Unit 6 - Performance workshop

Tuesday 1^st November

The aim of this lecture was to look at physical theatre.

To start the lecture, we carried out a warmup. This warmup consisted of us singing the song “bungalow”. This activity helps us to build up our confidence and to have a bit fun at the same time. As I forgot that I was meant to leading the warmup this week, I am leading it next week instead. Instead we played the game “zip, zap, boing”. As we have played this game before, we are becoming better at it meaning that we can pass the “zip” around faster.

Firstly we started to look at prop motifs. For this exercise we were told that everyone in the group was a professor and that we were at a convention. We were given an item and then we had to say what we thought it was and justify this. Alys chose a cupcake holder for the object so then we had to say what we thought it was, however we were not allowed to say that it was a cake stand. I said that it was a water fountain that you have in your garden. The rest of the group could then ask me questions as to why I thought it was this. Others in the group said it was a hair accessary and a spinning top. This exercise helps to develop our imagination and creativity skills.

The second task that we carried out was also to do with prop motifs. For this exercise we were put into pairs and we had to pick a prop that we were going to use to make a performance and base the performance around this. The prop that we chose was a piece of translucent blue material. We then had to use the prop as a motif and use it in different ways. This meant that we had to use it as if it was another object. We had to think of 6 motifs and these were a scarf, a cape, the sea, a blanket, a curtain and a bandage. We came up with these 6 motifs first and then thought about the transitions from the one to the other. When we performed this to the rest of the class and our lecturer, the feedback that they gave us was that although it was a good performance and we had some really good ideas, it didn’t need some of the word prompts to what the objects were. For example, I said “oh Danielle, do you like my scarf?” but in fact I didn’t need to say this as it was obvious what the object was anyway. Once the other group had watched our performance, we watched theirs and we had to guess what their objects were just like they had to guess what ours were.

For the next part of the lesson Callum suggested a good activity that he thought would be appropriate for this lesson. The task was that one person would be sat on a chair, one person would be sat on the floor and another person would be stood up. At all times these positions had to be held so if someone got up from the chair, someone else would have to replace them. We were able to move around the space swapping in and out of the 3 positions. Whilst we were doing this, Alys put some music on in the background which fitted the exercise very well. Once we had got the hang of moving in and out of the 3 set positions, we started to think about the transitions from one position to the next. We also started to add points of contact such as eye contact and parts of physical contact. This then made a big impact on the exercise as it now looked more like a piece that would be performed to an audience. 

The last thing that we did in this session was read over the monologs that we had written over half term. The monolog that I wrote was based on a female aged 26 called Olivia Wright. She is a teacher in a primary school and has only just been given her job. Here is the monolog that I wrote for my character:

“What on earth was I thinking? Why did I do it? I never ever thought that I would do something so unkind and hurtful. I’ve only just got this job and after 5 years of training, I’m here. I’m finally where I wanted to be, but now it looks like I’ve taken a stumble at the first step in my career. In fact, I’ve taken a MASSIVE fall at the first step. I couldn’t help it, I really didn’t mean to do it. But it just slipped out. I didn’t think it was too bad but now it’s dwelling on me. Okay, okay it was just one small punch. It’s not too bad but, but… There’s nothing I can do about it now. What’s done, is done. I suppose I’ll have to see what my boss says. But I guess there’s no hope. All of that work for nothing. And this is because of my head. Why does this have to happen to me? If I lose this job, I lose money. No money, no food and no water. No food and no water… It all comes down to tomorrow. This meeting determines my life and I pray that they keep me, but if not, well… life goes on.”

The feedback that I was given from my lecturer was that this is a really nice monolog and fitted the character really well. Also, she said that it was very mysterious and leaves the audience questioning what will happen next.