06 April 2009 Workshop.

Workshop (06 April 2009)

At first, I was skeptical to whether this workshop was something that I would enjoy. Also, this would be the first time doing something with the J2 seniors.

The instructor, Kristina, came into the black box with poles and a kompang. We were all interested in what they would be used for. Then, she introduced herself and told us what we were going to do and why. As it turns out, we were to be more exposed to the art of physical theatre, in which, the emphasis would be more of the movement of our body, rather than our voices. This, to me, was quite interesting as I was intrigued to how physical theatre like mime was about and how people actually train for it. We then went on to do some stretching. It was so painful! At first, I thought we were going to do ordinary stretching but boy was I wrong. We learned that the most important part for physical theatre was actually our torso area or “the core” as she called it. An actor must be grounded so that his movements would look fluid and natural so we established the zero position, with feet, knees and tailbone parallel and relax the tension in the arms and neck. This was further proved to be useful when we watched the play of “7 boards” and saw how easily the actors moved what looked like super heavy boards. It was effortless and Kristina told us how the zero position actually helps in the moving of the boards.

After the awesomely painful stretching, we were treated to “catching the fly.” When Kristina hit the kompang, we were to jump and catch the fly, thereafter, come back to our zero position. I realized the impact of our stretching when we were able to execute a ¾ jump and back.

Moving on, we then practiced with the space in the black box. The objective was to focus on a specific object and walk towards it while at the same time use our peripheral vision to avoid clashing into one another. Also, when the kompang is hit, we had to stop and immobilize ourselves. This was not so much of a challenge than the next part of the exercise, in which we had t stop and start by ourselves. Without anyone telling us when. At first, it was very jerky, with people hesitating over when to stop and start, however, I realized that everyone of us had sort of a routine where we just instinctively knew when to move and stop. I realized that as an actor, be it physical theatre or not, the ability to “sense” other people on stage is crucial to make the play better and more fluid. We then had to walk vertically and horizontally, and make turns at a 90 degree angle. Then, we had to move in an arc and then a mixture of both. I did not get this exercise but maybe this can help us with the way we use the stage, how it is important to know exactly how you move and where so that it does not look disorganized or unsure on stage.

Then, the “moving between 2 people in a fishbowl” exercise. This was seriously hilarious as there was always a “traffic jam” in the middle of the bowl and also, finding 2 people to go through is really tough as everyone wanted to move, but no one wanted to give space for others to move. After 2 rounds, we got better, I admit, but to me, it was still a mess. This teaches us that we have to be considerate of the space on stage that we have to use and how our movements can affect other people and as a physical theater actor, awareness of the space and the people in it needs to be evidently there in our actions and body.

We then had to do the thing where she told us a number and body part and were had to find ways of achieving it. This was a prelude to the real exercise in which we had to find a partner and use our bodies to show the space that we have, for example, making your body as big as possible while still remaining in contact with your partner, also, twisting your body in many interesting ways. This exercise I think helps us understand that we do not really need to be acrobats to be good physical theatre actors, but it’s how we use our body to convey the message across to the audience.

Kristina had us follow her in an isolation exercise where one part of the body was isolated but the rest is moving, this I think, is the basis of most mimes. It was very interesting. Some of the actions I could follow but some just too difficult to emulate. This shows again, the importance of our core and how the core is useful in doing many different actions.

Following that, we were split into 3 groups and had to do a tablo with an abstract theme, I think this was because she wants us to use our bodies to show our message rather than words. It was particularly challenging to pick out a theme but we decided on “dreams.” So, I had totally no idea what I was going to do because I thought that the scary element was more than enough and adding more to it would just be redundant. The problem was solved when I became the person sleeping and WZ was my shadow. It was great as we all had fun playing our scene but it ended up being more of a “nightmare” theme. The other groups also did well but I think that Kristina misunderstood us, we did not jeer our friends, rather, when the group with the title “nightmare” came out, my group was like, crap, it’s the same thing. So, we were disappointed in ourselves for doing the same thing and not being bad audiences to the other group. However, there were differences and I think that as a whole, we did good.

Then, we watched 7 boards and I was really fascinated with this play as it is so physical and abstract. There were absolutely no words uttered and a different style of theatre that I was used to.

Overall, this workshop was a useful one in helping me and most of the J1s to be exposed to the different aspect of theatre and extend our repertoire of knowledge. Thumbs up and hoping for another one like this!

afiqah