Blog Assessment 2.

Grecia CHARPIN. Student Nº: 0916113

1. “Four ways to speak out” as a form of is a physical theatre, has been devised using a large range of devising features to create a product with a specific content: the inner and outer reactions to Domestic Abuse as a social issue present in our societies nowadays. Our response together as an ensemble to this issue stands to my view, as one the first key strategies that have appeared intrinsic from the beginning of the creating process. Our journey started from our responses to stimulus presented under different forms, such as various objects disposed distinctively in the space, music, and ideas. “Devised theatre can start from anything. It is determined and defined by a group of people who set up an initial framework or structure to explore and experiment with ideas, images, concepts, themes, or specific stimuli that might include music, text, objects, paintings, or movement” (Oddey,A, 1994, Devising Theatre,p.1). Following then, specific tasks helped us to generate a series of gestures and movements either aesthetic and stylistic or pedestrian in relation to them, in order for us to give an interpretation of what these objects could awake in our minds and bodies. We have also developed our characters through written responses positioning the narrative in the time and space we felt appropriate, a fact that has given us certain confidence in terms of delivering our roles emotionally - a strategy that has paid back as the characters have grown in the story. To develop the tasks we have used among others the clap method so we all could have a personal contribution to the product gaining in objectivity and effectiveness. We have explored and tested small routines including those movements through improvisation, codified archetype forms, ensemble pieces, duets, and reactions of the characters sometimes as emotions emerged. This allowed us to give strong and sometimes very natural responses, not only physical but with psychological and symbolic cultural resonance as well, thanks to the diversity of the member’s multicultural and multi-gender background. “Devised theatre offers the opportunity to groups of artists to try out ideas or notions that were not text-led. It provoked the potential for a designer, Choreographer, o performer to initiate a concept or starting point of performance” (Oddey,A, 1994, Devising Theatre,p.1). Putting into practice the whole palette of skills typical to physical theatre, such as body memory, awareness of the space and the partners, distribution of weight, as well as the hybrid character of this expression. Through the use of music, written text, physical movements, and dance, we have reached our final stage, and the narrative is now complete.



2. My character was born as a response to what she could have been in relation to this missing woman. As it, she was one of this woman’s next-door neighbours in her building. At the beginning, it was quite clear what the depths of her intimacy with this woman were, what her position in the community was and where she was when she last saw the missing woman -in my particular case it was in the street accompanying her to the post office to send a letter to her brother. She was really worried by what was going on next door, she knew something was not right and she knew it was something hard to say, something taboo. On the other hand, she never asked this woman to explain the situation, she was somehow powerless. Therefore, when in desperation this woman asked her for help she didn’t hesitate to accompany her to what ever she needed to do, in this case to the post office. As the narrative developed, my character suffered some changes. As we settled the need to have 4 representative women, instead of only one interacting in different situations, and the idea of the environment also created in more representative locations of one community, such as the bar, the street, and this missing woman’s bedroom (as one personal touch connected to this woman) the purpose and reason of my character somehow disappeared, (this includes the props needed to her description) and developed into something more general: one of the community neighbours who saw this missing woman in the street.

3. My character development takes place mainly in the street. Through different situations she goes, she experiences emotional ups and downs related mainly to this woman’s reactions seen in the flash backs as the story is narrated. When the actions take place in the street the movements developed are quite artistic, in an ensemble routine with some pedestrian gestures added in order to portray women reactions when getting ready and also when interacting with the opposite gender. Following this encounter with the boys in the street, then interacting violently with them as they try to take control of this woman, we developed more sharp violent movements which include catches and falls – my character in particular takes a high jump into the woman’s boyfriend in her last attempt to stop him from taking control of this woman. For this bit the trust in my partner is crucial as he takes my full weight on him, so I need to lighten my body weight by means of shifting my centre of gravity through my pelvis position, using some key points to lean on him, stretching my spine and keeping my muscles tight as much as possible from the beginning in order for him to take me to the highest point possible above him without any difficulties. On the way down as my character will be just thrown out of the way, this time I need to make my body heavy without loosing control, so again it can be achieved safely. To give more meaning to this section we also decided to repeat this woman’s movements in a sort of robotic way, the aim is to portray in us women from the community as this woman has if we were in her situation. The other key moment when my character makes great physical movements is in the chaotic ensemble where I receive weight from my partner in different falls during the section, and I transfer mine as well in different jumps and up lifts. In those moments, a neutral position when catching my partner is essential, as well as the right stance, in order to no only produce the movements without any harm but also gain my partner’s trust and deliver a sense of lightness.

Bibliography:
1- Callery , D (2001) Through the body, London: Routledge.
2- Oddey,A, 1994, Devising Theatre