I'm going to go forward with what happened the first day. Since we won't have any sessions with students until monday, I'll backtrack in the next few blogs and give some background on how to create a theatre ensemble at your school....including some resources for how to create devised theatre. But let's go on with the first day. The first question I had to decide is how much information to give the students about the Hagia Sophia. I've been immersed in readings (I list the books I have read and am reading: they are great). I could have delivered a two hour lecture on the history of the building, but after consulting with my good friend Amy Sass, who is a theatre director with a local Bay Area theatre group that creates original work, I decided it was best to enter with a simple question. A question that grew out of my thoughts regarding the Hagia Sophia.
But even before the question was posed, we had to create ensemble. These kids walk into the theatre room after a full day of school. They mostly just want to talk and eat...but instead as they walk in the instructions are simple: put your backpacks down and cover the space. Cover the space is the beginning of every session we have. In it participants simply move around the room, attempting to cover the entire floor space, always paying attention to where everyone else is at all times. At any time that I, the leader, call freeze, the students should be evenly distributed around the room--no unbalance (i.e. no clumps). It was as if the floor was being held up by a single post in the center. If too many students were on one side the floor would tilt. This activity teaches spatial awareness and allows students to move..crucial for any age group. Then I might call out--cover the space as two---in which case students instantly grab the hand of the person next to them...I observe and see if there are students who are taking risks and actually take the hand of someone they don't know, or if they, instead seek out their friends. If need be I gently work with the shy students, but usually it takes just a few minutes to overcome this since 8th graders that have worked this system before are quick to grab anyones hand; the experienced students teaching through example. Then I might call cover as a group of 3...cover alone....cover as a pair. In the space of 5 minutes not only is everyone warmed up, but they have gotten over their reluctance to touch someone they don't know and to just embrace the idea of ensemble. Building ensemble is part of our process everyday...
Then I introduced them to a technique called "Viewpoints". Viewpoints is a powerful actor training program introduced by Anne Bogart of the SITI company in New York City. It becomes our common vocabulary for training and devising work. If you want to know more I urge you to either google Viewpoints or find a training in your area, or get Anne's book. For purposes of this blog I'll simply tell what we did.
Everyone sits down in what we call the audience area (I have the luxury of teaching in an empty studio space, with enormous ceilings, that is about 30 feet by 20 feet) facing the area we call stage. I ask one person to go up and begin moving about the space--just paying attention to what they see and notice. Then another person moves up, and then another, and another until there are about 5-7. These participants continue moving (or not) but the key is to get them to notice and respond to each other. Not in a verbal or communicative way, as would be the case in an improv. activity, but rather as a dancer might interact with another stimulus. An example might be that if someone begins moving very fast, back and forth in a line, it will have some affect on the other participants. Maybe they will mimic to movements, or it might cause them to move slower, of to lie down...whatever. It isn't important what the response is but rather that there is a physical rather than an emotional response. Again, reading Anne's book will make this clear, or invite me to your school to do a workshop. My constant side coaching sounds something like this: "Notice what is happening...let it move you in geniune ways....listen...see...notice" We move through this quickly adding the language of viewpoints:
tempo (the speed in which you do a movement), and levels (are you lying down, sitting, standing, jumping) were the two viewpoints we worked with. I might call out some command like: "At any one moment two people have to be in the lowest level, but never more than two...if two are down and then one stands and begins walking, someone else must go down". All of this is a way to get the students to learn how to notice what is going on around them and react without thought, without speech. Then, and this is key, I would call freeze at any point that I saw something on stage that moved me in some way (usually it was a moment of drama, of conflict, or of comedy). And then I ask the audience questions like: "What do you see?" "What is this character thinking?" "Who is the main character?"
"What is this scene about?" Always accepting all responses. This is to be the building block of our devising process. Again, after the first year, there are always many returning students steeped in our training technique so by their example the new students quickly learn how to "play".
In this way 30 minutes passed quickly. Everyone worked and everyone was audience. There were about 35 students the first day, which means we will probably grow to 50. A big, but manageable number. Most were 7th and 8th graders but there were a few sixth graders that were recommended by their counselors feeling that a good drama experience might make a difference for these kids.
Now it was time to devise something...I try and have them create something each session and see where it goes. For this session I used a question that was related to the Hagia Sophia. I came through it via my friend Amy who asked me why I was so interested in creating a piece about this building. She reminded me that I could write my own play, or write a novel (I do have an idea for a young adult novel on this topic, more in another post), but if I wanted to devise a piece with my students I would have to allow them their discoveries. Given that, rather than say much I said something in my best storyteller mode: "Once upon a time there was a magnificent building, a building that many called a sacred place". I posed a series of questions around the concept of "sacredness". I asked them to think about what makes a place special or sacred? How do we show a place is sacred? How do we imbue something or someplace with the quality of sacredness? I asked them to think about it but not to talk. Then we used cover the space to break up into groups...."cover the space alone, cover it with two, with three, with four, with five." That's your group. Then the task: "Find a place: In your groups you have 10 minutes to create a movement sequence that shows that the space is sacred..your piece must have at least one moment of stillness that lasts 10 seconds and it must incorporate different levels throughout" (I find it is helpful and necessary to give elements for them to work with for two reasons: it provides structure and also teaches them the elements that I have learned are necessary for good theatre). And that's what they did. Then they each presented their pieces. I was stunned, really stunned at their magnificence. How well they worked together and how well they used their bodies. Some followed the instructions literally and made a spot in the room (for example the area by the curtains), whereas others took liberty and made an object sacred (the clock)...or a person....
After each presentation we talked about what we saw, never asking the performers to tell us their intention, rather focusing on what the audience noticed. and I wrote..here's some of the things that came out of this first session---
• Specialness/Sacred things cannot be touched in a normal way
• We ask things from that which we call special/sacred
• There is synchronized movement in sacred ceremonies
• There are offerings
• There are alters and dieties
• Death is sacred
• There are rules
• There are sacrifices
• People will fight over what they call sacred
• Truth is revealed
• People are searching for something
• Blind faith
• Possession
• We offer to the gods in the hope that they will fix our mistakes
• Gods can be bitter
• There is surrender.
• the objects that are sacred are metaphoric for other, deeper things: the clock is a metaphor for time itself.
Wow: This was an amazing list of thoughts and ideas to come out of 90 minutes of work. My next step might be to ask another question, or to work with some of the thoughts outlined above. I have 'till monday to decide. The next blog will give some resources for reading and thinking about devised theatre with youth. I am very excited about what will come next.
No comments:
Post a Comment