Term Three: Experimental

LESSON ONE

Chair exercise:

NOTE: THIS ENTIRE EXERCISE SHOULD BE PERFORMED IN SILENCE.

In pairs you must place two chairs next to one another, and then sit down on the chairs in a seated neutral position.

LEVEL 1: Each of the partners have 4 moves each (8 all together) to manipulate the other persons body. In must go in a pattern of you manipulating your partner, and then your partner in turn manipulating you. This should be in a rhythm of 8 which syncs in to whatever background music you use for the exercise. Once you and your partner have experimented enough and found a set pattern of 8 specific movements the whole class should perform each small piece.

LEVEL 2: The next stage is to use the exact same set pattern of 8 specific movements that you and your partner have just rehearsed and performed, however you must now perform them by playing the objective 'To love' during the first 4 movements (2 each) and the objective 'To hate' or 'To hurt' during the last 4 movements of your piece. you should experiment a little, and make sure that these objectives can be read by an audience.

LEVEL 3: The next stage is for you and your partner to join up with another pair, and place your 4 chairs next to each other. All 4 of you should then perform the exact same set pattern of 8 specific movements that you and your partner have just rehearsed and performed, however you must now edit and refine your piece taking into consideration the proxemics of your new partners.

LEVEL 4: The next stage is you should keep your 4 chairs next to each other in a row, and then all 4 of you should individually find 3 different ways of 'being' on a chair. you should do this in turn to the rhythm of the music using a set beat of 4. Individually you should start of in neutral position on the chair, then on the first beat you should move into your first position of 'being' on a chair. On the second beat you should move into your second position and on the third beat you should move into your third position of 'being' on a chair. On the forth and final beat you should find yourself back on the chairs in a seated neutral position, ready to repeat the sequence over and over.

LEVEL 5: The final stage of the exercise is to repeat the individual 3 different ways of 'being' on a chair, but to incorporate each of your 3 partners. You should blend each of your positions together so that it looks as if the energy that you are using to move into one of your positions is transferred into your partner making them need to move into their next position. You should feel a palpable energy being passed through one another and your movements should be performed with a strong sense of flow and fluidity.

EVALUATION OF EXERCISE:

Personally I believe that this exercise can be highly beneficial to training actors who need improvement in the areas of: spontaneity, interaction, interpretation and response. I found that through the course of this exercise I built integral and physical relationships with my partners, and this allowed me to interpret their physical movements efficiently and to respond in an appropriate way. Furthermore, in my opinion this exercise is very good, because it reads very well to an audience and a relationship between you and your partner can be conveyed to the audience very easily using this technique. 

However, I also believe that this exercise can be very restricting and confine an actor. This entire exercise consisted of NO organic movement whatsoever and instinctively I felt it was very choreographed. I found that the chairs were very restrictive and employed many limitations to the movements of me and my partners. Overall I thought that although the exercise was beneficial because it reads very well to an audience, it was not very emotionally engaging to watch, more artistic and experimental.

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Cuddles Exercise:

In partners you should both lay down flat on the floor next to one another. In this exercise one of you is the 'dominant' partner and the other is the 'submissive' partner. You make take it in turns to reverse these roles. You are essentially 'putting your partner to bed' by manipulating their body. The dominant partner of the 'manipulator' must use their body to find various different ways of manipulating their partners body, who can move but is so weak they cannot control their own physical movements. When you are the 'manipulator' you should play the objective 'To care for' and when you are the one being manipulated you should allow yourself to be maliable and moldable into whatever position that your partner chooses.

EVALUATION OF EXERCISE:

Personally I found this exercise very relaxing and calming. I believe when the benefits of this exercise are compared with the benefits of the 'Chair exercise' this exercise essentially fills in the gaps that were present in the 'Chair exercise.'

This exercise demonstrated a physical relationship between the two partners that was readable by an audience just as easily as the 'Chair exercise' had done, however in my opinion the 'Cuddles exercise' was much more emotionally engaging for both the audience and the training actors participating in the exercise. Also the movement was more organic in the 'Cuddles exercise' and a smaller more intimate gesture could be read very easily by an audience member miles away. Therefore, if i had to hypothetically theorise which of the two exercises were more beneficial to training actors i would have to choose the 'Cuddles exercise.'