For what we can't mime

Rehearsing for 21:13

2008-04-01T05:03:00.000-07:00

This is some, fairly sketchy, footage of a 21:13 rehearsal. The ideas in this film are preliminary attempts at finding physical transpositions of the struggle we have to connect with others when we don't share the same language.

Les Jeudis

2008-04-01T03:56:00.000-07:00

Here are two of the pieces I perfomed at the Pompidou Centre as part of their Jeudis.

The idea behind the project was to try to take something from the works, be it the colours, the dynamic, the themes, the space, and transpose them into a short passage of movement. We then performed them in the rooms, in front of the works themselves.

The first is based on the works of Christian Boltanksi. It is concerned with memory, loss and the effort to pin down a 'true' self.

The second is based on 60s French Pop-Art. The room is filled with images of espionage, bright colours and grand attitudes, all of which we took as inspiration.

Wormits

2008-03-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

Horsing around for Mystere.

"Theatre des enfants" Jos Houben

LEM

2007-06-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

The LEM end of year show is coming up this thursday. It has been loosely inspired by Satiricon by Petron and tightly inspired by all the work we've done this year. The pedagogy of LEM is more or less how you can best use space to your advantage when designing and performing on stage. Hopefully this will explain it a little more, it is a character Valentina and I designed based on Trimalchio, the vain host of an enormous feast:

Masks

2007-02-22T06:32:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year blogfans. Apologies from us all for the lack of blogging in 2007, but, by popular demand (Lucy Blake), we're now back! And back with a new year's resolution to keep blogging. Happy New Blog!

Thanks to all our visitors this year too: Martha and Jonny and Agata and Cags and Daniel and Izzy and Lucy. It was lovely to see you.

Here's a sneaky peek at some masks in Paris. And keep your peepers peeled for Jenny Lee's forthcoming comic, it's sure to be wowful.

Tommy and the Tree

2006-12-10T07:58:00.000-08:00

Big Phil

2006-12-07T13:16:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas tree has just gone up in the apartment and Tommy and Jay are softly murmuring carols in the other room. Gather round for the story of Big Phil Gaulier who punishes me with physical torture 'fit for Jean-Marie Le Pen' if I am 'orrible on stage, tells me, on a regular basis, I am so bad I should be made into a British sandwich for the imperial lions and has taken to calling me a Mormon. The days when I am 'not so bad, eh, surprising' are the best of my life.

The first month of school was spent with ‘Le Jeu’, discovering the pleasure of having fun, the infinite freedoms of imaginary games and the importance of winking at the audience as if to secretly invite them home with you to eat caramels. Here we try to abandon our ‘shitty ideas with their sell-by dates which give rabbit fart pleasure’ and learn about the importance of breaking the audience’s watches, not their balls. One day I come to class and am asked to save my life after losing a game of musical chairs by snorting like an elephant who hasn’t had sex for forty years and who has just burst into a brothel. Another week I am in a cabaret bar singing Ella Fitzgerald whilst intermittently being asked to raise my eyes to the heavens and calmly recite ‘Mummy, Daddy, look at me, I am onstage and I am fucking boring.’ Complicity, pleasure in the ridiculous and the conviction that the theatre is as serious as a child’s game are paramount.

We are currently working on Greek Tragedy, having spent the past few weeks with the 'Neutral Mask.' This is where I would put on a leather mask and roll around on the floor like a maniac pretending to be Alka-Seltzer or fire: ‘head up Jennifer, my god! Worst student, you get zero!’. With Greek tragedy when we die we say ‘fuck you god, I am going to my destiny dancing and I am so happy about it.’ Here we try to show our soul and our passion, ‘not something artistic made for old ladies who got menopause in Vienna.’ Our ‘aura’ has to be huge and beautiful, not ‘boooooring’ and realistic, ‘Jennifer, get rid of that Stanislavski stick on your head and up your bottom, we are not in the actor’s studio.‘ The importance of having a ‘fixed point’ is also beaten into us: ‘Jennifer, don’t run about the stage like a boy scout on heat, you get the prize of the plastic spoon.’

Every day we are taught the theory that the possible flop is part of the sensitivity of the best actor, his secret, and the reality that when it comes it is always painful. We try to discover in which ways we will be loved as actors and to be sure in our heads that the stage is our kingdom.

Moving

2006-11-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

We are in our new flat!

Last week we weren't. Which made it difficult to sleep on account of not having bedding, walls or a roof.

We were sleeping on the floors of friends or in horrible hostels, spending lots of time reading in cafes, negotiating and arguing and begging with lawyers in France and an eldrely woman in Washington.

But we moved in eventually, in an irony as snugly fitting as a Jay Miller cardigan, at 7pm, Flat Night. Just in time for Beer o Clock.

All's well that ends well.

PS. When people told me I'd be spending each night in a different bed in Paris, I didn't expect this! Thank you, thank you, thanks.

Did somebody say flatnight?

2006-11-04T10:03:00.000-08:00

Yes. Somebody did:

Franglais

2006-11-02T15:04:00.000-08:00

We're beginning to feel that a routine is being established in our
Parisian lives. It goes like this...

Tommy and I are still in the same room which means that we share an
alarm clock. We wake up together at 7.45am and exchange a moment of
recognition. Tommy prends his douche first and I shuffle to the
kitchen to make our morning mugs of tea. We leave our flat at a sharp
8.30am. On our walk to school we sometimes chat, we sometimes don't.
At Lecoq we separate into our separate classes.
In a recent post Tommy explained the structure of our classes and how
we were finding them. Not much has changed since then. Our movement
classes have focussed on bodily control, mime and acrobatics. The
latter class reminds me of P.E. at school. I was always
rubbish at forwards rolls, cartwheels, headstands etc. My bosy is still not as lithe as i want it to be. Consequently the teacher,
Christophe, has began to use me as an example of how not to do things.
Though I have been reassured that his mocking of me is in good
spirit. Phew.
After school we drop some chat with friends in a cafe. Conversations
often seem dominated by the progess of our auto-cours. This week the
theme is an 'imaginary journey'. When we eventually present our
vignettes to the year group on a Friday afternoon the teachers sit in
a line at the front and critically judge our attempts at making
theatre. It is a scene reminiscent of X-Factor, except that to-date
no praise has been offered. The teachers rely on an officiously
critical approach, which means there is cause for celebration when we
get the slightest positive response.
After a coffee Tommy and I head back to the flat to make a late lunch.
Our days then seem to slip away; Tommy goes to his second course (LEM)
and i try to read French comics in a cafe on the canal with the hope
that my French will be improved.

One of the most interesting aspects of school is meeting a host of
people from very different countries. Our classes consist (amongst
others) of a gay Venezuelan dancer, a quietly angry Bosnian, an aloof
Israeli, a mono-lingual Japanese girl, a New Yorker with a 'real big
heart', and a professional Italian clown. This means that
communicating with each other can sometimes be frustratingly slow but
it is interesting to observe how people from different cultures
approach the dynamics of theatre.

Tommy and I are still working hard to improve our French but at the
moment a lot of our understanding of the taught concepts is based on
observation of others. We find ourselves thrusting our bodies in
various directions but we fail to understand the reason for doing
it. This means that when we are performing some ridiculous movement,
like rolling from side-to-side on our backs on the floor (thus being
unable to see other French-speaking students), we uncomfortably laugh
at ourselves because we have absolutely no idea why we are ensuring
that our t-shirts get dirty. We are both determined to improve this
situation.

You may have noticed that Jenny has not appeared in this post. Sorry.
Jenny does not go to Lecoq with us but she has promised to post a blog
soon about her classes. Just so you know, at the moment she is
working with the neutral mask. Over the duck that i cooked this
evening, she was telling me that noticing how actors used their bodies
with the mask strapped to their face was fascinating.

I hope that is enough of a hook to keep you checking for her update...

Hatrick

2006-10-22T03:49:00.000-07:00

Thomas has bought a new hat, a deerstalker like the famous detective Sherlock Holmes wore on his famous adventures round Victorian London. Elementary my dear Jenny, now get me some heroin. He bought it in a boutique of hats, a hattery as they say in France. Where's that heroine Jenny? It's woolen and blue, and has little earflaps that tie up in a pretty bow. He's now looking for a magnifying glass- now YOU know what it feels like Mr. Glass! Jenny, hail me a hansom cab.

The Cours Professional

2006-10-22T03:22:00.000-07:00

One week of school has now been nailed by Jay and I. I've had quite a few emails asking what the course is like so, if you're interested in applying or just interested in what we do every day, here are the basics:

The Cours Professional, which is the acting course, is taught for four hours a day, five days a week. Each day is divided into three lessons: an hour and a half of improvisation, an hour of movement and an hour of working on your auto-cours.

The auto-cours, as those French speakers out there might have guessed, is where you take control of the lesson yourself. Every week you divide into groups of about 5 or 6 and have to create and rehearse a scene based on an inspiriation given by the teachers. This week the inspiration was 'a place and a happening'. Because it was the first week there was a massive language divide as the foreign students attempted to get a grip on this slippery french. Luckily in my group there was a girl who spoke impeccable Fench and English. She was Swedish, naturally.

Jay's auto-cour was set in a church. Mine was set in a lift. They were both panned. But then, every group was panned during the show on Friday where you show your work to the whole year. 'Pas juste', is their big catchphrase: false, unreal.

There are about 100 people in our year, of which roughly half are French, a quarter are english speaking and the rest are from literally all over the world. There was a girl in my auto-cours from an island East of Mauritius. That's like, miles away. On the first day those 100 are divided into three groups who you then spend the rest of the year with.

The improvisation classes are probably the most difficult in terms of the language barrier. Although all the improvisations are silent (not colours and animals yet, but we'll get there), when you get feedback it's entirely in French and can be quite hard to follow. Apparently Jay smiles and nods through being told he was terrible. It should be said that nobody gets told they're good. It's very morale boosting. Each day you get a new sut-up which so far has been something like, walking into a room and without words trying to show what room it is, what time it is, what you're doing there etc.

Jay and I have maybe found the movement classes the most enjoyable over the first week. To be honest I find them hilarious because the room is so big that I can't always hear the instructions (and when I can I might as well not have) so I literally just copy the person next to me. Which is hard when you have to lie on your back with your eyes closed.

Flat Night

2006-10-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

The French for Friday is Flat Night. That was lesson one. Flat Night is Friday; Friday is Flat Night. Synonymous. Got it?

Ill tell you what we mean when we say ‘Flat Night’. We mean we go friggin crazy; we mean girls, girls, boys; we mean booze, and lots of it; beer, beer, beer; we mean shakin the dancefloor with our thrusting booties. Flat Night means it’s Happy Hour all night.

So, at 22.00 we log onto www.drinknation.com and find us some drinking games to propel our enjoyment of Flat Night. We get boozing with beer. We play some shit and laugh some more. Jenny dries her hair but she’s also going mental because its Flat Night; we nail a counting game. Flat Night.

We leave our logement at approximately 23.15 to find a hole to get beer’d. This is achieved in the Marais. We do more beer in a bar.We look boho. We are boho. Tommy smiles - the women go mad.

We move on after a group of bisexuals drop some fizzling chat into our melting pan. Jenny hitches a bike ride with Xavier who works for Danone but really wants to be an actor; we strut like dandies. We walk over the river; the flood lit buildings drunkenly stare at our Flat Night. In a blur of time we encounter our destination. Drinks are cheap; the music is alluring. It’s Flat Night.

The Dogg (first name Snoop) rifles his beats around the cellar. The bisexuals begin to move in on an increasingly oblivious Jay. But hey, that’s flat night.

Eng-ger-land

2006-10-12T02:36:00.000-07:00

At last a solid 'English' performance. I'm sick of watching all these long haired dive-mongers try and frog their way through a man's game. And if they're not dancing they're thinking, sewing on the bench like a woman or an Italian, thinking all the time, thinking their little Swedish thoughts. What do they know about Saint Georgge? But now we've got English thoughts: like fighting and heading. Real man's thoughts, like how far you can kick the ball. And statistics. With statistics you're either right or wrong, John Terry or David Beckham. Who would you rather be standing next to in a trench? John Terry because he's bigger. Men against boys.

It's just like McClaren said, keep it simple. Have everyone playing for England where they play for their clubs. Sven needs his glasses cleaned if he can't see that Chelsea, United, Liverpool, Spurs (all the good English teams, not like that dirty mudblood Arsenal, with only that traitor Walcott in the squad) play 5-3-2. Simple.

God save the queen.

la Nuit Blanch

2006-10-09T03:41:00.000-07:00

On saturday night 'La Nuit Blanche' took place all over Paris. It was a collection of art exhibitions, installations, films and performances that were all free, all night and all over the city.

We walked through the streets at midnight and followed a trail of pink balloons. These clusters of balloons, which hung above doors and down alleys, marked different pieces of art. As we wandered beneath trees hanging with clear plastic sculptures and past films emblazoned onto the walls of a church we were confused as to why there didn't seem to be the infrastructure for anything like this in England? Is there no funding because there's no market, or is it the other way round? After having this conversation we went into a marqee filled with sand where, on the far wall, the image of a polynesian beach, all palm trees and blue water, was projected. After leaving the installation Jenny was frustrated, and we admitted that none of the art we had seen had really impressed us that much. But, we wondered, if we and, it seemed, so many Parisians had enjoyed the walk and had at least tried to engage with the art, was that justification enough? In London there seem to be lots of festivals in celebration of a theme, but what would the reaction be to a vaguer, more diffuse, night of art?

Jay's Story

2006-10-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

Of the three of us I have been in Paris the longest. So this is probably going to be the most interesting part of our blog. It also means that I have done the most stuff. It also also means that I am now the most bored.

The stuff I have done so far is (in order):

• Pompidou Centre – the inside-out concept is really nice.

• The Left Bank – pretended to be a proper bigtime boho; didn’t pull it off because it rained and my plimsolls got wet.

• I went to the bank (a financial bank, not a bank of the Seine).

• I went to the Louvre to take a peek at the Mona Lisa through the hoards of Japanese tourists. Unfortunately the French museums permit the use of cameras – taking pictures of pictures really annoys me.

• I went shopping to get more boho.

• It became beer o’clock and so I went boozing to a metrosexual club with Eccleshare. It was free drinks for a while – I indulged, which subsequently enabled me and Jenny to shake the dancefloor to its knees.

• Recovered from a hangover by watching football in a bar with Eccleshare. Got bored of England so went to watch the French game.

• Me and Jenny went to Mass.

Jenny's first week at school

2006-10-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

This week at school I played alot of tag and rolled around on the floor whilst hugging people. My teacher says I am a mormon. Living with Thomas and Jay has been like being on the best rollercoaster of my life. Jay is a fantastic cook. Thomas has a big appetite.

For Your Convenience

2006-10-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

Bonjour and welcome to our blog. Enjoy this easy-to read English while it lasts because in 6 weeks we'll be writing this in French- and that's a promise!

So check it: we'll be dropping it so you can pop it exactly when you want, how you want. No nonce-ass e-mail clutter, no wise-guy inbox explosions just good old fashioned blogging. Just like the old days.

Come to our blog if you want to know what we're up to, to know what this crazy old city we like to call Paris has been up to with us, and hell, we might even throw in some football banter too. And don't forget to keep your peepers peeled for 'Jay's Monday Recipe', for those quiet nights in... Keep coming and we'll keep posting! And that's a promise!

Also watch out for some tres bien videos! Vodcasts, vidiblogs, photoscriptionmale and everything else you could want- all on this blog.

Feel free to send us feedback and messages of love. But mostly feedback please.

Coming up soon: 'la Nuit Blanche', 'Jenny's First Week at School' and 'Jay and those Crazy Pigeons'

All love, Jay, Jenny and Thomas. x