Performance Workshop Rehearsal Evaluation 31/01/17

Performance Workshop Rehearsal Evaluation 31/01/17

In this rehearsal we devoted half of our time to run some experimental exercises to see if they could be incorporated into the performance and then spent the rest of the session devising and forming the whole show.

The devising was based on what we already tested out as experiments and creating something from it. Also we decided to put a ‘drug dance’ at the start to warm the audience up  to the piece. This ‘drug dance’ gives a physical aspect to what we looked at at the start of term. What are good and bad drugs? One movement is us holding a weed back and flicking it as well as our bodies to show that we are tempted by this drug to take it and that it affects us in ways that can control us, hence the flicking and flinching in our bodies. This forms into an imaginary piece of cheese that we observe then consume. This movement reflects on what we learnt about other objects that we can be stimulated and affected by. Cheese, pomegranate juice, music and many more things can change a person’s mood or perspective at the moment they engage with it. It is suggested and proved by scientific research that anything that can alter behaviour or emotions are considered as a drug. This reenactment of the drugs effect is shown when we are moving about making circles and moving our ams about. The music stops for a second to give us time to pay attention to the audience. Then the immersive theatre begins when the music comes back up again and we bring the audience into the piece.

Exercises/ experiments that we have conducted in previous sessions have been constructed and worked into the format plan of the performance.

• Improvised ritual (Choral choreography/ Riffing)
• Restrict the senses (Meditating/ Ganzfeld Effect)
• Monologuing
• Pain and Pleasure (Pain and Pleasure)
• Song- Be one in the technological age
• Look into their eyes
• Automatic writing (Speaking Inner Monologue- Sentence Starters)
• Choral Riffing (Choral Riffing)
• Fire Alarm

The parts that were inspired by exercises and experimentations are the ones that managed to have a certain relevance to the topic of drugs of the mind and specifically the amygdala. For example the improvised ritual section was was inspired by choral choreography and riffing. This is important because one person starts of the instinctual breathing. This instinctual breathing breaks down the barrier of fear and hiding and connects you to your honesty and your subconscious. You begin to pay more attention to you need of discovery through your senses other than using your brain to analyse something. This continues into riffing by doing things you feel is right in a small circle of truth.

The ‘restricting the senses’ section audience members have to lie on the floor in the dark. This aspect makes them vulnerable to free themselves up and know that no one can see them to judge them. In time their senses would play up in a way that they are not receiving any form of stimulation to keep them going. Therefore, things will happen to each of the audience members that will open up their minds- specifically the amygdala. The amygdala is accessed because the sense of alert or fear kicks for not being aware of what’s going on through sight, hearing touch or smell. The amygdala is researched to be the part of your brain that is stimulated by fear and danger in some other cases it can be stimulated by pleasure.

This bring me onto the pain and pleasure section because this shows the effects of fear and pleasure but all of it is formulated into three looped movements. However, this doesn’t give much to the audience as it is mainly a visual showing of how pain and pleasure feels for us. This doesn’t give much off other than an opinion. On the other hand, the audience can register in their minds a different perspective of what others feel like pain and pleasure are like and further their understanding of the subject.

The automatic writing section is inspired by the speaking your inner monologue (sentence starter) exercise because it is retrieving memories that are deep in your subconscious that not everyone can remember so easily. Sometimes we don’t need to go deep into the subconscious but say what we remember, even if it’s simply what we ate in the morning. This reconnects us with the audience and makes them feel safe and shuts off the amygdala part of their brains.

Finally, the choral riffing section is to make them feel uncomfortable to flair up their amygdalas and put them in distress. This is done by having a random burst of exaggerated laughing and crying fits and then move into an instinctual/ animalistic  play of movements. This will contradict the trust that we made earlier with the audience and make them feel in danger as they now don’t have a clue on what’s going on. This effect continues to amplify until the end.