Day 10: Journal Excerpts

THOUGHTS:
Today was slow, but again, I am very tired. It is safe to say I am ready to go home. I wrote a letter to DJ in Buzios, and will send it off today.
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Last night I went to a party in the Favelas that reminded me of the West Indian Day Parade.I hadn´t expected to go to them before I left, but i was surprised to find parts of the favelas that seemed so similar to home it was eerie. The place the party was in was comparable to a slaughterhouse, butyou wouldn´t know it because the place was so packed, and it had a stage. But upstairs there were these livestock sized compartmentations that were doubling for someting like a boot you would get at a baseball game. Great view of the action and you have some space to be with friends. Only it seemed that all these booth-things were packed with gringo/a foreigners: Polih, American, British, etc. And in almost every booth were two or three Brazilian women, dancing. It was much less blatant than it sounds, but I thought of what is must mean to be considered exotic to another race/culture...
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CLASS NOTES:

Today's class was BOAL LABORATORY
I have been looking forward to this class since he mentioned it the first evening e explained what we would be doing.

I took part in this technique that was attempting to go from TO to Rainbow. The young lady whose story I was a part of was dealing with expectations placed on her by her father that she had both failed and exceeded, but if she confronted him about those expectations, he would only focus on how she had failed him. I was glad her story was chosen.

We were going to look at the things that were NOT being said by the protagonist, and "weapons" being used by the antagonist, and we did, but then we moved into a scene that required costume, etc. and didnt go over very well. After removing the costume, and really focusing on the protagonist, things began to come together, at least in my eyes.
We were not able to finish, but Im glad she stepped up.

BOAL:
Reiterates: when you talk about yourself, you expose yourself, this is the risk of theatre. There IS safety here, becasue nothing is meant to hurt you, but there is still risk.

He talked about group differences also, and how the only thing that changes really is vocabulary. You have to meet a person at their level of knowledge.