Blog masterclassess may 2012
TUESDAY 15 MAY
GAME: Death by Palm.
1 hand on lower back. Together with whole Group trying to ‘tick’ the hands on the others’ back; palms are turned outwards.
When killed by palm stay on the side.
Last 2 remaining are the King & Queen. Finally Queen Anne-May ticked with great conviction Jurre to the eternal hunting fields.
SPEEDBOAT RYTHM - EXERCISE
(2x2 clapping on legs & 1x clap in hands)
RYTHM: (slow) Like – a – speed – boat
(fast) Love – a – speed – boat
Group divided in 2.
Group 1: keeping the same ‘slower’ rythm
Group 2: Principal changes between slower and faster rhythm, shouting out at that moment ‘Now’.
EXERCISES ENTONING (per single line entoned)
MAGIC: Ongoing tone (as in singing, primal feeling of magic).
This would be intercepted by ‘cutting’ the text into (for audience supposed understandable) pieces.
POETRY POWER: Intensity, ongoing
Paradox: Multi interpretable for audience (for each persons own interpretation OPEN).
EXERCISE INTERPRETER
Bart is interpreter.
Jo is expert, speaking foreign language (French)
Expert is telling the story while the interpreter ‘translates’. What the interpreter is telling mostly (all the time) had no connection to the subject; it is completely to decide by the interpreter.
TRANSLATION INTERPRETATION SCENE.
Players – 2 persons (doing scene) (Bart & Saskia)
Interpreters (Jet & Marit)
Playing act in the scene in foreign (or non existing) language. Interpreters translate it in English according to their impression or fantasy (intonation, intention).
INTERPRETERS (divided into groups)
Scene done with 2 players in Jibbrish, each having 1 interpreter
After that scene done with 2 players in Jibbrish WITHOUT interpreter.
Hamlet (and all theatre)
NO storytelling; you are IN the story experiencing it.
WRITING EXERCISE:
Tim told all to choose 2 lines (short sentences) from a scene and afterwards during 2 minutes writing all associations in your head during 3 minutes, while sitting facing your scene partner. For example one said “What do you read my Lord” and the other “Words, words, words”.
Exercise was to continuously keep writing. As soon as one person would stop writing the exercise would stop immediately by penalty.
Note: Tim said on purpose 3 minutes, but clocked 6. This anticipating to ideas like having still such a long time left or filling in the time.
LIKE
In scene AFTER every line: ….. ‘like’
(silent thought with arm gesture)
(hand open, arm stretched low forward, palm open)
Hand directed to a person in the circle, who says ‘yes’ if it connects (feeling).
LIKE2
Standing, speaking out loud (likes)
During home rehearsals to acceptance (by yourself)
Tension in your voice drops.
You can’t hear yourself, only headset with loud music.
1 person gives the timing (tone) with 1 hand (right to left). The person speaking (with text) uses it for entoning the line.
And SELL IT.
PERSONAL CONNECTION
Connection to: The play
Character
Situation
Surprised what you find in your own head.
It’s not that strange.
Give it the chance to surface and be surprised.
PERSONAL
LEAST personal: Intellectual knowledge (piece)
Sometime a few steps away.
PERSONAL: Close to yourself, for example family related or to
certain persons.
Sometimes also connection to or through art (music, film)
as connection to the personal (what does it do to you)
CREATIVITY
PASSIVE, let it happen to you.
Avoid ‘understanding’ (intellectual understanding).
Marijn: Had an image and showed it (like)
Bart: Direct like (what do you see?)
ORIGINAL VERSUS UNIQUE
Devil: Tempting to do it as it has never been done before.
The devil wishes you to forget YOU can be unique.
UNIQUE:
Speaking the words while they mean something to you.
FIFO
Scene Romeo & Julia, players Jurre and Anne-May
Scene players both choose 1 partner.
Player whispers the FIRST inspiration in the ear of the partner (who will never ever tell any one about it, taking the information into the grave)
Objective: making the first inspiration conscious (because of social desirability).
FIFO2
Scene WITHOUT partners (players remember what just has been said)
COMA GAME
2 hands
Understanding text, back story of character.
Coma game: forget knowing anything at all.
You know nothing, except what follows.
For example: “I loved Ophelia” (who she is ?).
Time=coma time.
Devil: act stupid.
DURING COMA:
You are very keen and awake, curious, wanting to know, want to get to the bottom of it.
It is strange.
Every time: FRESH.
Ready for what happens, to react.
COMA SCENE1
In scene times are set (5 times per player). The group has to ‘guess’ when the coma happened.
COMA SCENE2
Some one ‘is’ the coma (during clap 1 the scene stops).
At clap: head falls down (relaxed). 2nd clap wakes up.
COMA SCENE3
Coma clap (both in coma and at awakening).
Head is not dropping.
DO NOT illustrate, DO discover
COMA SCENE4
No clapping.
Tim asks questions. Answer: I don’t know (about everything from before starting time of coma).
Only known what the other did say (after awakening from coma).
14th of may
We started with several exercises as a warm-up, like
clapping in the circle and throwing your own ball up in the air
and catching it, throwing up your own ball in the circle, move a place to your left and
catching your neighbour´s ball, as well as a voice warm-up.
We did a round of intoning lines and staying in rhythm as a group.
We worked on our new dialogues and did an exercise where we
had to make five movements every line (one on each beat)
and touch each other on the last beat. (Both people move,
the person who speaks the line touches the other person).
We discovered that the touch can be a lot of different things, like pushing,
touching like you want to touch something else and so on.
The touch should mean something.
The exercise is about every line has to do something
to the other person; should have an effect.
Tim made some remarks about how the verse in the
balcony scene is used to show Romeo and Juliet are
in rhythm with each other. When the nurse calls Juliet,
the rhythm is not affected and Romeo and Juliet stay
together in their own rhythm. It could also mean when
they are not in rhythm something is wrong.
In general a short line implies a silence or pause,
wherein something happens: an action. For instance
in Bertram and Diana ´and I´ll be bid by thee´ is
a short line, in the pause Bertram gives the ring to Diana.
We worked more on the dialogues and did an exercise where
you could only start moving on the last beat of the line and
had to stop moving on the first beat of the line. So you
could only move when ´the ball is in the air´.
In the second exercise you had to start moving on the last
beat and stop moving in the pause between the lines, every time
in the same rhythm.
These exercises where about choosing and having precision in movement,
staying in the rhythm and surprising yourself with the movement, that
doesn´t have to be naturalistic.
The rest of the day we worked on the meaning and understanding
of the words; we improvised our scenes speaking in dutch. In these scenes
people behaved more natural in the way they used their hands
and faces. After that we did the scenes in groups of 4, where
each person had a partner. The people playing their scenes
had to whisper their lines to their partner, who then had to translate
these lines out loud. Tim talked about the importance of putting it
on the other person, to put the problem on the other person.
And this was the end of the first day.