In the past two weeks our devising process has really hit its stride! We started off by creating a movement piece that was developed in a workshop led by Michael W. This consisted of writing a letter to somebody to tell them something that we couldn’t say, we then put them all together and split off into pairs (I was working with Alice S.). We took one letter between us that neither of us had written and were giving the task of performing the letter. Working with a Frantic Assembly fanatic we quickly decided that we would create a short duet based on ‘tiny hugs’ to represent a mother, daughter relationship that we took from the emotions expressed in the letter. As Alice S. was not going to be in the performance, she then stepped out and helped me to adapt the sequence to perform on my own. It was great for me to have support doing this as I feel very challenged doing physical theatre work. Something I read when doing a different piece of work was very resonant in this moment:
“We are surprisingly unfamiliar with our bodies and many actors are inhibited about using them. Yet the body is the actor’s primary instrument. To be brave and open requires a sentient and responsive body free from the limitations imposed by self-consciousness or fear” (Callery, 2001, p.22).
For me, physical work is daunting anyway, but I was very quickly in a situation where I felt isolated on the stage and this made me feel very awkward in the space. However, this worked in favour of the piece because it highlighted the loneliness of the character. Michael W. pointed out that it looked like it was the tale of one woman remembering different moments of her life. We proceeded to add moments of interaction with other cast members, so they would break away from their pairs and have a moment of interaction. The sequence evolved further by having half of the pairs and me leaving the stage to allow for some of the cast to read some of the letters.
I have also spent time developing a text about encephalitis. A lot of the text came from an online source so my next step is to contact them and get permission to use the text in performance. I also used the source and researched further into the parts of the brain that are affected and what those parts do, so for example the fact that some of the affected parts of the brain are responsible for speech and movement so I tried to incorporate this into the text. Below is a voice recording of the doctor’s speech, first draft.
Work Cited
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body: A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. Kent: Nick Hern Books.
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