Don't Think!

"Don't Think!" This was the mantra that our new Shakespeare instructor, Leo Wringer, kept throwing at us as we tossed around a soccer ball while trying to remember how to say our names backwards and forwards. Needless to say, turning off our brains was much harder than we thought...haha get it? puns...god I'm dumb. Anyway, after this brisk warm up we gathered together in a circle and Leo told us what we should expect from this class and what he expected from us.  The class, he explained, was not about having fun, its about being able to do the work at a much higher level so we don't end up with just a good performance. In his words, its about the plus, the little extra that keeps an audience with you throughout your entire performance and keeps them talking about it even after they leave the theater. It was clear that he was going to push us like we've never been pushed before both physically and emotionally so that we could all get to that point.

After that thrilling, yet terrifying, introduction, it was time for us to introduce ourselves. Our intros consisted of us saying where we're from, how much experience we've had with Shakespeare, and of course, ending with us speaking some Shakespeare text that we've worked on. With Leo calling us out in a random order, we each got up and showed him what we had with him coming in throwing different scenarios and physical motivations at us to get us past our thinking minds to just accept what we were being given. As exhausting as it was, we were all up to the task and eventually got to touch on what Leo was asking of us. This process lasted the full 2 1/2 hours of our first class and continued on the next morning as the other half of us got up to work, each one of us showing the strengths we had in our back pockets and discovering the things that we actually have to work on.

You know when you're stuck in class for 2 1/2+ hours and you're just thinking, when the hell is this thing gonna wrap up? Never crossed my mind for a minute, even when I wasn't personally up working  because when someone else was working, it was still time to learn from what they were bringing to the table and from what Leo was asking of them. Leo is just one of those incredible teachers who you don't realize will push you so hard, because he's got such a warm and welcoming personality and a laugh like a monkey when you're just speaking to him. I can tell that he genuinely wants us to succeed and pick up the tools that he's trying to impart on us so that we can perform Shakespeare with that plus. I can't really speak for the other Shakespeare section because they have a different instructor but I know that the people in my section will come away from this class with more experience and knowledge than we could ever imagine.

-Danny

p.s. We're also gonna be working on Measure for Measure and Macbeth for the term if you were wondering.