Unit 1 - Skills development in performing arts

Thursday 3^rd November

For this lecture we were focusing on improvisation. 

To start off the session we carried out a warmup. Firstly we had some physical elements such as shaking the knees then working up the body to the hips, then the arms and finally the head. We then carried out an exercise called ‘What happened to Maria?’ This consists of someone in the group asking “What happened to Maria?” and the rest of the group would answer back saying “I don’t know”. However, the aim of the exercise is to copy the intonation that the person uses. This exercise helps to warm up the throat and to practice different methods of intonation. 

For the rest of the session we were focusing on improvisation. The first task that we were set was that we were in a restaurant and we were all having a meal together. We were each given a character by our lecturer, Cara. My character was someone who had just received the news that her mum was dying in hospital. Apart from this information, we had no preparation time and therefore the scene was an improvisation with an element of characterisation. The feedback that we were given at the end of this performance was that it worked very well and I concentrated on my character well and played the part well. We all acted well as a team and produced a lovely performance. Also, we listened to each other during the scene so that we knew what was going on. This is a key skill as there needs to be good communication between the group because everyone needs to be involved equally and know what is going on. 

For the rest of the session, Cara put us into pairs and we would perform short improvisations of a doctor and a patient. Cara gave us a scenario, for example mine was that I was a patient who thought that I had a fatal disease but in matter of fact, I was completely fine. Another scenario I was given was that I was a psychologist and I had a patient who thought that they were turning into a water pipe. For this improvisation, I found it quite difficult to stay in character as I did laugh at some points through the improvisation. This is something that I need to work on.