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!