November 3rd, 2008

I'm not sure what to title this blogpost, but I needed to reflect on the class we had today. It was a great class in which we did many exercises that involved mimicking and the face. The first thing we did was we had to pick someone's gaze and hold it while walking around the room. It was really interesting to notice how when you were walking and holding the gaze of the person how you acted in the space given. Devin was my first partner, and when I was walking with her we kind of mirrored each other. A lot of the time we stayed the same distance apart and almost seemed to move together.

After that we did this really cool thing called Bomb and Shield. The first time we played it Emma was my bomb while I was her shield! I found it really interesting and couldn't help but think there must be some serious psychological untones in this game! But more on topic, it was interesting that she was my bomb and I was her shield. At the time I wish I had known or had a tape I could watch because I'm sure it's cool to watch us as I try to get away from her she's trying to stay towards me!

Another activity we did today which I liked was when we were following the other person's hand with our nose. This was really interesting to do, and in some cases I think it would require incredible amounts of flexibility. But this is really up to person A where person B would be led. I did this activity with both Chase and Chelsea O. Chase and I also did the activity where we put our hands up but not touching and were to mirror each other without really leading each other. This was difficult at first but after a bit I was able to read him easier to tell when he was going to move and take control or follow my lead. This was an important idea, how the eyes were a real tool and non verbual communication.

What is Theatre?

We had a discussion in class about what exactly is theatre, and this furthered into what is a performance? The biggest controversy I saw was the way we looked at the idea of an audience and how that affected the definition of performance. In the discussion we decided that an audience would be defined as anyone including yourself. With this being said, I believe that anything and everything would be a performance. Because all though everything maybe not be intended to be performed or acted, there is always an audience present.

This idea of falling down the stairs was an example we used often. I personally think that even that would be considered a performance, because although no one has neccessarily seen it, you have been present, and since we defined an audience as anyone witnessing something, this fits. Here's how I see it:

Theatre is everything.
Everything is performed, and an audience is always present
because often you ARE the audience. For example, if you are lying.
While you are lying TO someone they are not aware of the lie.
So they are the audience, but the BIGGER audience is yourself
who knows that you're lying.
Even when something is not an act, it is still a performance
because I consider performances as anything that gets people to think.
so, if someone falls down the stairs, people are going to think "why did they fall down the stairs?"
or you will think "did i trip on something, why did i fall?"
If you're lying, that's an example of this too, because you think of the lie, which stimulates.