physical theatre is the form of theatre that puts emphasis on movement rather then dialogue. It uses the human body as a centre of the story being told. This makes the style of physical theatre as abstract and using movement in a stylised and unusual way. little or no dialogue is used in physical theatre as the movement should represent what you are trying to show rather then expression of speech.
DV8
DV8 are one of the most know practitioners of physical theatre. they do this by having a main focus and finding potential in it through movement. there work has been described as a cross roads where dance, sound and drama meet. DV8 are well known for using diologue in there performances and exploring issues such as human relationships and social or cultrual issues. DV8 created a production of 'can we talk about this?' it is about multiculturalism, seperation adn militant islam. This is expressed by by the use of physical theatre to looked at complicated political issues.
Frantic assembly
frantic assembly is normally physical movement and dialogue combined as one. There company is seen as a scripted company with movement added into it. when the company performed lovesong they illustrated another level of physical theatre. Even though the company uses a huge amount of dialogue the managed to make a huge impact showing a relationship of a couple over the years. This is because they choose to represent an argument through movement instead of an argument actually taking place. It helps to see a more physical and engaging relationship.
Stylised movement
physical theatre isn't just about the movement as in dance it also could provide a scene by making your body shape become a form. for example becoming a piece of furniture or a busy street. when discussing this as a class we related to the beginning of Macbeth when they are discussing the battle and the witches trough dialogue. This could be created into an alternative visual performance by making the witches into puppeteers and controlling the action in the battle. This would make the performance more abstract.
we also discussed Steven Berkoff in the film he directed The Trial. Physical theatre is used to create the scene. For example a busy street or furniture in a room. The use of people creating everything allow it to be seen in a different way and have a very different impact of the audience and how they see it.
Combining art forms
Physical theatre is a focus on movement which can be separate or joint with speech to explore issue and themes. It can devised dialogue or physical theatre can be joint in with a script this helps to develope ideas way beyond what has been printed on paper. It works along side music, dance, media and visual images to help to make a new form of theatre to make it unrealistic. The audience can then see the performance in such a way and be connected to the character as they break the 4th wall and make them join in the action making the audience participation a stronger element of the piece.
Commedia
commedia dell'arte began in 16h century Italy. It was a popular form of street theatre based on improvised scenarios among stock characters. The character were usually master, servants or lovers. commedia is a very physcial form as all the character wore mask and relied on the body to create movement.
Techniques of Physical Theatre
MIME - this usually means stylised movement but can be comparatively realistic.
GESTURE - a gesture may be something small but can have emotional impact or it can be a particular movement that defines a character.
STATUS - this may be executed by use of levels or by distance or strength of contact, or a combination of all of these with voice work.
PROXIMITY - how close or far you are from your co-performers can be a source of very powerful impact. For example, the threatening gangster who speaks to his victim from a distance, or from a couple of inches away.
STANCE - this is associated with strength as the body could radiate assertion and authority or weakness by stance, incorporating posture.
HARSHNESS AND TENDERNESS - used here as umbrella terms to focus on the fact that in physical work the gestures and bigger movements come together to express the emotions of the piece.
MOVEMENT - every movement needs to be rehearsed with precision.
NOT MOVING - if the stage is full of characters moving, immobility can have a powerful effect.
MASK WORK - the impact of a mask is visual and without the facial features to show action, movement becomes an even more central performance instrument.
DANCE WORK - this doesn't need to be a 'dance', any movement relative to a dance style is useful in physical theatre.
MOTIF - this is repeated use of a movement pattern which has meaning and reminds us of the central theme of the work.
Contact Improvisation
This is a developed form of improvisation. where 2 people are working against each other. The interest is in the starting point and how the movement develops from that. The movement are meant to work together and helps to create an impact on an emotion.
There are three basic rules:
- to absorb an impulse by the partner
- to resist or ignore it
- to respond to it
03/03/15
After discussing Physical theatre and created note on them we were put into groups. my group was:
- Meg
- Freya
- Harry
- Toby
- Dan S
- Carl
- Ashley
As a group we had to create a physical theatre piece which had the theme of a religious argument or viewpoint. We began by researching different stories and which ones sounded interesting to explore and could be portrayed in the best way. We found many ideas but decided to go with the shooting in the Charlie Hebdo magazine printer as it was a global story known for effecting both families of the victims and those who belonged to the religion of the extremists. We wanted to look at how those in the religion of the killer was seen as the same as the killers.
In the research we found quote we could use for dialogue. This to make the view for the audience be more believable and to underdstand what was going on. we found the quotes:
"I have neither a wife nor children, not even a dog. But I'm not going to hide." This was a quote from Charbonnier, a french satirical caricaturist and journalist for Charlie Hebdo who had had his offices firebombed in 2012.
"We have avenged the Prophet Muhammed. We have killed Charlie Hebdo." These were the chants heard by witnesses to the crimes committed by the brothers who had carried out the terrorist attack.
We wanted to focus on how everyone in one religion is labelled the same as the ones who show the bad light and uses there gods name as a reason to kill. we wanted to show how it can hurt to be labeled in this way and how it can ruin there life. As a group we wanted to make clear to the audience that events such as this could effect them if different ways. It could help to make there faith stronger of it could make them lose faith in what they believe in.
To begin with Toby and harry came up with a physical representation of how peoples faith unravels as the story is told to the world. So at the beginning of the piece we start in the ball which is in the centre of the space and is made out of out bodies. As each part of the story is told about what happen the ball begins to unfold and bits/people begin to peel away. The first section which is peeled away involved Ashley and Harry this is because they were the reason that this terrorist attack happened as they were the brothers.
The first part of the story which is told was in the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine. Harry, Toby, Ashley and Dan all created the office chairs using there body. while Meg, Freya and Carl and I sat on them to create the office feel. While setting we created a movement to signify that we were all drawing for the magazine. This movement was done in unison. As this is happening a sound scape of the word charlie is being built this shows how successful they were and how much power they had. While the sound scape build a projection begin to appear which was the picture of Muhammad which is what caused the 2 brothers to go on there rampage. When the sound scape was built to is highest the worked 'Muhammad' is shouted by Freya. This creates the effect that she came up with the idea. Once is goes quite we return to the reputation ball and the first section peels away.
We then come out of the reputation ball again and create a park scene with out bodies. Meg and Carl became the set to the bench and Freya creates the back. Dan became a bin and Toby became a man putting rubbish into the bin. I was part of a tree which Toby later becomes part off. Ashley then enter and places his hand of Toby's shoulder moving him from his position with contact improvisation. This is where Toby leaves his position and joins me making part of the tree. Harry then enters and takes the place of where Toby was standing as Ashley stays frozen with his arm up. He then turns away from harry and harry touches his shoulder causing him to turn back and look into harry eyes. They then began shouting Charlie in unison this showed how they both believe it was right what they were going to do.
We then returned to the reputation ball. While we are in the ball the brothers are covering up the face of Muhammad as they believe it shouldn't have been drawn and is a sign of disrespect. This is when more of the ball peels away (Dan and Carl) showing how more is unraveling. once they have left the centre of the ball explodes creating a ripple effect showing how the magazine was just blown apart by what happened. We all then rise from the ground and freeze in a space.
The brothers then entered taking each person down one at a time using different types of movements as they went. This included lifts, falls and showed the shouting in a way that made the audience have time to think about what was going on. Once each one of us had fallen we all rose and stood in a line this was to represent the amount of people that good shot. Harry and Ashley then walked along the line having the finger represent a gun and touching us all in a different place they then tapped Freya and we all feel. This was to show how it was an execution.
We then return to the ball where Freya and Meg peel away leaving me and Toby in the middle. The newspaper atricle the appears of the event. This is when me and Toby push of each other leaving the ball to create the final scene. It begins with the 2 brother standing in the centre and showing how they had power as we (police force) all run at them and can't get to them like there is a force field around them. Each time we strike getting faster and faster until we are pushed so far back that we go down. All of us then rise towards there shield like we are attracted and get stuck to it banging and kicking trying to get in. They then take there final strike which causes us to ripple back as is we are defeated.We then all push back at once causing them to fall.
We finally return to the reputation ball where I finally leave which means only Toby is left. He then gets to his feet when Harry begins 'We have avenged the prophet Muhammad' Ashley following with 'we have killed charlie hebdo'. We then begin to build up with different phrases for example 'look at you religion it's a joke' and you killed my sister'. This is making out as we are in Toby's head and were making him believe he had done wrong when really it isn't. It is only a reputation put on him by others. This continues until he shouts 'Je Suis Charlie'. This represents that he is sorry for what was done and disagrees with what these Muslims had take part in.
Through out the whole piece the song Once upon a time by The battle of life and death
Evaluation
If we did this performance again we would need to make sure we stay in time with the music because in the performance we didn't and had to wait to carry out different scenes and we had to wait for the music to restart. I liked using physical theatre as is expressed a point but in a way that doesn't effect the audience and makes the interested rather then feeling emotional and get disheartened by what is happening. We also could have made the final defeat of the brothers cleaner when we were running at them as at point we bumped into each other and weren't sure when to go.
2nd performance
In our second performance we did not have a specific theme but we had a stimulus and we had to use dialogue in the piece. So we decided our performance was going to be about where different paths can take us. It always shows the 2 different sides of life the good path and the bad path. In my group I had:
- Freya
- Dan
- Liam
- Kyle
- Harry
- Kai
- Ali
We started with Liam and Kyle standing one behind the other in the middle. Then the rest of the group was split into 2 we had Kai, Harry and Ali on the good path being on one side of the space and Freya, Dan and myself. when the music started on our side we did a series of movements to signify doing wrong this include this included drinking fighting smoking and doing drugs this repeated four times it started with Freya, then me, then Dan and on the last time we all do it finishing with us facing away from the middle. On the other side starting with Harry then Kai then Ali they do a series of movement which involved being good. They did movements such as smartening them selves up and going through a door getting to work early.
Once we were all facing outwards kyle and Liam recited the line 'society offers you temptations its up to you wheather you take them or not'. Then everyone else repeated it.
Then me from the bad side grabbing liam and Kai from the good side grabbing Liam we rock to the beat of the music 2 time as we are trying to pull them apart. Then Freya joins my side and Harry on Kai's and this repeated. Then it repeats again with Dan and Ali finally joining in and Kyle and Liam finally split. We then start the 4 beat movement with them beginning to pick up the habits of the path they have gone down.
They then both step forward and answer the phone saying 'I'm interested in joining your buisness.' They both then turn and face each other as if getting ready for an interview and then both turn towards their new bosses office. Kyle enters a work place where Kai is is smart sophisticated boss and welcomes him with a firm handshake. Where is Liam turns around into an office with me shaking his hand in an unsophisticated way where very relaxed and don't care because I'm in the drug buisness. We then freeze and Kai,harry, Ali and kyle and they produced a clip of kyle working in his office getting on with his work. Then they freeze and on the bad side we create a drug den this involved me being the table in which Liam is sniffing cocaine off of then Dan is smoking and Freya is injecting herself this shows where his life was going.
Harry and dan become door on which Liam and kyle stood on opposite sides to there bosses. Starting with Kai knocking on kyles door to his office he asks for paper work then get kyle to leave the office with him. Then it goes to the bad side where Freya and myself knock on Liam's door asking fro drug money which he doesn't have so we take him with us.
The pair of then join again in the middle as if looking at each other while it goes back and fourth from each side with different phrases from both sides. On the bad side there are statements such as 'how do I get out of this' and 'I can't get out off this' and on the good side 'this is going to be a good day'.
Kyle then leaves Liam standing in the middle on his own then one by one we all go put pressure on Liam saying different word such a 'pain 'hurt' 'suffer' until we push him to the floor. We then pull him up right and then all let go letting him drop to the floor.
Finally we all fast walked across the stage crossing each other as kyle slowly passes us gradually reaching success until he punches his fist and every thing stops.
Evaluation
We needed to improve the performance by making it slightly longer throughout to not make the ending to long as we had to run around a lot longer and this could have become boring for people watchimg. We also could have improved to makig each of the changes between the physical positions cleaner this is to make the overall piece look smoother. However it went well when everything went in unison nicely and showed how well we worked together.
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