Day 53. "Hello, Herman."

"You've got eyes that show your soul. The stars are shining, I'm just not sure who they're shining for. You got questions for the world? Well everyone around me is full of answers!"

-The Devil Whale

This morning I showed up to school, ready to rock, and our class had been cancelled. Ehhh kind of a waste of time... So, I invited Christian back to the apartment while I made lunch. RAR!

Back at school during our break between Musical Performance and Physical Acting I had a really good time socializing with the group. We all have a love of laughter. This is so important to me and I feel extremely lucky to be surrounded by these good people.

In Physical Acting we stood in our usual circle. Ken said, "Make a face." I pulled the face you'll see below. He said, "Start to breathe like this face. How does this face stand? Start to realize what this face walks like, and then take a walk around the room." We begin to walk. I am slouched, my arms are swinging, breathing heavily through my nostrils. Ken says, "Oh! You see yourself in a mirror! Why not go look at your reflection?" I observe. I am balding. I am wearing a button down shirt tucked into some high-waisted khakis and I am, of course, wearing suspenders (out of practicality). I am quite nervous to look at my reflection. I begin to lick my lips occasionally as a nervous habit. I am swaying a bit from side to side. "Why not remember what your name is and explore saying it out loud?" I lick my lips, I blink rapidly, I look at my reflection. "Hello, Herman." I say in my new voice.

We walk around, introducing ourselves to the others in the group - the other Faces, as it were (you can see their faces in the photo, as well. It wasn't just a silly group shot). I meet the overweight lunch lady Deborah. I meet the shy George with a lisp. We circle up and introduce ourselves one by one. As Ken gets closer to me I get increasingly nervous. I'm here at Actor Camp on my Doctor's orders, who believes this experience will help me with my nervous habits and medical condition (that's a private matter). I'm a Librarian at Morris College (whatever that is) and I live at home with my mother, enjoying comic books and online chat groups. I am ultimately a mixture of Kip from Napoleon Dynamite, The Professor from the Simpsons, and Loraine from Mad TV.

We go through a day at Acting Camp, simulating our classes we take at Circle but experiencing them as these Faces and the characters they brought with them.

The exercise was actually tremendously difficult. Our task was to help one another. We soon experienced tension from the obnoxious and/or more pessimistic Faces. It brought out extreme frustration in some of the group members. I was frustrated, feeling like this became more of an exercise in "staying in character" and trying not to laugh at times. In other ways it was really helpful to me and I found some interesting things I had never known before...

All in all, another good day at Ye Olde Circle in the Pentagon. If you made it this far in the post, I'm glad you took time for Herman. He's pleased to meet you.

Love to all.