Secrets and Lies

Many of my 2 readers know I'm in school. Specifically I am in a conservatory program at ACT ONE studios. It's pretty great, considering it's only the 3rd year in the history of the conservatory program.¹

Classes include such gems as: Improvisation for Actors².

My teacher for this class is a staple of the Canadian Second City³ and a well-respected teacher of this work. He even wrote a book recently!⁴

Anyhow, we've started a project for the end of the semester. We were all given the assignment to search archetypes and figure out which one we wanted to be. Then we had a lengthy discussion on what an archetype is and why would we want to be this particular one. We were NOT to think about story or relationships. Just archetypes. Just pick one.⁵

Once we'd gotten sort of squared away with a choice⁶ and listed them on the infamous white board required now for schools, he explained how we were to create this improv one-act.

He begins by asking the class a question⁷: "Who has seen the movie Secrets and Lies by Mike Leigh?" No one raised their hand to agree that we had, and my teacher got a little frustrated and said, "I've been mentioning this movie since the beginning of the semester⁸ so why haven't ANY of you watched it yet?"

Um, yeah, I missed that one. Not because I wanted to (got a great cast and all) but it's not readily available in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ya Canadian! Sheesh!

So this now becomes the assignment. Well, Netflix doesn't always deliver on time and one of my wonderful classmates⁹ decided to find it at the library. What a good man! He watched it and then loaned it out to the rest of us to watch. I got it on Thursday night (class is on Fridays) and planned to bring it back on Friday morning.

Other than falling asleep while it was on, I understood why we had to watch the movie. It was definitely not the best movie I've ever seen, however, the concept is a good one. The characters were created in an improv and it wasn't until Mike Leigh¹⁰ had them flesh out the characters did he then put it all together in a story. In many cases the actors have no idea who they will be acting with until they get to the scene. "Brilliant"! I suppose.

So feeling like a person who finally "got" the joke¹¹ I was prepared to discuss this lukewarm movie in class. I go to eject the tape from my VCR machine. It does not want to release it. Hell hath no fury like the one I unleashed on the VCR. It still would not release the tape. For more fun and hellish interest on HOW we¹², ok JON convinced the machine to release the library's property, read this.

Here are a few pictures of the end results for your viewing pleasure.

You feel important. Don't you?

We BEAT YOU VCR! Wolter, Dr. Scotch, and ME!

The "fun" part about class was getting to create some information on our "character". Refresher: I am a prophet. Our teacher didn't want us to "think" about our characters, but we should put pen to paper and just write (for 10 minutes) continually about our character. He gave us some "starter" questions to help us along. Here were my answers to the questions¹³ my teacher asked us in trying to help us "Write! Not Think!"

Bathroom
25
My pet puppy
Never saving anyone
Seeing the future
Can't save anyone
Someone will listen
Smiles
Rejection
Tiresies
No children
Joan of Arc
Ted Hoerl
Baseball
Picture of my mother in a jeweled frame
Hearing the "word"
By motorbike

Upon the completion of the exercise to "Write! Don't Think!" we had to read, as the character, what we wrote. Even the nonsense. In fact, the nonsense was the most fun¹⁴!

As I sit here on Spring Break¹⁵ I remember the last thing he asked of us before we left for the week. "I want you to write more as your character and bring it in to class".

So...I decided to begin a series of blogs by The Prophet. She will be here soon to "borrow" this site and speak about her trials and tribulations and...well...life.

Stay tuned.

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1. Many know of ACT ONE since they've been teaching actors for years. The actual conservatory is only 3 years old. So no letters...thanks. :)
2. Folks in the biz call it "improv". We're in the know.
3. Posers
4. Probably much more enjoyable than it sounds. Really. Probably.
5. Seriously, I'm the 2nd oldest person in my class and watching my teacher explain this PROCESS to my classmates was one of the most irritating things to endure. I got my sudoku-for-the-day done, though.
6. I picked mine really fuckin' quick. I'm a prophet. Yes. I. Am.
7. Teachers never learn. They never fucking learn.
8. No. No, you haven't. I listen. You haven't.
9. He's the oldest one in our program. He's 53. He could be my dad. And for some of my classmates, he could be their granddad. AHAHAHAHAH! The elderly.
10. Genius or douchebag. You decide.
11. Rectum, darn near killed him.
12. The Jon Wolter (owner and writer of THE SLOG blog) a guy I spend copious amounts of time with.
13. Demands
14. Like Disney World, but smaller.
15. Excuse to drink excessively and do NO work.