OhHowDoWeCountMuscleAches?

Physical Theatre Workshop Part ONE.

It was really a blast; an eye-opener; a seemingly unreasonable one too!
To start off the session, we were asked to “do a forward row and a cartwheel without stopping”. Okay. The first thought that came to mind for almost everyone was, “Oh no I can’t do it” or for me? “Oh no! I’ve not been doing this for the past godknowshowlong and I’m scared that I can’t do it!”

And so everyone did. Incredible yeah? Some better than the others; but we all completed the task. Well, he used that to illustrate his point to “just do it”. Never wait and ponder about how do we do the given task but just get straight to hands-on work and focus on perfecting it.

We went on to having an ice-breaker. Well, not really so. Just an exercise to help the instructor get to know us better. Through that, we also knew more about each other; why did we ended up in the same class together! Okay I shall skip this part.

He posed us some questions about theatre and physical theatre especially. Questions like:
• What’s the “Readiness of Mind”?
• What’s the difference between film acting and theatre acting?

That was to get us started in our journey onto Physical theatre. Well, no answers need to be given. Just think about it. =)

We came out with 5 initial rules to begin with:
• Silence;
• Punctuality;
• Respect;
• Listen;
• Honesty.

We went onto the task of feeling each others’ rhythm. That’s to start and stop with the leader without being late yet doing the same thing as he / she (in this case, the instructor) is doing. This one I must admit that I can’t follow… yet. Frankly speaking, I think everyone’s basing it on sight. Noticing the leaders’ actions then reacting to it. Right? So he gave us more tasks and that’s to make sure our footsteps doesn’t make a sound, and at the same time, ensure that the space is evenly distributed with people. Now that’s the tough one; multi-tasking and 100% alertness. xP

Tedious as it may be, we tried to catch each others’ tempo and work with spaces. The question that was ringing in my mind was “dang how long will this last.” I know I’ve drifted elsewhere. =x But basing on the previous lesson learnt about “just do it”, we all did.

Exercises!! The fun part!! Okay, I take back my words; the a little boring one.
We were each tasked to come out with 3 different static exercises that’d help us in different ways as an actor. And so we did. Most of us emphasized on stretching. The most common form of exercises picked was pumping and ma3bu4 (马步). I was expecting him to actually ask us individually about how our chosen “exercises” can help us in the little different ways as an actor. Oh my, that’s a little tough. But to my surprise, he didn’t. He merely took a look at it and see if it’s feasible (to hold in that position for as long as time can tell). According to him, movements and exercising is the same. There must be life in everything that we do and we must be able to sustain it no matter how long. We must encompass different movements into the exercises (or stretches) that we’ve chosen and present it so that others’ will see life. To him, self-belief is very important in this field. We believe in all that we can do; and we do it. So we were asked to present the 3 exercises individually. I believe he was accessing our skills so as to evaluate whether we’ve chosen the right exercises to do and all (whether we are able to sustain in that position for a long time). Or so I assume.

And then comes the confusing part. He’ve tasked us to come out with 3 static exercises when in the end, he’d asked for dynamic actions that’s filled with life. The first thing that came to my mind was, “Huh? How can static be dynamic and lively?” Then it all boils down to the idea of just doing it. And so I did. Guess what came after? Muscle cramps. xP

Still images were a must. We were split into two groups; A and B. We each give themes to work with for each other. They’re mostly impromptu. We were given an initial theme of having a “centre piece in a museum”.
The trick to this was to be the first; “The first person to take the first step gets the easiest job.” The main objective of this game was, I believe, to relate the poses that we gave to a certain theme. Most probably and to also test our skills on choosing a suitable pose to hold for a long period of time – say 10 mins?

All in all, I’ve enjoyed the first practical session with him!! =D
and If I’m not wrong, his (instructor) name is Julius. xP