Ana

Today was the first day of my Artist in Residence Program. It's 8.30 PM and I'm ready to go to bed. I never thought it was possible to get as exhausted as I did today. I literally exceeded myself, I ran out of strength and I kept going. So I've already tried something new here. Looking at the schedule, I don't think we're gonna have time to do anything else. But I'll try. We're not gonna have a day off for three weeks and rehearsals are from 9.30 AM to 10 or 11 PM. "Today was just a warm up", so we left early. I'm scared. And I've told the director that. But there's no bravery when there's no fear and I do wanna challenge myself to see how far I can go. I'll only stop when I find my unsurpassable limits.

The director has been working in Portugal, Spain and Brazil for a long time. He doesn't think reproducing everyday dramas is the best artistic choice, so he mixes History, traditions and fantasy in his projects- which means we have a lot to investigate and imagine. There aren't scripts, we have the stories' main details and he is gonna write the dialogues as we build the characters. There are gonna be two big theatrical presentations with fifteen actors (including me) and two hundred and fifty extras. The sets, the music and the wardrobe are already being taken care of. Sounds exciting and extremely demanding. I know for sure it's gonna be an acting experience unlike any other I've had so far.

We must keep a journal to write down what we learn everyday, but I didn't bring a notebook so, instead of buying one, I'll blog about my experiences in this small and chilly Portuguese village. Consider this post lesson #1: I'm so tired I just remember we jumped for more than two hours without a break and then he asked how we felt and I said "shocked". 

"The body is the actor's instrument." 

All right!