“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
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