I will break your both legs

ciao amici

The title = yet another Michele quote. That man and his english...

Tuesday and Wednesday were two more days filled wth Commedia. Whereas we did solo improvs on Monday, Tuesday we improvised in two's and then Wednesday we did group stuff. We actually ended up building this 20-25 minute play based off of all the improvising that we have been doing. Pretty amazing. If you follow the given structure and play by the rules, the structure frees you up into an exploratory zone where seriously your only option is to play - and in playing you have a million options. So many of my mental blocks are being stripped away - things I thought I knew I definitely did not.
We went back to learning more of the classic masks which was nice, because we had strayed away from that for a while. The main thing we worked on this week, though, was mask-shots which are basically little check-in's with the audience. It's very specific and stylized so it's hard, but is very clear the more you practice it.
I can already feel the training I am getting in Commedia seeping into my acting. It is such an enormous help. I feel like every actor needs to study Commedia.

Tuesday night we had "collabaret". It was yet another cabaret but this time we had to collaborate with someone who wasn't in the same track as us. For example, theatre students had to work with dancers or MFA students. Kadie, Emily(dancer) and I decided Monday night at about 10:30 pm that we were going to learn the entire Beyonce Single Ladies dance. It took us three hours...but believe it or not we did it. The. Whole. Thing. How ridiculous is that? ha. So the next day we dressed up, black leotards and all. Hilarious - but it actually turned out really well. It felt good to dance again! I miss it so much..

The weather outside today was like summer. I went running in shorts and a tank top - and I was still sweating...that's how nice it is! Absolutely gorgeous. If this is what March is like in Tuscany, I cannot wait for April.

We finished class this week today because tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday we are taking a field trip to NAPOLI; home to lots of things, but most importantly it is the birthplace of PIZZA, you guys. Apparently all the food there is the best food in all of Italy and it's also the cheapest food in all of Italy. I love how that works out. We leave tomorrow morning and arrive in Napoli tomorrow afternoon. Two teachers are going with us, Claudia (movement teacher) and Gianni (the man who teaches Tarantella to the dancers - - I mentioned him in a previous post) Naples is very two sided: on the one hand you have the nicest people in all of Italy, but also it is one of the most dangerous cities in Italy. 1) Theft 2) Mafia. Luckily, though, we will have the two teachers with us and they are young and super fun so it will be a good time. We are staying in this really old house that they rented out for us, so it's just the dancers, the actors, Claudia, and Gianni in the whole house. AHH!! I'm so excited. Because we don't have class Friday morning, we have class Saturday morning (apparently in a really gorgeous space...they've made this whole trip sound very dreamy!) The dancers will be with us for movement and we get to take Tarantella with them again which I am looking forward to. The weather in Naples is supposed to be in the 60's/70's all weekend so we are going to the ocean (!!) and also Pompeii which...oh my god...I cannot wait to see.

Expect pictures on Sunday :)

tanti baci! xx