d.o.n.e.

I think I'm ready for this term to be over. 

I really enjoy the things we've been working on and I think I'm starting to get to a place where it's all starting to gel, but I'm really done with the learning dynamic of my cohort. I understand that people learn in different ways and at different rates, and I understand that we came into this programme with different levels of training, but I'm really really frustrated that the pace of MY learning in class is so frequently determined by my classmates. 

It took us two hours over two class sessions to learn the steps for the jig that's supposed to be at the end of As You Like It. We haven't learned the actual choreography yet. We have one class session left. 

It took us more than an hour to learn HALF of the pavan today, which is a series of WALKING STEPS. 

Literal.

WALKING.

Francoise is still having to remind us to "listen to me demonstrate" before we jump in to the exercises she takes us through. 

Our final cultural studies session yesterday was 1.5 hours of mostly senseless nodding to questions like "Have you talked about pastoral comedies yet?" to which the actual answer is NO, not in the textbook, historical context that she's referring to. In fact, I don't know that the phrase "pastoral comedy" has actually be used anywhere this term. SO WHY ARE WE NODDING?????????

I'm frankly also disappointed that we haven't been able to tackle more than one scene in our acting class. I feel like we need to be be exposed to more scenes/plays within a term, particularly within an acting class. I'm worried that this is going to determine the rest of the year. I'd like to do more than one Restoration piece, for example, and definitely more than one Well Made Play scene. 

All of this comes back to a sense of pace. As graduate acting students, why aren't we able to work through more material more swiftly??????

I feel so ready to just finish this term, get what I can from it, and regroup before next term. I'm ready to FLY next term.

And at very least, I cannot be in Group B as it stands right now. 

In fact-- I almost wish we had Groups A, B AND C because in groups of 2-3 we'd truly get the instruction each of us need without holding anyone back or moving too swiftly for others. 

But being that we can't have three groups, I'm JUST DONE working at the rate of the slowest members of the class. I really hope the instructors start to push us a little faster next term and encourage those who can't move as quickly to sometimes seek tutorials or work on their own time. It just doesn't feel fair. 

Now isn't this a change from my initial feelings about school!