Bloody Social Mask

In class the other night I reminded the class that we do our best to get out from behind our social masks in the studio. That we speak from our hearts and our guts. That we look the world in the eye and tell it what we want. That we trust that whatever happens in each moment. That we give up our sophistication and our labyrinthine approach to inter-personal communication.
Later in class I mention the action to seduce in connection with a male student-actor. Snickers and giggles. Seduction can be ideological and many other things beyond sexual matters, I asserted. I gave an extreme example of white supremacy and a mundane example of the type of tea one drinks. Bristles in the room regarding the extreme example. (Would there have been laughs instead of bristles had one of the new students not been African-American? JB is Pacific Islander. JG is Asian-American. I am a Greek and an Honorary Jewish Texan. Our less marked non-Aryan presence may not have prompted disdain and fear of the mention of Nazis. ) I continued my discourse on other forms of seduction suggesting that I will charm C into a hearty Seig Heil. That really got the bristlers bristling. New student, JB nor JG didn't seem to bristle. Nor did I. (Funny thing, most Nazis I've known despise white liberals more than folks of color.)
Later in class, two students were doing a repetition and relating exercise. (I have all but abandoned strict Meisner work as it seems to promote getting it right.) I instructed the male to tell the female something he didn't want her to know. He said he didn't like her wedding ring. I know what he meant: that he thinks she's hot and wants her to be available. I know that it may have made her insecure about her engagement ring. His inability to say he thought she was attractive in a forthright manner may have caused her shame or hurt.
I didn't say anything. I kept my mouth shut not for pedagogical reasons, but because I feared confronting the situation. I hid behind my bloody social mask.


One amongst many,
Signore Direttore