Organic Theatre Day (2008)

Saturday 31st May 2008, Prompt Corner, 11am - 5pm

Introduction

Led by Carolina Giametta Cordes, director of GROW <ref>GROW website</ref> and senior trainer at Bigfoot <ref>Bigfoot Theatre Company website</ref>, SLT's Organic Theatre day showed how games and character exercises can be used to great effect when devising theatre. Originally conceived as a training day for the teachers of our Saturday classes for children and teenagers, the course was opened up to adult members too. The games and devised pieces are shown below for reference.

Games and Activities

In roughly chronological order as played on the day...

Yes, Let's!

The whole group walks around the room in neutral position. The aim should be to walk in different directions simultaneously (i.e. not in a circle). The facilitator begins by shouting an activity, for example "Let's all ride a rollercoaster!"; the group responds with a shout of "Yes, Let's!" and proceeds to act out the activity described. Anyone in the group can then shout out a new activity ("Let's all be rock stars!" - "Yes, let's!") and the game continues. If any individual is uncomfortable with a particular activity suggested, it is up to him/her to shout out a new thing for everyone to perform.

The objective of this exercise (beyond being an icebreaker) is to encourage enthusiasm for performing whatever is asked and to break down self-consciousness in performance.

Kabish-Kabash-Kaboom

The group is divided into two teams who stand at opposite sides of the room. A "safe line" is drawn in front of each team, behind which no team member can be captured by the opposing side. The aim of the game is to capture members of the opposing team and to avoid capture by them during several rounds of play. Before each round, the teams collectively decide between them which of the following characters to play:

• GIANT (raise arms and shout "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum!")
• WIZARD (extend right arm as if wielding magic wand and shout "Zap!")
• GNOME (go down onto haunches, squealing "Ninny-ninny-ninny!")

In a similar way to Scissors-Paper-Stone <ref>How to play Rock-Paper-Scissors on Wikipedia</ref>, each character can overpower one of the other two, but is in turn defeated by the other, thus:

• GIANT beats WIZARD
• WIZARD beats GNOME
• GNOME beats GIANT

At the facilitator's signal, the teams approach each other 3 steps at a time, reciting "Kabish-Kabash-Kaboom". When the teams meet in the centre, they simultaneously perform their character. The losing team must run back behind their safeline before they are captured by the victors, whose team they now join if caught. In the case of a stalemate, where both teams present the same character, they return behind their respective safe lines, wring their hands with the words "Mutter-mutter-mutter". The game ends when one team has captured all their opponents.

Key performance ideas here are cooperation as part of a team, observation, commitment and focus.

In Grandma's Footsteps

We played this classic playground game <ref>Grandmother's Footsteps on kefkefkef.com</ref> with a few twists:

• The Original version: One of the group is nominated "Grandma", who faces the back wall with a bunch of keys directly behind her. From the opposite end of the room, the rest of the group members approach Grandma to try to catch the keys. Whenever Grandma turns round to look at the group, everyone must freeze - if she sees anyone moving, they are sent to the back. The player who succeeds in grabbing the keys is the winner and becomes Grandma for the next game.
• Playing without Grandma: the game is repeated, but the group imaginges Grandma and decides collectively when she has turned round. Anyone who freezes too late must go to the back - honesty is important here. The focus remains the same, but the group becomes even more aware of the people around them.
• Observing the game - no Grandma and no keys: Half of the group sit at the Grandma end, while the others play the game as before - but with no Grandma and no keys. The observers should avoid being too near the place where the imaginary Grandma would stand. The focus remains the same, but the observers witness the concentration of the players as they attempt to outwit Grandma. As a further extension, the players were given free rein to do whatever they liked when reaching Grandma - join the audience, or even pull them into the game.

Aside from the competitiveness fostered by the game scenario, Grandma's Footsteps shows how a strongly focused group can be captivating and unnerving for an audience to watch. The undivided attention needed to play the game prevents players becoming self-conscious about their "performance", but at the same time creates a captivating scene. Many of us felt this had plenty of practical applications in performance - look out for it in upcoming shows!

The Name Game

The group forms a circle. The facilitator says his/her own name, making eye contact with a member of the group (Player A) and moves towards him/her. At this point, player A repeats the same process with another player (Player B), saying his/her own name and moving toward him/her. The process repeats with player C, etc, and once it has acquired a rhythm, the facilitator can begin a second round simultanously with the initial one, and a third and so on. The game is then repeated in several permutations:

• Player A makes eye contact, saying the name of the person s/he is moving towards (ie Player B's name) - the game continues as before.
• The game takes place in silence - each player must attract the attention and make eye contact with the person s/he is moving towards. When a large number of swapovers happens simultaneously, players inevitably encounter each other in the central area. We were asked to act out these encounters in different ways, layering them with different attitudes/emotions: shyness, politeness.
• Half the group plays the silent version while the other half observes. In this situation, the observers got to see the various means the players were using to attract attention silently - gestures, eye contact, body language.

Another exercise in self-awareness - and also of connecting with fellow players in a focused environment. The observation made it clear how this kind of game almost creates its own story, as relationships develop between players trying to attract each others' attention.

Tableaux

The facilitator shouts out the number of people required in each group and gives them 10 seconds to freeze in a tableau depicting a broad theme in a cohesive fashion. Each time this is repeated with a different number in each group (players must join with different people each time) to create a different tableau. Initially, this was done with the following scenarios:

• Treasure chest
• Fruit bowl
• Kitchen

The task then developed so that for each of the following scenarios, one team member stood apart from the initial tableau, then encountered it in situe, improvising a scene:

• Haunted House
• Princess's Palace

The final scenario was taken even further. In the same groups, we created a tableau showing the closing scene of Cinderella <ref>Online CBeebies audio version of the well-known fairy tale, Cinderella</ref>. At the facilitator's signal teams then improvise what happens next - does Cinderella live happily ever after? Or does the Prince get kidnapped by the ugly sisters? Or something else?

The emphasis here is on visualisation, thinking-on-your-feet and teamwork. When improvising a scene out of a frozen tableau, teams were expected to remain in character and to carry the plot forward collevtively to its logical (or otherwise!) conclusion.

Storytelling Arm-In-Arm

The group divides into pairs, linking arm in arm...

• Each player takes it in turn to narrate a story, sentence by sentence, which the pairs then act out (still with arms linked).
• The idea is for one individual not to try to dominate/lead the storytelling but to work together and take the narration wherever it goes.
• After 5 minutes or so, the facilitator give a 30 second warning. The pairs then have that time to bring their story to a satisfactory conclusion.

This is an exercise designed to encourage collaborative creativity. It works best when players do not "block" each other, by forcing the story to a premature conclusion, rather opening the story out at every turn to new possibilities

Funky Chicken

Starting with the right wrist/arm, group members (vigorously!) shake out each limb to the count of 16, shouting "One! Two! Three! Four! Five! ... Fifteen! Sixteen!", before moving on to the left wrist/arm, the right foot, then the left foot. The process is repeated to a count of eight, then 4, then 2, then 1, after which the group jump in the air shouting "Funky chicken!"

This is a great physical and vocal warm-up and icebreaker, at the start of a session or following a break

Laban Movement Exercises

These exercises use techniques pioneered by Rudolf Laban <ref>Biography of Rudolf Laban on the Laban website</ref>. This style of movement analysis <ref> Laban Movement Analysis on Wikipedia</ref> can be very useful in informing physical characterisations.

• Group members move around at random, at their own pace. The facilitator then asks everyone to change their style of walking as if they are very LIGHT. This isn't a reference to an actor's actual weight, more a state of mind which informs his/her movement.
• After moving round in this way for several minutes, the group returns to their normal pace. Then the facilitator instructs everyone to embody HEAVY. Again this is not meant to be a reference to an individual's weight - nor should it represent a temporary mental/physical state (eg tiredness).
• The process is repeated for FAST and SLOW, returning to own pace in between. It is important that the group members are aware of the differences between their natural pace and the different attributes they are asked to depict.
• The final stage of the exercise involves combining these styles, so: FAST and LIGHT; SLOW and HEAVY; FAST and HEAVY; SLOW and LIGHT. Group members should try to visualise characters for each of these combined styles? What type of person, for example, would move in a FAST and HEAVY way? Which of these combinations is closest to the way each individual naturally moves?

Leading By...

A very simple exercise - as during the Laban movement work, the group should move round the space. At the facilitator's instruction, group members should move around the space as if being led by one part of their body. How does this distortion affect the way individuals move around the space? This was repeated being led by the following:

• Chest
• Nose
• Stomach
• Chin
• Groin
• Knees
• Forehead
• Toes

Again, the analysis and observation of this provides a key to characterisation. Is someone who leads with their groin always sexually predatory? Does leading with the chin force an individual to look down his/her nose at everybody? By separating and exaggerating these body movements, we can isolate aspects of physicality which indicate more about the characters we are playing.

Have You Heard About George?

This game combines both the previous movement exercises with elements of scene-creation and improvisation. Three players stand on one side of the stage (at a bus stop); a fourth player, George is on the other side, off. In turn the 3 characters improvise a short scene, using this following formula:

• Player 1: "Have you heard about George? He's really fast and heavy" [Laban movement]
• Player 2: "Yes - he's always leading by his forehead!" [Leading by...]
• Player 3: "And he always talks as if he's got a peg on his nose!" [Way of talking]
• George then joins the conversation, having acquired all these characteristics, and the improvisation continues...

Scene Machines

The group split into two to create 'scene machines'. The idea is to create three phases of the same setting, by combining repeated actions. The first group had the task of creating 'The Tube' (i.e. London Underground):

• With everyone on the edges of the performance area, the facilitator explains that everyone is going to join the scene machine to show what it's like being on a tube platform. One by one the team members join the picture, adding a repeated action (together with appropriate noise) to create the whole image: frustrated commuters/surly announcers/pickpockets/newspaper-reading clockwatchers - anything. Once the whole picture is created, the action is allowed to loop round several times.
• This is repeated with the setting on a tube train, and a third time to demonstrate being at the ticket barriers.
• The three phases are named Scene 1 (On the platform), Scene 2 (In a tube train) and Scene 3 (At the ticket barriers) - the facilitator says which scene s/he wants to see and the group must snap into the relevant machine.
• The second group repeated this process to portray being on holiday, with the following scenes: On the beach; In the sea; At a beach bar.

Devising theatre

The final part of the Organic Theatre day was devoted to devising 4-minute pieces based on the classic narrative structure known as 'The Hero's Journey' <ref>Wikipedia article on the Hero's journey, also known as the Monomyth</ref>. This structure is universal, and is used as the basis for many myths, legends and fairy tales. It can be summarised as three acts:

• 1 - The mundane setting - where does it take place? when?; Introduction of main character, i.e. the Hero - what is special about him/her?; The problem - what is the Hero's reason for leaving the mundane setting?
• 2 - Venturing into a new world - where is it? Which new characters does the Hero encounter?; An extraordinary sequence of events, with obstacles to be overcome - are these environmental? physical? psychological?; The Hero meets "helpers" whose advice may or may not end prove to be useful in encountering a Final obstacle (often this is seemingly life-threatening or unsurmountable)
• 3 - The Hero fulfils the task; S/he re-enters the original mundane setting, having changed it forever.

In groups of 5-6, the facilitator asked us to take inspiration from an existing story which already uses this plot (e.g. any number of fairy tales or even films such as Pretty Woman <ref>Pretty Woman on the internet movie database</ref>). The groups then had 15 minutes to improvise scenes before performing them to the others at the end of the session.

Gallery

Pictures to go here...

References

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