IB Theatre – The Lesson

Monday 28th September 09 -

First thing on a Monday morning and what a lesson it was! Straight away we were assigned a new task; to produce a piece in pairs using an extract from Eugène Ionesco’s ‘The Lesson’, could it be that difficult?

This for a change was a piece of theatre which I found easier to work with and produce than the last two performances. I find that once I have something to work with in the way of an understandable script its easier to visualise the scene that you wish to create, creating something from scratch is currently a weakness of mine.

Before we started performing the script we as a group made sure that we were familiar with the nine areas of the stage:

• Stage right, left and centre,
• Up stage right, left and centre
• Down stage right, left and centre

Once me and Georgia who I would be working with were familiar with these areas we were able to make a stage plan for our performance in our journals, as shown in the attached image. We then discussed who would be best allocated each role, the final decision being me as the professor and her as the pupil. Together we then made a start walking through the extract of the script, discussing ideas and make notes on our scripts, which I have also attached.

IB Theatre - Lecture 8

Friday 25th September 09 -

After the usual late start to our Friday afternoon session we were able to make 'finish touches' to our 'What is theatre' pieces. Or in other words, to our group that meant run it through. After we got off to a slow start on Thursday we hadnt really got up on our feet to practice our performances, and to make things worse Kitty was also ill today, an added bonus. This shrunk our group to just Me, Daisy and Jenny. We eventually came up with an idea of what theatre is to us, based on the feelings you have when on stage. The idea that you are completely transformed when performing, and how all the worries you have just evaporate, whether your watching or performing theatre.

Eyes closed, walk around - What a relaxing end to a Friday afternoon, tranquill music and a wonder around the space with our eyes shut. The group spread out accross the room and closed our eyes, we then moved around the room in any way we fancied but making sure our eyes were kept shut.
This was a very strange sensation at first, worrying about who and what you would bang into. After time you became very focused but at the same time relaxed, I was able to sense where other people were through sound rather than vision. From an audience point of view, Cara was the only one with her eyes open, and she would soley be watching and guiding us if we were going to bump into certain objects. She found that it was very interesting to watch as often at certain points in the music we would move in syncronisation unaware of eachothers movements.
I felt that this activity helped me to understand the effects of music on my feelings and movements, showing that sound can be a vital part of a production.

IB Theatre - What is theatre?

Thursday 24th September 09 -

Yes, I did forget to buy a ticket for DV8, that was clever forgetting about the first IB Theatre trip. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more...

Anyway, today we started in a rather unusual way, Journals out and a quick brainstorm of ideas based on:

• Theatre in the world
  
• Theatre in the making


• Theatre in performance

As you can see from my scribbled ideas of what exactly was meant by these terms, I clearly needed to reread that little IB Theatre Arts booklet that I was given at the start of term! After a discussion in more detail of these areas we were then set another very open task - What is theatre (what does it mean to you)? This was the performance we were to show in Fridays lesson. After a long period of time planning and brainstorming the difficult task myself, Jenny, Kitty and Daisy, by the end of todays lecture had a rough idea of how our performance would look tomorrow, but have not spent enough time rehearsing and will only get 20 minutes on friday... Fingers crossed...

IB Theatre - Not I Revealed

Monday 21st September 09 -

Not I Revealed - Our performances of Not I were completed today, we viewed each others performances and formed a group discussion on our opinions of our work. Everyone as I thought they would, had come up with completely different interpretations of Beckett's, what seemed random script. None of us even came close to the way in which Samuel Beckett originally staged and had the performance produced, which is shown in this YouTube video link (Not I Video). It shows the mouth of a female actress and the mouth alone, performing the entire script. I also am aware that a cloaked figure is also present on stage, who does nothing but point throughout the piece.
At first, the way this is produced appears plain and boring, but when the piece is studied I began to realise that actually it takes a very skilled actor or actress to perform such a piece. It is performed at a very fast pace without a break and the lips themselves become a character. If I learnt anything from studying the extract it was:

• That there often there can be no right or wrong answer in theatre, as everything can be interpreted in different ways.
• Never as an actor to underestimate the power of speech

IB Theatre - Not I

Friday 18th September 09 -

Last lecture on a Friday afternoon and we always find ourselves feeling shattered. Sadly I didn't dream that I was the only guy in our Theatre group, because now I AM! Jack my traitorous little friend had decided that the 150 hours of service required of us as part of the IB was too much for him (In other words he was too lazy ;) and had dropped out. This leaves me with me with seven girls. I'm not complaining, but the girly talk before lectures isn't exactly exciting. Well, at least that guarantees me the best male part ;)

DV8 Theatre Trip - Today we were informed of a theatre trip opportunity to see DV8 at Hall for Cornwall, Truro on Thursday 8th October. Tickets are limited as only a certain number could be purchased meaning there were less tickets than students, as it is also open to all performing arts groups including A and AS level students and they would go quickly at only £6.50 a ticket.

Not I - For the main part of the lecture we got into groups of 4 (Myself, Daisy and Alice) and were given an extract from Samuel Beckett's play - Not I. Cara instructed us that we could perform any section of it in anyway that we interpreted it. Yes, I know this does sound like an easy task but trust me it wasn't. As you can see from the attached image of the Not 1 script, it was difficult to interpret, but also could be interpreted in many different ways. I am sure that each group will come out with many different ideas.

IB Theatre - First group task

Thursday 17th September -

Today we produced our first piece of IB physical theatre, I'm begining to discover how different IB Theatre is to GCSE Drama; we are given so much more choice about what we produce, and how we go about it. So far its proving to be a lot to get my head around.

And all that Jazz - As usual we started with and intersting warm up activity, today this involved dancing around carelessly to jazz music in any way we liked and not to worry about anything or anyone else, just to let it out. After we became focused we then began to copy other dance moves that people were doing, as and when we fancied. It was an amusing activity but encouraged us to put our all into what we were doing, and not worry about what people thought.

Theres only three rules - You can only - 1. Lift your arms 2. Move your head to either side and 3. Cross your legs. And that was it... we had to create any piece of theatre incorporating just those three rules, and nothing else. My group consisted of Me, Jack and Alice (YES, I'M FINALLY LEARNING NAMES) and we came up with the idea of create some kind of restraunt themed idea in the 20 minutes that we were given.
After a few minutes brainstorming our ideas, we were up on our feet and rehearsing. we were free to interpret the rules however we wanted as long as we obided by them... we chose to use them in a comic way, basically using them to over react any movements we made.
We then watched each others performances and made comments on them, it was really good seeing that each group had created there very own individual pieces, with there own highlights.

IB Theatre lecture 3

Monday 14th September 09 -

Week 2 and trust was the focus for today, the aim was for us as a group to feel comfortable when working together and to feel that we could trust others in the group.

Colombian Hypnosis - To start with we paired in twos and took in turns following one another, one leading, one following. However, this wasn't just any normal game of follow the leader, we were following our partners hands. At first this was a very strange and amusing activity, the prospect of following each others palms around the space, but after time the group became focused and we used all sorts of different levels to add variety to our movements. I found that when following, you became solely focused on the hand you had to follow and became almost completely unaware of what was going on around me.
When Leading on the other hand ( see what I did there ;), you had to be constantly watching to make sure your partner was safe, while also thinking of creative new movements to use. I enjoyed leading as you had control over your partner as they did exactly what was asked of them but at the same time I found it difficult thinking up different moves to use when leading. I also enjoyed following as you were able yo become completely focused on your movements when following the hand and zone out from everything else!
In doing this activity we became aware of the fact that within theatre you must learn to be both a follower and a leader. I discovered that if there were too many leaders then there would be arguments, making it difficult to come to decisions, but if there are too many followers there would be no ideas and so the group wouldn't move forward.

The Trusty Circle - This is an activity which involves the group forming a circle, in which one person is placed in the middle. The person in the middle puts their hands on their shoulders and become completely relaxed and let themselves be moved freely around the circle by the group, keeping their legs straight. We would start with hands on the person in the centre moving them around and then eventually letting go and passing the person around the circle to each other.
This was a very good game as you had to just trust that you wouldn't fall over and just let your self be moved around by others; beings supported and supporting others a key skill within theatre.

IB Theatre lecture 2

Friday 11th September 09 -

Todays lecture was in complete contrast to the first, we spent most of the lesson up and on our feet, getting to know one another and building trust. We we did this through various activities:

• The Hair Rub Game (as I call it) - We all formed a circle, placing our hands on the shoulders of the person in front. We then were instructed to rub the hair of the person in order to identify them, with our eyes closed (which was followed by laugh and giggles). Eyes still closed we left the circle feeling rather vulnerable and walked around the room. Following Cara's call we then made are way to where we thought the Centre of the circle was, and attempted to reform the circle by feeling the heads of various group members until ours was identified (no doubt much to the irritance of the girls whos "hair might get messed up"). We then opened our eyes to find the circle as it was when we left it
  
• Dares - To start this activity Cara told us that whatever stupid things were carried out inside the walls of the theatre would stay there, and not to worry about what people would think and put our all into the task. We again were split into pairs A and B, on Cara's call one of the pair would have to dare the other and it must be the first thing that comes into their head. Within seconds the group was turned into Ballet dancing Opera singers or thumb sucking babies (A time at which anyone could have assumed us to be from some kind of mental asylum).
  
• Walk, run, start, stop - This was a game of teamwork and focus. The group spread out into various parts of the room. The task was for all of the group to walk around in silence, and coming to a stop in silence, before taking off again as and when it felt right to do so.
  

The lecture was very much based on a childhood theme where we were aloud to just mess around playing games like the 'Dares' which you do as a child and just having fun together, something which makes Theatre Arts different to other lectures.
This helped us to get to know eachother and be confident as we were all 'in it together' performing embarrassing tasks. A lesson which prepared us very well for working together and focusing on the productions that we would perform together in the future :)

IB Theatre lecture 1

Thursday 10th September 09 –
The first lesson of IB Theatre Arts, WOOOP-WOOP! I walk into the first lecture and find a group of only 8 people, me being one of two guys (whether this is to be a good or bad thing I have not yet discovered). The One hour and twenty minute session was spent getting to know the nature of the IB Theatre Arts course, and familiarising myself with the course structure. I also found out what is required of me as one of the 'higher level' students in the group (basically a few thousand words more when it comes to assignments), alongside getting to know the group that I would be working with over the next two years.

We spent the first part of the lesson virtually in silence as no one knew each other. To break this tension we played an ice breaking game which encouraged us to speak to each other, which I named-

• The 1 minute talk game - The group was split into pairs and each pair was given a letter, either 'A' or 'B'. Cara (Our lecturer) would then ask either A or B to speak about a given subject, 'Your best dream' for example. The chosen partner would then have to speak about that topic continually for one minute without stopping or pausing, after a minute the other partner would be given a new topic to give a speech on, and so on...
  

The activity was very useful as it made me feel comfortable when speaking to others in the group, which would make future lectures easier. After leaving the lecture I felt that I had known the group for a long time and am looking forward to the lessons ahead :)