Lesson 4 26/01/16

In today's lesson we played a few exercises to practice our teamwork skills and better our ability to really pay attention.

Copycats in a Circle:

We started by arranging everyone in a circle that was evenly spaced out. We were then assigned people directly across the circle to mirror every action and movement they made no matter how bold or insignificant. Initially I found it quite hard to copy everything that my partner was doing because I found fast paced movements particularly hard to follow. I soon had to get used to doc using on moving whilst copying what my partner was doing so in a sense I was actually multi tasking.

I began to make progress towards the end as I began to find it a lot less difficult to concentrate on what I was doing.

As a class because everyone had at least one person that was copying them and themselves were copying someone else this meant that everyone would and should eventually get round to doing the same movement almost in a ripple effect or chain reaction. This was quite cool to see out of my peripheral vision.

The game itself helped me in noticing that the best way to focus is to really watch carefully in order to notice every detail. This was also a helpful exercise to do because during the performance there are quite a few times where we will have to follow the actions of others so it was good to get used to doing this in a more rehearsal fashion.

Exploring and Discovering:

We then went around the school exploring and discovering the best places to hold our Circus Freak Show Performance section. I felt that it would be a good idea to hold our section of it in a narrow corridor to give the audience the impression that they were enclosed causing feelings of claustrophobia. This is because although there is a sense of comedy to our circus section we also want the audience to feel quite uncomfortable. I feel this should be effective because we shouldn't always cause the audience to feel engaged because what they're seeing is beautiful and aesthetic sometimes they should be engaged because they are watching something grotesque, disturbing or something that at least makes them feel uncomfortable. This would be good to do because the impact of the performance on the audience would differ from watching something positive and pleasant. Doing this enabled me to think about not just what would look good as a performer but also what would look good watching it as a member of an audience. Viewing it in this light, made me see that the more you do this when devising a performance the better the outcome of your performance will be because the whole point is that you perform in a way that will impact the audience in some way so you have to be able to put yourself in the audiences shoes so that you can see how and if they will be impacted by why you are trying to achieve.

Brainstorm of Ideas and things to Include in the Circus Freak Show:

We decided to brainstorm idea of ways we could add to our character development of the individual characters in our Circus Section by attaching mental health issues or things assumed to count as mental health issues to out characters. 

For example, Mute Girl isn't able to speak because she has severe anxiety issues. Crumpet had a physical condition that he is so embarrassed and ashamed of that he begins to involuntarily move his body in a fast and rigid fashion. These mental health issues are only to help the development of the individual character rather than a characteristic that the audience are actually aware of; much like how real people in real life who have mental health issues do not make it obvious that they have a mental health issue.

Iggy Pop and Tom Waits Video Inspiration:

We then used factors from a video as inspiration for the atmosphere that we wanted to have in the bar/brain. In the video the music in the background is quite calming but quite chirpy and vibrant. I feel that to enhance the bar-like atmosphere we should use music that will create the same sort of calming and friendly tone. I like the idea of having such a chirpy music playing in the background because it creates the same sort of effect of contrapuntal music because there will be a contrast between the chirpy atmosphere and the nasty way in which the characters in the bar/brain will be looking at the audience members.

Rehearsal:

We then did a rough rehearsal of the show. At this point, I can see that our performance will be quite experimental due to the fact there will be a lot of elements in which people will not really know what is going to happen. For example, there is a section in  our piece in which a random object is brought into the room and a story must be made up on the spot incorporating the object into it. In addition to this, actors will have to move and respond to the story with their bodies even though each time a new object will be brought into the room.The rehearsal helped me to work out what exactly I was supposed to be doing at a certain point in time. This was helpful because it meant I could stay in character as much as possible as I wouldn't be distracted by the need to ask or think about where I needed to be and what I needed to be doing.

Grotowski Research

Jerzy Grotowski 

- born in South Poland, Rzsow in 1933
- influenced by religious writings including The Bible and The Quran
- he set up The Polish Theatre Lab (a theatre company)

Theatre that portrayed real life was what inspired Grotowski to create his experimental work because he wanted to push more boundaries than what realistic/naturalistic theatre was pushing. Grotowski was often more interested in form than the story itself meaning he was able to strip theatre back into what its foundations were.

He believed in the importance of the actor-stage-audience relationship and wanted to get rid of everything superfluous as he felt that their value was not as great as this relationship.
One of his most infamous beliefs was that exhaustion allows an actor to have more of an ability to tap into their own visceral emotions that we as actors don't or can't normally tap into. He believed that the actor- audience relationship was key because it was the only way that the actor could truly connect with their character and then the audience resulting in altering or changing the audience.

His Experimental Style wasn't just an exercise; it was really a way of life. He would encourage his actors to eat together, run  together, live together and exercise together. He believed this would create the Holy Actor.

He invented the term Poor Theatre.

Poor Theatre: is theatre that gets rid of the superfluous factors that normally come with a play such as costume and lighting. It is essentially not investing money into it and staying well away from making a business out of it.

He believed in Poor Theatre being the best kind because it increased the actor- audience relationship which has a greater effect on the audience and their perception of the play.

One of his practises was called via negativa. This meant to rid yourself of anything that would stop you from becoming the best actor you can be.

I can see that this would be an important thing to do and pay attention to because there are quite a few things that can cause friction between actors causing them to not perform so well such as personal issues with other actors and self confidence issues abut their issues with them-self as an individual performer.

Grotowski really believed in being in the moment whilst acting because he felt that it was important
to genuinely feel as an actor what your character is feeling.

One exercise he often enforced was to force his actors to run around the woods naked for long periods of time so that they could access their emotions more readily

Circus Street Freaks

A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, that are commonly referred to as 'freaks of 
nature'. People exhibited at these shows are uncommonly large or small, people with both male and female sexual characteristics, people with diseases and conditions, and performances that are expected to be shocking to the viewers as well as heavily tattooed or pierced people.

 In the mid 16th century, freak shows became popular pastimes in England. This is when deformities began to be treated as objects of interest and entertainment meaning crowds flocked to see them exhibited. Freak shows were popular in taverns and fairgrounds where street freaks were often combined with talent displays.

For the beginning part of our performance we have been separated into 3 groups:

-Circus Street Freaks

-Nirvana

-The Clockwork Group

Each group is inspired by the songs written by Tom Waits. The group that I am in is the Circus Street Freaks. I feel that it is important to know more information on Circus acts especially the ones that were regarded as freaks because those were the people that were considered as faulty or different. This links to the way that people with mental health issues are thought of. A lot of the time people with mental health issues are not helped in the right way because they are outcast by society which would have been exactly what had happened to the circus street freaks. I feel that in forums and social groups where people with mental health issues are able to talk and socialise with others with the same issues, they will often feel less alone and have a sense of belonging. I feel that the circus street freaks years ago, although they were definitely made to feel ugly and often ridiculed by audiences, would probably feel more comfortable amongst each other. I feel that this should be implied in our section of our performance because it creates a more obvious link between the brain and more importantly mental health issues.

As a group we brainstormed ideas for characters that we can embody who will collectively become the Circus Street Freaks. We decided to create characters that were not really that spectacular or interesting to make it a little more comedic. We don’t necessarily want to portray the hardship of being a circus freak. We would more want to imply to the audience that although we all have our differences, freakish talents or not so freakish talents, we are all human beings.

As there are 7 of us in our group, we had to come up with 7 ‘freakish’ talents to incorporate in our piece. We did this by going round the entire group looking at each person and using their appearance or characteristics to inspire their own character. We did this to make the talent seem even less impressive.

The first character we had come up with will be played by Edgar who has red hair; we decided to call him Fire Boy because of this. We decided to have him on a stool or even standing up with a lighter in his hand flicking it on and off. I feel that his character should be staring at the flame quite intensely. This would make his ‘freakish’ talent seem much funnier.

The next character we came up with was Lizard Kid. We gave Hannah this character because she has a very long tongue. She will be crawling on the side walls and the floor at quite a steady pace, miming the physicality of a lizard.

The third character will be played by Delainey who will be Big Bosoms Girl. She will be walking around with two balloons. We will have the two balloons in her top to make it look like. This character is based on a real person called Sarah Baartman, who was displayed as a freak because of her unusual physical features (mostly her large bottom).

The next character will be played by Tobi who will be the Ringmaster of the Circus Street Freak Show. We chose this character for him because he is a natural leader and has a naturally loud voice.

Another character will be played by Rasaq; his character will be called Crumpet and he will be 

crumping which is an impressive dance move.

The next character would be played by me and would be called Mute Girl. She won’t at all talk throughout the whole performance but will accidentally say something she shouldn't.(contradicting her freaky talent).

The last character will be played by Fifi. Her character is called The Girl who Doesn't Move and throughout the performance she will be keeping very still and releasing short screams.

Forced Entertainment 

I decided to research the company Forced Entertainment because I felt that what they often work to achieve is something that we could work to achieve as a group in our section of performance. 

Earlier, I touched on the idea that we as a group had decided to make our 'freakish' talents the least impressive as we possibly could for a more comedic effect. Researching Forced Entertainment meant that I could discover how we could incorporate this strange style of comedy in our performance. For example, in one of their shows a man stood on stage and spent roughly 30 mins trying to remember his lines purposefully. 

On the website, they admit to have 'stayed silent' and 'made serious work that turned out to be comical'. I would agree that this would create a more experimental type of theatre, one that we could definitely achieve in our Circus Street Freak Show Performance.

I like the idea of purposefully making your performance quite dull and uninteresting in order to create interest to get the audience to question 'why have they done that?' and 'what are trying to say?'

Lesson 3 19/01/16

Today we started the lesson with an exercise to make us more alert and give us more energy as a group.

Clapping Game:

In this game we had to start off in a circle and all close our eyes so that we could not see what everyone else was doing or going to do. We then had to all begin to clap as one. We started at a steady pace where there would often be a beat in between. This then began to gradually speed up as the claps began to get faster to the point where it just sounded as though we were applauding. After a while we as a class, still with our eyes closed, began to slow down the tempo of the applaud until we were back to the original pace that we began with.We were able to acknowledge as a class that this build up was similar to the rhythm of life ( or the rhythm of all things in love) e.g. something begins steady and slow it eventually begins to speed up as there is a build-up of something often tension, an event occurs and the pace is steadied.We realised that it would be a good idea to reflect this in our play as it would create more interest for the audience as it would mean they would be pulled into the build-up of tension or excitement. This exercise definitely brought to my attention the importance of the structure of our piece and the how this will impact the audience.
Object/Picture Inspiration Exercise:

We had been asked to bring in a random object from home or something we had found in the street or an interesting picture from the internet. 
We then had to use the object to inspire the characteristics of a character that we could use in our play. One person was chosen to sit amongst the rest of the class in a circle and then had to describe the character they had moulded using the random picture or object as a stimulus. Another person had to stand on a box in the centre of the circle responding to and acting out the character information that they were being fed by the creator of the character. This was a good exercise because it was a new and more experimental way of forming a character. Normally you wouldn’t rely on a stimulus to form a character however this meant that our characters were a lot more colourful and complex. I feel this will help me in rehearsals in the future because my character will have far more layers that I can play with and portray through her interaction with others.I brought in a picture from an alternative rock synth artist because I felt that the album art for it was so interesting to look at and very eye-catching. I looked at the image and thought of who would like the image and then decided to think of the way a typical person who would like this type of music would look like. With this picture in my mind, I began to think of the polar opposite of this kind of person and I then came up with Gladys, a 67 year old woman, who has a real love for rock synth style music. I felt that Gladys was quite kind and generous, a gentle soul who had many children and grandchildren none of which know about her love for this style of music.I was surprised at how quickly I was able to form my character and her traits and I definitely feel that this has a lot to do with the fact that I used an interesting image as my inspiration because it meant that my mind was stimulated in a different way from which it normally is stimulated when developing a character. This makes me feel as though my character will create more interest than if I had created her in another way (without a stimulus).

One Sentence Story Exercise:

For this exercise we all had to stand in a circle and as we took it in turns each say a phrase or short sentence. We were able to say anything we wanted to, there were no restrictions or limitations. I found this particularly hard because it meant that because there were no limitations, the possibilities were endless, making it harder to make a choice of what to say. I feel this exercise helped in teaching me that sometimes you have to use your instincts and impulse to connect the story. I felt that because we were asked to say a phrase we were able to have even less control over what the story would transform into. This may have been a good thing because it allowed us to create a more interesting and experimental story because none of us really knew what was going to be said or what the end outcome would be.We next played another version of this game. The only thing that we altered was how much an individual in the circle was allowed to say. Instead of saying a sentence or phrase each, we were only allowed to say a word each. This was quite difficult in terms of making a story because there was less of a sense of control in the direction the story was going in because each person has less of an ability to change the story. Also as individuals we felt we had to refine our impulses to say a certain word to make a good sentence which meant it took us longer to figure out what we wanted to say. This exercise definitely made me feel like I was being less instinctual than the previous exercise because I was using my brain far too much. This was quite amusing because we found that because we all had no control over the direction of the story, more people were adding in random and rude words. This made the story much more interesting as the words we used to create the story were quite funny.These exercises helped me to realise that the importance of telling a story in an interesting way isn’t through being decisive or choosy about what you say, sometimes it’s more effective if you just use your instincts and say what you want to on impulse because sometimes this creates the most interesting stories.

Brainstorming the Brain

After realising that we wanted to make our Experimental play about the brain, we decided to brain storm all of the interesting facts that we knew about the brain as a class.Between us all we came up with these facts:·         Chewing stops you from stressing about things because it tricks the brain into thinking that you are eating and therefore makes the brain think that there is no danger to stress or worry about because as primitive animals when eating we are not in danger because you would never eat whilst in danger. ·         When you die your brain plays back all the memories of things you’ve seen, heard or felt for 7 mins. ·          Serotonin is used inside the brain and affects mood and social behaviour ·          The hippo-campus is thought to be the centre of emotion memory and the nervous system ·         The left side of the brain first sees details  and puts them together to form the bigger picture ·         The right side of the brain looks at visual reference as a whole and then works its way into noticing finer details.

These facts could be quite helpful in helping us to devise and refine any material we may want to put into our performance. This is because I feel it would be good to be able to reference actual facts or connotations about the brain in our performance so that the audience can really take something from it, not just in the theatrical sense but also the educational sense.

Experimental Story Exercise

The exercise we next played was very fun and I feel it would be a great piece to incorporate in our piece. One person was given a piece of paper with a drawing or image on it. This person then had to use the image as a stimulus to create a story whilst telling the rest of us the story. The rest of us had to create the story we were being told using our bodies. We could do this through embodying the physicality of characters or in a more abstract way creating emotions. I like the fact that we were able to tell a story using our bodies and not just through the normal play narrative of a play. This made it a lot more experimental as there was a sense of unpredictability in what the people around you are going to do. I like the idea that if we were to do this in front of the audience they would't know what to expect and neither would the actors doing the exercise.