We were introduced to the works of Peter Brook, an English theatre and film director, who influences and plays a big part in theatre today, with his ideology that theatre has two rules:
1) Anything can happen.
2) something must happen.
After the introduction of Peter Brook we started with class activities, as a class standing in a square with spaces at each corner as an exit and entrance. First there were variations of placements of a chair in the square, from different areas, to new ways of the position of the chair can be in. We then listened to other peoples interpretation of what we think the position of the chair can tell us about a performance before it started in terms of mood, themes etc. We then added a person and a chair in the middle in different positions, each time gave our interpretations again. Moving on to the more physical activity called "Lets all..." in tern we gave a suggestion, for example 'lets all pretend we are jumping frogs', then we would act out what the suggestion was as a group until the next person made another suggestion. In doing so we all learnt to listen to others recommendations and working in an ensemble together.
We carried on rehearsing activities that would allow us to work in an ensemble as for our future Unit 3 exam we would need to do so. Another activity we did in lesson was where we were in groups of four with a stimulus, which was a newspaper in this case. This newspaper to every individual in the group could be anything that person wanted it to be, from a tennis racket to exam results. However the person holding the newspaper in the group was in charge of what it could be and the other group members would have to go along and improvise with them whether they disagreed with them or not.
Next improvisation was carried on in an activity called 'Freeze' where we were in a circle and there were two people in the middle improvising whatever they wanted. Then if someone wanted to enter as they had their own idea or felt as though they wanted to improve the improvisation they would shout 'freeze' and tap out the person who was there the longest to change the situation and carry the improvisation on. What was learnt from this activity was that every idea had to be respected and played along with even if you may of disliked the idea or felt uncomfortable, so that you could avoid disruption or a noticeable break in the improvisation. This sort of activity could also help in future performances if people in your group forget lines or stumble you can easily help and pick up the pace of the performance and make the mistake unrecognisable.
Lastly we were in groups of five and had to work on performing a beginning of a chosen fairy tale, for example, in my group we chose Cinderella, and we had to use what we learnt in the lesson in our performance. We used the positioning of the chair to signify status change in the beginning of the story with the dad sitting on the chair and ending with the step mother. Also with the positioning of characters to portray status, for example, Cinderella on the floor at the end of the performance because she starts off in the fairy tale with the lowest status in the family.
1) Anything can happen.
2) something must happen.
After the introduction of Peter Brook we started with class activities, as a class standing in a square with spaces at each corner as an exit and entrance. First there were variations of placements of a chair in the square, from different areas, to new ways of the position of the chair can be in. We then listened to other peoples interpretation of what we think the position of the chair can tell us about a performance before it started in terms of mood, themes etc. We then added a person and a chair in the middle in different positions, each time gave our interpretations again. Moving on to the more physical activity called "Lets all..." in tern we gave a suggestion, for example 'lets all pretend we are jumping frogs', then we would act out what the suggestion was as a group until the next person made another suggestion. In doing so we all learnt to listen to others recommendations and working in an ensemble together.
We carried on rehearsing activities that would allow us to work in an ensemble as for our future Unit 3 exam we would need to do so. Another activity we did in lesson was where we were in groups of four with a stimulus, which was a newspaper in this case. This newspaper to every individual in the group could be anything that person wanted it to be, from a tennis racket to exam results. However the person holding the newspaper in the group was in charge of what it could be and the other group members would have to go along and improvise with them whether they disagreed with them or not.
Next improvisation was carried on in an activity called 'Freeze' where we were in a circle and there were two people in the middle improvising whatever they wanted. Then if someone wanted to enter as they had their own idea or felt as though they wanted to improve the improvisation they would shout 'freeze' and tap out the person who was there the longest to change the situation and carry the improvisation on. What was learnt from this activity was that every idea had to be respected and played along with even if you may of disliked the idea or felt uncomfortable, so that you could avoid disruption or a noticeable break in the improvisation. This sort of activity could also help in future performances if people in your group forget lines or stumble you can easily help and pick up the pace of the performance and make the mistake unrecognisable.
Lastly we were in groups of five and had to work on performing a beginning of a chosen fairy tale, for example, in my group we chose Cinderella, and we had to use what we learnt in the lesson in our performance. We used the positioning of the chair to signify status change in the beginning of the story with the dad sitting on the chair and ending with the step mother. Also with the positioning of characters to portray status, for example, Cinderella on the floor at the end of the performance because she starts off in the fairy tale with the lowest status in the family.
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