Park Evening

Once again, Konnektiv Drama, those brave, committed people, are kicked in the parts by fate, and our venue is taken from us like candy from a baby.  This time must have been a record though, as I was told at 4.45pm that the room would be unavailable for a workshop starting at 7pm.  That is the shortest ever time that a room has been cancelled on us.  

So, with a razor sharp mind, I swiftly formed a back up plan.  We would workshop in the park.  God bless Stafford Council and their lovely park, which really isn't very far away from our house.  

Workshopping in the park is actually not a bad idea given that we are devising a piece of street theatre.  This very public form of rehearsal becomes a form of entertainment, as members of the public walk by, wondering what the heck these portly middle aged people are doing, with their strange hoop passing and odd walking activities.  We are always a little bit silly, it's how we get our fun.  But siezed by the moment, the sillyness really flowed, as we played with the ridiculousness of our situation.

I used two basic methods of warming up - each designed to get the 'machine' working in unity with itself.  We passed the hoops, in a circle, aiming to make the movement of each hoop around the circle smooth and seamless.  This meant getting a really good group focus.  

We are also being very honest with each other, in a good natured way, as we point out when someone is out of synch with the rest of the group.  We passed the hoop round in various ways and only injured ourselves a bit in the passing.  luckily there were no facial wounds, and people did get better at passing the hoops during the play.  And I think my fingernail will grow back soon.  Don't bother using this exercise if you are a bit delicate, it is surprisingly painful if you get hit by a fast moving stray hoop.

After a while we decided to move on, and begin to think of how the machine would look as it moves around.  It could move around in a group shape (in this case, as there was 5 of us, in a pentagon) or in a line - we practiced with both.  The line was good, as we found an amusing way to start the line moving using the back person, with everyone bashing into each other before the machine starts walking, adding a slapstick element, and reminding one of a desk toy.  

We used funny walks.  We do these without even thinking now, and gradually each part of the machine started to devise it's own characteristics.  This gave the overall image an endearing idiosyncratic feel.  Over time, we will do more work on the characterisations.

After a time, a pattern had been devised which was similar to the machine that we created at the performing arts centre at the end of last year - that was a really long time ago!  However this is a much more lighthearted version.

Basically, the machine parts march along in a line, at some point, the marching stops, and the machine will move in a semi random, semi choreographed pattern.  Then the machine will get into a line, and march again, in a different order.  

The leader of the march, and the first and last part of the machine to march, will appear random, to the public (hopefully!), but in fact, there will be a pattern of events, so the performers will always know who is leading and who is finishing, which part.  The idea of this is to add to the magical feel of the performance, as though it is comedic, and the performers look rather ridiculous, haphazard and frankly none - too - bright, there is in fact, a carefully planned, rehearsed and executed performed routine.

I enjoyed workshopping in the park.  It was a great confidence builder, which we need, as street performance takes a special kind of courage and character.  It was heartening to see how quite a simple set of ideas, played out by a willing and generous spirited group, can be really very effective in terms of gaining positive attention.  Finally, a video to show how we ended the session.