This week started off with the task of us writing a pitch for a show we saw in London. The purpose of the exercise is literally tied to one of the IB tasks we'll eventually have to do; pitch your proposed project in 250 words including the creative concept, message, and audience type. However, in addition to being useful in IB theatre, writing a pitch requires you to express an idea clearly and concisely, while still making it interesting. The "Spielberg Scenario" was referenced on multiple occasions where we were put in the extraordinary situation of being stuck in an elevator with the film-making legend: our task was to successfully pitch our idea. I chose to pitch "Damned By Despair" and was very content with my work, thank you very much. After discussing Lydia's pitch in class, we were forced to rewrite our pitch using more exciting language and specific details referencing creative choices such as costume, sound, lighting, etc. After finishing my second 250 word pitch, I now believed that one to be the best! (Taking into consideration the additional notes on the creative concept and good dose of the magical "rule of three adjectives", the 2nd draft was by all accounts better than the first) To make life difficult, we were forced to rewrite our pitches in 50 words! Honestly, I was pretty bitter about this assignment :/ I understand that sometimes you need to get your point across in a short amount of time, but I still...50 words?? I suffered through it and eventually come up with a pitch that lacked any sort of specifics and was basically a wordy run-on sentence summary of the production. I did, however, have a chance to redeem myself and have since rewritten a 10 word "pitch" (if it can be classified as that...) for "Damned by Despair". This process has taught me that editing your writing is actually very helpful, and sometimes your best work is just around the corner.
On a more practical level, on Wednesday we presented our masterclasses! Yay! I volunteered to go first and presented a class on Etienne Decroux's Corporeal Miming. This was part of the first exercise I did in TAPs and really warmed me up to theatre in general. As dancer I am much more comfortable with motions and movements so I found it very easy to approach theatre from a physical level. I first explained the three principle movements: translation, rotation, and inclination. These three types of movement are the core elements in all types of movements. Speaking of your core, Decroux believed that emotions and stories should be expresses using your whole body (as opposed to facial expressions or hand gestures) and thus must emanate from your core. Because of this, I made the class do 10 crunches and then hold that position for an additional 10 seconds. The warm-up activity took everyone by surprise but it also tuned people into the fact that they must keep their core engaged to understand the path of motion. After doing an exercise on robotics we moved into the story-telling aspect of the class. First I had the "students" move around the space and then freeze. Upon freezing I asked them to come up with a story based on the position of their body. We repeated the exercise except the second time they came up with a character or story in their head, and then came up with physicality to match that. This process is essential in characterization and can be used to express emotions simply through how you move on stage. In Damned by Despair for example, the devil character moved slowly and leeringly. The way she moved affected the mood of the audience because the atmosphere became creepy when she was onstage. Additionally, her movements were very distinct from the rest of the characters, which helped to signify that she was unlike the others; she was supernatural.
In Bekki's masterclass we learned about team building exercises. The main purpose was to learn that you have keep the energy of an ensemble very high, but at the same time balance that with a calm sense of concentration needed for performing. In the "yes" exercise, the whole group became really energetic just by simply saying the word "yes"! (louder and louder and LOUDER of course). On thursday Lydia led her masterclass on immersive theatre. The concept still isn't extremely clear to me, but I think its theatre in unconventional situations that involve audience members. I was chosen to be the extra is Bekki, Axel, and Abigail's group and I actually played along! Woop woop! Success in acting :)
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