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.

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/