Yes, I was feeling pretty low...in fact, awfully low, earlier today because now that I'm home from the Star Trek Las Vegas con, I am no longer surrounded by people wearing pointy ears, like this wonderful mathematician (right). (She and I talked for about half an hour, waiting in the line to get our photos taken with Len. I feel I can call him "Len" now that I stood next to him for, like, 30 seconds.)
So, this evening I signed up for an Improv Acting class.
For me, a totally unexpected part of the Star Trek con was how much it was about acting.
Since almost every presenter was an actor, not a writer or director, how not?
I never have wanted and do not now want to perform in public; but I got interested in how actors learn--as Sandra Smith (one time Capt. Kirk) said--to inhabit their bodies fully and to claim their space.
The actors, every one of them, impressed me with the way they did that, even though some of them, frankly, didn't seem to inhabit their brains altogether fully. They were all pros at Q&A, for instance, including fielding off-the-wall questions.
Bink had taken me to see improv a few weeks ago, and it had struck me then that it could be a useful skill, given that life doesn't come with a script. This convention just confirmed that.
The very thought of this class cheers me up. That and the beer and ice cream I had for dinner.
