Name of teacher
Grainne Delaney

Period, duration
Block 4, Week 9-17

Study load
Total 36 hours, 32 contact hours, 4 self-study hours

Competencies
1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Summary
The theme for the Year 1 is Presence: Private & Public We will use the notion of Private space to explore personal response as a performing technique. We’ll explore ways to transform psychological needs into objective spatial action. While character needs the private space to be alone, the actor needs to share that alone-ness with the audience. This is when we enter the Public space. We will look into what happens when we form an Ensemble. What are the levels of agreement within a group? And how can the individual maintain their identity? We use physical theatre conventions to play with silent negotiations and build relationships as an Ensemble, between members of the ensemble, and then with the audience. We take this into staging script work and explore the relationship between text and subtext. Public words, with private intentions, as meaning comes from not what you say, but how you say it. How is all this used to build tension and dramaturgy?

Main theoretical framework of the class:

  1. How to explore the physical roots of emotion – Meyerhold, Grotowski, & Artaud “The actor is an athlete of the heart.” (Artaud, Antonin The Theater and its Double. Translated by Mary Caroline Richards. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1958)
  2. Ensemble storytelling - Devised theatre from: LeCoq (Jacques Lecoq Theatre of Movement and Gesture. Edited by David Bradby. Routledge 2006) Theatre Odin, (Eugenio Barba & Nicola Savarese A Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology, The Secret Art of the Performer. Routledge 2005) Theatre de Complicité (Simon McBurney A Disappearing Number, Oberon Modern Plays 2008) and Frantic Assembly (Scott Graham The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre, Routledge 2009)
  3. How to speak with presence and authenticity - Stanislavsky & Chekov – to Strasburg & Meisner. “Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances”  ( Sanford Meisner & Dennis Longwell Sanford Meisner on Acting, Vintage Books 1987)
  4. What do we want to say together? What are our Psychological & Social needs as an Ensemble in Performance? "The theater itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution."  (Augusto Boal Games for Actors and Non-Actors, Routledge 1992)

Content and design of the class
Warm up integrating movement, sound and imagery Skill exercises based on focus of class Applied skill to scene, or group work with theme Presentation to peer group

Learning goals

  • Students can direct personal focus and negotiate presence in Ensemble, verbally and nonverbally
  • Students begin to collect techniques in their tool box for generating acting choices
  • Students can approach and connect to text through a personal experience
  • Students begin to sketch the basic elements of a character profile and link it to subtext
  • Students understand and demonstrate the basic rules of Improvising a simple emotional arc
  • Students understand, distinguish and express both text and subtext in scene work.

Working method(s) used
Workshop style Ensemble Training, thinking and practical assignments, peer-to-peer feedback, presentation to Ensemble and audience

Used study material
Vocal and physical Scores from Dada, Futurism, Happenings & Linklater Script work from Harold Pinter’s Mountain Language, A Kind of Alaska &/ David Mamet Dramatic Sketches Witness & Testimony plays eg: Laramie Project, Fallujah Video and material references to Meyerhold Biomechanics, Grotowski’s Alphabet, Boal’s Forum theatre Assessment criteria: Students work towards a presentation at the end of each class and towards an ‘open door’ presentation at the end of the course. Mindset & Attitude Open curious and willing to take a risk on stage Skill development in exercises and in application to text

Method of assessment
Students have ongoing assessment through the class learning goals, Presence, participation in individual, small group and Ensemble exercises Contribution to and articulation of creative ideas in group discussion
Students have their personal development focus Established in lesson one and reviewed in the final lesson Informal ‘check-in’ point half-way through course. Student completion of a written assessment Guiding questions devised from course content.

Learning goals in the class contribute to the overall development of the competency indicators
1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 1.7, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2 4.1, 4.4, 4.5 5.1

The overall development of the student is assessed at integral assessment meetings, twice a year, through combined self-assessment and assessment by teachers, coaches and mentors. This course forms a continuous line with the Ensemble Song/ Voice Improvisation/ Choir, Year 1, Block 2,  Movement Research, Year 1, Block 1

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