We started off our lesson, by walking around the room in neutral and pretending we were a flower opening up to the sun, when Jack said "open". We then carried on walking and when Jack said, "close" we had to get as small as we could on the floor and fold up to become tiny. We did this a few times and Jack told us that he wanted us to imagine that when we opened there was a harsh light that we were blinded by, that hurt to look at and when we closed it was us as soldiers taking our last ever breaths and slowly dying on the floor.
It looked really effective when people did it properly and I think it would work really well at the end of our piece.
We have been trying to attempt to do the Japanese precision walking, by getting into groups and Harrison was teaching us how to do the marching and when to turn. It was going ok, but we really need to concentrate and focus if it is going to work.
We also have been looking at different characters in the war, so after being soldiers, we looked at becoming rich people at home. We focused on leading from our nose, chest, stomach and hips.
When we lead from our noses we were cold, rich aristocrats who were very harsh and cruel and have a lot of money.
When we lead from our chest, we were very upper class, posh and snooty.
When we lead from our stomach, we were very fat, very greedy, rich and mean.
When we lead from our hips, we were sexy women, who were persuading and tempting the men at the bar.
We practiced doing all of these different characters, so that we could become them at the end of the piece and develop our movements to become the rich aristocrats at home, after we have all died in the war.
Sunday, 1 December 2013
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Japanese Precision Walking
Jack told us that the majority of the rest of our piece will be marching and emotional sequences. He told us to research Japanese Precision Walking.
This type of walking is so precise and needs to be done without anyone going in the wrong direction or doing anything wrong. It looks so effective and works so well, when it is done right. It can also create a menacing image, as well as a softer, funnier one. Which is why some armies choose to have it.
I found it really interesting to research and now I will have a really good understanding of what it is supposed to look like and the effect that we are trying to achieve.
I found it really interesting to research and now I will have a really good understanding of what it is supposed to look like and the effect that we are trying to achieve.
More Devising
In our lesson this week, we ran what we did last lesson, with our 5 moves and really cleaned them to make them flow nicely and look good. We then worked out how to bring on and take off our chairs in an appropriate way. So I walk on with Cameron and at first I am scared, hiding behind my chair and to take them off, we were able to make the movement of our hands moving towards each other, into a turn, which made it possible for us to turn and carry each others chairs off. I carry the chair off looking brave and ready to begin my training.
We then got into groups with the people we finished sitting next to, so I was with Sacha and Tuwaine. We had to devise a comedic section of contact improvisation and develop this to become a scene that is set in a bar and shows our last night of freedom.
We started off with me walking into the bar and both of them wanting to be with me, until Jack came over and said we should just stay as men, so we then devised a piece, which Jack helped us with, where T and Sacha are taking shots and I'm trying to get through to the bar by going around them, standing on their knees, going under their legs and jumping. Eventually, I get through and they let me have a shot with them. Sacha then falls to the ground, we help him up and then all of us fall to the ground.
We wanted to make it quite comedic, as Jack has said that the rest of the performance will be emotional and sad and have a lot of emotion in it.
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Term 2 - Performance Rehearsals
At the start of Term 2, we have been put into separate groups which relate to what our performance was based on, so I am in the group for soldiers.
We started the lesson by warming up and then getting into pairs and creating 5 moves each that showed one person working in the conscription office and the other person being a soldier trying to sign up to fight. I was with Cameron and we came up with a handshake, then me looking nervous, as the soldier, and him stroking his chin, sizing me up. Then he puts his hand under my chin and pulls me up and then I follow where he moves his finger with my eyes and then we salute each other.
Jack saw our moves and gave us some feedback to make it more interesting, with different tempos and different strengths to our moves. So, we made the handshake a bigger movement which we follow with our eyes and when our hands touch, we make eye contact. Then we quickly move our hands and face different sides, so that we appeal to the three-sided audience. We then made the chin movement quite slow and changed it, so that I follow where his fist goes. He then pushes me back down and then we salute to each other quickly.
When we performed our moves to the rest of the class, we got some really helpful feedback. Jack has told me that I need to work on my masculinity, so I look more like a soldier. The class told us to just make sure that I know where Cameron's fist is going to move, so that it is clean and precise and we could add different paces and strengths to the actions, apart from that, they really liked it.
We saw everyone else's moves and they were really good, but everyone needed the same note to make it clean, to change the pace and strengths of the movements to make them interesting and captivate the audience.
This is our opening scene to our performance - I think it's strong and will capture the audience's attention, especially when we're all doing our moves at the same time.
We started the lesson by warming up and then getting into pairs and creating 5 moves each that showed one person working in the conscription office and the other person being a soldier trying to sign up to fight. I was with Cameron and we came up with a handshake, then me looking nervous, as the soldier, and him stroking his chin, sizing me up. Then he puts his hand under my chin and pulls me up and then I follow where he moves his finger with my eyes and then we salute each other.
Jack saw our moves and gave us some feedback to make it more interesting, with different tempos and different strengths to our moves. So, we made the handshake a bigger movement which we follow with our eyes and when our hands touch, we make eye contact. Then we quickly move our hands and face different sides, so that we appeal to the three-sided audience. We then made the chin movement quite slow and changed it, so that I follow where his fist goes. He then pushes me back down and then we salute to each other quickly.
When we performed our moves to the rest of the class, we got some really helpful feedback. Jack has told me that I need to work on my masculinity, so I look more like a soldier. The class told us to just make sure that I know where Cameron's fist is going to move, so that it is clean and precise and we could add different paces and strengths to the actions, apart from that, they really liked it.
We saw everyone else's moves and they were really good, but everyone needed the same note to make it clean, to change the pace and strengths of the movements to make them interesting and captivate the audience.
This is our opening scene to our performance - I think it's strong and will capture the audience's attention, especially when we're all doing our moves at the same time.
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
Pavel Semchenko
We also studied the practitioner, Pavel Semchenko, at the very beginning of this project, where we spent our first lesson looking at how an object can influence a whole piece.
We spent a while studying and just looking at one of our stimuli, we chose the picture of the soldiers who had been gassed, and we sat in silence taking in every aspect of it. The colour, the background images, the facial expressions, the intricate details that you might not normally see. We really focused in on the picture and then shared with each other and wrote down our initial thoughts, which we ended up reflecting on, when we started to develop our movements, based on what we'd seen.
This was a really helpful exercise and really emphasised to us, Semchenko's ideas that a whole piece can come out of a single object, if you take the time to study it and focus your complete concentration onto it. We also then allowed the object to become the key part of our performance. For example, in the picture, the men have bandages over their eyes, which gave us the idea to use the scarf, which the majority of our piece revolved around.
We spent a while studying and just looking at one of our stimuli, we chose the picture of the soldiers who had been gassed, and we sat in silence taking in every aspect of it. The colour, the background images, the facial expressions, the intricate details that you might not normally see. We really focused in on the picture and then shared with each other and wrote down our initial thoughts, which we ended up reflecting on, when we started to develop our movements, based on what we'd seen.
This was a really helpful exercise and really emphasised to us, Semchenko's ideas that a whole piece can come out of a single object, if you take the time to study it and focus your complete concentration onto it. We also then allowed the object to become the key part of our performance. For example, in the picture, the men have bandages over their eyes, which gave us the idea to use the scarf, which the majority of our piece revolved around.
Complicite
We looked at Complicite to explore the space. We did an exercise where we had to become a character and get into a lift. One by one in our groups, we had to enter the tiny lift as our characters. Then the lift broke down and we had to decide how our character would react or move in this tiny space.
It was interesting to see how even if you are left with very little space, you are more than capable of still moving a lot and create an interesting piece using just small gestures and mainly your facial expression. This exercise made me very aware of the use of space, but also how important your facial expressions are, as you are still in a performance and you need to convey emotion towards the audience.
We then did an exercise where we had to pretend we were on a busy, packed train and we had to all be as tightly woven together as possible. We then had to move together all in the same direction at the same time. This was a very comedic exercise, but also made me very aware of how we can use our bodies to create interesting shapes and move in an intriguing way.
It was interesting to see how even if you are left with very little space, you are more than capable of still moving a lot and create an interesting piece using just small gestures and mainly your facial expression. This exercise made me very aware of the use of space, but also how important your facial expressions are, as you are still in a performance and you need to convey emotion towards the audience.
We then did an exercise where we had to pretend we were on a busy, packed train and we had to all be as tightly woven together as possible. We then had to move together all in the same direction at the same time. This was a very comedic exercise, but also made me very aware of how we can use our bodies to create interesting shapes and move in an intriguing way.
Magdalena Tuka
We also looked at the practitioner Magdalena Tuka. In this lesson we focused on exploring the space in a more playful manner. We really experimented and explored the room we were in and all of the ways we could move around the space. We did this in a cat-like way crouched down, using our hands and feet to contact the floor, which allowed our flexibility to be heightened and allowed us more freedom to experiment with the room.
We explored the boundaries of distance and closeness. We got into partners, I was with Nora, and we had to move around the space, never breaking eye contact. It was like a trance-like dance between two people and the connection between you was lost if you broke eye contact. We had to try to keep our balance and experimented with different levels, such as moving on the floor, crawling, walking around the room, including turns and spins - always keeping eye contact, which allowed us to find the ability to play and create an atmosphere in the room, which would be perfect for our piece.
We explored the boundaries of distance and closeness. We got into partners, I was with Nora, and we had to move around the space, never breaking eye contact. It was like a trance-like dance between two people and the connection between you was lost if you broke eye contact. We had to try to keep our balance and experimented with different levels, such as moving on the floor, crawling, walking around the room, including turns and spins - always keeping eye contact, which allowed us to find the ability to play and create an atmosphere in the room, which would be perfect for our piece.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)