Training for Christmas Eve

This year, a revival of the famous 1966 Method Acting Festival of Belgrade, Montana will happen in Berlin. Like the original, it will take place on Christmas Eve. In preparation for the event, some Berlin residents were invited to take part. For the untrained, like me, a crash course began today. My first exercise, set by an anonymous instructor, contained a rather ambivalent challenge: to hold one’s breath. I started with a ridiculous 37 seconds, but found a way to stop breathing for 70 seconds. A BBC documentary on diving penguins helped stimulate my imagination. It was the penguin, not me, which faced the awkward feeling of running out of oxygen. My instructor liked this analogy, he was satisfied for today and will give me a more socially oriented task next time.