" asked Tikvah.
"It means you can feel what others feel."
"Is that like kindness?" Several girls glared at each other.
Miella was glad one of the little kids was not brain dead.
"It's kindness with understanding," Miella explained. "So what
we are going to learn today is two things, how to function as
part of a team, and how to use our whole bodies to get our point
across and understand what others are saying with their whole
bodies."
A girl with a Hello Kitty t-shirt, pink earrings, red artificial
nails, and beautifully curled brown hair tossed her curls with a
small sad shake of the head. She glanced at another girl with
golden braids that hung down straight and framed her face, and
both girls shook their heads knowingly.
We start by paying attention. Now I want everyone to sit on the
mat in a circle, you too....
"The name is Albina," the soft looking Suite Advisor said. "OK
Albina, sit across from me. I'd like you to participate too."
"I'm not a baby sitter," thought Miella as three more girls
showed up. They looked like juniors or seniors. "Have a seat.
We're just starting the introductions."
"Sorry, we're late," said the blonde girl with a square jaw and
ripe zit above her eyebrow. The other girl was swarthy and wore
makeup that was just a bit too obvious. The girls looked at the
ten year olds with barely veiled disgust. Miella suggested the
older girls sit apart and dispersed among the younger ones.
"Now we're going to start by learning eachother's names. Get up
and walk around if you have to. I'm giving you all about ten
minutes and I'm going to do it too. When I say 'stop' it's
STOP."
At least the Suite Adivsor, Albina, was a good sport. The older
girls pretended to be interested out of politeness and fear of
getting in trouble, most likely. Miella formed up the circle.
and the game began. It was simple and similar to clapping games
of childhood. Getting a rhythm going encouraged fast thinking on
one's feet and with a dozen kids of various ages, the group was
just the right size for Who Stole the Cookies. The fun was that
everyone had to remember as many names as possible so they could
keep going and not repeat call on's. Kids were good about
complaining they'd been called on twice. They were not so good
about being put on the spot. One even tried to crawl out of the
circle and Miella explained that nobody was ever out in an
improv game. "You have to learn to live with failure," she
philosophized.
"Now we're going to do some acting without any lines? Can
anybody tell me what that's called?" Miella waited.
"Blocking," said one of the older girls.
"Blocking is moving around the stage and that can be an answer
but I'm looking for a word with an 'm' or a 'p'"
"Pantomime," Corianne came up with the word.
"Pantomime or mime is what we're going to do," Meilla explained
as the girl with red nails and beauty salon curls pulled a face
imitating an acting mask or perhaps Marcel Marceau. "Jupita can
you demonstrate mime of eating popcorn?" Jupita came forward
and glanced around. "Go!" called out Miella. Jupita froze and
then glanced around. There was no escape so in the end, she
cradled a box or bucket of popcorn in her left hand, picked out
pieces with her right, and popped them into her mouth, taking
care to chew.
"Nice, job!" Miella answered. "Now Nelia let's see you mime
brushing your teeth." Nelia stepped up, ran an imaginary
toothbrush through her mouth and dodged back into the audience.
Miella had one of the older girls mime a coin toss, and then it
was time for another circle game. Miella made sure everyone
stood up. "This game uses words and your whole body. I'm going
to stand in the center of the circle and mime an act. We're
going to go around clockwise starting with Jetta. Jetta is going
to come into the center of the circle, and ask me what I'm
doing. I'll tell her and then she'll have to do it. Then Leanne
will have to come into the center of the circle and ask Jetta
what she's doing and then do it, and so on, until we get back to
the beginning. The trick is you need to tell the person who asks
that you are doing something completely different from what you
are miming. You're telling them what to mime next."
Jupita and Suri exchanged looks and the game began. Jetta
appeared to be bouncing a ball. but when Leanne asked her what
she did, Jetta told Leanne she was talking on the phone. The
game went pretty well, and then it was time to do the present.
There was no mime involved in this, but it could be tricky. You
had to imagine what you had been given and thank the other
person. And the thing you imagined had to be the first thing out
of your mind. What made the game especially fun was thanking the
gift giver for particularly useless or disgusting objects. One
girl got a pajama keeper. Another got a seaon pass to Rye
Playland. One of the older girls got a car and she lamented that
she couldn't have it at school.
"Let's try something very physical next..." Miella continued.
She lined up her class for a gesture game. Then it was time for
alphabet letters. This meant lying on the floor and contortions.
This is where Miella lost Jupita and Suri. The girls got up and
walked out refusing to form the O they had been assigned with
two others and Albina. There had been a mutiny of sorts this
morning with a nearly mature high school girl asking to use the
bathroom. Miella hadn't counted on a pair of ten year olds
refusing and saying in a voice loud enough to hear: "This is
really retarded."
Psychologists might have called this testing limits. Miella was
glad these ten year olds were not her headache except they were
for the next forty-five minutes. Miella glanced at Albina. "Come
on, I'm not being paid to babysit for your eight," she thought.
"That is really ugly language," Albina stepped up.
"I'm sorry," Jupita backpedaled.
"Then prove it."
"Do I have to apologize to...."
"No, what do you have to do?"
Jupita glanced around the gym looking for help or inspiration.
"Four syllable word beginning with P and ending with E"
"I'm ten years old. I'm not supposed to know these words."
"First three letters P-A-R"
"T-I-C-I-P-A-T-E. I thought this was acting not crosswords
puzzles."
"Well you know what to do if you're sorry."
"Shit," sighed Jupita who lay down curled into her part of the
O. Suri who was assigned to make an N lay down as the middle bar
of the N. "Thank you," thought Miella.
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