It is only our third training and ensemble day and we are moving quickly. We are close to 50 kids now, and the new ones are integrated very easily into the process. It is clear to me that the creation of the ensemble process and training, which I started 5 years ago, has really taken hold. I've been teaching theatre at this school for 15 years, but never has a group mind taken over like it has this year. There are 25 8th graders, who were with the ensemble last year, and I watch them take the lead through example, in everything from our warm ups, to discussions. There really is a culture of ensemble that we have built here. And it is passed down from student to student. If nothing else, this makes the year already feel like a success.
Today I wanted to introduce another training technique: image work. Again we are working in the non verbal realm, which I find esssential for creating larger themed works. Too much talk early and we end up with a play about gossiping or bullying or teen suicide, topics, in my opinion, better served by after school tv specials. Image work and viewpoints allows the subconscious to rise to the surface, in ways which makes for much more interesting possibilities. The first step in image work (much of it taken from Augosto Boal and Michael Rohd) is complete the image. First step is to get all the participants to sit in a large circle. The middle of the circle is the play space. Two participants go in the middle and shake hands. I shout "freeze". I ask the spectators what they see: What is going on in this image. There are no wrong answers just interpretations. And many are brought out (old friends, meeting after a long absence, a shady dealing in a back alley, etc...were offered today). Then one of the frozen people is told to sit down and then someone else in the group comes up and creates a new image by placing themselves in a position in relation to the already frozen person. They can be touching, or they can be separate. Thus a new image is created; new relationships and new stories. and thus it continues. Someone comes up, taps one of the participants and then takes over. It's a constant creation of different images. There is even opportunity to teach ensemble technique in how students get to take over. With 50 students it is possible that chaos will rein, so teachers often call on raised hands. I prefer to demonstrate that one of the viewpoints we used is spatial awareness and we have to be aware of who is up, who isn't and non verbally respond to what is going on. I am always impressed by how well they share the space and the time. After everyone understood the basics, we broke into teams of two and spread out over the room. They start of frozen in a shaking hands position, one participant unfreezes, looks at their frozen partner, and takes a new position. This keeps repeating so it's a constant flow: both frozen; one unfreezes, looks adds back in; both frozen for two or three seconds; the other unfreezes and so on. It is all done in silence. Watching 25 pairs in silence was a performance piece in itself. We had a fire alarm during the beginning of this, so we went outside and did it on the basketball courts and other afterschool classes watched in awe at the silent movements. Our first performance..
After that (and we will return to image work each day, and you will see how important this early training is when we get to actual devising work) we went back to our ideas of sacredness. This time we broke into groups of 5 and everyone had to create a movement sequence out of the concept that was generated our first day: "People will fight for that which they call sacred." Again, the parameters were set. There had to be these elements: No Text, One moment of synchronistic or unified movement by everyone except one person, attention to level changes, and one change in tempo.
They had 10 minutes to prepare (again, new groups chosen via the cover the space modeled outlined earlier)...always working with different people is an essential element toward building and maintaining ensemble. Then we performed. Some discoveries the students made from this work.
• Ending is same as beginning
• There is covering up and taking over of sacred images by one group over another
• Level changes always seem to be down (falling) rather than up
• A sense of betrayal was common in most pieces
• It was never clear who was good and who was evil.
The last one really resonates for me. So nice to hear in a world that is often filled with the conception of right and wrong/good and evil/dichotomies. I look forward to diving into this in later sessions. This could never arise through just talk. It came from their bodies, their movements. I see a play emerging.
It is clear to me, after looking at their thoughts and what they are creating, that they intuitively understand some of the complex relationships that exist within the history and present of the Hagia Sophia, and that when we incorporate some of that reality into our work, it will be grounded in their own experiences. Glad to have a few days before our next session, to continue looking at images of the Hagia Sophia and reading resources, so I can formulate questions to provoke the ensemble even further. Next entry I will list some of the resources I am using.
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