Yet more presentations

This week started on a meditative note, this was due to our venture into Euphoric Poetry. We went into the studio space and sat down away from  everyone else, basically to engulf ourselves in our own bubble of memories. We each chose a performance that we hadn't reviewed (unfortunately that left me with "Oh the Humanity", the production I deliberately did not want to analyze) and re-imagined ourselves there. Through Mr. F's prompting we recalled the senses we experienced and the important memories of the production. For the most part my memories involved the literal experience (going to pizza hut before, after discussing food options for too long, and we'll the buzz of excitement from the audience full of eager theater students) BUT I did have some relating to the actual show such as specific lines of the script. This exercise is actually called an "Acid Test", because it reveals your "scorched memories". It was an interesting way to recall the performance, especially because I wasn't too keen to imbed "Oh the Humanity" into my brain in the first place.

On Wednesday Abby was ready to take charge and started the lesson with her TPPP. Our experiences were similar in the way that we were both nervous and taking our first ventures into the theater world. Some of her actual exercises were new however. For example the "Silver Thread" activity was a control activity that left one person in charge of the group's movement. It emphasized the need for an ensemble to work together. She also described her experience with musical devisement and slow motion movement. Later in the lesson she further explored the different aspects of slow motion in hter masterclan ss. Slow motion is most efffective when trying to create key moments of a piece so it stands out. Additionally it can creatively show the passage of time.

Also on Wednesday when we were discussing our Acid Test posters, Mr. F gave a lecture on audience reception. The basic principle is that different people respond differently to the same stimulus. This a fact that is true for everything, anywhere, anytime.To me this concept was very obvious but we discussed specifically why people have different reactions/take something different away.

• Past experience
• Culture
• Personality
• Age
• Mood
• Gender
• Physical space

The intention of a director can be different from the audience reception, and it should be noted  that sometimes audience members can literally see different things.

The last exercise of the week was Axel's masterclass on Verbatim theater and lineals. Basically verbatim comes from people's true stories or interviews that are then interpreted and translated into the theater. To emphasize this Bekki told us a story and then we had to act out as truthfully as possible her story. With lineals, we learned that they are used to show the characters true emotions and are little snapshots into the characters real intentions. They are mostly used comedically but can also be used to show a dramatic decision being made.