In the weeks before our performance I was worried about the lack of work we had devised for it. It felt as though we were very unprepared. This was mainly due to the mix of three directors we had meaning we didn't create finalised work for about 2 to 3 weeks of our rehearsal time. However, when our director came back and we molded the first section of work it seemed like we had more direction to our piece.
The decision to improvise the second half of performance was a good one in the end. When I first heard this was the plan it sent me and other class members into panic mode where we just didn't feel confident in our performance or like we had any clue what we were doing. However, on the day of performance and we went through the different exercises we were going to do, I saw the potential of what we were going to do, and how it might be successful.
Improvising meant that the whole performance was truly experimental. Anything could of happened and we would have allowed it. The energy in the room felt very focused and as though we were excepting of each other and whatever movements we were going to create. This meant people could find something honest and new every time we rehearsed or performed. When someone found a moment within a movement that worked it suddenly became so interesting to watch, and audience members said they could often make little stories in their minds about what they think the person is going through or their relationships with other people. Even though this may not have been our initial intention I think it shows an element of success that people we able to do this despite us as actors not having stories or characters in our heads.
The section with the stories we told worked well. The initial story telling with just one person and the audience was really nice to have people open up about themselves and be honest on stage. When we took away the story and just had words and movements it seemed to delve deeper into the emotional impact of their stories. The more time that went by the more emotionally connected people got.
The feedback we got from other classes lead me to believe that they felt fully immersed into our piece. From how we moved the audience around the space, in and out of the circle. Someone even said that they felt like they were tempted to join in the piece and they would have done if they thought that would have been ok and it had not been our piece. I doubt the audience with our parents would have felt this as they are not familiar with this type of work but I'd hope that they also felt like they were part of our piece as much as possible.
This performance has made me re think how I look at experimental theatre and improvisation within performance. I think it can be successful and emotionally draining at the same time. I felt like I had worked harder in this performance then any other scripted or fully devised piece I'd ever done. I think this was because we were constantly being pushed to find something new within ourselves and support everyone in our class at the same time.
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Monday, 18 February 2013
Improvisation
Our director made the choice to make the second section of our performance improvisation based. We learnt an exercise called physical riffing. We are going to use this in our performance. We began this by forming a circle and starting a continuous clapping, step beat. Then someone would begin a movement in the center The idea was to explore different types of movement until they found something which maybe felt dynamic or interesting to watch or maybe had some kind of emotional connection visible to an audience. People began moving on their own then we developed the exercise to have more then one person in the center.
The clapping in the exercise worked as a way of encouraging people in the middle to keep exploring and to not feel embarrassed or alone. When people were in the middle they often closed their eyes. From what I saw I felt like when they did this they really let go and discovered something interesting in themselves. This may have been because they weren't concentrating on how they looked but more on how the movement felt. It was difficult to watch people when they felt self conscious because there was no reason to be. I felt this most when we were told to stop clapping and people had to move without us. This meant they didn't have a beat to work with or a support system.
We are going to use this in our performance by standing in two lines opposite the person/people in the middle, and allowing the physical riffing to happen in the middle. We will continue this for around 8 minutes, but it could be any amount of time depending on how well it is working. From this we are going to going into emotional flocking which we did a few weeks ago. As well as this we will be telling a short story of something that happened to us, then picking out the key words and combining it with an action, then again but just with an action and sounds. Then we will all speak about something we are passionate about.
The clapping in the exercise worked as a way of encouraging people in the middle to keep exploring and to not feel embarrassed or alone. When people were in the middle they often closed their eyes. From what I saw I felt like when they did this they really let go and discovered something interesting in themselves. This may have been because they weren't concentrating on how they looked but more on how the movement felt. It was difficult to watch people when they felt self conscious because there was no reason to be. I felt this most when we were told to stop clapping and people had to move without us. This meant they didn't have a beat to work with or a support system.
We are going to use this in our performance by standing in two lines opposite the person/people in the middle, and allowing the physical riffing to happen in the middle. We will continue this for around 8 minutes, but it could be any amount of time depending on how well it is working. From this we are going to going into emotional flocking which we did a few weeks ago. As well as this we will be telling a short story of something that happened to us, then picking out the key words and combining it with an action, then again but just with an action and sounds. Then we will all speak about something we are passionate about.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Moral Transgressions
Moral transgressions are where people violate their own moral codes. Your morals are like personal standards and rules you have for yourself which can shape your behavior as a human being. These can be influenced by your friends, family and personal experiences. Examples could be, not to cheat on your partner or to physically harm another person. At some point in your life, almost all people will break their own moral codes. When we hear stories in the news about people doing horrible things, that break the standard morals of society we can be disgusted and hateful of them.
Many people with traditional or religious views may have more constricting moral codes. Most religions and traditional societies place a high value on virginity and see sex as something that should be kept within marriage. This particularly refers to women. Men's virginity's were not so precious. Part of a moral code with people like this would be to not have sex. In the poem 'The Flea' the man is trying to get a women to break her moral code by convincing her that in a way she already had.
Uganda is known for being the worst place on earth to be gay. But last year they celebrated their first gay pride despite the punishment for being homosexual being the death penalty. Despite how much their society and government told them being gay was wrong and they may have even believed it they accepted it as a part of themselves and protested for their rights. This reminded me of Artuad's idea that we all have evil and darkness inside us. In most youth British society homosexuality is seen as acceptable, of course with many exceptions. Artuad believed that showing the evil inside us onstage meant that people would be less likely to commit the evil things within society. In a way this protest was trying to work in the opposite, to allow people to be themselves, even if they believe what they are is wrong.
As people you want to be accepted by peers, friends and families so often you will go along with what other people in order to do so. Seeing other people in a gay pride protest when you are struggling with being gay yourself may give you some confidence in yourself to maybe break the moral codes of your family or religion or maybe what you once thought of as normal. This is an example of moral codes being broken in a positive way. But this can often work in a totally opposite way. In gang culture peer pressure can cause people to break moral codes of themselves and of the society around them.
The sociologist James Patrick studied gang culture within Glasgow in the 1960s. What he did was known as covert observation. This is where he joins in with the group he is studying and they do not know about it. In this case he needed a way in. The gang leader knew what he was doing and allowed him in. However, he nearly got caught out by other members due to what he wore and him constantly taking a back seat in operations. If it wasn't for the input of the gang leader he could have found himself in serious trouble. There was one incident where the gang were sent to raid a library. They were burning books and demolishing the place. James had the role of look out in case the police came. He saw the gang were about to cause real damage so he called out saying the police were there even though they weren't. He got away with it luckily. The issue with research like this although it is the only way of getting truthful information it has complications. If James was ever to have been caught with the gang having committed a crime he cannot then get out of it by saying he was doing research. In the eyes of the law you are a person who committed a crime regardless of the reasoning behind it. However, in a situation like that people might break their moral codes in order to get information or fit in with the culture.
Many people with traditional or religious views may have more constricting moral codes. Most religions and traditional societies place a high value on virginity and see sex as something that should be kept within marriage. This particularly refers to women. Men's virginity's were not so precious. Part of a moral code with people like this would be to not have sex. In the poem 'The Flea' the man is trying to get a women to break her moral code by convincing her that in a way she already had.
Uganda is known for being the worst place on earth to be gay. But last year they celebrated their first gay pride despite the punishment for being homosexual being the death penalty. Despite how much their society and government told them being gay was wrong and they may have even believed it they accepted it as a part of themselves and protested for their rights. This reminded me of Artuad's idea that we all have evil and darkness inside us. In most youth British society homosexuality is seen as acceptable, of course with many exceptions. Artuad believed that showing the evil inside us onstage meant that people would be less likely to commit the evil things within society. In a way this protest was trying to work in the opposite, to allow people to be themselves, even if they believe what they are is wrong.
As people you want to be accepted by peers, friends and families so often you will go along with what other people in order to do so. Seeing other people in a gay pride protest when you are struggling with being gay yourself may give you some confidence in yourself to maybe break the moral codes of your family or religion or maybe what you once thought of as normal. This is an example of moral codes being broken in a positive way. But this can often work in a totally opposite way. In gang culture peer pressure can cause people to break moral codes of themselves and of the society around them.
The sociologist James Patrick studied gang culture within Glasgow in the 1960s. What he did was known as covert observation. This is where he joins in with the group he is studying and they do not know about it. In this case he needed a way in. The gang leader knew what he was doing and allowed him in. However, he nearly got caught out by other members due to what he wore and him constantly taking a back seat in operations. If it wasn't for the input of the gang leader he could have found himself in serious trouble. There was one incident where the gang were sent to raid a library. They were burning books and demolishing the place. James had the role of look out in case the police came. He saw the gang were about to cause real damage so he called out saying the police were there even though they weren't. He got away with it luckily. The issue with research like this although it is the only way of getting truthful information it has complications. If James was ever to have been caught with the gang having committed a crime he cannot then get out of it by saying he was doing research. In the eyes of the law you are a person who committed a crime regardless of the reasoning behind it. However, in a situation like that people might break their moral codes in order to get information or fit in with the culture.
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
What we've got so far...
We have decided to perform in 413, in traverse. The audience will come into the room, sit in the dark and they will see to projections on either side of the room. There may be a projection of a video of a man bleeding himself to death. The projections will show pictures of members of the class on them. The audience will have a piece of paper in their hand and they will be told to write whatever they want about the person they see on the screen. We will assure the audience that these will not be used in the performance. However, we will use them later on. This will encourage them to break their own moral codes and prejudgment and 'being nice'.
Then Sarah and Tom will demonstrate a Meisner style conversation which will demonstrate the development of a relationship from the first meeting, to trust, to arguing, to forgiving and then to loathing. This piece works well as a way of showing a truth which romantic and sexual relationships can hold. I think audience members our age, or our parents age would be able to relate to at least an element of this.
The rest of the class then enter the room and hug them in the middle. Then we find our partner and begin the lustful walk which then develops into the almost kiss. We do this moving around the space then find a still space. We then will have some mating rituals of humans showing. Me and my partner are doing the 'grabbing' ritual of gypsies. This is where the male grabs hold of a girl he wants to kiss and physically forces her to kiss him. This is a violent and patriarchal ritual. Then we go into a humanized demonstration of an animal ritual. We are doing that of a Zebra. This is where the male cleans up their space around them making it look nice so when the females come around they like the space and if they do they mate, then the female leaves.
We then all go into a line with the almost kiss locked, then go into other rituals. We start biting each other then intertwine like swans, then spit on ourselves to rub our scent. We then smell the scent on the other person. After this section we then go into the section where the two people start kissing and everyone else pulls them apart.
The ideas we have but haven't developed yet is to have some of the skinnier people in the class shoving their faces with food. As if they were breaking a moral code. A group of girls smearing make-up of their faces to cover insecurities. Someone pretends to wee in a bowl and someone else drinks it. Of course, it will only be apple juice.
Our piece isn't using a linear narrative. We have a strong theme of courtship rituals and moral transgressions. We want the piece to focus on moral transgressions and courtship rituals and how the two interlink.
It is difficult to allow yourself to just exist onstage and for a relationship to develop between you and your partner. You just have to allow yourself to look into someone eyes and let go of any awkwardness you may feel. You can't let yourself just connect with another person, without acting anything in this piece and a story emerges. I think this is why it worked so well as an initial performance idea.
The part where we have to spit on themselves is difficult to do. We have been directed to actually spit on ourselves which is a concept people in society would view as disgusting. This is how a lot of us feel. This will be a challenging part of our piece to do. We will just have to try and let go of these feelings towards it and allow ourselves to be disgusting and unattractive onstage.
Then Sarah and Tom will demonstrate a Meisner style conversation which will demonstrate the development of a relationship from the first meeting, to trust, to arguing, to forgiving and then to loathing. This piece works well as a way of showing a truth which romantic and sexual relationships can hold. I think audience members our age, or our parents age would be able to relate to at least an element of this.
The rest of the class then enter the room and hug them in the middle. Then we find our partner and begin the lustful walk which then develops into the almost kiss. We do this moving around the space then find a still space. We then will have some mating rituals of humans showing. Me and my partner are doing the 'grabbing' ritual of gypsies. This is where the male grabs hold of a girl he wants to kiss and physically forces her to kiss him. This is a violent and patriarchal ritual. Then we go into a humanized demonstration of an animal ritual. We are doing that of a Zebra. This is where the male cleans up their space around them making it look nice so when the females come around they like the space and if they do they mate, then the female leaves.
We then all go into a line with the almost kiss locked, then go into other rituals. We start biting each other then intertwine like swans, then spit on ourselves to rub our scent. We then smell the scent on the other person. After this section we then go into the section where the two people start kissing and everyone else pulls them apart.
The ideas we have but haven't developed yet is to have some of the skinnier people in the class shoving their faces with food. As if they were breaking a moral code. A group of girls smearing make-up of their faces to cover insecurities. Someone pretends to wee in a bowl and someone else drinks it. Of course, it will only be apple juice.
Our piece isn't using a linear narrative. We have a strong theme of courtship rituals and moral transgressions. We want the piece to focus on moral transgressions and courtship rituals and how the two interlink.
It is difficult to allow yourself to just exist onstage and for a relationship to develop between you and your partner. You just have to allow yourself to look into someone eyes and let go of any awkwardness you may feel. You can't let yourself just connect with another person, without acting anything in this piece and a story emerges. I think this is why it worked so well as an initial performance idea.
The part where we have to spit on themselves is difficult to do. We have been directed to actually spit on ourselves which is a concept people in society would view as disgusting. This is how a lot of us feel. This will be a challenging part of our piece to do. We will just have to try and let go of these feelings towards it and allow ourselves to be disgusting and unattractive onstage.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Lust and Fear
Today we got into pairs and stood opposite them in a line, on the other side of the room. We had to walk towards them, as though we were full of lust for them. As soon as we touched them, we were repelled by fear.
The first time, it felt like what we were showing was love then fear. The second time we did it we had to focus more on wanting to rip someones clothes off, as opposed to wanting to meet their mother. I felt like this worked better when people let go of their boundaries and allowed for the feeling to linger.
Most people I worked with got really close with lust, but not to a point where the audience would believe anything was going to happen, then they would make contact and repel. It worked better when after the initial lust and the contact was made, we stayed close despite the fear. This is because it could show more of a real relationship. People often stay with their partners out of fear, either of the other person or of being alone and many other factors. It felt to me when people repelled instantly that the story they were telling was dishonest. If we were to use this in our piece I think we could combine it with the almost kissing exercise, this would allow people to linger more.
The first time, it felt like what we were showing was love then fear. The second time we did it we had to focus more on wanting to rip someones clothes off, as opposed to wanting to meet their mother. I felt like this worked better when people let go of their boundaries and allowed for the feeling to linger.
Most people I worked with got really close with lust, but not to a point where the audience would believe anything was going to happen, then they would make contact and repel. It worked better when after the initial lust and the contact was made, we stayed close despite the fear. This is because it could show more of a real relationship. People often stay with their partners out of fear, either of the other person or of being alone and many other factors. It felt to me when people repelled instantly that the story they were telling was dishonest. If we were to use this in our piece I think we could combine it with the almost kissing exercise, this would allow people to linger more.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
The 'Almost' Kiss
In our physical theatre and workshop lessons we have explored an exercise where we almost kiss people. To the point where you are centimeters from peoples faces. Then you duck away last minute. We played several different versions with different objectives. The first was where we were in pairs and one person was saying no and the other trying to kiss them. So they would give in for a moment maybe then lean away again. The other person was trying to persuade them but not be too rough.
We then did it where we all moved around the space and when we made eye contact with another person in the room we would lean in towards them, allow the space to linger then move away. At some points it felt like people felt awkward through the experience, allowing yourself to get that close can make people feel uncomfortable. I felt comfortable with most people but I had that security of knowing we were never actually going to kiss. When people didn't let the closeness between their faces linger slightly it felt like the feeling behind it was lost. As though they weren't telling any story with it. If it were to be a performance it wouldn't haven been believable.
The idea behind this exercise could be to explore this idea of 'the chase'. How sometimes the moment before that first kiss can be better than the kiss itself. This works well with our performance as we are looking at this idea of men chasing women. What are they trying to achieve? What happens after they get the girl? After your with someone and the chase is over, do you stay with them or do you decide to move on?
From this exercise we created a small section of work which may be in our final performance of where we are all moving around space almost kissing who we pass. Then two people find each other and really kiss. Everyone stares at them, then they get jealous and try to tear them apart.
We then did it where we all moved around the space and when we made eye contact with another person in the room we would lean in towards them, allow the space to linger then move away. At some points it felt like people felt awkward through the experience, allowing yourself to get that close can make people feel uncomfortable. I felt comfortable with most people but I had that security of knowing we were never actually going to kiss. When people didn't let the closeness between their faces linger slightly it felt like the feeling behind it was lost. As though they weren't telling any story with it. If it were to be a performance it wouldn't haven been believable.
The idea behind this exercise could be to explore this idea of 'the chase'. How sometimes the moment before that first kiss can be better than the kiss itself. This works well with our performance as we are looking at this idea of men chasing women. What are they trying to achieve? What happens after they get the girl? After your with someone and the chase is over, do you stay with them or do you decide to move on?
From this exercise we created a small section of work which may be in our final performance of where we are all moving around space almost kissing who we pass. Then two people find each other and really kiss. Everyone stares at them, then they get jealous and try to tear them apart.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Courtship Rituals
In our piece we want to explore the different courtship rituals of different eras, cultures and species. A traditional Austrian ritual is that women put bits of sliced apple underneath their armpits. They then partake in a dance. At the end of the dance she gives the sweat coated apple slices to the man of her choice, if he accepts or returns her feelings, he will eat it.
In Cambodia there is a tribe in the remote regions where when the daughter reaches a certain age (usually puberty age, mid teens) her parents build her a love hut. Various men then can be invited to stay in the love hut for one or more nights until the women finds a man she wants to marry. Divorce among this tribe is almost unheard of, so people must know what they are getting into before they commit.
We discussed the similarities and differences behind modern day and traditional rituals. In some cultures a daughter would be bought by the husband with money or live stock given to the father. Now when you are in a meeting place like a bar, a man may offer to buy a women a drink if they wish to date or sleep with her.
We also looked at different animal mating rituals. Here is a video with some interesting ones:
A strange but interesting idea we could look at is this idea of animals who reproduce asexually. We could compare this with people who are single and alone and trying to find somebody. A piece where maybe we have an animal looking for its perfect mate, and we can link in human emotions to it. Then to find that there is no perfect mate, only themselves to depend on.
In Cambodia there is a tribe in the remote regions where when the daughter reaches a certain age (usually puberty age, mid teens) her parents build her a love hut. Various men then can be invited to stay in the love hut for one or more nights until the women finds a man she wants to marry. Divorce among this tribe is almost unheard of, so people must know what they are getting into before they commit.
We discussed the similarities and differences behind modern day and traditional rituals. In some cultures a daughter would be bought by the husband with money or live stock given to the father. Now when you are in a meeting place like a bar, a man may offer to buy a women a drink if they wish to date or sleep with her.
We also looked at different animal mating rituals. Here is a video with some interesting ones:
A strange but interesting idea we could look at is this idea of animals who reproduce asexually. We could compare this with people who are single and alone and trying to find somebody. A piece where maybe we have an animal looking for its perfect mate, and we can link in human emotions to it. Then to find that there is no perfect mate, only themselves to depend on.
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