Finding the Badger Within

At the beginning of the session, lots of people were really tired, so we tried a livening up experiment.  I had hoped to combine this with a sort of Boalian style experiment in role power, but that bit didn't really work.  As you will see looking through the photographs, by the end of the session, the group was really rather lively.

 The group sorted themselves into order of tiredness.  The most tired person led first, as they walked around the room, gradually feeling their way into roles of their characters in The Badger Kettle.  Everyone walked very slowly, there was lots of hunching over and loud yawning, as they expressed the most tired feelings of the most tired person there. 

Inspired by a Cirque du Soleil video that we watched on Sunday, I had emphasised with everyone that they should also be thinking about 'how' they are travelling.  I didn't want to see anyone 'walking', as themself.  There are so many ways and reasons to move from one space to another.  Each movement needs to be choreographed, to make it purposeful and stylised, pleasing to watch, part of the spell we are creating, separate from 'normal life'.  In 'very tired' mode, this was more difficult than later in the session.

Gradually, the leader was swapped for someone who was less tired, and they led the group, and set the tiredness level for everyone else to follow.  Through changing the leader each time, like this, the energy level of the group was gradually raised.

 As the action sped up, and footsteps became lighter, heads were raised and a few people started to hum.

 The group moved between two of the rooms in the meeting house, because each room is very small, and I am trying to find creative ways to incorporate both spaces, but they are connected by a small narrow hallway and two doors..  My idea of the 'power play' in the doorway was that because it is so small, only one person could get through at a time.  Therefore, each person would have to negotiate with another, who would go through the door first, and this negotiation would be in character.  In fact, this was too much to add in to the warm up at such an early stage, and people didn't really enter into the spirit of that part of the instructions.  I will try to fit in a modified version of this exercise in another session.

 After a few increases in the energy level, things started to look quite lively.  At some point, people picked up instruments, and this is where the energy really began to pick up.

Movement became more frenetic and sounds became louder.  Most of the group began to really start enjoying themselves, and freeing themselves up to the idea of letting go and being a bit silly.

The rehearsal part of the session was far more lively than usual.  This was partly because we were working on a very lively part of the story, but also I think because the warm up session fed into the rehearsal.  The narrator didn't take much enrolling, as she had already developed her character quite a lot, so the method I used was to reflect her movements and speech patterns.  We both rolled around on the floor, crawled about, walked in an uneven circling waltz pattern, discussing the characteristics of the role. 

We have finally set the character of the Badger Kettle, and she will be able to start to work more intensely on her style of movement.  There is also the opportunity in this part of the story to use clowning skills to make a really dynamic and funny slapstick element to the piece.

Some of the members of the group who were not on stage at this point took the instruments that were used in the warm up and devised a piece of music for the badger to dance to.  As with the narrator, I facilitated the enrolement of the badger by reflecting her moves.  Several other members of the group all joined in at this point, and with the music playing and the energetic moves, some initial self consciousness soon gave way to a more uninhibited, flowing, dynamic show of interactive movement.

During this session we were more aware than ever about how much progress the group has made since our initial early stages of rehearsal.  We have a wide range of energy levels, and through the three stories, many different emotional states and styles of movement are shown.

Starting from next week, we will be having Wednesday morning rehearsals as well as Monday evening rehearsals.  Not all of the group will be able to attend these, although we hope to attract more members as some people will be able to attend who can't come to the Monday sessions.

Other progress on the management front is that now the bank account is up and running, and we can start looking for funds to begin making costumes/stage set and so on, and to get in specialist workshop facilitators.  We are also looking for venues for January performances, with a chance being that we may be performing at Community Rooms in Staffordshire Fire Stations.