Developing the technique and revisiting early sculpts

The group is really getting the hang of the technique that we are using now, and I am amazed, because people there either haven't done drama before or haven't done anything like this style of  drama.  It's important for people to enjoy the moves and the sculpts that they create and feel comfortable with them, because this will affect how the audience respond to them, and yet I am asking the sculptactors to do things that are very different from their normal repertoire of actions.  Often, when feeling on show, people perform actions quickly, trying to hide any imperfections.  In this piece, every action is of utmost importance, every little move, from the little finger to the firm, centered thighs and abdomen.  Facial expression, blinks, eye movement, all give meaning and purpose to the action, and accidental movements can confuse or dilute what is being communicated.  

In the technique development part of the session, during a guided visualisation task, each member of the group 'went to the cinema, to watch their favourite film'.  One moment from this film, of heightened intensity, was used later to start a group sculpt.  Each person started their group sculpt, and without knowing the film or the plot, one by one, other members came and added to the sculpt.  each time finding their position with a movement that lasted 10 slow drumbeats.  "Really enjoy the movement, and the sculpt at the end", I instructed.  "Like doing a deliberate fart", suggested a group member.  Yes that was exactly it.  With the confidence of someone who knows that they can have a really good fart in front of everyone in the room, make it as loud and last as long as possible, relish every moment of expelling the trapped air, and then bask in the final affect of their bodily act.  This is the confidence, the joy in bodily function, and the pride with which I want the spectactors to engage with their movements and sculpt.  No apology, no shakiness, no rushed nervous attempt to be invisible.

The closeness that the group is starting to experience is showing in the fact that there is more bodily contact between members.  This is very important in a drama, and will be a future theme.  I don't want to put people off by insisting that they have physical contact before they are comfortable with each other, but as this is naturally happening, then I think that it is time to develop this aspect of the drama.  Actors touching each other is very important on a stage, it suggests closeness, familiarity, love, competition, far more than words or expression can.  A simple touch is so powerful.

Before we started to rehearse the story, People walked around the room and experimented with different ways of moving and making sound by imagining the room was different colours.  "The room is now yellow, it is completely yellow, and you are full of the colour yellow.  How does the yellow feel?  How does it move?  What sounds does it make?"  As one colour faded to be replaced by another, the group had the opportunity to experiment with different forms of expression and experience.

The rehearsal started rather late, and as the group are now much more confident and dramatically fluid, in future rehearsals, I will spend less time on the technique development phase and more on the story.  We revisited the early part of the story and realised that we had tried to put in too much detail, laboriously depicting each part of the story.  This is not necessary, as the narrator, a magical creature, will be entertaining and express the themes and emotions of the story, the pictures created by the spectactors changing only occasionally, in a way that magnifies the content of the story. 

We discussed costume, and maybe masks for some characters.  We will need to employ an artist to help us with these, and this will incorporate a fee, if only for materials.  Added to the fact that we are probably going to have to pay for a venue soon, this means that we either have to become a constituted body, or affiliate to some other constituted body, in order to be able to apply for funds from charities.