Monday May 2nd - Narrative styles

Introduction

Today we experimented with narrative styles.  The aspects of narration that I asked the group to focus on where bodily movements, posture, vocal tone and clarity of enunciation.

Focus and Warm ups

We brought ourselves into the room by saying our name, and describing where we are and what we are about to do.  We went round the circle a few times, each time requiring more detail and gradually bringing focus of attention from the busy lives we had come from and into the Konnektiv session.

We then observed things about each other, again going round the circle more than once in order to bring peoples focus of attention more closeley into the group, and strengthening the sense of connection between group members.

In order to bring in a physical warm up, we slightly changed that excersise by "imagining" each other doing things.  The person imagined then had to mime what they had been imagined doing.  For instance, I imagined Damon juggling with seven balls, and he then had to mime this.

We then brought in voice by imagining each other as someone of a particular age and gender, singing or speaking, to a group.

 Experimentation

The poetry reader looks alert, feet and hands are being
used to tell the story as well as the face.
 She leans towards the audience and uses vocal tone to
 add interest and meaning to the prose.

The main body of the session was taken by experimenting with narrative style, as we all took on a different role with which to tell the Japanese Fairy Tales we are working with.  We had a fairy, who had to persuade some children that they had to believe in her so that she could stay alive, a preacher, who was trying to convert some shoppers, a polititian, promoting their views at a hustings, a performance poet and a nursery teacher.

The audience

The "nursery teacher" reading is non-intrusive
but still includes the audience by leaning forwards, and
being seated brings the narrator closer to the children.

The point of the experiment was to look at ways that different people use to engage, persuade and entertain an audience.  Normal rules of acting don't apply, as the narrator makes personal contact with the audience, using eyes and body language.

The nursery teachers style is relaxed and simple,
unlike some of the more assertive styles we experimented with.
Her voice was soft and she spoke quite slowly

 Our audiences tested the narrators by being engaged, 
indifferent, or put off by the messages being relayed.  Some narrators were surprised that they found the experience of a "rude audience" to be liberating, and their performance improved as they were challenged by indifference to create a greater level of rapport, or got past the point of caring what the audience thought, or even got angry with the audience.

The "fairy reader" used a flirtatious manner, entertaining
 the audience by her quick, nimble movements and using a bright,
 lilting voice.

 Movement was very important, and sometimes quite hard to sustain.  However the movement adds to the character of the narrator.  Suggesting elements of personality to the reader, adding drama and style to the reading, and generally being much more entertaining than being still.

Occasionally the fairy would come quite close
to the audience, clearly requesting  more engagement.  
Both voice and movements where quick and light

The politician read slowly, with some gravity.
Attempting to convince the listeners of the seriousness
 of the subject under discussion.
Her voice was slow and deep and she used an emphatic tone.

 Some of the personalities used less distance than others.  The fairy was very intimate, unlike the polititian who was much more still physically during the performance.  The fairy had less social rules, was more childlike.  The polititian mainly used physical and vocal gravity, and strong eye contact, to engage the whole audience simultaneously.  The fairy flitted from one audience member to the other, engaging and releasing eye contact frequently.  She smiled a lot, unlike the politician.

The preacher was the most aggressive of the speakers,
his body language broke many social rules as he
threatened and accused his listeners.   Like the politician,
the preacher used slowly spoken words spoken emphatically.
However his tone varied a lot as his voice rose and fell in waves. 

The preacher used the more magical, unreal style of the  fairy, along with the emphasis and gravity of the politician.  His message was very serious and real, yet was given in a way intended to arouse strong emotions such as fear.  He did this by using a very varied vocal range, quickly changing his voice from deep to high, causing a forceful and emotive delivery.  He pointed directly at the audience, again quite threatening in his manner.


There seemed to be several themes in the range of styles of reading:


Intended magical content - indicated often by use of varied and changing vocal range.  Real readings were indicated by less of a vocal range, and greater use of emphatic words.
Intended emotional content - altered by changing the vocal tone, as well as the style of movement, quick for happy, or fearful emotion, slow for brevity.

Using the whole body, from tip of toe to slant of shoulders,
 the whole audience can be included in the reading

Entertainment - the less serious readings involved more quick, quirky movements, indicating an interesting character and adding texture to the reading.

At the end of the session, we brought the session to a close by a group mirroring excersise, where one person led the movement and passed the leading task to a random other, until someone ended the task by standing still.