An
Introduction to Jaques Le Coq
Thursday 27th
November 2014
Continuing our
introductory workshops into Contemporary Physical Theatre strategies, it was in
this session that we had our introduction into ‘Jaques Le Coq’ and his impact
into the modern theatre industry.
Linking to our ‘Commedia dell Arte’ research, we now had to look
specifically at what devising physical theatre aspects ‘Jaques Le Coq’ has/had
brought to theatre.
What did we learn?
It was ‘Jaques
Le Coq’ ambitions’ originally show that he wanted to go into sporting
activities, but he exited with a fascination towards the human body. Looking closely as how and why the body moves
in the specific ways, it became an interest of his to create a new form of
production.
It was through
this that ‘Jaques Le Coq’ developed an idealistic to bring inanimate object and
make them animate. For example, there
was a masked actor with no facial expressions sat on stage, to help the
audience understand what the character on stage was feeling, ‘Jaques Le Coq’
devised/directed the actor into new physical aspects and gave meaning and
purpose to each and every movement that they projected. Hence making the inanimate animate.
But it wasn’t
just performance masks that ‘Jaques Le Coq’ had to work with. Full body costumes worn by actors, physically
turned them into something else, like an everyday object. But it was the “Le Coq” devising methods that
brought a sense of character to these objects as well as a story. In our session on ‘Jaques Le Coq’ our teacher
showed us short videos showing performers wearing both masks and costumes, and
using the devising method they truly intrigued us into their performances.
The key
example that I personally admired, was of two performers wearing costumes
simulating a “lung” type of costume, and a “slinky” type of costume. From their performances, I deduced that the “lung”
costumed character, represented a struggling individual, as their purpose in
this performance was to stand on the block, set centre stage. As the video when on, we could really get a
feeling of mixed emotions, such as desperation to get up onto the block,
difficulty in his struggle to even stay upright, and disappointment in the
split moments of their failure. But it
was with the “slinky” type character that I deduced a sense of “cockiness”
within the characteristics. As this
character came straight to the block and got onto top, without any struggle or
hesitation. But it was when it stood
tall on the block that the “cocky” character really shined, as in a way it was
slightly showing off in from of the other character.
It was an
interesting vision to behold, discovering what a true and professional ‘Le Coq’
style has to it. Of having unique, yet
unusual, setting and costumes, it was both entertaining and thought
provoking. But most of all I was
interested to give it a go.
What did we
achieve from this session?
Linking back
to our early work into ‘Commedia dell Arte’ we look at the physical
characteristics of the ‘Stock Characters’, but it had a purpose for us to
understand the characters and how to project comedic characters and atmospheres
on stage. So when it was our opportunity
to take part in practical exercises in a ‘Le Coq’ style, it was our chance to show
how we would make the inanimate animate.
I personally
found these exercises to be another entertaining and interesting
experience. The exercise I enjoyed the
most was our devised ensemble work. As
we worked in four small groups, and being timed our teacher gave us inanimate
objects for us to physically embrace and project using our bodies and make them
animate. It was interesting to work on
our team building as well as physically show our originality creating a setting
for a staged piece of work.
All in all I
found this an amazing introduction to ‘Jaques Le Coq’ and his work in devised physical
theatre. I am interested as to what we could
do with these workshops and how they could link in with one another and how
they can bring a strong sense of professionalism in our future production work.
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