So, Saturday was a little on the eccentric side, to say the least.
We all knew that we were going to this theater workshop, something that our tour guide, Vassilis set up because (well, we all assume) that he knew the guy some how. It seems like Vassilis knows everybody in Athens. A few days before we went to this theater we got a packet on how the pronounce the Greek words in one section in the chorus part of Ajax, so we all thought that we were just going to learn how to speak all together and maybe act a little bit; we weren't really sure what to expect, and I don't think our theater teacher, David, really knew what we had gotten ourselves into either.
We walked a long way to this studio that George, our dance teacher/acting coach for the day, rented just for our group. It was kind of in an estchy-sketchy part of town, and the room was really cold. They had three or four propane (I think that's the right word) heaters in the room, but it was still really cold in there. They had us take off our shoes and socks and coats and then we got really chilly. The heaters really didn't do much. One of George's production assistants was video taping the whole thing, and of course Roy, our Religion professor, was taking a bunch of pictures and Vassilis was taking a video part of the time too. Anyway, we knew that we were going to be in this studio for about 5-6 hours, and we were not sure at all what we were going to do for that long of a time.
We started out by standing in a circle, and just breathing together; it was to demonstrate how theater began, and it was really similar to how Gregorian chant and church music started. Everyone started by saying the lines of the chorus all together, and then one person decided to step into the middle of the circle and say some lines by himself and then the chorus would respond. Then all of a sudden, another person got into the middle of the circle too and those two and the chorus would all converse, and apparently this was the beginning of theater! So, we were all standing in a circle, and then George jumped in the middle and started doing a whole bunch of leaps and jumps, and "acting ridiculous." Then he wanted us all to get in the circle one by one and do "something ridiculous" as well. Now, we've been traveling together for 3 weeks or so, enough time to get to know each other a little bit, but not enough time to feel completely at ease with one another. That was pretty uncomfortable for me, to say the least, but, to put it mildly, that was going to be the least of the weirdness for the day.
After that circle exercise, we started vocalizing. First, we all started murmuring and humming and George did this kind of deep groaning thing that was slightly awkward. And then all of sudden he burst into really loud yelling, like a painful sort of agonizing yell. He encouraged us all to yell "until it felt right" to stop, like all of the sadness had been let out of us. Because Ajax was a tragedy, I think he just wanted us all to get into the right mood. Or something. I don't know. We kind of went through the ending scene of the play (eventually, we got the whole thing and put it together, but we had no idea what we were doing at this point in the afternoon). Basically, (George kind of told us bits and pieces and we all had to kind of put it together on our own, so I think that I got a general idea of what happens) something happens to Ajax that involves Odysseus, I'm not sure what, and then Ajax does something bad (I should really know this play) so that Athena tortures him. If he stays in his tent for three days, then he'll be okay and stay sane, but since Athena drives him out of the tent, he goes insane, and yet is completely coherent and finally Athena drives him completely crazy and he kills himself. I think that this is what happens. Anyway. So we were basically the chorus who is under Athena's power and torturing Ajax, driving him crazy. We learned how to laugh rhythmically together (Hahahaha, haha, haha), to enter in a very awkward and strange pose, with our legs spread, knees bent, one arm up in the air and one bent, crossed in front of our torsos. In this position, (get up and try this now) we would hop into the room, just by jumping with our legs and trying not to move our upper bodies at all. We would grunt as we did this (huh! huh! huh!) and then form this pyramid like shape. So, basically, we were doing synchronized grunting and hopping. All 21 of us. As soon as we were all in position, we would stop, put our arms straight up in the air, and then moan/yell until we felt like we should stop and then fall on our knees to the ground. But we shouldn't all stop at the same time. It should be "when the gods move us" or something like that. Then George would come in as this prophet, and he was scary, man. He had his eyes rolled in the back of his head because he was blind (aren't they all) and talking in this really deep voice in ancient Greek, something that even Greek people don't understand. So yeah, that was really really weird. And slightly frightening.
Then we all ran around in a circle, waiting for George, now as Ajax, to enter into it so we could start frightening him. The best part is that we all had this make-up on our faces that was meant to look like masks. And we were all supposed to look dead, like ghouls. We had black underneath our eyes, in the hollows of our cheeks, and then black and white dots all around our mouths. Then we would use our lips to cover our teeth, and had really psychotic expressions and we kind of looked like skulls. I think that was the effect that we were going for. So, we were all running in circles, chasing Ajax, with black and white facepaint making us look dead, after we had rhythmically grunted, laughed, and hopped our way onto the stage for five hours. Now, if that's not a unique Greek experience, I don't know what is. And the guy who was videotaping for all 5 hours, we decided that it was all going to end up on youtube. :)
We all knew that we were going to this theater workshop, something that our tour guide, Vassilis set up because (well, we all assume) that he knew the guy some how. It seems like Vassilis knows everybody in Athens. A few days before we went to this theater we got a packet on how the pronounce the Greek words in one section in the chorus part of Ajax, so we all thought that we were just going to learn how to speak all together and maybe act a little bit; we weren't really sure what to expect, and I don't think our theater teacher, David, really knew what we had gotten ourselves into either.
We walked a long way to this studio that George, our dance teacher/acting coach for the day, rented just for our group. It was kind of in an estchy-sketchy part of town, and the room was really cold. They had three or four propane (I think that's the right word) heaters in the room, but it was still really cold in there. They had us take off our shoes and socks and coats and then we got really chilly. The heaters really didn't do much. One of George's production assistants was video taping the whole thing, and of course Roy, our Religion professor, was taking a bunch of pictures and Vassilis was taking a video part of the time too. Anyway, we knew that we were going to be in this studio for about 5-6 hours, and we were not sure at all what we were going to do for that long of a time.
We started out by standing in a circle, and just breathing together; it was to demonstrate how theater began, and it was really similar to how Gregorian chant and church music started. Everyone started by saying the lines of the chorus all together, and then one person decided to step into the middle of the circle and say some lines by himself and then the chorus would respond. Then all of a sudden, another person got into the middle of the circle too and those two and the chorus would all converse, and apparently this was the beginning of theater! So, we were all standing in a circle, and then George jumped in the middle and started doing a whole bunch of leaps and jumps, and "acting ridiculous." Then he wanted us all to get in the circle one by one and do "something ridiculous" as well. Now, we've been traveling together for 3 weeks or so, enough time to get to know each other a little bit, but not enough time to feel completely at ease with one another. That was pretty uncomfortable for me, to say the least, but, to put it mildly, that was going to be the least of the weirdness for the day.
After that circle exercise, we started vocalizing. First, we all started murmuring and humming and George did this kind of deep groaning thing that was slightly awkward. And then all of sudden he burst into really loud yelling, like a painful sort of agonizing yell. He encouraged us all to yell "until it felt right" to stop, like all of the sadness had been let out of us. Because Ajax was a tragedy, I think he just wanted us all to get into the right mood. Or something. I don't know. We kind of went through the ending scene of the play (eventually, we got the whole thing and put it together, but we had no idea what we were doing at this point in the afternoon). Basically, (George kind of told us bits and pieces and we all had to kind of put it together on our own, so I think that I got a general idea of what happens) something happens to Ajax that involves Odysseus, I'm not sure what, and then Ajax does something bad (I should really know this play) so that Athena tortures him. If he stays in his tent for three days, then he'll be okay and stay sane, but since Athena drives him out of the tent, he goes insane, and yet is completely coherent and finally Athena drives him completely crazy and he kills himself. I think that this is what happens. Anyway. So we were basically the chorus who is under Athena's power and torturing Ajax, driving him crazy. We learned how to laugh rhythmically together (Hahahaha, haha, haha), to enter in a very awkward and strange pose, with our legs spread, knees bent, one arm up in the air and one bent, crossed in front of our torsos. In this position, (get up and try this now) we would hop into the room, just by jumping with our legs and trying not to move our upper bodies at all. We would grunt as we did this (huh! huh! huh!) and then form this pyramid like shape. So, basically, we were doing synchronized grunting and hopping. All 21 of us. As soon as we were all in position, we would stop, put our arms straight up in the air, and then moan/yell until we felt like we should stop and then fall on our knees to the ground. But we shouldn't all stop at the same time. It should be "when the gods move us" or something like that. Then George would come in as this prophet, and he was scary, man. He had his eyes rolled in the back of his head because he was blind (aren't they all) and talking in this really deep voice in ancient Greek, something that even Greek people don't understand. So yeah, that was really really weird. And slightly frightening.
Then we all ran around in a circle, waiting for George, now as Ajax, to enter into it so we could start frightening him. The best part is that we all had this make-up on our faces that was meant to look like masks. And we were all supposed to look dead, like ghouls. We had black underneath our eyes, in the hollows of our cheeks, and then black and white dots all around our mouths. Then we would use our lips to cover our teeth, and had really psychotic expressions and we kind of looked like skulls. I think that was the effect that we were going for. So, we were all running in circles, chasing Ajax, with black and white facepaint making us look dead, after we had rhythmically grunted, laughed, and hopped our way onto the stage for five hours. Now, if that's not a unique Greek experience, I don't know what is. And the guy who was videotaping for all 5 hours, we decided that it was all going to end up on youtube. :)
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