Rudolf Laban

"A life for Dance"

Rudolf Laban was born in Bratislava, Hungary in 1879.  He was an architect and painter and became fascinated with rituals, folklore, mythology, dancing, art and mathematics.  He saw life as a dynamic movement experience.  He founded several dance/movement schools in Germany and in 1930 became Director of Movement at the State Theatres in Berlin.  Eventually, however, the Nazis banned his notation and books.  Laban fled to Paris and later travelled to England where he turned his energies to education and improving the efficiency and harmony of the industrial workforce.  He died in 1958.

Laban looked upon movement as a two way language process through which the body could communicate by giving and receiving messages.  He believed that movement stems from the inter-dependence of body, mind and spirit and he understood that our inner life relates to the outer world.  Laban created a theoretical language in order to help the observer understand and record movement objectively.  This is still widely used in many fields of the movement/dance and therapy worlds.

In the therapeutic field, studying and using the basic fundamentals of Laban movement, these come under the titles of body, space, relationship and effort, enables one to obtain a greater understanding of one’s own movement patterns and preferences.  It helps to increase observation skills of others and to record and assess the movement needs of clients in the clinical setting.

Taken from http://www.sesame-institute.org/movement-rudolf-laban

Dairy Log

When first seeing Laban's language, it shocked me alittle; it seemed alien as I have little dancing background and so me and Ali mocked our teacher alittle about it but as we gave it a try, the language started to make sense. Although I didn't fully understand, it made me watch, and learn from, the others in the class and I feel this is a useful skill that can also be applied to my acting.

Danny's Manifesto

1. No idea is stupid.
2. Put your all into every rehearsal and performance.
3. Be inspired by everything around you.
4. Co-operate with the other actors.
5. The script doesn't have to be followed.
6. Be open-minded and willing when approaching new techniques.
7. The visual of a performance is often as important as the story.
8. The piece should mean more than meeting up and rehearsing, you should rehearse at home as well.
9. Embrace the style of performance, whatever it may be.
10. Have fun.

Frantic Assembly

"THE VIBRANT AND VISCERAL FRANTIC ASSEMBLY" THE INDEPENDENT

Frantic Assembly creates thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Vivid and dynamic, Frantic Assembly's unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text.

Frantic Assembly is led by Artistic Director Scott Graham. Scott formed the company with Steven Hoggett and Vicki Middleton in 1994 and continues to collaborate with many of today's most inspiring artists. Having toured extensively throughout the UK, Frantic Assembly has built an enviable reputation as one of the most exciting companies in the country. The company has also performed, created and collaborated in 30 different countries across the world.

In addition to its productions Frantic Assembly operates an extensive Learn & Train programme introducing 6,000 participants a year to the company's process of creating theatre, in a wide variety of settings. Frantic Assembly also delivers Ignition, an innovative vocational training project for young men, particularly targeting those with little previous experience of the arts.

Taken from http://www.franticassembly.co.uk/what-is-frantic/

Dairy Log

For today's lesson we looked at the style of Frantic assembly and focused alot on working as an ensemble, so alot of similar movements and movements together. When watching some of their work, I felt inspired as it reminded me alot of the Billy Eliot 'Dance of life' where the police men make every day actions become a performance, and I feel Frantic Assembly were able to create the same thing but in their own style of performance.

Absurdism

In which acting styles absurdism should be placed is a bit difficult. It can have elements of all kind of styles and still be absurd. In order to explain absurdism there are some specific elements to be extracted.

In an absurd play you see magnified characters in an abstract situation. Absurdism is about provoking your thoughts with laughter. It has no beginning, middle or end and doesn't look like conventional theater at all. This theater of the absurd subverts all expectations at every turn.

You might even say that if it slightly DOES look like conventional theater it is not really absurd. Absurdism on the other hand is always informative. 

Like no other acting styles absurdism puts all reality in weirdness, and still it makes you think. When you get to see an absurd performance, in style, you'll think: what and who I am watching has to be crazy. On the other hand it always has intense moments. It looks like reality but is not the reality we know.

In other words: Absurdism is the philosophy which believes that a human being's attempt to understand the universe and find meaning in it will always fail, because no such meaning actually exists. An interresting but kind of depressing thought. Still Theatre of the Absurd in the 20th century evolved into a certain genre and acting style of the performing arts which represent works of the absurdist philosophy. So for theatre this philosofical approach is quite interesting. 

An amazing example is Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. This is the play that started a trend which became known as "theater of the absurd. Other wellknown absurdist writers are Eugene Ionesco and Harold Pinter. 

Taken from http://www.acting-classes-online-tips.com/acting-styles-absurdism.html

Matilda idea

Today we've discussed some ideas for the workshop piece inspired by a track from Matilda, we also created an opening that goes:

• A young child's used toys are scattered across his room
• He enters, tidies up and then goes to sleep and lights go out
• Strobe lighting starts along with the song 'Tip toe, through the tulips'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMyICWx-plU

• The Toys then start moving towards the boy 
• He wakes and shouts in fear taking all the life out of the toys but his imaginary friend still stands

My general overall idea of the whole thing is that the boys is unappreciated by his parents, or something similar, and his toys, who are quite traditional but become more Gothic and worn down through out, manipulate this into seeming like his friend but actually use this to do something outrageous like ruin his Family's life or even turn him into a toy. The overall idea needs working on but we have some greater detailed ideas for other parts of the performance.

My Character is a Jack in the Box. I think it'd be cool if the other characters called him Jack or 'JB' in the performance however names could also deteriorate and shorten as the play goes on as a motif for the deterioration of the boy's life or something similar, as could the make up and costume.

 

17/09/13

Periods 3&4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kobdb37Cwc
In these classes I worked in a group with Jake, Connor C, Zach and Rosie to devise a piece centred around the lyrics of 'I don't like Mondays'. Although it did take us a while to sort out, we created a really good piece of physical theatre where the characters were rushing their Monday morning routine repeating "I don't like Mondays" and "Tell me why?" At points, tasks such as taking a shower, making breakfast and driving were shown by the other actors becoming objects related to each task. The song played over the top of this.

Periods 5&6
These lessons were 'Performance workshop' so we created a short, quite random, quirky piece in two different groups. I really enjoyed this because we worked well as a team, but also both the final pieces looked great and could be interpreted by an audience in plenty of different ways; Phil saw the others groups characters as quite poor people fighting over something important to them whereas I saw their characters as a rich, snob type who were fighting over something quite petty just to be one up over the other.

16/09/13, Pina Bausch and the exhaustion technique

16/09/13
On Monday I quite enjoyed using the exhaustion technique. I felt motivated and part of a team; we were all suffering together and if one of us was held back, the others would be jumping to make up the effort. At one point me and Liam were the last running against each other in a test of stamina, I didn't feel like I was against him but I felt more encouraged that he was there because like before, we were running and suffering together. However at the end I did write in my log book that my head felt like it was going through combustion.

I felt the exhaustion technique worked to an extent; yes we genuinely were, and therefore looked, tired, I don't see how that would work in a performance, or atleast not in one I'd enjoy being part of. I tried to watch the film "Pina" where it is used effectively however I got bored quickly and as an actor, this technique doesn't interest me.

Pina Bausch
"I am no one's pupil"
Pina Bausch was a German performer of modern dance, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director. With her unique style, a blend of movement, sound, and prominent stage sets, and with her elaborate cooperation with performers during the composition of a piece, she became a leading influence in the world of modern dance from the 1970s on and was the developer/inspiration of the 'Exhaustion technique'.

Week 09/09/13

I've really enjoyed our first proper week of Drama; we looked at Physical theatre and also worked well together to devise two pieces surrounding a collection of images. In the double we plan to devise a serial circus themed piece, I think it'd be cool to have some dance and music in it because it would be different to our other performances. If we go down a more strange route, I think costume will be great to focus on; things that I think would look good in this sort a piece are coloured eye contact lenses, possibly wigs/masks and/or outfits all one colour.
 


Also, for the larger scale production in the single class, I'm thinking of growing my hair bigger, or even cutting it shorter, to develop more of a character.

Physical Theatre

Definition
Physical theatre is used to describe any mode of performance that pursues storytelling or drama through primarily and secondarily physical and mental means.
Taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_theatre

Initially when I think about the term 'Physical theatre' I would associate it with using actors/actresses bodies to present scenery such as a bar or even objects and vehicles for example a tank. However Physical theatre expands much further than this and can be used to tell stories without using words as the actors connect with the audience; this creates empathy for the actors but also keeps the audience intrigued. Another advantage of not using words is that the audience can interpret the piece however they want too giving endless possibilities to a piece. 

Physical theatre can also include speech and can be used well to create a very comical or serial piece. I also like this idea because it moves away from naturalism, which is the style that I'm used to performing in, so it is a chance for me to develop new skills.

However I think it would be hard to devise a Physical theatre piece that does this to a good standard and so I hope either I'm wrong or that we are given a piece to perform.

When using physical theatre I would like to experiment with music and dance as the three all link in with each other and can bring out the best in a performance if used correctly.