As Four ways to speak out made the transition from the validation period of the process to the performance stage, the themes and issues of the piece began to emerge and become more prominent. From the start of the creative process we had decided the main theme for the piece would be that of domestic violence towards women, as we progressed with the process and moved in to the validation stage this theme became more clear for both the ensemble and the cast particularly the violent rape of the woman. It also however became clear that our piece was not only about physical violence towards women but also psychological and mental abuse, the most common form of domestic abuse as it goes unnoticed as it doesn’t leave physical marks only mental scars. Mental abuse gets significantly less publicity and attention than physical abuse, so therefore we wanted to draw attention to the issue:
“Mental cruelty, threats, sexual abuse, physical violence and any form of controlling behaviour used against a woman by her husband or boyfriend are all types of domestic violence” (Hamner.J, 2000, P27)
This theme of mental abuse that emerged through the ‘V’ stage also led to a further theme to emerge which was that of overpowering and possessive love that that leads to entrapment. Through the piece it becomes clear that the man loves her intensely, to the point that he cannot see what he is doing wrong, his love for her is overbearing and possessive and causes her to eventually leave, as shown at the end of the piece when the woman leaves him and he is left trapped by his love for her.
We became aware through the process that it is only when a woman is killed or seriously injured as a result of domestic violence, that any attention is drawn to the issue. By having the woman leave of her own free will, we aimed to show and represent that there is an escape from domestic violence and a chance to regain control of your own life. Ultimately there is hope for sufferers of domestic violence. Our piece ultimately looks at women within society much similar to what DV8 address within their pieces:
“The company's reputation relies on pushing its own boundaries and on the constant re-examination of the roles and relationships of men and women in our (society”http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/artistic_policy)
Despite the individual journeys each person found themselves s on there were experiences that were shared by the entire ensemble which had the effect off drawing the community together. For instance although each person knew the woman in different ways and had a different role to play the entire ensemble shared one key role which was that they were all part of the same community from which the woman disappeared . The entire community shared the experience of discovering the woman’s disappearance, and in the same way the entire community were all burdened and suppressed by their guilt of not helping the woman and a shared hatred of the man who abused her. An example of this guilt and hatred was the second ensemble the community needed to take their pent up emotions of guilt and hatred out and so turned to other members of the community to help them, as people were falling onto the other members of the community this could have been a sign of release, defeat or entrapment, for many of the ensemble the falling was a form of catharsis:
“Catharsis is the emotional cleansing of the audience and/or characters in the play. In relation to drama it is an extreme change in emotion resulting from strong feelings of sorrow, fear, pity, or laughter; this result has been described as a purification or a purging of such emotions” (http://www.thefreedictionary.com)
When the ensemble moved from the studio space into the theatre in which we were going to perform the piece there were both strengths and weaknesses that arose, the theatre space was a lot larger than the studio space we had been using throughout the process and therefore we had to adapt to the space and become familiar with it, as Dymphna Callery states in her book through the body:
“Commanding the stage demands a control of the space……. but in order to do this she has first to really ‘see’ it, to create parallels of attention so that the whole space becomes their field of vision” (Callery.D, 2001, p79)
We could not become intimidated by the amount of space we found ourselves in. A problem encountered by the ensemble was that we had spent 7 months working in the same space, we had spent a long time working on gaining a good sense of peripheral vision, when we moved into the theatre the space dynamics were so different it was essential that we had to spend time exploring the space and opening up our vision once again.
A further problem we encountered was that we were so used to the studio being our characters homes we had to find an emotional connection to the theatre space, we had to get use to the different areas within the space such as the bedroom and bar we did exercises to help us regain a sense of our individual characters within the space, one exercise we revisited before each performance was to sit in the area where your character finds themselves at their most emotional point in the piece, we then had to take in the space and the other characters in it, and respond to their role in the woman’s life, through our responses to the other character the story of the woman’s life could be unravelled, the exercise was successful in that we became aware of the space, the bodies within it and helped us focus on our characters emotions and what our piece needed to communicate to the audience
“ You must be able to work as an ensemble to tell the story moment by moment.… Eye contact is a crucial ingredient, so is a heightened sensory awareness of others in the space.” (Callery, 2001, p.88)
However moving into the space made me even more desperate to perform our piece, seeing the space with all the stenography in place made the woman’s life all that more real, and her story needed to be told . In the same way the space was the home for my character, and so my emotional journey did not stop when we entered our new pace instead it moved on dramatically.
There were three performances of Four ways to speak out and as demonstrated in the RSVP model, the performance stage does not mean anything is final and without change, in fact the piece itself still remains flexible, fluid and open to change. Therefore each performance was different, and each audience member will have seen a completely different show interpreting the encoded signs in response to their own culture and experiences.
My character continued to evolve in response to the RSVP model over the three shows, for example before the second ensemble, the community have discovered the rape of the woman and move into the second ensemble in response to the mans actions, I had always felt a strong enough emotion to move but by the final performance I could barely stand, I fell with so much intensity onto Catherine to get away from Andy. I believe it was in response to the previous flashback in which the woman attempts to leave. My character unlike many other characters on stage didn’t feel guilty but instead was angry, she had tried many times to help the woman but she had never listened, when my character learnt of the rape through the flashbacks that gave me my reason to move to the floor by the bed ready for the attempt to leave, I had previously been seated on the back of the bed so was therefore in everyone’s sightlines and could never really find an intention to move but through the performances the intention became apparent I had to move to get lower to the floor away as if to escape what I was being told. In the final performance of the attempt to leave I could not control my crying, but in response I wouldn’t have wanted to control it, ‘such an “emotion” cannot be expressed; it can only be induced or simulated.’ (Hjort & Laver, 1997, p122) the emotion I felt was not forced and was truthful therefore it aided in my journey, all the other characters and the audiences understanding of the piece.
With every performance my character developed, I felt something different to the time before and was able to carry that new feeling forward to the next performance if it felt right and honest. Up until the performance stage of the model I had never found a connection to the first flashback of the street. It wasn’t until I made the connection that one of the girls within that scene to me could be representing my character, that my character was in the street that night when the man first noticed the woman. As soon as I made this connection, I made the connection to the flashback, the flashback although at times a humorous one, was upsetting for my character, if only we had not gone out that night she would have never of met that man, was all my character could think.
The RSVP model was constantly being used and applied throughout the performances, adaptations were made in response to notes, if something didn’t feel right anymore it was changed, ultimately it had to be honest, otherwise the community would not have been able to connect emotionally to the piece. The strongest emotion I felt throughout this process was prior to the final performance, we had one last chance to tell this women’s story and we had to draw attention to our theme and affect our audience.
Bibliography
Callery.D ,Through the body : A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre, 2001, London , Nick Hern Books Ltd
Hanmer.J, Home truths about domestic violence, feminist influences on policy, 2000, Routledge
Hjort.M, S.Laver Emotion and the Arts 1997, Oxford University Press
http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/artistic_policy Sourced : 20/04/10
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/search.aspx?charset=utf-8&SearchBy=0&Word=catahris&tab=0&TFDBy=0 Sourced : 21/04/2010
Monday, 26 April 2010
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Catherine Hollies, 0805215 - Assessment Blog Three
1. As the creative process turned from the 'V' stage to the 'P' stage of devising, and Four Ways to Speak Out started to come together as one cohesive performance, what were the common themes and issues that were beginning to emerge through the basic fabric of the piece? Despite the individual journeys, what shared experiences tied the community together apart from their state of liminality? Discuss with clear and succinct examples. (400 words)
Once Four Ways to Speak Out started to move from the validating stage to the performance stage of the creative process, themes and issues started to emerge and come together. Some of these had not been noticed before and some were always there but were emphasised more for the audience, to clarify the story. The main theme of the piece, from the start of the creative process was the abuse and rape of women. However not all of the issues behind this theme were clear until the process turned from the ‘V’ stage to the ‘P’ stage. A main issue was that the abuse and rape of the women was wrong and that no one deserves it, but also it explores the misconception that the woman in the piece, who was represented by four different performers, was in some way at fault. Although she stayed with her boyfriend, despite his treatment of her, implying fault on her part, she did not invite nor deserve what he did. Another issue that became apparent though this process was that although the man’s actions were horrid, in his own twisted way he loved her and could not see what he was doing was wrong. This was clear at the end when the woman left him and he was alone, trapped by his own love, which introduced a new theme of abuse, that of obsessive love. In the end this overpowering sense of love that the man felt was what made the woman leave, Four Ways to Speak Out showed this by using a string with hearts on to trap the man by his own consuming love.
These themes and issues took you on a journey, “journeys are central to the development of the action and the story plot.” (Dundjerovic, 2009, p 35). Each person’s journey is individual throughout as each person’s character is an extension of ourselves, it reflects the saying ‘no two people are the same’ therefore no two peoples journey is exactly the same however it is also important to be able to work as an ensemble. “You must be able to work as an ensemble to tell the story moment by moment.” (Callery, 2001, p 88). What tied the community together as an ensemble were the similar experiences that they shared. The main experience tying the community together, discovered through the stages, was the need to know what had happened to the woman who had disappeared. The community all went on a journey to discover her story both as an ensemble and as individuals. “The devising process challenges every group member to confront the work, engage with it individually at different levels, as well as developing a sense of group cooperation, affiliation and unity at the same time.” (Oddey, 1994, p 24). This main experience that tied the group together led to other experiences that the community shared. In Four Ways to Speak Out, just before the second ensemble piece, the community had just learnt what the man had done to the woman, with the rape being recalled through the reading of the dairy and action flashbacks. The community were experiencing similar emotions such as guilt and disgust towards the man.
2. Critically evaluate the transition of Four Ways to Speak Out as the ensemble moved from the studio into the theatre space. What were the strengths and weaknesses of this phase and process? (500 words)
“Commanding the stage demands control of the stage.” (Callery, 2001, p 79). For Four Ways to Speak Out the ensemble had to be able to have full control of the stage and to understand how it operates in context towards the piece in order for the narrative and story to be understood from an audience’s perspective. When the cast moved from the studio to the theatre space it was clear everyone was excited, for not only were the cast moving into a new space but were also seeing all of the full scenery for the first time. “The aim is to explore ways in which the participant/actor can use their physicality and the immediate environment in order to spiritually and mentally connect with it.” (Dundjerovic, 2009, p 94). As it was a new area the cast had to be able to connect with the space and the objects that occupied it, so the first thing everyone did was walk around and take in everything, thinking about the piece and of where each scene would be taking place within the space. Marshall (2001) explains that in everyday life the body constantly reacts to space and that the strength of this response should never be underestimated. This process of moving into the theatre was a strength for the whole cast, as everyone seemed to connect and feel comfortable with the space physically and mentally very quickly.
A weakness of this process of moving from the studio to the theatre was the act of filling the space and the proximity during the ensemble pieces. In the ensemble piece’s the cast were more used to having more width in the studio, whereas in the theatre there was more depth. At first the performers were naturally going to where they would normally be if they were in the studio. Then another problem arose which applied to the whole performance. Many performers believed and felt that if they were not centre stage then the audience would not be able to see them, the depth of the stage meant that they did not want to use the entire space. However, as long as the performer was continually active they were able to maintain a presence regardless of the stage occupied and the audience was always able to see them. “And when an actor has this ‘presence’ it can make us feel that we’re standing very close to them, wherever in the theatre we’re sitting.” (Callery, 2001, p 84).
Nearer the end of the process the weakness did start to become a strength. As the performers started to engage with the different dimensions and the layout of the space they started to listen and be more aware of other performers in the space. For example in the last ensemble piece a pair who were standing up were blocking another pair who were sitting down, so they turned their bodies onto a diagonal slightly which allowed the performers behind to be seen. There were concerns that because the space was different the story and meanings may not be as clear, but through the process the transition between the studio to the theatre actually enhanced the meanings and narrative. If Four Ways to Speak Out was to have changed venue and toured, Dennis explains:
“The actor will need to find a way technically to sustain, night after night, in new space of differing dimensions, differing shapes, and differing proximity to audience all that he has found through the process of rehearsal and previous performance. The same ideas must be conveyed through the same rhythms, tensions, designs.” (1995, p 58).
3. Critically evaluate the growth of the performance over the three shows, with particular emphasis on your own role within the piece. Did the RSVP model continue to apply even at this final stage of the performance piece? Discuss with concrete examples. (600 words)
Each performance seemed to grow and become clearer and stronger for both the ensemble and the individual, the RSVP model continued to apply throughout and to the final performance. Dundjerovic (2009) explains that the Performance stage is not a fixed structure, the structure remains fluid and open to further change which allows the performance to be a ‘work in progress’. “Even if you go back to see the play again, no two performances are exactly identical.” (Oida and Marshall, 1997, p 33). I believe this applied to my character, which remained a ‘work in progress’ up until the last performance. One particular scene where this applied was near the end of the piece. During the flashback of the bedroom scene, just before the cast went into the last ensemble piece, I could not quite find the right emotion to move me into the next position, but in the last performance I had a feeling of emptiness and overpowering love which made me move from where I was into my ending position, to escape the sense of being suffocated. “The character moves only because he must. Who he is, where he is, what surrounding circumstances are, will all affect just how the movement manifests itself.” (Dennis, 1995, p 24).
In each performance I found something new and sometimes although I had the same emotion it triggered something else compared to the performance before. In the validating stage when I watched the flashback of the woman trying to leave I always felt guilty but sometimes this emotion felt forced and that I was not really connecting with it. If I was unable to reflect the emotion in the performance the audience would not be able to experience it either (Marshall; 2001). By the first performance of this scene my emotion changed slightly, there was more depth to my feeling of guilt and I believe this was brought about by the music played for the audience “you can physical respond to music without any knowledge of dance.” (Marshall, 2001, p 44). My head had naturally moved to lean against the wall. Also in that same scene when Andrew walked on to pull the woman back in, I felt my body tense and fill up with hate towards him, as if he had actually hurt someone I cared about. However in the next performance this emotion did not surface and I felt that I had to force it through. In the last performance I tried to stay alert and allow the original emotion to flow or let something new trigger a new emotion. I noticed in that scene my breathing had changed, I found it hard to take a deep breath which I believe was how my character felt, showing guilt and disgust.
The RSVP model was continually being applied right up to the final rehearsal, in the flashback street scene the woman represented by Gemma was showing that idea of being manipulated by the man and that she did not like it, but before the first performance it was realised that it was too early and soon to be showing this, so it was altered to her showing that she was a little uncomfortable but she liked the man. My character in this scene also changed through the performances through the RSVP model. During rehearsals, nearer the end of the street flashback, I started by not liking the man because he was not paying any attention to me but I changed this to feelings of confusion, contrasting the man being gentle and a little flirtatious at one moment but then quite forceful and aggressive at the next.
Over the three performances my character kept growing and changing through the RSVP model and as an individual I tried to keep engaged with the story of the woman by always being alert, keeping aware of the space and connected to the rest of the community.
Bibliography
· Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London: Nick Hern Books Limited.
· Dennis, A. (1995) The Articulate Body: The physical Training of the Actor. London: Nick Hern Books Limited.
· Dundjerovic, A. S. (2009) Robert Lepage. Abingdon: Routledge.
· Marshall, L. (2001) The Body Speaks: Performance and Expression. London: Methuen Publishing Limited.
· Oddey, A. (1994) Devising Theatre: A practical and theoretical handbook. London: Routledge.
· Oida, Y. and Marshall, L. (1997) The Invisible Actor. London: Methuen.
By Catherine Hollies, 0805215
Charlotte Swaby 0803698 - 'Blog Assessment 3'
As Four Ways to Speak Out came from the validation stage to the performance stage the overall themes of domestic violence and oppressive love had become emerged into the basic fabric of the piece.
As Huxley and Witts state themes in theatre “can anchor a particular performance"(1996, p4) and for us it helped us as an ensemble to relate to the piece in a specific way and help us strengthen and support out own individual characters and journeys too. This theme of oppressive love became the overriding theme which helped support and portray our adaptation on the main stimulus of our piece, domestic abuse and it progressed right up until the finale where through the entrapment of Andy with the string of hearts, this oppressive love was seen as more of a portrayal on mental abuse than of physical abuse. It took Andy’s seemingly pure innocent love and left ‘the women’s’ heart wrenched, in limbo and her sole demoralized. It made the piece more prominent as we showed that even though rape was explored, women do not have to be beaten and have bruises to be labelled a victim of domestic abuse, it can be much more physiological ultimalty forming “a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour… that can include a range of abusive behaviours, not all of which are in themselves inherently ‘violent'” (http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-articles). We wanted to show the women leaving the man off her own accord not through theatre’s past conventional ways of having abuse turn extremely violent leading more often than not to the death of the victim. This prompted positive feedback from the audience as they said it was very refreshing to see abuse dealt in such a way especially in having the women leave of her own back. These themes were told in two specific ways that made the piece more accessible for the audience to understand as we had to make allowances for the people who perhaps wouldn’t be familiar of the genre of physical theatre. We did this by having the narrative of the diary extracts and the use of voiceovers for the flashbacks which in turn helped the audience to understand the journey that ‘the women’ had undergone and what had happened too her before the point we see on stage, thus giving the piece an appropriate cohesive context in which for them to follow.
The main theme and experience that tied the community together was that of guilt and that everyone felt they were unable to escape from the realisation of what had happened to the women. This unfolded more as the performance progressed and soon enough the piece transferred from seeing a naive and blissfully unaware community to a community in complete pandemonium powered by this overwhelming guilt. The effect of this emotion on the community as a whole was evident through the fact that each character despite having their own individual emotions, journeys and places in the community began to become more dependant on each character of the ensemble at some point or another because this guilt in relation to the women ultimately has binded them together. It became apparent that even though a few characters resisted partaking in the community ensembles in the beginning they came to realise towards the end of the performance that they needed reassurance from someone and that the whole community wanted or needed something from someone, whether it was emotional support or just someone to be there for them. This was shown primarily through the second ensemble when everyone had discovered who exactly Andy was and the role he had in the women’s disappearance therefore everyone clung to anyone around them.
For us the transition from the rehearsals studio to the theatre space brought about many strengths and weaknesses upon the process and the main weakness we faced as an ensemble and as individuals was similar to the dilemma which Dv8 faces when addressing theatre space. This been that when work is moved into “a large auditorium, the subtleties of the gestures are often missed and performers feel they have to make actions bigger and in many cases they become less real” (DV8, Interviews, 1993, p11-13). Our performance mirrored this as when we littered the space at the sides out of focus for when the flashbacks were happening, we found it hard to balance between been still and not respondent at all to doing gestures that seemed to be too big and distractive and took attention away from what was happening in the centre. We found it hard as a whole ensemble on the periphery of the space to keep our established characters engaged into the moment of what was happening. We all felt that the space around the periphery seemed limiting and confining at various points in the piece especially in the depths of the back of the arena space, the stairs and the pillar. The whole space in general was much bigger than the rehearsal studio and we had all become used to the length and width of the studios therefore we had adapted the moves to fit that rehearsal space not the Arena. When we did eventually enter the space, even though we were excited to work in the space and to see the scenography put in place, we realised just how cramped and close we had been working together for the entirety of the process and we didn’t realise how much it would confuse and throw the ensemble when adapting the piece to the performance space. For example the pair work in the ensemble sections that had to be slightly reconfigured in order to use the entire space and to avoid coming into contact with the scenery such as the bed, the bar and the chair and tables during the more technical movements such as the lifts and falls. In having to make these various changes it made the theatre rehearsals time-consuming, stressful and painstaking because we had to trace each of our steps in the space to see if we had plenty of room to move in and to make sure we had considered the entire of the space in all its levels and dimensions. An example of this was that in the first ensemble on the street the community was all grouped at the front and we were forgetting that we had to fill the space all the way to the back near the stairs thus we had to alter our positions slightly and be aware throughout the three shows that we had to arrange ourselves to stretch the community throughout the full length of the stage in order to fill the space fully. This showed for us that like Callery states “commanding the stage demands a control of the space…the actor has to read the space but in order to do this s/he has first to really ‘see’ it, to create parallels of attention so that the whole space becomes their field of vision.” (2001, p79). These rehearsals, working out such spatial and technical cues, was necessary but because of how long it took, it caused the energy of ensemble to drop and make simple necessary tasks such as the ensemble warm up to seem tedious as we hated having to repeat the warm up so many times in order to try and regain our focus towards the piece.
Another weakness that became prominent when transferring the piece to the space was that many people in the ensemble thought that you could only be seen by the audience on stage if you were in the centre or in the front hence why many of us became reluctant to use the back of the space due to the fact that we thought we wouldn’t be seen and that out ensemble work and character work would be lost if any of us stood there. However I found that when I was at the back of the stage, especially in Hayley’s flashback of her representation of the women, I was laid on the floor in direct line of the spotlight. Even though the spotlight was on Hayley, I was most defiantly lit therefore still seen even at the back. In the rehearsal studio in validating the structure especially in regarding where the flashbacks would come, once all this had been agreed and validated, the structure gave us the necessary framework and security we needed for the performing a cohesive piece but even in the theatre we were getting rid of a few aspects in this structure that didn’t work in the space. We were constantly asking Huxley and Witts question of “does it work?”(1996, p244) and if it didn’t like Newson says you then had to “have the courage to throw out ideas that weren't working, no matter how wonderful or logical they appear” (Dv8, Interviews, 1993, p11-13) even on the day of the performance despite us having had these ideas throughout the entire process.
The way in which the performance had grown over the 3 shows prompted my character to develop a lot quicker in the space than it had done in the rehearsal process and it did surprise me how many more emotions I started to explore in the piece. During the chaos scene it overwhelmed me how much more emotionally I reacted to what was happening around me as in the past I hadn’t really felt that much of an emotional intent towards the piece as my character throughout the beginning stages of the RSVP model and even in the beginning parts of the validation stage had never been properly established in the community or as an individual. The excitement of the performance stage made me truly focus thus all my emotions became heightened giving me genuine feelings towards everyone on stage. I was so upset when Andy was chasing everyone and I felt so scared at how the community was reacting and how the community was unravelling around me. Even when lieing down out of the limelight I was so emotional I was still crying about what I was seeing on stage even though I wasn’t directly in it. I felt truly locked into everyone’s emotions and really felt everything they were feeling throughout all of the three shows. Throughout all of the performances the RSVP model was still very much a definite influence to the piece and still applied to Four Ways to Speak Out even in the last stages. By entering the new Arena space it allowed us to go back even to the Research stage of the model because we were still exploring, researching and discovering more new things about ourselves, our capabilities and our characters that we had not noticed throughout the rest of the process ultimately showing like what Dundjerovic said that the V and P stage of Lepage’s model can “represent something quite different for each deviser individually so produces different results in performance” (Dundjerovic, 2009, p38) for each member of the ensemble.
Adding such as aspects as the setting and the technical aspects to the piece and adapting the feedback we had been given between each performance, prompted us to see the different aspects we had to improve on and change, meaning that the validation process was still ongoing in order to reach our idea of a successful performance. By the time we had reached the eventual performance stage it wasn’t until the third show that the whole ensemble reached the emotional peak we had aimed for. For us an ensemble we seemed to have peaked too high too early on in the technical run and we thought as a community that this level of intent and emotion would be reached again whenever we did it therefore we expected this to happen and became to complacent and it wasn’t until the first show that we soon found out that this wasn’t the case. From what I gathered from the community was that when we didn’t reach this expected peak through the first two shows everyone felt a bit deflated especially as the feedback we had received from both the lecturers and the audience hadn’t been great and had shown that we hadn’t displayed the correct level of emotion especially from when royana said that you should always be giving more to the piece on every show because ultimately everyone is on stage all way through the performance so ”a thought or emotion must be explicit, no matter how small or subtle” (Dennis, 2002, p18). The first and second performance was almost lacking in energy and was a little static around the periphery so for the third performance “we let the production guide us there” after all “the show has its own logic, poetry and rhythms” (Charest, 1997, p99) so we let ourselves truly focus, let go and discover this without trying to force emotion or rely on emotion we had had in the past to come back thus the third performance was much more energetic and involved and gave us what we wanted to achieve, really paying justice to all the hard work we had put in throughout the module. We truly learnt through this though that as a performer in physical theatre, a move or emotion can ever be fully validated as every performance is different because like Lepage states “it’s live, it changes every night” (Huxley & Witts, 1996, p239). But the performance stage can be achieved if you become aware of the all the factors of the space and stay alert to everyone around you, their reactions to what’s happening and what they are doing.
Overall we had all undergone and seen the growth of our piece from beginning to end and we all have had various positive responses to it so it was a pity that the first two shows weren’t as successful as we had aimed for but I truly feel that the overall process and particularly the last show, through the community’s journey and own individual character journey’s, had really helped to give an intention to the real life issue of domestic abuse and really helped to get across the life of oppressive love which the women had lead.
By Charlotte Swaby - 0803698
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. Routledge. New York.
Charest, R. (1997) Robert Lepage: Connecting Flights. Translated by Wanda Romer Taylor. London. Methuen
Dennis, A. (2002) The Articulate Body: The Physical Training of the Actor. Nick Hern. London.
Dunderovic, A. (2009) Robert Lepage. Routledge. New York.
DV8. (1993) Interviews [Accessed at 24th April 2010]. Available at:
http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/interview_dance_now_lloyd_newson_on_dance
Huxley, M & Witts, N. (1996) The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader. Routledge. USA.
Women’s Aid. (2008) About Domestic Violence [Accessed at 24th April 2010]. Available at: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-articles
As Huxley and Witts state themes in theatre “can anchor a particular performance"(1996, p4) and for us it helped us as an ensemble to relate to the piece in a specific way and help us strengthen and support out own individual characters and journeys too. This theme of oppressive love became the overriding theme which helped support and portray our adaptation on the main stimulus of our piece, domestic abuse and it progressed right up until the finale where through the entrapment of Andy with the string of hearts, this oppressive love was seen as more of a portrayal on mental abuse than of physical abuse. It took Andy’s seemingly pure innocent love and left ‘the women’s’ heart wrenched, in limbo and her sole demoralized. It made the piece more prominent as we showed that even though rape was explored, women do not have to be beaten and have bruises to be labelled a victim of domestic abuse, it can be much more physiological ultimalty forming “a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour… that can include a range of abusive behaviours, not all of which are in themselves inherently ‘violent'” (http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-articles). We wanted to show the women leaving the man off her own accord not through theatre’s past conventional ways of having abuse turn extremely violent leading more often than not to the death of the victim. This prompted positive feedback from the audience as they said it was very refreshing to see abuse dealt in such a way especially in having the women leave of her own back. These themes were told in two specific ways that made the piece more accessible for the audience to understand as we had to make allowances for the people who perhaps wouldn’t be familiar of the genre of physical theatre. We did this by having the narrative of the diary extracts and the use of voiceovers for the flashbacks which in turn helped the audience to understand the journey that ‘the women’ had undergone and what had happened too her before the point we see on stage, thus giving the piece an appropriate cohesive context in which for them to follow.
The main theme and experience that tied the community together was that of guilt and that everyone felt they were unable to escape from the realisation of what had happened to the women. This unfolded more as the performance progressed and soon enough the piece transferred from seeing a naive and blissfully unaware community to a community in complete pandemonium powered by this overwhelming guilt. The effect of this emotion on the community as a whole was evident through the fact that each character despite having their own individual emotions, journeys and places in the community began to become more dependant on each character of the ensemble at some point or another because this guilt in relation to the women ultimately has binded them together. It became apparent that even though a few characters resisted partaking in the community ensembles in the beginning they came to realise towards the end of the performance that they needed reassurance from someone and that the whole community wanted or needed something from someone, whether it was emotional support or just someone to be there for them. This was shown primarily through the second ensemble when everyone had discovered who exactly Andy was and the role he had in the women’s disappearance therefore everyone clung to anyone around them.
For us the transition from the rehearsals studio to the theatre space brought about many strengths and weaknesses upon the process and the main weakness we faced as an ensemble and as individuals was similar to the dilemma which Dv8 faces when addressing theatre space. This been that when work is moved into “a large auditorium, the subtleties of the gestures are often missed and performers feel they have to make actions bigger and in many cases they become less real” (DV8, Interviews, 1993, p11-13). Our performance mirrored this as when we littered the space at the sides out of focus for when the flashbacks were happening, we found it hard to balance between been still and not respondent at all to doing gestures that seemed to be too big and distractive and took attention away from what was happening in the centre. We found it hard as a whole ensemble on the periphery of the space to keep our established characters engaged into the moment of what was happening. We all felt that the space around the periphery seemed limiting and confining at various points in the piece especially in the depths of the back of the arena space, the stairs and the pillar. The whole space in general was much bigger than the rehearsal studio and we had all become used to the length and width of the studios therefore we had adapted the moves to fit that rehearsal space not the Arena. When we did eventually enter the space, even though we were excited to work in the space and to see the scenography put in place, we realised just how cramped and close we had been working together for the entirety of the process and we didn’t realise how much it would confuse and throw the ensemble when adapting the piece to the performance space. For example the pair work in the ensemble sections that had to be slightly reconfigured in order to use the entire space and to avoid coming into contact with the scenery such as the bed, the bar and the chair and tables during the more technical movements such as the lifts and falls. In having to make these various changes it made the theatre rehearsals time-consuming, stressful and painstaking because we had to trace each of our steps in the space to see if we had plenty of room to move in and to make sure we had considered the entire of the space in all its levels and dimensions. An example of this was that in the first ensemble on the street the community was all grouped at the front and we were forgetting that we had to fill the space all the way to the back near the stairs thus we had to alter our positions slightly and be aware throughout the three shows that we had to arrange ourselves to stretch the community throughout the full length of the stage in order to fill the space fully. This showed for us that like Callery states “commanding the stage demands a control of the space…the actor has to read the space but in order to do this s/he has first to really ‘see’ it, to create parallels of attention so that the whole space becomes their field of vision.” (2001, p79). These rehearsals, working out such spatial and technical cues, was necessary but because of how long it took, it caused the energy of ensemble to drop and make simple necessary tasks such as the ensemble warm up to seem tedious as we hated having to repeat the warm up so many times in order to try and regain our focus towards the piece.
Another weakness that became prominent when transferring the piece to the space was that many people in the ensemble thought that you could only be seen by the audience on stage if you were in the centre or in the front hence why many of us became reluctant to use the back of the space due to the fact that we thought we wouldn’t be seen and that out ensemble work and character work would be lost if any of us stood there. However I found that when I was at the back of the stage, especially in Hayley’s flashback of her representation of the women, I was laid on the floor in direct line of the spotlight. Even though the spotlight was on Hayley, I was most defiantly lit therefore still seen even at the back. In the rehearsal studio in validating the structure especially in regarding where the flashbacks would come, once all this had been agreed and validated, the structure gave us the necessary framework and security we needed for the performing a cohesive piece but even in the theatre we were getting rid of a few aspects in this structure that didn’t work in the space. We were constantly asking Huxley and Witts question of “does it work?”(1996, p244) and if it didn’t like Newson says you then had to “have the courage to throw out ideas that weren't working, no matter how wonderful or logical they appear” (Dv8, Interviews, 1993, p11-13) even on the day of the performance despite us having had these ideas throughout the entire process.
The way in which the performance had grown over the 3 shows prompted my character to develop a lot quicker in the space than it had done in the rehearsal process and it did surprise me how many more emotions I started to explore in the piece. During the chaos scene it overwhelmed me how much more emotionally I reacted to what was happening around me as in the past I hadn’t really felt that much of an emotional intent towards the piece as my character throughout the beginning stages of the RSVP model and even in the beginning parts of the validation stage had never been properly established in the community or as an individual. The excitement of the performance stage made me truly focus thus all my emotions became heightened giving me genuine feelings towards everyone on stage. I was so upset when Andy was chasing everyone and I felt so scared at how the community was reacting and how the community was unravelling around me. Even when lieing down out of the limelight I was so emotional I was still crying about what I was seeing on stage even though I wasn’t directly in it. I felt truly locked into everyone’s emotions and really felt everything they were feeling throughout all of the three shows. Throughout all of the performances the RSVP model was still very much a definite influence to the piece and still applied to Four Ways to Speak Out even in the last stages. By entering the new Arena space it allowed us to go back even to the Research stage of the model because we were still exploring, researching and discovering more new things about ourselves, our capabilities and our characters that we had not noticed throughout the rest of the process ultimately showing like what Dundjerovic said that the V and P stage of Lepage’s model can “represent something quite different for each deviser individually so produces different results in performance” (Dundjerovic, 2009, p38) for each member of the ensemble.
Adding such as aspects as the setting and the technical aspects to the piece and adapting the feedback we had been given between each performance, prompted us to see the different aspects we had to improve on and change, meaning that the validation process was still ongoing in order to reach our idea of a successful performance. By the time we had reached the eventual performance stage it wasn’t until the third show that the whole ensemble reached the emotional peak we had aimed for. For us an ensemble we seemed to have peaked too high too early on in the technical run and we thought as a community that this level of intent and emotion would be reached again whenever we did it therefore we expected this to happen and became to complacent and it wasn’t until the first show that we soon found out that this wasn’t the case. From what I gathered from the community was that when we didn’t reach this expected peak through the first two shows everyone felt a bit deflated especially as the feedback we had received from both the lecturers and the audience hadn’t been great and had shown that we hadn’t displayed the correct level of emotion especially from when royana said that you should always be giving more to the piece on every show because ultimately everyone is on stage all way through the performance so ”a thought or emotion must be explicit, no matter how small or subtle” (Dennis, 2002, p18). The first and second performance was almost lacking in energy and was a little static around the periphery so for the third performance “we let the production guide us there” after all “the show has its own logic, poetry and rhythms” (Charest, 1997, p99) so we let ourselves truly focus, let go and discover this without trying to force emotion or rely on emotion we had had in the past to come back thus the third performance was much more energetic and involved and gave us what we wanted to achieve, really paying justice to all the hard work we had put in throughout the module. We truly learnt through this though that as a performer in physical theatre, a move or emotion can ever be fully validated as every performance is different because like Lepage states “it’s live, it changes every night” (Huxley & Witts, 1996, p239). But the performance stage can be achieved if you become aware of the all the factors of the space and stay alert to everyone around you, their reactions to what’s happening and what they are doing.
Overall we had all undergone and seen the growth of our piece from beginning to end and we all have had various positive responses to it so it was a pity that the first two shows weren’t as successful as we had aimed for but I truly feel that the overall process and particularly the last show, through the community’s journey and own individual character journey’s, had really helped to give an intention to the real life issue of domestic abuse and really helped to get across the life of oppressive love which the women had lead.
By Charlotte Swaby - 0803698
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. Routledge. New York.
Charest, R. (1997) Robert Lepage: Connecting Flights. Translated by Wanda Romer Taylor. London. Methuen
Dennis, A. (2002) The Articulate Body: The Physical Training of the Actor. Nick Hern. London.
Dunderovic, A. (2009) Robert Lepage. Routledge. New York.
DV8. (1993) Interviews [Accessed at 24th April 2010]. Available at:
http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/interview_dance_now_lloyd_newson_on_dance
Huxley, M & Witts, N. (1996) The Twentieth-Century Performance Reader. Routledge. USA.
Women’s Aid. (2008) About Domestic Violence [Accessed at 24th April 2010]. Available at: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-articles
Stephanie Drury-0802543-Blog 3
The main themes that Four ways to Speak Out explored was domestic violence and oppressive love. The way in which the ensemble showed this to the audience was clear through its narrative in two different ways. The use of a voice over allowed the audience to understand the journey of ‘The woman’ and how she was treated and also made the genre of physical theatre more accessible to those who are unfamiliar. However, the audience was also shown how pure love could be oppressive. In Four ways to speak out the audience was shown visually, aided by hearts threaded on to string, that obsessive love can also be the a type of abuse and domestic violence. When Andy was left at the end of the performance, it was not the rape, the control or anything else that made ‘The woman’ leave it was solely the overpowering amount of love that was exploited to her. A theme that ran throughout the piece was that someone does not have to be beaten on a daily basis in order for it to be classed as an act of domestic violence. It can be, “psychological, physical, sexual or emotional.” (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/domestic-violence/) and as a group we managed to allow this to emerge from the performance.
Being a female dominating group we felt that we wanted to create a woman who was emotionally strong enough to leave the man at the end. This showed the audience that domestic abuse is unaccepatble and most importantly there is a way out. As an ensemble when we finally moved away from the validation part of devising and edged closer to the performance element of the RSVP model we, “discovered a collective imagination.” (Callery,(2001), p5). What is meant by this is as an ensemble we had finally rooted any ideas about what ‘The woman’ was like and what she wanted in life. This allowed us to become emotionally attached to ‘The woman’ and give an honest performance on the stage.
What tied the community together was that as perfomers our characters were an extention of ourselves. As a performer I found myself calling on my emotional memory (a technique created by Stanislavski) in order to realise how my character would act if I was put in the situation of my character. As a performer this was “natural and unavoidable” (Merlin,(2007), p143), and this was the case for many other performers within the ensemble.
In order for Four Ways to Speak Out to work the ensemble had to reinvent the entire space that it was performed, in order for the narrative to become believable for the audience. Callery believes that, “commanding the stage demands a control of the space.” (Callery, (2006), p79) If the ensemble was weak and did not have control of the space on stage the performance would lack energy and honesty.
On the day that the cast of the performance moved from the studio in to the performance space it was obvious that the group was excited to see the sceneography for the piece. It was important that the ensemble were, “connected to the space they occupied,” (Callery (2006) p84) as well as everything that was included within the space such as props. This was a strength of the ensemble as we all managed to adapt to the new space and connect and feel comfortable within it.
A weakness that the ensemble had when making the transition from the studio to the theatre was filling the space. Many performers felt that if they were not centre stage that the audience would not see them. A performer can have presence on stage wherever they are placed and “when an actor has this presence it can make us feel as though we are standing very close to them, wherever we are sitting in the theatre.” (Callery,(2006),p84). Although it was difficult to realise this initially, as the day moved on and the cast began to finally validate the piece we slightly overcame this problem.
Although as a member of the ensemble I felt that the group responded positively to the change in space some critics believe that changing a space can have a negative effect on the performers. For example, Zinder believes that even changing the floor surface can, “certainly limit physical expression.” (Zinder,(2002),p23). When working within the genre of physical theatre it is important that performers create a good relationship with gravity and the floor. Zinder also believes that the foot is an, “integral part of the body’s physical expressiveness.” (Zinder,(2002),p24). Therefore, changing the space an inevitably the floor could of had a dramatic effect on the way the ensemble performed.
My character did not develop at a fast pace, which as a performer I struggled with and found myself concentrating on creating movements that had no intention behind them. The RSVP model continued to apply to the process right up until the end of the final show, everyone’s character seemed to perform on instinct, as there was space for variety within the performance. For example, my character did not express as much anger within the first and second performance like it did in the third. This is because of the way my character was treated by Andrew Smith’s character in the ‘chaos’ scene. Andrew pulled my hair, which then fuelled my anger in to me pulling his leg back as if to gain revenge. This changed the dynamics of the performance for my character and created a different experience for the audience watching on the third night. Callery sees the, “actor as creator, as opposed to the actor as interpreter.” (Callery,(2006),p13) This is relevant to Four ways to speak Out because as performers the ensemble creates the characters and narrative through movement which allows the audience to interpret what you are trying to express.
The performance grew immensely over the three-show period and this led to my character validating just in time for the third show. The RSVP model was still being applied to Four Ways to Speak Out at this point and perhaps throughout the third show for my character. As a performer you don’t validate a movement or gesture until it is being performed because you must stay alert to the surroundings. In the physical theatre genre it is important to understand that, “every action has to be justified by a rational and logical analysis in behavioural terms.” (Callery,(2006),p149) What this means is that as a performer you have to be ready and alert to react to how everyone in the ensemble reacts. However, this doesn’t mean you should ‘do something because everyone else is’ as this couldn’t be justified within your character.
As previously mentioned my character developed slowly over the R and S stages of the RSVP model which made me as a performer feel nervous about performing as I was worried my character would look forced. However, during the dress run my character seemed to validate itself, which allowed me to relax into the character more.
The role of my character in the flash back was of a friend who had taken ‘The Woman’ to the pub in order for her to indulge on some drinks before she went off for a meal with her partner for their anniversary. This part of the performance grew over the shows as the three other members of this group along with myself really started to enjoy the choreography, which made the section flow more easily. With particular reference to my character within this section, I allowed my character to have a little variance to the other performers at the table as I felt that my character still had a slight feeling of regret within this section so I made sure as a performer that I kept looking over at ‘The Woman’ to make sure she was okay. However, the members of the audience can interpret this differently.
Over the three shows it is fair to say that the performance grew as a response to the characters growing. I found myself becoming more attached to the woman, which gave my character an intention to perform and bring ‘The Woman’s’ story to life.
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2006) Through the Body: A practical guide to physical theatre. New York: London: Routledge.
Merlin, B. (2007) The complete Stanislavsky Toolkit. London: Nick Hern
Zinder, D. (2002) Body voice: Imagination. A Training for the Actor. New York: Routledge
Other Sources
(http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/domestic-violence/- Accessed on 22/04/2010 at 19:04)
Being a female dominating group we felt that we wanted to create a woman who was emotionally strong enough to leave the man at the end. This showed the audience that domestic abuse is unaccepatble and most importantly there is a way out. As an ensemble when we finally moved away from the validation part of devising and edged closer to the performance element of the RSVP model we, “discovered a collective imagination.” (Callery,(2001), p5). What is meant by this is as an ensemble we had finally rooted any ideas about what ‘The woman’ was like and what she wanted in life. This allowed us to become emotionally attached to ‘The woman’ and give an honest performance on the stage.
What tied the community together was that as perfomers our characters were an extention of ourselves. As a performer I found myself calling on my emotional memory (a technique created by Stanislavski) in order to realise how my character would act if I was put in the situation of my character. As a performer this was “natural and unavoidable” (Merlin,(2007), p143), and this was the case for many other performers within the ensemble.
In order for Four Ways to Speak Out to work the ensemble had to reinvent the entire space that it was performed, in order for the narrative to become believable for the audience. Callery believes that, “commanding the stage demands a control of the space.” (Callery, (2006), p79) If the ensemble was weak and did not have control of the space on stage the performance would lack energy and honesty.
On the day that the cast of the performance moved from the studio in to the performance space it was obvious that the group was excited to see the sceneography for the piece. It was important that the ensemble were, “connected to the space they occupied,” (Callery (2006) p84) as well as everything that was included within the space such as props. This was a strength of the ensemble as we all managed to adapt to the new space and connect and feel comfortable within it.
A weakness that the ensemble had when making the transition from the studio to the theatre was filling the space. Many performers felt that if they were not centre stage that the audience would not see them. A performer can have presence on stage wherever they are placed and “when an actor has this presence it can make us feel as though we are standing very close to them, wherever we are sitting in the theatre.” (Callery,(2006),p84). Although it was difficult to realise this initially, as the day moved on and the cast began to finally validate the piece we slightly overcame this problem.
Although as a member of the ensemble I felt that the group responded positively to the change in space some critics believe that changing a space can have a negative effect on the performers. For example, Zinder believes that even changing the floor surface can, “certainly limit physical expression.” (Zinder,(2002),p23). When working within the genre of physical theatre it is important that performers create a good relationship with gravity and the floor. Zinder also believes that the foot is an, “integral part of the body’s physical expressiveness.” (Zinder,(2002),p24). Therefore, changing the space an inevitably the floor could of had a dramatic effect on the way the ensemble performed.
My character did not develop at a fast pace, which as a performer I struggled with and found myself concentrating on creating movements that had no intention behind them. The RSVP model continued to apply to the process right up until the end of the final show, everyone’s character seemed to perform on instinct, as there was space for variety within the performance. For example, my character did not express as much anger within the first and second performance like it did in the third. This is because of the way my character was treated by Andrew Smith’s character in the ‘chaos’ scene. Andrew pulled my hair, which then fuelled my anger in to me pulling his leg back as if to gain revenge. This changed the dynamics of the performance for my character and created a different experience for the audience watching on the third night. Callery sees the, “actor as creator, as opposed to the actor as interpreter.” (Callery,(2006),p13) This is relevant to Four ways to speak Out because as performers the ensemble creates the characters and narrative through movement which allows the audience to interpret what you are trying to express.
The performance grew immensely over the three-show period and this led to my character validating just in time for the third show. The RSVP model was still being applied to Four Ways to Speak Out at this point and perhaps throughout the third show for my character. As a performer you don’t validate a movement or gesture until it is being performed because you must stay alert to the surroundings. In the physical theatre genre it is important to understand that, “every action has to be justified by a rational and logical analysis in behavioural terms.” (Callery,(2006),p149) What this means is that as a performer you have to be ready and alert to react to how everyone in the ensemble reacts. However, this doesn’t mean you should ‘do something because everyone else is’ as this couldn’t be justified within your character.
As previously mentioned my character developed slowly over the R and S stages of the RSVP model which made me as a performer feel nervous about performing as I was worried my character would look forced. However, during the dress run my character seemed to validate itself, which allowed me to relax into the character more.
The role of my character in the flash back was of a friend who had taken ‘The Woman’ to the pub in order for her to indulge on some drinks before she went off for a meal with her partner for their anniversary. This part of the performance grew over the shows as the three other members of this group along with myself really started to enjoy the choreography, which made the section flow more easily. With particular reference to my character within this section, I allowed my character to have a little variance to the other performers at the table as I felt that my character still had a slight feeling of regret within this section so I made sure as a performer that I kept looking over at ‘The Woman’ to make sure she was okay. However, the members of the audience can interpret this differently.
Over the three shows it is fair to say that the performance grew as a response to the characters growing. I found myself becoming more attached to the woman, which gave my character an intention to perform and bring ‘The Woman’s’ story to life.
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2006) Through the Body: A practical guide to physical theatre. New York: London: Routledge.
Merlin, B. (2007) The complete Stanislavsky Toolkit. London: Nick Hern
Zinder, D. (2002) Body voice: Imagination. A Training for the Actor. New York: Routledge
Other Sources
(http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/domestic-violence/- Accessed on 22/04/2010 at 19:04)
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Stephanie Drury-0802543-Blog Two
The first step that was taken to create Four ways to Speak Out asked the cast to draw pictures as a response to music that was played in to the creative space. This response can be linked to Lepage’s ‘RSVP model’. On a personal level, this was my first attachment to the piece as in the session I draw a picture of a woman who had experienced domestic violence.
As the development stage moved on, as a group we were told the theme that we were going to explore was domestic violence. I believe that asking the entire group to write letters about the last time we saw ‘The Woman’ fuelled the group into creating the depth of the piece and the ensembles idiosyncrasies was used as the letters were all an individual reaction to the theme.
Another strategy that was used to create individual characters as well as the ensemble was play. In a recent rehearsal, the group was set on task to explore how they felt towards Andy after the ensemble had found out his character had raped ‘The Woman.’ None of this work was scripted and was purely improvised. Evidently it created an emotional scene. In physical theatre a natural reaction (improvisation) to an idea, in many cases, can cause a more emotive performance than that of a scripted piece. Dymphna Callery supports this idea by saying,
‘Sometimes the chemistry of performers and how they play together enables them to work purely from play’ (Callery D. 2001: 169)
The chemistry of the community created a lot of tension towards Andy’s character and this was created by allowing the group to ‘play’. It also allowed me to finally set my ideas and feelings about my own character in to stone.
Throughout the creative process of Four Ways to Speak Out my character has changed and developed dramatically. I feel that my character should be an extension of myself if I am to truly respond physically to what your character is feeling. This would ensure that my character is, “real and alive.” (http://portophysicaltheatre.blogspot.com/ at 19:16 on 22/03/10)
The reason that my character has changed is because of my intentions and motives throughout the piece. Initially, I wanted to create an in depth and troubled character but once I evaluated this idea I realised that this was almost impossible given the circumstances and environment that my character is surrounded by throughout most of the performance. In order to refine my character I decided to once again use ‘play’ as a devising strategy. This allowed me to relax and potentially enjoy creating my character and ultimately create a more believable character for the audience when I perform.
Working with different people throughout the devising process has allowed me to discover my character on different levels. At the beginning of the response stage I felt as though I was trapped and could not venture further in order to create my character. When analysing this now, it is apparent that this is because I was constantly working with the same group of people within the bar scene. When working with other people such as Vicky or Catherine gave me a new rush of inspiration. This also shows that bodies react within one another and absorb each other’s positive and even negative energy.
Although I feel as though I am at a strong point in creating my character it is possible that my character may change from one performance to the next.
Throughout the creative process of Four Ways to Speak Out it has been vital to understand that as a performer you must befriend gravity, as this is what can make physical theatre work. Callery believes in order to devise a powerful performance the actor must be “less inhibited and more inclined to take risks.” (Callery (2001) p 162)
Throughout most of the performance my body language is what suggests the most about my character. The change between being drunk and sober is significant as the arch in my spine is greater when I am expressing myself as a drunk.
However, when I am sober and realise what has happened to ‘The Women’, I feel total disgust and allow myself to hurl my body at Vicky, which brings us both crashing to the ground. This represents to the audience that my character feels guilty and finds her self not even able to show her face as she lies on the floor.
The use of repetition is central for my character as this is what defines my physicality. In the bar scene I repeat a key gesture with other performers (standing up and leaning towards stage left whilst letting out a cheer.) When analysed by the audience this shows that as a group we are unable to piece together where ‘The Woman’ has disappeared too. Although this may appear funny to the audience at the time, once the second scene shows that ‘The Woman’ has been raped; it projects a more sinister light on the previous scene. As a group we felt that “insistent repetition causes a blur,” (Morfee (2005) p133) and in order to show that as a group we are confused about the whereabouts of ‘The Woman’ repetition was the best way of expressing it.
As a group we feel that we must respect the fact that domestic violence happens on a daily basis for both men and women and are hoping to create a true representations of the horror that these people go through. Personally, in order to create this I have responded as honestly to tasks as I can. Richards reinforces this idea by saying, “If the actor executes in truth the lines of physical actions, he will live genuinely on stage, and this in its turn be perceived by the spectator.” (Richards (1995) p102)
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001); Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre.
London: Neil Hern Books Ltd.
Morfee,A. (2005);Antonin Artaud’s Writing Bodies. London: Oxford University Press.
Richards, T. (1995); At work with Grotowski on Physical Actions. London: Routledge.
Other Sources
http://portophysicaltheatre.blogspot.com/
By Stephanie Drury 0802543
As the development stage moved on, as a group we were told the theme that we were going to explore was domestic violence. I believe that asking the entire group to write letters about the last time we saw ‘The Woman’ fuelled the group into creating the depth of the piece and the ensembles idiosyncrasies was used as the letters were all an individual reaction to the theme.
Another strategy that was used to create individual characters as well as the ensemble was play. In a recent rehearsal, the group was set on task to explore how they felt towards Andy after the ensemble had found out his character had raped ‘The Woman.’ None of this work was scripted and was purely improvised. Evidently it created an emotional scene. In physical theatre a natural reaction (improvisation) to an idea, in many cases, can cause a more emotive performance than that of a scripted piece. Dymphna Callery supports this idea by saying,
‘Sometimes the chemistry of performers and how they play together enables them to work purely from play’ (Callery D. 2001: 169)
The chemistry of the community created a lot of tension towards Andy’s character and this was created by allowing the group to ‘play’. It also allowed me to finally set my ideas and feelings about my own character in to stone.
Throughout the creative process of Four Ways to Speak Out my character has changed and developed dramatically. I feel that my character should be an extension of myself if I am to truly respond physically to what your character is feeling. This would ensure that my character is, “real and alive.” (http://portophysicaltheatre.blogspot.com/ at 19:16 on 22/03/10)
The reason that my character has changed is because of my intentions and motives throughout the piece. Initially, I wanted to create an in depth and troubled character but once I evaluated this idea I realised that this was almost impossible given the circumstances and environment that my character is surrounded by throughout most of the performance. In order to refine my character I decided to once again use ‘play’ as a devising strategy. This allowed me to relax and potentially enjoy creating my character and ultimately create a more believable character for the audience when I perform.
Working with different people throughout the devising process has allowed me to discover my character on different levels. At the beginning of the response stage I felt as though I was trapped and could not venture further in order to create my character. When analysing this now, it is apparent that this is because I was constantly working with the same group of people within the bar scene. When working with other people such as Vicky or Catherine gave me a new rush of inspiration. This also shows that bodies react within one another and absorb each other’s positive and even negative energy.
Although I feel as though I am at a strong point in creating my character it is possible that my character may change from one performance to the next.
Throughout the creative process of Four Ways to Speak Out it has been vital to understand that as a performer you must befriend gravity, as this is what can make physical theatre work. Callery believes in order to devise a powerful performance the actor must be “less inhibited and more inclined to take risks.” (Callery (2001) p 162)
Throughout most of the performance my body language is what suggests the most about my character. The change between being drunk and sober is significant as the arch in my spine is greater when I am expressing myself as a drunk.
However, when I am sober and realise what has happened to ‘The Women’, I feel total disgust and allow myself to hurl my body at Vicky, which brings us both crashing to the ground. This represents to the audience that my character feels guilty and finds her self not even able to show her face as she lies on the floor.
The use of repetition is central for my character as this is what defines my physicality. In the bar scene I repeat a key gesture with other performers (standing up and leaning towards stage left whilst letting out a cheer.) When analysed by the audience this shows that as a group we are unable to piece together where ‘The Woman’ has disappeared too. Although this may appear funny to the audience at the time, once the second scene shows that ‘The Woman’ has been raped; it projects a more sinister light on the previous scene. As a group we felt that “insistent repetition causes a blur,” (Morfee (2005) p133) and in order to show that as a group we are confused about the whereabouts of ‘The Woman’ repetition was the best way of expressing it.
As a group we feel that we must respect the fact that domestic violence happens on a daily basis for both men and women and are hoping to create a true representations of the horror that these people go through. Personally, in order to create this I have responded as honestly to tasks as I can. Richards reinforces this idea by saying, “If the actor executes in truth the lines of physical actions, he will live genuinely on stage, and this in its turn be perceived by the spectator.” (Richards (1995) p102)
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001); Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre.
London: Neil Hern Books Ltd.
Morfee,A. (2005);Antonin Artaud’s Writing Bodies. London: Oxford University Press.
Richards, T. (1995); At work with Grotowski on Physical Actions. London: Routledge.
Other Sources
http://portophysicaltheatre.blogspot.com/
By Stephanie Drury 0802543
Blog Assesment 2 : 0815809 Charlotte Wilcox
Throughout the Process and ultimately the creation of Four Ways To Speak Out, there have been a variety of different strategies used to devise material, many of which were new to the group, but enabled creativity and exploration of material.
“Devising is a process of making theatre that enables a group of performers to be physically and practically creative in the sharing and shaping of an original product.”
(Oddey.A, 1994, p.1)
The devising process has enabled the group to grow both individually and as an ensemble and in the same way has allowed individual characters to grow as well as the community. One strategy used successfully was that of the clap method, which allowed material to be created without the use of speech which in the devising process can be unhelpful and unproductive as it causes work to be over analysed.
Another strategy used in the creative process was that of ‘play’ a time for freedom of expression and to allow your body to do the thinking and to develop material through the use of experimentation.
“Play- LeCoq’s conception of devising is founded on an approach that could be called playful of improvisatory”
(Keefe,J, 2007 p191, )
Through the use of play new relationships were formed within the ensemble and a broader sense of trust was developed. The joy of play is that it allows people to develop material and at the same time their characters at their own pace, and allows for the possibility that some sessions will not be as productive or rewarding as others, which is a lesson the ensemble have most defiantly learned. Play also allows for work to be created without a stimulus, which has its advantages, as there is no stimulus there are no restrictions on what can be created which more often than not means the material produced can be completely unexpected, new and ultimately exciting for both creator and observer.
A further method of devising material encountered during the creative process is that of task led devising. This technique allowed the group to develop their individual characters effectively as you were able to develop material in relation to the task set but also with your character in mind.
Ultimately different techniques produce different types of work, but what is apparent is there is no right or wrong way of creating material as
“Devised theatre can start from anything. It is determined and defined by a group of people who set up an initial framework or structure to experiment with ideas”
(Oddey, 1994, p 1 )
Throughout the process of creating Four Ways to Speak out my own character has grown, developed and changed dramatically. When we first began I believed my character to be a close friend of the missing woman, who felt that there was more to her disappearance than the rest of the community knew, and who knew that the woman was unhappy with her relationship, which worked well with the idea for the piece, which was violence and control in domestic relationships.
When we began devising material for when the community discover the woman has left, and the reason for her leaving I decided my characters feelings would be that of shock and perhaps guilt that nothing was done to help her. This however just felt unnatural for my character, I decided that my character would not be shocked at all, instead when witnessing the flashbacks I would feel an overriding sense of guilt and pain because the woman had confided in me and told me what was happening but at the same time anger, anger because I had tried to help her before but she would never listen.
Initially my character was fairly isolated from everyone else within the community I did not wish to comfort anyone else as I was so angry, however when Andy’s character began taking an interest in Dawn’s character it hurt and frightened me that she would end up trapped with him the way the woman had been, and I felt I needed to attempt to stop it happening. I noticed Dawn’s character was frail all the way through the piece and this led my character to make the decision to attempt to shelter and help her.
As the piece itself has little live speech we have to rely on the premise that,
“Communication can be carried out by nonverbal media, such as the indexical (body language)”
(Rozik.E. 2002. P16)
Ultimately my characters feelings, emotions and motives determine the body language I use within our piece. Due to my characters feeling of guilt and pain, my body and ultimately my spine are heavy and weighed down , I spend a lot of time on the floor. In the piece I often find myself wrapping my arms around my legs as if to keep my feelings locked in, in some ways my character feels she should take all the guilt no one else. Another reason for my character being so drawn to the floor is that metaphorically her anger and guilt is too much to carry.
My anger and pain intensifies as I witness Andy’s character pulling Dawn in and this is my primary motivation to fall in the Chaos scene as I know that I cannot stop her giving in to him, I also am at a point where i need to share some of my feelings that I’ve kept in with the person who catches me. The pain causes me to run at my partner who grabs me and struggles with me until she brings me to the floor to calm down, for me this symbolically represents my character sharing her feelings with someone else.
I have also found that when devising material and responding to situations within the piece my character has developed a gesture that I repeat numerous times, the gesture physically represents my feeling of pain turning to anger, it consists of me placing my palms together across my stomach my hands then stretch down my dress to my sides and the clutch my dress in fists and tug on my dress symbolic of my anger and annoyance.
Our piece and ultimately the genre of Physical Theatre relies on the ability to communicate signs to the spectator through the body, my aim is that my characters body language, relationship with the space and the relationships within the space will communicate meaning for the audience.
Bibliography
Keefe.J. Murray.S. Physical Theatre: A critical Reader. Routledge 2007
Oddey.A. Devising Theatre: A practical and theoretical handbook. London Routledge 1994
Rozik.E. The Roots of Theatre: Rethinking Ritual and Other Theories of Origin. University of Iowa Press 2002
“Devising is a process of making theatre that enables a group of performers to be physically and practically creative in the sharing and shaping of an original product.”
(Oddey.A, 1994, p.1)
The devising process has enabled the group to grow both individually and as an ensemble and in the same way has allowed individual characters to grow as well as the community. One strategy used successfully was that of the clap method, which allowed material to be created without the use of speech which in the devising process can be unhelpful and unproductive as it causes work to be over analysed.
Another strategy used in the creative process was that of ‘play’ a time for freedom of expression and to allow your body to do the thinking and to develop material through the use of experimentation.
“Play- LeCoq’s conception of devising is founded on an approach that could be called playful of improvisatory”
(Keefe,J, 2007 p191, )
Through the use of play new relationships were formed within the ensemble and a broader sense of trust was developed. The joy of play is that it allows people to develop material and at the same time their characters at their own pace, and allows for the possibility that some sessions will not be as productive or rewarding as others, which is a lesson the ensemble have most defiantly learned. Play also allows for work to be created without a stimulus, which has its advantages, as there is no stimulus there are no restrictions on what can be created which more often than not means the material produced can be completely unexpected, new and ultimately exciting for both creator and observer.
A further method of devising material encountered during the creative process is that of task led devising. This technique allowed the group to develop their individual characters effectively as you were able to develop material in relation to the task set but also with your character in mind.
Ultimately different techniques produce different types of work, but what is apparent is there is no right or wrong way of creating material as
“Devised theatre can start from anything. It is determined and defined by a group of people who set up an initial framework or structure to experiment with ideas”
(Oddey, 1994, p 1 )
Throughout the process of creating Four Ways to Speak out my own character has grown, developed and changed dramatically. When we first began I believed my character to be a close friend of the missing woman, who felt that there was more to her disappearance than the rest of the community knew, and who knew that the woman was unhappy with her relationship, which worked well with the idea for the piece, which was violence and control in domestic relationships.
When we began devising material for when the community discover the woman has left, and the reason for her leaving I decided my characters feelings would be that of shock and perhaps guilt that nothing was done to help her. This however just felt unnatural for my character, I decided that my character would not be shocked at all, instead when witnessing the flashbacks I would feel an overriding sense of guilt and pain because the woman had confided in me and told me what was happening but at the same time anger, anger because I had tried to help her before but she would never listen.
Initially my character was fairly isolated from everyone else within the community I did not wish to comfort anyone else as I was so angry, however when Andy’s character began taking an interest in Dawn’s character it hurt and frightened me that she would end up trapped with him the way the woman had been, and I felt I needed to attempt to stop it happening. I noticed Dawn’s character was frail all the way through the piece and this led my character to make the decision to attempt to shelter and help her.
As the piece itself has little live speech we have to rely on the premise that,
“Communication can be carried out by nonverbal media, such as the indexical (body language)”
(Rozik.E. 2002. P16)
Ultimately my characters feelings, emotions and motives determine the body language I use within our piece. Due to my characters feeling of guilt and pain, my body and ultimately my spine are heavy and weighed down , I spend a lot of time on the floor. In the piece I often find myself wrapping my arms around my legs as if to keep my feelings locked in, in some ways my character feels she should take all the guilt no one else. Another reason for my character being so drawn to the floor is that metaphorically her anger and guilt is too much to carry.
My anger and pain intensifies as I witness Andy’s character pulling Dawn in and this is my primary motivation to fall in the Chaos scene as I know that I cannot stop her giving in to him, I also am at a point where i need to share some of my feelings that I’ve kept in with the person who catches me. The pain causes me to run at my partner who grabs me and struggles with me until she brings me to the floor to calm down, for me this symbolically represents my character sharing her feelings with someone else.
I have also found that when devising material and responding to situations within the piece my character has developed a gesture that I repeat numerous times, the gesture physically represents my feeling of pain turning to anger, it consists of me placing my palms together across my stomach my hands then stretch down my dress to my sides and the clutch my dress in fists and tug on my dress symbolic of my anger and annoyance.
Our piece and ultimately the genre of Physical Theatre relies on the ability to communicate signs to the spectator through the body, my aim is that my characters body language, relationship with the space and the relationships within the space will communicate meaning for the audience.
Bibliography
Keefe.J. Murray.S. Physical Theatre: A critical Reader. Routledge 2007
Oddey.A. Devising Theatre: A practical and theoretical handbook. London Routledge 1994
Rozik.E. The Roots of Theatre: Rethinking Ritual and Other Theories of Origin. University of Iowa Press 2002
Charlotte Swaby 0803698 - 'Blog Assessment 2'
In order to create Four Ways to Speak out, we used the key strategies of Robert Lepage’s RSVP model of devising throughout the creative process. The model according to Lepage is “the generic method for liberating personal and group creativity” (2003, p23) and it starts with Research, where you do exactly that. We gathered key information on our narrative theme of domestic abuse and discussed possible theories and skills for the performance in relation to the ensemble and each individual. The research stage is very process orientated and it started back in semester one of the module, with the play sessions. Callery states that “play is very much about creating many worlds, whether individually or collaboratively” (2001, p97) and here we all learnt, through task led exercises, the naturalistic and stylistic techniques used to create physical theatre. This gave each performer a wide range of knowledge and provided each person with a substantial technique palette in order to create an extensive range of material. These strategies highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the ensemble and we tried to break down the social taboos that the group and individuals had inhabited only then could the ensemble work in the collaborative sense, successfully. We then moved onto the Score stage and constructed many feasible sections in either groups or as the whole ensemble using the strategies we had learnt thus leading us now onto the Validation stage of the devising process because we have now begun to structure the successful sections created, in order to construct what will become the final performance.
My character for Four Ways to Speak Out was rooted in my mind every since we wrote letters to establish our characters place in the community and the involvement we had with the women, however it became a struggle to distinguish and find a place for this character in relation to the way in which the ensemble started working and to what movements were being created. But as described by Robert Lepage when talking about the creation of character, he does describe it as “work in progress” (Lepage quoted by Dundjerovic 2007, pg27). Through the score stage, because the sections were being created in no particular order, there never seemed a time to explore my specific character because I could never predict how my character would feel at certain points especially as the piece was not yet completed, therefore it offered me no chance for my character to establish a true emotional connection. I started to feel frustrated and it became more of a force to try to establish my character and I found it hard in waiting for it to just happen. I did feel at several points somewhat of a loss in relation to my involvement in the piece and to what was coming out of the process for me. In fact my character had never been anywhere near certain until the working weekend session where in seeing the piece in the validation stage, it was there that my original idea of a character did in fact now seem to play a good role in the piece as whole. However looking back I feel that having waited until the validation stage this has now made my character more real and plausible in the piece and I now feel a strong emotional and exciting connection to the work with a real sense of awareness of the ensemble, to what is happening and where the piece will end up.
In terms of my character’s physicality, in the beginning my gravity is quite centred as I use the positioning of the neutral stance and the qualities of pedestrian movement to enter the space. I observe the community as a whole in wonder of what is happening and when the ensemble start the collective movement I simply go along thinking nothing of it. I uphold this centred physicality until I begin to discover what has happened to the women and from then on my physicality begins to have much more of an emotional intention because of the close relationship I had with the women in the past. I feel nothing but guilt for not knowing where she is and I feel that I’ve let the women down and in turn the whole community. Not only does my physicality become more emotional, focused and detailed, but my sense of gravity begins to constantly switch to show my turmoil, going from being either still or into displaying a sudden surge of emotional energy. In stillness I am that overwhelmed with guilt, my focus is so strong that I stare into space and try to come to terms with what has happened and where, like Marshall states, I can then “enable the real dramatic truth to manifest itself” (2002, p33). As Lecoq claims “the study of the performer’s anatomical features can prove helpful in the development of physical characterisation” (2000) so when I find out what exactly happened to the women, I sink to the floor and really curve my spine to hug my knee so that I am very closed in thus becoming a key physicality for my character. As mine and the community’s emotion heightens I start to wring my hands quite anxiously and this surge of emotion of everything that has happened eventually becomes so overpowering that I drastically run to my partner from one side of the stage to the other and throw myself at her with such a high emotional intention you can really hear all the built up emotion through my breath truly exploiting like Callery states an “intensified energy of action on stage” (2001, p27). Any particular repetition of gestures for me come from the use of the wringing of the hands but in terms of my physicality it’s my relationship with the constant switch in gravity that becomes a key motif for my character throughout the piece.
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. Routledge. New York
Dunđerović, A. (2003) The Cinema of Robert Lepage: the poetics of memory. Wallflower Press. Great Britain.
Dundjerovic, A. (2007) The Theatricality of Robert Lepage. McGill-Queen’s Press. Great Britain.
Lecoq, J. (2000) The Moving Body. Methuen Publishing Ltd. London.
Marshall, L. (2002) The Body Speaks: Performance and Expression. Revised Ed. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. London.
My character for Four Ways to Speak Out was rooted in my mind every since we wrote letters to establish our characters place in the community and the involvement we had with the women, however it became a struggle to distinguish and find a place for this character in relation to the way in which the ensemble started working and to what movements were being created. But as described by Robert Lepage when talking about the creation of character, he does describe it as “work in progress” (Lepage quoted by Dundjerovic 2007, pg27). Through the score stage, because the sections were being created in no particular order, there never seemed a time to explore my specific character because I could never predict how my character would feel at certain points especially as the piece was not yet completed, therefore it offered me no chance for my character to establish a true emotional connection. I started to feel frustrated and it became more of a force to try to establish my character and I found it hard in waiting for it to just happen. I did feel at several points somewhat of a loss in relation to my involvement in the piece and to what was coming out of the process for me. In fact my character had never been anywhere near certain until the working weekend session where in seeing the piece in the validation stage, it was there that my original idea of a character did in fact now seem to play a good role in the piece as whole. However looking back I feel that having waited until the validation stage this has now made my character more real and plausible in the piece and I now feel a strong emotional and exciting connection to the work with a real sense of awareness of the ensemble, to what is happening and where the piece will end up.
In terms of my character’s physicality, in the beginning my gravity is quite centred as I use the positioning of the neutral stance and the qualities of pedestrian movement to enter the space. I observe the community as a whole in wonder of what is happening and when the ensemble start the collective movement I simply go along thinking nothing of it. I uphold this centred physicality until I begin to discover what has happened to the women and from then on my physicality begins to have much more of an emotional intention because of the close relationship I had with the women in the past. I feel nothing but guilt for not knowing where she is and I feel that I’ve let the women down and in turn the whole community. Not only does my physicality become more emotional, focused and detailed, but my sense of gravity begins to constantly switch to show my turmoil, going from being either still or into displaying a sudden surge of emotional energy. In stillness I am that overwhelmed with guilt, my focus is so strong that I stare into space and try to come to terms with what has happened and where, like Marshall states, I can then “enable the real dramatic truth to manifest itself” (2002, p33). As Lecoq claims “the study of the performer’s anatomical features can prove helpful in the development of physical characterisation” (2000) so when I find out what exactly happened to the women, I sink to the floor and really curve my spine to hug my knee so that I am very closed in thus becoming a key physicality for my character. As mine and the community’s emotion heightens I start to wring my hands quite anxiously and this surge of emotion of everything that has happened eventually becomes so overpowering that I drastically run to my partner from one side of the stage to the other and throw myself at her with such a high emotional intention you can really hear all the built up emotion through my breath truly exploiting like Callery states an “intensified energy of action on stage” (2001, p27). Any particular repetition of gestures for me come from the use of the wringing of the hands but in terms of my physicality it’s my relationship with the constant switch in gravity that becomes a key motif for my character throughout the piece.
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. Routledge. New York
Dunđerović, A. (2003) The Cinema of Robert Lepage: the poetics of memory. Wallflower Press. Great Britain.
Dundjerovic, A. (2007) The Theatricality of Robert Lepage. McGill-Queen’s Press. Great Britain.
Lecoq, J. (2000) The Moving Body. Methuen Publishing Ltd. London.
Marshall, L. (2002) The Body Speaks: Performance and Expression. Revised Ed. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. London.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Dawn Freeman - 0817312, Blog 2
The piece ‘Four Ways to Speak Out’ has been made of a combination of different devising strategies. These have either been a combined effort of the ensemble, such as the clap method, or more individual methods such as entering yourself into a play session. Either way it has rarely been the case during this process that scripting or conversing on the piece has been needed. In fact it may even hinder the process.
‘Jacques Copeau was the first practitioner to introduce the notion of play to theatre. Copeau searched for a broader, freer, more audacious dramatic imagination’ (Callery, 2001, p95) At first I found it difficult to fully engage in play sessions, this was mainly due to personal inhibitions and a feeling of lack of character. Gradually as the rehearsals developed this opinion changed. I now feel play sessions are most useful and gratifying not only in developing my relationship with individual characters but also in developing a relationship with the ensemble. They are when my characters and my own emotions are most in tune with the piece as I am fully able to express through my own choice of movement.
Robert Lepage created a formulaic description of the devising process, which has been abbreviated to ‘RSVP’ (Resource, Score, Validation, Performance) of which I shall focus mainly upon the resources, ‘the term ‘Resource’ coming out of the tradition of dance theatre/environmental design in which anything can become a resource if the author or performer is able to engage with it’. (Dunderovic, 2003, p54) At the beginning of the creative process each member of the ensemble was asked to bring in items relating to our own character back stories we had produced. These objects have then been selected and involved within the piece. They could be incorporated either how we intended or in different ways depending on other members of the ensembles items and our characters reactions to them. My initial connection was towards a shoe that I had not brought in myself as it was an item of clothing I associated with when I last saw the girl and found in the waste ground.
Since the time of finding the shoe my character has gone through a variety of changes. Different elements of the performance not so much alter my character but change her attitude towards other members of the ensemble. This has been the case right from the moment of finding the shoe right up until recent sessions.
I found finding the element of neutrality key to starting my character development, this is gained through the warm up and through finding a neutral state ‘the neutral state is more than just an alert stillness. It embodies the notion of the empty actor, uncluttered by any attitude or personality trait, open (in the sense of being ‘available’) to creative stimuli.’ (Callery, 2001, p33) The warm up was key to enabling me to release any negative or positive emotions that would affect my concentration. The state of neutrality acquired by this gave me the ability to build on my character from a completely fresh base, free from anything that has been affecting me personally before entering the session.
From my characters initial creation I felt she was a close friend to the missing woman. As we developed the piece and I developed a section not only with one of the representations of the woman but also a moment with the representation of the abusive male my character made further developments. The moment with Naomi’s representation of the women happens in the bar and was key to furthering my characters development. In this section she confides in my character about the rape. My character then attempts support but handles the situation incorrectly, attempting to just get her to ‘freshen up’ and get along with life. Naomi’s character is quite irresponsive to all our efforts to retouch her and bring her back to normal, ‘survivors who suffer with chronic stress, lack of support systems and prior victimization struggle less successfully to resolve their issues. Negative self-esteem often hinders their progress and paralyze their efforts.’ (http://www.aest.org.uk/survivors/rts.html) My character then later in the piece allows the same man who committed the rape in when the rest of the community have pushed him out. Now in addition to feeling a close relationship with the missing woman I also have an overwhelming sense of guilt in this moment. In addition to this for that slight moment the male character and I touch hands I feel the communities disappointment.
Physical theatre is predominantly based around certain moments or gestures that highlight a characters emotions or events that are taken place. ‘In theatre a movement is not a mechanical act but must always be a gesture that is justified’ (Keefe & Murray, 2007, p187). As Keefe and Murray state it is important to ensure these gestures and movements are fitting to the piece and in key with your characters and not incorporated into the piece unnaturally.
My character’s specific movement is fitting with the anxious and uneasy nature of my character. Whilst walking around the space eye contact is generally avoided until completely necessary or with Naomi or Andy’s characters. Even then the eye contact is uncomfortable and unnerving not only for those involved but those watching such moments. As well as avoiding eye contact my character also tugs at her clothes and her shoulders hang quite heavy, this is provoked from an emotion other than nervousness. It is provoked by a sense of shame and remorse for her actions throughout her past. Her friend confided in her and she not only did little to help her but then kept in contact with the very man who made her leave when the other members of the community had shunned him. Upon the realisation of the woman’s disappearance, her actions creep up on her and result in her withdrawing into herself and not really wishing to confide in any other members of the community.
However, she too like the rest of the community wishes to understand further what happened to the woman. In that sense, by continuing the same gestures as the rest of the community in the ensemble sections my character shows she is still in the same position as every other member.
Bibliography:
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London: Nick Hern Books Limited.
Dunderovic, A (2003) The cinema of Robert Lepage: the poetics of memory. London : Wallflower Press
Keefe, J & S Murray. (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader. London: Routledge.
Abused Empowered Survive Thrive [Accessed on 19/03/2010) Available at: http://www.aest.org.uk/survivors/rts.html
‘Jacques Copeau was the first practitioner to introduce the notion of play to theatre. Copeau searched for a broader, freer, more audacious dramatic imagination’ (Callery, 2001, p95) At first I found it difficult to fully engage in play sessions, this was mainly due to personal inhibitions and a feeling of lack of character. Gradually as the rehearsals developed this opinion changed. I now feel play sessions are most useful and gratifying not only in developing my relationship with individual characters but also in developing a relationship with the ensemble. They are when my characters and my own emotions are most in tune with the piece as I am fully able to express through my own choice of movement.
Robert Lepage created a formulaic description of the devising process, which has been abbreviated to ‘RSVP’ (Resource, Score, Validation, Performance) of which I shall focus mainly upon the resources, ‘the term ‘Resource’ coming out of the tradition of dance theatre/environmental design in which anything can become a resource if the author or performer is able to engage with it’. (Dunderovic, 2003, p54) At the beginning of the creative process each member of the ensemble was asked to bring in items relating to our own character back stories we had produced. These objects have then been selected and involved within the piece. They could be incorporated either how we intended or in different ways depending on other members of the ensembles items and our characters reactions to them. My initial connection was towards a shoe that I had not brought in myself as it was an item of clothing I associated with when I last saw the girl and found in the waste ground.
Since the time of finding the shoe my character has gone through a variety of changes. Different elements of the performance not so much alter my character but change her attitude towards other members of the ensemble. This has been the case right from the moment of finding the shoe right up until recent sessions.
I found finding the element of neutrality key to starting my character development, this is gained through the warm up and through finding a neutral state ‘the neutral state is more than just an alert stillness. It embodies the notion of the empty actor, uncluttered by any attitude or personality trait, open (in the sense of being ‘available’) to creative stimuli.’ (Callery, 2001, p33) The warm up was key to enabling me to release any negative or positive emotions that would affect my concentration. The state of neutrality acquired by this gave me the ability to build on my character from a completely fresh base, free from anything that has been affecting me personally before entering the session.
From my characters initial creation I felt she was a close friend to the missing woman. As we developed the piece and I developed a section not only with one of the representations of the woman but also a moment with the representation of the abusive male my character made further developments. The moment with Naomi’s representation of the women happens in the bar and was key to furthering my characters development. In this section she confides in my character about the rape. My character then attempts support but handles the situation incorrectly, attempting to just get her to ‘freshen up’ and get along with life. Naomi’s character is quite irresponsive to all our efforts to retouch her and bring her back to normal, ‘survivors who suffer with chronic stress, lack of support systems and prior victimization struggle less successfully to resolve their issues. Negative self-esteem often hinders their progress and paralyze their efforts.’ (http://www.aest.org.uk/survivors/rts.html) My character then later in the piece allows the same man who committed the rape in when the rest of the community have pushed him out. Now in addition to feeling a close relationship with the missing woman I also have an overwhelming sense of guilt in this moment. In addition to this for that slight moment the male character and I touch hands I feel the communities disappointment.
Physical theatre is predominantly based around certain moments or gestures that highlight a characters emotions or events that are taken place. ‘In theatre a movement is not a mechanical act but must always be a gesture that is justified’ (Keefe & Murray, 2007, p187). As Keefe and Murray state it is important to ensure these gestures and movements are fitting to the piece and in key with your characters and not incorporated into the piece unnaturally.
My character’s specific movement is fitting with the anxious and uneasy nature of my character. Whilst walking around the space eye contact is generally avoided until completely necessary or with Naomi or Andy’s characters. Even then the eye contact is uncomfortable and unnerving not only for those involved but those watching such moments. As well as avoiding eye contact my character also tugs at her clothes and her shoulders hang quite heavy, this is provoked from an emotion other than nervousness. It is provoked by a sense of shame and remorse for her actions throughout her past. Her friend confided in her and she not only did little to help her but then kept in contact with the very man who made her leave when the other members of the community had shunned him. Upon the realisation of the woman’s disappearance, her actions creep up on her and result in her withdrawing into herself and not really wishing to confide in any other members of the community.
However, she too like the rest of the community wishes to understand further what happened to the woman. In that sense, by continuing the same gestures as the rest of the community in the ensemble sections my character shows she is still in the same position as every other member.
Bibliography:
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London: Nick Hern Books Limited.
Dunderovic, A (2003) The cinema of Robert Lepage: the poetics of memory. London : Wallflower Press
Keefe, J & S Murray. (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader. London: Routledge.
Abused Empowered Survive Thrive [Accessed on 19/03/2010) Available at: http://www.aest.org.uk/survivors/rts.html
Catherine Hollies, 0805215 - Assessment Blog Two
1. What are the key strategies of devising that have been used through the creative process of Four Ways to Speak Out? Reflect briefly on how these strategies have enabled the growth and development of both individual characters and the ensemble’s idiosyncrasies. (250 words)
“Devised theatre can start from anything.” (Oddey, 1994, p 1). Four Ways to Speak Out started with an idea that the piece was going to be about abuse to women. This idea then allowed a key strategy to take place, that started the piece of for the whole of the ensemble. The group were given a task to write a letter about a female character who has gone missing, explaining when we last saw her and what connection we had with her. Graham and Hoggett explain that tasks are “merely building blocks, created to support more blocks.” (2009, p 7). They also go onto to say that by doing tasks it allows performers to have a creative input into the work without the responsibility of creating the whole show. The letter allowed the group to have an input about who the woman was and the possible reason for her disappearance. The letter then led to a session of improvisation and uses the ‘play’ method to set up the beginning of the whole piece. Our characters were to interact with other people who then discover that the woman has gone missing. Although through the process this initial idea has changed it has allowed the group to start to build a character and see how this character would behave and respond to things within the community. Concepts and themes were given to the group to create movements or small scenes within the piece. For example a scene that takes place in a street has the theme of being on your way out for a night on the town. Through the process it allowed each person’s character to expand and for the idea of the scene to change naturally.
2. Analyse the growth of your own character from the beginning of Porto to where you are at in the process now. State the reasons for its development/change/refinement. (250 words)
My character has changed since the beginning of this process and is still developing, as Callery says “The art of creating believable characters lies in never quite knowing who they are.” (2001, p 211). Through my letter I had established that my connection to the missing woman was that we were work colleagues who had become close friends over a number of years. The last time I saw her was at work, and at the end of the day I had asked her if she would like to come out for drinks with my friends and me. However during the first session when improvising the opening my character had to change slightly. “Wright suggests that devising depends on relationships and chemistry between people” (Oddey, 1994, p 66). I realised after improvisation that because everyone had created different characters, although I was supposedly meeting friends in a bar, no one actually knew who I was. I therefore changed my approach to reflect this. We then left this scene and moved to six different scenes reflecting the different areas the woman had been before she left. Here my character changed completely, when the group went to the scenes relevant to their character I went to the street, as there was no work place area. The narrative in the street scene was the creation of characters of stero-typical girls on a night out, this was different to my initial character. I then became one of these girls and while I knew that this is where my character would begin I did not know how my relationship with the woman would develop. When we rejoined to do the ensemble sections it was where I discovered my character and my connection to everything. “Characters change during the course of a play” (Callery, 2001, p 211).
3. Identify your character’s physicality through detailed analysis of its body language. (For example describe your character’s use of spine and its relationship to gravity, its shift of weight in the pelvis and even the repetition of a key gesture) (250 words)
In everyday life, a person’s natural character and characteristics can be seen through their body language and expression. “In the theatre making a movement is never a mechanical act but must always be a gesture that is justified.” (Lecoq, 2000, p 66). Everyday body language is natural therefore our character’s body language must be natural and reflect who we are and how we are feeling at different times within the piece. My character has different stages of body language depending on the situations I encounter within the piece. In the beginning my arms are open and inviting and my centre of gravity is high, but through the scene curiosity changes my body language slightly, the shoulders come in a bit more and my centre of gravity becomes more lower and there are shifts within my weight from one side to another, but I keep in my own space. This pattern then repeats but it is more obvious and bigger than the first time, this time there is a sense of being proud and confident with this confidence slipping away and a hint of jealousy taking over. Later my body language takes a different perspective, my spine and stomach curve in more, and movements within my arms and legs start to become weaker and more grounded as if gravity is pulling them to the floor. That idea of the guilt people feel when something bad has happened, weighing them down. There are points within the piece where gestures are very pedestrian and there is room for my character to develop out of these movements.
Bibliography
• Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London: Nick Hern Books Limited.
“Devised theatre can start from anything.” (Oddey, 1994, p 1). Four Ways to Speak Out started with an idea that the piece was going to be about abuse to women. This idea then allowed a key strategy to take place, that started the piece of for the whole of the ensemble. The group were given a task to write a letter about a female character who has gone missing, explaining when we last saw her and what connection we had with her. Graham and Hoggett explain that tasks are “merely building blocks, created to support more blocks.” (2009, p 7). They also go onto to say that by doing tasks it allows performers to have a creative input into the work without the responsibility of creating the whole show. The letter allowed the group to have an input about who the woman was and the possible reason for her disappearance. The letter then led to a session of improvisation and uses the ‘play’ method to set up the beginning of the whole piece. Our characters were to interact with other people who then discover that the woman has gone missing. Although through the process this initial idea has changed it has allowed the group to start to build a character and see how this character would behave and respond to things within the community. Concepts and themes were given to the group to create movements or small scenes within the piece. For example a scene that takes place in a street has the theme of being on your way out for a night on the town. Through the process it allowed each person’s character to expand and for the idea of the scene to change naturally.
2. Analyse the growth of your own character from the beginning of Porto to where you are at in the process now. State the reasons for its development/change/refinement. (250 words)
My character has changed since the beginning of this process and is still developing, as Callery says “The art of creating believable characters lies in never quite knowing who they are.” (2001, p 211). Through my letter I had established that my connection to the missing woman was that we were work colleagues who had become close friends over a number of years. The last time I saw her was at work, and at the end of the day I had asked her if she would like to come out for drinks with my friends and me. However during the first session when improvising the opening my character had to change slightly. “Wright suggests that devising depends on relationships and chemistry between people” (Oddey, 1994, p 66). I realised after improvisation that because everyone had created different characters, although I was supposedly meeting friends in a bar, no one actually knew who I was. I therefore changed my approach to reflect this. We then left this scene and moved to six different scenes reflecting the different areas the woman had been before she left. Here my character changed completely, when the group went to the scenes relevant to their character I went to the street, as there was no work place area. The narrative in the street scene was the creation of characters of stero-typical girls on a night out, this was different to my initial character. I then became one of these girls and while I knew that this is where my character would begin I did not know how my relationship with the woman would develop. When we rejoined to do the ensemble sections it was where I discovered my character and my connection to everything. “Characters change during the course of a play” (Callery, 2001, p 211).
3. Identify your character’s physicality through detailed analysis of its body language. (For example describe your character’s use of spine and its relationship to gravity, its shift of weight in the pelvis and even the repetition of a key gesture) (250 words)
In everyday life, a person’s natural character and characteristics can be seen through their body language and expression. “In the theatre making a movement is never a mechanical act but must always be a gesture that is justified.” (Lecoq, 2000, p 66). Everyday body language is natural therefore our character’s body language must be natural and reflect who we are and how we are feeling at different times within the piece. My character has different stages of body language depending on the situations I encounter within the piece. In the beginning my arms are open and inviting and my centre of gravity is high, but through the scene curiosity changes my body language slightly, the shoulders come in a bit more and my centre of gravity becomes more lower and there are shifts within my weight from one side to another, but I keep in my own space. This pattern then repeats but it is more obvious and bigger than the first time, this time there is a sense of being proud and confident with this confidence slipping away and a hint of jealousy taking over. Later my body language takes a different perspective, my spine and stomach curve in more, and movements within my arms and legs start to become weaker and more grounded as if gravity is pulling them to the floor. That idea of the guilt people feel when something bad has happened, weighing them down. There are points within the piece where gestures are very pedestrian and there is room for my character to develop out of these movements.
Bibliography
• Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London: Nick Hern Books Limited.
• Graham, S and Hoggett, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly book of Devising Theatre. Oxon: Routledge.
• Lecoq, J. (2000) The Moving Body. London: Methuen Publishing Limited.
• Oddey, A. (1994) Devising Theatre: A practical and theoretical handbook. London: Routledge.
By Catherine Hollies, 0805215
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Charlotte Swaby 0803698 - 'Blog Assessment 1'
Throughout the module of Process and Performance as a group we explore various techniques and ways of working that make up the genre of Physical Theatre. We look at the ability in which to engage with a collaborative and creative devising process through which we learn a performance vocabulary of techniques and skills. We look at the interplay between practice and theory using significant ideas from other disciplines such as the choreographic element of Dance. Some of the key features of the module are improvisation and play where throughout you are encouraged to respond to an impulse to create what Sanchez-Colberg calls a ‘non-verbal idiom’. Through interaction and repetition, the body becomes central creating a body memory that establishes specific “ways of moving that become personal to the performer” (Murray, 1948, p76). The body is the main medium of communication that creates a balance between pedestrian gestures and choreographed stylised technique. The module upholds a healthy balance between individual gestures and mass communal movement whilst also exploring the notion of neutrality. The module is centered on the body and just as Etchells states we see “the body observed, the body in struggle, the body blindfolded, the body in exhaustion, the body thrown” whilst training your body to show “the comfort of the catch, the fear of the fall, the rejection of the drop” using the “body itself as witness” (1994, p116). Here the physicality of a body is classed to be far more important than a performer’s verbal or textual skills and it’s the movements and gestures that encode many of the themes and stories. Ultimately “the primary means of creation occurs through the body rather than through the mind” (Callery, 2001, p4) because as Jacques Lecoq puts it “the body knows things about which the mind is ignorant” (Callery, 2001, p4).
The term ‘hybrid character’ used by Sanchez Colberg suggests that Physical Theatre is a joining together of many different performance types implying that it combines the features of more than just one genre particularly that of dance. The fusion of these genres has created this all encompassing term that we now know to be Physical Theatre but this collaboration between dance and theatre has been around ever since Commedia dell arte, mime and even Japanese Noh theatre however through time there has become more of a need for movement to be more than just beautiful. Both dance and theatre started to look for a new identity, looking for a way to reform and to create a new way of showing individual expression. This reform of both dance and theatre together has now created this inter-disciplinary nature of what we now know to be physical theatre thus prompting an eradication of any previous confined definitions of what theatre and dance should be known as. This development of what has been loosely termed physical theatre now marks “one of the most significant trends in dance and theatre since the 1980’s” (Sanchez- Colberg in Keefe and Murray, 2007, p21). Physical theatre is a hybrid performance genre because just like dance, physical theatre is technique driven and relies heavily on choreography to create movement. It incorporates the physicality of dance theatre and the performance elements of traditional theatre therefore creating a new physical language altogether. The lifts, throws and the pure emotion that comes with dance is just as present in physical theatre and even though there may not be a solid script in either there will always be meaning in both. Like Callery states “whether the performers are dancers of actors, the process is still the same…ideas are scored in rehearsal through the body” (2001, p8). The genre itself though is so diverse and so influenced by many aspects its still hard today to exactly categorize what physical theatre actually is.
A British contemporary performance company who’s known for the practice of physical theatre is Dv8. Dv8 was founded in 1986 by Lloyd Newson and they question the traditional aesthetic of dance forms by bringing together dance alongside theatre. They were the first company in which to attach the name Physical Theatre to this new style of working and whose “impact meant it became more widely used” (Callery, 2001, p6). In reference to their practice, Dv8 works tend to focus on the observation and commentary of human behaviour using their body as the source of inspiration. They focus on making meaning, especially on topics of genuine concern or relevance to the dancers and Newson often encourages them to create material as a company rather than just interpreting it. Newson believes that every movement has to a have meaning and a purpose no matter how technical the move may be and like Newson himself states “if a leg is thrown up beside the ear, why is it there? There must be a reason for it” (1995). They break down the social barriers and the norms of dance and theatre and explore themes and issues that people prefer not to confront and even though some of their ideas are often radical, their renowned for communicating themes and feelings clearly and precisely. To do this they use everyday pedestrian gestures alongside the more meaningful naturalistic technique whilst taking “high level risks both aesthetically and physically” (DV8, 2010). Their work contains a catalogue of jumps, lifts, rolls and falls more often than not performed with a frantic pace that truly shows the amount of technical skill and the courage the company is renowned for. They display a highly developed performance energy that provides their pieces with an intense and emotive quality that works extremely powerfully alongside any moments of stillness they also use. In terms of defining physical theatre, Newson and his company retort the question of “what is physical theatre?” by claiming that this question is today no longer relevant. Newson truly believes that if this question really needs to be answered its “best left to people who analyse work rather than make it” (Murray, 1948, p81).
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001) Through the body: A practical guide to physical theatre. New York: Routledge.
DV8. (2010) Artistic Policy [Accessed at 1st March 2010]. Available at: http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/artistic_policy
Etchells, T. (1994) Some trends in recent performance. Contemporary British Theatre: Macmillan.
Keefe, J & S Murray. (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader. London: Routledge.
Murray, S. (1948) Physical Theatre: A critical introduction. London: Routledge.
The term ‘hybrid character’ used by Sanchez Colberg suggests that Physical Theatre is a joining together of many different performance types implying that it combines the features of more than just one genre particularly that of dance. The fusion of these genres has created this all encompassing term that we now know to be Physical Theatre but this collaboration between dance and theatre has been around ever since Commedia dell arte, mime and even Japanese Noh theatre however through time there has become more of a need for movement to be more than just beautiful. Both dance and theatre started to look for a new identity, looking for a way to reform and to create a new way of showing individual expression. This reform of both dance and theatre together has now created this inter-disciplinary nature of what we now know to be physical theatre thus prompting an eradication of any previous confined definitions of what theatre and dance should be known as. This development of what has been loosely termed physical theatre now marks “one of the most significant trends in dance and theatre since the 1980’s” (Sanchez- Colberg in Keefe and Murray, 2007, p21). Physical theatre is a hybrid performance genre because just like dance, physical theatre is technique driven and relies heavily on choreography to create movement. It incorporates the physicality of dance theatre and the performance elements of traditional theatre therefore creating a new physical language altogether. The lifts, throws and the pure emotion that comes with dance is just as present in physical theatre and even though there may not be a solid script in either there will always be meaning in both. Like Callery states “whether the performers are dancers of actors, the process is still the same…ideas are scored in rehearsal through the body” (2001, p8). The genre itself though is so diverse and so influenced by many aspects its still hard today to exactly categorize what physical theatre actually is.
A British contemporary performance company who’s known for the practice of physical theatre is Dv8. Dv8 was founded in 1986 by Lloyd Newson and they question the traditional aesthetic of dance forms by bringing together dance alongside theatre. They were the first company in which to attach the name Physical Theatre to this new style of working and whose “impact meant it became more widely used” (Callery, 2001, p6). In reference to their practice, Dv8 works tend to focus on the observation and commentary of human behaviour using their body as the source of inspiration. They focus on making meaning, especially on topics of genuine concern or relevance to the dancers and Newson often encourages them to create material as a company rather than just interpreting it. Newson believes that every movement has to a have meaning and a purpose no matter how technical the move may be and like Newson himself states “if a leg is thrown up beside the ear, why is it there? There must be a reason for it” (1995). They break down the social barriers and the norms of dance and theatre and explore themes and issues that people prefer not to confront and even though some of their ideas are often radical, their renowned for communicating themes and feelings clearly and precisely. To do this they use everyday pedestrian gestures alongside the more meaningful naturalistic technique whilst taking “high level risks both aesthetically and physically” (DV8, 2010). Their work contains a catalogue of jumps, lifts, rolls and falls more often than not performed with a frantic pace that truly shows the amount of technical skill and the courage the company is renowned for. They display a highly developed performance energy that provides their pieces with an intense and emotive quality that works extremely powerfully alongside any moments of stillness they also use. In terms of defining physical theatre, Newson and his company retort the question of “what is physical theatre?” by claiming that this question is today no longer relevant. Newson truly believes that if this question really needs to be answered its “best left to people who analyse work rather than make it” (Murray, 1948, p81).
Bibliography
Callery, D. (2001) Through the body: A practical guide to physical theatre. New York: Routledge.
DV8. (2010) Artistic Policy [Accessed at 1st March 2010]. Available at: http://www.dv8.co.uk/about_dv8/artistic_policy
Etchells, T. (1994) Some trends in recent performance. Contemporary British Theatre: Macmillan.
Keefe, J & S Murray. (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader. London: Routledge.
Murray, S. (1948) Physical Theatre: A critical introduction. London: Routledge.
Dawn Freeman 0817312 - Blog Number One
Physical theatre has been deemed by Dymphna Callery as a ‘theatre where the primary means of creation occur through the body rather than the mind’ (Callery: 2001, p3). This does not mean that the mind is not put to work throughout the process of creation, on the contrary in fact. The creative process one goes through creating a piece of physical theatre can exercise the mind more so perhaps than working towards a literary based performance. This is due to both performers and audience getting emotionally involved within a piece. The process of creation of a character or piece can often bring out traits or emotions in an individual they may otherwise not be able to express in public for various reasons, such as it not being socially acceptable.
A persons could also be encouraged to hide certain emotions as a result of their upbringing, for example anger and grief. ‘Our bodies are moulded by the requirements of daily existence and have become selective about how they engage with the world’ (Marshall: 2001, p3) Physical theatre encourages a performer to distance themselves once again from what is judged socially acceptable. As Marshall states in ‘The Body Speaks’ we gradually learn to limit how we express our emotions. As babies we are prone to extreme tantrums involving the whole body, however as we become adults we begin to control these emotions instead. Physical theatre instead wishes for emotion to be expressed predominantly through physical movement, meaning the performer should if need be revert to how one used to behave through extreme bursts of emotion in order to make it clear to an audience.
Colberg-Sanchez implies in this quote physical theatre contains a hybrid character. Hybrid is a relatively common term used to define physical theatre. While some theorists will see it as a genre in itself others feel it is instead a combination of both conventional theatre and dance. Further more companies that often create performances referred to as physical theatre refer to themselves as dance-theatre companies such as Vincent Dance Theatre and Sanchez-Colberg herself is a ‘dance-theatre’ choreographer, or director.
‘The term ‘physical theatre’ began to identify the production in two ways. ‘Theatre’ implied a connection with narrative development via action […] However, the term ‘physical’ - separate from theatre - implied a particular approach to its movement’ (Ana Sanchez-Colberg in Keefe and Murray: 2007, p25)
Physical theatre can be seen to have taken the art of stylised movement from dance, but then goes on to combine it with pedestrian gestures too reveal a story or narrative to the audience. It gives the audience the capability to do interpret the production without being limited by speech or text.
Physical theatre also takes another technique found in dance but alters it depending on what the performers are attempting to communicate to an audience. It is may perhaps seem somewhat stereotypical, but nevertheless a long-established truth, that dancers are often made to focus on perfecting the body in more ways than just posture and technique. Physical theatre instead makes an attempt to look beyond the bodies imperfections and instead focus on emotions and how to portray these emotions through the body. As well as this it takes another element of dance one step further. In dance there it is commonplace when stylised movement such as lifts and catches are taking place for the female or feminine role to be caught or lifted by the male or masculine role. Physical theatre not so much challenges this stereotype, but just denies it all together. If a body is in the right state of mental focus and prepared females should also be capable of lifting and catches males also.
One particular physical theatre company that falls into the above definitions is the Jasmin Vardimon Comtpany. Catherine Wood, a curator at the Tate Modern goes on to describe Vardimon’s approach to the creative process
‘Within the frame of the conventional heatre setting, Vardimon challenges the audience's perception of the storyteller's authorial control so that the characters onstage do not tell us anything but present a rich and intriguingly open-ended space of play.’(www.jasminvardimon.com/testimonials.html)
After learning techniques behind stylised movement in our own rehearsals there would often be a play section. This would enable those who participated to put the movement into practice without a clinical reason, and instead working from impulse. These were our ‘play sessions’. What Wood is telling us in this quote is performances directed by Vardimon appear to have this constant element of play throughout.
Wood also mentions that Vardimon wishes to change how narrative is put across to the audience in her shows. Rather than the method used in conventional theatre of verbally expressing emotions Vardimon prefers her performers to express emotions through a combination of movement. In one of the companies long running shows, ‘Yesterday’, there was rarely any speech used. There were occasional moments such as the singing at the beginning but the main focus of the piece is explaining the narrative through the body.
In ‘Yesterday’ there are numerous stories or representations combined to make one performance, these are presented to the audience using both pedestrian and stylised movement. An example of this would be the walking section, which was also taught in the workshop with Jasmin Vardimon Company. The walking in itself is pedestrian, however the gestures every so often were mostly stylised. By just performing this piece the audience can interpret their own meaning without the restriction that language often brings.
Bibliography
Callery.D (2002 )Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre : Routledge
Keefe.J & Murray.S(2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge
Marshall.L (2001) The Body Speaks: Methuen
www.jasminvardimon.com, Date Accessed 02/03/2010
A persons could also be encouraged to hide certain emotions as a result of their upbringing, for example anger and grief. ‘Our bodies are moulded by the requirements of daily existence and have become selective about how they engage with the world’ (Marshall: 2001, p3) Physical theatre encourages a performer to distance themselves once again from what is judged socially acceptable. As Marshall states in ‘The Body Speaks’ we gradually learn to limit how we express our emotions. As babies we are prone to extreme tantrums involving the whole body, however as we become adults we begin to control these emotions instead. Physical theatre instead wishes for emotion to be expressed predominantly through physical movement, meaning the performer should if need be revert to how one used to behave through extreme bursts of emotion in order to make it clear to an audience.
Colberg-Sanchez implies in this quote physical theatre contains a hybrid character. Hybrid is a relatively common term used to define physical theatre. While some theorists will see it as a genre in itself others feel it is instead a combination of both conventional theatre and dance. Further more companies that often create performances referred to as physical theatre refer to themselves as dance-theatre companies such as Vincent Dance Theatre and Sanchez-Colberg herself is a ‘dance-theatre’ choreographer, or director.
‘The term ‘physical theatre’ began to identify the production in two ways. ‘Theatre’ implied a connection with narrative development via action […] However, the term ‘physical’ - separate from theatre - implied a particular approach to its movement’ (Ana Sanchez-Colberg in Keefe and Murray: 2007, p25)
Physical theatre can be seen to have taken the art of stylised movement from dance, but then goes on to combine it with pedestrian gestures too reveal a story or narrative to the audience. It gives the audience the capability to do interpret the production without being limited by speech or text.
Physical theatre also takes another technique found in dance but alters it depending on what the performers are attempting to communicate to an audience. It is may perhaps seem somewhat stereotypical, but nevertheless a long-established truth, that dancers are often made to focus on perfecting the body in more ways than just posture and technique. Physical theatre instead makes an attempt to look beyond the bodies imperfections and instead focus on emotions and how to portray these emotions through the body. As well as this it takes another element of dance one step further. In dance there it is commonplace when stylised movement such as lifts and catches are taking place for the female or feminine role to be caught or lifted by the male or masculine role. Physical theatre not so much challenges this stereotype, but just denies it all together. If a body is in the right state of mental focus and prepared females should also be capable of lifting and catches males also.
One particular physical theatre company that falls into the above definitions is the Jasmin Vardimon Comtpany. Catherine Wood, a curator at the Tate Modern goes on to describe Vardimon’s approach to the creative process
‘Within the frame of the conventional heatre setting, Vardimon challenges the audience's perception of the storyteller's authorial control so that the characters onstage do not tell us anything but present a rich and intriguingly open-ended space of play.’(www.jasminvardimon.com/testimonials.html)
After learning techniques behind stylised movement in our own rehearsals there would often be a play section. This would enable those who participated to put the movement into practice without a clinical reason, and instead working from impulse. These were our ‘play sessions’. What Wood is telling us in this quote is performances directed by Vardimon appear to have this constant element of play throughout.
Wood also mentions that Vardimon wishes to change how narrative is put across to the audience in her shows. Rather than the method used in conventional theatre of verbally expressing emotions Vardimon prefers her performers to express emotions through a combination of movement. In one of the companies long running shows, ‘Yesterday’, there was rarely any speech used. There were occasional moments such as the singing at the beginning but the main focus of the piece is explaining the narrative through the body.
In ‘Yesterday’ there are numerous stories or representations combined to make one performance, these are presented to the audience using both pedestrian and stylised movement. An example of this would be the walking section, which was also taught in the workshop with Jasmin Vardimon Company. The walking in itself is pedestrian, however the gestures every so often were mostly stylised. By just performing this piece the audience can interpret their own meaning without the restriction that language often brings.
Bibliography
Callery.D (2002 )Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre : Routledge
Keefe.J & Murray.S(2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge
Marshall.L (2001) The Body Speaks: Methuen
www.jasminvardimon.com, Date Accessed 02/03/2010
Charlotte Wilcox 0815809 Blog task 1
It can be argued that it is impossible to draw one single definition of what ‘physical theatre’ is , it is a widely used term and is often now used as an umbrella term. However when considering what the key features are within physical theatre we must remember that all types and variations of the genre ‘physical theatre’ will have similar key features, as this enables them all to use the title of ‘physical theatre’.
The Key features within process and performance were that the body is central, “the human body is at the centre of theatre as an expressive art”(Keefe and Murray) you are encouraged to think through the body and to not rely on the brain which is what we are conditioned to do within society. The basis is to go with your bodies instincts and to rely heavily on body memory, which is a method of encouraging your body to remember through repetition. The module began by focussing primarily on training the body and in doing this developing a pallet of skills available to e called upon and used in performance, it also allowed the ensemble to become aware of each other and develop trust within the group a vital element in physical theatre :
“For the individual, it is time dedicated to developing and exploring performance potential. For a company, training is time spent working to a common purpose, a way of enriching the ensemble and accessing a common physical vocabulary, a route towards collective creative energy” (D.Callery, 2002)
This period of time where our bodies were in training during process and performance was also a time of self discovery, “ideally preparatory training should be a process of self discovery as well as the opportunity to master skills” (D.Callery) working through the body requires you to be able to separate yourself from anything outside of the space you are working in, and in doing this you are able to listen to your body to allow yourself to express your inner creativeness that in most other genres is suppressed.
A further key feature of Physical Theatre identified through process and performances, is the way in which movements are split into two, that of pedestrian movements and stylised movements. Pedestrian movements are easily identifiable as everyday gestures familiar to a spectator. Where as stylised movements are seen as being more abstract versions of familiar movements. Both have the power to be affective and capture the imagination of an audience. Physical theatre also neglects verbal narrative as there is little or no need for it, it may be used but in no way is physical theatre dependent on verbal narrative.
Sanchez-Colberg’s use of the term ‘hybrid character’ she is referring to the genre ‘physical theatre’ being a collective mix of both avant-garde theatre and dance. Both Theatre and dance were searching for change, theatre was looking for away to deviate from its conventional naturalistic style of having a clear narrative and dance was looking to get away from the image that dance should be beautiful to watch, they instead wanted meaning behind there movements. Thus physical theatre was created, it has only recently began to be accepted as its own genre as many companies adopted and described their work as being physical theatre when in fact it did not include the key aspects of what ‘physical theatre’ was as described by Sanchez-Colberg:
“What was at first regarded as another development in idiosyncratic movement style within dance(a comment that can be applied to the hundreds of dance companies who have adopted the movement style , but not the aesthetic complexity) soon was recognized as a distinct strategy of theatrical production” (Keefe and Murray, sanchez-Colberg 2007)
‘Physical theatre’ combines both the movement from dance with the meaning and narrative from theatre. They are combined in a way that allows an audience to decode the signs which are encoded into the movements and gestures, in their own way, leading to their own understanding of the piece.
The Jasmin Vardimon company are a self proclaimed Physical theatre company, they combine elements of characterisation, text and dance, this combination gives them the title of a physical theatre company.:
“uniquely theatrical choreographic and directorial style combining physical theatre, quirky characterisation, innovative technologies, text and dance, Vardimon accentuates her work with an acute observation of human behaviour.” (Jasmin Vardimon Company)
Jasmin Vardimon uses choreographic processes that resemble that of Tanztheater, who had a major influence in developing and using the elements now associated with physical theatre. Physical theatre,
“Soon was recognized as a distinct strategy of theatrical production which--- as Tanztheater had done in the 70’s--- existed in the intersection between theatre and dance” (Keefe and Murray , 2007)
The company also exploits social issues and human experience a further key element to what ‘Physical theatre’ professes to be. Physical theatre is not art for arts sake which is exactly what dance wanted to escape from, instead Physical theatre is accessible, it has meaning and relevance for its audience.
“The company’s works are widely accessible through their exposure of human experience, social relevance, high quality, passion, skill and commitment.” (Jasmin Vardimon)
The Jasmin Vardimon company do not use a linear narrative, the audience are made to work in order to decode the signs and create their own narrative to the piece. Each audience member may indeed produce a different narrative for the piece they watched, but this is the joy of physical theatre it does not attempt to force a narrative on its audience, the audience is allowed themselves to be creative.
Physical Theatre is exciting for its audience but it is also exciting for its ensemble. The Jasmin Vardimon company captures this excitement. There work breaks down any preconceptions of what conventional theatre is and allows creativity to flourish. Its dangerous as new material is always pushing boundaries making the genre of physical theatre more and more exciting. Physical Theatre will continue to grow in popularity if Jasmin Vardimon and other companies continue to create work that challenges audiences, and that provides originality.
Bibliography:
Callery.D (2002 )Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre : Routledge
Keefe, J & S Murray (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge
Keefe, J & S Murray (2007) Physical theatres : a critical introduction London: Routledge
Internet sources:
Jasmin Vardimon: http://www.jasminvardimon.com/ cited: 01/03/2010
The Key features within process and performance were that the body is central, “the human body is at the centre of theatre as an expressive art”(Keefe and Murray) you are encouraged to think through the body and to not rely on the brain which is what we are conditioned to do within society. The basis is to go with your bodies instincts and to rely heavily on body memory, which is a method of encouraging your body to remember through repetition. The module began by focussing primarily on training the body and in doing this developing a pallet of skills available to e called upon and used in performance, it also allowed the ensemble to become aware of each other and develop trust within the group a vital element in physical theatre :
“For the individual, it is time dedicated to developing and exploring performance potential. For a company, training is time spent working to a common purpose, a way of enriching the ensemble and accessing a common physical vocabulary, a route towards collective creative energy” (D.Callery, 2002)
This period of time where our bodies were in training during process and performance was also a time of self discovery, “ideally preparatory training should be a process of self discovery as well as the opportunity to master skills” (D.Callery) working through the body requires you to be able to separate yourself from anything outside of the space you are working in, and in doing this you are able to listen to your body to allow yourself to express your inner creativeness that in most other genres is suppressed.
A further key feature of Physical Theatre identified through process and performances, is the way in which movements are split into two, that of pedestrian movements and stylised movements. Pedestrian movements are easily identifiable as everyday gestures familiar to a spectator. Where as stylised movements are seen as being more abstract versions of familiar movements. Both have the power to be affective and capture the imagination of an audience. Physical theatre also neglects verbal narrative as there is little or no need for it, it may be used but in no way is physical theatre dependent on verbal narrative.
Sanchez-Colberg’s use of the term ‘hybrid character’ she is referring to the genre ‘physical theatre’ being a collective mix of both avant-garde theatre and dance. Both Theatre and dance were searching for change, theatre was looking for away to deviate from its conventional naturalistic style of having a clear narrative and dance was looking to get away from the image that dance should be beautiful to watch, they instead wanted meaning behind there movements. Thus physical theatre was created, it has only recently began to be accepted as its own genre as many companies adopted and described their work as being physical theatre when in fact it did not include the key aspects of what ‘physical theatre’ was as described by Sanchez-Colberg:
“What was at first regarded as another development in idiosyncratic movement style within dance(a comment that can be applied to the hundreds of dance companies who have adopted the movement style , but not the aesthetic complexity) soon was recognized as a distinct strategy of theatrical production” (Keefe and Murray, sanchez-Colberg 2007)
‘Physical theatre’ combines both the movement from dance with the meaning and narrative from theatre. They are combined in a way that allows an audience to decode the signs which are encoded into the movements and gestures, in their own way, leading to their own understanding of the piece.
The Jasmin Vardimon company are a self proclaimed Physical theatre company, they combine elements of characterisation, text and dance, this combination gives them the title of a physical theatre company.:
“uniquely theatrical choreographic and directorial style combining physical theatre, quirky characterisation, innovative technologies, text and dance, Vardimon accentuates her work with an acute observation of human behaviour.” (Jasmin Vardimon Company)
Jasmin Vardimon uses choreographic processes that resemble that of Tanztheater, who had a major influence in developing and using the elements now associated with physical theatre. Physical theatre,
“Soon was recognized as a distinct strategy of theatrical production which--- as Tanztheater had done in the 70’s--- existed in the intersection between theatre and dance” (Keefe and Murray , 2007)
The company also exploits social issues and human experience a further key element to what ‘Physical theatre’ professes to be. Physical theatre is not art for arts sake which is exactly what dance wanted to escape from, instead Physical theatre is accessible, it has meaning and relevance for its audience.
“The company’s works are widely accessible through their exposure of human experience, social relevance, high quality, passion, skill and commitment.” (Jasmin Vardimon)
The Jasmin Vardimon company do not use a linear narrative, the audience are made to work in order to decode the signs and create their own narrative to the piece. Each audience member may indeed produce a different narrative for the piece they watched, but this is the joy of physical theatre it does not attempt to force a narrative on its audience, the audience is allowed themselves to be creative.
Physical Theatre is exciting for its audience but it is also exciting for its ensemble. The Jasmin Vardimon company captures this excitement. There work breaks down any preconceptions of what conventional theatre is and allows creativity to flourish. Its dangerous as new material is always pushing boundaries making the genre of physical theatre more and more exciting. Physical Theatre will continue to grow in popularity if Jasmin Vardimon and other companies continue to create work that challenges audiences, and that provides originality.
Bibliography:
Callery.D (2002 )Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre : Routledge
Keefe, J & S Murray (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge
Keefe, J & S Murray (2007) Physical theatres : a critical introduction London: Routledge
Internet sources:
Jasmin Vardimon: http://www.jasminvardimon.com/ cited: 01/03/2010
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