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.