Lesson 3

We started today with another ensemble exercise, standing in a circle, we did the synchronised clapping exercise in which we all closed our eyes and had to read the room so as to clap at the same time. After we found each others beat, the tempo increased rapidly until it reached its peak, at which point it would fall back down to the slow tempo it started with. Being able to transfer this energy into our piece will help us read a room and its lows and highs in energy. We will have to read and react to each others energies, creating the highs and lows in the performance, with emotion being the catalyst for those peaks. This will created a layered performance that can range from scenes of calm to scenes of complete chaos.

This week we had to bring in an object, picture or random material to use as stimulus to create a character. Mine was a crown ring. The character I created was Delilah, a queen who had traded all the love in her life and her own ability to love, for power over all the land she wanted and all the subjects she desired. However the lack of love in her love and her inability to love caused her to become cold and bitter. She mistreated her subjects and ruled from a throne of silver and gold skulls, a reminder of the sacrifice she has made for her power. We then went into the middle of the circle and created this character, bringing them to life. I really love doing exercises like this because it activates my imagination in an improvised way. Creating characters is something I really enjoy and they often stimulate some of the characters that take bold, vivid forms.

We then did some more improvised storytelling. Again in a circle we started with one line and then each said a line to continue the story. I feel exercises such as these turn into trust exercises that relies on everyone in the circle to take your contributions and make them into something of value and worth, moulding them, not necessarily in the way you expect, but in a way that adds to the creative process. In terms of creating interesting, inspired stories that fit in a experimental form, this exercise allowed us all to take stimulus and throw it, stretch it, colour it in and mould it in whatever way we saw fit, which saw the storytellers becoming just surprised at the outcome as the audience. Having this sense of improvisation in the piece would be a risk but something I would personally enjoy experimenting with. Performing something with no set rules or form- theatre at its most free. We would put thrill back on stage.

In the afternoon many people had gone to Bethlem so we decided to do another storytelling exercise. One person took centre stage and told a story taking inspiration from a picture. The others stood around and acted out their words physically and created a sound scape on top. I was able to tell a story; inspired by a picture of hot air balloons, I did a story about one in the middle of a cornfield that a little girl went on an adventure in. Being completely spontaneous with the work was exciting for me and the people around me and felt wondrous as a performer. I love storytelling and writing stories so standing on that block was me feeling very at home. Having this sense of sharing between a whole group of people is definitely effective- you need only ask those who were in the class. Involving everyone in something that can only exist once is a sharing experience that everyone can connect with.