Acting Class. Part 1

It's been months and months of the same thing. Wake up, take the dog for a walk. Clean the house. Prepare some English classes. Make lunch. Eat. Give a couple lessons. Take the dog for a walk. Spend too much time talking to people on facebook chat. Richard gets home. We eat dinner. Take showers. Bed.

In the background, acting class was looming. I signed up for it a long time ago, not really expecting to go. It was so far away---in the mountains of St. Denis---about 1.5 hours by car---and it was too scary. Acting class is always scary because you're putting yourself out there, you're taking risks in front of a group of people. But then you add the foreign language factor, and the fact that everyone else already knows each other...and it means I get to be the weird foreign new girl. Let me tell you, it's a fun role to play.

I thought of a zillion reasons why I shouldn't go to acting class. It's too far. I'll get lost. I don't know anyone. What about the dog? And what about my English clients? What if I don't understand anything?But somehow, the path seemed to clear. Everyone was starting school that week so my clients had dwindled down to about 2. A friend randomly offered to babysit the dog. And others invited me to stay with them in St. Denis so I wouldn't have to do a 3 hour commute everyday.

Fine everyone, I'll go to acting class, jeez!
If nothing else, I wanted to just stop doing the same thing every day...

So. Day 1. I packed up my little car with a sack of luggage, enough hard-boiled eggs and vegetables in a cooler to eat for 4 days, and fired up the GPS. And I drove. I drove, and drove and drove, dodging giant trucks that take up both lanes, falling rocks that were disturbed by yesterday's rain, closed roads, hidden traffic lights, and pretty much any other ridiculous obstacle you can possibly think of. I was drenched in sweat, gripping the wheel so hard my fingers were throbbing, stressed to the point of shaking...but I was so close--almost there! I'd be exactly on time.

I had been going up the mountain of St. Denis for about 30 minutes when I realized...I went up the wrong side of the mountain. I was off by ONE STREET. And there was nothing to do about it except go down and start over. That's when I lost it. I pulled over to the closest driveway and completely lost it. Like the ugliest, most hysterical crying I've ever done in my life. I. Could. Not. Go. On. I was just going to stay here in this driveway until I die, or until the people that live here call the cops and take me back down the mountain in handcuffs because I was DONE.

After about ten minutes, I realized I didn't want to go to jail, maybe instead I'd just go down the mountain, hop over to the airport, and get on the next plane back to the US where acting classes are in English and you don't have to drive through YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE to get to them. So I rode the car back down the mountain, still in hysterical water-works mode, (probably scaring the passing cars on the way up) and then, suddenly, a wave of calm came over me and somehow I glided up the other side of the mountain and ended up in the parking lot of my acting class. I was 15 minutes late, and true to French tradition, so were they. Everyone was waiting outside while the directors were setting up.

The class was being taught by some Parisians, David Atrakchi and Gael Cabouat. I'm glad I didn't google them until much later because it turns out they are kind of a big deal and that would've just added a lot more intimidation for the first day, which is something I definitely didn't need because it turned out that EVERY PERSON in that class was a freaking theatrical genius!!! Like how is it possible that this tiny island with an almost non-existent acting program has such a myriad of incredibly talented people that should all be seriously famous?!? How?!?! Even the tech crew people who were there just to observe ended up joining in and blowing me away.

David

Gael

So for the first day, we chose a emotional situation out of a hat and then had to improv with a partner. Neither of us knew the emotional state of the other person, we just had to enter the room and then go for it. After a few of the tech guys asked if they could do their scene in Creole, I thought what the heck and asked if there was anyone who wanted to do mine with me in English. Luckily, a girl volunteered and off we went...

My emotional state was "disgusted with self". Given that I was still quite fragile from the commute this morning, I used the opportunity to burst into tears in my scene...which threw my partner for a loop because her emotional state was "seductive." It all made for a dramatically awkward scene and at the end, I felt much better.

It was a small victory, however, on a day that just plain sucked. I got lost again driving to my French family's house in St. Denis (on the other OTHER side of the same mountain) my phone was almost dead, and Richard was stuck in a HUGE traffic jam and couldn't rescue me. I arrived at their house in time for some incredibly painful cramps and when they greeted me at the door, I was holding back tears again. Thankfully they are my beloved French family and they nursed me back to health with medicine, strong rum, and the most delicious (and stinky!) cheese tarts. I fell asleep vowing that I would not be going back to acting class...it was too difficult and I had given it my best try.

But the next morning, they were already gone and it was just me and Buddha in the backyard. It would be so easy to just not go back---they probably wouldn't even notice I was gone--I could go back home to my comfortable and familiar routine and in a week I could laugh about that time I tried acting school in Reunion.

Then in perfect timing, both Marianne and Grecia (back in Texas) sent me messages about trying just one more day. If it was still really so bad...Then I could quit. But just one more day...

I was already in St. Denis...just one more day?...Ok, I guess I could do that...