An Orgy Of Thought - Week 5

Week 5 - A session of physical interpretation developed from thoughts and notes in week 3 and 4.

The group picked a track to re-visit from the week 3 and try to develop into a short foundation for a devised piece of theatre.

We jumped straight into this weeks task, fueled by motivation from the previous week.

Read on for a summary of the events of week 5.

WEEK 5 BLOG CONTENTS!

1. This week's track
2. The Concept: "to explore the faceless nature of modern day office work"
2. Establishing The Scene
3. Developing The Scene
4. Improvising The Action
5. Interpreting The Action & Relationships Between Characters
6. Evaluating The Action

*please note: details have been left vague so you, the reader can envisage the scene's finer details in your own unique way using the tools of your amazing imagination!*


1.This Weeks Track:

John Adams - A Short Ride On A Fast Machine

We listened to the track a few times and combined all of our ideas into a concept which we developed for the rest of the session:

2.The Concept: "to explore the faceless nature of modern day office work"

We found the music to be very powerful, very tribal and very much like a machine.
In such modern times, the UK is fast becoming a country of vast service networks. We work to serve.
We call, we email and we pass data from one place to another.
With so many people feeling lost and disillusioned with their jobs, and so many students having to step into more mundane jobs following their degrees, is there any way out of this?

The group wanted to explore their frustration and fear of mediocracy.

As props to help us deliver our vision, we decided to use faceless white theatre masks.





3.Establishing The Scene:

We explored the potential of our ideas by asking some of the following questions:

How could we represent an office on stage?
How can we convey the repetitive nature of the music in our piece?
How would an army of faceless workers look? Act? Feel?
How much emotion, or lack of emotion can be sustained in such a dead environment?

4.Developing The Scene:

By combining our thoughts on the above questions with the music, we created a scene with the following:

4 seats
4 people repetitively repeating 3 actions associated with offices (old & new) such as:
typing, using a phone, printing, using dials, using switchboards,
filing, pushing a post trolley etc.



5.Improvising The Action:

Having set the scene, we played the track, and the action went something a little like this:

1.Each member enters individually and start miming their tasks

2. The members start interacting and passing items around to each other

3. As the film approaches the 1st crescendo, the workers speed up

4.On the crescendo, one of the workers shuts down.

5. Everyone carries on regardless momentarily until one worker gets up to reset the broken down one.

6. The work continues.

7. Another crescendo approaches and all workers take items to one of the 4 who is filing.

8. As his workload increases, he speeds up approaching the crescendo becoming more frantic.

9. As the 2nd crescendo approaches, he shuts down on the climax, only this time exploding onto the floor.

10. At first, no one reacts and work carries on as before. people just step over the broken worker.

11. Finally, one of the workers has a moment of realisation and stops working.

12. The rogue worker stands on their chair and takes off their mask - distracting the other workers who also stop working and stare at the rogue worker

13. A the final crescendo approaches, it looks as if all workers may remove their masks and find themselves, until the piece quickly ends and we don't know exactly what happens as the scene freezes.


6.Deconstructing the Action:

We felt that since the music had 3 crescendos, it would be important to utilise these moments and have 3 moments that change the mood and shift the piece through transitions explained above.
This piece is very dependent on the music, and very closely intertwined to the powerful piece.

Could the future hold...A performance of this concept would best suit an indoor theatre, which could include spotlights on certain elements of the action which could highlight specific moments singularly or at the same time, while still accentuating the black, lifeless environment that the action will exist within. This would juxta-pose the empty black with bright, energetic action and stifle any energy from the action, and would draw more energy form the lighting, music and glow from the white masks.

...Another perspective is that a performance of this nature could be very effective as a piece of street theatre - taking advantage of the displaced setting of outdoors, the audience being the shoppers of town and passers by ... would they recognise anything of their lives in this ?

An Orgy Of Thought - Week 4

Week 4 - A session of physical interpretation developed from thoughts and notes in week 3.

The group picked a track to re-visit form the previous week and try to develop into a short foundation for a devised piece of theatre.

As you would expect, there was a lot of listing, talking and finally some action!

Read on for a summary of the events of week 4.

1. This Weeks Track
   
2. The Concept: "to explore the journey of a humble cup of coffee"
3. Establishing The Scene
4. Developing The Scene
5. Improvising The Action
6. Interpreting The Action & Relationships Between Characters
   
7. Evaluating The Action
   

*please note: details have been left vague so you, the reader can envisage the scene's finer details in your own unique way using the tools of your amazing imagination!*


This Week's Track

Zero 7 - When It Falls, was the track to be explored this week. We listened to the track a few times and combined all of our ideas into a concept which we developed for the rest of the session:


The Concept: "To explore the journey of a cup of coffee"

A cup of coffee: something we may regularly make ourselves, order in a cafe, purchase from a shop. But what IMPACT does this has on our well being?
What if that cup of coffee, just for a moment was the centre of the universe, what if it was a conductive object that absorbed the emotions, thoughts, presence and being of objects and beings in its immediate environment?


Establishing The Scene:

We explored the potential of this, asking some of the following questions:

• Where does the coffee come from?
• Who made the coffee? how are they feeling?
• How many hands does the cup of coffee pass through before it reaches us to experience?
• What if time stopped for everyone who wasn't interacting with the cup of coffee?

Developing The Scene:

By combining our thoughts on the above questions with the music, we created a scene with the following:

• An occupied table with someone waiting for a coffee
  
• An empty space with 2 chairs (to be filled by the action)
  
• A coffee shop work surface / bar
• Someone behind the bar making the coffee
• A waitress who delivers the coffee
• A man reading a paper who appears to be frozen in a moment of anguish
  
  and
  
  
• a coffee cup

Improvising The Action:

Having set the scene, we played the track, and the action went something a little like this:

1. The elements of the coffee were brought together with sound fx form the bartender
   
   
2. The bartender passed on their thoughts to the coffee while making it
   
   
3. The coffee was passed on to the waitress who picked up some of the emotional content
   
   
4. The bartender froze in position
   
   
5. The coffee went on a journey with the waitress as it made its way to the customer
   
   
6. The waitress placed the coffee on the table and froze in position
   
   
7. The customer received their coffee but remained frozen still
   
   
8. The waitress and bartender moved to the unoccupied space with 2 chairs in it
   
   
9. They assumed new roles of 2 people arguing, only no sound came out
   
   
10. This frustrated a man reading a paper who joined in the silent argument as if he previously had been frozen staring at a moment in time that hadn't happened yet.
    
    
11. The argumentative man with the newspaper was arguing in slow motion
    
    
12. With everyone else distracted, the person with the coffee jolted into life and sneekily took the mans paper and sat dumfounded watching the unfolding situation
    
    
13. The man withthe newspaper became more irate and dragged the coffee customer into the argument.
    
    
14. Which became too much for the 2 people who were initially arguing, and they made up, and left
    
    
15. The man with the newspaper turned around, took the coffee which we assume he had been waiting (a long time) for all along, and sat there enjoying his coffee.
    
    
16. The other person at the table continued reading the man's paper.
    
    
17. The End!

Evaluating the Action:

The group wanted to develop similar concepts much further so that we could take our projects out into the world for audiences to enjoy.

We also considered that maybe the characters could have some sort of previous or developing relationships that influence their character during the scene. the group was torn in two over whether or not this is relevant, so it remains open...

Could the future hold... An Orgy Of Thought, interactive, abstract piece, based in an open public space with sound, light, film, pictures and other art pulled together into a mixed media, interactive piece of site specific, abstract theatre housed in a confined space?

Watch this space, or join the group to contribute!

An Orgy Of Thought - Week 3

In week 3, the group began to explore the use of music in theatre; starting in examining music as a personal and emotive form of expression.

Our task was to listen to an individual piece of music, with each group member bringing in a piece.
We were asked to listen to each track, and take mental notes on how the track made us feel.
Some members sat quietly, some lay down, some walked around and some used pen and paper.

We then discussed our interpretation with the group.


Every member of the group brought in a piece of music to listen to:

Mike: Zero 7 - When It Falls (2004)
Nat: Bird on A Wire - Leonard Cohen (1969)
Em: Close to me - Blood Red Deep Blue
Rhiannon: A Short Ride On A Fast Machine - John Adams
Tash: Beirut - The Gulag Orkestar



With the careful listening to of each song, we discussed how we felt the piece could be interpreted as a theatrical piece. What emotions, images, feelings and scenarios the piece suggested to us in our minds eye.

The following is a brief description of responses:

Mike's Piece:

When It Falls, Zero 7

This piece is very chilled out and relaxed. the group responded to this by imagining free flowing situations with ambiguous communications of image, sound and interaction.
The group felt that they would want to take an audience through a journey of self discovery through a piece of theatre that would invoke the mood of this piece of music. A journey which wouldn't necessarily go anywhere or do anything, but would be simply enlightening and enjoyable in its essence. Comparative to sitting in an empty field of daisy's in the height of summer.

A piece of theatre that would be

"like floating through the northern lit skies"

The group imagined:

• A slow changing of seasons
  
  
• New awakenings
  
  
• A female essence of intimacy, clarity, tactility, the sun, wide open spaces, a tiny figure
  

Nat's Piece:

Bird on a Wire, Leonard Cohen



This piece led the group to feelings of nostalgia: an almost gray scale vision of a traditional time of days gone by.
The group imagined...

• Empty Promises
  
  
• a self portrait of one's self - hugging one's knees, feelings of comfort.
  
  
• An old drunk at a bar; content with all he is and happy to just be.
  
  
• A singer giving a song to the world, from the very depths of their being, in what is ultimately a futile effort and hope to achieve happiness.
  
  
• An old couple who, despite loving each other, still have a struggle together.
  
  
• A confessional end of the line attempt to cut losses and open up.
  
  
• A representation of an individuals personal resignation to accepting everything just for what it is.
  

Em's Piece:

Close To Me, Blood Red Deep Blue

"A stark silhouette of a song"

Conjuring raw images of nature and exposure.

The group imagined:

• A lone female.
  
  
• A rural shack in a remote village that was an almost depressing and earthy attempt at a nightclub.
  
  
• An individual standing on a cliff edge exposing themselves the the raw capacity of the elements; mighty forces that can not be measured, possessed or controlled.
  
  
• A warm scene by a crackling fire at night, and the passing on of stories from old to young.
  
  
• Uncomfortable silences
  
  
• Sadness: The image of a beautiful, delicate butterfly that lacks the ability to take off any fly
  
  
• A hard old woman in a space who represents a persona that has the ability to strip anyone down and expose their vulnerabilities.
  
  

Rhiannon's Piece:

A Short Ride On A Fast Machine, John Adams




Rhiannon's piece emoted very strong feelings of industry, working and frenzy in a chirpy and almost slapstick mood.

Described as an "industrious train with human cogs, happily steaming along"

The group imagined a busy scene of people going about their daily business, interacting, working and living their daily lives in an almost automated fashion.
At the same time, the music had enormous energy which excelled beyond the monotony of repetition, which suggested a musical theatre-esque piece with high energy, singing, dancing, and bright lights to razzle, dazzle 'em!


The group Imagined:

• A space landing.
  
  
• Empirical entrance / festive build up to the crechendo.
  
  
• Images of war and fierce cavalray charges.
  
  
• Office workers & industry (a human machine)
  

Tashs's Piece:

Beirut, The Gulag Orkestar



The most distinctly "traditional" of the pieces we explored today, Tash's music was of Eastern European roots, which was something the communal mindset could feel. This piece was a very European feeling:

"An orchestral feast for the ears."

With images of working class, communist bars, excited family parties in small Eastern village halls, shots of Vodka, fresh food and excited grins lining smokey rooms.

The group imagined:

• A solitary journey
  
  
• Elderly people saying goodbyes
  
  
• Eastern Europe - "poverty", "seedy"
  
  
• Oppressions
  
  
• Sadness & Nostalgia
  
  
• A contemporary war scene of the dead rising up and transforming in to a street of shoppers - mimicking today's society and the notion of our inability to escape living potentially hollow and repetitive lives.
  

In Conclusion:

This session brought about some real imaginative ideas form the group. Our imaginations were fired up, and our enthusiasm accelerated like a rocket ship to the moon.

In the next session we will be physically exploring how to communicate our thoughts and ideas from week 3, exploring time, space, movement and considering how an audience may respond to and interpret such manipulations of such fundamental elements of our daily experiences.