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Alors,

For my regular readers (hi mum), I thought I'd give you a bit of a summary of what has been happening in the Geeniverse lately. The answer in short is school. And that isn't particularly interesting. So, class by class, here we go:

Singing: Not too much. Singing old English love songs about bonny lasses and such.

Voice: Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare. It's delightful, really. And for once, I am not too afraid of looking like a dumbass. So, I take a few more risks and get involved. There is no such thing passivity with ol' Bill. I sat on a wall for about a thousand mental years to know this. You can be utterly silent and the most attentive character in the scene. Bystanders are some of the most important people in drama. I have also made very, very good friends with Adriana from Comedy of Errors. She and I would be pals. And I can now breathe properly.

Acting: To quote an exchange I've had with my friend Alex:
"I'M A SEAGULL!"
"Shut up, Nina."
Ca-caw! We are delving into Chekhov, and it is such a departure from Shakespeare. It feels like there is a railway switchman, Petit Prince-style, going from verse to naturalism. Feel it, act between the lines, act in your line, act when others are talking. It is so full of energy, and there is so much detail despite the fact that the language is concise. Often perplexing . And I am playing Masha, the woman I understand the least. But I've been wearing more black and mentally gaining about fifteen pounds before entering. The snuff and alcoholism? Not so much.

Movement: It is becoming less of a constant reminder of my deficiency of grace and more of a learning experience. It's easier now that it is contemporary dance and not ballet. Ballet was maddening. I find that contemporary and I are pals. We are also creating a dance/movement study from a painting. I picked - in retrospect, quite naively - Picasso's Guernica. It is heartbreaking, enraging and exhausting. I am also using a piece of Yann Tiersen's music in which a violin is not so much played, but tortured. Oh, goodness gracious. I can't spend more than fifteen minutes a time creating it. More like GRRRRRnica.

I am also in a small show and still working in radio, but those will merit their own posts later.


And that is all for now. I should probably do some real work, now...