Verbatim Reportage Performance

Task 5.2 Final Performance

Verbatim Reportage Performance

1.     You will develop your performance in response to your own chosen verbatim reportage stimulus and further the work to create a polished final performance. 

2.     You will develop this piece in small groups working with a great degree of independence.

3.     Your performance may utilise media such as sound and light but all this must be operated in a simplistic fashion so while watching each performance we are not held up by technical organisation.

4.     You will take part in a post performance plenary discussion, this will include feedback and discussion on the way material was developed and skills and techniques incorporated.

5.     You will record your development, analysis and evaluation of the performance in rehearsal development book. For each rehearsal you must publish a set of rehearsal techniques/experiments that you intend to do and show them to your teacher at the beginning of the lesson.

Why Verbatim Reportage?

Reportage is a technique that presents events through the medium of documentary. It is therefore a very accessible for physicalised interpretation.

Reportage enables you to explore all sides of an issue and focus on the different points of view contained in any event.

The advantage of using the interviewees’ own words is that it lends a credence and authenticity to the work.

Performance Length: 10 Minutes

Post performance discussion: 5 Minutes

The Process

Research and Development

·      Background research on the theme/s

·      Conduct one-to-one interviews and vox pops (street interviews), or find footage.

·      Interviews should be audio recorded, edited and transcribed.

·      Narrow down the interviews to begin structuring the work.

·      Most of the text should be ready to be tested for week 2’s lesson!!!

Rehearsals

·      Perhaps some text could be combined with musical scores to enhance text, pacing and dramatic intent.

·      Movements found for each scene by using task based exercises and improvisation.

·      Draw on the specific talents of each performer to ensure that you not only play real-life characters on stage, but can inhabit them with personal truth.

How to go about making this work?

This is basically a devising exercise. So, decide upon a theme and find verbatim text to include in it.

Your piece should include juxtaposed movement like in the To Be Straight With You, excerpt (see below).

Choose a theme/s.
E.g. Censorship, free speech, discrimination, ideology versus evidence, myths, hate crimes, racism, sexism, ‘respect’, human rights, in/tolerance.
Use first-hand, verbatim accounts of people directly affected by the theme. You may want to conduct interviews.
Work out what the essence of the theme is and translate that into movement for improvised experiments. For example the theme is attitudes to homosexuality and a person is ashamed to be gay then the experiment may include hiding and revealing the body, or wanting to touch someone and not being able to no matter how hard you try.

Ask yourselves!

·      How do you record your work?

·      When can you rehearse out of lessons?

·      How to we stop ourselves from thinking?

·      How can we show our work to other people before the performance day?

·      How do we make it fluid and organic?

·      Are we making a performance?

·      Are there any flat moments?

·      What physical pictures are we creating?

·      Do you want a director/choreographer who has the final say?

·      Does your piece read theatrically?

No mime please!

Rehearsal Tasks to get you started.

Experiment 1

1.     Conduct an interview then transcribe the interview.

2.     Choose the most important sections of the interview, and edit them together.

3.     Choose a partner and ask them to read the monologue aloud and improvise physically in response to the text. Avoid movement that is too literal (i.e. imitates exactly what is being said) or habitual. Try to find movement that complements and strengthens the meanings of the text.

4.     Choose the sections of the improvisations that fit best with the rhythm and meaning of the text and then set the movement material.

5.     Memorise the text and devise set movement material.

Tips:

·      If a performer is locked into a set way of moving, try to get someone who moves very differently to improvise, physically, in front to them. They then have to imitate how this person moves. This can be a rewarding, often liberating exercise that can push a performer out of their habitual movement patterns and produce many unexpected surprises and choreographic ideas

·      You may wish to record the monologue and download it onto an iPod. This way the performer can hear and repeat the words simultaneously whilst improvising. This assists people initially without having to memorise the text

Experiment 2

1.     Conduct an interview then transcribe the interview.

2.     Select the words/phrases that are most critical to the interview.

3.     From this reduced selection, find a word or phrase that encapsulates the feeling, or thematic intent of the entire interview.

4.     Find a gesture or physical motif that best illustrates this word or phrase.

5.     Create a dance exploring and developing the elements of this physical motif.

Tips:

·      This whole process is lengthy and can be repeated numerous times. It is a way of working that is used to keep you re-invigorating yourself regarding your working processes.

·      For example, a wagging finger illustrating the word ‘don’t’ can develop into many different hand expressions.

Experiment 3

1.     Construct a short, abstract movement phrase.

2.     Choose 30 seconds of text from an interview.

3.     Combine the words you have chosen with the movement you created. Try to balance the rhythm of the text with the dynamics of the movement. You can change the pace of the movement to make for a better match.

Tips:

·      Confirm that the movement supports the text, instead of distracting the viewer from what is being said. Keep both the movement phrase and the script relatively short to maximise the time you can spend exploring a small section of choreography.

·      This exercise is intended as a simple way to explore the combination of movement and text and merge the rhythms of the words and movement. Keep the text delivery constant and vary the movement to see how slight variations can change meaning. Explore the possibility that the movement can create a subtext for the words, and adjustments can allow the words to deliver one message and the movement provide another – sometimes contradictory – message to provide texture and complexity.

Physical Theatre Devising Stimulus.

This is to remind you about some of the techniques and ideas we have covered in class.

DV8

Key Terms:

Physical intentions/games

·      To Loop

·      To hold

·      To be close to

·      To evade etc.

·      Trust

·      Taking and giving weight

·      Lifts

·      Jumps and rolls

·      Fluidity

·      Developing narrative

·      Intention

·      Tempo

Contact Improvisation

Complicite

Key Terms:

·      Devising in a restricted space

·      Devising from the movement of an element

·      Devising from the movement of photos and paintings

·      Improvisation,

·      Experimentation is key

·      No subject is unplayable. 

·      Highly physical approach. 

·      Work always begins with playing games

·      Games turning into scenes.

Frantic Assembly

Key Terms:

·      Developing patterns

·      Following and committing to physical and imaginary commands

·      Chair Devising

·      Physical engagement

·      Simple points of contact between each other, which will aid the flow of the piece to carry on.

·      Break away from the movements we inhabit in the ‘known’ world.

·      Moving and listening to our bodies and the surroundings

·      To make discovery

·      Gesture patterns

·      Games

·      Ensemble

·      Smooth transitions

·      Round, by, through.

Grotowski

Key Terms:

·      Poor theatre

·      the holy Actor          

·      Via negativa 

·      Self-penetration

·      Actor audience relationship