Laying the Foundations March 26, 2007
Posted by norwood in : Uncategorized , trackbackThe process of creating theatre is something else, isn’t it? Taking one simple idea and fleshing it out to create a dreamlike world in which some kind of social or political message that the artist is passionate about begins to emerge is wonderful to behold. That’s what’s happening with my guys at the moment - it’s wonderful to see their eyes light up at the possiblity of creating something original and really entertaining. Creating characters to fit into this world of the ensemble was our next port of call, and we began this the other day. Using some Stanislavskian approaches to stepping into some possible characters, the students created scenes around these people and scenes began to take shape. The characters were terrific and genuine, but it’s become clear though that unless there is solid research material on which to base these scenes, they risk becoming watered-down panto and this is not what we want to see happen. We got to keep researching and deepening our understanding of the social and political contexts of these styles and genres of music.
What i’d like to see happen more from this point on is the following two things (apart from the guys just really pumping out some great work!): 1. The students becomming less satisfied with near enough is good enough and repeating, refining, rehearsing, recycling, reusing, improving, improvising, adapting, changing and basically hammering out ideas until something really authentic pops out and 2. More PLAY. I want to give the students more and more time to explore ideas by pretending they’re back at kindy and acting out these characters in a whole range of scenarios. I really think we need to validate play and allow time and space to be kids again - out of this sometimes comes the freedom of ideas that is often quenched in a school environment. So, guys, when you read - try to remember what it was like to ‘play’ - Wasn’t it fun?
We really need to sink our teeth into the project now team - remember our goal of what we were going to have completed by the holidays? That’s this weeks work!
BRING IT!
M
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