In this session we bring the Image sequences we created in the last session to life.

We shall start with a warm-up and drama games:

1. Points of contact

• Ask the group to get into groups of about 5 people.
• Tell them how many points of contact they can have, as a group, on the floor at any given time.
• ·Start off with an easy instruction, for example nine points of contact on the floor (so in a group of five people with two feet each, if one person raises a foot off the ground, the group now has nine points of contact on the floor).
• Continue changing the number of points of contact on the floor.
• The group should discover more and more inventive ways of contacting, and not contacting, the floor.

Variation: 

• As above. 
• Then call out different body parts that can have points of contact on the floor. For example, five feet, two hands, three elbows, one knee, one hip, two shoulders…

2. Vocal strength 

Chewing gum; Humming:as described in Lecture 3

(ii) Calling for communication:

People who work in the fields, in the hills, on the shore, often have ways of calling long distances – sometimes in a song – which is clear and unforced. It is a technique with an open throat which can help us discover the potential of our voices, and is useful when we are performing in big spaces. Here is one way to discover it for ourselves:

• The group stands in as big a circle as possible; feet apart and knees very slightly bent.
• You swing your “throwing arm” back and forward in unison with everyone else, as if in an under-arm throw. As you swing back, take a deep breath in. As you swing your arm forward breathe out and release the hand as if letting go of a ball which will fly up and forward.
• Check that your throat is open (like in the yawn), especially for the out breath.
• Now use the out breath to throw a sound – as if calling someone who is across the river, across the playground, up a mountain etc. It is good to start with the sound “Hey” as the “h” helps to keep the throat unblocked.
• Each time you swing the arm forward let that call fly out with your mimed throw.
• Check everyone is doing it without tension by letting everyone try it one by one. Point out any tensions you can see or hear in their voices.
• Try it with two syllables and two notes, e.g. ”Hey,ho!” “Hoh-Yah” etc. All together, then one by one.
• Try it on three syllables, four etc. Try putting words to the call e.g. “Hello – are you there?”, “Do you need help?” etc. making sure that each word is called and not swallowed.

3. Stopping and starting

Watching animals is always fascinating as they have wonderful and varied control of energy and rhythm. They can also be the basis for developing characters. In particular we can learn how they hold their energy, how they stop and start. They always seem to be perfectly in control and using the correct energy for what they intend to do. Some are better than others. The cat family is a great example, which is probably why we are so fascinated by them.

• Everyone walks around the space in all directions, not in a circle. Be alert, taking eye contacts, looking at things in the space, being alive.
• When a leader calls “Freeze!” try to stop in exactly that moment – like when a cat suddenly sees a bird or a mouse.
• Make sure that the whole body stops, from eyes to toes, not just your legs with the arms still swinging. Think how a cat sometimes stops with one paw lifted – everything frozen and ready.
• Practise this until you can stop instantly with your energy held in your body. A stop is not when your energy runs out. It is when you hold all your forward energy from moving. So a stop has double energy – the forward energy and the energy which holds that energy back. When a cat stops and is perfectly still, looking at a bird, there is no movement but we can all see the energy held in the body, waiting to jump.
• As you start to walk again, feel that the held energy has been released so you suddenly burst into movement. Not a slow, lazy acceleration, but a full energy start. Such starts are great for entrances on stage. They have energy and intention, and that makes the audience look at them.
• Now when you walk feel that you could stop at any moment. Now you don’t need a leader to shout “Freeze”. You can stop at any impulse: seeing something or someone, hearing something, smelling something, thinking of something. Try it, stopping on your own impulses. This is the level of energy control which will make your acting alive.
• Now try it moving at different speeds between the stops.
• Now try it walking with some of the body shapes you tried above.
• Now try it varying the amount of tension in the body. Walk with a lot of tension, like somebody very stressed, the stops and starts should be quite easy.
• Walk with a very lazy tension, like someone who is tired or in the heat. Even with this you should be able to do the stops and starts precisely.

4. Complete the image – the handshake

• The group gets into pairs and number themselves 1 and 2.
• The pairs make a still image of 2 people shaking hands.
• There is no talking.
• Number 1 steps out of the image. Number 2 remains in exactly the same shape.
• Number 1 looks at the image of number 2 from all angles. This process of looking is sometimes forgotten as the exercise gets more complicated, but it is very important that the participants keep this element as part of the exercise and take a very good look.
• Number 1 steps back into the image, but this time in a new position (not a handshake). They can be encouraged to make clear physical choices and to experiment with using different levels, to work in three dimensions and place themselves at different angles etc. (It is useful to always have one point of physical contact between the two bodies)
• They hold the position for a moment, noticing what the image suggests to them.
• Then number 2 steps out. Number 1 keeps the shape she has made. 2 looks at the image.
• Player 2 steps back in and takes up a new position.
• The cycle of images continues.
• The players should be encouraged to ‘think with their bodies’, using different levels, working from all angles.
• After a while pairs can watch each other, and describe what they see, what stories emerge for them, what issues. In image work there is no right or wrong answer!

Variation:

• Another form of greeting can be used to begin the exercise if this is very unfamiliar in your community. However, using some form of greeting which involves some form of physical contact can be useful to start the exercise.
• Try the exercise with music to create a different dynamic.
• Try it without physical contact, playing with distance.
• The exercise can also be practiced with 3 people. (2 in a handshake. 3 enters and adds to picture, then 1 changes, then 2 then 3 etc).

5. What are you doing? (Liar’s mime)

• The group stands in a circle.
• One player goes into the middle and begins an action.
• A second player enters the circle and watches the first player carrying out the action. After a short time, player 2 asks what are you doing?
• Player 1 continues his action and says he is doing something quite different from what he is actually doing. He then leaves the circle.
• Player 2 then begins to carry out the action player 1 said he was doing. 
• Player 3 enters the circle, and asks, what are you doing? Player 2 says he is doing something different…
• And so on, until the last player or time is over. 

6. Reflection on the previous sessions

• What thoughts or feelings does the previous sessions evoke in you?
• How do you find those activities or content helpful for you to make forum theatre? Do you need more explanation?
• Revisit stories from yesterday, to make everything clear.
• Get feedback from your peers.  

7. Statues of emotions

• Collecting some emotion words, for instance: happy, sad, angry, surprise, fear, worried, excited, etc.
• Participants find a place in the room that is not too close to others.
• Each time the facilitator calls out a word of emotion, participants use their bodies to create statues that illustrate the emotion word given by whatever poses they want to use to express the word.
• Ask a half of the group to stay still as statues. Invite the rest to move around to enjoy the museum without touching or trying to distract the “statues”. Swap over. 
• Do the same with other words.
• Ask those who watch the statues to imagine a storyline which might link them together.

8. Developing our characters 

Taking characters for a walk

Step 1

• Walk around the room as yourself. Feel relaxed and free and ready for anything.
• The facilitator calls out a character and on a count of 1 2 3 4 you change your body, your rhythm and your tension to that character and you continue walking, feeling how different this body/person is from your normal being.
• Then the facilitator calls out another character and 1 2 3 4 and you change again and again. Cứ như vậy lặp lại 

Step 2

• You repeat the above, but the facilitator adds emotions. For example, “Change to the trafficker in friendly mood…………… 1 2 3 4”. The change happens and then they add, “friendly changes to angry…. 1 2 3 4 “
• By doing this you are exploring the world of your character and its different moods AND how that character might change moods when the situation changes.