November Essay

How has my perception of what performance and theatre means changed throughout my brief learning process and experiences as a theatre arts student?

When I first started this course, I had quite a close minded view of what theatre could be. I barely knew anything about the sheer breadth of theatre and performance. I think many amateur actors are quite selfish in what they do, they only care about how their performance will affect them, meaning that they are unwilling to move out of their comfort zone. A great performer needs to explore every type of theatre available to them: curiosity and enthusiasm are every bit as important as talent in this field. Our study of different interpretations of theatre from around the world has greatly broadened our perception of theatre. We discovered that it was a lot more than merely reciting lines with a certain expression on your face, or even provoking an emotional response from the audience. An actor may think he is always in control, and controlling the audience, but at times, it takes a true performer to be able to lose control to create a beautiful and engaging piece of art.

When we began our Suzuki training, I liked the feeling of strength the tenseness and struggle gave me. It is an essentially physical method, but we incorporated text into the movements and I think it showed us the energy and effort required to transmit your message to the audience, whether you want them to see the effort your making (as they would in Suzuki) or simply for you to be a believable presence on stage. After our first training, I was surprised by how much strain was put on our minds and bodies, and how the breathing control and energy used puts your whole self into chaos. During the course of the training over the next few weeks I could sense that the entire group moving together and reciting the lines in synchronisation must have looked quite beautiful to an audience. For me, that's what makes theatre worthwhile, no matter how hard you work. During the training I also learnt about the importance of stillness, something Tadashi Suzuki emphasizes in his method. The experience changed my perception of theatre in that I was unprepared for the effort required to make something unique and remarkable such as Suzuki. I learnt that to truly impress an audience and give them a memorable performance will be a struggle, draining the performer physically and mentally. However, I found this training, although difficult and exhausting, one of the most rewarding theatre-related training I've been involved in.

Shanga Parker, an Associate Professor in the School of Drama at the University of Washington and a professional actor in theatre, film and television, reflects on his own Suzuki training in his blog. Parker writes that the point of the training was an “'inner sensibility'. This, it was explained to us, was the ability to focus over a long period of time—that one can exercise one’s will as one does a muscle—and that increased concentration was a primary emotion that an actor should feel.” I relate to this in that during the training I understood that if you are not completely focused, if your mind wanders for a second, you will either feel extremely tired or will lose your balance. This means that either the quality of the performance is constant, or there is nothing there at all. I believe this is true for all types of theatre. “Suzuki works on making all of the moments clear, strong, and consistent. The physical work is great. You will have stamina in Act V of Hamlet. More important than that, your mind will be clear and your intentions strong.” This consistency is something I had not considered before my experience of Suzuki training. However, I now realize the importance of clear intentions and continuity in every performance, even classical pieces such as Hamlet. For Parker, Suzuki has also increased awareness of the body: “Being able to hit your mark without looking down is the direct result of knowing exactly where your feet are.” This is something I experienced as well. In the training, I felt a sense of finality to my body, I knew exactly where I was and where I stood in relation to others. This training introduced me to spacial awareness.

Suzuki introduced me to spacial awareness, but Viewpointing perfected it. Viewpointing was fascinating because it showed me how relationships and emotional connections can be shown only with movement and proxemics, and text isn't necessary. From our first Viewpointing session, I loved how natural it felt and how creative we could be. I found a sensibility I wasn't aware of, in which I relied on kinesthetic response to make my choices. The method to me is a way for performers to communicate without the audience realising, a sort of telepathic connection fuelled by instinct. It was like playing, and we all worked off each others actions. I think we enjoyed it so much because we were the ones creating it, and we worked as an ensemble, we were never alone or unsure of what to do.

Viewpointing is not just a training method, I believe it is applicable, and in fact invaluable, in all genres of theatre. It is essentially a method of spacial communication for actors, and I'm sure it will help me effectively use space and proxemics in future performances. I'm really glad I discovered this method, as I think it was crucial in my understanding of space and time on stage.

"The Viewpoints are invaluable to all actors regardless of what kind of genre you're working in. The most important aspect of them is learning to listen to your body and the internal clues it's giving you in terms of the structure of a scene. I know after working with the Viewpoints I can look at a "conventional" scene and break it down into beats much easier. You learn to turn off the intellect a bit and just feel the rhythms of the scene and once a sense of rhythm is there the emotions just follow."
- Kristen Lee Kelly, actor.

Both methods increased my appreciation for physical theatre, and the beauty of simplicity. The floor patterns we created in Viewpointing felt like they would look intriguing to an audience, and the eye contact we used meant that we could provoke assumptions and emotional responses from an audience. These assumptions are important: everything that happens in a performance is translated into something (an event, a relationship, a shift in atmosphere) by the assumption of the audience, and it is our job to create our desire assumptions. I felt that the tension present during a Suzuki performance would captivate the audience and transmit a great deal of energy. It would be very exciting to watch, and quite unpredictable, something that is rare in conventional theatre. These two methods have changed my perception of theatre in relation to space and time, and shown me that stillness and silence can be as effective, if not more effective, than text or movement, something I was not aware of a few months ago.

In the course, one of our projects was to create our own ritual. As research, we all looked into rituals from different cultures, and read up on the meaning and connotations of a ritual. Whilst learning about different rituals, I understood the term as a type of applicable performance, with specific uses. Whether the Bororo people's celebration of death ritual, or the Berber people's call for rain through ritualistic dance and rhythmic vocals, I found ritual to be a type of group performance with a purpose. Our own ritual with the purpose of initiation combined the sacred and the secular, as it was not exactly spiritual but the elements of art and creativity we incorporated showed the “sacredness of the ordinary.” In our research we read a chapter from 'Performance Studies' by R. Schechner on ritual relating to performance. He put forth some interesting ideas, such as “no single feature of a ritual is peculiar to it. It is in the conjunction of its features that it is unique.” I found this intriguing, as it highlights the fact that all art is imitated, and new ideas are rare. Not only in ritual, in other art forms too, do the artists copy from other artists, but the combinations and structure of their ideas are totally their own creation. On some level, I already knew this to be true, but I understand it more fully now. This throws into question my perception of theatre, as it is never entirely original, but can appear to be, just because its structure is unique. Another quote I found was “rituals don't so much express ideas as embody them.” This is the main difference between ritual and conventional theatrical performance. An idea I found which I believe relates to Viewpointing is the difference between the ritual bees have when working (for they do demonstrate ritual) and human ritual: “Bees cannot improvise or express their feelings, but they communicate through a system of movements.” This shows that even rituals in different species have in common their basic purpose of communication through movement, which is in fact one of the main purposes of all theatre.

One of the first performances we went to see, Cadavre Exquis, was quite a unique piece of theatre. Most of my colleagues didn't like it, it was too “weird” or “unimpressive”. However, we also acknowledged that it was an experiment, by 5 different directors with different ideas. It reminded me of an organised game, as enjoyable for the actors as for the audience. Although it was unconventional, I enjoyed it, as I will any piece of theatre. There is something about the performers being present right in front of you, and giving you the gift of their time and energy, which is always a pleasure to watch, no matter how strange the play is. I was impressed how the performers danced repetitively for 15 minutes, using extreme duration and transmitting their struggle and exhaustion to the audience. This was most of my colleagues' favourite scene, which shows that visible effort made by a performer is always appreciated by an audience. The play challenged some people's theories of performance. I believe for us training to be performers ourselves, it is important that we try to experience any new theatre event that we can, so we can take in as much different information to give us a rich and varied perception of theatre. I now believe that a good performance doesn't have to be epic or tragic, it is enough to know that effort has gone into making this gift for you. It is entertaining enough to have people physically in front of you, because, unlike television, there is an element of unpredictability which makes theatre exciting.

My research into theatre of the cruelty also greatly influenced my perception of performance. This type of theatre was introduced by Antonin Artaud, a French director and actor, who hoped to unleash unconscious responses in audience with his theatre. He tried to release the audience's primitive instincts and make them realise their worst nightmares and fears. This shows that not all theatre is just a beautiful thing to be observed, but can also become a psychological violation of the audience. This theatre would apply real physical pain on stage and disturbing and loud sounds of clashing tones and rhythms. This type of theatre is meant to disturb the audience, and I had no idea this type of theatre existed before I studied it. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it, but I like the idea of different audience members reacting in different ways. My colleagues and I experimented doing a soundscape, in which we all used our voices to create an inescapable sound. I like the idea of theatre affecting a different sense other than sight, and surrounding the audience so that they can't ignore. It is exciting and possible frightening. Although this may sound negative, I am intrigued by this type of theatre which is more of an experience to the audience than simply a visual piece of art (they might as well look at a painting).

In conclusion, my ideas of theatre and performance have been completely changed by this course, and I feel I've become a lot more knowledgeable about the field. The applications of theatre and the ideas about theatre and art we have discovered have been fascinating. This quote is accurate and brilliant in describing my ideas about the purpose of theatre:

“Melting the ice within, of awakening dormant cells, of making us more fully alive, more fully human, at once more individual and more connected to each other”. - Franz Kafka

Parker. S., http://freeholdtheatre.blogspot.pt/2010/12/few-thoughts-about-suzuki-movement.html, 2010

Jucha. B., 'Working with the Viewpoints', http://www.jucha.com/viewpoints.html

Schechner. R., 'Performance Studies'. Routledge, 2006