Day 1

I arrived in Paris, after linking up with my friend Elsa who is housing me here, i headed out to La Cartoucherie to have my meeting for the selection for the workshop.  Here is how it works:

You have a meeting with two actors of the company, then you take part in a group workshop led by Ariane Mnouchkine.  By the end of that you are selected to participate in the workshop.  if no, you go home, however if you have come from abroad, you are able to audit the workshop.  So, it is a bit of a win/win situation for me, as i have come from abroad.  

I had my meeting with two fantastic actors from the company.  We laughed and had a good time and spoke about why i chose to come and take this workshop.  I spoke about how i loved her and her work and her ability to infuse theatre from the east and west and my passion for which all of her theatre embodies.  I left the interview and was told to come back frinday at 1500h for the workshop with Ariane.  On my way home i grabbed a bagguette and a pain au chocolat...oh how my taste buds have missed you so!

I ate and got home and slept for 15 hours straight until the next day as I was/am super jet lagged!

I woke up early on friday to stop by the Lecoq school to see the first year autocours.  Every Friday, the class works the whole wee to create a new piece of theatre and presents it in front of the whole school.  It was great to come back and see the 1st years perform.  they were doing animals in a human situation.  I was surprised to see how differently i viewed what they were doing, as it has been 4 years since i was in their shoes.  We were always told Lecoq used to say, you learn a lot after leaving the school... i understand that after seeing them perform.

1500.  I arrive at La Cartoucherie.  I love this place.  every time i come here i feel as if i am coming home.  The smell of the country side, the huge wide open spaces.  I meet people from Hong Kong, Brazil, Spain, chile, England, Quebec, Italy, Poland, Lebanan and Germany.  We speak about theatre in our contries and how cool it is to be here, while we drink tea and await to be called for the workshop.

When we enter the theatre I am blown away by how beautiful this place is.  As we enter Mme. Mnouchkine greets us and telling us that we should change our clothes and wait for her to call our name so that she can see who we are (she had papers with our photo and info about us that we filled out).  One by one she called us and we greeted her as we took the space.  We were all in bare feet, and one woman came up and threw her socks on the side of the theatre.  Ariane stopped calling names, looked at the socks and asked whoever threw them to remove them.  She said, this was the playing space and not the changing rooms.  Clothes go there, actors go here.  It had been a long time since i was in a space that had such respect.  It was immaculate and very important.  She was nice but firm and her comments raised ourr attention in the room.

Once we were all called up, she introduced herself and said that this will be a very short workshop to decide who will be part of the larger workshop.  She was sorry to have to do this, but because over a thousand people had come, she had to make some kind of selection.  She made it clear that the selection had nothing to do with your ability as an actor.  She was not going to see your soul, or what makes you good or bad, it was just about whether she sees you in this moment or not.  She repeated this at the end as well.  It was amazing to be standing in front of this woman who i have only read about in books or seen on video.

We were put into 3 groups.  The boys went first.  One of the actors from the company was our Choyphee.  We were a chorus and had to follow him and what he did.  We were in a "v" formation behind him.  Music played and he began to dance and move around.  While we played she made very precise comments.  With each comment the group played better and better and picked up our level of engagement.  It was just like in the videos!  She is so so good!

I did as best as i could, and felt i did well.  We then sat down and watched the others play.  It was such a simple excersise but amazing to watch the people follow the actor (who reminded me so much of Troels, my fellow company member).  

When it was all done, she thanked us and said we would know if we were selected by the end of the day.  I hung out and talked with people some more and then headed back to Lecoq to see the 2nd year's presentations.  They were working on Greek chorus... funny i just came from there!  Again, it was amazing to see their work as the school is really continuing to evolve and explore what the Greek chorus can be.   The theme was, the crowd in reaction to an outside event.  No text.  It was fascinating to watch and very strong work from the class... I say that, because they really proposed clear and strong worlds and managed to transpose the theme into something larger than just "chorus" work.  

I get home, open my email and find that i was selected for the workshop!!! I am very excited and will have lots to write about on this blog.  I hope you enjoy it and i will do my best to share my experience here as best as i can.  Right now i am a little tipsy from the wine and extremly tired from jet lag.  So i am out.  I can't express how amazing it is to be back here and to be doing this workshop.  I am so inspired by the level of work that is expected and the engagement and the poetry that exists here.  It is just so different and it is good to be back.

Also, please help me write this... if there are questions you have or things you want to know, please let me know!