Saturday 12 November 2016

Composure - Part III Session 10

July - November 2016

CHARACTER

Following on from an improvisation 3 sessions ago in which Rodney put a bag on his head and created a character, we decided to explore how to make characters -specifically through use of props/costume.

WARM UP
-vocals
-voice and movement
-movement and voice
-create a vocal duet

TASK
-choose a prop (there were about 30 props [mainly random household items])
-explore use of prop in as many ways OTHER than its intended/normal use
-settle on a way of using / wearing / interacting with the prop
-explore the character that emerged (who am I? how do I move? what can/do I do? what space am I in? why am I in this place?)
-if appropriate chose another prop; add to the character and re:explore new possibilities / options
-begin (slowly, in own time) to interact with the other characters (who are the other characters? what do I think about them? how do I interact with them? can I talk? -how?)
....
IMPROVISATION
-the above task led into a 45 minute improvisation, as the characters

How did we all approach developing and exploring our characters?
Omea: immediately used hand cream as microphone and became that type of chr -drew on current events eg Donald Trump campaign
Jaz: used props to hide -but it became difficult to move on from that idea
Ben: a blanket was difficult to abstract
Elle: easily/quickly came up with lots of different options with leather jacket
Omea: character became pedestrian HOW DO WE ABSTRACT A CHARACTER INTO MOVEMENT?? 
Reece: broke the prop; then became cautious and developed chr from there
Joanne: less movement based as the props were so specific (possibly restrictive)
Leah: entered a trance-like state within my character's relationship with another chr

-there were lots of great 'coincidences' : Jaz read a story which seemed to explain Ben and Elle's duet
-we used lights / lamps to shape the piece
-someone began to sing; we all began to sing this was a strong action to unite the group 

Perhaps next time, rather than do the task then merge in to the improvisation, we could explore/create/develop the characters, then stop, then start the improvisation. This w/could make the interactions more deliberate and the structure of the work more cohesive.



[Elle and Jas]


[Omea]


[Reece and Ben]


[Joanne and Leah]


[Rodney]


[Rodney]

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