Julian's Children's Theatre Journal (2006)
Week One - Week Five
I began Children’s Theatre this week with the usual mixture of dread and excitement that I reserve for all Drama units. Although I have had some prior experience with acting and performance workshops both on and off campus, I still consider myself to be very much at the beginning of a journey. Therefore, it was with some trepidation that I found myself entering the Drama Workshop this week. I needn’t have worried. The environment of the introductory workshop was safe and supportive, and I soon felt a developing sense of camaraderie between my fellow classmates and me. I believe this bonding process is essential in any Drama group in order for individuals to trust that they can safely access and actualise their inner selves, without fear of judgement or ridicule.
To facilitate this bonding between group members, we were given the opportunity to introduce ourselves and speak a little on our reasons for choosing this unit. Needless to say that there was a broad variety of skills and talents throughout the class, with experience in Children’s Theatre ranging from the novice to the ‘old hands’. It will be exciting to watch this disparate bunch weld itself into a cohesive team over the next thirteen weeks, each using their unique skills.
I am enrolled in Children’s Theatre because I both enjoy creative and challenging subjects, and also to complete a BEd. (Secondary), with a major in English and a minor in Drama. I also have a professional background in design and illustration, a fact not lost on Andrew Kocsis, who has already conscripted me to produce images of fairies for his website, the Ed Pack, and who knows what else! I am not sure whether or not I will choose design as my role in the production as I feel I would like to push myself in other areas such as acting, but we’ll wait and see how cold my feet get.
After words from Cheryl Miller and a talk on safety issues from Geoff, we started the workshop with some light warm-ups and vocal exercises before breaking into groups for a singing activity. Normally, such an activity would have me breaking out in a cold sweat, as I have a real problem with singing in public (blame a particularly sadistic primary school teacher for that one). However, everyone seemed so enthusiastic that before I knew it I had joined in. Again, trust was essential here in enabling me to overcome my initial feelings of vulnerability.
The workshop concluded with one of my favourite tasks, which was to improvise a story from a keyword, phrase or title. The class was split into groups of five and given the title of a fairy tale, in our case Jack and the Beanstalk. I felt that the group worked really well together, and it was interesting to note that everyone was at least intuitively familiar with the offer > accept > extend technique of improvisation. Through offering suggestions for both dialogue and physical action, which were then accepted and extended by other group members, everyone had significant input into the final work.
The first week of Children’s Theatre seems like an ideal time to reflect on what I would like to achieve during the course of the semester. I would certainly like to increase my confidence in acting (and perhaps singing), whether through the workshops or production. I would also like to enhance my production and technical skills and increase my ‘behind the scenes’ knowledge. If I can achieve any of these goals, this unit will have been worthwhile.
After the Week One workshop, I felt excited about the prospect of contributing to the production of ‘A Fairy Tale’, but also a little daunted by the enormity of the challenge. I spent much of the week drawing and inking fairy designs for the Ed Pack, with three finished and another two still on the drawing board.
Two guest speakers were introduced at the start of this week’s workshop, Lindsay Lloyd, who presented the designs for the backdrops, and Jenny Lees who discussed the costuming possibilities available to us. This gave me the opportunity to reflect on the importance of these two areas in Children’s Theatre. The backdrop is normally the first thing an audience will see when the curtain is raised, and must therefore fulfil several functions. It must work to quickly capture the attention and imagination of children, give the action context, create an identifiable sense of place, and contribute to the mood and atmosphere of the production. The themes, colours and overall design of Lindsay’s artwork should more than meet these criteria. Costuming must also fulfil many similar functions. As well as capturing and engaging children, the costumes must also be relevant to the style and mood of the production, make characters easily recognisable, and be aesthetically harmonious with other costumes in the play.
The workshop warm-ups started with some gentle stretching, after which Lauren tried to kill us with some Pilates exercises. Drama warm-ups are essential for many reasons, they loosen up the body and prevent injury, allow the participants to familiarise themselves with each other, and create a base from which to scaffold other activities. Robin Pascoe calls this ‘edging into the Drama’. After the movement exercises the workshop focussed on breath control, using the diaphragm muscle first to inhale and exhale, and then to create sound. This was then scaffolded, using the workshop wall as a surface to reflect our voices back to us as we moved progressively further away from it. By using the diaphragm in such a way the voice can be projected over a great distance, allowing an actor to be heard by all members of an audience. This technique is also useful for those of us who will become teachers, as the alternative to projection is to shout, and risk damaging the vocal chords.
No workshop would be complete without improvisation activities, and this week we had a present giving / receiving activity in which onlookers had to guess the type of present from the actions and expressions of the performers. I found this useful because it included working with levels, and having to think about the shape, size and weight of an object while matching this to appropriate gestures and expressions. The final exercise, an improvisation to a script, I found much more confronting. I just could not seem to get comfortable with my role, nor with the others in my group. I should point out that this was not due to any fault of theirs, but rather my own inability to ‘let go’. The resulting performance was awkward, stilted, and did not flow. On reflection, I can admire the discipline of the professional actor who must turn in quality performances whether or not they are ill, or simply having an ‘off’ day.
I finally managed to finish the last of the fairy designs this week and Andrew has wasted no time in posting them on his Children’s Theatre website. I took the opportunity of visiting the site and found it an exceptionally valuable resource for just about anyone taking this unit. As well as access to Andrew’s previous journal entries and reflections on Drama and teaching in general, there are also photographs and information from previous productions, which help to give a ‘feel’ of what will be expected of us in the last weeks of semester. What have I let myself in for???
I asked this question again at the Week Three workshop, when we were treated to a morning of circus skills activities with Reg Bolton, a professional circus performer and entertainer. We started with the obligatory warm-up, in this case consisting of a skipping activity that required sharp timing skills in order to pass under a rope unscathed. After we had mastered this seemingly simple exercise we moved on to the downright impossible. Juggling. While Tegan, standing next to me, picked this up straight away, I simply started out terribly and went downhill from there. (Mental note to self: Do not accept any acting role that requires the least degree of coordination such as simultaneous tray carrying and door opening).
Reg then took the group through the traditional tightrope and stilt walking, plate spinning and so forth. This was an exciting and enjoyable workshop in which to participate, but how would a proficiency in circus skills contribute usefully to the stage actor’s repertoire? It would certainly be helpful in improving coordination, balance, movement, timing and flexibility. But another aspect of circus skills that Reg stressed to the group, and perhaps the one that I believe to be the most important, was that of cooperation. Unlike most types of sport where the object is to defeat an opponent, circus techniques rely on the cooperation of the performers to achieve a successful conclusion. Whether it was spotting for a class member who was attempting to balance on the tightrope or stilts, or catching and throwing juggling rings, everyone appeared to be involved in some form of cooperative behaviour. This will become increasingly important for us as we head towards the final weeks of semester.
Thursday morning found many of us in the Nexus Theatre doing our best to draw the outline for the backdrop of ‘A Fairy Tale’. Despite a light breeze and flexible canvas conspiring against the volunteers, a substantial amount had been accomplished by the time I left, and the design was starting to look impressive. As I have previously mentioned, this is very much the beginning of a journey for me, so even in the few hours I spent at Nexus, I was able to familiarise myself with some of the backstage operations and terminologies that I had not previously come across. This is helpful to me because I sometimes feel a bit ‘out of the loop’ during workshops, when specialised language is used that I do not understand.
Audition week! I arrived early at the Drama workshop with that growing feeling of unease gnawing away somewhere in the pit of my stomach, and perhaps a little annoyed at myself for not being able to decide whether to commit to acting or production. I felt self-conscious, and definitely not in the best frame of mind to audition.
Even though it was early, the workshop was packed. I found an anonymous seat down the back and took a brief glance over the new script. After the now-familiar movement and vocal warm-ups, it was straight down to business. I must confess to having felt a bit intimidated at this point, as this was my first audition for anything, and many of the others seemed to know exactly what they were doing. As it turned out, I found myself auditioning nearly by accident. Volunteers were required to read for the part of Louie the Fly, and suddenly my hand was in the air. I think I read on autopilot, as I don’t remember much about the audition apart from the annoying ocker accent I put on. I also read for the part of Sayu the Snottygobble a little later, but forgot to put in any of the mannerisms I had considered for the character. Nerves!
On reflection, auditioning must be an extraordinarily difficult process for Jenny, as there were many excellent performances to choose between, and many personality types to contend with. However, it must also be intensely rewarding to see a play that you have written spring to life before your eyes, often in quite different ways to that which you had imagined. The process of auditioning is perhaps the most important part of any play, especially when there are so many people who want a role. It creates an opportunity for the casting directors to assess whether an individual’s personality is suitable for the character he or she is to play, and whether that personality will gel with other members of the cast. Comic timing and acting ability can be evaluated and any inherent weaknesses exposed.
Of course, the role of the evil Caballus brought the house down on several occasions as this seems to be the most overtly comic character in the play, but many of the other characters were given a depth of perception far beyond the words on the page. This says a lot, not only about the quality of the scripting and stage directions, but also about the talent that is emerging from our ranks that so much can be achieved in just one cold reading. It is exciting to think about how these characters will develop by the end of semester.
At the end of the auditioning, we did some warm-down vocals and I left the workshop bordering on a state of euphoria. I guess adrenalin will do that to you. How did I go? How did others go? We’ll find out next week.
Later in the week, Andrew and I turned up at the Nexus Theatre to help with painting the backdrop. It was amazing to see the transformation that had occurred since the last time we had worked on it, and I can hardly wait to see the finished artwork. We could only spare a few hours as we had the usual tutorial commitments, but we managed to paint a few fiddly bunches of grapes, and ruin at least one pair of trousers.
Study Break & Workshop Five
As I was not able to attend the workshop this week due to a two-week Drama prac, it seems like an ideal opportunity to reflect upon the EGL213 Unit Objectives and whether I have gone some way towards achieving them.
I am certainly working towards improving my performance skills. The improvisation activities have helped me to become more comfortable in front of an audience, while the audition process, although nerve wracking, has taught me a little about the techniques of ‘cold reading’ and character interpretation. Physical and vocal warm-ups too are part of this process, and have given me the experience of singing in front of others for the first time.
Although I am not a part of the ‘production team’ as such, I have learned valuable lessons in the behind the scenes workings of a production through my involvement in scenery preparation and peripheral involvement in set design. This has enabled me to become familiar with terminologies of which I was not previously aware, and has given me insight into the sequencing and structure of a professional production.
My understanding of collaborative and ensemble work has been enhanced through group devised improvisations and other workshop activities, and co-operative efforts in production. No doubt this particular aspect of the unit will become increasingly important as the semester continues and we must pull the performance into a cohesive entity. It is already becoming apparent that the demands and responsibilities placed upon us, and the commitment that is expected from us is a necessary requirement in producing a highly professional production. After all, as McCaslin observes, “Children’s theatre is above all good theatre.” (2000: 143). If we fail to achieve this, we are not only letting ourselves down, but also the children to whom we shall be performing, and as children are the toughest critics, I am sure that feedback will be swift and truthful!
The skills that I have so far acquired in Children’s Theatre have already had practical benefits, as I have been able to use them on my Drama teaching prac. Many of the warm-up and improvisation activities have translated particularly well to the Year 11 and 12 classes that I have been teaching, and the prac has so far been a resounding success.
This week, I found out that I had landed the part of Sarki, leader of the Snottygobbles. It came as a surprise as I was sure that my lack of acting experience would relegate me to a non-speaking role. I turned up at Lauren’s house along with several members of the Children’s Theatre group for a reading of the incomplete script. Unfortunately several key people were missing, so we could only read a small portion, but did quite well nonetheless. I will now start researching my character, using the internet, unit reader and set texts. More on this later.
View other Julian's Journal entries... Week One - Week Five Week Six - Week Ten Week Eleven - Week Fourteen
...or view other 'Your Work' entries... 2006 Ed Pack Glynis' Journal
Lauren Boon's Movement in Education Nicole Pfeiffer's Theatre Production in the Classroom
...or view other 2005 Your Work entries... Val's Journal Jodie's Journal
...or view the... 2005 Ed Pack
Go to Children's Theatre: My Journal History Notice Board Your Work
Contact Andrew @ thechaseison@optusnet.com.au
This page last updated: 30th June 2006