After finishing 'The Pillowman' and very naturalistic piece that can use many of Stanislavsky's acting methods, we are now going to look at the contrasting practitioner 'Steven Berkoff' and use one of his scripts to create a short 15 minute performance.
For the first lesson after doing Pillowman, we were told that this was a contrast to naturalistic movements. Where Stanislavsky has realistic gestures and movements, we were going to focus on the extreme of robotic movements.
The first exercise we did was in pairs and we had to re-enact setting up and eating a meal in synchrony. Working with Ciara we decided to follow the process and make are arm movements follow the rigid pattern of raising the elbow first then lifting the hand to place cutlery and drinks. This creates a jerky effect and is also easier to mimic each other as we only had a short amount of time to do this. This is very different to a naturalistic way of setting out a table because the robotic effect allows an image for the audience to interpret and is more aesthetically interesting to watch as the most simplest task is performed in a more visually pleasing way.
The second activity was adding words with movement. We were explained that every movement must express the correct feeling and emotion. In Berkoff's work we are removing any sign of subtext and everything had to be defined. We were told to create a conflict scenario that lasted about 30 seconds to 1 minute. We had to say the thoughts or words whilst actions were being performed. We also had to keep the robotic movement. My partner was Jake, we started off with him punching me, all the movement that we did was actually done with about a metre between us, and there was no actually physical contact between either of us during any part. Whilst doing the punch shouted 'jaw' to show his thought was of his aim. I said 'shock' to highlight this was unexpected. I returned a slap to Jake whilst spitting the word 'twat' to emphasise that the feeling my character had negative feelings towards Jake. Then he acted out reaching for my hair, and I showed the reaction and made bitter noises of pain. I received feedback that this part was too naturalistic, even if it was the reaction without contact, and I understand that the movement or sound I had made could've been more direct with the pain I was feeling.
The final activity we had to do was to create a piece of movement that could be looped, working in a group of four. It had to resemble a gang. Working with Kelly, Jake and Chris. We made a sharp robotic walk that went forward 3 steps before squatting down on count 4, by using counts were able to create a systematic pattern that made it easier for everyone to follow and getting a slicker performance. Once squatted we pretended to grab and sniff some dirt, this could be a sign that we are a gang defending territory, we then turned and sat down so are bodies were facing the opposite direction and in a position that was easy for us to stand up and start the movement again.
Although this was all we had time to create within the lesson it was great to see the potential to add some dialogue about being in a gang whilst keeping the systematic movement, or even making it into a canon movement and have a series of intertwining monologues. Even if we just had a script and read it, having the piece of movement that's not naturalistic we are able to a more visually dynamic performance that is more entertaining rather than connecting the emotions to the audience.
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