083 what do actors really need to learn?

Convener: Mark Phoenix

Participants: Liam O aristoll, lisa stubbs, roger Phillips, andy Harman, rajha shakiry, nigel Richards, leo wood, shakera louise ahad, Charlie folorvois

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Following comments from yesterday’s session, where difficulties with quality work were discussed, I latched onto one problem: the actors ego.

My premise is that drama training positively encourages this, and is a breeding ground for actors’ ego. So my issue is what should we be teaching to the next generation of actors.

Initially it was thought that what was really important cant be taught, but is learnt through experience.

We then moved on to a discussion of actors issues in dealing with the reality of the working environment, your unique selling point, dealing with unemployment, finding your niche and the need to survive. And a call to bring in/back a progression route. Fringe- weekly rep- more substantial parts.


Then the discussion moved from actors worries, as directors, writers, designers, producers got involved in the discussion.

From a writers perspective, actors need to be open and offer themselves/ideas into the rehearsal space to learn to work with and collaborate with a writer.

From director/ designer perspective, actors need to understand the other roles in theatre. Lighting, stage management costume, set…… how else can the collaboration happen? The actor needs to get used to the costume/ props.


Bad tuition
Traditionally drama schools think they have the right to tell you
“you are shit” this leads to defensiveness, and self protection and then egotism.


From a training perspective, what tools does an actor use?
Observation Transformation Interpretation
So self analysis to eliminate default behaviour, becoming a character and working with the imaginary world.

The story is not about you! Actors play small roles, but they are equally important to the story, but if usual acting techniques are applied ie; my
Objectives, my journey, this becomes a distraction to the protagonists journey
And objectives. Strangely enough the lead actor/protagonist of story is the only one who cannot see the vision of the show. Eg; The lighting design is not seen as the lights are on you all the time. So a lead will race on with their interpretation without listening to ensemble and everyone else plays catch up.

Its not about the actors comfort but the audience comfort.

Physicality- the neutral mask, a useful tool for saying what you see.
Unfortunately voice, movement and acting are taught as separate and not seen as part of the holistic whole. Our physical system is all one
Work on body response/ breath work.
Outside in or inside out? Do we live by our will power or as a response to the world?.

Neuroscience- imagination sets up real responses within neurons and is only stopped by inhibitors (social control). Imagining yourself doing a 100m uses more calories than imagining a jog.!!! So Imagine more= giving more. Our body gives us our emotion.
Actors says that scientist say that there are 27 senses not 5! The audience is hardwired to respond to fake/truth of physiological behaviour of human face and body language.

NO breakfasts
All the back story of what your character had for breakfast is often not relevant. Do it if you must but don’t bring it into rehearsal. Is it readable? Often not. The trap is that the actor becomes safe and comfortable and removes risk in performance.

The observer affects the experiment
Being watched changes the way that you behave, this is often the cause of much blocking within actors. Hence defensiveness, hence ego.

To the actor (notes and suggestions)
The job is to live truthfully and
Tell stories.
The things we can’t communicate are the essence of what we are trying to do. =theatre.
Unlearn bad habits
Take risk / be brave
Work as an ensemble
Consider yourself a theatre maker and not an actor
Theatre is a creative act, actors are not puppets.
Fear is natural.
Take responsibility within performance.
Keep it live and present
Does it communicate?
Resolve the gestalt.
Deal with “what is” not the plan
Be able to translate directions (director /actor interface)
Communicate theatre language
Allow audience to be part of translation process.
Find shades of grey.
Let audience follow your choices
Lose as actor and character.
Discover size of performance/style of work
You can note someone’s behaviour, e.g.; you are angry- but you cannot know why just by looking at them.
Don’t fight truth of moment
Learn clarity of thought
Learn to be switched on; focused
Raise the stakes- make it more important
It’s not about you. Use the other actors
Have autonomy. You will meet bad directors. Don’t be bullied.
You will meet good directors, - acquiesce
Learn to problem solve. How do I do that?
Things are working if there are more questions than answers
Learn to receive
Small parts create the world
Remember it is for the audience, not you.

Reading list Drew Leder Absent Body
Antonio de Mazio Descartes Error
David Mamet True and False
Declan Donalan The actor and his target.

Books on Jung, cognitive therapy, deception and con men.

034 Circus Theatre: An Oxymoron?

Convener: Mark Morreau

Participants: Sharon Kean, Naomi O’Kelly, Catriona James, Neil Keating, Lynn Gardner, Gigi, Jo Hammet, Roisin Stimpson, Matilda Leyser, Leslie Coosens, Zoe Cobb, Liz Chen,

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Brief Summary and Conclusion (this is all you need to read!)

Is CircusTheatre an Oxymoron? A contradiction in terms? Can circus and theatre co-exist in the same show or meld seamlessly into a piece of performance.

CircusTheatre as a label is still useful for producers and audiences, but the word “theatre” no longer needs to be tagged on to “circus” in order to instil legitimacy. Circus Performers working in theatre need to have better theatrical (performative) skills. This needs to be addressed in their training. Theatre practitioners need to have better knowledge of the technical aspects of circus: skills and rigging to utilise circus’ potential, otherwise they act as magpies, just grabbing the shiny bits.

Discussion:

We started by discussing the term “Circus Theatre. As a term, it had a historical usefulness for giving legitimacy for circus shows/companies who were trying to add narrative to their “tricks”. Now that circus has gained respectability as a legitimate art form, it’s no longer necessary to add the word “theatre” in order to gain respect (or funding). However, the term “Circus Theatre” is still useful for funding and promotional purposes. Companies call themselves “Circus Theatre” companies as an indication of the style of their work, for example “SoandSo CircusTheatre” and “Acrojou CircusTheatre”.

However, the purpose of our convention was not to discuss the label, but to ask whether the art forms “circus” and “theatre” are compatible with each other, whether one can incorporate circus seamlessly into theatre as a narrative element, or whether you can add narrative to circus without destroying the innate theatricality of the discrete circus act.

Gerry Cottle insists that there is enough theatricality in circus without needing to add additional theatre to it. We asked if that was true… that the act is the act: a story in itself. Does it need to have theatre added to it?

The discussion kicked off with as assertion that “circus” and “theatre” are not compatible: Circus is a real art form, where the performer is genuinely doing the skills, actually risking their life live on stage. Theatre, on the other hand, depends on suspension of disbelief: imagine this man is a Danish prince, there’s the castle, there’s the mountain. The real and the imaginary will collide. Things can go wrong, and often end up very badly.

Mimbre’s show at LIMF 2010 was put forward as a good example of skill and theatre co-existing well in a story of friendship.

There was a suggestion that Circus Theatre often falls down because the circus performers have spent their training on learning their technical skills, and have not gained sufficient performance skills to be convincing actors.

Better performance training is necessary for circus artists.

It was asserted that in order to add performance onto the skill then the skill needed to be totally ingrained into the muscle memory of the performer so that the performer could concentrate on performing rather than doing the tricks.

The Australian company Circa was cited as an example where a theatrical show was created by stripping away all the performative elements from the acrobatic disciplines of the performers. The less “theatre” they did the more the audience saw in their show. The audience were able to use their own imaginations and saw their own stories in the work.

It was suggested that “legitimate” theatre had a magpie approach to disciplines such as puppetry and circus: that they would swoop in and grab the shiny bits for their shows. Circus was thus in danger of giving bits of itself away cheaply. Warhorse was cited as an example of how “legitimate” theatre had properly embraced puppetry to create a show, eschewing the magpie temptation. The National Theatre attempted to do this with a production of The Birds in about 2003 that was not really a success. Some believed that it set the “cause” of Circus Theatre back.

We asked if Producers understood what Circus (or Circus Theatre) is. Do Producers, directors and choreographers need to understand the skills and other elements of circus (rigging, safety) in order for them to realise circus’ potential in their theatre shows? The Circus Space has been running some cross-fertilisation projects. Directors and choreographers need to be familiar with the vocabulary of circus, the range of circus skills, the potential of each skill and its limitations. They need to be able to understand and incorporate these skills rather than being in awe of them.

We asked how you get your show off the ground, whether Circus Theatre was a new thing (no!), whether it should just be called “theatre”, or indeed why does it matter what it’s called?

Examples were cited where the (bad) theatre of a show had ruined the (good) circus elements of it (and vice versa).

Some of the non-performative elements of circus (the rigging, for example) had their own drama, and did not need to be hidden from the audience.

We asked if other places were better than Britain at integrating Circus and Theatre. Canada and Europe, especially France with its touring infrastructure, were cited as examples.

Conclusion:

There have been shows where Circus and Theatre have been seamlessly integrated, but these have been far and few between, and they’ve come from Circus practitioners who wanted to rise above the tricks. These attempts have often been let down by poor performance skills from circus performers, or poor understanding of the potential or needs of the circus skills from theatre practioners.

These issues can be addressed by:

• Circus Training institutions improving the performance training element of their courses.
• Giving opportunities for theatre practitioners – directors, producers and technical staff – to learn more about circus skills in order to increase their vocabulary and understand the potential use of circus skills in their productions.

013 Free Mask Workshops

Convener:Steven Whinnery

Participants: Steven Whinnery, Antonio Ferrara, Emma Deakin, Myro Wolff, Samal Blak, Jennifer Pearcy-Edwards, Kyle Davies, Kate Murthagh, Lizzie Wiggs, Gregor Henderson-Begg, Naomi O Kelly, Ben Hadley, Louise Collins, Louise Platt, Jane Gauntlett

Free Summer Mask workshops run by Steven Whinnery (mask maker, artist, teacher, theatre director) at The Olympic Arts Centre, in Stratford, East London. Running from June 2010 till October 2010. The workshops are free but there will be an audition process, and or interview. Open to individuals interested in working with masks, and to companies wishing to develop mask work. The workshops will be run as drop in sessions over the summer. We will be playing with masks most of the time, but there will be mask making workshops. It will be held in a complex of artists’ studios, on the ground floor, 500 square feet, plus access to an outside areas twice that size. Concrete floors. Should’nt present any barriers to those with mobility issues.

If you are interested contact me: Steven Whinnery: stevenwhinnery at yahoo.co.uk