After a three week hiatus, I had another acting class Monday night. Two students did not show, so we had a small class of five students. We started with some hatha yoga for relaxation. It was much needed, especially because of the race on Sunday. After about 20 minutes of yoga, we did an exercise in which we would pretend that the air was made of various substances. We started with air as it is, then moved to thick air, then water, than rubber, and finally stone. At the end, he told us to imagine the stone air turning back to regular. It may not seem like much, but its quite a workout just pretending like you are trying to move through thick air.

Then we did a couple of exercises focused on emotions. One exercise, we did on our own. We had to walk across the room, without speaking, displaying an emotion that would gradually get stronger and stronger. After this, we did an exercise where everyone was involved. We had to pick an emotion and interact with everyone else while portraying that particular emotion. It was weird portraying one emotion when someone else is portraying a completely different, unrelated emotion.

After a quick break, we did an exercise called "machines". One person would go to the front of the room and perform a repetitive motion with a repetitive sound. One by one, other students would add on to the make believe machine. In the end, it sounds like a really whacky machine. Then our teacher left the room with instructions to make a real life machine with our bodies using the same rules of the "machine" exercise. He would then return to the room and try to guess which machine we were. We picked out a computer. I was the mouse. We then had to pick out an emotion again and pick out a word or phrase that is associated with that emotion. We then had to pick out a movement that is associated with the movement and repeat the word or phrase and movement over and over like in the machine exercise. It sounded really interesting, but it also sounded really fluid and orchestrated.

Finally, we had to make an assembly line in which we are still following the rules of the "machine" exercise. We decided to make an assembly line in which we were making Jack-In-The-Box's.

In the end, the class went by way too fast. I am already half way done with the series of classes. I don't want it to end. It is fun and relaxing at the end of a busy day.