Acting Class Day One

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Acting Class Day One...

First it might be entertaining to tell you about the night before class. Only because it was the first major time Alexander i have slept apart since living in our lovely Gombak studio. (Not as kinky as it sounds) Having my morning tea without him was a bit strange and all the Indian waiters were shocked to see me alone...Where is Alex? Where is your friend? People were so concerned. And i had no one to tell random stories to. Back to friday night ... neither of us wanted to be Gombak geeks so we headed into town and went our seperate ways. I went to have some drinks with a friend who i met through a dating site called, "Love Happens". Alexander continued onto Petaling Jaya to meet up with Merlin and Nevinder. My night was fulll of Booze, long chats with Jacky and her Indian friends about the mockery of Malaysian politics and taking bets on whether or not their other Indian friend got a blowjob from a really drunk woman who he escorted home. The sad part was that the woman was wasted and had her 7 year old son with her. Jacky and I then headed to another crowded club and danced to the music of an Indian DJ. She told me her fantasy was to have sex on the bar... I made it back to Gombak studio around 2 in the morning. I think Alexander, Merlin and Nevin stayed awake to see the sunrise in Petaling Jaya.

Back to the Acting class...
We met at 1:45 at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPAC). I was scared that i was going to be late because i couldnt catch a taxi so had to walk a mile in the hot humid air and cross a dangerous road with continual roar of traffic. Joe Hasham teaches this class and he runs it like the military. If you are late on the first day you get severely humiliated. If you are late on any of the next nine classes you are not allowed to enter.

There are 25 people in the class. A smattering of diversity. Two americans, One scott, Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Punjabi's.

Today we jumped right in with some breathing exercises taught by Dominique, A Master Breath Instructor from France. And then we played some fun improv walking games where we had to freeze in funny positions.

Joe Hasham told us some interesting points about acting

• An actor has to have the discipline of a soldier

• An actor without focus is a baffoon

• Never ask "how" to play a scene or a character. Always begin with the W questions. (What, Where, Why, When, With Who? etc...)

• It is more important what you are thinking than what you are saying

We then did some more activities such as; crazy voice exercises, facial expressions, tongue waggling, and all around funny stuff to loosen up our normal range of behavior.

Speaking of which we also had to get into tight groups of five. Boys and girls mixed. In order to break down all reserves about body contact we had to put our hands on our partners butt cheeks while standing toe to toe in a tight circle of five and shoulders touching. Pretty hilarious.

Our homework for next saturday is to practice our voice, breathing and facial exercises every day, memorize some lines and prepare to act out the following emotions...

JOY
SORROW
ANGER
FEAR
LOVE
LUST

I'm glad jealousy is not on there because thats an emotion i never want to feel again!
I'll take Lust over jealousy any day. Although...now that i think about...Lust probably often leads us to Jealousy...so disregard what i just wrote. I'm still learning...

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