16TH JANUARY 2018
Many experimental theatre practitioners, such as Grotowski and Artaud believed that an actor had to be malleable and highly skilled in order to portray raw emotions on stage. This included having really skilled voices which could create a multitude of settings, sound effects and noises on stage in contrast to excessive elaborate set/staging. Therefore, as a class we began to explore using the voice, looking at how we could use it to create a force of power as an ensemble, which I found quite interesting. We began by creating vibrations by making strange and inordinate sounds and directing them into the wall, and then we created these strange sounds as a collective ensemble, adding in a gesture. We began to direct these to create ambitious tasks, such as breaking the lead that held the ceiling lights, and by toppling over a chair. Although this was somewhat bizarre and funny in hindsight, it was empowering as an ensemble when the power and force that we could create just with our voices and bodies was transpired.
Similarly, with a partner, we also used the idea of pushing the boundaries of possibility with our voices with one partner laying down in semi soupine and then using our imaginations we created the sounds that we think a baby would hear metaphorically when they first enter the world. This was challenging at first, but equally it showed that we shouldn't restrict our voices and with simultaneous use of our imagination, our voices are capable of portraying emotion and setting more evocatively than even set or props could.
We also did an improvisation exercise as a class where as groups we would be in a lift/bus stop and people with various archetypal qualities and characteristics would get on at various points. The most interesting group that I observed I would argue was the group portraying the 'Seven Deadly Sins' through specific characters, consisting of 'Pride', 'Greed', 'Lust', 'Envy', 'Gluttony', 'Wrath' and 'Sloth'. Not only did the intensity of these characteristics increase as the improvisation in the lift commenced, making the exercise more extreme and equally intense as an audience member, it was particularly relevant to Artaud, who wanted the contents of theatre to expose the suppressed nature of human kind, particularly exposing our base instincts and assets, which have been covered up by society. Exposing the Seven Deadly Sins could be argued to reduce us to base animalistic instinctual assets, and therefore as we began to explore Antonin Artaud as a practitioner later in the exercise, it was very interesting and practical in displaying his vision.
Similarly, with a partner, we also used the idea of pushing the boundaries of possibility with our voices with one partner laying down in semi soupine and then using our imaginations we created the sounds that we think a baby would hear metaphorically when they first enter the world. This was challenging at first, but equally it showed that we shouldn't restrict our voices and with simultaneous use of our imagination, our voices are capable of portraying emotion and setting more evocatively than even set or props could.
We also did an improvisation exercise as a class where as groups we would be in a lift/bus stop and people with various archetypal qualities and characteristics would get on at various points. The most interesting group that I observed I would argue was the group portraying the 'Seven Deadly Sins' through specific characters, consisting of 'Pride', 'Greed', 'Lust', 'Envy', 'Gluttony', 'Wrath' and 'Sloth'. Not only did the intensity of these characteristics increase as the improvisation in the lift commenced, making the exercise more extreme and equally intense as an audience member, it was particularly relevant to Artaud, who wanted the contents of theatre to expose the suppressed nature of human kind, particularly exposing our base instincts and assets, which have been covered up by society. Exposing the Seven Deadly Sins could be argued to reduce us to base animalistic instinctual assets, and therefore as we began to explore Antonin Artaud as a practitioner later in the exercise, it was very interesting and practical in displaying his vision.
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