In college Jamie and I had set up most of the production before the rest of the class arrived. It was the case of practicing the setup and making some tweaks and adjustments. I was able to help with providing a solution to the door problem. A spare panel could be rotated. It is also useful as it pushes the visitors closer to my screen, allowing me to be more intimidating. The visitors have to squeeze between the door and the screen in order to proceed. The door can be shut the other way in order to block out my progression towards the tunnel. We were able to make some other adjustments to the scenery such as fixing the white screen into position, making doors and temporary gap fillers that are fixed in place on the day.
We have become very efficient at setting up and dismantling the set. Potentially, we could create our own in the future and it can be set up temporally at a specific venue, or used as part of a tour. I am considering exploring this in the future, as this particular style is very interesting to me and I feel I have a good understanding of the style. I like how our performance is similar to other frightmare style performances but it is also unique. What makes our groups performance different is that we have contrasting characters that have alternating styles. Some of more mystical or weird, where others scare or intimidate. Our performance tells a story and becomes immersive. We have encouraged each other in our performance, forming a good chemistry and understanding of each other's roles. Our interactions with each other during class, sometimes where we are only playing, joking, or having lunch, we come up with new twists for our acts. I have enjoyed this process and want to do more of these type of ground up performances in future. Not just playing and then getting to a point where the props, costume scenery come in later. Instead, working amongst the scene as its constructed. Improvising everything as you go along. Wearing costume and acting in character whilst you work. It helps to create a vision but also in development. By playing, we are able to tweak our characters and the interactions between us. By doing run throughs we were able to make refinements or adjustments to the set, or we could get a feel of positioning of acts, of lighting and sound FX. We tried things, it was kind of ok, but then we found something better later on. It’s a jig saw puzzle, but the picture on the front is a question mark. You put all the pieces together that you have and fill the gaps until you have something. Some of the pieces are rough or even blank early on. Through devising, by playing, by doing workshops, you find the right pieces to fill the gaps until you have the picture that you want.
With the wall of mirrors Sonia suggested making some and I playfully mentioned 'Redrum'. This inspired me into action and I went to town painting the surfaces with various phrases, blood spatter and bloody hand prints.
This process is very natural and also communal. No one has any set roles other than their characters. Like devising, each person has taken on their responsibilities by filling gaps in the performance. We have mostly self-directed the basics for our performance but then directed each other as a group by our characters interactions and feedback. The key to devising performances is to have a rough idea or your final theme or story, such as the circus theme and then create characters around that. Once a basic story has been devised, each performer uses impro and workshops to devise scenes. The scenes can be scripted and returned but is not essential in simpler performances such as physical theatre. I have found that my involvement in college and focus on the performance style has made me it difficult to on various other activities outside. I need to consider this factor whilst I am studying in college and feel I may have to give up in somethings. I also feel that physical theatre is potentially my strongest style the workshops have shown me how to make better use of my physical attributes.
In the second half of the class we explored a technique called the Laban Movement, or 'The Eight Efforts'. Laban was a student of movement, a choreographer and a dancer. His techniques have been influential towards modern dance styles. Although originally used by dancers, this technique has been utilised by actors for improvisation or developing movements for scenes.
Laban broke down human movement styles into:
Direction : Are we direct/indirect? Do we have a goal or wander aimlessly?
Weight: Is our movement constricted as if weighed down or moving through syrup? Are we light and 'floaty'?
Speed: Is it a quick, short action? Is it a long drawn out action?
Flow: Is the movement fixed, you are restricted? Are you free to move at a whim?
The Eight Efforts are as follows
Wring: As to move the body as it is being wringed. To twist and contort the body. The act as you are consumed by pain like arthritis or crohn's. To be exposed to extreme cold temperature
Press: As to press away, to force people away from you, to stop something, to force an entrance through a dense medium.
Flick: Similar to flicking someone of or ignoring someone
Dab: Feeling around aimlessly 'feeling the rain' touching objects in the environment
Glide: Skating, flying,
Float: In space, in a water tank, wandering
Punch: Very direct, aggressive, powerful action
Slash: Defending against a zombie attack or from a swarm of wasps
I found that this technique was very useful and I also felt very confident performing. It's similar to choreography but simpler. It focuses on raw or natural movements and not dance styles. This technique is useful as it encourages the performer to focus on a very specific movement style. To think deeply what each directive means, what does 'direct' or 'bound' mean and then how to act it. To move between contrasting movements and learn how to work the bodies physicals. It is also useful for translating movement into directive. I had to look at my act and look at what movements it requires. My character requires punch, Dab, press and wring. It could possible use flick, flash or float movement. I can break my characters movement down into script and direct specific movements such as at 00:10s a 'punch' movement is required. It then makes my act transferable. To perform the part the actor the can construct their physical movements using the directives built from the eight efforts.
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