P.A.T.S

This week, we had to do two games that made us put our trust in each other like we haven't done in drama before. The first of these activities was called the human see-saw, this exercise you have to place your complete trust in the other person to be able to support you all the way down and all the way back up again.

The other Trust activity we had to do involved a piece of paper and four people.
we had to start with the paper wedged between each others legs, then using our bodies only (not our hands) we had to move the paper across all four of the people. Here are our results below:

I found this game slightly harder than the rest of group because of the fact that I'm a guy, with the other 3 members of the ensemble being girls it was easier for them to use their bodies with each other more freely than I was.

Also this week we had our presentations about Artaud, Theatre of Cruelty and PunchDrunk.

These presentations helped us to get ideas of how we can incorporate these methods into our piece that we are creating at the moment.

Other activities we did this week included each of us walking around the theatre space with out eyes closed and we had to try and sense where the other people were. We did this to illustrate how aware you have to be about where your fellow actors are on stage.

The final activity we had to do this week was to mirror our partners. Two people were named A and two people were named B, all that B had to do was copy A exactly, sounds easy right?

Well its not as easy as it sounds, when you play the part of B you really have to try and visualise what A is going to do next, you have to try and know what they are going to do before they even do it.

I found this rather difficult because you have no idea what action A is going to do and you just have to hope that they are going to do it slow enough so you can have time to catch up.

O and by the way next week is ISTA Taps in London

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On Thursday we started our drama lesson by playing a 'game' where we had to imitate exactly what our partner was doing. We were split into pairs and one of us had to create a sequence of actions (that could have been anything) and the other one had to imitate them as closely as possible. My first partner was Harry and I was the one doing the creating, I decided to do my morning routine. I found this surprisingly hard as I had to make sure that what I was doing was easy and slow enough to copy. We then swapped partners and I was the one who had to imitate Emma, I found this harder than making up the sequence as It was almost as if I had to guess what she was about to do next. I also had to keep telling my brain that when she put up her left hand I had to put up my right hand.

We also did an activity where we were told to close out eyes and walk around the room. The aim was to see whether we could sense the others and not crash into them. I found this quite difficult at first as I kept thinking that I would crash into someone. I noticed that I kept opening my eyes. However in the end when I did do the task properly I realised that I could sense when the others were close and that I had nothing to worry about. The purpose of the task was to show us that actors are always aware of the things around them eg. set, lighting, space, other actors...

On Friday we started writing down plot, set and costume ideas for our own performance, some ideas we came up with were:

Black and white clothing
Masks with scratches on them
Scenes of reality then dream state
Projections of scary images
Small spaces

This week in drama we played a game where had to walk around the drama studio with our eyes closed and as an ensemble we all had to stop walking and then continue to walk at the same time.

But why?!
The point of this game was to emphasize that actors on stage have to be aware of everything around them (set, other actors, cables ect) when performing. All the actors have to cooperate with one another to be safe on stage and to allow the performance to go to plan.

What did I find hard?
At first I found it extremely hard to walk around the space with my eyes closed and try and listen out for when other people stopped walking. I found this hard to do at the same time as I had been robbed of one of my senses so my other senses had to work extra hard- which is somewhat unnatural (this was shown very clearly when Harry walked straight into a door;-)). However, as time went on I got used to not being able to see and I was able to focus on the sound and sense whether people or objects were around me which I had a chance of bumping in to.

We also began brainstorming ideas on how to develop our performance by; lighting, sound, costume, space, dialogue, makeup etc.
We each had a chance to add to each of the brainstorms and next week we will look at them and begin picking out ideas we think will really work.

We also analysed the words; imitate, influence and inspire.
Imitate; take or follow as a modesl/copy (a person's speech or mannerisms), especially for comic effect/copy or simulate
Influence; the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of someone or something, or the effect itself/have an influence on
Inspire; fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

OH MY GOD AND NEXT WEEK WE GO TO LONDON FOR ISTA TAPS UHILCAXNAEYCXNXUHCBXAFU

Exercises that meant we had to trust others in our ensemble:

The 'catching each other' exercise:

In this exercise we had to catch whoever was in the middle of the circle and move them around the circle. We also had to take turns at being in the middle of the circle. I found the activity surprisingly hard as I knew that the person in the middle was expecting/trusting us to catch them, but after getting into (it took a while) it I realised I had nothing to worry about as we worked well as an ensemble and we shared the weight of the person in the middle making the task a lot easier. Being in the middle of the circle however was a different experience, I found it really hard to trust the others in my group and didn't enjoy the experience. Being inside the circle made me feel a bit claustrophobic and trapped.

Claustrophobic

The see-saw exercise:

For this exercise we were paired up, I was with Chloe. We had to hold hands and lean back as far as we could then make a see-saw effect. It was interesting as we had to trust the other person completely to hold us up. I found this exercise fun and didn't actually have any difficulty trusting Chloe. We failed a lot at doing the see-saw but in the end we succeeded and that's all that really matters.

Fun

The Paper exercise:

This exercise was by far the hardest of them all (not trust-wise). We placed a piece of paper between two members of the group and the aim was to get it from their feet to their shoulders without it being touched with hands. We also did this in a chain passing it between all four of us. Although it was probably the most frustrating trust exercise, as every time it touched the floor we had to start again, I found it the most fun. The exercise involved trusting the ensemble to try their hardest and it also involved determination. I learnt that it might take a long time to succeed, but if you try hard and work as a team you will get there in the end. I felt we really worked as a team for this exercise as everyone was very encouraging and shared the responsibility.

Frustrating

Learning about Artaud

Emma and Harry gave a presentation on Artaud and me and Chloe gave one on punch drunk and immersive theatre. I found listening to the presentation on Artaud very interesting as it taught me about catharsis, theatre of cruelty and theatre using the subconscious mind. All of which I've never thought about before. I actually really enjoyed researching immersive theatre as it showed me that drama doesn't just have to be the typical, actors on stage audience in the seating away from the actors. I think I enjoyed it so much as it was something that I would be interested in seeing.

How easy is it to rely and put your trust in other people? - two drama games helped us answer this question.

The first exercise was the "human see-saw". A see-saw has to be balanced at all times so in order to create a human see-saw you have to concentrate as your partner puts their trust in you to hold their weight and lower them down slowly however at the same time you have to put your trust in them and trust them to pull you up. This takes a lot of concentration as to be fully balanced you cannot be laughing otherwise one partner will just fall to the floor.

What did I find hard?
At the start I found it hard to trust Meera to lower me down slowly and stably as we were laughing and didn't know how it worked. However, as time progressed we found a technique that worked and allowed to carry out the task.

The second task we carried out was the "paper chain". We had to get a piece between two people from our feet to our heads and then back down to our feet with another person without using our hands (if that makes sense). We all took about half an hour to complete this task as it was very challenging and unlike the human see-saw we all had to work as a group.

What did I find hard?

I found that one technique that I used with one person wouldn't work with another so we had to find various different techniques which took a bit of time. I also found moving my body around people quite awkward and hard (especially harry because he's a boy, hehe sorry). I found it easiest to work with Emma because we always make a fool out of ourselves around eachother (as you can see in the photo). However, I found that I felt less awkward with the others as the more we did the exercise as we were all in the same experience and we all shared a responsibility that we had to accept whether we felt awkward or not.

What was the point of these exercises/What did I get out of it?
We learnt that rehearsal and cooperation is key to anything- you need to adapt what you do each time until something works.
I learnt that as an ensemble we need to work together to help each other develop as at the end of the day we all effect what each of us gets at the end of the IB. I also learnt that we need to leave out socialised selves behind when we enter the drama studio otherwise the group picks up your vibe which can effect the work we produce.

However, realistically every once in a while there will be a lowest common denominator because we all have bad days- we just need to know how to contribute to this person. This could be by sharing ideas and entering with enthusiasm so they pick up our vibe.
You may as well put 110% into drama because its very physical and otherwise theres no point even doing it.

We then go on to speak about how we can develop our performance. Harry & Emma gave a powerpoint about Artaud & Theatre of Cruelty and me and meera presented our presentations on Punchdrunk and Immersive Theatre (which you can find on previous blog posts).
From this we went on to discuss tabboo subjects and how people dont want to face the reality of the cruel side of life. We also looked at how Artaud used Catharsis- which is a cleansing/purge that he wanted his audience to experience by making them face tabboo subjects. We liked this idea and would like to develop it further in out performance. We may achieve this by using the conventions of punchdrunk- audience free to wonder about the set, and used total theatre in our piece.

To understand Artaud further here is a video;

What Is Immersive theatre?

Productions that tend to operate in dynamically fluid settings, allowing the audience a more active, voyeuristic, and central role. The actors and audience members interact.

Where?

It can happen anywhere, examples include:

Old train stations
Abandoned areas (houses/cinemas)
Shopping malls
Parks
Whole towns

Why?

To deal with tough issues (taboo subjects)
To inform
To promote (punchdrunk used a performance to promote a PS3 game)
To entertain
To teach (The Salon Project in Glasgow to teach the audience about how people thought about topics in the 19^th century such as technology and the arts and to create a discussion. Members are dressed up.)

PunchDrunk

The crash of Elysium

Based on a DR Who episode and created for families.

The Firebird ball

A mix of Romeo and Juliet and the myth of the firebird. Performed in a disused factory.

It felt like a kiss

Performed in an empty city center office block.

The Drowned man

Inspired by Buchner's fractured masterpiece Woyzeck, this theatrical journey follows its protagonists along the precipice between illusion and reality.

Over four floors there are gloomy corridors, bedsits, shops, bars, trees, caravans, chapels, even a working cinema

Audience members - who must wear masks - are free to explore the film sets and the world beyond the studio gates.

A tragic love story - inspired by Georg Buchner's unfinished play Woyzeck - is played out by a large cast of actors and dancers. Some scenes take place in tiny spaces, where only one or two people are watching.

The Drowned Man's 1960s film studio setting,

"We're trying to remove the audience from their comfort zone and lose them in a parallel universe."

How can we use immersive theatre?

Not being in the typical pros arch
Making the audience the character
No specific Script
No talking between audience members
Actors talking to audience members one on one

Interesting Links:

Trailer for The Drowned man

Recount of someones experience at a show

PunchDrunk website

WHAT IS IMMERSIVE THEATRE?

Immersive theatre can also be called experimental theatre and site specific theatre. It is a type of interactive theatre which allows actors to break the 4th wall to create a more intimate experience for the audience (by them feeling part of the story). They achieve this by taking their audience to a specific location to set out a performance (a railway track, a shopping mall, a restaurant etc.) opposed to a classical theatre. Immersive theatre can also include members of the audience becoming a character or being put in a position of a character in the performance. It is a fairly new form of theatre however it is becoming increasingly more popular due to the work of specific theatre practitioners.

AN EXAMPLE OF IMMERSIVE THEATRE

In Glasgow a group of actors text their audience to go to different parts of the town. Each different member of the audience went to different parts of the town and was met by different actors dressed as different steryotypes (an old woman, a transvestite, a teenager, a homosexual etc). The actor would then walk through the streets with the audience member so the audience member can see the types of reactions the general public would give to these other peope. The performance was based around how we see ourselves and other people. So the audience were able to see how cruel people can be due to others appearances.

IMMERSIVE THEATRE PRACTICIONERS AND HANDY LINKS

PunchDrunk
Antonin Artoud
Victoria Warehouse
immersivetheatre.com
nationaltheatre.org.uk

WHO/WHAT IS PUNCHDRUNK?

PUNCHDRUNK are the first major theatre practitioners based in the UK which are creating and spreading the word of immersive theatre. They were established in the year 2000. They have gained a valuable reputation by touring all around the world influencing the world of drama. They are known for focusing as much on the audience and the performance space as on the performers and the script.

Who was Artaud?

Artaud was a French theatre director and actor.
Artaud though that theatre should be created on reality and should disturb the audience as much as possible.
Artaud aimed to make the audience feel uncomfortable by using disturbing lighting effects and disturbing sounds
He is most famously known for creating "theatre of cruelty"

How does this link back to our piece? how can we use some of his methods?

Artaud's type of theatre is the type of theatre that we are trying to create.
Artaud wanted his audience to feel like they are part of the story.
Improvisation was a key factor to much of Artaud's work, this we could easily achieve.
Artaud wanted to put his audience right in the middle of the "spectacle" and he wanted them to come away being physically affected by it.

What is Theatre of Cruelty:

A theatre practise created by Antonin Artaud.
In Theatre of Cruelty, Artaud intended to "unleash an unconscious response from the audience" He did not want people to escape the world by going to a theatre but to realise their worst nightmares and deepest fears by trying to provoke feelings that would force an instinct he believed was hidden in humans.

This video is A-Level drama students preforming Theatre of Cruelty.

How can we use his methods in our piece:

Artaud placed his audiences in the centre and the action would take place around them. We could use this to create a sense of them a part of the story and creating more fear.
Artaud insisted that all actors must be highly trained. They must be able to use their voices, faces and bodies with immense skill. We are not highly trained but we can work on using our bodies and voices to create a haunting feel.
Artaud often used masks,objects, costume and scenery to distort the audience and make them feel as is if they are in a dream like world. Combined with movement,lights and music- the atmosphere was haunting and terrifying.
There were no scripts in Theatre of Cruelty. There was a certain structure of the 'play' but words were improvised by the actors, if words would be used.

Theatre of Cruelty was meant to hypnotise you. "Assault your senses" If should shock you into confronting yourself, your beliefs, ways of life and the meaning of all existence.

Quotes:

"To write poetry is to write oneself. To read poetry is to read oneself."

"Theatre is in reality, the genesis of creation."

"Art is life's double."

"To think is to drown in the search for what's lacking what makes life incomplete."

So week 2 has arrived very quickly, and so did the presentation of our ME project.

This week each of us had to prepare a presentation containing 7 different photos about ourselves, the photos we had to include were:

A place in the world
A production of theatre that we had seen
A theatre production that we were involved in
A piece of art
A picture of me
A type of theatre we had not heard of
A place in the world

This project helped me to learn loads about my friends that I didn't know before. This lesson was a fairly emotional lesson for all of us, and i feel it helped to start building trust between us. Some of the pictures that were on our presentations made each of us quite emotional. For me I found it hard to talk about certain things that had happened in my family, but everyone opened up and i think this really helped us to get to know each other better.

Secondly this week we had to listen to a sound scape and note down words that came into our heads when we listened to it. For example, some of the words that i wrote down included:

Horror
death
Darkness
Alone

After noting down all of these words we had to then create freeze frames that represented these words, below are a few examples:

Horror

Trapped

Trapped 2

Death

As a way to get to know each other better, we had to find imagines of 7 things and relate this back to us and how this related to us as drama students:

Me
A production I've been in
A production I've seen
A place in the world
Favourite piece of art
A piece of you writing
An unfamiliar practise of Theatre

I found this difficult. I found it hard to open up so much. I wasn't nervous to start of with but as soon as I saw the family picture, I began to shake, it felt violent and words felt like they were just falling out of my mouth and I had no control over my words and my shakes. I was getting embarrassed so then had to apologize, but everyone told me it was fine and I willed myself to calm down. I got better as we went on but suddenly shake again. I don't know what it was, but I really hope that will never happen again. I learnt a lot about people, people I thought i knew very well, im glad we did this, I feel a lot closer and more open with my fellow students doing Drama.

Next we listened to a soundscape and were told to write down what we thought and then highlight the best 3, I picked:

Lump in your throat
Waiting for something
Hiding

We then chose words from each others lists and ended up with:

Horror
Trapped
Something Approaching

We were then asked to create freeze frames out of these words.
Horror:

horrors of war

Scary film Horror

feeling horrified

Trapped:

Physically Trapped, someone helping them out

Reaching out for help

Trapped in a job

Something Approaching:

Train approaching

death approaching

Running away from something

This week we had to present our Me Projects, this meant talking about seven photos that were important to us and linking them to how it helped us develop as drama students. The seven photos we had to talk about were:

A photo of Me
A production I've seen
A production I've Been In
A place in the world
A theatre practice I know Nothing about
A piece of Art
A piece of Writing

I found this project really interesting, as I got to learn a lot about the people in my drama group. I felt it helped us to connect as a group more. Also by sharing my own project I felt that the others got to know more about me too. At first I found standing in front of everyone and talking quite hard as I didn't feel very confident, however as I went through my presentation I got more confident. Doing this presentation has helped me gain confidence and trust with the people in my drama group.

Our second project this week was to create a drama piece using music as our stimuli. The first thing we had to do was listen to the music and write down anything we could think of to do with the music. we then went through all our ideas and narrowed it down so we only had 3. The three words we ended up with were horror, trapped and approaching. With these words we were told to create 9 different freeze frames, 3 for each word. This was quite a difficult task as we were only given around 15-20 seconds to think about our freeze-frames. We also had issues because everyone had so many ideas we couldn't actually choose one. In the end Mr Fearnehough told us we should have one person directing each time. This probably only worked for 1 freeze-frame. I thought this was a good starting point for our group piece.

In our last drama lesson of the week we started putting together our ideas using the freeze-frames as starting points. We came up with a few scenarios and started developing them.

As you can see we changed the name of the group from "the cool crew" to PATS as I came up with the anagram Performing Arts Theatre Students.

This week the first thing we did was a Me Project! For this we had to find 7 pictures;

A production I have seen
A production I've been involved with
A piece of the world
A theatre practice I'm not familiar with
A piece of art
Something I've written
An image of me

With these photos we had to produce a presentation lasting between 10 and 15 minutes. Our presentation had to include all 7 photos and we had to explain how they related back to me as a theatre student.

I found this as a very good thing to do because I learnt a lot of new things about people that I didn't know and I felt like people got to know me a bit better too. This has definitely helped us to develop as a group and not to be so shy in front of each other.

At times I found it hard to present infront of the group as I was talking about some deep things that have gone on in my life but I found that they really played a part in my confidence and my determination to become more confident through acting so I'm proud of myself for speaking about them.

After we presented the second thing we did was listen to a recorded soundscape (sound effects created by actors live on the stage). We had to write down everything that the soundscape made us think of- no matter how stupid, strange or deranged it may be! Out of out list we then had to think of three things we wrote down that we found the most interesting. For me it was

A scary mask
Writing carved into a wall
Trapped in a space

We had to share these with the class and then we picked the three best ideas from everyone that we were going to work with. The three we chose were

Horror
Trapped
Something Approaching

After this we had to think of ways to develop it into a short devised piece. I suggested that we create freeze-frames. So we did. This helped to generate lots of ideas that we may use in the piece.

IB theatre has started, my first time since year 9 studying any form of drama, this makes me feel slightly nervous especially since I am the only boy and the only one who has not done GCSE drama.

So week one we were thrown right in to the deep end and given the challenge called "the lava floor" which requires us to work as a team and have a few people touching the floor as seen below:

This task is designed to start building us together as a team, plus its good for me to begin to fit in with the other three who have been together in drama for two years already. As you can see this task really forces you to think on your feet and work together.

So after finishing the lava floor task we each had to separately create a freeze frame image that we thought represented IB theatre from our point of view, here is my freeze frame:

Whilst holding this freeze frame we each had to say a word that corresponded to our image, the word I chose was "ADVENTURE". I chose this word because that's what IB theatre is for me, its opening a new door (which is what the freeze frame is supposed to show) and is making me step outside of my comfort zone and try something new.

After doing our single freeze frames, we each student had to create a image with all four students in it that represented IB theatre for them, below is my image:

The reason I decided to create this image is because I am the new guy in the group and all the other three (Chloe, Meera and Emma) have worked together in drama for two years previous to IB. Personally I feel like they are superior in their knowledge and they probably feel more comfortable coming into IB drama than I do.

The image shows Chloe, Meera and Emma huddled in a tight group and them looking back and down at me who is on the floor, this represents that I feel I am looking up to them and that it is going to take me quite a while to fit into the ensemble.

After our freeze frames where completed we each had to go and stand in a different corner of the room, where each corner represented a different part of drama (acting, directing, creating, observing). Each of us had to stand in our favoured corner. I chose acting as I like the idea of portraying and being able to get into the mindset of a character and being able to forget about your life and become the character.

After selecting our favourite section we had to stand in our least favourite section. I picked creating, i chose this because I find it hard to come up with original ideas. I find it easier to get given something and work with it, for example being given a character and being able to develop that character I would like. Whereas if I had to create a character I would find that difficult.

So this week we had our first ever IB drama lesson. I was unsure about my feelings towards it, as on the one hand I was excited to finally be doing something I loved but on the other hand I knew It would mean stepping out of my comfort zone a lot. In our first lesson we started by playing a game called 'The Lava Floor' where we had to work as a team to make sure that the least amount of body parts were touching the floor in a certain amount of time. It was really fun and I kind of felt that it helped us to 'bond' a bit more as we had to cooperate with each other a lot. The second task was to create a freeze of what drama represented to us personally.

My freeze showed 'confidence' because that's what I feel drama means to me. I also feel that Drama has helped me gain confidence massively. Our final task was to create what drama means to us personally by using others in our group and creating a freeze frame. I found this really hard as I constantly felt like I needed to do it quickly because the other people were getting annoyed or bored. Although in reality this wasn't true it was just me over thinking things.

In the end this was the freeze frame I came up with. Emma represents shyness and being reserved while Harry acts as a wall between her and me and Chloe, who represent being open and confident. I placed Emma further back from the front to show my feeling about being in the spotlight. Her low position shows shyness and her anxious face looking over at the others shows worrying about being judged. My freeze is supposed to represent how sometimes I feel there is wall between how I am and how I want to be in drama.

During the lesson we also had to pick which aspects of drama we enjoyed the most out of acting, creating, spectating and directing. I decided to go for directing as I really enjoy being creative and imaginative. I also like being able to see progress eg. starting with nothing and creating something. After this we had to pick what we disliked about drama, all the categories were the same except a new one was added in called dramaturge. I picked dramaturge as the idea of researching drama things doesn't really appeal to me as to be honest it sounds slightly boring.

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