A month in Firenze

Giorgia who works in the Helikos office and was so wonderfully helpful when I arrived - a stunning Italian woman... she is standing next to Giovanni. This was on my first day here - one month ago - when we went on a historical walking tour of Florence (of course my camera is still broken so I don't have any new photo's) - The rest are just pics of Florence taken on that first day as well...





It is amazing to me to think I have been here for one month already - or one month only! Time is so elastic. One day can feel like a week and a month like a day. So much is happening in every moment... clowning, neutral mask, mime (bad mime!), improvisation (ya...), voice, creation - we really are first year students - everything feels is so completely new to just about everyone. And it's really quite difficult. I have actually started doing extra lunges in the morning - no really it's true - to try and build up strength to be able to do the exercises!

We are all somehow searching... or rather trying to break through... to understand neutral mask... which is the focus of this year - There is something wonderfully mysterious about it. It is a mask that has no specific expression - The Man and The Woman. If I understand even some of the essence of what we are doing - it is that we have to be in the space with the potential for action before there can be anything. So to carry no physical story that tells of a future or a past. It feels fundamental to theatre... storytelling... creation in general... but it is wildly difficult. In many ways I find neutral mask much funnier and somehow more tragic than clown work. The mask puts a magnifying glass on every tiny 'defect' in your body - something that you have been carrying your whole life and you didn't even know it was there - slumped shoulders, a crocked back, contained chest... These things tell stories... and as Giovanni says it is this that we are looking to iron out - like pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. The paper will never loose its folds completely but by pulling it will look more like a piece of paper than crumpled ball... ya. For example, I have gained about 3 or 4 cm's in height (some people say 6 cm's but I think they're exaggerating). It's strange - but something in this is the key... out of neutrality everything is possible. I don't think any of us really get it - but slowly we are starting to head in the right direction - at least I think we are. Clown work is run pretty much in parallel - the more you know your clown (your clown who loves the crumples and the folds!) the more you know where to locate your neutrality and vice versa. The work is extremely moving - it has a therapeutic edge - it is not therapy - but there is an element of having to look at yourself and move through emotions that do inevitably arise. It is almost like a micro 'uncrippling' of the body and it is amazing to watch. That something so small, something that you wouldn't even notice in every day life, is so extremely visible if you look properly. Perhaps this all sounds like mumbo jumbo - but it is amazing to me.

I am not learning to be a clown - like I often joked about in South Africa before I left - I think because I couldn't quite believe I was off to do this crazy thing and leave Nick and the kids - I am learning about creation - about theatre - about more than theatre. It is extremely exciting.

On Friday night we found the most wonderful pizzeria and ate delicious Margarita pizza's (one with salami)... possibly the best pizza I've ever had in my life. I thought a lot about Melie and Jack whose favourite pizza's are Margarita's - with olives or ham! - simple and delicious. I walked home and brought pistachio and chocolate gelato. It's amazing the freedom of walking. At night. Alone.