The Drama Undergrad.

As you may have gathered I'm an undergraduate drama student at Hull University, in my final year. I've created this blog to document all of the things studied in class and in my own time; it's essentially a public study-diary. Whether you're a current or potential undergrad. hopefully you'll find this blog useful.

[thebryonykimmings]

Afternoon Arts Bods,

So there is a little thing going on, on twitter.

Which I guess could be said about any subject, from cute cats to misogynistic trolls, all day long. But this one is fascinating to me so I am blogging. I haven’t ranted in a while about art, I have been too busy ranting about...

[drama-undergrad]

Non-Naturalistic Acting

Acting for non-naturalistic performance is one of the modules I'm taking this semester.

Here is a brief outline of what we do in class:

1. Stretching our spine, rolling our backs and up again, one vertebra at a time.

2. Introductions: "I am (my name) and I feel (whatever you feel).

3. Vocal warm-up: Letting our voice come out while shaking different body parts

4. Breathing exercise: Down on all fours or child's pose and let out "zzz" or "vvv" or "fff" or "sss" or "shh" sounds while focusing on how the stomach (or diaphragm actually) expands and contracts when breathing in and out.

4. Stretching or joints (toes, ankles, knees, hips, figure of 8 and infinity), arm swings, eye-stretches (yes, that is possible= let your eyes follow the hours on the clock, clockwise and anti-clockwise), tongue stretch (up down left right), jaw (pull hands down the sides of your face), lip-stretch

5. Games (sock-chasing, interlocking arms)

This should take about half an hour to 45 minutes.

Then we do various character exercises, related to our chosen play. Last time, it was Medea, this time it was More Light.

6. We get into one big group, all squashed together, facing our tutor. She tells us that we are facing north, and we have to move to the east as an ensemble at the count of 5. So far, so good. Then we must move again to a given bearing, being directed by our knee. Next, we add an emotion to it.

We split into two groups so we can see what it looks like from the outside and give directions to the other group. Your stomach is directing you and your feeling is anger. Your chin is directing you and your feeling is that of desperation. Your thumb is directing you. And so on. We are also give time frames, ranging from 3 to 15 seconds.

We all gather together again and do these movements in front of the mirror. Our head is directing us and the feeling is...hunger?

7. We now had to work as individuals and pick a short line from the play More Light. We then had to make a gesture/movement while thinking of our line and focusing on breathing. This is based on Michael Chekhov's work on PG (psychological gesture) which is essentially the idea that a movements/gestures automatically evoke emotion. We then had to magnify the movement (1-10 scale= 10), do a moderate version of the movement, and a small version of the movement while saying our lines. Finally, we had to say our lines without doing the movement, but thinking it. We then picked between big, medium, small, and non- movement and showcased it to the rest of the group.

8. Next, we did the same exercise, only we had to change our gesture. This meant that some people changed their lines as well, as the gesture and the line wouldn't go together. On a personal level, changing the gesture made me think of the lines more carefully. We showed them again to the rest of the group.

9. We then gathered in a circle and had to describe in 3 words (adjectives) what we'd learnt or felt during the exercise. 

10. Every class ends with "I am (my name) and I feel (what I feel)." The second one is always different from the one at the beginning. 

[drama-undergrad]

Frantic Assembly Workshop

Today, a member of the Frantic Assembly physical theatre company came to give a two-hour workshop for those of us interested here at the University of Hull. As the workshops are usually longer, we only skimmed through some of the exercises that Frantic Assembly do themselves in preparation and in devising a piece of physical theatre. What is physical theatre? I'd describe it as being akin to dance, and more generally speaking, performances that utilize the human capacity for movement rather than speech to tell a story. You may say that that's how you would describe dance as well, and rightly so. Actually, two of the most prominent questions we ask as drama students (and academics) is "What is theatre?" and "What is dance?"

Personally, I'd say that in dance the role of music is primary instead of secondary, as it usually is in physical theatre. But again, the lines between dance and physical theatre are blurry. They're like cousins who look eerily a lot like each other. 

In the workshop we started with the standard walking/jogging/occasionally stopping around a space (which happened to be our Donald Roy Theatre) and we slowly added more to it. So every time our workshop facilitator called out a number from 1-7 we had to perform an action. Actions included curling up on the floor, hugging the person closest to us, and gathering close together to the centre of the room. Then we did an exercise which was my personal favorite: We stood in four lines of four and did a jumping and movement sequence in lines. We first jumped in unison in our line 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and on 8 jumped to face the people standing behind us, and they did the same, so essentially we all followed the same sequence. We first counted to 8, then to 6, then to 4, then 2 and 1. Afterwards, we began adding movements to some of the jumps. We punched the air in front of us at 2 (which is why it was important to keep distance from the people in front and behind us), at 4 shaked our hands downwards (don't think I've explained this one very well, but I can't think of any other words for it), at 5 and 6 instead of jumping on the spot, one leg went in front and the other back, and the other way round. This was basically repeated quite a few times and though it was a lot of fun, it required lots of focus and concentration. Jess, our facilitator, also showed us various ways to lift another person, and we coupled up and practiced. Finally, we had to choose 5 movements to perform on the other person. That sounds weird so I will rephrase, but I forgot the word Jess used for it. It's a word they use in Scotland, for example when you brush an eyelash off a person's face or pick a stray thread off someone's jumper. 5 actions like that. We tugged, patted, pulled hair- you know, standard stuff. Those actions were to be repeated and then alternated between the couple. After, we had to find another sequence, such as Person A performing actions 1 & 2, followed by Person B  performing actions 1 & 2 & 3, back to Person A performing actions 3 & 4...you get my drift hopefully. Adding movement to the simple actions was our next task, meaning sometimes the original action got a bit lost somewhere, and when we were ready, we formed a circle and each couple went in the middle to perform their sequence in front of the others. The most interesting part was when after we had all finished, Jess picked two couples, put some music on, and told them to perform next to one another. Then, she told them to do it again, this time, one person looking at a person in the other couple who had to do the same. This immediately created a story, with no need for words, facial expressions or anything extra. We got back into a circle and another couple performed but they had to fix their gaze on us, instead of each other. Jess instructed 1 person from the next couple to close their eyes and in the middle of performing, their partner would leave them and the person with their eyes shut would continue performing.

The workshop ended with Jess answering various questions about auditions, the company in general and telling us more details about their work.

[drama-undergrad]

The Yellow Wallpaper & Laughing Wild

On Saturday I was feeling particularly lethargic, but forced myself to go to Uni to see two performances (directed and acted by our very own drama undergraduates), or the Double Bill as it's referred to. I just realized that I don't actually know what a double bill is, although I could assume by the title. It's basically two films/performances, back to back, for the price of one. Or in our case, a discounted price if you watch both performances back to back.

Now, even though I did catch myself yawning and not really sociable at all, going to our Gulbenkian Centre (our Uni's very own theatre) was probably the best decision I've made...in a while! In other words, the performances were FANTASTIC!

'Laughing Wild' by Christopher Durang may just be my new favourite play written in the 80s. I actually laughed during the performance, and I don't laugh like that easily. Even though it's presumably set in 1980s New York, it's as relevant now, 30 years later, and specially to me, but that's a different story. It's the type of crazy I love- a man and a woman who are every-day characters and at the same time they are not. Paranoid, schizoid characters in plays are my favourite, together with child-murdering, ambitious queens (see Medea and Lady Macbeth). When it came to the acting and directing, as well as costume and set-design, everything was just right. There's nothing I can comment on really, other than to say how brilliant they were.

'The Yellow Wallpaper' is another drama that deals with mental illness, and I was again very impressed. I was particularly impressed by the three dancing apparitions (or witches, not sure exactly what they were as I haven't read the story) and their costumes, make-up, and movement. 'The Yellow Wallpaper' was originally a short story, and has been adapted to theatre and film. I will read it at some point because I believe the ending was slightly different in this play. 

If any of you have the opportunity to participate or watch student productions I would highly recommend it. It's incredible what these students produced in such a short amount of time. I've been in productions and although it always comes together the last week or two, it's usually after some kind of preparation, months beforehand.

[drama-undergrad]

Art Archives: Touchdown Dance 1993 Anne Kilcoyne and Steve Paxton

As part of our Body In Performance module, this week we had a screening that documented contact improvisation movements with blind and partially-sighted people, conducted by Anne Kilcoyne and Steve Paxton. I don't know who Anne Kilcoyne is (I wasn't able to find anything on her online, so if somebody knows feel free to contact me), but Steve Paxton is said to be the founder of contact improvisation and has trained with Merce Cunningham in New York. Now I find contact improvisation interesting (and I mean interesting) in many levels.

Contact Improvisation is essentially what happens when you put two people together (or can you put more? so far I've only seen/experienced contact improv between two), who happen to be wearing clothing that's comfortable to move in and no shoes (not essential, technically speaking, but recommended) and tell them to move while keeping a point of contact with the other person. What happens, naturally, is that people get in touch with their inner dancer and create very fluid movement sequences off the top of their heads (improv. remember?) including lots of rolling around on the floor, but never losing (literal) touch with the other person. I have very little experience with it, but would recommend everyone to try contact improvisation at least once. One reason I find it so interesting is that I do not consider myself a "touchy-feely" type, yet when put in a situation when I had to do contact improvisation I felt unusually and unexpectedly comfortable. 

The recording covers an array of issues: firstly, the interviewee, a blind-woman who we follow during the workshops and see her progress, talks about sounds and feelings, colour having a feeling to it, and being able to sense another persons fear being around you. Understandably, some people generally feel nervous around others who are somehow different too them, because they experience life differently to them. This of course can have negative consequences, but I won't go into that as it's irrelevant here. There is also talk about the commercialization of space, food, sex and transport (I didn't quite understand transport though), things that can't be experienced by people that are blind. Being unable to see, a blind persons choices when it comes to the above, are dramatically different to those of a person whose choices are heavily influenced by advertising, and what they personally consider aesthetically pleasing. Of course, we see lots of movement, movement that is repeated, heads touching, shoulders swinging, summersaults, and rolling around. But I'll focus on what I took away from it: the fact that (and this is discussed) although we occupy our body, live in it, breathe through it (some dualism there), we know very little about it. We know very little about our bones, our joints, anatomy in general, and most importantly, what our body is capable of. We are born in and we die in a body that we barely explore during our lifetime. We forget what our immediate necessities are, we forget that our Body is connected to the Earth by gravity. 

Finally, and most importantly, research shows that pet owners are less likely to have heart disease. People who otherwise, judging by their lifestyle and comparing it to others who had heart disease, would have had heart disease as well, didn't, because they owned pets. Touching, caressing someone, eases the heart. Which reminded me how homesick I am. 

Off to look at pictures of my cat, hope you enjoyed reading my post and remember, feedback is more than welcome!

[evebonneau-deactivated20231013]

Washing vapor.

Eve Bonneau Performance for the Modern Panic festival in London, november 2013:  A carnal revival through our senses.

VIDEO ON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-_cwAJlRak

[drama-undergrad]

I wanted to link a very simple yet thought-provoking performance that a friend of mine posted earlier. Eve Bonneau, a performance artist, washes herself with vapour. For some reason, while she was taking her clothes off, my first thought was why she took her trousers off first, and not her jumper. And why does she offer hot water in glass to some members of the audience? How hot does that glass get after the water is in it?

[drama-undergrad]

Introductory post

As my A-level English Literature teacher once told us, the introduction in any academic book is the most vital part. So I figured I should write one for this blog as well.

I should note, that I probably have about 10 blogs sitting around in the blogosphere, lonely and deserted. Even I don't visit them. I chose tumblr as a platform because I find it the easiest to use. Anyway, in these various blogs, I've tried to document all of the things that interest me, such as fashion and travel. I love fashion, not in the 'OMG I LOVE SHOPPING' sense, but in the aesthetic appreciation and desire to create something sense. And travel, because I constantly have a need to move around and a desire to experience living in different cities. However, my primary focus, priority, or whatever you like to call it, is being a student. I've always been considered "academic" (by parents, relatives, teachers) so I suppose writing an academic blog makes more sense to me, seeing as I've become quite used to fulfilling that title, or label. 

It comes with its drawbacks of course. During my school years (primary, secondary, high school) I got so used to getting full marks without studying, that I find it very difficult at University to study by myself. And that's what uni is about: 10 hours of what we call "contact time," ie. lectures, seminars, workshops and being given lots and lots of materials for self-study. Now, getting full marks (or close to that, anyway) without studying at school isn't easy. It requires the right amount of focus in the classroom, paired with social ineptness. (Note: I am aware of the existence of some super extra amazing species that did manage to have many friends and get top marks, and that's amazing, but I just wasn't one of them and that's okay too). I'm the person who was only popular before a classroom test, and in group work when I always ended up doing 70% of the project (and on top of that, enjoyed doing it!). After finishing school, I ended up with the bitter realization that people were right about one thing: what you do at school doesn't as much as what you do after school. Actually, it barely counts at all, unless your life's goal is a degree from Oxbridge (not a bad goal I might add). I'm just waiting for my brain to catch up with the things I've learnt. You know, how being able to make friends is important, but having the right friends is more important. That being friends with the same people you were friends with in primary school is cute, but that people change and inevitably you'll have to let go of some. And that university is the place to play hard and study harder. 

So far, I've completed modules in Acting for Shakespeare, Costume Design and attended lectures about contemporary performance. I'm currently doing modules in Non-Naturalistic Acting, Body in Performance and next semester, Dramatherapy. 

Occasionally, I'll try to post reviews about plays.

I will do my best not to read what other critics wrote about anything, before forming my own opinion on it. My opinion can be challenged afterwards.

Hope you enjoyed reading my introduction, and please feel welcome to provide feedback on anything that I write (in a non-condescending manner please).

That's all for now, I'm off to a screening.