Lesson 1

The exercises we did today helped us contact our emotional extremes that will help when feeding off each other and being able to work experimentally, fully committing to the piece. We did an exercise in which we passed our emotions around a circle with one rule; make your reaction to the emotion bigger than the previous person. We worked with both positive and negative emotions. Our downfall at first was our perception that bigger meant louder and over dramatic. However when working with emotions like sadness, when you reach the extreme of such an emotion, if you were truthfully reacting, you may be overcome to the extent that you collapse and do not make any sound at all. Therefore this exercise taught me that being experimental on the spectrum of emotions can still be subtle and smooth, whilst still maintaining a certain gravitas. I think this is very important so as to keep the deep connection with an experimental piece instead of relying on its shock factor to carry it.

The second exercise we did today was a imagination exercise. Lying down we were fed situations that we had to react to both physically and vocally. The first scenario we were given was being stuck in a spiders web and we couldn't move. Having my body flat on the floor helped me push this scenario throughout my body, stiffening my joints and only moving my extremities. When in a situation where physical movement is not an option, breath and voice become the main tool that you use to express your emotion. Channelling my distress through breath caused me to make short bursts of breath when I struggled to move, creating a mood of exhaustion and distress. However the atmosphere was amplified when we were told that a spider was approaching us across the web. Therefore my breath became rapid constantly instead of short bursts and my distress became vocal. This scenario was heightened by the whole class creating an atmosphere of distress; creating a chain reaction of people becoming more frightened by others fear. We then contrasted this scenario and were told that we were in a fountain of the best chocolate we had ever tasted. I found this harder due to a block created by embarrassment. If this situation was real we would all moan or scream in delight, but with others there is sounded strange and we stopped ourselves from immersing in this emotion due to this. We then imagined that we were sinking in a bog. This again caused me to tense up and not move any parts of my body apart from my head and neck which was lifted of the floor straining for air. I found the exercise as a whole very difficult because lying down restricted me from moving into interesting positions that would stimulate my imagination and the atmosphere in the room kept breaking which destroyed some of the worlds I was creating. It introduced me to the reality that I will have to let go of all pride, embarrassment and premonitions if I want to get the most out of experimental term.

The last exercise we did today was the tunnel exercise. When I went under the tunnel I was told I was in a tunnel of jagged rocks so if I made any sudden movements I would cut myself. We then had people come and scratch the chair we were under, breath on our faces and scream out for help. It was a really surreal experience that did transport me to a world in which fear and claustrophobia dominated all of my thoughts. I think facing someone intensified the whole experience because you could hear their breath and screams as well as your own and your natural reaction to comfort was beaten by your natural survival instincts. I think this exercise showed me that extreme circumstances can be the most theatrically effective and it is okay to push our audience to these kind of extremes as it generates a reaction that touches the audiences instincts and emotions on a level that is not often reached.