Robots of Death

I have jumped into directing the play 'Robots of Death' last minute for the Las O Gowrie pub/theatre Manchester. It's a little bit scary, but the cast are amazing I have faith they will be great. Will post in more detail very soon.

Swansong music video, Silhouette

This week has been great. Highlight so far has been Monday's shoot for Red Players (Lee Battle and Jay Place). We had loads of fun shooting the Swansong music video Silhouette by the very talented Ben Pearson. Was great going mad running around Hulme Hippodrome and playing with two amazing actors Nicky Bell and Sean Ward.


 Nicky and Sean were amazing at just going for it, found myself being picked up and dragged all over the theatre, luckily the guys were strong and were great at not dropping me on my head!




Wish I could play acting roles like this for such great directors every day, can't wait to see the end product.

21st 22nd of February 2012

Tanushka Marah

Accessing Tagedy - in chorus and solo work

'Marah is a powerhouse of emotions' The Stage.

I concur to this, after two days workshop with Marah I'm feeling invigorated to begin work on a performance piece I've been raring to bring to life for several years now!

The workshop took place in a lovely studio, a top floor of an old mill, now empty, two long walls of windows made the space light and open.

As a group of 7 performers from different backgrounds, we worked together exceptionally well as a group. Marah commented several times how well we worked in complicite exercises, joking she has seen companies who had worked together for several weeks not as in tune as we were with one another. We were led through warm up exercises in devising ensemble work and per formative exercises and several Butoh training techniques, very intense and emotionally evocative work.

Below are my notes from the two days.

Circle intro of people, why they were attracted to workshop on tragedy. Great mix of theatrical people.

Step into circle, making commitment to the day.

Standing in circle, breathing in waking up body, patting face, arms, body.

Breathing in, arms circle up, breathe out arms down. Repeated.

Walking space, clapping into dead space.

Touching hands of other actors, eye contact, playing passing one another, holding hands, holding hands and counter balance of weight and finally counter balance and launch to next partner. Playing with passing one another. Building up energy, using launch to get to next partner.

Finding partner, together, finding pattern of walking, breathing. Into single, into group. Group movement and breathing. Felt like Ailon improv. Stomping, dancing breathing, building and depleting in energy.

Body undulations, watching bug crawl across floor towards self, up feet, legs, knees, hips, chest and head follow back to centre of room. Extremely slow, gaining speed. As speed increases movement becomes smaller, we were internalising the energy of movement. Thinking of it as galaxy within stomach. Same on vertical axis, feet up and round, body swaying opposite direction. This energy in still body is something we aimed to keep as a constant force within ourselves.

Suzuki Techniques. “STAT” exercises. Sitting and stood, these were about timing and strength, using images of falling and drowning. Abcde... in 3 positions, crunches on floor, Stat, changing position “STAT” then sinking down. Exploring this ourselves. Sinking 10 to 0. 30 to 0. over a minute and half to music. This was a physical challenge, Marah made emphasis on relaxed hands as strained hands were very distracting and open necks this opened up the body dramatically.

Bang Bang, shoe on floor. To Nancy Sinatra's song of same title. Straight back. Where you come back up to is position you travel forward, or back.

Walking in two lines of four. Bending knees, presenting hand as core, foot to audience lift first, together walking across space, crossing, walking to opposite side, turning and crossing again, allll in time. Tanushka said possible for someone to walk down middle.

Bitter lemon, baby, cold water. Changing between in stat style to find best position. Some times swapping one to another, sometimes from one to neutral in countdowns of 10 to 0, 30 to 0. Then walking from back of room to audience playing with these, variation on timing. Moving back.

Choral type music, movments given narrative, became very emotive. Amazing performance.

Use partner exercises preparing for being led, string exercise, make contact with body part, pull imaginary string partner responds to this. Take in turns, led into a dance.

Butoh, red planet on head,

Planet of gas on head, swords broken glass beneath feet. Duty to be power between planets keeping them apart. Walking towards audience.

Second day the thousands and thousands of bugs eating away at skin. Begin in a tomb, the tomb is empty, all alone in there. See a Beatles scurry towards you, enters your ear, then the other ear, mouth, 6 Beatles enter mouth, more Beatles fall on head, devour the body. Your body falls to the floor, Beatles are eating away at the flesh, the bones, nothing is left. Nothing is left at all. The air is full of ash, where you lay is covered in a layer of ash, a year passes, a years worth of ash covers you, a decades worth of ash, a century. A red light shines on a part of your body, after centuries of oblivion you become conscious of the warmth, responding to it, gradually standing. A red ball of light balances on your head, move through the space, eyes open, ash underfoot, weight of the world pushing down,

Paint brush feet, flying, lotus, flying.

Improv moving towards audience.

Improvisation in space, using different movement scores we had worked on that day a free improvisation. Taking in turns to enter space when we felt the impulse to.

Second day began with mutuality exercises, bending partner over, I stood behind her, leg in a supporting position behind her. One hand placed on her hip other pushing shoulder to shoulder to create a pendulum swinging motion, encouraging them to totally relax their neck and back. After a few moments of allowing them to gain totally relaxed state, too their arm over my head, and led them into leaning on my back as I bent forward. Partner totally relaxing into this position.

Taking back to first step and repeating pendulum motion. This time sitting on partners supporting knee, spinning out dance type move I thought, breathing coming back. Then taking partners wrists, turning back to back, shelf but and lifting partner over. Relaxing over partners back.

Running in the space, touching partners, holding hands, exchange weight, propel one another through space. Finding shared breathing pattern in group. As group travelled space sharing stamping pattern and breathe, into circle. This developed into music, some keeping rhythm some adding melody, Denise taken into centre of circle improvisation got very free, Marah opening Denise up, encouraging her to hold notes longer than natural. Voices breaking in attacking.

Yoshi Oida inspired exercises, 'Jo hi Q.' Beginning of an action is Jo, the doing of the action is the hi and Q is a full stop on movement. We bagan moving in space, perhaps to touch an opposite wall. Begin 'Jo' the walking saying 'Hiiiii' and Q to punctuate finish. This led into group improvisation, interacting with items in room with one another. Led into Denise telling us a story and us watching.

Marah split us into two groups. Two leaders of Amazon tribes using Joh Hi Q to tell us their stories gain our support. Turned into musical piece. We complemented the other groups wailing with our rhythim Jo Hi Q's. Was qutie powerful.

Led into scene improvisation. Two chairs, table, coffee pot, mug and spoon. Performer one, would perform an action followed by Performer 2. This was performed in neutral quite strictly, making performer repeatedly enter space in a neutral state. We were then encouraged to play with rhythm and find an ending. Which was rather difficult to do!

Weapon to go kill. Metal bar on chair. We discovered its a natural stage placement to have negatice action lead to off stage left.

Voice work

Working through resonators in body.

Opening selves up

Belly – Zoo

Cor     Shaww

Heart  Gaa (mm-ah)

Hard Pallat   Fa Fa Fa

Cheeks        Da Da Da

Nose           Neeee

Cheeks        Dee Dee

Fod             Ooooooh

Sky             Frrrrrr

Zip Zap game but with Frrrrr point to sky and Ho from hips, hand on stomach pelvic thrust.

Ahhh sky

Ehh each other

ee ground

Ohhh horizon.

Attempting again, making choral not leaving gaps, when run out of breathe onto next note. Good for focusing a group listening to one another

“Ella a you” Greek sounds. We performed them to the Gods, Room and Ourselves. One participant brought into group performed it, playing with emphasis and rhythm, quite emotive performance.

Asking question to gods, no answer.

Speeches, our memorised scripts. We played with performing them in space, performing it to the gods, room and ourselves. As neutral as possible, minimum movement but a lot of emphasis where in performance space stood. Power of stage presence.

  

Just finished reading, lovely inspiring read, especially after work shopping with Tanushka Marah this week, very excited to start own project soon :)

Will be using tecniques and exercises from this me thinks... 

 

Just read over paper on Academi.edu, 'Creating Together: Defining approaches to collaboratively-generated devised work'. By Jason E. Weber. 

http://independent.academia.edu/JasonEWeber/Papers/450118/Creating_Together_Defining_Approaches_to_Collaboratively-Generated_Devised_Theatre

 Who claims there are three types of devising collobations. Collective,Guided and Specialised. Can see my upcoming project being a guided one, as it is me who has chosen the material we will be divising from, I hope for it to have collective qualities to it also, I feel this makes for best ensembles and creative work.

Chaotic Combinations, 18th - 19th February

 Entered as an actor again for Chaotic Combinations, this time a monologue competition!
I was paired with Mark Reid, an acquaintance from his Theatre Networking groups which he runs and other fringe projects around Manchester. This at first felt like a relief, working with some one I knew, till the realisation hit me, I knew this person and didn't want to let them down with the performance of their script, as I knew I'd be seeing them again soon.

The task of learning a monologue I have discovered, is more difficult than that of learning a duologue, with another actor there is someone to bounce off and structure is easier to remember. Thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and the rush of andrenaline from the nerves.
My friend Jesse won the competition with a very quirky monologue including 'Ikea-sexualists,' hope she does well in the finals.
I am somewhat tempted to enter as a writer next time...

The Perfect Nightmare

Production photo from yesterday's filming of 'The Perfect Nightmare'
Student film by a lovely group at Stockport College, was a pleasure working with them and acting with several other actors who I very much enjoyed meeting.

Weekend working with Nina Kane

This weekend I once again returned to exploring the play 'Cleansed' by Sarah Kane with the wonderful Nina Kane. Don't want to write too much on here because it's going towards her PhD research and I fear rules of blabbing academic stuff.
But was absolutely great! Saturday reacquainted self with script, characters, movement and working with Nina  and the Sunday created a full body mask, so intense and amazing, brilliant at allowing actor to be totally immersed in character, something I hope to explore in own work in near future!
I hope this is something that becomes more frequent in my acting career, making friends and returning to them every know and again to work and play. Speaking of which, Happy Storm Theatre got in touch, going to be  helping out at a workshop with them in a high school soon :)

Happy Storm Theatre, 'Crypt Project, New Depths'

Show was a sell out success with several 5 star reviews!

(link to their website)
http://www.happystormtheatre.co.uk/#/the-crypt-projectnew-depths/4558214596

Was great performing with such a nice company, being part of a calm and in depth rehearsal process. Met some great actors and production people, lovely professional company.

A site specific piece, exploring addiction and harmful behaviours caused by negative events throughout life, the audience were led around the space of the Quays Theatre, peering into the lives of four main characters, as myself and the other three supporting actors added further intrigue and atmosphere to the space.

My role was a purely physical one, lots of research and contemplation over self harm and reasons for self harm stemming from childhood was undergone during the rehearsal process, when it came to the performance I was encouraged to perform in the style of my strongest ability, my physicality. 'Anxiety' was the key word I used as stimulus for my movement, as I fidgeted and pushed against the tiny bathroom space I was trapped within. A space later occupied by the character I had taken inspiration from, hopefully my distressed movements had a lasting impression on the space and complimented the future scenes for the audience. 

Happy Storm Theatre

I've been offered a role as supporting actor in The Crypt project, a Happy Storm Theatre production to be performed at the Lowry Theatre.

Very excited, hopefully I'll be involved with the production side as well. Be further experience to help with future job applications in the arts.  The audition was lovely, led by the organisers of Happy Storm, they joined in themselves and created a great relaxed atmosphere that allowed us actors to perform at our best. Michelle Taylor who I acted with as a teenager at Kennedy's School of Performing arts also attended the audition, was great working with her again.

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!