Blog week: 1.
This week the word of the week was: physicality.
  Physicality describes how you move. It is what you say to an audience in how you use your physicality, it is what you convey with your sense and usually describes yourself or your character. An example of the word 'physicality' could be, "My physicality indicates an 5 year old little boy having a strop." This would mean that how you are acting would be quite bratty, annoying and possibly very emotional. By using the word physicality, you do not have to explain any of this so it makes it easier to understand how exactly you are acting.
 In our performance 'Moments', we have created a short piece on different ways of moving across the stage. This included being abstract, grotesque, dynamic and many more weird and wonderful ways too. We also used verbatim text which is a piece of text that is used word for word. This was used in the quotes section that we chosen from our research in verbatim text. These included: "The monkeys not there any more", "Do spiders have noses?" and "His is bigger than mine!" I really enjoyed using verbatim text because it made the performance really quirky and strange, I have never seen anything like it before and I am sure most of the audience hadn't either! The overall style of the piece in my opinion was mainly grotesque and abstract. It had elements of dance featured too and also a bit of drama which caused controversy throughout which gave the final piece a nice solid ending. It also shown that drama is not all speech which is what most people think but our performance differed this and I really liked that factor and thought that it worked really well. It made the piece very individual.
  When taking on physical theatre in class, we had to be aware of our own fitness. We were tested on what we were capable of achieving within our fitness by doing a wide range of activity of running, jumping to the floor, jumping on the spot, jogging, etc. This also was with our strengths and weaknesses involved. I would say that my strengths in this exercise were that I was able to keep up activity for quite a long period of time without getting tired or out of breath. However, I would say that my weaknesses were that I did not do the exercise quite fast enough, this will be a goal for me for the future when doing this exercise. I will make sure that next time when performing this physical activity, I will make sure that I do it properly and do not perform it half heartedly.
  We also had to learn how to be aware of the space around us and also other performers. We did this by getting in our own space to perform an abstract performance on the floor that was choreographed. Everybody did the same thing to a song named 'Via Con me' by 'Paolo Conte'. I really liked working with this song because it is quite flexible I would say in how it makes a person look like they move, it gives them grace and a soft way of movement. After this exercise, we then had to walk around in a circle and move onto the floor in our own time in any abstract way that we wanted.

  This then was followed up by individual group exercises to make different shapes. The shapes given to us were; a thrown, a microwave, a monster and some sort of a machine. Our group made the thrown shape by somebody curling up in a ball on the floor as the seat of the chair and two people connected an arm each to make the back of the chair then held the other arm out to make the arms of the chair. Megan then did the bridge at the end of the thrown as a footrest and I sat on the thrown with my feet up and arms on either side of the "arm rests".

  To make the microwave, our group put somebody in the middle of the floor curled up and span them round at normal speed by their hands, they were popcorn. The rest of the group waved their arms around to make the heat waves inside of the microwave and somebody was explaining that the microwave was some sort of prize.

  To make the monster, our group had somebody to stand in the middle as the main part of the monster, somebody on their back to make two heads and two people either side of the 'monster' doing the bridge/crab with one leg up each to make some sort of tentacles on either side of the monster.

  We finally made the machine. The machine that we chose to make was a sausage maker machine and we accomplished this by everybody holding hands next to each other in pairs then a person in the middle being thrown around vigorously to then be thrown back on their feet, as if they were meat and now a full sausage.

  After this figuration, we had to then make a story out of our shapes and narrate the story. Our story was that a queen sat on her thrown and was offering a prize to her minions if they were to slay the monster that has been bothering her for years. This then led onto the microwave scenario as it was the 'prize' for slaying the monster, which then obviously led onto the monster, to the sausage maker as the monster states that he is hungry and this is then the monsters dinner.

  I would say that our performance went really well and it shown everybody that we could make a story out of pretty much anything we put our minds to.

  Columbian hypnotist. We had to pair up and label ourselves A and B. A had to hold a hand up towards person B's face, and person B had to keep their face close to person As palm. Partner A would then guide person B anywhere they wanted, this could involve on the floor, towards or away from the person and anything else as long as the guiding hand had full control. This was all based on total focus and had to be taken seriously and slowly. We then switched roles and the other person had to take control. After both partners had had a go, the guided partner had to try and snatch the power away from the guide. Control was also added into the exercise with a way of holding your partner by putting the guiding hand into a fist which would make the other partner have to freeze exactly where they are, this would then be un paused by opening out the hand again but it could then be in a different position. The guided person would then have to get back to the hand as soon as possible, until they could start to rebel in anyway they wanted to try and take back the power.
  The thing I liked best about what I did in this exercise was when I had the power, I controlled my partner onto the exact same level as me by lying on the floor and making them lie down with me. This showed that I had total control over them and that I could put them in any position I wanted. I had full power over them and could do whatever I wanted to alter them in anyway possible.

  Trust exercises. In this exercise we had to stand in 2 separate circles with somebody in the middle with their eyes closed and just fall around the circle with everyone holding them up and around the circle. Both little groups had to do this and it really showed a lot of trust within the whole group. We then stood with a partner of quite a similar height difference and had to do trust falls with eyes closed, switching half way through. This again showed a lot of trust within each other in the group. The next exercise in this department was to slowly walk around, casually falling and if seen people had to rush to you to catch you in time. The people who fell shown a lot of trust in the rest of the group that they trusted they would catch them in time.
  We then did a numbers exercise game, standing in a huddle when a number was called out that is how many people had to step out of the huddle. The people that stepped out had to be at the exact same time or we would have to start again. This exercise made me feel like our group were very connected as we got the game going quite well first time.

  The main exercise we then performed were to pair up and perform an emotional performance on one of us getting bad news from a doctor. I really liked this exercise as it shown me that I did have a strength in showing real emotion without trying to think of something sad. It came quite naturally and worked really well in the performance.
  I worked with Zoe and we made up a scenario about one of us getting a serious illness. With this, we had to show a lot of different emotions such as; anger, sadness, guilt and also grief. Doing this particular performance gave me the strength to go through with a scene with an actual real emotion in my head. Also, it showed me that I could show emotion to move an audience with speech rather than emotion in the face. I always thought that emotional scenes move people with expression but this exercise made me realise that it is not the only thing or really the most important. I did however show a weakness which was the fact that I needed to hold in some emotions when performing, I feel as if I got to involved in the scene which is good in a way but is also very bad when you have to be different in the next few minutes of change in scene. My next goal from this would be to keep the emotion, but to also not be fully focused in it just in case I have to do an immediate switch in what I am feeling.