There were three of us last night: Areef, PY and myself. Poor Teresa had to work on a presentation. Looks like YA is shrinking. But we didn’t really care.
We began as usual smoking and drinking. Attempted to skip the warm ups coz we couldn’t be bothered. We played a game to strengthen our memories. We walked. We played statue. We became mobiles. Then mobiles with sound. We froze. We walked fast. All at the command of Areef who shouted numbers for each state. For example 1 for Freeze, 2 for Statue, etc. Hmm that totally worked. At the end we rest.
Continuing from our previous TIP session, Areef went on to explain status play in tragedies and comedies. He explained that tragedies in the traditional Greek sense have certain characteristics, which includes amongst others: royalty/nobility, noble actions, tragic flaws and ends with a catharsis. He then related the story of
Oedipis Rex- a tragic figure.
The end of Oedipus, a nobleman due to his actions and flaws he tragically falls from grace. His status began high and then later dropped to a low status.
In a comedy, the characters are generally of the middle class. The comedy arises when a low status player pretends to be a high status player. Or vice versa. But in a comedy, there is traditionally a happy ending.
“Life is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel”
Constantine Stanislavski, one of the great drama theorist of the last century, provided some basics on how to prepare as an actor. Areef summarises it as follows:
(1) Relaxation- an actor must achieve mental and physical relaxation;
(2) Concentration and Observation- listening and focusing are the tools of the actor, without which how will he be able to act out blindness, deafness, for example. An actor needs to focus and observe so that every time he is on stage he will be able to recreate the ‘illusion of first time’, i.e. hearing his fellow actors and react as if it is the first time he has heard it;
(3) Unity and Specifics – Stanislavski student once, during dinner, asked him how to do this. He replied simply by analogy: pointing at the steak and asks how to eat the whole steak – we would cut it into tinier pieces. Thus an actor must be able to dissect his characters- physically (how he walks), socially and politically (where he grew up and social standing), emotional (his past experiences) and religion (his belief systems).
(4) Inner Truth – An actor must ‘see’ what he believes and believes what he ‘sees’. The “Magic If” – what if there is a murderer behind the door, you must act like your life is in danger etc;
(5) Emotional Recall – Effective memory. For example, remembering how we feel when we are happy and bringing that onto stage However, there is a danger of taking such memory for granted or worse taking it out of context. For example, using the memory your dead cat to bring out the feeling of a dead parent on stage.
(6) Using the Four W and One H- That is asking yourself ‘Who’, ‘What’, ‘Where’, ‘When’, ‘Why’ and ‘How?’
(7) Superobjective – Knowing the big picture of your character’s goals. For example, if you are a low status character late for a meeting with your girlfriend, your superobjective might be “not to get shit from her”.
(8) Ensemble Play – Actors must act and react on stage
(9) Body and Vocal – Actors must have flexibility of body and vocals.
Sums, the birthday girl, showed up somewhere in between this enlightening discussion and we all kissed her. The full on lip-lock with PY was too much for Areef and he broke into tears. (Okay I made this stuff up). But it is her birthday, I promise.
10.20p.m.Oooh! Cigarette break!
During the break, I told Areef and PY about my idea of taking TIP into schools. Not just as a way of showing what is theatre and encouraging people to appreciate the arts but rather as a way of thinking of making our youths care about philosophy, i.e. the meaning of life. I should warn you that we may be arrested for sedition because no government likes its citizen to think.
After the break we did some Sensory and Memory exercises.
Point
Sight is our most dominating sense. Actors should try to use their other senses. In this exercise, we were asked to focus on a point. And after we are sure of where the point is, we close our eyes and walk towards the point and try to locate it using our other senses. Sort of.
Bear of Poitiers
In this exercise, we try to desensitise our senses. We pretend that we are dead. We try to not hear, not see, not feel anything. We failed miserably. I am ticklish. PY is just hysterical. Sigh.
Imaginary Journey
Best described as the dumb-mute leading the blind, this exercise involves an actor taking an imaginary journey with a fellow actor. All the while both must be silent. They can only communicate physically – the dumb-mute through physical interaction causes the blind man to walk, crawl, jump, dance and/or climb over obstacles, both real and imagined. Afterwards, each tells their story of this imaginary journey. We could not remember most of the journey. Scatterbrains.
These Sensory and Memory exercise heightened or dull our senses. Either way, we must remember that actors need to use all our senses not just sight, as most other people do.
Before we left, Areef gave us a Lifetime Assignment: To take a few minutes every night as we are lying in bed, before we dream of Tony’s, Emmy’s and Oscars (okay I embellished a bit), to recall our entire day. Remembering specifics in our day – what time we woke up, what we wore that day until the time we are in bed. This can help with improving our memory. Or at the very least beats counting sheep.
