Fwd: Response to Lesson 2 Blog by P..

Hi Lynette,

I'm sorry I've taken long to give you my post, but I had it on Thursday
and didn't know how to post it up. Here is my post for Monday 20th Part
Two;

For the second part of Monday's lesson we concentrated on the practical
side of mime and the influence of Black mime within the genre. We went
through a few exercises and rehearsal techniques that were aimed at
improving our mime skills and general physical theatre attributes. The
first exercise we partook in was a peculiar one; the performance space
was bare and we as "mime artists" had to go within the space and create
objects, entrances/exits, while also producing a running storyline –
all through the use of mime. Though we found it hard to start off
with, as time passed everyone became warmed up and was fighting to get
on stage and contribute there part of the storyline. In the spirit of
BMT minimal dialogue was used though it could be argued that our use of
speech differed from theirs, as we used complex sentences that had
minimal effect on the performance as a whole, whereas the original BMT
theatre groups (especially the male troop) only used dialogue in simple
instalments when it concentrated heavily on progressing the plot. We
learnt several things from this exercise one being that continuity is
very important during mime as remembering where certain objects were
and small things like how a door opens, all contribute to the
believability of the performance.
The second practical exercise we conducted was –in groups- devising a
small performance in the style of BMT around the scenario of 'going to
a restaurant'. Apart from the fact that coincidentally all the groups
somehow involved homosexuality, majority of the groups also included a
heavily influx of dialogue and speech and a minute amount of actual
mime – whether in the style of BMT or not. Only one group (my group)
tried to fully stretch their mime skills and create a narrative that
was clear and incorporated a minimal amount of speech – though we still
compiled more then what would have been condensed in original black
mime theatre performances. Paraphrasing what class member Grace
Holliday rightly pointed out; we have become so used to doing
performances that involve the use of speech and have clear linear
performance structures, which we subconsciously involve speech as a
normal convention and rely on it to correspond a narrative upon the
audience. From exercise this we gained some experience devising a mime
performance which was something that everyone relished in as we all
enjoyed having creative input into the performances which prepared us
very well for the final devised performance.

Jahvel.