Tellus Theater 105

5th Class--April 8th--1st Group Rehearsal
On Easter Sunday, we had the fifth class with Daniel from dawn till dusk. I was the first to arrive as always, followed by Piao, and many others. Daniel must have arrived much earlier to clean up the O Space. He looked young and handsome with his newly cut short hair. When I complimented his new hair style, he told me he had a superb hair dresser!

At 9:20, Daniel began the workshop by introducing to us more warm up excises to relax our bodies and minds, including tube exercise, neck exercise, and body exercise. I found these corrective exercises useful and remedial to keep our postures right and straight.

After the warm up exercises, we attempted the trans gender game. I didn't find it hard to play a man, either with a female partner or by myself. As the color of the gender fades in modern society, everyone can be a man or a woman as he or she wishes. Then we took turns playing the sex providers. Female students were asked to play prostitutes, male students were asked to play gigolos and rent-boys. After the role plays, we agreed a field study in Wan-hua would be a must for us to have a better look at the real life of a prostitute on the street.

For lunch, Daniel took us to a Vietnamese restaurant in the neighborhood. The young couple (a Taiwanese man and a Vietnamese wife) owners have a son and a daughter. Many annual portraits of the daughter were hung on the wall behind the cash register. They reminded me of my childhood in a military community in Chia-yi, the struggle of the hard working parents to survive in a new world with the hope to see the children grow up each day.

In the afternoon, we resumed the group exercise, in a pair or a team of 3. Daniel handed each group a news clip and asked us to play it out. Ibrahim Uluca and I worked on the recent news of the Australian visa application in Hong Kong. Being an Australian, Ibrahim performed well as the immigration officer from Australia asking for a special favor in his office in Taipei from a Taiwanese woman wishing to go to Australia desperately.

Then we changed partners for the second group exercise. We were told to act out photo clips from the newspaper. Sophia and I gave a story about a knitted scarf. We played mother and daughter arguing about the relationship between the daughter and her boyfriend. Be a middle age woman, I have fewer roles to play, but the mother and the prostitute.

After the group exercise, Daniel announced the roles of "Six Characters in Search of an Author" for the first group voice rehearsal. I played the leading actress, I had only a few lines in the first Act. With an abridged script in Chinese in hand, I had time to ponder upon the lines written by Pirandello and to link to the Commedia dell'Arte. I wonder what it was like when "Six Characters in Search of an Author" was played in Tokyo in 1924.

At 6PM, Daniel gave us a break after the first Act. I didn't stay for dinner and the second Act in the evening. I was exhausted! It's been a long day for my mind and body!

PS:When was the last time you went to a theater? What is your most impressive play? If I'm asked with the above two questions, I shall say, I've seen so many movies and plays recently. I visit CKS Performing Arts Library regularly. I read a dozen books about drama and theater on weekly basis. I participate in theater workshops on weekends. I'm devouring ferociously the knowledge of drama and theater to the best of my ability.

Toastmaster Piao and I saw Nuovo cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore at CKS Performing Arts Library Wednesday, April 13th. The moment Piao played the film, I knew I saw it before. But, I didn't mind watching it again for the second time. It's about a filmmaker's childhood. Salvatore fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist Alfredo.