I'm preparing for a couple of virtual team workshops in Prague and South Africa in the coming weeks.
Members of teams and communities need to begin to trust each other quickly. A great way to start is by learning everyone's name. Psychologists say to learn a person's name, you should use it three times in conversation as soon as you meet them. This is difficult with a roomful of people, so you need a way of making people repeat their names.
Here are some warm-up exercises I learned from the in situ: theatre group’s Learn To Act course.
Introduce Yourself
Invite the members of the group to walk around the space and introduce themselves to each other. Ask them to greet each other as they meet – "Hello, my name is Richard" – even when they meet someone for the second or third time.
No one would introduce themselves three times to the same person, but by giving the group permission to act in this way, you increase the chance of them remembering names. Lead by example and no one will question this or call it unrealistic.
Allow this exercise to run for 2-3 minutes or until everyone has met everyone else 3-4 times.
Introduction Circle
Form a circle and ask everyone to introduce themselves to the rest of the group, saying, for example, "My name is Richard."
Tell everyone to find a new place in the circle and go around the circle with everyone introducing the person to the left of them: "This is Andrew." (Tell them to check the person's name beforehand if they've forgotten!)
Tell everyone to find a new place in the circle and go around the circle with everyone introducing the person to the right of them: "This is Suzanne."
Ball Circle
Introduce a ball into the circle. Choose a person, call their name and throw them the ball. They repeat this. Continue for 2-3 minutes.
Break the circle and ask everyone to walk around the space, throwing the ball between them and calling the name of the recipient as they do. Continue for 2-3 minutes.
Simple exercises like this help to breakdown barriers from the start and encourage people to get to know each other.
Facilitators should always participate - it saves resorting to sticky labels..!
Friday, 25 April 2008
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Extra lines
An extra session for the vaudevillians tonight, though one of the number is excluded through some confusion about the meaning of "next Thursday".
We go through the pastoral scene a couple of times, slowly with some direction, then running through as it will be performed. It's quite long at 20 minutes, a significant part of the play. Fortunately there's a lot of fun in it, even when it's only exposition for the audience - much raising of eye-brows and scratching of chins.
My ideas for a costume for the vaudeville Polixenes achieve... some surprise at the amount of thought I've given it.
Well, what else do people do on train journeys?!?
We go through the pastoral scene a couple of times, slowly with some direction, then running through as it will be performed. It's quite long at 20 minutes, a significant part of the play. Fortunately there's a lot of fun in it, even when it's only exposition for the audience - much raising of eye-brows and scratching of chins.
My ideas for a costume for the vaudeville Polixenes achieve... some surprise at the amount of thought I've given it.
Well, what else do people do on train journeys?!?
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Complications in the Black Forest
The Winter's Tale - Term 3, Week 3
It's not only light when I arrive this evening, it's warm too. The streets are full because Cambridge United are playing their final home league game of the season and a win against rivals Torquay United will secure a play-off place for them. Two loud cheers shortly before 8:30pm indicate they may have achieved their goal.
Meanwhile, inside the Leper Chapel, another brainstorm leads us to focus on choreography this evening. "A Walk In The Black Forest" is no longer the preserve of the "vaudevillians" and has now become an ensemble piece with everybody jumping in and out at different times! It will require some work to get right, but it's shaping up to be fun.
The rest of the time is spent on the pastoral scene with Polixenes, Camillo, Perdita, Florizel and the old shepherd. It points to a lot more work needing to be done to learn lines.
Apparently part of the script is missing from the wiki, so I promise to add it.
It's not only light when I arrive this evening, it's warm too. The streets are full because Cambridge United are playing their final home league game of the season and a win against rivals Torquay United will secure a play-off place for them. Two loud cheers shortly before 8:30pm indicate they may have achieved their goal.
Meanwhile, inside the Leper Chapel, another brainstorm leads us to focus on choreography this evening. "A Walk In The Black Forest" is no longer the preserve of the "vaudevillians" and has now become an ensemble piece with everybody jumping in and out at different times! It will require some work to get right, but it's shaping up to be fun.
The rest of the time is spent on the pastoral scene with Polixenes, Camillo, Perdita, Florizel and the old shepherd. It points to a lot more work needing to be done to learn lines.
Apparently part of the script is missing from the wiki, so I promise to add it.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
The Method and The Tale
The Winter's Tale - Term 3, Week 2
Tonight we concentrated the part between Screaming Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You" and Bobby Darin's "Take Good Care Of My Baby".
The focus is now on creating a performance. There was a brief discussion on internalisation and Method acting and some experimentation with the game "It's Tuesday" (actors in neutral, director announces "It's Tuesday", actors respond with an extreme version of a chosen emotion). The subsequent performance was greatly improved. Still need to work on those lines though.
The wiki is working! People have accessed it and amended the text, although no one has turned up with a printed version yet. I'm planning to have a complete version which I can personalise with a format with highlights my own lines.
The lines that currently get the most laughs:
LEONTES:
A gross hag
And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd,
That wilt not stay her tongue.
ANTIGONUS:
Hang all the husbands
That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself
Hardly one subject.
Tonight we concentrated the part between Screaming Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You" and Bobby Darin's "Take Good Care Of My Baby".
The focus is now on creating a performance. There was a brief discussion on internalisation and Method acting and some experimentation with the game "It's Tuesday" (actors in neutral, director announces "It's Tuesday", actors respond with an extreme version of a chosen emotion). The subsequent performance was greatly improved. Still need to work on those lines though.
The wiki is working! People have accessed it and amended the text, although no one has turned up with a printed version yet. I'm planning to have a complete version which I can personalise with a format with highlights my own lines.
The lines that currently get the most laughs:
LEONTES:
A gross hag
And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd,
That wilt not stay her tongue.
ANTIGONUS:
Hang all the husbands
That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself
Hardly one subject.
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
Social Media Meets Experimental Theatre
The Winter's Tale Term 3, Week 1
A run through with books for timing brought us in at around 1 hour and 50 minutes, as well as showing how much more work we need to do learning lines.
Everyone is still working out of annotated books, so perhaps it's time to share the script on-line somewhere. I'll suggest starting a wiki - but I'm not going to call it that..!
A run through with books for timing brought us in at around 1 hour and 50 minutes, as well as showing how much more work we need to do learning lines.
Everyone is still working out of annotated books, so perhaps it's time to share the script on-line somewhere. I'll suggest starting a wiki - but I'm not going to call it that..!
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Learn Your Lines!
Many people find learning lines difficult. During Oedipus and The Winter's Tale, I've found that starting sooner rather than later helps. I've learned speeches in half an hour simply by taking the time to sit down and do it. It requires discipline.
We are now at the stage where we have worked out the text we'll be using, so it's down to the actors to learn it. Here's some good advice from director Richard Spaul about learning lines:
"LEARNING LINES:
The way to make the most progress at this stage is for everyone to have learnt their lines if possible by the restart - or as near to that goal as possible. if that can be done, we can move forward very quickly - if not, things will be slowed down. So I think that should be aimed
at.
Some tips on learning lines:
1. do it regularly. Could everyone spare 20 focussed minutes a day? That's the best way of doing it and is much better than making desperate efforts to learn lots of lines suddenly. So that's what I'd recommend.
2. when I'm learning lines I make sure I understand everything and can see how one thing leads to another - if I can see how it all connects I can learn it more easily. With Shakespeare there's often a rhythm to the verse and if you can hear that it can help you to fit the words in (as people learn the words of songs along with the tune).
3. It's helpful to identify key points in a speech or scene. Once you've got those in your mind, you can start stringing stuff together.
4. Some people find it helpful to write their lines out or to make a recording of it.
5. I think it's always better to say it aloud and to act it out properly - to speak it with feeling rather than to parrot it mechanically. Preferably to a real person who's listening, if you have anyone to perform such a service for you. The most obvious people are other people in the cast, so why not collaborate on a spare evening some time? This will all help to make it stick.
But the main thing is diligence. Most people who complain of not being able to learn lines don't put enough time into it and end up rushing."
I might add Jerry Seinfeld's productivity technique - should be unbeatable..!
We are now at the stage where we have worked out the text we'll be using, so it's down to the actors to learn it. Here's some good advice from director Richard Spaul about learning lines:
"LEARNING LINES:
The way to make the most progress at this stage is for everyone to have learnt their lines if possible by the restart - or as near to that goal as possible. if that can be done, we can move forward very quickly - if not, things will be slowed down. So I think that should be aimed
at.
Some tips on learning lines:
1. do it regularly. Could everyone spare 20 focussed minutes a day? That's the best way of doing it and is much better than making desperate efforts to learn lots of lines suddenly. So that's what I'd recommend.
2. when I'm learning lines I make sure I understand everything and can see how one thing leads to another - if I can see how it all connects I can learn it more easily. With Shakespeare there's often a rhythm to the verse and if you can hear that it can help you to fit the words in (as people learn the words of songs along with the tune).
3. It's helpful to identify key points in a speech or scene. Once you've got those in your mind, you can start stringing stuff together.
4. Some people find it helpful to write their lines out or to make a recording of it.
5. I think it's always better to say it aloud and to act it out properly - to speak it with feeling rather than to parrot it mechanically. Preferably to a real person who's listening, if you have anyone to perform such a service for you. The most obvious people are other people in the cast, so why not collaborate on a spare evening some time? This will all help to make it stick.
But the main thing is diligence. Most people who complain of not being able to learn lines don't put enough time into it and end up rushing."
I might add Jerry Seinfeld's productivity technique - should be unbeatable..!
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Paranoid Choruses
in situ: The Winter's Tale - week 8
Two weeks out and I'm itching to get back, which perhaps prompts me to return a little too early. Tonight we work on the "paranoid choruses", taking the text originally spoken by one character and attempting to present it in different way.
I foolishly agree to speak Leontes's lines (because I'm a boy - not exactly breaking the mold there) in "Too hot! Too hot!" while Rachael and Tanya interject while stood facing each other in front of me and cutting off my contact with the audience. It seems to work well from early on, though I'm starting to cough within 15 minutes and begin to lose my voice by the time we come to perform the "finished" piece. I'm relieved when we break and sit down to discuss what we'll be performing in two weeks for the work in progress showing.
The Bohemian section we did before has been extended with more introductory dialogue included, but I'm not Florizel this time around. The perils of being ill. Instead I will be Leontes in the opening section, something we haven't worked on before. This will mean reading the dialogue from books, something we haven't done before in performance.
As usual the picture isn't entirely clear what will happen in two weeks' time, but these things have a habit of being worked out satisfactorily over the weekend prior.
Two weeks out and I'm itching to get back, which perhaps prompts me to return a little too early. Tonight we work on the "paranoid choruses", taking the text originally spoken by one character and attempting to present it in different way.
I foolishly agree to speak Leontes's lines (because I'm a boy - not exactly breaking the mold there) in "Too hot! Too hot!" while Rachael and Tanya interject while stood facing each other in front of me and cutting off my contact with the audience. It seems to work well from early on, though I'm starting to cough within 15 minutes and begin to lose my voice by the time we come to perform the "finished" piece. I'm relieved when we break and sit down to discuss what we'll be performing in two weeks for the work in progress showing.
The Bohemian section we did before has been extended with more introductory dialogue included, but I'm not Florizel this time around. The perils of being ill. Instead I will be Leontes in the opening section, something we haven't worked on before. This will mean reading the dialogue from books, something we haven't done before in performance.
As usual the picture isn't entirely clear what will happen in two weeks' time, but these things have a habit of being worked out satisfactorily over the weekend prior.
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