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Seagull session 12
Seagull session 12
So this week's session began last night puppet style. In fact it finished puppet style too with the entire 3 hours filled with an exercise plus variations on a theme.
Act one..... The Schoolteacher grabs his counterpart and one becomes the puppet to the other. The Mover must move and physically 'manipulate' his Moved whilst explaining and describing in the third person what is being said.
Mover (Bailiff): Ben is asking why Eleanor is always in black.
Mover (Bailiff's daughter) : Eleanor is saying it's because she is unhappy.
And so it goes on.....
What became apparent rather quickly was how it was very easy to slip into the first person... referring to you or me or I. To detach oneself from the action and merely tell the story was the focus and once again it proved, certainly to the onlooker, how valuable the units were to each person. It was enormously impressive throughout the evening how little the unit crib sheets were used and everyone really seems to be marking out the detail of the story with their units.
It was fascinating to watch both the Movers and Moved and see who was more 'active'. What I mean is sometimes the Movers would talk to their own Moved, sometimes to their opposing Mover and sometimes to the other Moved. The actions and reactions from all involved proved amazing to watch - who was connecting to who and i look forward to reading what it felt like to be involved in that.
As the act developed it also became apparent how easy it was to use the phrase
"A is saying....." "B is saying....." and then came the genius ways around the banning of 'saying' . By the end of 4 acts, words such as saying, asking, telling were all banned and correct me if i am wrong but i think explains was on life support!
The transitive verbs we all learnt at drama school proved necessary and immediately everyone became more active and people were always doing something to the other person. Assuring, challenging, contradicting, begging.
So Act 2 began swapping round Movers and Moved. The Moved were the focus with the Movers or now Explainers sitting on the outside describing the story, what was going on from there. It was as if watching a play with the sound turned down. The hope was everyone would know their units and there would be a description of what was happening as it happened. In reality, there were moments where the Explainers were prompting the movement and indeed vice versa .... the people inside our silent play were aiding the Explainers too much and it had the potential to become melodramatic. However, speed of thought was needed to keep up with each other, once again highlighting the use of the units and thus the importance of the storytelling.
Act 3 continued in the same way, in the present continuous ... "Catherine is drinking...." for example and the explainers trying not to lead the action but comment on what we are watching. If the Movers are moving at a different speed from the explanation there were crossovers and people speaking at the same time. Act 3 for me really showed a shape as everyone began to feel confidant using transitive verbs and explaining what was happening. The energy of the act moved as a whole.
Act 4 reverted to puppetry once again as in act 1 and back to the present tense as opposed to the present continuous that had been used. The avoidance of words such as saying, telling and asking, explaining, stopped the Movers saying the text and kept them summarizing what was being said. The Movers had to be aware of where their Moved were looking continuously.... the scene at the end playing cards was truly wonderful to watch!
From this really great session it became obvious to me the use of transitive verbs and how easy they make a scene stay active for all involved. It is easy to watch, easy to listen to and simple to understand. What did you all think???!!!
On a personal note, i just wanted to say thanks again for letting me come in and watch you all work so generously. Fortunately/unfortunately i have just got a job and am off to Bulgaria for a month so will miss the showings. I am truly really gutted to miss this and the week of full rehearsals as i am learning so so much from you all but i know its gonna be great and i cant wait to read/hear all about it as i sit in a funny little room somewhere in eastern Europe!
Enjoy
x
So this week's session began last night puppet style. In fact it finished puppet style too with the entire 3 hours filled with an exercise plus variations on a theme.
Act one..... The Schoolteacher grabs his counterpart and one becomes the puppet to the other. The Mover must move and physically 'manipulate' his Moved whilst explaining and describing in the third person what is being said.
Mover (Bailiff): Ben is asking why Eleanor is always in black.
Mover (Bailiff's daughter) : Eleanor is saying it's because she is unhappy.
And so it goes on.....
What became apparent rather quickly was how it was very easy to slip into the first person... referring to you or me or I. To detach oneself from the action and merely tell the story was the focus and once again it proved, certainly to the onlooker, how valuable the units were to each person. It was enormously impressive throughout the evening how little the unit crib sheets were used and everyone really seems to be marking out the detail of the story with their units.
It was fascinating to watch both the Movers and Moved and see who was more 'active'. What I mean is sometimes the Movers would talk to their own Moved, sometimes to their opposing Mover and sometimes to the other Moved. The actions and reactions from all involved proved amazing to watch - who was connecting to who and i look forward to reading what it felt like to be involved in that.
As the act developed it also became apparent how easy it was to use the phrase
"A is saying....." "B is saying....." and then came the genius ways around the banning of 'saying' . By the end of 4 acts, words such as saying, asking, telling were all banned and correct me if i am wrong but i think explains was on life support!
The transitive verbs we all learnt at drama school proved necessary and immediately everyone became more active and people were always doing something to the other person. Assuring, challenging, contradicting, begging.
So Act 2 began swapping round Movers and Moved. The Moved were the focus with the Movers or now Explainers sitting on the outside describing the story, what was going on from there. It was as if watching a play with the sound turned down. The hope was everyone would know their units and there would be a description of what was happening as it happened. In reality, there were moments where the Explainers were prompting the movement and indeed vice versa .... the people inside our silent play were aiding the Explainers too much and it had the potential to become melodramatic. However, speed of thought was needed to keep up with each other, once again highlighting the use of the units and thus the importance of the storytelling.
Act 3 continued in the same way, in the present continuous ... "Catherine is drinking...." for example and the explainers trying not to lead the action but comment on what we are watching. If the Movers are moving at a different speed from the explanation there were crossovers and people speaking at the same time. Act 3 for me really showed a shape as everyone began to feel confidant using transitive verbs and explaining what was happening. The energy of the act moved as a whole.
Act 4 reverted to puppetry once again as in act 1 and back to the present tense as opposed to the present continuous that had been used. The avoidance of words such as saying, telling and asking, explaining, stopped the Movers saying the text and kept them summarizing what was being said. The Movers had to be aware of where their Moved were looking continuously.... the scene at the end playing cards was truly wonderful to watch!
From this really great session it became obvious to me the use of transitive verbs and how easy they make a scene stay active for all involved. It is easy to watch, easy to listen to and simple to understand. What did you all think???!!!
On a personal note, i just wanted to say thanks again for letting me come in and watch you all work so generously. Fortunately/unfortunately i have just got a job and am off to Bulgaria for a month so will miss the showings. I am truly really gutted to miss this and the week of full rehearsals as i am learning so so much from you all but i know its gonna be great and i cant wait to read/hear all about it as i sit in a funny little room somewhere in eastern Europe!
Enjoy
x
AlanMorrissey |
Latest page update: made by AlanMorrissey
, Mar 29 2009, 9:08 PM EDT
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nigelhastings | a custard pie in the kisser | 0 | Mar 27 2009, 5:55 AM EDT by nigelhastings | ||
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Thread started: Mar 27 2009, 5:55 AM EDT
Watch
Crikey, this is a hard one,perhaps even harder than the Hamlet project. And I don't think its just because I've been away for a while. Imagine working on the Hamlet project as learning to ride a bicycle. We tried to use the verse to steer ourselves through the story and attempted to play positive actions to drive it forward. And whenever we ignored either we would fall off. Now with the Seagull project it seems to me that we've no handlebars (verse) to cling on to and have ditched the front wheel and chassis (text). We're on a bloody unicycle. No wonder I was clowning around on Monday (and I wasn't the only one). And the prevalence of 'he says/she says' as we wobbled around trying to find our balance confirmed how anecdotal and indirect the original text can seem. So how to avoid a custard pie in the kisser? It wasn't all bad of course, there was evidence of some budding Chris Hoys/Victoria Pendletons, especially in the two handed scenes. But it seems to me that in the absence of both text and verse playing positive actions becomes even more imperative, especially in the ensemble scenes. As Louis often asserts playing actions is the way to control the material. Essentially, it is not enough to simply know what we should be saying; we have to investigate why, what we are trying to achieve by saying it. Which means we have to focus on our old friends the transitive verbs.
While puzzling about this on the way home on Monday I read an interview with British Lions coach Ian McGeechan. His selection policy for the victorious Lions tour of South Africa in 1997 struck a pertinent chord - 'I wanted decision makers, strong individuals who would be tough and uncompromising and never troubled by thoughts of failure. We had to have people who had no fear of trying things because if you never try you will never succeed'. Not a bad thought to take us into next week. |
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