Dance - Body over mind

The first step of this exercise was to find a space in the studio and stand with your eyes closed.  Then music was played, in this case it was very loud, and in your face, the objective of this exercise was to simply let your body free, and just move either to the music or to what it wanted to do in general. 

A few people, including myself at the start, found this exercise fairly tough.  I found that you think too much about your movements, and what they might look like from the outside, but because everyone’s eyes were closed, this exercise really taught me that you can just do what comes naturally to you and take a lot from it as stimulus for a performance.

I really liked this exercise. After the first few minutes I really began to understand the point of the exercise and become fully immersed in my bodies movements.  After a little while I found that I was sat down and swaying, as this is what my body was doing, not what i was thinking about, I made a mental note of this but didn’t think about it too much so as not to disrupt my performance.  When the music ended, we spoke about how long the exercise went on for.  As we were fully immersed in the exercise many people, got the time wrong, saying it was much too short or too long, it was actually 25 minutes, this was very odd as to me it seemed much shorter.

The exercise gave many people new ideas, about timing, and natural human movements, but to me it simply refined my acting ability further by putting restraint around what I was allowed to do.  I was not allowed to open my eyes, at the beginning this was very odd, but as the exercise progressed it almost built up a trust bond between cast members, as everyone had the same restraints, but soe people reacted differently than others.    

Masking

The First part of our workshop was our director explaining the basics of mask work to all the actors.  This taught me that working with a mask involves much more physicality than traditional, naturalistic acting, this is because the audience and other actors on stage cant respond to your facial expressions, as the mask is covering your face.  One of the main basic elements of mask work is to NEVER touch the mask as it breaks the experience.  We also discovered that when you use masks you cant turn side on to the audience, as they can then see where the mask ends on your face and this also breaks the experience.

Then the director did some mask work to show us how it was done. I learnt a few things through this.  I firstly saw that the director was using her long hair to cover up the edges of the mask, as I do not have long hair it gave me an idea that I could use a hood on a jacket to the same effect.  Then we learnt that the most important part of mask work was ‘clocking the audience’ this meant, showing the audience that you realised they were there.

The other exercises that we performed in this lesson refined our ability to use masks in our performances, and testing masks ourselves let us find our own way of making mask work have the greatest effect on the audience, I discovered that the closer you can get to the audience and the stranger the physicality you can perform is the more effective mask work can be.

Towards the end of the class I began to wonder why mask work had actually been necessary.  Out of the lesson I researched why mask work was relevant to Artaud.

"The primary tool we will use to help us enter fully and truthfully into imaginary circumstances is via extensive “neutral mask” work. The Neutral, or Universal, mask was originally developed by mask and clown teacher, Jacques LeCoq, as a learning tool for actors - to help them develop emotional honesty and economy of movement, and to give them an inner core that is balanced, centered, and fully present. The mask itself is a simple, lightweight, unremarkable looking white or clay colored mask held comfortably to the face with a string or elastic."
---http://actingstudionotes.blogspot.co.uk/p/neutral-mask.html

Artaud wanted full emotional honesty from his actors and so mask work would help him achieve this, also the lack of emotion on the face of his actors would have added fear to his audience, which is something that he strove for.  To me, this quote explains that for an actor to be able to perform as any character, it is important that they let the emotions come out physically rather than thinking too much, I feel that masking refined my ability to do this, as it makes your body react instinctually to circumstances.  I believe it is interesting that one small piece of equipment can be so useful to an actors arsenal. 

Evaluation

I really liked our final performance; I found it was the best that the ensemble had performed as a whole.  I thought that it really summed up all the effort that every individual actor had put into the rehearsal period.

Our final performance was good for many reasons, one of which being the energy that both the actors and audience gave the piece.  The actors hard work throughout the term was shown in a thoroughly well structured performance.  The breaking of the fourth wall in our piece meant that the audience played a big role in the success of the play as well, the audience on the night couldn’t have responded in a better manner, they really got stuck in and were always ready to be involved in the performance

I believe that the lighting and other electrical appliances were very successful in giving our piece a dark, destructive mood.  The actor’s use of torchlight was excellent, as it gave an uneasy feel because the audience were never quite sure where the light was coming from.  The large projected screen behind the actors gave a modern, and claustrophobic feel which also added to the uneasy nature of our play.

I was absent for two major rehearsals, and despite my full commitment to try and catch up on what I had missed, I felt it did, to a certain extent stunt my understanding of some of the aspects of the play, however I attempted portray this lack of understanding to the audience, this is because I thought nothing can make an audience member more uneasy than if they think the actors don’t know what is occurring on stage.  This could have come across as clumsy, but I believe I managed to use it successfully.  

My group’s scene went pretty well.  Right up until the final performance we were tweaking aspects to fulfil our own success criteria, which involved making the audience feel as out of pace as possible.

I believe the energy in the piece was the most vital part, as it was something that could have made the piece look un-rehearsed, but I think that both the actors and audience gave the performance the much needed energy, to help pull it off as the best performance that we did on the day.  The final rehearsal lacked energy, as the audience were our fellow students, and this brought down the success of the performance, however in the performance that mattered, we thoroughly succeeded.

My personal weaknesses came in my understanding of the piece itself, mainly because of my absence to some rehearsals; this did effect my final performance as I was unsure of my character, and the decisions that they would make, also my job that was decided late on was that I would seat the audience as if they were in a club ‘The Nerve Meter’ the only thing I found difficult in this part was deciding how to treat the audience members, whether I should carry on with the theme of the dark, nightmarish club, or if I should seat them sophisticatedly, I decided that a range between the two could be more effective that either, because it could give a schizophrenic and again uneasy feel.

I really enjoyed the Experimental theatre.  The most important thing I learnt is that theatre is not always about performing a long story of someone’s life, but it can be as strange as creating an atmosphere surrounding the actors and audience.  This term really let me break free from the metaphorical chains of naturalistic theatre, and helped expand by knowledge about more aspects of theatre.

Exercise 2: The Grid

This exercise involved imagining the floor was made up of a grid. Every actor also had to think of something they desired the most in the world this would be at the end of our own personal journey. To arrive at this destination, each actor must create his personal journey; you could only take paths that were in your imaginary grid.  As it was a grid, each actor could only turn at 90° angles, it required lots of concentration, as you had to show your desire to arrive at this destination through your movements, but avoid other actors that were performing the same exercise in the space around you.  This became increasingly more difficult as the director in control of the exercise, told us to walk faster and show our desire to arrive at this place.  

It gave a brilliant insight into stage acting and being able to understand the space around you while still performing, this would be useful in any kind of stage production, as you will need to know where your fellow actors are onstage without having to properly look, which would take away from the emotion of the piece.

Although it was an interesting exercise, I didn't find that it helped my understanding of experimental theatre, or even developed my experimental acting ability, as I found it wasn't very emotive, and in my opinion one on the main aspects of experimental theatre is that it makes people feel something, and as this exercise didn't lead on to anything, to me it was not useful, and is not an exercise I will use in the future.   

Exercise 1: Impossible Task

This exercise consisted of every actor being given a small sheet of paper, written on it was a task, that was thought impossible by the writer.  We then had to perform these tasks to the best of our ability.  Examples of these tasks were ‘open the window with your mind’ or mine ‘walk on the ceiling’ (there were many more).  The director helped to keep all the actors working to their absolute capacity, by simply saying motivational things like ‘Work harder.’ Obviously the harder you work to complete the tasks the more tired you become.  Artaud believed that acting wasn’t an easy job that just anyone could do, you had to train your body and mind to be able to become a truly great actor.  The harder you tried to complete this un-winnable task the more awkward you feel and fatigued you get.  This helps an aspiring actor to understand what Artaud meant by “acting is not to entertain, nor instruct, but to affect.”  If you are truly trying to get this task completed then the audience will feel emotion for you, and feel tired when watching you perform drastic movements to get your task done. 

In my opinion the impossible task exercise could also be seen as being similar to a Grotowski exercise.  This is because from trying really hard to complete these un-winnable tasks you get more and more fatigued.  Grotowski believed that when you were tired emotions lay closer to the surface of an actors arsenal, and they were much more pure, therefore they could be accessed more easily.  This exercise helped us get to that stage of exhaustion.

About Antonin Artaud

Born - 4 September 1896

Marseille, France

Died - 4 March 1948

Paris, France

Artaud’s mother had nine children, however only he and one sister survived childhood.

When Artaud was only four years old, he was diagnosed with a severe case of meningitis; this gave him a nervous temperament during his adolescent years. He also suffered from neuralgia and he was treated using opium, which eventually resulted in a lifelong addiction.

Some Artaud Quotes

“There is in every madman a misunderstood genius whose idea, shining in his head, frightened people, and for whom delirium was the only solution to the strangulation that life had prepared for him.”

“All true language is incomprehensible, like the chatter of a beggar's teeth.”

“It is not opium which makes me work but its absence, and in order for me to feel its absence it must from time to time be present.” 

The last quote reveals a lot about his personal life, it lets people know that he was addicted to opium.  They all show him as being fairly intellectual and to me the show a very dark metaphorical side to him, which tells me that experimental theatre could be all about metaphor as well, this will help inform my decisions about the final performance later in the term. 

Emotion Line

This was an experiment in portraying the varying intensity of emotions and how to increase or decrease that intensity. For this exercise a group of six actors were arranged in a line facing the audience and were each number in sequence from 1 to 6. Starting at actor No.1, they were then each given a second number from 7 to 12.

They were then given a particular emotion to respond to (love, anger, etc.,) and their number indicated the level of intensity that they must attempt to portray.  Moving along the line, the actors had to portray the same emotion with two different levels of intensity.

This exercise was to explore some of Artaud’s ideas expressed in his ‘Theatre of Cruelty.’  When Artaud talks of cruelty, he does not mean it in a violent or physically harmful way but it is the idea that showing the audience a ‘truth’ that they might not want to see is cruel and could be emotionally painful.

“Artaud sought to remove aesthetic distance, bringing the audience into direct contact with the dangers of life. By turning theatre into a place where the spectator is exposed rather than protected, Artaud was committing an act of cruelty upon them.”

– Lee Jamieson, Antonin Artaud: From Theory to Practice, Greenwich Exchange, 2007, p.23

No Language Argument

We were instructed to perform an ‘argument’ without using any recognisable words or language.  We had to convey all the complex emotions involved when arguing but with only sounds, grunts and moans.  This exercise helped us to understand how simple, physical actions and sounds can carry so much meaning without the need for dialogue.

This exercise was then developed further by allowing the performers to choose a single word to use in their argument, instead of just sounds.  Some of the words people chose for their arguments were abusive and insulting (fuck, cunt, etc.,) but I think the performers who chose basic words, and kept their conflicts simple, were more effective.  If the word is less specific, you can give the impression of a wider range of issues being discussed.

Slow Motion Tennis

We were divided into pairs and instructed to play our partners in a game of tennis.  This was to be a purely physical, non-verbal exercise and must be carried out in slow motion.  There were no racquets, no balls, no court so we had to create an imaginary space in which to play our game.  We were encouraged to keep up our concentration in the game and to become completely involved physically in maintaining the flow of the game backwards and forwards.  This exercise was continued until we had to call on our reserves of stamina to keep up the task and still appear alert and committed.  This was to illustrate the method that Artaud would have used with his actors and the extreme discipline needed to continue a task beyond the stage that you feel you can’t go on.

Initial Ideas

I found Artaud’s ‘The Nerve Meter’ to be a very confusing and dark piece of literature, on the first account of reading it I did not know much about Antonin Artaud’s life, I thought it could be Artaud having some sort of mental breakdown, and he is explaining to the reader, through powerful language devices.  What he feels and thinks during this moment.  A word that seems to be repeated is “abyss.”  From this I derived the idea that perhaps he is not having a breakdown, but a realisation of his insignificance to the universe.  I thought this idea had some substance to it so I began looking closely at some lines that I thought proved this, “This crust of words” this almost sounds like he is speaking about all the different things that humans create to make life make more sense, and in this moment Artaud is realising the true unimportance of human life.

Shortly after my first reading I researched a bit more about Artaud, and discovered that he was an opium addict.  I quickly realised that this dark piece of work could have been written on the come down of this drug, as it would have most likely made him view the world in a more negative way.  I knew that this poem would be great fun to work on, especially if we were being given the ability to break free from naturalism, and let a lot more of the stranger side of acting out.

Although I still wasn't sure quite how we would create and perform our piece. 

The poem itself

The Nerve Meter

An actor is seen as if through crystals.

Inspiration in stages.

One musn’t let in too much literature.

I have aspired no further than the clockwork of the soul, I have transcribed only the pain of an abortive adjustment.

I am a total abyss. Those who believed me capable of a whole pain, a beautiful pain, a dense and fleshy anguish, an anguish which is a mixture of objects, an effervescent grinding of forces rather than a suspended point

—and yet with restless, uprooting impulses which come from the confrontation of my forces with these abysses of offered finality

(from the confrontation of forces of powerful size),

and there is nothing left but the voluminous abysses, the immobility, the cold—

in short, those who attributed to me more life, who thought me at an earlier stage in the fall of the self, who believed me immersed in a tormented noise, in a violent darkness with which I struggled

—are lost in the shadows of man.

In sleep, nerves tensed the whole length of my legs.

Sleep came from a shifting of belief, the pressure eased, absurdity stepped on my toes.

It must be understood that all of intelligence is only a vast contingency, and that one can lose it, not like a lunatic who is dead, but like a living person who is in life and who feels working on himself its attraction and its inspiration (of intelligence, not of life).

The titillations of intelligence and this sudden reversal of contending parties.

Words halfway to intelligence.

This possibility of thinking in reverse and of suddenly reviling one’s thought.

This dialogue in thought.

The ingestion, the breaking off of everything.

And all at once this trickle of water on a volcano, the thin, slow falling of the mind.

To find oneself again in a state of extreme shock, clarified by unreality, with, in a corner of oneself, some fragments of the real world.

To think without the slightest breaking off, without pitfalls in my thought, without one of those sudden disappearances to which my marrow is accustomed as a transmitter of currents.

My marrow is sometimes amused by these games, sometimes takes pleasure in these games, takes pleasure in these furtive abductions over which the sense of my thought presides.

At times all I would need is a single word, a simple little word of no importance, to be great, to speak in the voice of the prophets: a word of witness, a precise word, a subtle word, a word well steeped in my marrow, gone out of me, which would stand at the outer limit of my being,

and which, for everyone else, would be nothing.

I am the witness, I am the only witness of myself. This crust of words, these imperceptible whispered transformations of my thought, of that small part of my thought which I claim has already been formulated, and which miscarries,

I am the only person who can measure its extent.