A Very Frantic Start to the New Year
Monday 8th September 2014
Returning to college to begin our second
year, and first year on the Level three course, we began our first day full of excitement
and wonder, as to how we would begin our new course and what knowledge awaited
for us to learn. So within the first
half an hour we already unleashed our excitement with the arrival of new
students beginning the two year course and together we shared our passions for
the drama/theatre industry. Then once
our lecturer arrived we began.
Our first lesson started with a question,
a question in which I had answered before but was interested to see where it
may go, or even if it could expand my understanding of the subject. The question was: what is Physical
Theatre? To which my answer was: it is a
way to present the plot/story, of the theatre’s play, without the use of
dialogue. Expressing emotions through the
means of dance and/or movement.
This answer received and good response from
my lecturer, but it was then the chance to see what the others had to say about
Physical Theatre, and to see if we could all help one another to expand the
understanding of what Physical Theatre is truly all about. This then lead to a series of bullet points
summarising the subject in singular words.
For example; mime, trust, teamwork, visual, engaging, environment,
objects, characters, interpretation and focus.
These points in particular summarised the actor’s job role, should
he/she decide to take on a performing role that requires more physicality than
verbal work. All those points also point
out a lot the purpose of Physical Theatre, such as to create an environment
that can engage the audience and give many different interpretations of what is
happening in the scene with the characters involved and the objects they create
through mime. As a whole class we agreed
in stating that Physical Theatre is mainly an activity for actors and dancers
as they can reform and reshape various things to create an environment for an
audience to watch and enjoy.
Once we, as a class, agreed on what is
Physical Theatre, we then turned to one another to explore the origins of
Physical Theatre. My partner and I
agreed on this sentence, to explain the origins in our own words: with the
origins of the theatre industry, dating back to ancient Greece, came the use of
masks. The use of masks can express the actor’s
emotions with little use of dialogue.
This, we thought, was the way that the Physical Theatre industry
began. As many times in the past they
would rely on masks to express emotions and other actors to create set pieces
and props, so the play would be as detailed as possible and add a sense of
realism for their audience. Other
members in our class inputted several bullet points to, again, expand our
understanding of the origins. The bullet
points consisted of: primal, imagination, actions and ritual. These points suggest that it all became
essential to the theatre industry at the time and it remains to be important in
today’s theatrical industry. One
important note to take was the key word “ritual” as it highlighted the origins
as a means of religion that was then expanded to become a form of
entertainment. We took notes on that
fact that the earlier performances had little abstract and narrative, which
would also stay throughout time as some forms of Physical Theatre had less of a
plot and became very abstract, all with the sole purpose of creating an intriguing
image for an audience. We then wrapped
up this part of the session but concluding all the Physical Theatre notes with
this statement: Theatre has evolved from symbol rituals, to early play and to
Shakespeare. All with the simple purpose,
to reflect modern society.
For the next half of the day we turned to
screen on the wall as we began to watch a short film, titled: Frantic Assembly –
A Guide to Devising. I, personally,
found this film to be very interesting and informative as it gave detailed
information on how this theatre company became famous for their use of Physical
Theatre. The film showed us interviews
with the theatre company’s lead choreographers and told us how explore various
methods of physicality with their lead actors and how they intend to input more
depth to the character arcs and make their physicality on stage link with the
plot. What I found fascinating the most
was the fact that the choreographers consulted with each other and the
directors and producers and all together they inputted a vast amount of ideas
so that each member was heard and all their ideas were put into the play. I really liked their teamwork as, not only
were they professional with their work but they were also taking the practical
warm up games to ensure that their actors were all prepared to shape their
bodies into way in which they had never shaped before. Therefore I liked their methods and teamwork
to ensure that their play was very detailed and they collaborated to implant
layers upon layers to make their play possibly the best one around, and make
themselves known as the most dedicated and best choreography directors around.
For our second lesson we then went into another
room with more space so we could accomplish any Physical Theatre exercises,
similar to the warm up games that the Frantic Assembly used. We were then placed into three teams and we
were to begin the exercises. The games
mainly had us to focus on team work, memory and of course speed. As we had to accomplish some relays, in which
we would either simply run to the wall and back or we would have to touch the
floor with a particular hand or jump or touch the wall, or even do them all at
once. I found this to be a great
exercise and it succeeded in getting us prepared for any physical activities
that awaited.
Our final task of the day was to create a scenario
with the reflection of our relays, in the sense of having each member of our
teams run or walk from one end of the room to the other. The difference is we would have to create a
scene, the scene could be anything that we chose but it had to involve every
member of our group. In my group we all
came together and discussed as to what we would like to put into our
scene. Just like the Frantic Assembly choreographers
we inputted all our ideas until eventually we came to an agreement. To quote Frantic Assembly ‘an argument can
get you to the final and perfect result, which everyone is happy with’. In my group we came up with a scenario in which
told a story about one man being beaten up by a group of bullies and then his
friends would come to help and in doing so sent the bullies away. The purpose of this I felt was to show a
sense of rivalries and friendships, as they both collided on one another. The end result, I found, was detailed and
good enough to engage an audience.
When it came to us watch the other groups
it was our job to observe and assess and see what was good and what could have
been done better. For the first group, I
enjoyed it and got a sense of a well-choreographed dance piece as well as receiving
a sense of a story being told about a bully taking charge and abusing his
fellow team members. That is what I received
from my point of view, also our lecturer included music to all our pieces to
see if there was any effect towards the performance and the performers. Personally I found the use of music for this
group to be a positive as the performer’s rhythm, in a way, backed up the music
and make the whole performance more intriguing.
However if I was to make any changes, I would say, have more enthusiasm
to make their movements more dramatic, as well as including more facial
expressions to add characteristic to each individual on stage so they may engage
the audience a little bit more and they could also get a better understanding
of the story behind the movement.
The second performance I found to be interesting
on a different level, as there were more stories behind the performances but
little movement. It was clever choosing
of the their rhythm of heavy breathing to emphasise the emotion of fear as well
as the positions on stage to show that three characters were about to charge
and be shot down by their enemies. That
is the story I discovered from their staging and the use of music, in a way,
made the scene more dramatic. However
what I would have changed to include more physicality and characteristic is the
enemy. Personally I would have changed
their shaping of the weapons to add deeper effect and include more members of
the team to have every member standout instead of one individual standing
out. Plus I would also include more
sound effects to create characters and give the audience more opinions as to
what the character could have been and why they were in that scenario.
Our group received similar feedback, but
all in all I found it to be a great introduction to Physical Theatre and for
all of us to expand our knowledge of working in a team and what the possibilities
are in creating a scene with the use of our bodies and little dialogue. Therefore I really enjoyed this lesson and
found it to be a great introduction to the new course and level three, and I cannot
wait to see what else our lecturer has in store for us.
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