So on Wednesday night I went to a 2 hour acting drop in session. I promised to write about it and thus I am. However I can’t help but feel like I’ve written a joke about a tragedy and now I’ve got that uneasy sense of ‘too soon’. I want you to know that I didn’t have high expectations for the course and as we all expected it wasn’t very good. But it isn’t the event that inspired this blog, it’s the people who went along to it. Writing about the people makes my ‘too soon’ alarm go off because they were truly tragic. This was a group of people who just needed a hug.
The course was run by a man named Glen. A nice guy, probably a good teacher and very passionate about what he does. I liked him and he was definitely the least wanky person there (this was unexpected). Glen had us playing theatre games designed to break down our inhibitions and become more comfortable with people. These games are helpful to warm up with before doing something useful. Unfortunately we played these games for the entire session and nothing useful happened. After 15 minutes I was bored. I wasn’t self-conscious or thought that what I was doing was embarrassing, which the games were meant to help us overcome. I was bored and thought what I was doing was a waste of time. We spent half the time playing games that revolved around us remembering everyone else’s name, something I might find useful if I get that role in “Phonebook – The Movie”.
Also there was the marketing manager named Michael. Michael was also a student of the college, he was also very passionate about what he does. Unfortunately he was the most wanky person I have met since getting to Sydney. Michael is an uncomfortably positive person. I hate positive people as a rule. We were never going to be friends. He just loved the course and was ‘blown away by the journey of self discovery’ that he had taken. Wanker!
The other ‘students’ were a collection of the desperate for love, desperate for friends and desperate for a slap in the face. We started with an introduction of who we were and why we thought an acting course would be good. I said that I wanted to get just good enough to not feel like a moron when I go to castings. Something I knew wouldn’t be solved in a 2 hour drop in session but a lovely goal all the same. The other responses made me die a little inside.
We had 5 people who used to be in a theatre group when they were children and remembered how good it was for making friends. They are all now lonely, in their mid 20’s and desperate to do anything to meet someone who could be their friend. It’s quite sad that they feel like they need to spend $500 to meet friends. If you put $500 behind a bar you’ll make loads of friends. Some of them may even remember your name, which is more then any of them did after half an hour of name remembering games.
Three people had just finished university and had a fear of entering the workforce so they were looking at acting as a way to live in poverty for a little longer. Two people actually failed to project loud enough for me to hear their desperation. This was not a big room and even through my clear disinterest I accidentally heard the others.
Last but not least – one guy turned up late because he had gone to the wrong room. He had spent 20 minutes with the French language choir before he realised it wasn’t an acting drop in session. When asked, he admitted that he didn’t speak any French but just assumed it was some sort of vocal warm-up that he didn’t understand. I doubt that that was the first time he had been in a room where people were saying things that he didn’t understand.
They all giggled their way through the games. They were all awkward and confused but they all had a good time. Some of them even left together and went to a bar. I guess, for them, the night was a success. They just had different expectations to me. Who am I kidding? I got exactly what I expected. I just wish it wasn’t ‘too soon’ to write some stand up about it.
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