Day 3

Today in class students participated in scenes which were partially instructed – the rest seemed to be improvisation. The first scene involved a student flipping through his camera while another student attempted to dress him with a hair piece. The conflict of goals made an interesting display to watch. Additionally, the hair piece on the guy looked humorous.
In the second scene, a student sat on the bench adjusting his tie. Another student volunteered and knocked on the door while waiting outside in the cold. He didn’t know what to do and looked to the professor for direction - - the professor told him not to. Eventually he opened the door, but the female student continued to do her instructed action – knock—despite the fact that the door was then open. This led to the lesson that in acting, you do what you are supposed to do unless something happens that makes you do otherwise. It would not make sense for her to continue knocking at the door when it was open.
The second scene was not quite as interesting to watch as the first, and it is probably because the lines “Do you like my tie” and “I like your tie” wore on the ears after 1000 times. Also, there is not much comical about a guy wearing a tie – perhaps if a child was trying on a tie or even a female would make it slightly more interesting (though many females do wear ties, especially waitresses).
I personally did not volunteer and now that I am asked to reflect on why, my reasoning makes me feel crazy. However, the reason that I did not volunteer is because of the palpable flirtation between a female and male student. I recognized this flirtation from the beginning of class. The male student volunteered, and with the female’s eyes glued to his every movement, I did not really want to get involved. Sure enough, she volunteered next. In my analytical mind, should I volunteer, it would be like getting in the middle of a predator-hunting-prey situation. I wanted to steer clear. Basically, declaring my disinterest in any way possible would keep the classroom from negative or competitive vibes. Anyway, this seems a bit ridiculous now that I articulate it, and perhaps next time I will volunteer.