agĕre
the acting students @uclan learn two different methods of intergrated acting/movement: vsevolod meyerhold’s «biomechanics» and enrique pardo’s «choreographic theatre». the students and i spent today exploring the gaps between these to practices.
the goal is to develop an experimental theatre practice that draws on set texts as the starting point of movement improvisation. this will lead to a performance (their module assessment) next semester. through devising a work and working methodology with the students i hope to share with then the intricacies of experimental arts practice.
in creating a new methodology the students can explore how to apply and transfer the many skills/practices they have learnt to date:
- biomechanics
- psychological gesture
- choreographic theatre
- stanislavski’s system
- (contact) improvisation
it is inevitable that the outcome will fall somewhere within european dance/physical theatre practice, yet i want to avoid the bausch, newson and platel aesthetic outcomes.
using set texts, improvised movement and elastic structures we will aim to retain the concrete where others have moved towards abstraction. there will be a preference for diegesis rather than mimesis but the work will not be narrated.
the preference for telling rather than showing/being is to keep an openness of performative options. whilst the text(s) will be set, the actors reading the texts will not be. we explored these shifting roles today with set, but (for some) unseen texts. it seems we need to practice our sight-reading.
how’s that for applied, transferable skills.
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