The Way of The Idiot: Told By An Idiot Creative Professional Development

15th of December

Took part in a workshop at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre led by Told by an Idiot Associate Stephen Harper, Haper's recent work includes War Horse and Theatre of Blood with the National Theatre and a long list of other highly respected works and companies.

The workshop explored several of the facets of Told by an Idiot's work, focusing in particular on devising and the importance of spontaneity. Harper demonstrated how they achieved this state through warm up games, improvisations and development of specific comedic vocabulary.

We began after name introductions with a physical action, with a game of name tag, having to shout another players name before being tug. When a player was tug they joined the wall of shame. The leader acting as protagonist, giving and taking lives as they saw fit, or just to provoke reactions from players.

Then 1,2,3 game, in pairs alternatively counting to three. Then developing this by replacing numbers with actions, such as clapping, jumping, touching others forehead.

Good old, Grand Mother's Footsteps. Normal version, then including clothes, then with a partner.
Impros in pairs, A giving suggestions and B replying with "Yes", then "No" and then "Yes" meaning no, and no but meaning "Yes" this was then taken further by walking the room and experimenting by saying this words with alternative meanings to others in the room. We found the "No" with the hidden Yes to be especially flirty and fun.

We then attempted Complicite within this group of strangers. We began a walk together as a group, into a stop together. Then a walk into a run as a group, back to a walk and a stop. There was lots of fidgeting before the onset of the walk, but I was surprised at the level of awareness of the group, though not that calm we were very responsive to one another.

Then improvised scenes with a partner, A playing a Dog and B its Owner. Firstly the dog was a good and well behaved dog. We found these impros easy and light hearted, some resented how easy it was to play the well behaved animal. The dog then became easily distracted and we found these imrpos were more fun than the previous as the dog had more freedom and the owner found themselves following the dog's impulses, playfully responding to dog's suggestions. The dog then became stupid and lazy, owners found a fondness for their dogs, as they gave so much positive energy and enjoyed any response back from their pet. And lastly the dog became a wolf, so much more fun to play, the dog could now have an array of emotions, play coy, aggressive or compliant and the owner was now nervous. Harper explained by making one partner an animal it suddenly brings out alot more physicality from the actors.

Clapping Impro game, same as played with Pedra of SpyMonkey Theatre, an actor or group of actors leave the space to play the game, the actors still in the room decide on actions the others must perform when back in the space. The players return and stand facing their audience, the audience only communicate with the players by clapping, when they perform close to the decided actions they are encouraged with clapping, when the action is performed correctly the audience explode into applause. Its a great game for stripping actors of over acting tendancies, its amazing how as soon as the actor stands in the performance space they are open to their audience, making them extremely responsive. This has to be one of my favourite theatre games.

Harper then led the group in physically exploring Comic Vocab developed by Told by an Idiot. We walked the space and every time he called 'Suspension', we raised ourselves in the air as we walked for a beat, with an inward sigh, like an infatuated cartoon character. Then Fix Point, a sudden stop, legs became planted into the ground, strong stance. Comic Stop, which involved a jolt of the body, as though one had just scene something shocking. A double take, looking from point A to B, then back to A then suddenly looking back to B with the body reacting with a shudder of shock, the longer the glance back to A or lingering glance at B the greater the comic reaction. And finally The Slight, approaching a partner only to avoid last moment as you realise they are not the person you thought they were.

It was an enjoyable workshop, many exercises that I have participated in before, but it was good to play them in a different group with slight variations, keeps them alive and awareness during them at a heightened level. I'm alot more comfortable joining new groups now, several years ago I would have been terribly nervous before such a workshop. I think approaching workshops more calmly now allows me to be more open and receptive. Hope I attend further workshops at the Royal Exchange or even maybe perform there one day!