Playing games

From a surfeit of gesture to a lack of it...the two performances of scenes from Poppea went well on Thursday and Friday. I'm waiting for pictures, which I hope to post before the week is out. It's always interesting seeing what actually happens, after all that preparation, and how the audience responds. Considering the sight-line issues (we ended up performing on the floor of the room with audience on two sides and orchestra on the third side instead of on a raised platform, due to some last minute issues with the venue) it was a very enthusiastic response. Two new gestural elements I used that I really liked in performance, both for Ottavia, were the isometric gesture of palms pressing together perpendicular to each other for "i miei martiri", a gesture we made up together, and a very ancient one, the kissing of the earth by the banished empress as she leaves Rome forever.

We're also entertaining houseguests, and last night we played two rounds of Sequence, given to us by my parents who were obsessed with it this winter, after dinner. We've played occasionally with two people, but last night we had four, so we played in two teams, however communication between partners is prohibited about strategy or what you have in your hand. I was highly aware of downplaying my gestures and keeping my gaze on cards or board. It's so hard not to communicate! Tom (my Sequence buddy) and I had an interesting moment when I saw he was searching for a card on the board to no avail and I realized that must mean he had at least one jack, because those are the only cards that are not printed on the game board. A little inadvertent communication! We laughed and our opponents had no idea what was going on. We won both rounds, rematch tonight.