Traces of Narratives? - 25th February 2009

Dear All,

For those of you who follow and reply to the blog, an absence of a post last week was deliberate and was designed to help you focus on the blog assessment task at hand. Now that that is completed, here is a post for this week. As always we welcome your thoughts and value reading about your progress.

Today was a big day in a sense.

1. We witnessed all the different range of material we have already created (albeit in rough stages) and became aware of the varied emotional qualities that were running through the sections.

2. We ended the 'R' phase of the RSVP model of devising and although we will continue to generate resource and research movement/gestures and physicality through our bodies, we are soon to move onto the 'S' phase of the model where we start to 'score'.

3. We also extended and refined the opening ensemble section, giving it specific focus at times to emphasise the building of a loose structure/narrative. We re-evaluated certain characters and made one a perpetual part of Porto, while another an outsider, even to the new community that has just entered the space. This necessitated her late entrance.

In the light of the above, address the following questions:

1. Describe your response to witnessing the range of material we have generated and gathered over 5 weeks of the devising process. Did it give you any vision about Porto - even early images?

2. How do you think the 'resource' phase of devising has been beneficial for the company?

3. Has your character developed/changed/intensified emotionally and or physically over the last 5 weeks? Discuss

4. Discuss the potentials/opportunities that are beginning to emerge in Porto as a result of the two characters who don't quite fit into the community for different reasons. What do their presence do to the community?

Royona

Interactions & Catalysts - Wednesday, 11th February 2009

Dear All,

Thank you for a productive morning and for your patience and discipline in delivering and working with our tasks. It was a different session for many reasons, but one that provided the opportunity for individual growth, reflection and development of your characters. For some of you it meant finding your character for the first time, for others it meant a total new discovery or change to the character you were working with and for other still, perhaps a slow growth and reflection through the work you did today. Regardless of how you developed, it would be worth reflecting on the following below:

1. What did the introductions of catalysts or interactive opportunities do to your characters who have so far been working on individual journeys? How did you respond to this physically and emotionally?

2. How did you go about devising material today? Talk through the stages not just describing them, but also analysing them.

3. What did you learn from the session today about devising processes within Physical Theatre?

4. Discuss the balance you achieved between pedestrian movement patterns and stylised technique work.

Looking forward to your responses.

Royona

Blog Assessment - Task 1

Deadline: Wednesday, 25^th February 2009, 5 pm

Word Count: 500 words total (200 + 150 + 150)

Task:

• There are three inter-related questions you need to answer as part of this task.
• All the questions relate to the quote below which is taken from one of the handouts given to you in Process & Performance.
• Read the quote below and then answer each of the three questions within the word limit stipulated against each.
• Conduct wider independent reading and use supporting quotes and examples to argue your views.
• Present your writing in academic language with Harvard Referencing and a Bibliography at the end of your post.

Quote:

“The term itself – ‘physical theatre’ – denotes a hybrid character and is testimony to its double legacy in both avant-garde theatre and dance. It is precisely this double current of influences which needs to be taken into consideration in any attempt to delineate specific parameters of the new genre.” (Sanchez-Colberg in Keefe & Murray; 2007, p 21)

Ana Sanchez-Colberg

from

Keefe, J & S Murray (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge

Questions:

1. Discuss the key features of the genre of ‘physical theatre’ as explored in the module content of Process and Performance. (200 words)

2. What does Ana Sanchez-Colberg imply by the ‘hybrid character’ of physical theatre? Is physical theatre a hybrid performance genre? Discuss with reasons for your answer. (150 words)

3. Identify a contemporary British performance company whose practice falls into the remit of ‘physical theatre’ as you have defined in the above two answers. Discuss briefly the key features of their practice that makes them a physical theatre company. (150 words)

If you have any questions please contact me directly and in good time for the deadline. Looking forward to reading your answers on your own blogs.

Royona

Building a Community - Wednesday 4th February 2009

Dear All,

Thank you for a hard working, patient and productive session this morning. We got a lot done, once again in a reasonably short space of time. The pace at which your are working and the discipline and intelligence with which you are completing the tasks we set is commendable. Please keep this up - it has promising implications for the work as we journey on.

Today we moved from notions of the individual to notions of the communal and what drives these moments in a group. We would therefore like you to:

1. Comment on the creative process we undertook today to allow the final coming together of the section we were aiming for.

2. Comment on the function of isolating some members from the larger community. Why were they isolated at first? What makes them move in and out of isolation and conformity?

3. How were gestures used to differentiate between 'anxious waiting' and 'not willing to confront the audience' in the two sub groups?

4. Finally, how was repetition used today as a choreographic strategy achieve today in order to 'construct' and 'deconstruct' the whole?

Looking forward to hearing from you. Your first blog assessment task will be up on this blog by this Friday, 6th February.

Royona