The beginning of the lesson went really well. Being asked the question 'What is Theatre' and literally all of us having a different view on what it was, some with a strong backing point, others with a weaker one but each effective. My opinion was that Theatre would be built around emotion and that it was perhaps the catalyst of theatre as theatre relies on lies and tales and maybe happy endings. Theatre can also bring together a sense of chemistry between you and your co-worker(s) as I have experienced in the past.
Personally I think this experimental term will bring about loads of independence and also serious thought into what we have to bring to the table as this is the term where anything can happen in our pieces. I am looking forward to the tasks ahead and also the activities because this would help us gain control of our independence and also bring us closer as it's now Term 3 of our first year at The BRIT School and people will now start to tie in well together.
Sarah Kane's extract of '4.48 Psychosis' was really an emotional one, one that would really touch the hearts of many people in terms of sadness and desperation. At first when I looked at the lay out of this play I thought that she had put all of her ideas all over the place all over the page as in her life she had been through all of these things that can mess up the human mind. The extract itself was really deep, filled with pure emotion of sadness. There were also glimpses of hope but then it was all brought back down by this sense of nothing in life. For us to create a non-verbal piece of a part of this extract we felt it was right to use sign language and almost no body experience because this would almost match someone's life who is in silence and who is basically not them as a person but someone they shouldn't be.
Over the course of the day we had completed many activities and exercises in order to help us shape up how the term would be and what would be expected of us.
Our first exercise was 'Invisible Task'. In this task we were asked to note something done that we believed was impossible to do in the specific room we were in and when this was done we shared the papers around and each got a specific task to achieve. Mine, simply was to get a chair and balance the end on the trip of my nose. Little did I know, I'm no circus guy so I tried over 100 times a failed. The main thing we gained from doing this activity was that some tasks weren't impossible and we should always try to do something more than just give up.
The second was my least favourite but I quickly saw the meaning of this exercise. We were told to see what would we use more, mind or body and in this exercise it was much more mind over body because even though music was playing we were constantly aware of our surroundings and almost got into this rhythm of where to go next if someone was in our way of walking. This exercise was called 'Walk The Grid'.
'Slowmotion Tennis' exercise was the complete opposite in terms of energy in the room wise mainly because the Walk The Grid exercise needed you to be speed walking, almost jogging in a square whereas in this exercise you were partnered with someone and your objective was to hit the tennis ball but of course in slow motion. In my opinion this was the hardest exercise and the one that needed the most focus and commitment into what you were doing. Without that happening I felt that the movement would just crumble and almost become like a game instead of an exercise.
This next exercise I really found useful, especially helping me and I'm pretty sure everyone else how to gestures and facial expressions are as key as the dialogue in any sort of performance. 'No Language Argument' exercise was my favourite. Again in couples and having us argue at one another at something we disliked and not using words. At first it really seemed like we were just doing it for a joke around but then at class discussion I found out that it's actually probably the most useful exercise if you as an actor would want to use more gestures and facial expressions to express feelings instead of words.
To round the day off the final exercise was similar to the last but instead we were allowed to involve one word with the no language argument. In my opinion this made no difference except make it harder on where to time it and use it correctly. In my honest opinion all exercises we had done contributed to something we need in the future.
Lastly, I understood quite a lot about Antonin Artaud and his work in Theatre. I learnt that he has his own way of entertainment and his meaning on the word 'entertainment' is a lot different to other's.
He is a man of his words.
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