Living Room Drama

Being homeless is so motivational!  For weeks I have been struggling to find new digs.  One evening of having to meet in my living room, and being very confined with space, and finding it difficult to keep the theme of the meeting from wandering off from the usual Konnektiv activities and into the realm of political campaigning and astrology, I managed to find us a new home the next day.  For the very reasonable sum of 10pw, we can use the meeting room at the Quakers meeting house.  Getting the key any day now.  If the rest of the group is ok with it, I will ask people to contribute a pound and I'll just put in anything left to pay.

Anyway, thanks to the 6 people who came, and when we managed to stick with the topic of in hand, we did do some very interesting experimentations.

Movement Dynamics

We played with the idea of making very small movements, in twos and in larger numbers.  I had the idea that this could be very powerful, a still image, and one small, slow movement.  However this completely didn't work, maybe because there was so much stuff and people in such a small space that detail is lost, but also maybe because when using very small movements, if it is too slow it just isn't noticable to our perceptive systems.  In which case, when we are improvising with movements  again, it would be useful to experiment with speed and size of movement.  Also I am thinking about once we have large bodies - due to extensions using masks and costumes, this might serve to magnify the movement, so in this case, a small movement, carried out very slowly, might be much more observable, and also may imply a different motivation than the same movement carried out without the extra costume/mask.

Group Attunement

Group sensitivity and 'togetherness', in this movement the group place their hands in a preplanned place on each others bodies, with their eyes closed, to a set rythm and within a set time.  Each member of the group tries to maintain an awareness of the movement made by other members and to synchronise with this.

There is a video of the movement described above, but I'm just having a bit of trouble uploading it.  

Another group synchronised movement that we did was, standing in a circle, initially facing the centre, to raise our hands into the middle and simultaneously turn so we faced each others backs, then slowly walk around, like a wheel, and as a group, stop walking, turn to face the centre of the circle again, and lower our hands.

This was very difficult, at times seemingly impossible.  In each case there was quite a lot of laughter and some jubilation when a task was completed fairly well.

Several questions are raised in my mind following these tasks:

1) Is it actually possible to have a 'sixth sense' awareness' of the physical, spacial and kinetic elements of the group. 

2) If it is, is it actually possible to co-ordinate ones movements, in anything more than an accidental, or choreographed way, with the other members of the group. 

3) If the above two things are possible, then would this practically add to the ambience of a performance, in that the performers are connected not just on a purely physical level, but are also aware of a more 'extraphysical' level of connectedness.

(these two questions relate to some martial arts, such as tai chi, in which contact made is not always physical.  If this is plausible, how is it, and how could a group hone this skill)

If the above notions are all hocus pocus, and rather a lot of nonsense, why do we like to try to do these things?  What do we stand to gain?  As individuals and as a group?  I have one or two theories that people might like to think about:

4)  In the 'game' of extraphysical contact, the group experiences a common aim that is quite exciting and suggests a greater connectivity is possible than the one we experience in day to day life.

5) By co-ordinating our efforts, and in our attempts to reach an extraphysical level of contact, we do in fact allow ourselves to become aware of each others presence and movements on a very physically minute level.

6) This attunes the members of the group towards each other, and thus the group towards itself.

7) In performance, this may well end up with a more precise, connected performance, in which the actors are highly in tune with each other and focussed on their physical/cognitive tasks.

One more question

8) What does the phrase 'in tune' mean in terms of group dramatic endeavour?

Last Session at the David Jones Centre

The last session at the David Jones Centre was held  on 11th April) and we still don't have a new venue sorted out :-(

This now being a state of emergency, and my attempts to tap into my Housing Associations Tenant's Involvement scheme having fallen onto barren land, we have decide on two courses of events.

1)  Approach the Quakers, who sometimes let groups use their hall cheap or free if it for the community benefit.
2)  Carry on with steps to become constitutionalised and open bank account.

Progress is being made but slowly due to other commitments/holidays etc.  We are getting there slowly.

In the meantime, we are back to rehearsing in my living room.  Think due to small space, using some of the enrollment rituals to facilitate further engagement with people's roles will be appropriate and also some sharing of the two new stories.  Also, experiment with different percussive/musical sounds to accompany movements.  Oh yes - and experiment with moving only one body part at a time - how does this look when the whole group do it very slowly?  Also some quick frantic movements, which will occasionally add contrast to the usual slow ones.

Anyway, about Monday.

What an interesting session!  We had two new people arrive - one who will be joining us permanently, who specialises in music, and one who just came to see what it's about.  Of course they both had to join in the full session.  We also had an artist join us for the first half of the session, because hopefully she will be helping us create the masks and costumes for the performance.

For the benefit of the regular members present we started the session with an excersise aimed at relaxation and then using guided visualisation, the members went on a journey to find their "creature".  The creature is the being - animal, person, god, hero etc, that the actor will be embodying in the performance.  In order to help the actors to use their imagination to create a stronger image of the creature to be embodied, I guided them on a hunt, to find the creature, and upon finding it, to have some interaction with it during which they found out more about the creature's purpose, visage, movement etc.  The new member and the visitors each imagined a creature from a story or film that they liked as a child.  Each person spent some time with their creature, and when the guided visualisation was over, they would enrol as this creature in the next part of the session.

Ethics - Issues for mental health clients, fear, nature of the "creature", feeling loss of control.  Probably not appropriate for vulnerable groups, also importance of thorough enrolment and derolement and being guided properly out of the visualisation, to ensure re-engagement with everyday reality.


Returning to the theme of slow movement accompanied by drum and ending in sculpt.  The group made a sculpt enroled as each of their creatures.  I asked for them to make the creature sculpts interact to that the final group sculpt told a story.  The group used different levels and took in different elements of mood and purpose.  Three group sculpts were created and the final one was examined by all as we took it in turn replacing another member's sculpt as that member walked around the final 3d image.

Following this, we returned to the two stories that we started last week.  The two main characters had had a chance to create strong imaginary impressions of their creatures, and this came out quite strongly in the performances. We started with the Fisherman story, which is very sad, concerning loss and grief and followed it with the Badger Kettle, which is quite comical and quirky.  Next week we hope that a dance/movement person will be coming along to help us to find ways to engage with some of the more difficult movement parts - such as the Badger Kettle and the Storm in The Good Thunder.

Hasty and late update from last week (4th April)

Much business in developing further projects has prevented the usual prompt Konnektiv update.  A reminder that planning takes far less energy and time than doing.  

Structural update - We are still homeless.  Ouch - I think that we have only one week left at the lovely David Jones Centre with its large space, little stage and lots of chairs etc.  It has done us well for 3months but we will be meeting in my living room for a while, which is fortunately quite big.

Having failed to find us free digs, I have asked the group - who have happily agreed, if they will agree to us becoming a constituted voluntary organisation so that we can try to get some funds for a place to have our sessions.  Written up the constitution, next step, phone call to the bank.

One or two interesting developments are that we have a dancer and a sonic artist coming along, which will really add a lot to what we are doing.  The main focus of the current project is movement, embodiment and narrative.  The sound aspect will really add to the dynamism and intensity of the performance.

After a few months of small but regular attendance, there is a rustle (spring?) of expectation in the air, as new people and new interests start to emerge.

On Monday we improvised again with sculpt.  Two members each forming a random sculpt, that complimented each other, and the third inventing characters and a narrative based on what they saw.  There were three parts to each story, in the first, the actors maintained eye contact, in the second there was one body part touching, and in the third, eye contact again.  The movements between each sculpt were integral to the game, and accompanied by 10 slow drumbeats.

There are several points to this game, which have been touched on before:

1) Using imagination (esp the narrator)

2) Being very aware and deliberate in the movement, being comfortable and enjoying the sensation of moving and finding a final sculpt.

3) Being very aware of centre of gravity and balance, embodying the final sculpt and feeling comfortable in the stillness.

4) Intimacy - this is quite a new addition to our work.  part of the role of group drama is to bring about a sense of intimacy, 'togetherness'.  lack of intimacy is as telling in a cold/distant theatrical performance as it is in life.  The idea of the eye contact/body contact is that the actors become intimate with each other on a deeper level, and if not comfortable, they might wonder what is blocking their ability to be comfortable with this level of personal contact.

5) 'Telling' - the narrator sees the sculpt, invents a story behind the sculpt and then 'tells' the story.  How do they tell?  Do they take delight in sharing their creation?  Are they afraid to speak - perhaps fearing criticism?  In this game the narrator might experiment with different ways of telling, and embody different roles, to explore the effects of role on the way that the story is experienced.

Theory: 

These games can be quite challenging, as we discover just how uncomfortable we are with being seen, being heard, feeling exposed, physically and psychologically.  We might feel clumsy, ungainly, out of shape, unbalanced.  Our voice may seem too loud, or quiet and inaudible.  But then, we see others making the same efforts.  The experience of risk and exposure are shared.  We do not criticise others, and we do not get the  criticism we feared and expected, and we are free to continue with the experience, experimenting with our bodies, our voices and the group, finding our expressive, creative self, gently pushing at our inhibitions and boundaries, and expanding our comfort zone.

We finally looked at two more stories, so that we now have the complete set that we will use on our Japanese Fairy Evening.  This Monday we will look at these two stories in more detail.