Group trust and the art of improvisation
Theater Workshop
Duration: 1hour.
Oana Rotariu Dance, Theater and Professional Practice
Everyday life is based on human behavior, interacting with people around and exploring different situations of space, time and character, regular actions that may be developed into different directions, as main aims for an interesting theater workshop.
My workshop is the process of allowing everyone to release all tensions in the body, to be natural and neutral, and also offer the chance of developing the pattern of being aware of people around, and feeling comfortable with coming in contact with them.
The first part of my workshop is the introductory warm-up, which will run for approximately 15 minutes and will prepare the students to be able to move easily, bringing the focus on their own bodies and open up the sense of the group. The leader ask the students to take a walk around the studio, in different directions, trying to make eye-to-eye contact with as many people as possible and then give them also a small smile.
The game called “Fruit Bowl” (five minutes) is designed to make the student be present and give full attention to someone else. The leader asks the students to make a circle and one student stays in the middle. Every player receive the name of a fruit, like: strawberry, banana, watermelon. The student in the middle calls out the name of a fruit and all players who are that fruit have to find a new gap across the circle, including the student who is in the middle of the circle. Someone will not succeed to find another place and this person calls the next fruit. If he calls “Fruit Salad” everyone has to change their places. I find this game useful for concentration, because it involves watchfulness and also being awake, present and ready to move.
(‘House of Games’ by Chris Johnston,(1998) page 119)
The following exercise “Traffic Lights: Stop/ Look/ Go” (five minutes) will open the individual focus and concentration. The leader gives the students three clear instructions: number one is for freezing, number two is for changing the focus by turning just the head and number three means that students have to turn the head and allow the body to move off in that direction. After a few minutes the leader will notice that the students have the habit to anticipate the movement, before listening to the instructions, because they focus their attention on thinking rather than being present in their bodies and waiting for the signal. This exercise allows the students to concentrate inside themselves and also prepare them for being available and receptive to the rest of the games.
(’ Dramatic Events How to run a successful workshop’ by Richard Hahlo and Peter Reynolds, (2000) page 9)
The last game from the warm-up session is a massage experience that allows the students to release all tensions in their body, by softening the tissues, muscles and bones. Every individual needs to find a partner, who lies on the floor, with eyes closed, giving all body support to the ground. The other partner gently massage the tissues of the skull, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, pelvis, legs, finishing with a nice and slow rob down. After this moment, the students change roles and at the end of this exercise the leader asks the students to shake their whole body out, from head to toes.
Reference: This exercise was taken from our Movement Studies 1 class, leaded by Katye Coe, as a warm-up sequence.
The Main Exercises run for forty minutes and are designed to build up the group trust, as well as encouraging the relationship between individual and group.
“The blind car” (10 minutes)
The leader asks the players to divide into pairs and one of them will be the blind car, by closing his eyes. The other one, the driver will lead his “blind car” using a series of signals: touching the right shoulder means changing the direction to the right, a head touch means stop, and the couple have to find together a signal for walking backwards, like a hands clap, or a noise ('waw', 'hey', 'hop'). After five minutes, they switch roles. This exercise encourages students to be aware of the group and also be responsible of their partner's safety, an enjoyable way to build up partner and group trust. This game can be extended further by replacing the types of signal. The “car” can be driven just by small sounds, or by calling out the partner's name.
( 'House of Games', by Chris Johnston,(1998) pages 134-139)
“Complete the Image”
Duration: 10 minutes
The leader ask the students to sit in a big circle, someone comes in the middle of it and creates a shape, that can be abstract or representational. Any other player can come in and complete the picture with a different pose. The two bodies together will create an abstract image or a specific scene, and after one moment the first individual sits back in the circle and another one jump in the picture. As a variation, this game can be played with physical or eye-to-eye contact or using rules like using just gestures or being three-four players in the circle at the same time.
This exercise offer to students a great momentum, different possibilities of using the body in relationship with one or two other individuals and also create a “dialog” using just the body, gesture and the sense of partnership.
('House of Games' by Chris Johnston, (1998)pages 130-131)
The following exercise will run for ten minutes and the leader ask the student to divide in two groups: the players and the audience. The players make a semicircle facing the audience and when the music starts they have to come into space and do just normal actions, like: sitting, standing up, rolling or lying on the floor, having the sense of the group and establishing relations with the others. After five minutes, when the first group finishes the second one is asked to make a semicircle and to use the same idea, but this time, they have to come in contact with other individuals. The leader makes sure that the surfaces of contact are diversified and all students bring the focus into the group.
This game helps students to be comfortable with making contact and as a witness it is interesting to observe how people build up relationships without acting or miming something, just by being neutral, but aware of the sense of a group. This very simple way of contact is very useful in the release of psycho-physical tensions, as well as the use of a smooth music, that allows the individuals to get their minds free and to become more involved with this activity.
Reference: I played this game in Polly’s Hudson improvisation class.
As an extension of this game I chose a group improvisation, based on the art of improvisation, which develop student’s spontaneity and expand their imagination field.
Duration: 10 minutes
One individual starts to improvise a solo scene and after a few moments a second player enters and they create another scene together. More students can join the scene and they have to create something new every time they enter and they are also allowed to leave the scene. To test the players' memory, the leader can ask them to rebuild the previous scenes and even to develop them into different directions. This exercise offer the students a range of ideas that can be extended and it creates a certain complicity between the players while building the scenes.
( www.improvecyclopedia.org. - 2002-2011)
In the last five minutes of the workshop the leader asks the students to make a circle and to recapitulate all exercises from this session and to discuss the about aims and learning outcomes. Every individual have to say at least one thing that he/she takes from this theater class, that helps to improve the process of developing specific patterns. At some point, the leader has to give a general feedback to students and if there are some questions, or thoughts from students, he needs to clarify them using more explanations.
By the end of this workshop all students will be able to arrive easily in their bodies and to bring the focus quickly in the theater studio, leaving outside all other thoughts. One of the main aims of this session is building up trust, by working with different partners and teams and developing their self confidence. It is important for actors to release their body tension to be able to physically respond to the leader's signals and to open up their senses to understand that they can be individuals as well as being part of a group. The improvisation games help the players to develop their imagination, to build characters in relationship with other humans, by using the mixture between the neutral and creative sides.
All these games can be considered as a rich basis of the learning process and allow the students to explore themselves and their natural patterns.
Reference List
Dixon, Luke, (2003) Play Acting: a guide to theater workshops, London: Methuen;
Hahlo, R & Reynolds, P (2003) Dramatic Events: How to run a successful workshop, London: Faber & Faber;
Barker, C (1994) Theatre Games, Methuen Drama;
Boal, A (2003) Games for Actors and Non-Actors, London: Routledge;
Johnston, C (1998) House of Games, New York: Routledge;
Kempe A & Nicholson H (2007) Learning to Teach Drama, Continuum International Publishing Group;
Johnston C (2006), The Improvisation Game,London: Nick Hern Books.
www.improvencyclopedia.org - 2002-2011
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