In the run-up to our debut show 'SUBTITLES', we were fortunate enough to organise and conduct a workshop with the Third Year class of 2018/9 at the University of South Wales, Cardiff Campus. We are so thankful to all of those at USW who took part in the workshop, and the staff that made it happen.
As a company, we quickly decided to structure the workshop the way we had structured the rehearsal process of 'SUBTITLES'. We began working on how we could translate what we do into a 2-hour workshop. The first step was to write down what it is that makes our process work for us and this came down to three fundamental elements.
Use of music.
Improvisation and Role-play.
Physicality.
Our company member Gwen suggested that one of our warm-ups be the improvisation and role-play game 'Party Quirks'. All three of us had already done something similar in the past and found it extremely helpful to get us ready to improvise a scene and create characters. Lisa suggested a quick warm-up game that would engage the student's body's and mind simultaneously, which was the 1 through 5 game. Each number had a command. For example,
Touch the floor.
Jump.
Run.
Ben then suggested we use Jacques Lecoq's technique named 'Seven States of Tension', which would enable us to get the students ready to have anything thrown at them. States of tension works by a conductor shouting number 1 through 7 at the participants, who then have to behave in that level of tension.
Exhausted
Laid Back
Neutral
Alert
Suspense
Passionate
Tragic
We then added a secondary version that combined music with the states of tension, having the students dance to a piece of music in the various states.
These warm-ups were then followed by the main task of improvising an entire scene. We gave them a setting and scenario, which was either running a restaurant, being at a wedding reception, or a busy hospital ward. The students responded incredibly and the content they created was brilliant. We made sure each group had 10-15 minutes to perform and when they began to struggle or fall flat we would throw in an extra bit of story. Such as, "You've just been informed there is a bomb in the building".
By allowing the third years into our process and asking them what the found useful and what could be changed, we were able to tweak our own process. We had a great time with these guys and wish them the best of luck in their final year at USW.
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