About a year ago, I was sitting in a session on performance composition. The professor facilitating the session started off with a question, what does warm up mean to you ? There were different answers in the room, but the one that stood out for me was this line contributed by my friend and performer Gintare. She said "The physical and psychological opening to the creative process". This one line has greatly influenced the way I approach my warm up sessions prior to beginning a creative process. Devising original work calls for a lot of self preparation for all those involved. Devising is about every individual in the space collectively influencing the creative outcome - and this requires you to in a flexible frame of mind and body, being open to everything coming in and being able to process content leaving aside our biases. Preparing the body and the mind together is critical. I have observed in many rehearsals over the years, that warm up is just a routine. I've noticed actors doing regular stretches, voice warmups and calling out lines, alone or in groups. This is certainly helpful, but the question every performer should ask themselves is - Is it making your mind and body flexible ? Is it really opening you up to the creative process that lies ahead of you ? There is no one warm up process that will work for all. Each individual is different and the warm up outcome will decide what we do in the session. I also urge performers to create for themselves and the group - A warm up outcome, which is to say, what you want the warm up to achieve. This could range from high energy to focus to timing to vocal clarity. Every individual in the performance can have different outcomes, but when it comes to an environment of collaboration, of shared space, the group warms could have similar outcomes, that the group works toward. When one is warmed up physically and psychologically, the ability to take on content and process it is much richer. The contributions made in the space feel fresher. And when people in the space know that the other is warmed up, then the energy in the room is different, there is mutual trust that is established and the creative journey feels wonderful.
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Once I had conceptualised Re:play, I spent a lot of time reading up resource material on the games through a variety of sources. Given that almost all traditional games have been passed on through generations, I came across multiple versions of the same games. In fact, the same game is played in different ways and called different names across the country. This is also what made my research interesting. From finding out mythological connections and stories to games being relevant in today's 21st century, there was a lot to learn from. From the very beginning, I had the support of Manasi Subramaniam as a dramaturg and writer. We would try and orchestrate material in a way that it became interesting from a point of view of performance. I would also take in some of this material to the studio, work with collaborators and explore possibilities. Once we had a structure in place, we then contacted Kreeda Games, a company dedicated to the promotion of traditional games and sought their support from a research point of view. Through the support of Kreeda, one of the most significant things we discovered were personal stories of people who have played these games through time. Research with Kreeda is still ongoing, for further development of the show. The C.P.Ramaswami Aiyar foundation promotes traditional and folk arts. They had published a book called Traditional folk games of Tamilnadu. I contacted the author of the book, Prof. V Balambal who was ever willing to support this initiative. In my meetings and conversations with her, I gained a lot of insights, which have helped shape this performance. Research has always been the foundation to performance. Re:play is a highly research intensive process. Transforming research content to performative action has been the most enjoyable process over the last 6 months, apart from the fact that I pester people to tell me about all the traditional Indian games that they have played over the years. Re:play premieres on the 19, 20 and 21 of September at the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation(Alwarpet), followed by a public showcasing on the 28 and 29 of September at Spaces (Besant Nagar) in Chennai. Both performances are only on a registration basis, the details of which we will put up next week. The performance will also tour Bangalore and Hyderabad over October and November. Looking forward to Re:play times. - Aruna Ganesh Ram So what is Re:play? In a line, Re:play is a devised performance duet inspired by traditional Indian games. I have always been fascinated by traditional games and grew up playing many of these. A year ago, I came by an article in the paper about how we no longer play any of these games, given that most of us have moved on to become a part of the digital space. Suddenly, I started composing visuals in my head about how the different elements from traditional games could be composed into performance. I remember picking up a pen and scribbling out the patterns of these board games and how they can spatially be reconstructed in a performance context. This was the beginning. I spent over 3 months in the rehearsal studio in London working with collaborators who were dramaturgs, movement practitioners and performers, to explore the possibilities that these games lend themselves to. Given that we were dealing with games, an element of participation was a key consideration. Re:play asks of the audience a bit more than just being a passive spectator. This is what makes Re:play an immersive performance. A lot in the performance is based on chance happenings, so one may not be in control at all times, but one is in control of his/her experience through the performance. It was really exciting to discover how Traditional Indian games have been played in different contexts through time. Re:play is an experience of the sounds, rhythms, patterns, structures, colours and narratives that traditional Indian games lend themselves to. The performance also explores how these games and their elements are relevant to us by going through a journey that evokes themes of mythology, contemporary events, memory, Indian History as well as Indian folklore. Re:play premieres on the 19, 20 and 21 of September at the C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation(Alwarpet), followed by a public showcasing on the 28 and 29 of September at Spaces (Besant Nagar) in Chennai. Both performances are only on a registration basis, the details of which we will put up next week. The performance will also tour Bangalore and Hyderabad over October and November. Looking forward to Re:play times.
Physical theatre workshop with Anitha Santhanam
When I started training for Re-play in London, I worked with a movement practitioner called Emma Grace. Before this, I was not really paying attention to the way I moved, but focussed on moving. Infact, most of my performances have been movement heavy, but I have never paid great attention to movement as a specific way of working. However, this time, I was keen on incorporating this within my practice. I started work in the studio with Emma Grace. Emma's first instruction to me was to try and move my hands engaging my core. I spent a good while trying to engage my core and come to terms with its existence. I was glad I managed it and when I used my core to move my hands, I discovered a sense of buoyant movement. My hands were moving in an almost effortless fashion. I dint feel like my shoulder muscles or my biceps were doing any work. It was all coming from my core. It was just the first 5 minutes into the session and I had realised the power of movement based training for performance. Right from the way I breathed, to the way I moved in the space changed over the course of my movement based training with Emma. I am ever thankful to her for those wonderful one on one training sessions. Then it occurred to me that it was important for performers who were going to work in Re-play to also go through this kind of an experience. So I immediately began looking to bring down movement trainers from London to India and also looked up movement trainers in India. That's when I came across Anitha Santhanam and her work in this space. I immediately wrote to her and what a co incidence, she was in London. We met up that very weekend and plans were made to host a workshop in physical theatre in Chennai in July. I was excited. A weekend workshop Plans were made and we were set. 10 theatre practitioners in the city were invited to be part of the workshop. One of the first things the participants were made to experience was to be present in the space. Applying soft focus, what does it mean to be in a space with your body. Is there a way that we can create a sense of awareness for ourselves through our bodies. Where does bodily movement originate from ? How can we, as performers get into a state of awareness where we are conscious of our various movements. Using this how can we create distinct character based movements that make a character unique and distinct. Anitha also introduced the participants to the concept of 7 levels of tension, based on the learning methodologies of Jacques Lecoq. This enabled participants to understand different body states and how each of them could distinctly communicate certain traits. The amount of effort one needs to put into each of these states were also realised by the participants. The next day, the participants were introduced the concept of elasticity in movement. This enabled a heightened sense of awareness to the way they were moving as well as in being able to exert a push and pull using their bodies. The body also learn to react and embody an imaginary force and create an illusion for the audience. We then extended this into an interactive embodiment with fellow practitioners where different tensions in the body communicated with one another. This way we were talking to each other through our bodies. We also added another layer of voice that created an aural experience to the visual embodiment. My engagement with theatre practitioner Vasudev Menon was in exploring the concept of push and pull at various levels. While Dev exercised his elasticity on a vertical plane, I played it on a horizontal plane. This also introduced the idea of depth and dimension through the body. We also used some minimal sounds to foster an exchange between two bodies that were at varying physical proximities. We then moved to embodying textures and movement of objects. What does it take to create an illusion of a flying plastic bag or a swaying curtain ? What state must the body be in and what are those details one should focus on to bring those objects alive. We then also discussed possible areas of play with such boy movements and how that can be fit into an overall performance scheme. At the end of the day, there was joy, learning and some pain. With our muscles being flexed in new ways, we had something to complain about and sleep a bit more the next morning. Thanks to Anitha for her time and thought. A couple of lines from the participants who attended the workshop: I thoroughly enjoyed it. Every single moment of it, dying though I was, of pain. The one thing that made a lot of sense is the neutrality aspect that Anitha touched upon. I think I will keep it with me and consciously apply it too. - Vaishnavi Sundararajan I sometimes don't feel actors are comfortable enough in their bodies to be comfortable in an entirely created space. It certainly initiated a different kind of awareness for me, which I hope will translate into better acting - Susan Abraham A shot from Gossamer - Creating co-presence Performance has always been an outcome of preparation. Traditionally, this preparation would involve rehearsal, where text was written and parts were rehearsed with the chorus, along with singing and dancing, staging dramatic text in its entirety. In the early nineteenth century, the introduction of the term mise en scène suggested that something is given physical appearance onstage that can otherwise only exist in the readers imagination. References to the term accumulated thereon and the meaning of the verb was 'to stage' and 'to transform into a stage performance'. At the turn of the last century, where literary text ceased to be the sole basis of performance, Edward Gordon Craig noted that "…the Art of the Theatre is neither acting nor the play, it is not scene nor dance, but it consists of all the elements of which these things are composed: action, which is the very spirit of acting; words, which are the body of the play; line and colour, which are at the very heart of the scene; rhythm, which is the very essence of dance" (Craig 1911: 138 in Fischer 2008: 185) This introduced the concept of performance being a collage of its smallest constitutive elements - action, words, line, colour, and rhythm. The staging of these elements was then a matter of choice exercised by the director and this would create the performance artwork. Jacques Copeau considers the text a pre existent 'mental' entity to be transformed into sensual presence through the process of mise en scène. He defines directing and staging as "the sum of the artistic and technical processes with whose help the work complied by an author as written text is transferred from its mental and hidden state of existence into the real and present state of theatre" (Copeau 1991: 341 in Fischer 2008: 186) The concept mise en scène has evolved over time. Fischer links the term to the idea of an event, its staging stimulating action, in a way that elements attract audience attention. "Spectators become aware that they are affected and transformed by their experience of the movements, light, colours, sound, odours and so forth. The mise en scène can therefore be defined and described as a process that aims at the reenchantment of the world and the metamorphosis of the performer's participants" (Fischer 2008: 189) The Gossamer Mise en scène In attempting to devise the mise en scène for Gossamer, careful consideration of the various elements of performance, their relationships with another, the space as well the audience members played a key role in the design of the performance. The challenge was to achieve an optimal balance between the elements, that would enable a physical, mental and emotional transformation for the audience. Given that Gossamer was a bespoke experience, based on the life of audience members themselves, with the mode of address being direct, the intimacy of the event and the creation of a unique atmosphere were careful considerations from the very beginning of the development process. With audience material sourced from social media as well as through friends and family, we adopted a method of converting text to gesture as one of the first aspects of the mise en scène. Anne Bogart in Viewpoints, addresses gesture as behavioural, those that belong to everyday life and expressive, those that express feeling, which is not otherwise directly manifest. "One could say that Behavioural Gestures are prosaic and Expressive Gestures are poetic" (Bogart 2005: 49) This was a key starting point in devising Gossamer. Content would be translated into gestures in the studio with supporting movements as well as sound-scapes and text to create the various parts of the mise en scène. Spatial Relationship as a view point induced the range of possible distances between the elements of performance. "The distance between things on stage, especially (1) one body to another; (2) one body (or bodies) to a group of bodies; (3) the body to the architecture." (Bogart 2005: 11) The placement of the audience member within the performance was therefore a critical aspect of the mise en scène. To further foster the intimacy in the environment, we designed distinct performing spaces within the space and placed the audience member in an intimate spatial proximity that would help performers make connections with the audience at various levels. The spatial relationship also motivated audience members to move around the space, interact with performers as well as experience the event in a way that they chose to. As a performer, it made me feel emotional connections with my audience member and their reception of the piece and reactions to it constantly influenced my performance in Gossamer, enabling the feedback loop between the audience and me, in turn triggering my spontaneity during the performance. Consideration of atmosphere The mood and the atmosphere that the performance space would set was also an important element of the mise en scène. According to Gernot Boehme, "atmospheres constitute the spectators' first sensation on entering the auditorium and enable a very specific experience of spatiality" (Boehme in Fischer 2008: 115) As a part of the aural mise en scène, the audience on arrival into the space were welcomed by a piece of music that was special to them in some way. This was complemented by visual elements such as the blue light and the EL wires (Electro Luminescent wires) that created an atmosphere that was magical, enchanting and welcoming at the same time. I was particularly keen on creating powerful visuals in the performance through gesture, movement and lighting. Through the devising process, I realised the possibilities that may unfold, when the audience member also becomes a part of the mise en scène in a way that a shared space is created. Co-Presence in Gossamer "[The] original meaning of theatre refers to its conception as social play - A game in which everyone is a player - actors and spectators alike… The spectators are involved as co-players. In this sense the audience is the creator of the theatre. So many different participants constitute the theatrical event that its social nature cannot be lost. Theatre always produces a social community." (Hermann 1981: 19) Max Hermann understood and propagated the bodily co-presence of actors and spectators to constitute performance. "For performance to occur, actors and spectators must assemble to interact in a specific place for a specific period of time" (Hermann in Fischer 2008: 32) If the relationship between the audience and the performer has to shift from traditional passive spectatorship to being an active part of the performance, can the construct of the mise en scène enable this new relationship? Max Hermann mentions that "The audience's physical participation is set in motion through synaesthetic perception shaped not only by sight and sound, but by physical sensations of the entire body." (Hermann in Fischer 2008: 36) Staging proceeds the insight that the bodily co-presence is required to generate the performance. Any definition of mise en scène has to take that into consideration (Fischer 2008: 187) The mise en scène of Gossamer integrated the audience as well as the space into the performance, enabling the bodily co presence of the performer and the audience. This intimate co-presence induces new connections that performers are able to make with the audience members, powerful enough to move them, shake them or even shock them. This co-presence escalates to an emotional level as well, when the performance is about the audience members themselves, which means that the performance will not happened if not for them. The performance material comes from the audience which is then processed into various elements of the mise en scène and presented in an environment of intimacy, creating a shared space, co presence and human connection at every level. This connection also induced physical contact during the performance, when an audience member held my hand and I kissed it- a moment of transformation was experienced. There were also moments of interaction, verbal gestures and immediate reactions from audience members through the performance that highlighted the co-presence and at the same time kept the environment of intimacy and connection. In a way, Gossamer made me understand my audience members better at multiple levels, who outside the performance space, are my good friends and colleagues. In the event of bodily co presence inducing physical contact , the element of liminality generates transformation. "The spectators remain on the threshold for the duration of the performance. Their position is never fixed. They do not control the performance, but their influence can be felt nevertheless. The audience constantly oscillates between these various states, ultimately enabled, defined and triggered by the bodily co-presence of the actor and the spectator" (Fischer 2008: 67) The Gossamer mise en scène was carefully designed and constructed to enable the bodily co presence, yet the way it would unfold with every experience being unique in itself, was to be realised through the process of the performance. Hermann states that in spite of clever and empirically effective staging strategies, the success of mise en scène ultimately cannot be planned; it is to be seen as an emergent phenomenon. (Hermann in Fischer 2008: 189) Bogart adds to this by saying "You cannot create results; you can only create the conditions in which something might happen" (Bogart 2001: 124) Gossamer's mise en scène created the conditions that enabled the bodily co-presence of the actor and the spectator, which then led to transformation at various levels for all involved, inducing a mise en scène of co-presence. Through the process of Gossamer, I have become interested in exploring the concept of co-presence that can be achieved at various levels, through mise en scène. A performance is designed with the consideration of multiple elements, the coming together of which will shape the performance and the experience of it for audience members as well as for performers.. The element of immersion and therefore the creation of shared space, changes the way the performance is received, processed and experienced. I am also keen on exploring the concept of aural mise en scène and if through aurality, co-presence can be created. With a focus on creating work through gesture, sound and movement, I am interested in a mise en scène that will liberate, transform and induce new possibilities of experiencing performance. |
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