Lesson 2

Lesson 2 Response Ensemble workshop The lesson started with a warm up and some games .The Pattern Game We all stood in a circle. On of us were told to say another persons name, who then had to say another's and that would happen until we got through everyone and got back to who started it. We had to repeat what we just done without messing up the pattern. We also done this with walking instead of names (a different pattern) and throwing a ball (of socks haha), as a result of this we had 3 different patterns. We then had to all of them simultaneously. This was difficult to do but it helped us unite our minds and concentrate more. Coming together as one helped us know what it is to become an ensemble. .All hands on deck In this exercise the far walls in the room were named starboard and port. The side walls were named side (who would have guessed) we also were told actions we had to do in the middle of the room, these were middle (again, who would have guessed) apples and freeze. When Lee, Ryan, Lee-Ryan or LR called out the instruction we had to run to the wall or perform the action. This helped us access the fun side of ensemble work and also paying attention to what was asked of us, which is important because if you don't know what you are told, how can you do it? .Ensemble Face Off The only way to describe this is how LR said it, A dance battle rip off. We split into two teams with team captains, I was one of them (tian wa the other) The team Captains would do a move to intimidate or confuse the opposing team and his "crew" would copy that move. Me being superior in the art of intimidating, allowed me to lead my Crew to VICTORY!! This let us explore movement but also made us have to be aware of our group. This is because we had to be considerate of our groups limitations, not everyone can get their leg over their head so doing that would be inconsiderate. .Still images LR would give us a stimulus, the first was War torn syria. One person would go on stage and freeze in a position that relates to the stimulus and gradually others would get on stage as well and freeze in a image to relates to the people already until eventually me made a big still image. When we were all frozen LR came around chose some of us to say what our feelings would be (in or out of character) at that exact moment e.g. "Nooooo", "I'm so scared" ect.. And afterward LR said bring the scene to life We also done this for Blondie's genocide. This let us all give our input to the scene and also let us work as one to make a scene make sense. ------------------

First Impressions Our introduction to Brecht's ideas taught us that he wants actors to represent a character rather than become them. Brecht wanted to make the audience see that theatre is a piece of art rather than a reality, this made the audiences realise that they are seeing a performance not living the performance. To make this happen, brecht would make actors multi-role or change costume on stage. performances directed by brecht would be very simplistic, the set design would be minimal as well. Doing so allows the audience to focus on the story, moral and commentary instead of character or escapism.