February 20th

Pushing and Pulling Games
Today's class was primarily composed of further games designed to test our imaginative, miming and improvisational abilities. The main task was to imagine we were pushing or pulling something heavy, its weight, its size, and the way we were pushing defined by the way we looked, our face expressions, apparent tension in our bodies, and our backs. We were paired with someone and were told to 'carry a heavy imagined object across the room and put it down'. I think the point of these games was to help us make a connection between our imaginary world and what we are seeing with the real world, or what our audience is seeing us do.

I was paired with Gaia, and we carried a monster candy cane across the room for Ms. Ogletree. It was hooked on Gaia's shoulder, and I was crouching, pushing the base of the candy cane upwards to relieve some of the weight on Gaia's shoulder. I remember really seeing, feeling and smelling the candy cane as well as feeling the horrible weight and tension in my arms, but I was scared that if I let go, the candy cane would crush Gaia and break. We were however not very successful at keeping the candy cane together and it progressively got smaller to say the truth. However, by the end of the class, we had understood that a person who is pushing an object automatically gets a bent back with a visible curve, and a person who is pulling an object gets the opposite effect (their backs bend backward). We therefore had a second round of mimic pushing and pulling, with a different partner.

I was with Sua this time, and we decided to take a original approach to the whole 'pulling and pushing' task  we had to do. We pulled turnips out of the ground, occasionally jumping for tough turnips, all along singing the blues. I then pushed Sua on our 'swing' (consisting of me pushing Sua, her running a bit then jumping) and vice versa. I think we really nailed the back arching, and I felt like we were quite convincing. Its true, the more you believe in what you are doing, even if it doesn't make sense and you look like a lunatic, the more your audience will believe you.

February 17th

Where Games
Games based purely on imagination, ‘Where’ games had us looking like complete lunatics, answering phones that were not there, drinking liquids that tasted good but were not in our hands, and holding heavy books with no weight. We were basically told to pick up a phone that was ringing in front of us, and explain what we saw in the heat of the moment. The same thing was then done for two other objects: a drink and a book. The main purpose of the game was similar to our ‘Floating Experience’. We had to use our imagination to our best in order to actually see, feel, smell and taste in some cases the object we were holding.

I remember picking up objects invisible to others but concrete in my hands. The first was the phone: I remember feeling annoyed when picking it up, it’s simple, monochromatic and boringly bulky size due to its integrated printer and fax waiting for an answer. The tangled wire would not let me manipulate the receiver freely, making me even angrier. I seriously saw everything in that split second, and it was quite an interesting moment. The drink was even more interesting. I am not sure why, but I saw one of those huge beer cups my dad always drinks form, full with golden, foamy beer. The cold glass of the cup gave a nice cold wave through my fingers, and the swig I took from the cup was beerlicious, the bubbles sparkling in my mouth. I am not sure why, but I was simply sitting at my kitchen table. The book was even weirder. I turned around to a book, an encyclopedia , that I hastily picked up with a sudden urgent feeling, the book heavy in my hands. I flipped to the middle of the book, two pages filled with colourful pictures of antelopes. Yes, I was equally confused. Either way, I feel like I truly experienced the whole package of imagination during this game.

The second part of this game consisted of turning around, picking up a random object (imagined ofcourse) , giving it to our partner without telling them what we are holding and observe how they take it, and what they think it is. We must then ‘play along’ and improvise, and forgetting what we originally meant it to be: in theatre, always say yes.

I feel like I really managed to improvise well. Even though I originally gave Andre a half eaten banana, he received a video controller. We then played around with a scenario that I cannot remember no matter how hard I think about it, but I remember playing around in improvisation for quite a while with no awkward pauses. Overall, I think I am now able to move on to more serious improvisation: these games really give you a taste of and practice for the real stuff!

February 15th

Float Away
This is probably one of the more interesting games we have played. Float away was actually a very... weird and out of body experience. We were all lying down with eyes closed, listening to Mr Mouck’s voice and steps as he guided us away from Earth and into our favorite place and back again. Basically, Mr. Mouck started off by telling us how we were warm, enveloped in honey, and that we were slowly flying away. We were soon flying far above Earth, and slowly fell back down to a place with great significance to us. We had to pick up an object of equal significance once arrived, and observe our surroundings. Finally, we had to smell the place, and slowly drift back towards the classroom, peering at ourselves through the ceiling and reconnect with our body. Since everything we were seeing was actually happening in our head, the purpose of the game was to help us imagine, and believe things are there when they are not. This is useful for future use during acting: if you don't believe something is there, neither will your audience.

Needless to say, my experience was very interesting.  It was almost as if I was really doing what Mr. Mouck was explaining: I was slowly getting warmer, I could smell and taste the honey enveloping me and trickling onto my forehead. I slowly felt as if I was progressively disconnecting with my body, floating away, looking at my physical self getting smaller below me. I was soon turning around the globe, and I let my mind pick my significant place. It was a small chalet in Switzerland in the mountains, isolated from noise, lights and the frantic life. Berry picking was the coolest and tastiest thing to do there, apart from staring at the beautiful, distant lake below. I was in one of the rooms of the house, and I did not pick up an object, I held the hand of a significant other. The interesting part is that at this point, I had forgotten I was actually lying down in my English classroom. Everything seemed real, and I was so happy. The place smelled of fresh wood, and I did not want to leave. Sur enough, I drifted away, keeping these resurrected memories with me. When I could see us in the classroom from above, I must say we looked stupid, our mouths slightly open, dead looking. I drifted back into my physical self, and felt a sudden ‘click’. I was back.

February 14th

Moving Tableaux
The concept of the 'moving tableaux' is... well, what it sounds like, a tableaux that moves. A moving tableaux is composed of a group of people who create a painting with their still figures (much like the 'Tableaux' activity, but we are allowed to move in order to create a 'living' painting that tells a story. Much like the previous tableaux activity, the concept was to be able to meld wit the group instead of standing out as one individual, and since the theme was to create a monster, we truly had to be one person.

I remember having a lot of fun with the game: Gaia and me were the eyes of the monster, Lorenzo was the mouth full of teeth, Sarah the nostrils and Jean Louis and Mohamed the flailing arms. We each had our own distinctive 'noises', (for example, the eyes went 'squish'each time they closed) which really added flair to our monster and made it more believable. I truly felt as if we were one being, no longer individuals, and if one of us went wrong, the whole ensemble would fail: we really had to depend on each other and be 'one' to make it work. This was essential since we could not monitor what everyone was doing at the same time.

Dubbing
I personally think dubbing is the funnest game I have played so far. It was a game based on one person providing sound effects and speech outside the stage while that person's partner acted out their sound effects or stories as best as they could without making any sound. This obviously resulted in hilarious examples of things that were completely unexpected. I think the purpose of the game was to give us an introduction on improvisation and actual acting, since the 'speaker' often had no idea what he was saying, and was making everything up on the spot. This was my case. When my wonderful acting character Sarah came on stage, a short ÁHA moment sprung to my mind, almost automatic, and I decided to turn Sarah into a dog , mainly for the amusement of myself and everyone. I found that the most ridiculously cruel things I said that put Sarah into the most embarrassing situations were the best and funniest to experiment with, which gives me a good idea on  how to formulate improvisation in the future.

February 9th

Tableaux
A tableaux is a still representation of a story, scene, or simply an object.This can be explained as 'dead life', and is actually simply put, a painting. A painting can be obviously interpreted in an infinite number of ways, which actually came to our advantage. During the game, we were given a theme that we had to represent in a still 'painting'... in other words, we 'froze' our small groups of around four in interesting positions in order to represent the theme we had been given. One of the goals was not to represent an individual with the painting, it was to be a group, much like in 'machine' and 'madding crowd'. We were only given a set amount of time to prepare our painting, then we would present and it would be analyzed based on proxemics (how far away we were form each other [we had to be touching]), levels, and shapes: the shapes that were made in our paintings, for example two people standing and one sitting in front of them makes a triangle.All of these things were taken into consideration in order to analyze the true meaning of our paintings. The probable point of his exercise was to get us used ot becoming something else completely in a short period of time, to be able to match a certain theme but to still stay a part of the group rather than a distinct individual, all t the same time.

This was to me one of the funnest things we have done so far. Replicating a theme through a painting in a few seconds is not easy, but since everyone interprets differently (normally far off from what we actually meant), the interpretation of paintings is always fun.I remember what geometric shapes started to be noticed: it gave me a whole new perspective of the paintings, and I understood why my eye was drawn to certain places and certain people. The concept of working together as a group and cancelling out the individual was also important: I remember how I tried to be different from everyone else, yet the same.

Real Painting Interpretations
It was then our job to interpret different painting across Mr. Mouck's room. From 'The Scream' to 'Yellow and Orange', we argued on what we thought the artist meant and what he actually meant. I realized that the painting used color as a primary way of giving off an emotion. In 'The Scream', the colors revolve around dark, grayish reds and rusts including faded blues and greens. The colors truly give off the emotion of fear. Plus, the painting is composed of swirly, confused lines, leading to a more 'disturbing' ambiance going on in the painting. The painting that however collected the most disagreement was 'Yellow and Orange'. A block of yellow on top of a block of orange on a orange-yellow background is all that can be seen. It is understandable that the artist meant to play with colors in order to convey the emotion of happiness and joy, but whether or not this is really worth millions of dollars remains up to debate.

February 7th

Madding Crowd: Empty Space and Speed Changing
That is exactly what we are: a mad crowd. Places to go, places to be. The premise of the game: look for empty spaces in the crowd, in other words on the floor, and fill them in. You want areas with the most empty space, and these are often freed when someone sees a more attractive piece of land to walk on. This is then done at varying speeds, all the way from slow motion to super speed to confusion. Another interesting part of the game was to all progressively slow down at the same time and eventually come to a stop, with no eye contact or physical indication. We just had to 'feel it'. The same was done to start walking again. An added bonus is to like always, explore our levels.This game increases our awareness of the space around us and how we can use it, but it also incorporates the notion of the group: to do things together, to feel when we are doing it right or wrong, like one big brain.

I must say that at first, I did not fully understand the concept of the game, and stood in my little corner on my big patch of land that no one could steal, since I thought it was a competition to see 'who has the most land'. I soon realized we were actually performing a regular, nonstop cycle or exchanging and giving away (land), in such a way that we ended up being one, much like in the game 'machine'. The real 'connection factor' came up when we started speeding up, slowing down, coming to a simultaneous stop and a simultaneous start. In the beginning, when the new speed was announced (lets take '3' [moderately slow] as an example) we would all interpret what speed '3' really meant, and try to match that with our own walking speed. This however lead to everyone having different speeds, so we ended up having to observe at each other, in order to make such 'decisions of interpretation' as one person. The same was true for coming to a simultaneous stop: we would have to observe everyone, and match the group. Coming to a start was however different. One or two people would take a hesitant step coming from our still energy, and everyone would almost immediately start walking.

Madding Crowd: Giving and Taking the 'Energy'
The second distinct part of 'madding crowd' comprised of all of us standing very still, exactly like statues. One of us would then take our 'energy of stillness' (even though we were all perfectly still, we all had the energy of initiative or thought or even just future movement) and start walking. That person would then 'give' the energy to someone else with a movement or 'feel' of their own, freeze, and that chosen person would replace their walking. Soon, taking was incorporated, and we could now 'steal' the energy from the walking person., and we ended up being at least five people walking among the statues, giving and taking 'energy of stillness' all along exploring different levels. The purpose of this aspect of 'madding crowd' leaned more towards an exploration of levels as well as attention to our surroundings including feeling 'movements with purpose', in other words, moving with a reason for moving (or without... get me?).

Since we both didn't have and yet had control on whether or not we got energy, in other words had power yet didn't have power on whether or not we were frozen, we needed to be very aware of what was happening around us. I remember feeling how I wanted the energy so bad, because if I got it, it would give me a purpose, rather than stand there like a statue, so I tried my best to see and hear what was happening around me. That energy that we were holding for so long was then released as an exploration of levels. I remember being stuck in a bent forward position for almost 7 minutes (ack the pain!). When I was finally 'freed', my exploration of levels was intense: I became a graceful ballerina, and finally has a 'purpose' (but it was soon taken away...).

February 6th

Absent! Math trip.

February 2nd

Colombian Hypnosis
The principle of the game is quite simple: Your partner holds the universe in his hand, the beauty, the sublime if you wish. Your gaze is immediately and permanently attracted to their open hand, much like two magnets. Thou shalt not look at anything else: remember, what they are holding is of utmost importance and beauty. Additionally, the partner who holds the world should move his or her hand to different levels of space, translating into the gazer exploring different levels of 'height'. The point of the game is to make us 'realize' and 'experience' the fact that we are constantly being forced to do things, much like the media influences society.

I must say that holding the universe is a lot of fun. And it feels good... oh so good. To be able to 'control' the direction of someones head is just unbelievably fun, and that's probably why people get so power thirsty. However, things change to the opposite extreme when you become the follower. Constantly moving directions, standing up and crawling on the floor all depending the choice of somebody else is not a pleasant experience. In fact, I remember feeling quite humiliated, and I did not realize my partner felt this way when I was the holder of enlightenment... why do we let the media control us without humiliation?

Machine
The concept of the game 'machine' is to create one 'person' out of many people. In other words, it is a way to reunite a group into one... machine... one thing. Each person walks up one after the other, performing highly pronounced and 'loud' gestures or actions that are related or sort of 'work with', or 'make sense with' the actions of everyone who is already doing an action. Actions are then repeatedly changed, but the group remains a group, and there is no individual who stands out. Even though everyone is being loud and obnoxious with their actions, no one is special, and no one stands apart, we are rather one person who is large, loud and obnoxious. The obvious point of the activity is to help us understand what it is like to be a part of a group that works together as 'one', even though we are all doing different actions, rather than being an individual.

I found that 'machine' was an interesting way to combine our group. Everyone was busy perfecting and changing their own actions, but at the same time, everyone was observing everyone else in order to be more of a group and more interrelated. I remember systematically changing actions in accordance with everyone else's actions. It was almost like we had a group destination (even thought that destination was unknown), and we were all filling in our parts in order to get there, ultimately ending up as one, interrelated machine.

February 1st

Ditty Ditty Bop
Who thought saying 1, 2, 3 could ever get hard? With Ditty Ditty Bop, this was proven right: repeating 1, 2, 3 or Ditty, 2, 3 or Ditty, Ditty, 3 or Ditty, Ditty, Bop in a cycle between two people gets harder and harder and harder. The point was to pretty much stare at each other as one mutters '1', the other '2', the other one '3' and all over again, for as long as possible and as fast as possible with no mistakes. (the 1, 2, and 3 are eventually replaced by 'ditty', 'ditty' and 'bop'.) The point of the game is to enter a 'zone' which is different for everyone. (Basically, you are able to say 1, 2, 3 between you and your partner in an almost systematic way.) It is also a way to help develop a sense of queuing (when you hear your queue, [1], say your part [2].)

My experience with this game was very positive and interesting. I was paired with Sarah, and we entered a 'zone' almost immediately. I was basically staring a Sarah's nose but not really looking at anything, more like the air in front of her nose, and numbers were systematically coming out of my mouth each time I heard her say a number. I had no real control over what I was saying, but I could hear myself in my head, almost as if each time I said the right number, a small check was placed next to the number Sarah had just said. The zoning however almost immediately disappeared once the numbers were replaced by ditty, ditty and bop, since it was much harder, and mistakes were much more common.

Name Animal Toilet Paper (It was actually a metal ball!)
This is hands down the most difficult game we have ever played. What basically happens is that we are standing in a circle. There are three different series to be repeated simultaneously: First, everyone's name is said in a set order until everyone's name has been stated. Second,
every person is an animal, and there is a different set order in which those animal names are said by each person in the circle until everyone's animal has been said. Last, there is another different set order in which a metal ball is passed around the circle, until everyone has been passed to. Combining the skills of awareness, memory, precision, queuing (and some others that I'm forgetting), this game is a real mind buster. The only way to actually get anywhere with the game is to enter the oh so cherished zone, and the rest is a piece of cake. Well, sort of.

I must say that despite it being so hard for everyone to play together, this game ended up being quite easy for me. As each series was repeated so many times, I quickly had them perfectly memorized and I was able to say names, animal names and pass to the right person in a breeze after a while. I remember that I found it easier to enter my 'zone' when I closed my eyes (though this was not really possible when we started passing around the metal ball.). I would listen for my queue and my queue only, filtering everything else out. I would then proceed with what I was to say. I no longer needed to close my eyes anymore after a while, and could proceed with metal ball throwing in all awesomeness.

January 30th

Drive Blind
Based on your unawareness of your surroundings thanks to your closed eyes, guided forward by the simple taps (taps, not hits!) of your partner (or vice versa), you are transformed into a car, a car with no actual control on where it is going, or a driver, with full control on the path of your partner. The point of the game (as I see it) is to make you feel more aware of the space, or lack of space, around you, and also to be able to completely allow yourself to be something else with all of your being... that is, a car that DOESN'T complain when it involuntarily hits a stack of chairs, (Sorry, Tau.), or a driver, constantly aware of when something may go slightly wrong, ready to tap your partner to the right direction at any moment.

My experience with the game was interesting. I realized it all came down to trust, and when I was the blind car, I of course felt very panic struck at first: I could feel people moving right next to me, I was not sure where I was headed and could not keep up a clear virtual map in my mind )though I tried with haste!). I even attempted to make myself believe I was in control, but it was useless. I eventually entered a 'zone': I was not a car, not a terrified student, but something moving on its own in response to taps on my shoulders, walking into nothingness. I did not however enter a 'zone' as a driver. I simply patted Tau into different directions, desperately attempting to prevent collisions. This was however not entirely successful.

Zip Zap Boing
One of the harder games of the day, Zip Zap Boing was based on the concept of quick and accurate responses. We were standing in a circle, and one was to swipe his hands to the left or right, 'Zip', or swipe his hand towards someone across the circle, 'Zap', or return a Zip or Zap with a 'Boing!'.The Zips, Zaps and Boings had to be immediately passed on or returned, eventually leading to an ambiance of quick paced chaos. One who uttered the wrong syllable or failed to produce a reflex ended up being eliminated from the circle. I think the game's point was to improve reflexes, coordination and thought train, since it was almost impossible to follow up with the right move if you were not on time, saying the right syllable and doing the right movement, and thinking about the game, and only the game.

I have to say this game was not my forte, as I was quick to be eliminated. The Zips, by far my favorite, made me feel confident that I was okay at passing on. It was however when Zaps and Boings came along that I was at a loss: Too many words, to many people, too many choices and too much confusion! Entering a 'zone' was needless to say, very difficult. This did however eventually happen, but only for a few seconds: I could somehow forget about everything except the game, focus on the right words at the right time and say the right words while doing the right actions almost automatically. It was almost like it was not even me speaking, but words were still coming out of my mouth, and actions were still being performed.