from word to action

Third Session. Monday Group. Stan.

Contact Improvisation to get us a little freer – hopefully. Then another look at ‘Count’, building on the work with last Wednesday’s group. We also have Joy from that group with us to feedback her comments.

Ashley and Peter volunteer to play the two speaking roles. We read the script twice – Ashley as the Stranger first time round and Peter the second. We decide to go with the second casting when we put it on its feet.

Once again we put the bodies in a row, though this time we spend a few minutes casting the children’s bodies with the smaller (female) group members. As before we cover the faces of ‘the dead’. And we have a foot wrapped in clothing.

On the first occasion Ashley as the elder is directed to lift shrouds as he and Peter walk down the line.

We watch.

Reactions to the performances are mainly positive. Students are beginning to see that there is ‘more to it’ than they would have imagined by just reading the text. That it is the ‘actions’ that give it life. And meaning.

The question is: what is the ‘meaning’? Or meanings?

We now change the actions slightly. Peter, as the Stranger, lifts the shrouds. On another occasion he guides the Elder by taking his arm to lead him gently from one body to the next.

We even have the text read from the side while Peter and Joy do the actions so that the actions can be seen more clearly.

We decide the Stranger’s more sympathetic than many had first imagined him. Sam in fact now admits that whereas before he couldn’t imagine ‘the character’ as sympathetic, he’s now going to have to eat his words.

This is good. In these early classes it’s important to establish for everyone that nothing is set in concrete. An ‘unsympathetic character’ can be made sympathetic. And vice versa.

Very often by the choice of a few actions. And just to reaffirm the point, we ask Tom to come up and be a cold Stranger. He’s coached to have less eye contact with the Elder as the Elder identifies the bodies. He’s coached to turn his body away from him and to move on to the next body while the Elder is still with the last one.

Tom also adds some details of his own in the way he writes the ‘Report’.
At about this moment Steve makes the little speech about Semiotics. Signs and how to read them (see the Monday Class last week). And about intentions.

Without a break we go straight into physical actions; putting on a coat, jumper or cardigan.

We have some nice examples. We do the breaking down of actions into sub-actions. We watch one or two of these. Toni counts under her breath. John out loud. These are in their tens and twenties.

We then do Obstacles. A volunteer is requested and Rebecca raises her hand. Once she’s been blindfolded, her cardigan is turned inside out and the sleeves are knotted. Then she’s asked to fulfil her objective. She does; not without some difficulty, at one point putting her cardigan on but realising that the belt is inside and that she’s actually got it inside out. She corrects the mistake and finally achieves her goal.

We talk about Tactics. The example of the Mountaineer.

Break

After the break we read through Max Stafford-Clark’s Letters to George (P. 66 – 71). Max is the Artistic Director of Out of Joint Theatre Company, based just round the corner from here.

Here's a link to their website

The students are also provided with a list of actioning verbs. We think briefly about some of the actioning verbs both The Elder and the Stranger might use with one another in ‘Count’.

Actioning verbs might also be thought of as A TACTIC.

Finally, to look at tactics we look at The Duck pond impro. Helen and Alf step up to play the father and the daughter.

It works well. Dan then comes in to play the pacifying brother.

Steve coaches from time to time from the touchline if he feels that one or other of the players is not fulfilling their objective fully.

Finally to say that none of these things is foolproof. But they are intended as an aid for the actor. Just as the system of Semiotics is an attempt to provide some grammar and vocabulary with which to look at the whole question of performance.