2002-06-18 - 9:52 a.m.

Look at me, I'm an Actor Combatant

So last night eRoommate and I did our test for our broadsword stage combat class. We felt pretty confident going in. We felt well-rehearsed and solid.

We were over-confident.

eRoommate did not pass.

I passed by the skin of my teeth.

We were technically proficient (in fact moreso than some other groups) but apparently we weren't all that good at acting the fight. It looked rehearsed. We anticipated each other's moves. It did not look like we were actually fighting.

More practice. Much more practice needed.

It was weird, though, because the judge told me I barely passed, and went on to give me a big long list of things I did wrong. But he said that Hotspur (the teacher, who was also right there) said I would be able to take the criticism well. Which I guess I did. Because I was disappointed. But it just made me want to work harder to get it right. In a way it was more encouraging than discouraging.

Also, Hotspur let slip that his current Teaching Assistant won't be around next year. And "we'll talk". Which means maybe he's grooming me to take over. Which would be cool as hell. I expressed interest in it in a back-handed way weeks upon weeks ago, and then let it lay. It would be so freaking cool to do that. It could maybe get me enough training and experience to become a fight director, which is actually one of my dream jobs.

So it didn't turn out as I expected, but it wasn't a negative experience all-round. And I'm now (by the skin of my teeth) an official Actor Combatant. Woohoo.