The Human Zoo
Developing
Physical Theatre Performance
Throughout the
course of this term our physical theatre lessons have been leading up to
developing our understanding of our individual physical movement. Each member of the tutor group has their unique
way of body language, and the main point of this assignment was to look at our
own physical movement and see how we can relate to the movement of animals.
At the
beginning of this assignment we were given a task to create our own
animal. The purpose of this task was to
show our understanding of how many different species of animals have their way
of movement. We had to create the
animal, present its key features, inform the group about its habitat and if it
was a predator or if it was a prey of another species. In creating our own animal we were to show our
understanding of how to present an animal’s movement, as well as mixing a combination
of animal features which was to be performed to the group. The animal I created, fictionally lived in
South American, it key characteristics were having sharp teeth, with long
Ant-Eater like arms, with claws, and frog like legs so it may spring into
action to catch its prey. After
inventing the characteristics of the animal, I then had to present its
movement. My idea of its movement was
for it to keep low as if it were constantly stalking its prey, its claw were to
be scratching the floor, in the way of showing off his main weapons. To conclude I presented its spring into
action using its legs to propel above its prey and impale it with its long
sharp claws, then it would rest and eat away.
I felt this
lesson was a good introduction to the assignment, as not only did we present
our originality in creating a made up animal based around real living
creatures, but we were also able to show our understanding of animal
movements. In doing so we made our first
step in embodying another species that was completely different to our own.
In the
following Physical Theatre lessons we began to look at our own physical
movement, and studied each step as to how we could relate it to a real
animal. The animals had to be a land
based animal and something you would find in the zoo. Our teacher carefully analysed each of our movement
then resulted in see what we would look like in presenting that certain animal,
then make the decision. Judging by my
own movement, it seemed to be quite speedy yet can be at a slow pace at certain
times. My teacher then made the decision
to see if I could present the physicality of a dog. The breed of dog I chose, in particular, was
a Jack-Russell, the reason being I understood their physicality being that they
can be slow at some times, but the majority being that they can be very fast.
The following lessons
were for us to present the movement of our chosen animal and begin research
into how we could develop the characterisation.
But as the lessons went on it became clear that my chosen animal wasn’t
the species that can be found in the zoo, therefore my teacher changed my
animal to a wolf. The wolf’s
characterisation is very different to a house dog, as the wolf’s keen instinct
is to protect their territory and hunt for food. Also a wolf’s physicality is being tall and
proud, in the sense they are the alpha wolf (a tough leader of a group).
This became
more of a challenge to present the characterisation of a wolf, so we then came
to the final decision to keep the wild style of an animal and stick to the canine
species. The decision was then made for
my animal to be a fox.
When being
assigned the task to present a fox’s characterisation, I did some research as
to how different their movement is compared to an average house dog. The research I looked at was some found footage
of a fox trespassing in someone’s back garden.
Now what was interesting about this type of canine’s characterisation
was its slight relation towards a wolf’s.
Foxes have a strong protection over their territory, which relates to
the wolf, except a wolf takes pride in keeping their land, whereas a fox likes to
make their area as big as possible. In doing
so their body language is kept at a low, in the same way a land predator stalks
their prey. Another key factor, to
studying the fox’s movement, is I discovered that foxes have a strong ability
of speed. From the footage I watched the
fox was marking its territory by teasing a dog to leave its area, teasing by demonstrating
its ability to run twice the speed of the dog. But when the fox unleashed its yell of anger, it
was almost screaming to the dog “stay away”.
So watching found footage of a fox, I discovered its speedy pacing, when
showing off to opposing garden animals, as well as its low physicality in the
of it not taking as much pride in its territory, but wanting to keep the area
wide and to itself.
When observing
this animal my key instinct was looking for obvious movement that stood out
compared to the foxes slow pacing which was very similar to dogs. Watching the whole footage I was able to
understand why the fox was moving at the exact speed and why is could have been
slightly hesitant. But another key point
in the foxes physicality that I needed to understand was what the vocal cords
of the fox sounded like. At first it
sounded as if the fox had the vocal cords of a human and was simply yelling at
foes. But from watch other footages
repeatedly I was able to analyse the footage to know that it was a combination
of barking and howling. Again used to
mark its territory and present its strength and anger.
What I had to
do to achieve this performance was simply to watch the videos repeatedly and
fully understand why the fox would move in at the certain speed. I
managed to understand that the key features in a fox’s performance were the
concepts of fear of the unknown and protection over what could be theirs. So during rehearsals we came up with a stage
that was to have wide walking area so people may observe our animals, and there
were to be small stages that were to represent our animal’s cages. The movement I decided to present was, to
begin with, to present the foxes pacing, in its cage, and also show how alert
the fox constantly is. Without giving
any of the vocal presentation. Then our
teacher introduced the idea of having each member of the group present their
animals eating habits. Next the animals
were to move outside their cages and walk amongst the other animals, in order
to present more of the animal’s physicality. So during the movement segment, I decided to
present more of the fox pacing, then its concern and fear by jumping into a
speedy run away from what it thinks is an enemy. This would then lead to an opportunity to
present the fox marking its territory as well as presenting the foxes vocal
cords. To conclude the show, our teacher
suggested, that we were to take our performances of our animals and turn into
our humans. The purpose of this was to
show the relationship between both physical movements. Thus showing our own movement is relatable towards
the animals movements, this would help the audience to understand why we were
the chosen animals.
The next step
I took in researching the fox’s physicality was looking at some photographs and
observing the facial expressions. From
the photos I found I discovered that the main facial expression of the fox
reflected on their constant feeling of being alert. This was shown through their wide eyes, locked
on what surrounding area. The second
photo showed the fox in a position of stalking and having its eyes focused on
an enemy. This showed the face lowered
to the ground with the eyes still as wide as possible fixed on their prey. But the final photo showed how fierce the fox
truly can be. Presenting its vast anger
against its enemies, this again, was presenting more of the fox showing off its
skills and over protection of its territory.
I thought
these videos and photos were extremely helpful, because it assisted deeply for
when it came for me embodying the fox. It helped me to understand how and why it
moved at a certain speed as well as knowing the facial expressions to give that
extra bit of detail to ensure an accurate portrayal of the fox.
When it came to
achieving the physicality of the fox I looked into my own physical structure,
in order to see if I could give the decent interpretation. When rehearsing the stage movement, my first
decision was begin on all four legs, then to learn and understand the standing
structure of the fox. From watching the
found footage of the fox, within somebody's back garden, I analysed its physicality
and I noticed that it was very alert of its surroundings and it physically stood
its ground as if to say "this is my land". So during rehearsals we create a scenario
where the animals would interact with one another so I thought this would be a
good opportunity to present the fox standings its ground as well as presenting
it fears. How I achieved the
physicality, of the fox, was beginning by relaxing my body in preparation for
the movement. Whilst being on four legs
I kept my back straight so I was able to keep a solid appearance, as well as
presenting the fact that the fox wants to keep and stand his ground. Another part of my physical presentation I
thought was essential for embodying the fox was my neck muscles. I decided to keep my neck muscles strong, by
finding focus points in the room, keeping eye contact, and have both my neck
and facial expressions solid. In the
sense of delivering the moral message that even though the fox, and the
audience, know that this zoo isn't the fox’s territory, but likes to keep its
distance from other animals.
Another
physicality I looked at was when the fox was literally moving on stage. Again, from the found footage, I saw that it
was slightly different to its alert standing structure. Whilst pacing it took each step at an average
speed, keeping its head low but eyes up, looking ahead. I was able to achieve this when it came to
the open half of the performance, as the animals were all in their cages and I
wanted to present the fox confusion by pacing in its cage, the pausing once in
a while to show how alert it is of the other animals, and is ready to strike if
needed. I think this was effective for
my main performance because the audience would be able to understand what the
fox has been through, in coming to this zoo, what emotions it is feeling at the
exact moments of the performance, interatcing with the other animals, and ensure the audience get every detail of
the fox’s physicality.
Before
rehearsals came underway we had two lessons of watching two movies which showed
two stories of animal to human transformation.
The first movie was of a stage production called “Kafka’s Monkey” and
the second movie was a documentary called “Project Nim”.
“Kafka’s
Monkey”, I thought was a great example of a humans portrayal of an animal (a
monkey). The story of the play was of
one actor on stage, breaking the forth wall, in telling the audience the story
of how she was originally a monkey and, over time, transformed into a
human. The script of the production went
into so much detail of how painful it was for this character to travel from her
home and become this creature she never knew existed. Whilst the plot was interesting and intriguing,
the main focus, for us, in the production was the actress’s physicality on
stage. The idea that she was once an
animal and had become a human, meant that she would have to walk and talk like
a human, only to show little hints to the audience that she still had a bit of
the animal within her. This was shown in
both physically and verbally. Verbally
we could understand her, but there was that slight impression that this
language was new to her and she was still learning. Whereas physically, her body was, in some
ways, split into two. The bottom half of
her body was almost normal, with the legs being in use for pacing; whereas the
top half of the body had more relation to a monkey of all. As one of her arms was fixed on her back in
the way that a monkeys arm is and the other is to the ground. But mainly there was a strong hint of the being
human aspect as she communicated with the audience as a human, she used some of
her physicality as a human; but there were times when, especially when she
climbed a ladder, it was obvious that she was once a monkey. But I thought this video of the production
was very good, as the actress gave an incredible presentation of a human who
was once a monkey physically.
But when it
came to the documentary of “Project Nim”, it was a different story entirely. This documentary told the story of a group of
scientists in the 1970s that began a project in which they took a monkey in captivity
and taught it sign language so it would become a human. I thought this was interesting, yet not as
effective as the previous video. “Project
Nim” showed us the physicality of the monkey and how it slowly evolved and
developed a hint of characteristics of a human.
This documentary showed us that monkey developed a personality of its
own and it was interesting to see how, in many ways, it rebelled against
learning the ways of a human. The story
of the scientist trying to change Nim’s way and see if they could increase Nim’s
personality was interesting, but not as affective, in the way of showing us the
physicality. We saw what it was like for
the monkey to be developing slowly but it wasn’t as detailed as “Kafka’s Monkey”,
as we saw the point of view from the monkey who became human. Whereas “Project Nim” showed us the point of
view of the scientists, of who didn’t think this project through as it wasn’t a
success.
But I think
these videos were very helpful towards my performance, because I knew that when
it came to the physicality of the human, to show a few hints of the animal in
the actions as well as to give a slow change into the human as to show the slow
development of the animal.
Throughout
this assignment I found it very interesting to know the physical movements of
the animals and how that can be reflected on your own physical movement. What I found easy in the assignment was
learning how to move and embody the fox. But what I found difficult was understanding
the reasons why the fox moved in a certain way and why it gave different forms
of facial expression.
However I
managed to overcome these difficulties by spending more time watching the found
footage videos of the foxes repeatedly.
Constantly watching these videos helped so I could analyse the foxes
movement and facial expression to get more detail, and fully understand how to
embody the fox.
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