The students wear tight, mostly black spandex clothing, their bare feet taped like athletes. Some wear half-fingered gloves on their hands. They are instructed to lie on the dry forest bed, pines looming above them. They close their eyes, and appear to fall asleep.
David Betts | Blot |
After a short period of meditation, Nick Pratt emerges from his resting place ready to spend the next hour and a half in character.
Moments later, they rise, but are not the same.
Each person is hunkered down on all fours. They groan, growl and cry out as they lumber past one another, away from the plastic water trough positioned at the center of the clearing. Some follow the dusty trails scoring the slope, and others ignore the delicate limbs of overgrowth that slide across their faces and shoulders — cutting through unaltered territory.
“At first, all you can think is, ‘I’m exhausted,'” admitted Shane Brown, senior BFA Theatre and Vocal Performance major. “But when we start interacting, it’s, ‘live, live, live.'”
University of Idaho Theater Arts Professor David Lee-Painter’s Animals class has gotten much attention for its unusual focus and approach.
The class trains students to assume the mental and physical aspects of an animal, and all the cuts and bruises that come with it. Twice a week, the students transform into their animal counterparts by leaping, climbing and running.
Because of this, the class has raised the eyebrows of passers-by, some of who have called the police, Lee-Painter said. He said he advises his students at the beginning of the semester to keep the details of the class to themselves, as the class has been subject to misleading rumors.
Lee-Painter introduced Animals to UI after finding the experience useful as a graduate student at Illinois State University.
“It’s really about discovering your own humanity,” Lee-Painter said. “We spend our whole lives putting on layers, and this strips it away. It’s not really an acting class, it’s about being human.”
Jeff Petersen, the course’s teaching assistant, said many curious questions often surround the class.
“One thing hard to understand is it’s a life-changing, beautiful process,” he said. “It forces them to respond immediately and honestly given the imaginary circumstances. A lot of actors get in the bad habit of memorizing and regurgitating things, which makes for very stale and false performing.”
Petersen recalled the first time he felt a shift in the way he viewed performance as the day Animals alumni joined the class for a day — a teaching and learning tactic that has become tradition.
“It’s such a distinct experience,” said Lo Miles, Lee-Painter’s second TA.
As a previous Animals student, Miles said she is impressed with this semester’s group and their commitment to their roles.
In character
Brown’s first fight as a raccoon wasn’t easy.
“My girlfriend, who was also in the class, decided to hunt me down that day, because she decided it would be the hardest fight for her,” Brown said.
Interaction — including an aggressive exchange — is a common occurrence during the hour-and-a-half-long class sessions.
The class takes an overnight trip to a zoo in Seattle where they carefully choose, observe and research which predator they feel most connected to. After the trip, Lee-Painter allows the students to embody their respective animals and interact with others in the class.
“It’s not like rugby,” Lee-Painter said, clearing up the common misconception that the students are allowed to purposely inflict pain on one another. “The impulse I’m most interested in is fight or flight. I’m not so interested in the actual physical contact. It happens, but I teach them how to do it.”
Nevertheless, the interactions with one another and the physical demands of the role can take a toll.
“You’re muddy, your muscles hurt,” Lee-Painter said. “You’re traveling on all your fours, trying to get away from the predators. Going downhill is miserable.”
He said students are responsible protecting their “babies” — handmade offspring — from predators. He said students develop an intense emotional connection to their babies, which can have an impact.
“Everyone ends up having a breakdown — almost without exception,” Lee-Painter said. “They’re all sort of scared. They’re just afraid at the beginning.”
Brown confirmed he felt fearful upon entering the class the first time, being a “skinny guy” and unsure of how far he would be willing to go emotionally.
“But when you’re in it, and done, you see you’ve uncovered another part of yourself,” he said. “It’s getting to that place that’s super scary.”
Nevertheless, Brown is in the class a second time, assuming the form of his original animal: a raccoon.
Brown admits to feeling a different kind of fear than the first time he began the class.
“I harnessed my strength,” he said. “I’m just not sure where I fit in with this year’s group yet.”
Lee-Painter said the course has received positive reviews from students, and has had a significant impact on many students’ lives.
“I feel blessed to go through this journey with them,” he said. “It seems to be an important marker for them, one way or another.”