Drama Workshop
This year we are holding a Drama Workshop, and each region is invited to send two participants to take part.
This will be an all-day event held in the Studio Treatre located in the Arts Centre at Warwick University on Saturday 5th July.
Overall aim
To provide a fun experience for participants whilst teaching the basics of performance techniques.
Timing
This proposal is for a session from 10am to finish by 3pm with an hour being assumed for lunch.
Outcomes
For participants to leave the session having enjoyed themselves, but also having created specific scenes of drama
Programme
Warm-ups: All drama sessions need warm-ups as it relaxes participants and also makes the body and mind ready for self-awareness and interaction. It also helps to prevent injury in the same way as warm-ups in sport.
All the exercises undertaken will be low impact to ensure maximum participation, but no-one will be asked to undertake activities with which they are uncomfortable or which pre-existing health conditions make unadvisable. This is a message that will be stressed at all parts of the day to ensure no-one is taken against their will outside of their own comfort zone.
Examples will include voice exercises, physical exercises mainly stretching and lumbering-up, initial introductions.
Theatre Games Games form part of all theatre practice including amongst professionals. The purpose of games are:
To break the ice. To consolidate introductions and build an ensemble mentality. To stimulate creativity. To get thinking outside of the box.
The purpose of these theatre games will be to equipe participants with tools they can use later in their creation of unique pieces of drama.
The games chosen do depend on the experience of the group and how much they have been shown that they wish to participate, but will include interactions in others activities and how much participants are willing to share. It is important that no-one feels excluded, but also how much they are willing to share with others.
Working with text In a longer session, there would be a companion session ‘working without text’, but given time constraints text work has to take priority as most performance is based on the use of the spoken word. Here we would ideally spilt into twos and each pair be given a piece of short text to work on, which then they will perform in front of the ensemble.
The purpose of this exercise is to show the choices that actors have to make in the delivery of text and how the intervention of a director might influence their choices.
The learning outcome is to show that how many ways text might be spoken and in a context that might influence how actors interact and how an audience might receive a scene.
The event organiser will act as director giving each pair as they perform different suggestions of how they might play their scene. It would be up to the actors whether they revisit their performance based on these suggestions, or whether in fact my suggestions lead to suggestions of their own.
Original pieces: This is the after-lunch session, starting by playing in as darkened environment as possible (participants eyes closed) two pieces by The Unthanks; Magpie and The Happiness or Otherwise of Society. These are stimulus pieces and not necessarily a suggestion for creation. Stimulus is intended to get the creative juices flowing.
The ensemble will then break into groups of no more than four or five to work on creating their own piece of original drama of three to four minutes (five maximum) to be performed in front of the ensemble.
This would be the pinnacle of the day with participants bringing together all that they have learned.