Rehearsal 6

Reflection on Workshops: where do we go from here?


21/2/11

We know that this rehearsal would be more of a recap of our process so far that about making new material. All of the workshops are over, and I think by now its safe to say we have bonded as a group. The largeness of the group had not yet caused any problems, not that I entered in to this project forecasting problems but eight people all trying to have equal say in a creative process may be challenging at times.

We discussed all of the workshops looking for what we enjoyed and ideas for a potential focus. Mime and silent movies (which cropped up firstly in an exercise in Gary and jess’s workshop) we all have little to no knowledge of silent film Charlie Chaplin being the one figure we'll know off (although admittedly we all only know of him we are not well versed in his work). I know a little about mime as I studied it a few years ago and I offered to (should we need it) do a workshop on basic mime technique. However I'm not sure if this will be needed, as Charlie Chaplin seems to be the focus of our discussions. We all agree to research his life. I know very little about him but I know he was a rather controversial womaniser… so I think researching his personal life may unveil some true soap opera tails.

After our discussion of our past rehearsals and the inevitable off subject chat – I think, although it is important to be focused when making work, at times, especially in the beginning stages off topic chatter can really benefit the piece as what is said often sparks ideas for both the content and the pieces aesthetics. - We decided to do a group exercise. It was one that some of our group had done before while making our second year open piece. Forced Entertainment bases it on the ‘Quizulla’ performance. Basically we are all aloud to ask each other anything and we all must be completely honest.  It is important that everyone in the group is happy to do this exercise and anything that is said is not allowed to be spoken about out with the group and our rehearsals. I obviously can’t write down what was said but we all told some nice and not so nice stories about ourselves and of coarse we all asked the obligatory curious questions about each other’s sex lives. In the end we were left with tales to intertwine within Chaplin’s story if indeed that is the route we go down. Also we got some great one-liners witch might provide some great inspiration for texts. Something I have always been interested in is combining truths to make a fiction I think the fact that facts when combined can become falsities’ is highly interesting. And I cant help but see the scope for mixing Chaplin’s life in with our lives to create an other non existent life story for someone who does not exist… we shall see how it goes