Finito

Okay, so clown is over. For the final exercise, my partner and I ended up going last. I said to someone else, "how do you go after that?" (about the ones before. What is there left to do? It was like when I was a little kid, maybe four or five years old, I thought that I'd better hurry up and write songs because there are only so many notes, and everything will be done already. Well, there are an infinity of choices still to be made.) She said, "forget about it." I was imagining a story, my "as if", and it went alright. (I didn't tell my partner; that wasn't the point.) It was just a starting place for me to walk out, whatever happened after that was free to happen. I did enter and exit with same idea though. The exercise was: 1) entrance, 2) shift/change, 3) exit. I didn't know what would happen in the middle section, I just tried to connect with my exercise partner. I can share that without breaking any trust, it's a basic exercise. It was hard to keep it "clown" and not go into "acting." I was trying to stay connected to my partner, and "clown" would include the audience, "acting" not necessarily. And I think everything made sense for a moment. It was a very sweet (the improv, in general), but also a cummulative, way to end the class. (And it didn't involve shame or failure.) Incidently, in trying to juggle: clown, connection with audience, acting on impulse, energy levels, connection with partners, failing, etc...I haven't a clue who my clown is at this point but...the actress (as well as the person) is expanding. The options have grown exponentially...and that is worth every penny and every second spent here. (And what I wanted from the class.  Maybe I will make people laugh someday, but that wasn't the point for me.) And so yes, I'll reiterate the statement that this was one of the best decisions I've made for me.