Unit 6 - Performance workshop

Tuesday 25^th April

Today we were focusing on pulling the material that we had been creating over the past few weeks, together to create more of a performance.

To start the lesson we carried out a warmup with a few warmup activities such as ‘zip, zap, boing’.

After the warmup, we sat down and discussed how we were feeling at this current moment about the material that we have for the performance. We went through the notes that Dinos had made from the last session from before the Easter holidays and discussed the ideas that he gave us and decided which ones we would like to include in the performance. We had written each scene on a different piece of paper so that if we wanted to get rid of a scene, change the position of it or develop it further, we could bin the sheet of paper or make more details on that sheet of paper. This way we can organise the scenes a lot easier and we can change the order of the scenes more easily. We decided, as a group, that we needed to run through all of the material that we had already created so that it is fresh in our heads.

For the main part of the lesson we were focusing on looking at the start of the piece. This scene is going to be a scene of physical theatre. We are each sat at the back of the performance space on a separate chair in front of our own section of wall. Behind us on the wall are going to be items that represent our character. Then, one by one, we get out of our seat and walk around the grid. This was an idea that Dinos gave us. We think this is a good idea to use this because it represents the characters walking along the corridors within the institution. Then, after a while we all end up in the lift. All of this movement is done to a piece of music by Alt-J. It took us a while to get this scene right because we wanted to be in the lift at the time of which the music changes. We then therefore had to try this several times so that we got the timing right. We then had to go back and choreograph all of the movement as this we found that this scene is too complicated to improvise. Once all of the characters have entered the lift, we start the head movement piece which I choreographed a few sessions ago. We established that the movement once in the lift would not work with the music so we decided to ‘discard’ this idea. Instead of this, we all file out of the lift one by one and make our way back to our individual seats.

When we had finished rehearsing this scene, we didn’t have much time so we didn’t rehearse any of the other scenes. Instead our lecturer, Alys had an idea which was to take some photos for the marketing of the performance. We used an app on her phone to take the photos on. Here are photos which we took:

The effect which we used on the phone makes the picture look as if someone has drawn or painted it. This then fits in with the style of the piece as it is quite unusual.

To finish off the session, we had a discussion as to what needed to be done in the next few weeks. We discussed that we don’t have much time from now until the show. Therefore, we need to be doing some work in our own time so that we are ready for the performance date which is the 15^th of June. For next week, we need to write a monologue and a phone conversation for our character. The monologue needs to be able how our character would have their ideal world. My conversation is about a man asking my character out on a date. Also, I have to do some additional research to ensure that I have a solid understanding of the disorder which my character has – dissociative identity disorder.

I feel today's session went well as we were able to look in depth at the beginning of the performance and make sure that this scene was how we wanted it to be before we moved on to work on any of the other scenes. I feel like within the next couple of next, as long as we work as a group well, we will be able to create some very good material ready for the performance. I feel like we work very well together as a group so this will be achievable.