July 3rd 2008

Round One

Exploring Ways of rehearsing Ways of performing and not always knowing the difference.

These blogs/write ups are a reference to move us on. A footnote from the past. Nothing beats being there experiencing it first hand because that’s where the lessons are learnt in the doing. Also my descriptions of what actors did with the scenes is obviously coloured by what moved, amused and inspired me so if anyone thinks I missed the point entirely pipe up.

Alex led the Jam session and he wanted to focus on one scene to develop a method of rehearsal with the opportunities and obstructions of the performance space also somewhere in mind.

Susannah’s scene is essentially an encounter between two people who are related (not necessarily literally) and have a shared history, a secret from their childhood. Hopefully there is or will be a copy attached to this blog for reference.

The Session began sitting in a circle/oblong/shape - which later became the performance space - simply reading the scene a few times with different actors picking up as soon as the last reading was finished.

Alex then wanted to strip back all assumed knowledge and focus on the facts. We quickly established that all we knew for sure was that the scene gave us two people who knew each other and who would be the same age and sex as the actors who played them. Jacob pushed Alex even further on this suggesting that they could even be played as strangers.

Working with and against the text stretching it and ourselves. We defined the facts and were deliberately playing against any obvious presentation of the scene. Pairing back the scripts, peeling off the layers to see what’s underneath. If the scene is written well, particularly with Round One in mind, then it can withstand this kind of treatment.

• Amanda and Jacob played the scene as strangers playing against the scene's suggestion of shared history. The scene was funny, strange and at times ridiculous. It was interesting to watch not only as a challenge to the actors but also to those watching as it questioned what we actually know for certain about the scene. Perhaps the only certainty is the actors will be their own age and sex.

• During another interpretation of the scene Robin and Liz were joined a quarter way through the scene by Alex and then Emma, completely changing the story. These two new silent characters transformed the relationships and the space. To me it seemed the two protagonists now had lovers who were in the scene with them.

• There was an extra character in another interpretation of the scene as Jox and Tyne who began the scene were joined by Jacob. Jox and Tyne building on what had gone before used this new character more boldly. They not only acknowledged him but also actively involved him and he became a powerful presence at least as important a character as the two speaking roles. The scene was radically different again, disturbing, emotionally anguished and even violent as well as sexual, sinister and sensitive. They may have even been some ripped clothes. (Tyne’s jeans – unconfirmed). It was though two brothers and a sister were playing games of power and sex.

We then watched two actors making no bids on the text or claim to it’s meaning, if that sounds mad that’s because it was a bit.

• Alex and Nick played the scene with immediacy they moved through the scene without imposing at all and attempting to be completely present to whatever impulse they felt in the moment. Their bodies, voices and relationship to each other and the space changed constantly. It was one of the most interesting explorations of the scene because it raised so many questions. Emma said afterwards if was like watching Virtuoso Comedic Twins. They were constantly inventive and it was exciting to see their imaginations working at such a ferocious speed though we saw little of the scene that was written. Also at times it the scene lacked not only back-story but any sense of history within the scene. I think this reveals the danger of trying to be too present of running almost ahead of the moment as there’s no acknowledgement of what has just happened. However as with all the Factory work if the actors are open, honest and committed to the exploration, as Nick and Alex were, than our mistakes are as worthy as any success. Alex and Nick inspired and unlocked further explorations – “fail once, fail twice fail better” (Beckett) – besides nothing is definitive.

The characters history and our own. We looked at how a back-story affected the scene and experimented with shared detailed history as well as simple individual character history and secrets.

• Sarah and Gemma were given back-story by Emma. This was done secretly so the audience didn’t know their shared history. For some of the audience this scene was very powerful, charged with something unknown while others felt a sense of holding from the actors as they had to mentally reference the back-story they’d been given. In rehearsal a back-story can of course be absorbed over a greater length of time and perhaps might become more subconscious and we all acknowledged that every actor brings their own back-story to the stage since they are human, and since being alive we can’t avoid having one.

We had so many ideas for playing the scenes in rehearsal and performance by the end of the session that it was a struggle to decide how to draw the evening to a close.

• Alex set Eleanor and myself the final exploration of the scene and he secretly gave us a back-story/secret/or motivation without the audience or other each other’s knowledge. It provided another interesting scene this time closer to the text in some ways but not necessarily closer to all of the audience since for only the second time that evening the game that was being played wasn’t shared with them. On the other hand some people were excited by the scene precisely because of the unknown. It brought up questions of what we want and/or need the audience to know about Round One and added to the questions of how we play with what the actor knows before the scene in rehearsal and performance.

The Session was exhausting and exhilarating. It was fantastic to be part of such an intensely focused workshop, unravelling a scene, experimenting and attempting to solve things, and coming up with too many ideas for a single evening to hold. Building up some creative muscle through the exploration of possibility.

It was the sort of playing that fights the desire for something known. At times it seemed chaotic but through this sort of experimentation, and by exploring beyond set and assumed boundaries we find something new and unexpected. We are surprised both as audience and actors because we don’t know what will happen next.

Discussion after the scenes was important but it was the scenes themselves that provided us with the fuel for discussion. Sometimes we were all so full of thoughts the room was silent as we considered them and at others the room was noisy with many voiced and opposing ideas.

We wrestled.

Too conclude: Assume nothing.


In Round One:

What is the story?

How do we tell it?

What do the Audience need to know before hand?