Monday 8th November

Anaïs's perfect summary (TT speaking...)


After having rested for one week (and some for more than that), here we are back on stage with among us a former froggies: Farida!

Warming up:

As usual we firstly tried to relax ourselves. In a circle, we closed our eyes and tried to breathe deeply from the stomach. Then we made an exercise, which aims at checking if we controlled our breathing and if we were aware of the others. When one person started to produce a sound (“Ah” for example), the others had to start as well. Obviously we had to stop at the same time (otherwise it would have been too easy).

The Froggies in the wilderness:

_ To begin with, TT asked us to walk in the room keeping in mind what goal we wanted to reach (and I would even add “This is the same on stage!”). Then when TT clapped in her hands, we had to form a line from the tallest to the shortest as fast as possible. To make the exercise more complex, we had to walk at different paces. For example, one of us had to walk very slowly, others normally and the last ones had to run. Again, TT clapped in her hands and we had to form a line but this time, from the shortest to the tallest. Finally TT called someone who had to go out of the line then point a finger at the others and laugh!
_ Let’s imagine that you are in a jungle. You are not only afraid of the wilderness, which is surrounding you, you are also hunted by some very, very, very ruthless and dangerous men… But don’t worry! Your leader knows exactly how to escape those men and to overcome every ordeal! All you have to do is listen to him/her. This was the second exercise.
_ Now let’s imagine that… The song “Home” is resounding through the jungle! Successively we all had to create an obstacle or a way to walk in respecting the rhythm and the others had to follow.

One of the major aims: learn to be open to others’ suggestions (just to prove that I have learned my lesson).

How to make a scene magic without any magic words:

Once upon a time, TT brought her froggies a very odd book: language had been banished from it.

To introduce seriously the book: “The Arrival” is a graphic novel, which tells an immigrant’s journey. The main character, a young father, leaves his home in the hope of creating a better life for his family in a remote land.

The exercise was to act a scene full of emotions (the characters are saying good-bye to each other) without talking. TT created 2 groups. In each one, there were a father (Thibaut, William), a mother (Victoire, myself), a little girl (Boubakar, Badra) and a monster/an allegory (Farida, Florence). We had about 10 minutes to think about how we were going to stage this scene and then we acted it.

In my opinion, it helps us to be more involved in our role and more creative, but you can raise objections!

Dialogues:

We finished our session by working on short dialogues. In groups of two persons we were supposed to learn by heart our lines, determine our objective and the obstacle that will prevent our character from reaching it and finally find a solution to overcome this difficulty.

We learned to keep in mind that our objective can change along the way.



THE END

Monday 25th October

Badra n'arrivant toujours pas...

C'est encore TT qui s'y colle...en version courte cette fois-ci mais toujours en anglais!


General aims of the session : -creating the theatrical group, listening to each other.
                                               -working on texts and objectives of the characters in a scene

1.Warming up

First, the usual: the circle, warming the voice and the body up.
We also practiced how to laugh, mechanically and more naturally : the first person had to laugh mechanically, the second a bit more sincerely, etc etc...
And we played at the "Zip Zap Bang Brrr" game. Aim : listen to each other, be right there at the right time and concentrate.
But the most amazing surprise came from the counting game: in circle, we had to count from 1 to as far as possible, in no particular order, the only rule being not to talk at the same time otherwise it was back to 1 again. Well, TT has to acknowledge: the Froggies are great at that game! Which means: great listening to each other, the group functions as a team. Well done!

2. Home

TT's obsession with that song is driving us mad!
This time we had to dance to the music, first randomly and then following a leader.
Very difficult as usual when the music is fast and much easier when the music slows down. But again, good listening to each other.

3. The texts

Working in groups of two or three, we had to write short dialogues that were performed by another group.
We kept on working on the objectives of the characters in the scene.
It was interesting to see how a scene a group wrote could be completely reinterprated by another group.

And that's it for today!
"-Thank you Badra for that amazing summary.
-You're welcome oh you my favourite teacher ever who didn't yell even if, as usual, i had not done my homework..."