My turn to write down the summary of Monday 8th February's session. After all, fake democracy is the basis for real authority...So, here we go!
The warming up
We started the session with the usual warming up. And, as you know, TT is not leading the warming up anymore. But alas! The candidates are rare and I must say I'm struggling to find the perfect leader every week. I was lucky this time though: Farida did an excellent job. Let's see how Badra leads the warming up next time. She promised she would do it, oh yes she did!
After Farida's good job, we did a short exercise to work on language and imagination: we gathered in a circle, very close to each other and created a common movement: rising our right arm up and down. Then TT gave a word and the next person on her left had to give a word inspired by the previous word, but could only speak when his/her arm was above his/her head.
Quite interesting exercise. Some tried to think of a word way before their turn, which is understandable but the main difficulty really is to think of a word related only to the previous one, and also at the right time. Quite difficult but interesting.
After that, we tried to make the exercise even more difficult: still in circle and making the same movement, TT would give the name of a feeling, and the circle had to part (except for TT, who stayed there, doing exactly the same movement) improvise in pair according to that given feeling and come back at the same time in the circle, doing the same movement as TT.
Of course, this exercise helps working on imagination but also concentration, adaptation and cohesion of the group.
The play
As you all know, we chose our play: the little theatre's production of Hamlet, written by Jean Battlo. The text is very interesting because of the parallel with Shakespeare's Hamlet but can seem a bit difficult when you first read it. So TT asked the Froggies first to summarize the play. And thanks to Alan, this went really fast. Then, TT asked the Froggies to stage the summary the way they wanted to. The Froggies chose to tell the story thanks to a narrator (the pianist), describing 5 pictures created by the other Froggies and telling the guidelines of the play. In French. That went really well i must say. Very difficult exercise.
Acting bad
The play tells the story of bad non-professional actors trying to play Hamlet. The idea was to work on how to act in a bad though sincere way. So, we worked on two exercises that took place in a room where people came to audition for Hamlet
first part of the exercise: improvising with no words
two groups of four people were created: the audience and the actors.
The actors had to enter the room one after the other, some were professional actors, other non-professionals and just waited their turn to audition. The audience had to guess who was who.
second part: improvising with words
same exercise but this time, the audience could see the audition with the stage director. Florence and Gwenola are supposed to be the director in the play so TT decided they would obviously play their part. The actors had to choose a monologue from Hamlet and present it in front of the stage director, and of course be as bad as possible!
Crucial exercise before working on the play.
Rules we were able to establish to be bad actors
1. be sincere
2. exaggerate of course in the movements and the voice
3. illustrate the words with movements
4. use the voice to hesitate, talk softly, stammer
in a word: remember all the things to avoid while acting and actually DO them!
No more exercises on the play, please!
Ok...ok...so; to finish, a short exercise to relax and stop talking and talking about the play:
one person is running late and explains to the audience why. He/she tries to get out but is always interrupted by someone.
That was all for tonight folks!
See you next Monday for more pain and hassle AND: deleted scenes from the play and final cast.
TT
