Berkoff in relation to black mime theatre

Berkoff in comparion to Black MimeTheatre

Initially, the differences between Berkoff and Black Mime Theatre
seem truly emmence. Berkoff was born in London in 1937, yet the BMT was
not founded until 1984, (ironically by two white people). However, as
you delve deeper into the principles and values of Berkoff and BMT one
can see many similarities between the two.
The BMT's motto is said to be, " To create opportunities for
black actors in the field of mime" which truthfully has very little
relevance to Berkoff's, "Total Theatre" or indeed his plays, yet the
acting styles of both art forms are similar. The BMT uses cultural
experiences of individual actors to devise a piece that is both
physically and emotionally strong; however it is through the
relationship between the actor and audience where similarities lie.
Through pieces such as 'Mothers' and 'Total Rethink' the audience's
involvement is obvious. Shouting and laughter can be heard throughout
the play as the actors explore serious themes such as the obstacles of
race and sex to life. This is done in a serious yet often humorous way;
we find ourselves laughing at humorous moments that socially breaks
taboo creating a sense of discomfort. This audience relationship is
something that Berkoff tried to embed is his, "Total Theatre". Berkoff
claimed that theatre should be more than a simplistic show and become a
live experience where audience relationship is intimate. Whether or not
Berkoff achieved this to the extent BMT has is questionable. Berkoff's
earlier work were adaptations of Franz Kafka's nightmarish plays which
sometimes alienated the audience, as the characters and themes were so
bizarre; for example Metamorphosis.
Similarities also lie between BMT and Berkoff in the general
field of mime. Berkoff trained in drama and mime in both London and
Paris. Whereas we would assume Berkoff would inevitably be wearing
stripey jumpers and gloves pretending to exit a box, this training
appears to have reflected elements of black mime theatre. Throughout
Metamorphosis we see Berkoff miming objects in a robotic fashion, (to
explore Gregor's repetitive routine and Kafka's nightmarish theme) as
well as creating sounds through both body and mouth; something which
has been witnessed in many of the Black mime performances. However
Berkoff's use of sounds appears to be less complicated, as performances
such as, "Total Rethink"; by the women's troop, becomes confusing
with an over usage of sounds.
Suprisingly verbal Language appears to be another similarity
between BMT and Berkoff's own unique style, yet it is one that has been
discovered to be relevant. The words used in the BMT's performances
appear to be senseless, simple emphasising the character. Yet these
words can be interpreted in other ways. This can be seen through the
repetitive screeching of dad throughout in, 'Total Rethink' these words
may not necessarily mean a child calling for its dad, but the
insecurity the child feels around its new mother; plus his inability to
grow up and develop new relationships. Berkoff uses language to much
the same affect. The grunting noises made by Gregor show not just his
transformation into a beetle, but his mental and physical breakdown
after years of his family relying on him. This technique builds upon
the themes of the play as well as emphasising the actor/audience
relationship.
Gestus and physicality plays a vital part for both Black Mime
Theatre and Berkoff. As both use mime, expression and clarity; whether
it be from the body or from sounds is vital. Therefore, to ensure the
audience understands the motifs of the play; (this technique can also
be used to create comedy), exaggerated physicalities are often used.
This technique allows the audience to understand the characters
emotions and feelings. This attributes to the the audience and actor
relationship.
Overall, there appears to be an increasing similarity between
Berkoff and BMT. Both artists use similar techniques to create a visual
spectacular for the audience, even if their overall intentions are
different. BMT is determined for black awareness and a chance for a new
art from to flourish, whereas Berkoff wants to create a new theatre
similar to the Victorians Visual spectacular. However, both have a
drive to change the way we perceive modern theatre.

week 4 summary

Week 4-theory summary
Hello people. This is a brief summary of the theory material we sifted
through in week 4-the lovely Jahvell is going to be talking about the
practical stuff at some point.

Well I think we can all agree that Mothers was a far superior piece to
its predecessor Total Rethink. Not only did we finally understand what
was going on in terms of plot, but thankfully the actual mime movements
were far more skilled and precise. We discussed how the humour seemed a
lot more sensible, as if it served a purpose rather than being strictly
slapstick and although they combined elements of dance and song, the
overall performance was focussed and clear. They interacted with the
audience for example when they broke into 1950's style love song which
challenged the idea of mime having to be a linear piece and also maybe
took a bit of a piss take of the typical 'male' slow jams that men use
to woo their ladies or perhaps gentleman. Last time they continuously
used the same sound with every movement so it became incredibly
difficult to establish what was going on. With Mothers, they seem to
have developed their sound effect range when performing certain
movements.

With all the improvements they made, we all understood the theme of the
piece was mother/daughter relationships and how that cycle continues
through generations, yet we must consider the way in which they combine
the use of speech and mime to convey their points. Yes we understood
the play but they did use a lot of speech to make sure of this. We must
consider whether the use of speech in fact muddies the act of the mime.
Is the act of mime a mime if it uses verbal communication or is it just
an imitation of physical theatre? Or perhaps to the contrary, it's just
a development, a nod to the insular Marcel Marceau type but a modern
take tailored to a point where an audience who isn't necessarily used
to traditional theatre techniques can understand and enjoy. We also
went on to discuss the importance of the use of stereotypes and whether
they succeed in using them to attack stereotypes or whether they in
actual fact undermine what they are trying to do by never allowing the
characters to develop.

Now to consider the socio-political aspects of the work. Denise Wong
often talked about the importance of the black British or Binglish
identity and surely the act of being a strictly women's troop under the
name Black Mime Theatre offers the idea of fighting preconceptions of
race and gender. Well that's up for debate. The act of mime being
performed by both a black person and a female person in itself is a
kind of radical action. It goes against all of the stereotypes and
conventions that we ourselves attached to mime at the beginning of the
course i.e.: white faced, French men in stripy uniforms. However saying
this, I think the consensus within in the group was that while the play
discussed the daily lives of women, it wasn't overtly feminist-banners
waving and fighting for equality-it was just a comment, a sketch of the
lives of some women. It must also be mentioned that race barely came
into the equation. Yes the performers happened to be black and yes they
used generic Caribbean accents but the activities and the situations
were not race specific. It appealed to all.

Naomi George

A quick-ish re-cap of week 1, to jog our memories. Part 1

Try to cast your mind back, back to a time when we were freshers and
everything seemed so new and scary!

The date is 29th September and Contemporary Theatremaking Group A has
just made it's way into the studio theatre in Sutherland House. We look
each other up and down, trying to guage whether or not we can talk to
each other without fearing some major lashback.

ahhh...wasn't that nice?

If you remember we started the lesson with a bit of a sit down, and
going round the group teaching Lynette our names (as we had already
burned the names of everyone on to our minds, and had no need to learn
them!)

from her on, because it was a few weeks ago now, the order of things
might get messed up somewhat.

Lynette introduced the course, and also introduced the majority, if not
all the group to a theatre company called 'Black Mime Theatre Co.'

Lynette, having previously worked with BMT as we came to call it, had
chosen them due to the nature of her particular interests in black
theatre, and feminist theatre.

BMT was formed in 1984 by interestingly two white people, Sarah Cahn,
andd David Boxer, in order to encourage Black artists in mime.
It was thought that black theatre would break conventions, possibly
create a feeling of ritualistic experience, that is, the audience
'joined in communion' with the stage.
Black Mime would be a minority theatre group, and being so, would raise
awareness of issues in that minority.
BMT would provoke, by upsetting the audience assumptions of a
performance, for example, a black actor portraying a traditionally
white role.

We then moved on to look a bit at what mime is.

The two terms the class settled with were:

Creating an object using the body and imagination.
&
Telling a story by replacing the words with physical movement and
actions.

We considered the stereotypes of mime artists, with stripey jumpers,
white faces, white gloves, invisible walls, and traditionally outside.
Silent.
The performance of mime is centred on impressions rather than a
story-line or plot. and it is often considered to be cartoon-esque,
with exaggerated movements.
It was seen as street performance, in a minimalist style, possibly a
musical accompaniment. and typically french, with highlight on Marcel
Marceau.

BMT went against the classical view of the white faces, gloves, silence
and french, into an energised performance with song, dance, movement
and radically dialogue or text.

Denise Wong referred to their work as Sketch Book. Broad vrush-strokes
being made by the actors, to make it simple.
It doesn't require a lot of previous knowledge of the history of the
performers, thus making it accessible to all.

The classic BMT way of devising a performance would be to devise and
devise and improvise. so the troupe of actors would come together and
simply play around with their own idea's and improvisations, until
about two weeks before a performance they would settle on the pieces
they would keep and rehearse those, but always allowing extra
improvistions to creep in, even on the night of the performance.

BMT would also use cross gendered performance, so men would play women,
women play men, in order to emphasise the performance, or make the
audience awaree of an issue.

Thats part 1 over, in the second part i will look at the video of
'Mantrail' that we watched, which gave us our first glimpse of BMT
men's troupe.

James Ellin

A quick note on BMT’s work in relation to Trestle by Helen

One can instantly compare Trestle's work to that of BMT. Firstly, both
are very physical in their performances and seek to present the
norm/dominant or stereotypical view in contrasting ways. This can be
seen in Trestle recreating a classic Indian Love Story in 'Little
India' and BMT in 'Total Rethink', exploring the Hollywood genre. Both
also appear to include songs and music. However, from what I have so
far researched, BMT seems to be that little bit more provocative in
exploring serious subjects such as: schizophrenia, alcohol abuse,
violence etc. In my opinion, Trestle has more of a structure (less
focused on themes) than BMT in telling the story of Lola Montez, the
infamous 19th century fake Spanish dancer. The fragmentation, so common
to BMT's style, is one of the key differences which sets the two
companies apart.

Jacques Lecoq by Julia Paynton

Jacques Lecoq
Born: 15th December 1921 in Paris, France
Death: 19th January 1999 in Paris, France age 77 of an apparent
cerebral haemorrhage

Lecoq was a French actor, mime, and acting teacher, specialising
particularly in Physical theatre, movement and mime. He went on to
start the drama school 'l'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques
Lecoq' in Paris and teach there from 1956 until his death.
He started his career in teaching physical education. By 1945 Lecoq
had formed a drama group with Gabriel Cousin, but soon went on to join
Jean Dasté's theatre company 'Comédiens de Grenoble' where he taught
physical training and body movement to the other actors. Here he became
interested in masks and looked at the ideas of Copeau, a renowned
actor, author, and theatre producer.
Lecoq moved to Italy in 1948 for eight years, staging pantomimes,
researching and experimenting with masks. He also developed into
working as a director and choreographer, and worked with people such as
Dario Fo, Franco Parenti, Luciano Berio, and Anna Magnani. He returned
to Paris and opened his own school in 1956, whilst also setting up his
own theatre company, working at the National Popular Theatre, and
working on television.
He also taught in the French school of fine arts from 1968 to 1988,
developing a teaching programme on architecture based on the human
body, movement and the 'dynamics of mime'. He founded the schools stage
design department in 1977. Lecoq was also a member of the Union of
Theatre of Europe often touring around the world giving speeches,
master classes, and lectures about his ideas and research in theatre.

Mime:
Lecoq was considered more as a renowned teacher of mime (or corporeal
expression as he often called it), rather than a performer. He taught
his students through strenuous physical and emotional exercises trying
to move them to discover "open mime" as he was not an admirer of the
usual French mime trends of the time which was "enclosed in it's own
silence". This is similar to BMT's view on mime, where they look
outside the conventional stereotype of silent, striped jumper, white
faced mime. Lecoq thought that mime wasn't an imitation, or a virtuoso
or genius technique; he taught that it needed to indeed be disciplined
and stylised, but it also could be spontaneous and playful, and "liberate the body".

Julia Paynton

>
>hope this is useful, julia
>

overview of Trestle by Helen

'Trestle' by Helen Carr

Origins and style of the company:
• Founded in 1981 by four students from Middlesex University: Sally
Cook, Alan Riley, Toby Wilsher and Joff Chafer, with the help of their
course tutor, John Wright.
• Trestle's style can be defined as distinctive with the use of masks,
puppets and music.
• They went on to become one of Britain's leading touring theatre
companies.

Where they are based:
• In April 2002, after 20 years of just touring, the Company moved into
Trestle Arts Base, a £2,000,000 refurbishment of the Old Hill End
Hospital Chapel in St Albans, Hertfordshire. As well as providing the
Company with its first ever permanent home, Trestle Arts Base has
gained its own reputation as a successful performing arts centre.

Recently:
• After the departure of Toby Wilsher in 2004 (the last remaining
founding Artistic Director), and Emily Gray was appointed as the new
Artistic Director, the company began to collaborate with local,
national and international artists to create physical storytelling
theatre with diverse cultural expression.
• Little India (2007) was Trestle's first unmasked production.Working
with the Indian theatre company Little Jasmine, Trestle recreated a
telling of a classic Indian love story for a contemporary audience,
using traditional Indian martial art (kalari), music and storytelling.
• This year, Trestle is working with Barcelona-based dance company
Increpación Danza to develop a theatre flamenco dance fusion to tell
the story of Lola Montez; the infamous 19th century fake Spanish
dancer. Vicky Anderson, reviewer of 'The Liverpool Post' commented that
it was 'Inventive and imaginative, stripped-down, yet rich and
evocative, fantastical yet completely convincing every step of the way,
it was as effortlessly enjoyable as it was a challenging piece to take
in.'
• Later this year a collaboration with Polish vocal and physical
theatre artists will develop a piece that explores how music is used as
a language of identity amongst shifting cultural influences and
allegiances.

Bibliography:
•
http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/theatre/2004/03/trestle_theatre.shtml
• http://www.trestle.org.uk (official website)
•
http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-life-features/liverpool-arts/2008/10/06/trestle-theatre-company-s-lola-an-inventive-and-imaginative-triumph-at-unity-theatre-liverpool-64375-21973239/

Leonie Elliott-Graves

Summary of reviews for Forgotten Heroes

Most of the reviews commented on the diversity in this performance
ranging from dancing to miming to talking which produced an interesting
vibrant result. Moreover most of them commented positively on the
switch of moods from hilariously comic to chillingly sad. However,
quite a few critics complained about the lack of structure in the
performance which made it difficult to follow and meant that the themes
were not developed in enough depth. Nevertheless, this performance was
considered electric, energetic, diverse, interesting, powerful, witty
and accessible by the critics.
A lot of importance was placed on the theme of the performance
which is the male stereotypes of strength and masculinity which black
men suffer from. This performance explored how the sensitivity of men
is repressed from a young age in order for them to grow up according to
the oppressive stereotypes that have been imposed by society. The group
presents how this can lead to violent unloving men. However, the women
in this performance are not presented favourably either but are shown
to increase the difficulties the men have to face by supporting the
macho stereotypes one time and condemning them the other. The
performance has been praised by all the reviews for its effort but also
for its success in presenting such a complex and subtle issue.

Leonie Eliott-Graves
Summary of week 3 reading: Govan et al Making a performance

Roots of Somatic Practice
• Contemporary physical practices have been influenced by early
twentieth –century dance, mime, and
theatre and circus practices.
• They have also been inspired by socio-political, cultural and
anthropological experiences
• Much of this work places great importance on personal expression
• The idea of the 'experienced body' is central in this article as it
is central to many physical performance makers. This leads to a
performance which is really made by the whole group or company and
which is not just performed.
• Physical based performances also use psychophysical responses in the
training in order for the bodies of the performers to be able to
present complex issues effectively.
• It is also important to note that "Lecturer and practitioner Dymphna
suggests that physical performance started as part of a shift away from
Stanislavskian approaches to actor training and towards devising
performance 'through the body'" This article, therefore, also
supports the idea of a clear distinction between conventional and
physical performance.
• Many practitioners of physical performance focus on the body in order
to explore the capabilities and limits of the body and to celebrate the
athletic body.
• However in many physical performances the frailty of the human body
is also explored.
• There are many similarities between physical performance and the
circus traditions especially concerning the idea of the power and
limitations of the human body.
• In physical performance as is the case in circus performances there
is often a role reversal between the men and the women, which breaks
the gender stereotypes (this was true also in the BMT's performance
Total Rethink).
• It is very difficult to define physical theatre because we are unable
to group together identical characteristics as this practice is very
diverse. However the article refers to Dymphna Callery who suggests a
few common characteristics of physical performances such as: "the actor
as creator; collaborative working methods; the work is somatically
lead; an open actor- audience relationship; and importance of live-ness
to the work. All we can say therefore is that the end of the twentieth
century saw a rise in physical based performance influenced by dance,
mime, circus and theatre practices of that century.

The inside body
• There is an idea presented in this article about the body as a
holistic entity, which suggests that the body's physical and
psychological parts are connected and inseparable. This idea also
implies that the body is vitally important concerning human experience,
and also that the body has the tendency to act as a whole entity and
not in separate parts. This idea has become central to many
practitioners of physical based performance who have also looked to
Eastern theatre and martial arts in order to develop this strong bond
between mind and body.
The living body
• The idea of the experienced body is also developed in the article.
This idea suggests that the human body feels and remembers human
experiences and that physical performers should recall these imprinted
experiences and reproduces them in the performance.
• An important point to quote from the text is that: "the body is a
product of social and historical modes; it is able to both read and
respond to the environment around it".

The extraordinary body

• Many physical performances are concerned with the imprinting of the
human experiences onto the human body.
• There are some companies such as Goat Island who intermix the able
with the disabled bodies in their performances as well as the ordinary
together with the extraordinary and thus make a complete representation
of the human body and its experiences.
How many of the ideas presented were found in the performance of
Total Rethink seen in class:
• Gender swapping was evident in the performance
• Elements of the circus tradition where also evident(mainly the gender
switching)
• Performance was definitely centered on the body although language was
used to communicate subtler messages.
• However it did not seem like the performance was exploring or
celebrating the potential and strength of the human body. The
performers did not seem to be pushing their bodies to their limits.
• The work, also, did not seem to be that collaborative and there were
hints that it was a one sided creation followed by the others.
• There wasn't evidence of an open performer-audience relationship. In
fact the group performed to the audience in a rather conventional way
with the audience not seeming to partake in the performance.

Summary of Week 3

This seminar could, similarly to last week, be divided in to two
halves; the first consisted of watching the video of "Total Rethink"
performed by the women's troop, which we then went on to analyse, while
the second half consisted of practical exercises relating to mime.

After watching the video, many points were raised and these were as
follows:
· Many people commented that, after reading the reviews, the production
was different to their expectations in that it was not as horrific.
· It was also suggested that the use of humour made the portrayal of
death more disturbing.
· We discussed that we may have expected the subject of the performance
to be more serious, due to knowledge of Black Mime Theatre's other work.
· Everyone recognised the use of Black Mime Theatre's comic strip style
showing violence and that in this production, the focus appeared to be
more on gender rather than being concerned with the issue of race.
· Many people agreed with the comment that at times the dialogue was
inaudible and that many moments of the performance needed more clarity,
particularly as in this performance, speech played an important role.
· It was suggested that by using so much speech and making this a key
aspect in understanding the performance, it was not a true mime but
rather a poor attempt at a play. This comment was in agreement with the
"Relationship of mime and words" article that we considered.
· It was also felt that at times the mime was not precise enough, often
with the same sounds being used to indicate different actions and
therefore leading to confusion.
· It was also thought that some of this confusion might have arisen
from the fact that there was often a lot of action taking place on
stage, with the actors each doing different things, making it harder to
follow.
· We thought that the performance lacked the 'performance/ audience'
relationship which breaks down the fourth wall, but also considered
that possibly this could not be fairly judged, as we did not see the
live performance.
· Many people believed that the performance portrayed an extremely
cynical view of a sexist and patriarchal society, but also considered
that this might be an unfair view, as we saw the performance many years
after it was devised.
· It was suggested that the performance also still had some relevance
to modern society, due to the comment it made about Hollywood films and
violence.

After discussing this video and articles, we then moved on to practical
exercises, the first of which involved lying on the floor while tensing
and relaxing our bodies. We concentrated on our breathing and on
finding our 'neutral' state. Afterwards we discussed the usefulness of
this exercise and the following comments were made:
· That the exercise made it easier to find our 'neutral' state and that
it made it easier to understand the concept of it
· That it helped to relax our bodies properly and clear our minds of
anything except finding our 'neutral'.

After this, we did a similar exercise while standing, as we jogged and
then attempted to return back to our 'neutral' position. The following
comments were made when discussing this:
· Many people agreed that they found it easier to adopt the 'neutral'
state when lying down and that getting back in to it after jogging was
more difficult than expected.
· However, it was also suggested that the more we practiced this, the
easier it became.

Following on from this, was the exercise in which we made
mechanical-like movements, while imagining we were robots. We began to
move around the room and when in pairs, one person controlled the other
while they continued to imagine themselves as robots. The subsequent
comments were made about this at the end of the seminar:
· That it made us more aware of the control we were exerting over our
bodies, by madding our movements so precise and mechanical. Also that
we had to be particularly aware of the people around us, so as to not
bang in to them.

We then did an exercise that involved everyone miming a ball, of any
kind, and bouncing or playing with it. We also then mimed playing with
this ball in pairs, playing various sports. When discussing it
afterwards, many comments were made about the exercise:
· Many people observed how difficult it was to mime the ball, when
imagining the size and speed of it. It was also pointed out that this
was made increasingly difficult when in pairs, as we had to be
constantly aware of when the other person was reacting and how,
particularly how fast they imagined the ball to be travelling. This
therefore made the mime more difficult to maintain.

Finally, we did an exercise that involved us sitting in groups and
miming the wrapping giving and unwrapping of different presents. We
each mimed the creation of a present for the next person, who would
then mime changing this in to something new. The following observations
we made:
· Many people found it difficult to mime the object and found that they
needed to use quite exaggerated gestures in order to make it obvious
· Often words would start creeping in to our mime, so as to help us
explain what the object was in more detail.

In conclusion, this week we looked at an example of devised theatre in
the form of the video "Total Rethink", which had good and bad points to
it, before then using the practical exercises to try to use mime
ourselves, with both parts of the seminar being useful in developing
our view of mime.

Kerry Edwards

Response to Lesson 2 Blog by P..

Just my thoughts about the definition of devised theatre as discussed
in this lesson.

I think the definition and understanding of "devised" theatre is quite
a complex one. I believe this due to definition of "devised" often
being an opposition to "scripted", the complexity of standard
definition is stressed when you think " through the rehearsal process
of companies such as BMT, are their actions and ideas not recorded and
listed during rehearsals then put into a chronological order - thus
creating a script?" to me it seems that true devised theatre with no
script is one that is created on the spot and performed shortly
thereafter with no "rehearsal process" to speak of. This idea being
more of an improvisation then any other form brings me to the
conclusion that true devised theatre is improvisation, with any thing
else being just a contorted view of theatre makers trying to be
unconventional but still relying on conventional means such as
rehearsing and a compilation of ideas and actions over a period of time
that will be performed.

Jahvel.

comments on last weeks session

Last week's session was interesting due to a number of reasons.
Firstly, despite all members of the group reading the same articles, a
number of different comments were brought to light (as outlined below
by Panagiotis). Some important factors may have been missed if we had
just read the articles ourselves and then not discussed them together
in more detail. Many people interpretated the same passage in different
ways.

Secondly, the practical exercises we carried out were very useful. On
the surface, they helped us to learn each others names (although how
many of these name were committed to long term memory we will find out
on Monday). However, underpinning this was the idea of trust, something
which will be essential in preparing and performing our group project
based on BMT. Through the machine exercise and 'zip/zap\boing' game' we
could grow comfortable in each others presence and relax. Similarly,
towards the end of the lesson we attempted to create a house together
through mine. This was a true indication of the difficulties that we
would encounter later, such as: remembering where each door was and
where people at placed objects in the room. On the other hand, it also
became clear to me that working on our group projects together will
also be an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Helen

Summary Class 2 By Panagiotis

Contemporary Theatremaking: Week Two

Hello everyone! Let us summarize what events took place in this week’s seminar. This week, the seminar could be separated in two halves. The first one is the, should we say, “theoretical half”, while the second is the “practical half”. We should note that for this week’s seminar, we had to read two articles concerning Devised Theatre, as this week’s general theme was Devised Theatre.

So, starting with the “theoretical” first half, we should talk about the articles. The first one is an extract from the book “Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook”, by Alison Oddey, while the second one was from the book “Making a Performance: Devising Histories and Contemporary Practices”, by Emma Govan, Helen Nicholson and Katie Normington. In the beginning of the seminar, groups of four and five students were assigned, in order to talk about the two articles, and then, the groups shared each one, its ideas with the others. So, below are the main points raised in today’s seminar, concerning Devised Theatre.

· We can not produce a single clear cut definition for what Devised Theatre is, because every theatre company uses its own methods, but an accurate enough definition would be that the Devised Theatre includes four basic points: 1) A process with which a team can merge and interpret its ideas, and produce a play, 2) Collaboration between all members towards the production, 3) Multivision concerning the various views, opinions and beliefs by members of the team, and finally 4) Creation of an artistic product, through the use of these ideas, beliefs, etc.

· The Devised Theatre as a genre did not began in the 1960’s and 70’s, but it is however this period the one in which it grew in size and variety.

· Reasons for this expansion at that certain period are the various liberation movements that found a voice at that period, such as the feminist and the civil rights movements, whose views are often expressed in Devised Theatre. Also, the ever growing experimentation in arts that took place back then, also aided in the expansion of a different form of theatre, other than the normal text-based theatre. Also, the bigger leap towards democracy at that time can also be echoed in Devised Theatre, where there is democracy in the way that the play is produced, by all of the performers putting down their ideas and integrating them into the play.

· Due to economy reasons mostly, in the 1990’s most of the Devised Theatre companies have adopted a system where they keep some people for the key posts in the company, and then hire performers to participate (because it would be far more expensive to maintain a contract with all of them), and this results to less democracy between the group members.

· In Devised Theatre, everyone contributes with ideas (which are usually affected by his/her own experiences, beliefs, etc) towards the production of a play. Also, everyone in the group must be “multi talented”, with knowledge in technical areas such as lighting and dressing, which in general can be described as versatility from the part of each of the members of a group, in distinction with text-based theatre, where the play is already there, with the playwright giving the ideas, the director the interpretation, and the actors only the performance. Also, in text-based theatre, there are already members of staff each chosen for a particular technical task, which means that no such versatility is demanded from the performers’ part.

· The aim of Devising Theatre is usually to address political, educational and artistic issues.

· There is a distinction between Devised Theatre and the conventional text-based theatre. There are many differences concerning their methods, limitations and their way of using their personnel. While, as it was pointed out, Oddey leans towards the idea that text-based theatre is different from Devised Theatre, it was discussed that Govan et al. in their article propose that we should not regard them as two different things.

· Finally, a small debate was held in certain periods of time, according the idea that there can be unlimited creativity, as well as democracy in Devised Theatre.

Now, moving on to the second part of the seminar, we went on doing various exercises and games that could be used by a Devising theatrical team, in order not only to strengthen the bonds and create trust between members, but also to train them in the physical demands that the Devised Theatre so often requires from its members.

Firstly we started with name games, like being in a circle and each one telling his/her name. It is important to be able to know each other in the group, so that basic skills of communication and bondage can be built between team members. The second name game (“volleyball” as it was called), was played out in two circles, with half the persons of the group in one circle, and half to the other. In each circle the members would do the same thing. They would call the name of another member in the circle and then go and take their place, so that they should call and other member’s name, and go and take their place, and so on and so forth. Then, people from the two circles were swapped, so that now two new circles were created, and finally the two circles merged into one, again following the same procedure.

The next game, was moving around the space, and then stopping and greeting the other persons when we were asked to do so, in a certain way. For example, at one time we were asked to greet anybody who we met, as someone who we do not trust, then again, at another point we had to greet them like friends we hadn’t seen in a long time. The purpose of this exercise is to learn to work with others.

Next exercises were the “impulse” and the “zip-zap” ones. In both we had to stand

in a circle, and while in the first we have to hold our adjacent peoples’ hands, and squeeze it a little in turns (for example one squeezes his left partner’s hand, and he does the same to his left partner etc), the second exercise is about “passing an electric shock” to the others, using the word “zip”. These two games are both games of concentration and collaboration with the others.

Finally, in this seminar, we had to do two improvising exercises. In the first exercise, called “machines”, in groups of 5 and 6 people, we had to use our bodies to form a machine (there were three examples that we did: a truck, a lorry and a food processor), while in the second one, called the room, we had to each go inside a room from one door (the whole thing was imaginary, we had to mime any action we did), do something which was up to us to decide, and then exit from one door, keeping in mind to maintain some sort of continuity between what each and every one of us did. While both of the exercises encourage collaboration, the first one is a very good one for physical theatre practice (one major part of Devised Theatre), while the second one Is a very good introduction in mime (one other vital part of Devised Theatre).

So, in conclusion, this week’s seminar was an introduction to Devised Theatre, with both theoretical and practical skills used towards our better understanding of this sort of theatre.

Panagiotis

Dirty Reality Review summaries by Grace Holliday

Dirty Reality II- Black Mime Theatre Company. Article review by Grace Holliday.

Dirty Reality II is a performance on interracial marriages and mixed race children created through these cross-racial relationships, and ‘About having pride and embracing it no matter how diluted the skin tone’

The newspaper reports we were given were about Black Mime Theatre’s production of ‘Dirty Reality 2’, the follow up to ‘Dirty Reality 1’. Performed in 1996 in Nottingham, the company spent five months researching around the main theme of interracial marriage and the effect that this has on both the adults and the subsequently mixed race children. The performance consists of a range of different locations for the action to happen within, and these are extremely varied; from a slave ship to teenage discos. The cast transform into the necessary characters with these changes; these 5 members, of both genders, were ; Mojisola Adebayo, Marva Alexander, Ekundayo, Stuart Pampellone and Lise Stuart. Expression of these themes and aspects of interracial marriage is through dance and movement, a cappela song and recorded voices, as well as, of course, mime.

Praise and criticism of Dirty Reality II were varied, and different critics picked up a variety of different viewpoints. Emotions evoked through the performance were mixed; the ‘Sunday Telegraph’ felt the ‘pain’ and ‘injustice’ of the performance, whilst the ‘Independent on Sunday’ professed to feeling the ‘anger and confusion’ that the piece induced. Another article claimed to find the piece ‘utterly hypnotic’, however a criticism that seemed to occur in more than one article was that the story line was not developed enough, and therefore emotions could only be felt to a limited level. Similarly, the ‘Independent on Sunday’ criticised the lack of actual ‘dirty reality’ in the piece; perhaps this is claiming that it doesn’t go deep enough into the issues it is portraying, or perhaps it is claiming that the real issues are not exposed enough. Either way, I think this links to a previous discussion we had in a seminar about audience accessibility; I think that in order to put across their messages, BMT had to limit the dirty reality to some extent; whilst these performances were meant to relate to the audience, genuine reality over kill may have resulted in alienation and a lack of understanding from audience members, thereby meaning that the company had not totally fulfilled their aim of putting a coherent message out there.

In terms of relations and equality to both black and white characters and audience members, the general consensus among the articles is that this is done justly; one article goes as far as to say that Director Denise Wong ‘can’t be faulted’ for her ‘artistic political correctness’. Prejudice origination from and directed at both sides is explored, whilst the potential for love across colours is shown to be an acceptable occurrence.

Despite the barriers the performance revealed and explored, I hope that audience members who saw it being promoted as viable on stage were influenced to see it as acceptable in everyday life. I also hope that audience members were able to sympathise, if not empathise, with the troubles faced by both adults and children in the piece, whatever their colour, thereby increasing audience understanding of this specific issue, and in turn reducing prejudice towards people of opposite or mixed colour.

Grace Holliday