Session 3: Performance and the Street

Movement exercises:

Bamboo sticks revisited: We used the Bamboo sticks we had used in Week 2 again for a different and more complicated task. This time instead of only balancing the stick between the fingers of ourselves and a partner, we did so using different parts of the body such as chest, arms and hips. It was very difficult to balance the stick between these parts of the body however it did make me think about how I moved with different body parts. When using my hips I had to focus on my walk. I had to walk slowly but a steady pace in order for my partner to keep up with me and not drop the stick. When using chests myself and my partner had to find a balance where we weren't putting too much pressure on the other person and we could keep up a steady pace of walking around. The most challenging for me was using our hips because if my partner was not exactly the same height as me I found that one of us was standing up too tall or bending down too low to balance the stick. It was interesting to explore levels and movement at the same time

Ball exercise: We were given a tennis ball and had to place it in between ourselves and a partner using a particular body part. At first my partner and I held the ball between both of our arms. We then explored how we could move around each others bodies without dropping the ball. We then experimented with different parts of the body such as our legs, backs and chests. I found the movements to be very smooth and dance-like. We moved in what seemed like a choreographed way, twisting and turning around each others bodies backwards and forwards, high and low. I didn't give much thought to my actual movements. I simply moved instinctively, going where was feasibly possible for us to keep the ball in between us. Each partner I worked with had a different rhythm and style of moving. I was quite easily able to pick this up from each person and react to it by moving my own body. It was very interesting to work with other peoples bodies as well as my own to create a simple but effective performance piece.

Examples of existing work:

Desperate men: The Severn Project

This was a large-scale performance which was inspired by it's local community. It explored and celebrated it's cultures through movement, story-telling and audience participation. The aim of this performance was to bring a community together and to create unity through performance. I think the idea of using politicial and cultural messages in a performance is something I would like to consider in my own work because we will be focusing on Stratford as a city and a community.

Royale de Luxe

This was another large-scale performance that used puppets. It also looked at bringing communities together and creating unity through cultural and political messages. It was an extremely successful performance and although there was no speech involved, the movement of the puppets was interesting and powerful enough to captivate a large audience.

Reading: Mason, B (1992) ‘Street Theatre and Other Outdoor Performance’, London:Routledge

This reading talks about the emergence of street theatre and outdoor performances over recent years. Over the last fifteen years it has become much more widely accepted and popular. The end of the 1970's saw many arrests and charges due to begging or obstruction. The opening of the Pompidou Centre in Paris was a milestone in the future of street theatre in that it was a space designed specifically for this type of entertainment. Since then, the attraction of making an ordinary place such as a shopping centre, become more lively and colourful has become much more sought after.

Mason talks about how the existing popularity of street theatre has come from a "need" and a "role that needed to be fulfilled in society". I believe it is neccesary and will grow to be much more successful in the future. One of the strengths of this type of performance is that actors do not have lighting or elaborate staging to create an atmosphere. It is their job to create an atmosphere alone as an actor, and engage the audience. There is also no limitation to what they do, as they are not being restricted to a stage. This often results in better interaction with the audience.

There is also usually cultural or political messages conveyed in street theatre, as they are performed in communities rather than theatres. It seems much more "real" than a staged performance in a theatre, and is often very relatable for the audience.

What I have learnt from this reading and this module so far is that performance doesn't always have to make sense to be accepted. It reminds me of the work I saw on the Severn project by desperate men which was performed outdoors in a local community. The video showed a large crowd of people interacting with a giant fish which was being used as a prop. Would this be logical in every day life? No. However, the audience accepted the performance and participated willingly, thus uniting a community.

Session 2: Performance and the body

In the first practical workshop of this module, we focused on performance and the body. Before beginning the main part of the session we did a few warm up exercises relating to movement and contemporary performance.

Leading by little fingers: One of the exercises we did involved one person closing their eyes, and the other person guiding them around the room by only their little finger. My partner did not clasp or hold my little finger but simply touched it. This felt very strange at first as I had no idea where in the room I was and was worried I would walk in to someone else. As I walked around like this for a little while it became almost relaxing. I began to trust my partner and simply let her walk me around the room as she pleased without worrying. When I opened my eyes I was in a completely different part of the room than I anticipated. It was interesting to see how a simple touch of a little finger could seem so intense when my eyes were closed. I realized that in terms of performance each little part of the body is very significant and we should pay more attention to this to create the best work.

Bamboo Sticks: Another exercise we did was the most challenging and interesting for me. We were given a bamboo stick and were asked to make eye contact with a partner before picking up the stick firstly with our finger. At first it was difficult to keep the stick in the air but when I got used to my partners movements and the rhythm of what we were doing, it became extremely natural and easy to do. We then added the element of battle where we were asked to try and make our partner drop the stick. When doing this I felt the movements became much more animalistic and almost dance-like. I noticed I was reacting to my partners movements without even giving it any thought. I simply moved in response to them, and vice versa. The moves also became much more imaginative and I explored different levels both high and low. There were a lot of twists and turns in our movement, and it became very interesting to watch. It felt more like a performance than a simple task.

Part 2: Other peoples work and practices

In the second part of the session we looked at some existing work relating to performance and the body. The work we looked at mainly involved using the body as a stage for a performance. The body was at the center of all the work we looked at and really was a creative outlet for the performances to come to life. One performance I found particularly interesting was "Long March" by Qin Ga. This performance showed a man named Qin Ga who tattooed on his back the journey of the chinese red army across 20 sites of the historic Long March. Qin Ga's body became more than just a body. It became a performance piece. It told a non verbal story and was actually regarded as an incredibly successful performance. This led me to question what actually constitutes as a performance. It doesn't always have to be a scripted play or a dance piece. It can be much more than that. Another piece of work I found fascinating was a performance called Pool (No water) by a physical theatre group called frantic assembly. In this performance they used an empty pool as their performance space and did various different movements to tell a story within this space. They were very imaginative in their movements and utilised the whole space. They would run up the walls of the pool, lay down inside it, and jump in and out of it. Each performers body was incredibly important in this performance and how they used their bodies to interact with the space really made the simple space of an empty pool in to an incredible piece of set rather than just a location.

Reading: Murray, s. and Keefe, J. (2007) Physical Theatres, A Critical Introducation, London: Routladge

This reading relates to the work we did in class this session on the body in that it talks about how as actors we can use physicality as well as dialogue to connect with audience on a deeper level.

Before a performance begins, we as the audience are able to make assumptions about it based on the mise-en-scene. Props, costume and lighting might give us visual clues about what to expect. Murray and Keefe talk about how theatre is "visual before it is oral" and this is an interesting point. The fact that even without dialogue the audience are able to gain some understanding of the performance, supports the class work we have done this session which was largely based on pure movement without dialogue. From a contemporary perspective we might assume that dialogue is never neccesarily needed in a performance, although it may be important.

The reading also talks about how specific actions that are presented on stage by actors are for the purpose of confronting "the everyday through specific practices removed from the habitual every day". In light of this comment we might consider the importance of our own every day routines. The steps we take to get ready in the morning. Murray and Keefe describe this as a type of Mimesis or imitation. The aim of this type of practice is usually to make the audience relate to what they see on a personal level. They may emphasise, recognise or indeed sympathise with the actions being performed. This relates to the idea of "suspension of disbelief" that is talked about in the reading. As audience members, we are required to believe the impossible is possible. We accept and believe everything the actor does and says, so that we can make sense of the story. This sometimes requires the audience to be active in thinking in terms of relating what they see to a specific emotion or memory they may have experienced.