WORKING PERFORMANCE

Showtime! Resources for the director/stage manager

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 09:18:00 +0000

It's showtime! Preparing for a school show can be stressful, with so many moving parts and people to coordinate. So, here are some of the useful documents I've collected/created over the past few years teaching drama. If you are a new drama teacher or looking to refine your process, these may come in useful. Click on the title of each document to access a GoogleDrive link.

(Thanks to James Lehmann for many of these. Credit also to Ellie Bryce.)

Cast and Crew Call Sheet

A list of the possible roles and responsibilities for a show, with space to add contact details for quickly reaching people during rehearsals, etc.

Rehearsal Schedule

A quick setup for planning your rehearsal schedule. Quick tip: If you have a large cast, divide your script into parts (4 or 5 for example) to rehearse on different days so not everyone is required all the time. It makes it much easier than managing a large group.

Scene Map by Character

See who is in which scene at a glance. Useful for the cast to see their trajectory through the piece, and for your Stage Manager to call cast to the stage during rehearsals.

Properties List

List all the props and their locations, quantities, notes, etc.

Sound Cues List

Sound cues list, with scene numbers, pages, and cue notes.

Show Start-Up Procedure

This one would need adapting to your own theatre set-up, but it is a comprehensive look at what needs to happen in the run up to the show. A good starting point to build your own version at least!

Hopefully you find one or two of these useful. If you have other documents in this same vain, I'd love to see them!

Exploring nonsense stories through Drama: Building the town

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Tue, 02 Oct 2018 11:09:00 +0000

This is a follow up to my previous post, where I introduce this unit of work based on imaginative storytelling.

I have now started this scheme with my Grade 2 students and so far we have read the first half of the poem together. We began to discuss the meaning of the new made-up words that we encountered. Some ideas began to take shape in our first session; the Cannerlee could be a statue, or some precious material, or a machine used to produce food; the Lizzerbee an amphibian, or a monster. Soon we'll also have ideas for the Kort, the Fuzznillers and the Snick.

Didn’t you hear about the Lizzerbee?

It came in the morning for the town’s Cannerlee.

Though the town didn’t see, nor hear, nor know,

So the Kort sent a crew to the land capped in snow.

A boat soon was crafted, to sail away,

On a mighty adventure for eleventy days,

With dangers to dodge, Fuzznillers to flee,

But the town truly wished to return the Cannerlee.

The chief of the crew, with her stinging Snick,

Kept it hidden from sight, in a sack close and quick.

The rest they held tightly, their spirits free,

As the ship left the port to a miserly sea.

But before continuing further in the story, I wanted the groups to develop a shared vision of the town and then to begin inhabiting it, role playing out the story as it develops. To facilitate this, I built on my idea of a Magic Imagination Ball (introduced in this post) where each student can pantomime the creation of an object by 'molding' their magic ball, which helps us all to visualize it and position it in our mental map of the town.

In an earlier session this semester, I handed Magic Imagination Balls to the new students in the groups, then we explored using them through the collective creation of an imaginary garden. Sitting in a circle in the classroom, I asked each student to add one thing to the garden inside our circle. They pantomimed the object, giving it shape, weight, movement and meaning, then showing where it was positioned in space. The objects and animals in each garden varied from cherry trees to skyscrapers, from hamsters sitting on floaties in a pool to velociraptors, from garden sheds to strings of fairy lights. As the picture is built step-by-step, we are able to construct a clear visual image in our heads which we visualize in the classroom. We then went on to write stories, draw pictures and tell tales about the events that may have taken place in this garden.

So when it came to building the town, we already had an idea of how we could do it. After reading through the poem and a short discussion, we divided the class into small groups and each group had a few minutes to discuss what they would add to their part of the town, then practice pantomiming it in the space. Each group then introduced their section and soon we had a town hall mapped over one of the tables, a statue of a previous mayor in a corner, a bakery by the whiteboard, a council fire on the carpet, a museum by the sink, and so on.

Now, as we continue with our story, we have 'real' places to inhabit and role-play in; I can send a group to the town hall to for a meeting; we can have council by the fire while 'eating' bread from the bakery. And as the town has been created collectively, it is also remembered collectively between sessions. I can ask "What's in this corner of the room?" and at least 5 hands will shoot up in the air with answers.

The next session will be this first chance to role-play. We will start to find roles and responsibilities for everyone in the town, we will discuss and debate and we will soon head out on our adventure.

Exploring nonsense stories through Drama

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Sat, 08 Sep 2018 10:38:00 +0000

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of learning from the impelling Debra Kidd at an ISTA event. During a masterclass, she introduced us to a scheme of work using Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem. Through inquiry, dramatic role-playing, storytelling and literary deconstruction, she uses the nonsense words and adventurous story to develop students' investigative skills, language, empathy, creativity, presentation skills, collaboration and more.

I've always wanted to try out this scheme, I just haven't had the perfect opportunity yet. But this year, starting a new program of Expressive Arts in Grade 2, I saw a chance. The Jabberwocky is a wonderfully rich poem, full of juicy, evocative language however, I felt it was perhaps going to be more challenging for this younger group, and for the students for whom English is their second, third, even fourth language.

I searched online for a similar poem, one that was a little lighter on the nonsense words but still had a rich story with some possibilities for conflict, intervention and discussion. Though The Spangled Pandemonium has a mythical beast to investigate, The Owl And The Pussy-Cat has the strange land and the journey, The Walrus And The Carpenter has points of discussion and plenty of nonsense, I came across none with everything I wanted. So, what else to do but have a go at writing one myself...

I give you- Didn't You Hear About The Lizzerbee?

Didn’t you hear about the Lizzerbee?

It came in the morning for the town’s Cannerlee.

Though the town didn’t see, nor hear, nor know,

So the Kort sent a crew to the land capped in snow.

A boat soon was crafted, to sail away,

On a mighty adventure for eleventy days,

With dangers to dodge, Fuzznillers to flee,

But the town truly wished to return the Cannerlee.

The chief of the crew, with her stinging Snick,

Kept it hidden from sight, in a sack close and quick.

The rest they held tightly, their spirits free,

As the ship left the port to a miserly sea.

They came to the shore, the boat they did beach,

Then trudged through the trilling, ‘till a cave they did reach.

A snow bank took clearing, revealing the lair,

And a sign of foreboding, “Lizzerbee- Beware!”

Yet, the cavern lay empty, the beast had gone,

And a trace of the Cannerlee, the crew found none.

Just a message left, encrypted in moen,

“I needed the Cannerlee, to feel less alone.”

Mysterious Dark Music- Youtube

The poem is designed to have two parts, split up and only revealed across at least two sessions. The first part until the ship sails, then the twist of the ending as the second part. There are eight nonsense words to investigate and for the group to develop their own meanings from: Lizzerbee, Cannerlee, Kort, Eleventy, Fuzznillers, Snick, Trilling, Moen. Also, some possibly new vocab to discover and interpret: capped, trudged, miserly, foreboding, encrypted.

What is the Lizzerbee? What does it look/sound/move like? What's a Cannerlee and why does the town want it back, so badly? Is a Kort a group of people, or just one? What are Fuzznillers and why do you need to flee them? What is a Snick used for? What are the material properties of trilling? What is moen and how do you create codes with it?

Part 1

We will use the poem to develop our own mythology of the town and then role-play the events of the story. Did we already know about the Lizzerbee before it came? Had we made preparations, defenses? Why didn't we see, hear, know it at first? We will create personas for everyone within the town, jobs and hierarchies, families and groups. Who should be the Kort? We will make the boat, (perhaps turning the actions of building into dance moves set to a funky beat), form a crew and get ready to leave. Then lastly, at the end of this session or sessions, full of emotion and expectation, we will set sail into the miserly sea.

Part 2

Expectations and assumptions established, we will arrive at the land capped in snow. Is this the first time someone has been here? Does anyone else inhabit this place? We will abandon the boat and head off to find the lair of the Lizzerbee. Using physical actions, sounds, perhaps some maps or created sets we will explore this new land. What challenges, obstacles, wildlife and peoples will we discover along the way? Finally, we will have reached the cave, only to discover that the beast is not there! How does the crew react to this? Only on closer inspection is a message discovered, in the moen (heather?), which after decryption (a chance to sidestep into some codebreaking/numeracy) reveals that the Lizzerbee took the Cannerlee to alleviate its own loneliness. How do we feel now? Should we continue our search for the Lizzerbee or let it be? Who needs the Cannerlee more?

For now, this scheme is just a plan, though soon to be initiated. I'll update and extend as and when. My thanks to Debra for the invaluable lessons learned from her and please check out her blog for more great ideas.

No Is Not Enough: Activism in the drama classroom

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 15:05:00 +0000

On my journey to school recently I've added some audiobooks to my playlists, in addition to the various podcasts I am already subscribed to (Radiolab, The Drama Teacher Podcast, Flash Forward, Under The Skin, to suggest a few). It's a great way to digest some content while otherwise doing basically nothing and I've been able to encounter some great new ideas this way.

The best thing I've listened to recently is an audiobook version of Naomi Klein's No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning The World We Need. In the book, Klein outlines some of the key factors that created social and political systems which Trump (and other global leaders) has been able to exploit while at the same time undermine so thoroughly. She then goes on to urge everyone who is currently fighting independently for any particular group's rights, or our planet's protection, to unite with a shared and common purpose.

“The crucial lesson of Brexit and of Trump’s victory, is that leaders who are seen as representing the failed neoliberal status quo are no match for the demagogues and neo-fascists. Only a bold and genuinely redistributive progressive agenda can offer real answers to inequality and the crises in democracy, while directing popular rage where it belongs: at those who have benefited so extravagantly from the auctioning off of public wealth; the polluting of land, air, and water; and the deregulation of the financial sphere.”

― Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need

This book, which ties into many of the same messages in the podcasts I have been listening to since Trump's election and Brexit, has given me much food for thought and I've been reflecting on what I can start doing in my classroom and, not forgetting, personal life.

It is imperative that our students understand the need for a "genuinely redistributive progressive agenda" and as privileged, well-educated, young citizens of the world they have the responsibility and opportunity to offer positive alternatives to the current systems of power and wealth. As a drama teacher, I have always believed in collaborative methods of making work, but now even more I think we need to move further away from hierarchical, top-down methods of creating art. Traditional author > director > actor > crew hierarchies can be problematic; we need to use more egalitarian collaborative strategies as models and testing grounds for how our students can practise embodying these ideas once they become young professionals, policy makers, leaders and visionaries in the future.

What are some of the ways this can look in practice? Directive-Response-Response, is a method of making art collectively, which provides an alternative to director-lead work. I believe it is also important to offer alternatives to the unidimensional narratives of most popular culture towards complex, multilayered, even potentially contradictory or confusing representations of real life. The most popular products of the West End, Broadway, Hollywood and television, though often compelling stories, many of which even with positive, progressive messages, do very little to incite real change in the world. Developing 'moment work' as Tectonic Theatre Project has been doing for many years, is a great way to build multi-layered work, which can encapsulate a much broader range of views and ideas.

"[...] Any opposition that is serious about taking on Trump, or other far-right forces like him around the world, must embrace the task of telling a new history of how we ended up here, in this perilous moment . A history that compellingly shows the role played by the politics of division and separation. Racial divisions. Class divisions. Gender divisions. Citizenship divisions. And a false division between humans and the natural world. Only then will it become possible to truly come together to win the world we need."

― Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need

We should also think beyond the constraints of just making performance work though. I have been reflecting on the way students reflect and give feedback to each other during the creative process.
Liz Lerman's Critical Response Format is a detailed and structured way for artists to receive feedback, which I've used previously with success, but even something as simple as employing Think-Pair-Share in my classroom has increased overall collaboration and engagement.

Beyond this, I think the single biggest thing we can do in our classrooms is encourage students to use their imaginations. To imagine new worlds, new possibilities; ones vastly different from what currently exists.

"With unleashed white supremacy and misogyny, with the world teetering on the edge of ecological collapse, with the very last vestiges of the public sphere set to be devoured by capital, it's clear that we need to draw a line in the sand and say "no more." Yes, we need to do that and we need to chart a credible and inspiring path to a different future. And that future cannot simply be where we were before Trump came along (aka the world that gave us Trump). It has to be somewhere we've never been before."

― Naomi Klein, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump's Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need

Or as Douglas Adams wrote, "Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."

The reimagining of classics with minor updates, the regurgitating of the same canon of playtexts, the 'tried and true' formulas of making theatre, these are no longer enough if we want to fix the most pressing problems of our world. What we need is something else, something new, a format beyond what is currently offered in the mainstream cinemas and theatres of the world. And who better to build this kind of theatre but our young people, still able to imagine and play, who's future is still very much ahead of them.

Accelerating up to the IB: London TAPS with ISTA

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 11:18:00 +0000

This past weekend, IB Theatre students from ISB took part in the Theatre Arts Programme Symposium (or TAPS for short) in central London, to help accelerate their learning and prepare them for the IB. A weekend more packed than the stalls at The National Theatre, the organisers of the event once again provided our students with an unforgettable experience.

We began our trip on Sunday by watching two shows which we hoped would energise the students and ignite their creative drives for the upcoming event. Starting out with Cirque Eloize's Saloon was exactly what we needed. Gun-slingin' acrobatics, hilariously silly sketches and imaginative technical elements for an hour and half, and things certainly kicked off for us.

Then we headed over to the Arts Theatre, curious to find out if The Toxic Avenger would be any good. A rock-opera based on a notoriously dodgy 1984 film of the same name, we really hoped it wouldn't be a (toxic) waste of time.

Lucky for all, it was a huge success. We laughed so hard, sang along to the songs and reveled in the fun that the indie playhouse had put together. To top it all off, while getting ready to leave, we were surprised by an opportunity to meet the actors as they came outside. They signed shirts, answered questions and made the whole evening even better.

So day one had been amazing and now everyone was super psyched as the festival started in earnest. TAPS is essential to the success of our IB Theatre programme at ISB. It offers students an immersive event, acting as a fantastic resource for further explorations of the course back in school. Engaging each and every participant with the philosophy of the programme, its core components and the required assessment tasks, students mix with other schools and work alongside professional artists and directors on creative tasks and exercises. It provides our students with the tools and strategies required for managing their own learning in theatre, stuff they use throughout the rest of the course.

On top of all of that, ISTA handpicks two of the best shows London is presenting, providing us with a chance to see work collectively and then reflect on it critically. This year we saw two quite different, but definitely thought-provoking pieces in the form of Simon Stephens version of The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, and Jane Eyre at The National Theatre.

The Seagull was a challenging three hours for our students overall, as the doomed characters painfully destroyed each others lives, but the piece offered us an abundance of ways to critically engage with it; from the actors' sometimes strange delivery, to questions about the directors intention, to the striking visuals of the set and staging.

Jane Eyre meanwhile was a bang-up-to-date portrayal of another timeless classic. "A picture of exultant feminism", the piece enthralled us all with gorgeous, unexpected visuals, modern music provided by cool, live band, and a powerful delivery from the ten deviser-performers.

Thus, in the evenings we sat back and opened our minds to some wonderful theatre, and in the day the students made it...

Our ISB students were divided up into mixed groups with students from fifteen other international schools from around the world, and each ensemble worked alongside an artist leader who guided them through the creative tasks. They made comedy inspired by Commedia dell'arte, site-specific immersive theatre, devised and directed, reflected and reviewed. On top of all of this they were incredibly fortunate to have two masterclasses, one with Will Kerley on the art of directing; and one delivered by Made Pujawati on the Balinese artform of Kecak theatre.

It's difficult to sum up all of the learning that takes place at an event like this. As well as the myriad of skills that students develop which relate to their course in the IB, there are huge leaps of personal development too; as the students take risks, explore new ideas, travel away from home, bond with strangers. The events that ISTA organise (both for our HS and MS students) fully embody the goals and pedagogy of ISB, and we are all incredibly lucky to have these kind of opportunities.

So, as the year goes on, the memories of our time spent at TAPS will keep us energised and inspired through those cold winter months and beyond.

48h Theatre Project

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 15:53:00 +0000

This past weekend, 21 Middle School students participated in the 48h Theatre Project at ISB. Starting at 4pm on Friday evening and finishing 4pm Sunday, it was an event of team-building, creativity, gaining confidence and having fun. In that time, the cast devised, prepared and rehearsed an original performance from start to finish. The final piece, titled Everyday Encounters, was presented as a promenade performance in which the audience was free to explore various spaces, while actors performed a mashup of solo movement scores, duet scenes and character development pieces.

21 UNIQUE INSIGHTS INTO THE LIVES OF

STRANGERS. WE HAVE BEEN EXPLORING WHAT

IS HIDDEN UNDERNEATH THE ENCOUNTERS WE

HAVE WITH EACH OTHER, EVERYDAY, ALL OVER

THE WORLD.

FOLLOW A CHARACTER, EXPLORE THE DIFFERENT

ROOMS, AND WATCH AS THE ENCOUNTERS CHANGE

EACH TIME.

But the event was much more than just a performance. As one student put it during the Q&A which followed the show, quoting Abraham Lincoln, "We spent a lot of the time building trust and confidence in each other, and I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said if you have 4 hours to cut down a tree, spend the first 3 hours sharpening the sword."

Most of Friday evening was spent doing team building tasks, such as Shrinking Islands, and an exercise from Augusto Boal's Games for Actors and Non-Actors in which blindfolded participants are carefully moved around by their partner. The evening then culminated in watching West Side Story, before the special event of sleeping over at school together.

After waking up and eating breakfast as an ensemble, a large part of Saturday morning was spent exploring expression through movement and gesture, using Anne Bogart's Viewpoints technique. Working in a full group exercise, we built images using elements of space, tempo, proximity, gesture, & voice.

It's worth noting, that at this stage, students were still mostly in the dark about the content of the final performance but, without knowing it yet, were beginning to develop the necessary skills needed later in the day, and also to construct some of the early material which was then developed in the proceeding activities.

The core devising task came after lunch on Saturday. As students took a break and played Werewolf, Sandie Pergallini and I gave a make-over to the two drama studios, the props/make-up room, and the dressing rooms; filling them with props, staging blocks, costumes, lighting and music, to create an actors playground in which a large-scale improvisation could take place. We also seeded the room with performance tasks, inspired by a workshop I took on site-specific, immersive performance with the (awesome) company Punchdrunk.

For a list of example tasks, go to my post here.

It was sheer creative joy for over an hour, as the cast experimented with character, image, physicality and voice. Comedy duets formed, powerful and emotional stories were told, fragile lullabies were sung, and even a space filled with horrific screams and tales emerged. It was an exercise of risk-taking, of experimentation, and of students using a myriad of their skills and knowledge.

Much of the material created in this exercise became critical to our final performance, and for the rest of Saturday afternoon we began reflecting on, selecting, editing and developing the material, combining it with some of the work from early exercises until we more or less had the skeleton of a plan for the show.

That just left Sunday morning to smooth out the (many) wrinkles and to rehearse, before presenting our work to a full audience at 2pm.

The weekend was intense. Beautiful. Challenging. Full of student ownership and growth. A laugh a minute. Unforgettable.

What/where knows you best?

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 13:55:00 +0000

"No one knows me like the piano in my mother's home
You would show me I had something some people call a soul
And you dropped out the sky, oh you arrived when I was three years old
No one knows me like the piano in my mother's home"

Sampha- (No One Knows Me) Like The Piano

Here's a prompt for your drama classes; for helping students get to know each other, for an autobiographical generating task.

What or where knows you best?

Is it a musical instrument that you've poured your soul into? Maybe a stage you've performed on a hundred times? Or it's your bedroom or garden or favourite place to hang out?

Present this space or object to the group. Present it without words. Reproduce a singular moment that occurred in that space/with that object.

^^^

For me, it's these back woods behind my childhood home and probably in the branches of one particular tree. So many memories made there and so many defining moments...

Artist Toolbox: Immersive Performance Tasks

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 09:35:00 +0000

THE ROOM HAS A SECRET. WHAT IS IT?

DANCE ALONE.

PREPARE YOURSELF.

WHO DO THESE OBJECTS BELONG TO? SAY THE NAME ALOUD.

WHISPER YOUR REGRET TO THE WALL.

TELL A SECRET TO THE STRANGER IN THE CORNER.

SAY THINGS YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR OUT LOUD.

SING A LULLABY.

HIDE UNTIL TWO PEOPLE HAVE PASSED YOU BY.

SOMEONE IS WATCHING YOU.

EXPLORE THE DARK WITH THIS LAMP.

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY? WHISPER IT.

WHAT ARE YOU HOLDING ON TO?

WHAT IS IN YOUR HEART? DESCRIBE IT WITHOUT WORDS.

ENTER THIS ROOM LIKE YOU ARE RUNNING LATE.

PRESENT YOUR RECURRING DREAM.

SAY GOODBYE AND LEAVE.

FOLLOW THE FOOTSTEPS.

BE YOUR MOTHER.

MAKE AN ESCAPE.

WAIT UNTIL HE ARRIVES. GREET HIM.

WRITE A LETTER TO SAY SORRY.

PACK YOUR THINGS AND GET AWAY FROM HERE.

STEAL SOMETHING.

This is the story of two lovers. Princess Orihime, the seamstress, wove beautiful clothes by the heavenly river, represented by the Milky Way. Because Orihime worked so hard weaving beautiful clothes, she became sad and despaired of ever finding love. Her father, who was a God of the heavens, loved her dearly and arranged for her to meet Hikoboshi, the cow herder who lived on the other side of the Milky Way. The two fell in love instantly and married. Their love and devotion was so deep that Orihime stopped weaving and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to wander the heavens.

Orihime’s father became angry and forbade the lovers to be together, but Orihime pleaded with him to allow them to stay. He loved his daughter, so he decreed that the two star-crossed lovers could meet once a year--on the 7th day of the 7th month if Orihime returned to her weaving. On the first day they were to be reunited, they found the river (Milky Way) to be too difficult to cross. Orihime became so despondent that a flock of magpies came and made a bridge for her.

FIND SOMEONE AND TELL THEM ABOUT THIS STORY.

Artist Toolbox: How To Learn Your Lines Faster

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 08:18:00 +0000

Learning lines (or not) can be one of the biggest challenges faced by a cast of actors. If someone doesn't know their lines, rehearsals can grind to a painful pace, shows can fall apart and tensions can form in the ensemble rapport. So what can actors do to help overcome this challenge?

Well, one solution is right there in your pocket.

Most people own or have access to some kind of device with voice recording ability -smartphones, computers, even a cheap dictaphone. Using recording tech like this can rapidly increase the speed at which you learn your lines and (just as importantly) your cue lines.

What you need to do is to record everyone else's lines from the scenes you are in, leaving timed silences in your recording for the places when you speak. For example, take this scene I did from Peter Pan The British Musical. In the show I played the role of Hook, so to learn my lines I recorded every line except Hook's. I just used my own voice, sort of did a bit of an accent to distinguish between characters but didn't spend too long worry about the quality of it.

As you can hear, there are long pauses in the audio, and this is so that I can play the track back in real time while practicing my lines at home. I listen to my cue lines then try to repeat my lines back from memory in the relevant pauses. If I forget a line, I simply check my script, start the track over and do it again. Always, I try to do as much as possible without looking at my script. I'll have it open beside me if possible, but try not to look at if I can.

This process drastically speeds up the line learning process and makes sure that cue lines are also learned. A few evenings spent doing this and you can have whole scenes down before you know it!

Scene 1.8

The Neverland. A forest clearing.

Music 12: Pirates’ Song

Pirates (enter singing; ) Avast Belay, Avast Belay, Avast Belay, A ……….vast belay, yo ho, heave ho A-pirating we go And if we’re parted by a shot We’re sure to meet below! The pirates enter singing, 4 pirates carry James Hook, their captain, in a sedan chair. He lies at his ease. He is carefully polishing his iron hook. In his mouth he has a holder which enables him to smoke two cigars at once. The pirate women follow the sedan chair
Yo ho, yo ho, the pirate life The flag o’skull and bones A merry hour, a hempen rope And hey for Davy Jones.

Nibs briefly returns to retrieve his bow before retreating back into the safety of the forestBut Starkey sights him, and quickly pulls his pistol out ― but an iron claw grips his shoulder

Starkey Captain, let go.

Hook Put back that pistol first.
Starkey It was one of those boys you hate. I could have shot him dead.
Hook Ay and the sound would have brought Tiger Lily’s natives upon us. Do you want to lose your scalp?
Smee brandishing his cutlass Shall I after him. Captain, and tickle him with Johnny Corkscrew? Johnny’s a silent fellow.
Hook Not now, Smee. He is only one and I want them all.
Smee All of them! (to the rest of the pirates) The captain wants THEM ALL!
Pirates Ay ― let’s get them all.
General murmuring of agreement
Smee So ― unrip your plan, Captain.
Hook The plan is simple; to return to the ship and cook a large rich cake of a jolly thickness with green sugar on it. We will leave the cake on the shore of Mermaids’ Lagoon. The boys are always swimming about there talking to the mermaids. They will find the cake and they will gobble it up because, having no mother, they don’t know how dangerous ‘tis to eat rich damp cake.
The Pirates laugh. Hook gives a particularly gruesome laugh (pointedly) They will die.
Smee It’s the wickedest, prettiest policy ever I heard of Cap’n…..And how d’you reckon to make a rich, damp cake?

Music 13: Rich, Damp Cake
Hook Well, what are you standing around here for? Go to it, you swabs. Scatter and look for them! The pirates scatter and exit SR
Sedan chair carried off USL
Smee, Starkey, Cecco, BillJ stay with Hook

It’s the wickedest, prettiest policy ever I heard of Cap’n…..

Directive-Response-Response: complete lesson plan

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 19:54:00 +0000

Directive-Response-Response

- a strategy for collaborative creation

Workshop by Carl Robinson (with Cat Leclerc)

This workshop has been written for teachers here, but could easily be adapted for students learning about devising.

Directive-Response-Response is a strategy for collaboratively developing creative work, be it drama, art, music, writing or otherwise, in which students’ contributions are remixed and re-imagined by the collective over multiple iterations. The resulting work which is produced becomes ‘inextricably linked’ to each and every contribution which formed it, creating a rich and complex product at the end of the process. Touching upon the ideas of some contemporary performance makers (Goat Island/Forced Entertainment) and visual artists (Richard Serra), the workshop will be grounded in modern creative practices and principles.

This workshop is intended to give a basic introduction to the ideas and principles of some key contemporary performance makers (context here) and visual artists and provide participants with some exercises and techniques which can be used in a range of creative classes, not just the arts.

Materials

Photographs or other images (evocative images here)

Music (playlists available here)

Extract of non-fiction text (examples here)

Extract of fiction text. (example here)

Note: The timings stated here are shorter than the ideal, in order to fit into the 90 minute session time. Ideally you would take 2, if not more, sessions to complete these activities and to repeat presentations but with different music and in different styles allowing participants to experiment with timing, tone, speed, intensity, etc.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture

Step 1- First Directive -5 mins

✭ Divide participants into groups of 4.

✭ Give each group one of the four stimuli pieces (a photo, some music, non-fiction, or fiction). They read/listen/view this directive for 2 minutes, then give immediate statements of meaning (see Critical Response Process here).

I saw…
I heard…
I noticed…
I felt…
It reminded me of…
I wondered...

Step 2- Considered Responses -10 mins

✭ Individually, participants respond to the their group’s directive by creating a new piece of art which is inspired by it.

✭ This could be in the form of a poem, a dance, a song, some music, a photo, a drawing, a list of words, some instructions, etc. The art should be inspired (directly or indirectly) by the directive.

✭ It does not need to be a ‘finished’ piece after 10 minutes, in fact it’s best to encourage participants to leave their work unfinished and incomplete so it can be grown by someone else in the next step.

Step 3- Group Sharing 1 -10 mins

✭ The group comes back together to share their work with each other.

✭ This sharing can be informal or formal, but it is worth keeping in mind that performance material often works best when it is ‘delivered’, with some ceremony. Participants might want to present their work (even if it is unfinished) in a formal way.

✭ Each individual presentation is followed by immediate statements of meaning.

Step 4- Response As New Directive -15 mins

✭ Individuals now select some or all of the material created in step 2 (by others, not their own material) and grow it. They can change, edit, add to, depart from, develop the material in any way they choose. It becomes the inspiration for a new piece of art.

✭ In the same way as step 2, individuals create a new piece of art in any medium they choose. It doesn’t need to be the same medium as they worked in for step 2, nor the same as the medium of the material they are currently responding to.

✭ Richard Serra’s verb list can provide interesting suggestions of how to develop material. Try adding friction to a song, or hooking and heaping your movements.

✭ Any attachments to the first directive should be put to the back of the mind in this step. Allow new connections, themes and ideas to emerge from the material that the other participants have created.

Step 5- Group Sharing 2 -5 mins

✭ The small groups get back together to share their work amongst themselves.

✭ If there is time available, give immediate statements of meaning. If not, go straight to the next step.

Step 6- Compose -15 mins

✭ Each group must now compose the material they have created into a structure that makes sense and rehearse it ready to present to the whole group.

✭ It can use some or all of the material, including the material created in step 2 and/or the original directive material (if useful).

✭ Parts can be organised sequentially, overlapping, juxtaposed, etc.

✭ This is a short amount of time, so quick decisions must be made. The piece doesn’t need to ‘make sense’ or have a concrete narrative running through it. It’s just a structure within which the material can be shared.

✭ Finally, if there is time, groups should consider the beginning and the end of their presentation, thinking about the way that they will open and close their performance with a *full stop*.

Step 7- Full group sharing -15-30 mins

✭ Each group presents their work, using any materials/music/staging that they were able to throw together.

✭ If there’s enough time, allows the audience to offer immediate statements of meaning after each presentation.

Step 8- Reflect -5-10 mins

✭ What is challenging, exciting, surprising about working in this way?

✭ Which ideas, themes, thoughts emerged unexpectedly while working collaboratively?

✭ Which are the other mediums of creativity that this can apply to?

Pedestrian Movement As Dance: complete lesson plan

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 07:30:00 +0000

"I’m not a dancer but that doesn’t stop me dancing."

A workshop for generating movement and choreographies from a range of everyday movements and gestures.

Ideally you would take 2, if not 3 sessions to complete these activities and to repeat presentations but with different music and in different styles allowing participants to experiment with timing, tone, speed, intensity, etc.

Warm up 10 mins

✭ ‘Twisting wrists’

Starting with arms outstretched in front, curl the fingers in. Slowly add in body parts while continuing to twist and articulate previous parts. Once the whole body is twisting and walking bring the warm-up to a close.

✭ ‘Kittens fighting’

In pairs. The kittens have to try to softly touch their partner on different parts of their body, while trying not to be touched themselves. Remind participants that kittens have very soft paws, also that they need to keep an awareness of others around them at all times. This emphasis of this activity is on warm-up and building a good pair/group dynamic, not on competition.

Group choreography from sport 40 mins

✭ Individually, select 5 short movements from sport. These can be from the same or from different sports. After selecting the 5 movement, ‘abstractify’ each by changing one element of the movement to make it less recognisable and more ‘dancey’. No need to order them.

✭ After developing the 5 movements, select the best 2. In pairs, teach each other the 2 moves.

✭ Pairs meet pairs, teach each other the 4 moves.

✭ The groups of four order the movements and make a routine that lasts 4 counts of 8. The routine should be easily repeatable, even if this means adding in a count of 8 to walk back to the starting position.

Optional- one movement must last for 8 beats, and one movement must last for 2 beats.

Presentation 1 15 mins

✭ Present the dances but with different styles/moods of music. Students have to work with or against the music, but maintain group timing.

✭ If given more time, the presentation of this exercise works best when combined with solos and students present with a group space and solo space, like in the following activity.

Solo and group dances combined 60 mins (minimum)

✭ As a whole group, in a clearly visible place write a 10 point list short of gestures/movements.

e.g. 1. Turn head

2. Raise hand

3. Put head in hands

4. Smile

5. Stand up/Sit down

6. Move behind a chair

7. Put your hand on someone’s face

8. Close eyes

9. Cross/uncross arms/legs

10. Clench fists

✭ Set up a bench or a row of chairs for 3-5 people, on the stage. During the presentation participants can choose and complete movements from the list. There is no limit to how many times each movement is completed, if at all. There are moments when a pause is also necessary and eye contact can be key. Except from a set action like a Smile, neutral faces is also necessary.

✭ For now though, put this exercise on hold before presenting to work on the solos.

✭ Give each participant a small piece of paper and a pencil to write a directive for a dance or movement solo. Participants choose one of two options:

- Write a well-known body related metaphor or figure of speech

e.g. My heart is breaking

My legs have turned to jelly

Keep your chin up

A pain in the neck

Butterflies in my stomach

I’m head over heels

I have a fire in my belly

Brain Freeze

There’s a thorn in my side

etc...

- Write a short description of nature or otherwise

e.g. Butterflies in grass

Water rushing over a waterfall

Spinning endlessly through Space

Being kissed all over

The building of Mt. Everest

Lava bubbling and then cooling

etc…

✭ It may be useful to remind participants that they are writing a gift for another, and that the receiver of their directive should be inspired but not restricted by it.

✭ After writing, in a circle everybody passes their paper to the right. Give participants a few minutes to try out their new directive. The emphasis of this is not on developing a literal/mimic representation so the audience are able to understand what the directive said, but on finding an abstract representation of it, that captures some of the essence or feeling of the directive, but is not necessarily easily recognisable.

✭ Now prepare the performance space. Define a group and a solo area like this:

Presenters start in the group area and complete gestures from the 10 point list (as above). This continues throughout the presentation (usually the length of a song). At any time though, a single presenter can move to the solo area and present their solo representation of their directive, for as long or as short as they feel necessary. When they have finished their solo, they can return to the group area and resume their gesturing.

Pina- Pushing a pin into it

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 16:30:00 +0000

The work of Pina Bausch and the Tanztheater Wuppertal has had a profound impact on my work as both an artist and a teacher. If you haven't seen anything of their work, then watching the 2011 film Pina is a jaw-dropping, heart-awakening place to start.

Among so many of her ideas and principles there is one that particularly stands out and continues to define my idea of performance- the idea of evocative images instead of illustrative.

Bausch wasn't your average choreographer, with a pre-planned vision of every piece she made. The work was driven by the dancers in the Wuppertal, by their thoughts, feelings, expressions.

There's a great section in Royd Climenhaga's book on Bausch where he references a time while she was working on the piece Walzer (1982). Bausch asked the company to explore the idea of a display in a natural history museum.

"In museums you can see where they collect animals, stuffed animals. You can see how they are preserved and how they stand there, the animals. or with insects, how they mount them so that people can look at them. An ensemble member questions, Do you want us to put it into words? and Bausch responds, No, I want you to do it, or do it to someone."

(Was Tun Pina Bausch und Ihrer Tanzer in Wuppertal? 1983)

Climenhaga goes on to explain that Bausch wants to capture the pain of being mounted by a pin, or perhaps the discomfort of viewing such animals mounted in that way. She doesn't want her performers to recreate the image, it's too literal. You can imagine some novice students making the same mistake as some of her ensemble members back in '82 —they tried to re-create the moment by pinning one of the others to the wall, and often we see students translate a prompt such as this into similarly literal expressions.

She wanted her ensemble to understand that "It tells us about the feeling, but it doesn't give it to us. It's illustrative rather than evocative." She doesn't want to create an experience "where we may say "Ah, I get it, it's like animals in a natural history museum," because then you either get it or you don't, but in either case the image stops there, once the connection has been made."

(Climenhaga, Royd. 2009. 'Pina Bausch.' Routledge Performance Practitioners: 111-113)

This principle of "Don't show me the feeling. Give me the feeling!" is critical when devising work to have impact. It's turns one-dimensional scenes upon which the audience is but voyeur, into an opportunity for us to make our own connections and to experience the piece for ourselves.

If you don't know the work of Pina Bausch and would like to know more, then the film is a great introduction which you can follow up with Royd Climenhaga's detailed guide on her work. The book also includes many practical exercises to get your students creating in the same ways as the Wuppertal. Finally, although Pina sadly passed away in 2009, Tanztheater Wuppertal still performs many of her pieces all around the world, so if you can get to see it live, I would highly recommend it.

Inclusion, Challenge and Success

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Mon, 12 Sep 2016 08:15:00 +0000

An article written by Jacqueline Tordoir, the parent of a previous ISB student, and published in Dutch in the blog of education Think Tank- NIVOZ. You can check it out on this link: http://hetkind.org/?s=jacqueline+tordoir

ISB Middle School's recent production of The Jungle Book

My daughter Daniela went to the International School of Brussels. The mission of the school is: everyone included, challenged and successful. Of the three mission components, “challenge” is the one Daniela has been covering since she was 3, when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Although her one-year intensive hospital treatment is now a distant memory, Daniela’s learning difficulties are a daily challenge.

My daughter was enrolled as a pupil in the ISB’s ‘Special Education’ programme, where she spent most of her school hours in a small class of six children. For Dutch and Drama class, she participated in lessons in the mainstream Middle School. While relishing her periods in the mainstream, she found it hard to have the label ‘special ed. kid’ attached to her and despite the wonderful guidance of her special ed. teachers, she often wondered why she couldn’t be like her peers and fully participate in the mainstream programme. The gap between the education levels at both sections is large. My daughter hovered between the two, intellectually, emotionally and socially. It was tough. Together with her teachers, we were on a continuous quest for the other two mission components: ‘inclusion’ and ‘success’.

Eventually we saw it happening: inclusion, challenge and success seamlessly rolled into one when she performed her part of ‘Wolf 3’ in the school’s The Jungle Book production. I spoke to her drama teacher to find out more about his pedagogical approach. He involved around 40 pupils in his production of The Jungle Book, 26 were stage performers. Others were involved in costumes, backstage, masks, makeup and stage design. It took 48 hours of rehearsals over four months to prepare the play, with three performances at the end. In total, the students presented their work to nearly 500 audience members.

When rehearsals started I had noticed that it took my daughter a while to get into it. She showed no particular enthusiasm for going to rehearsals. Her drama teacher confirmed that she was withdrawn and frightened to make her voice heard. She would cower in a corner rather than step forward, whisper rather than speak up or shout out. He recognised her challenge: She was the only special education student in the group and together with another child, the only one from the lowest grade, grade 7; all the others being from grade 8 up to High School grade 12.

So how did we end up with a smiling Wolf 3, beaming on stage, exclaiming that this was the best time in her life, hugging and kissing her fellow thespians while gracefully receiving compliments on the delivery of her lines and her true-to-life wolf performance throughout? Better call her drama teacher.

His key message was trust. He considered that his first task in starting off any theatre production was to work on building trust for creating what he called the “ensemble”, the group coherence and collaboration. He worked on trust by means of various exercises. His aim was to make everyone feel part of the whole, to get everyone to feel that they too have something unique to contribute to the group and that difference is not just OK, but something to be cherished. He reckoned very few children will feel entirely confident at the beginning of rehearsing for a play and likewise in this group, my daughter was not the only one to feel fear and inhibition. The group also included children who had only recently learned to speak English for instance. Through trust-building exercises, children eventually ended up trusting themselves and each other.

My daughter’s drama teacher’s next step was to create a safe environment in which children were encouraged to take risks and to reflect openly on each other’s endeavours through giving critical, non-judgmental feedback. Children thrived by sensing that none of the feedback given was personal, that each comment served the purpose of increasing their skills and the quality of the group effort as a whole. Risk-taking was cultivated by giving children exercises to stretch their imagination, asking them to perform the impossible. Everyone took part no matter how hesitant they felt about taking risks. The secret was in the approach. How can you not take a risk when you are asked to work out a way to turn yourself inside out, or to find a way of seeing the back of your own head?

Another key to this teacher’s success was creating an environment for active participation. For his productions, he saw his role as a facilitator rather than a director. He used the creative input he got from the children to build the play. There was a script, but it was flexible. ‘Children have excellent ideas, I would be mad not to take them on. The process is more important than the end-result’, he said. All children in The Jungle Book were active agents in building it, they were treated as competent partners in shaping the process and the end-product.

So where was my daughter in all this? When her teacher noticed that his trust-building exercises did not have an immediate effect, or at least not as much as was required to make her an active participant in the process, he intervened. A small push did the trick. He took her aside and told her that she needed to be brave. That without her taking action herself there would be no reaction. That she should give the others the opportunity to learn from her, from her energy, from her physicality and that they in turn could help her with their feedback and with remembering her lines and “prompt” whenever it was needed. They were messages for trust and risk-taking with a safety net supplied. It worked. The next rehearsal my daughter acted out an angry wolf. Buoyed up by the feedback she received she continued to develop her role from strength to strength. No prompting was needed at any stage….

If it’s true that “all the world’s a stage”, Carl found a way of bringing the stage into Daniela’s world and answered our quest for inclusion, challenge and success.

Jacqueline Tordoir

Artist Toolbox: Sticky stuff

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Thu, 08 Sep 2016 15:30:00 +0000

It's early in the year and you are building an ensemble in your class. Would you like to hear about an activity which you might not have heard of? Sure you would!

Well, the first activity I have for you is called the Helium Stick, and you could use it in pretty much any class or group to help build teamwork and communication.

First, get the group to line up in two rows which face each other.
Introduce the Helium Stick- a long, thin, lightweight pole with tennis balls stuck on the ends.
Ask participants to point their index fingers and hold their arms out.
Lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers. Make sure that everyone's index fingers are touching the stick.
Explain that the challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground.
The catch: Each person's fingers must be in contact with the Helium Stick at all times. Pinching or grabbing the pole in not allowed - it must rest on top of fingers.
Reiterate to the group that if anyone's finger is caught not touching the Helium Stick, the task will be restarted. Let the task begin....
Warning: Particularly in the early stages, the Helium Stick has a habit of mysteriously 'floating' up rather than coming down, causing much laughter.
To be successful the group needs to calm down, concentrate, and very slowly, patiently lower the Helium Stick - easier said than done.

students working on the challenge

A success? Great!

Would you like another one? Even greater!

This next activity is a good one for partner work and can be extended into performance material as a further step.

First, split the group into pairs. Preferably with partners they know the least.
Give each pair two (30cm) sticks
Students hold the sticks between their index fingers and try not to let them drop.
They are not allowed to pinch or hold the sticks with their other digits. The pressure they put on the sticks with their index fingers should be enough.
Challenge the students to explore the range of movements they have with these restrictions: Can they twist around? Step over the sticks? Lay down together? Balance?
After 5 minutes of exploration, ask them to share their best 'stunt' with the group. If they're trying something particularly difficult, commend them on going all out for the glory!

First, split the group into pairs. Preferably with partners they know the least.
Once you have done this, if you want to take it further, ask students to practice three moves, which are combined into a routine or phrase.
They practice with the sticks but when they share their phrase with the group they will do it without the sticks. In performance they must still have the same concentration as if they were still using the sticks however.
As an added twist, students can experiment with changing the length of the imaginary sticks. What happens if their stick is super tiny or really long? What happens to the phrase if the sticks shrinks or grows half way through.
Add some interesting music and watch what happens...
Ask the audience to feedback with their interpretations of the performances. Did the performance remind them of anything? Were there stories that emerged? A particular theme or idea?

If one or both of those activities is a new one to you then I'm happy! They certainly provided my students with some important learning moments.

And remember, if you get stuck, use a stick to get unstuck!

(Yeah, I just made that up.)

Character alignments: a geek teacher's guide

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 17:00:00 +0000

I love Eric Molinsky's podcast Imaginary Worlds, a show about 'imaginary worlds: how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief'. It's a curious geek's guide to a deeper side of pop culture and well worth a listen if that sounds like your thing.

I just listened to the episode titled Why They Fight and was fascinated to hear how a part of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons has influenced a lot of pop culture since the game was released and I realised that this system for categorising characters would be a great drama activity, so don't switch off just yet!

A big part of DnD is building your character, giving them traits, personality, history, skills etc. Alignment is a categorization of the ethical and moral perspective of a character. There are 9 types of alignment, which can be explained in various nerdy diagrams available in a quick google search.

The alignments apply to so many well-known characters from Harry Potter to The Muppets, from Batman to Animal Farm.

Molinsky's personal pick of characters also make a lot of sense to me and he clearly describes how they fit their alignments in the episode:

As you can see from the diagrams, so many characters fit into these alignments and it is when two characters fall into different alignments that we get great stories; see Batman vs The Joker, Captain America vs Iron Man, Harry Potter vs Lord Voldermort, Aladdin vs Jafar.

So I'm going to use this system with my students soon and ask them to create characters for improvisations which fit into the different alignments. Let's see what happens then...!

(See also Geek & Sundry for another simple breakdown)

GCSE Bitesize: A Mantra (but that's probably all)

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 20:41:00 +0000

Today once again, British 16 year-old's received their GCSE exam results. I remember that time in my life and now as a teacher I find myself reflecting on the value of it. With exam changes, increases in difficulty and always a controversy never far from the news, I can't help but wonder why Britain persists in holding these exams.

Nobody should denigrate the achievements of those who received their results in the past few days. The problem lies with the exam, not them. GCSEs are obsolete and have been for several years. Exams at 16 were invented when the majority of children left full-time education at that age and moved directly into the labour market.
-Peter Wilby in the Guardian

The period of time before my own exams at 16, spent cramming, revising and worrying probably didn't do a great deal for any success in my life since. Most of the things I learnt in school and remember now were things taught to me by passionate teachers in learning situations that cannot be assessed in any sanitised, three-hour long exam.

However, there was one idea from this period that has stuck with me and defines much of how I approach challenges in my life to this day and it came from the unlikely place of the BBC's free online study resource- Bitesize.

The BBC's GCSE Bitesize resource

This scheme offers students study resources which are 'broken down into manageable chunks' to try to help with the stress of studying for all their exams. Now it wasn't the program itself which helped me very much but the principle it is built on, that of the idea to break down a large, seemingly overwhelming task into small, easy-to-achieve parts.

Now I'm sure I had come across that idea many times before that, obviously, but something about the slogan and the advertising that the BBC used in their campaigns stuck with me as a teenager. Since then I've adopted that approach whenever I feel the pressure of a large scary task, be it writing a dissertation, starting a new job or buying a house.

Take starting a new job for example. It can be very scary when you think of the whole picture- so much to learn, new people to make good impressions on, so much to get to grips with. But if you break it down into 'manageable chunks' then it's not so bad. First step is to get on the bus and show up- easy. Then you have to walk through the door- walking's easy. Shake a hand and smile- simple. Sit through a fire-safety video- breezy. And so on... So whenever I'm feeling the pressure I just recite that mantra: 'Break It Down Into Manageable Chunks'

Nothing revolutionary, and not worth all the revision just for that, but a positive outcome for me nonetheless.

I'm thinking about those 16 year-old's who now have their GCSEs behind them and those 15 year-old's who have it to come and I wonder why we still put them through it all... Although the BBC's catchy slogan worked with me there are clearly better ways to teach task-management skills to students and as for the rest, it's high-time the British government found a new path for secondary education.

What I'm watching

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 15:59:00 +0000

Some of the upcoming shows in Brussels that I will be going to see:

The Common People
Jan Martens -Grip
September 15-16
desingel.be

The Common People' is a participatory project, installation and performance by choreographer Jan Martens and film director Lukas Dhont. Twenty-four duos - ordinary people - meet for the first on the scene . How they react to each other and the audience looking on? You witness how they are seeking (intimate?) Personal contact.

-I've always been interested in untrained dancers dancing and pedestrian movement as dance. It's something I have focused on in my own artistic practice and I'm proud to have participated in some projects similar to this in the past. So I'm very looking forwards to seeing The Common People and I've been interested in seeing some of Jan Martens work too.

Rain (live)
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Roasa & Ictus
October 4-7
Kaaitheatre.be

Rain (2001) is one of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's most vibrant performances and is set to Steve Reichs Music for 18 Musicians. You are gripped by a kind of madness of movement. Like a spreading fire, it jumps from one body to another, without pausing at any one person. To the pulsing notes of Steve Reich’s minimalistic music – performed live by Ictus – ten dancers surrender themselves to an irrepressible collective energy. A bubbling network of breathing and speed connects them, as does that strange camaraderie that appears only beyond the limits of exhaustion.
-Seeing the work of Anne Teresa De Keesmaeker has been on my wishlist for a while. The choreographer's scores she creates, which you can find in various books of hers, are fascinating to me. Can't wait for this!

Meanwhile
Gaëtan Rusquet
November 9-10
Kaaitheatre.be

In this apocalyptic performance Rusquet has three performers build a construction. Is it a model or in fact an installation? The actors continually have to fight against the threatened destruction of what they are building up. By playing with the scale, the role of the body changes from pure power to helplessness. Its raw materiality, physical sound and inescapable language of movement make Meanwhile a penetrating performance. The passage of time and the relationship between humans and their environment become tangible: the history of a city unfolds before your eyes.

-One of the greatest performances I've ever seen involved the perpetual building and destruction of a wall, only that time the wall was made of old beer crates. That was from a theatre company Monster Truck from Essen, Germany, who I'm not sure are still making work. But if this is anything like that I'll be transfixed. No language in the show so I'm expecting it to be a piece of performance art that has power beyond words.

Time Wise: the products of passion

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Wed, 24 Aug 2016 15:32:00 +0000

In a previous post, Time Wise I described how a group of students here at ISB had set up their own youtube channel publishing short films. Well their passion has not faded and now they have created a short film which has shown they are still dedicated to teaching themselves about the film-making artform.

The piece, titled Fragmented, is the product of a year's hard work for the group. They conceived the idea, wrote the script, set up a filming schedule, sourced equipment, scouted for locations, directed, acted and filmed all on their own time and steam.

The film is an outstanding display of what students can achieve if they are passionate and committed and I couldn't be more proud of the students for sticking to their vision even when there were many times when they were faced with many challenges along their process and nothing but their own goals to keep them from quitting. And it can now be added to their digital portfolios as an example of what they are capable of.

In the Middle School here at ISB we are about to embark on a new part of our program- a daily Personal Learning block, in which students will have an opportunity to pursue passion projects such as this. For all of us, it's a very exciting prospect because we know that students are itching to create, commence and cultivate (see Tasneem Amijee who has already worked on a passion project at ISB and the group of grade 4's who ran their own theatre production here).

Once again, I'm proud of Sam Barnett, Ricky Maggioni and the other students involved in the film and I'm buzzing about seeing many more projects realised such as this from other ISB students in the future!

Artist Toolbox: Activities for your final class

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:02:00 +0000

It's the end of the year and your classes have been together for a whole bucket of time. They know each other well by now and all that rapport you built up among them in the early days has paid off. But it's coming to an end. Next year will be a new cohort, a new dynamic to build all over again.

So here's a nice little class to sum things up with a couple of simple activities. The first, I found on dramaresource.com and is an Augusto Boal exercise called There Is Only One Liar:

A psychological but fun group dynamics game from Augusto Boal. There should be no talking until the exercise is over. The group sits or stands in a circle and closes their eyes. The leader tells them that one person will be selected by a tap on the shoulder. The leader walks around the whole circle, then asks the group to open their eyes. The group members must look around and try to guess who was chosen. They are asked to remember who they decided upon but not to reveal it at this point.

The game is repeated. When everybody has finished looking round, the leader asks them, on the count of three, without talking, to point at the person they thought was chosen the first time. Everybody points. Now, they do the same again for the second time.

Afterwards, members are asked what it was that led them to choose a particular person, for example, the facial expression that person had. Then, on a signal, they are asked to put up their hands if they were touched the first time. They discover that no one was touched the first time. They are asked to do the same for the second time. The group discover that they were all touched the second time. There is only one liar – the workshop leader!

It's a great activity for challenging assumptions, even (or especially) after a year of working together.

Following this, give each student two small pieces of paper. Ask them to write a fact about themselves on each piece. The facts could be things they think many classmates would know, or something they'd be less aware of. Fold the paper, stick it in a bowl and then one-by-one the leader reads out facts. The class must then vote for who they think the fact is about by pointing their finger. If the fact is about you then you can bluff by pointing elsewhere. Anyone who gets it right is awarded a point, which they keep track of by counting on their fingers.

It tests students' knowledge of each other and reminds them that there is much they still don't know. It's both a way to summarise the year and teach them a valuable lesson. In your last few lessons before the holiday, why not give this a try?!

Performance is...

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 16:02:00 +0000

Performance is powerful.

Performance is engaged in current issues.

Performance is thought-provoking.

Performance is brave.

Performance is about us and our place in the world.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post titled Theatre is not..., in which I discussed a poetry-slam project that some of my students were working on. Those poems have now been slammed and the results are awesome. Here are some of the poems that came out of it-

This is brave, passionate, thought-provoking Performance at its best.

Embodying the spirit of our school

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 20:11:00 +0000

Without doubt, ISB has a fantastic culture within its grounds. Throughout the year there are hundreds of events organised which are exciting, creative, thoughtful, generous and educational. But fewer of those events are organised only by students.

Today, I was honoured to be part of an event conceived, organised and run entirely by six Grade 4 students. This group of girls were inspired to create a production of Peter Pan which they wanted to present to their classmates during a future lunchtime. A lofty goal perhaps, one which may not ever reach fruition and just disappear with the lure of playtime...?

Me with the cast of Peter Pan! Such talented young ladies!!

...Not for these six! Independently, they collaboratively wrote a script (online using google docs in the evenings: see image below), learned the lines for multiple characters, used their lunchtimes and weekends to rehearse, promoted the show, sold tickets and popcorn and then performed in front of a full audience of 4th and 3rd graders.

The group's google doc in which they collaboratively wrote the script, complete with casting, stage directions and props list

They demonstrated all of the skills that we at ISB are hoping to teach them- collaboration, using digital tools, presentation skills, initiative, drive, creativity and an awareness of their ability to make change. Did I mention that they did all of this to raise money for charity??!!! In their Grade 4 classes at the moment, they are learning about access to clean water in third-world countries, so they took this opportunity to take the money from their tickets and popcorn sales to give towards a charity drive for a latrine.

As a teacher, it is times like this that keep you energised; seeing students assimilating learning into their own independent projects. I was delighted to be able to be able to witness the students deliver on their promise of this project. I also know that Mrs Diamant, one of the Grade 4 teachers, felt the same. After the show she said her eyes had been welling up as she sat in the audience. We both know we're privileged to teach students like these.

Carolina, Danae, Emilie, Tanya, Satsuki and Emily have made their parents, their teachers and ISB very proud today. They have demonstrated that with an idea, commitment and teamwork they can do anything they set their minds to. Like Peter Pan has always known, with just a simple thought in your mind... you can fly!!!

Leaps Of Learning: A Living Art Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 15:30:00 +0000

A major leap of learning came for me in my first ever class at university; learning which has guided me ever since. It was my opening day studying Contemporary Theatre and Performance at Manchester Metropolitan University and perhaps the teacher thought it would be just a good class for starting off the course, yet the simple premise on which it was based has become a cornerstone in my understanding of drama, art and of life.

Our teacher presented a clear and simple task to the class- to go for a walk along a re-purposed canal path and to make some basic installations using just our bodies and some empty photo frames. For the first half of the session we walked along a mile section of the path, working in groups to select locations to make 'paintings' out of. Using the backgrounds of trees, fields, streams and bankings, we made little vignettes of a range of stories and images (things like Romeo & Juliet, The Creation Of Adam, a baby in the womb, a western shootout, etc) then held up the photo frame for the audience to view the picture through. For the second half, we walked back along the route, showing and viewing the images we had all created, as if moving through an art gallery filled with living paintings.

The Salt Line in Cheshire, UK

The ISB MS production of FRAMED in 2014, a devised piece in which we used empty

picture frames as part of the performance.

All the time we were getting to know one another, tentatively testing out ideas and discovering the different personalities in the group. Apart from being a great way for our class to break the ice and begin building an ensemble, it taught me one of my most important lessons as an artist- that everyone and everything contains multitudes.

Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself,(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

-Walt Whitman

A tree can be a plant but also a compilation or bark, wood, sap, leaves. It can be a mix of geometric shapes, a source of food, a habitat, a playground, a network of atoms. In the context of an audience's gaze it can be a Greek pillar, a wall to hide behind, a seat, its branches the cradling arms of a mother, its trunk the stoic body of a shunned lover.

At the heart of all beauty lies something inhuman, and these hills, the softness of the sky, the outline of these trees at this very minute lose the illusory meaning with which we had clothed them, henceforth more remote than a lost paradise . . .

-Albert Camus

There is a multiplicity to the world and everything in it beyond the 'illusory meanings' which we give. Up until that point, my sense of this had been vague. I knew from my science lessons that at the same time as I was Carl- a person, I was also a human made of organs, blood, bone, but I was also a collection of cells, a network of atoms.

I am now more capable of seeing things through many different lenses, when I'm making art but also in life generally. On a most basic level to see something's form as well as its content, then after that it's possible to notice many other levels of semantics.

I wonder if that teacher knows of the impact her lesson had, far beyond helping me to get to know the colleagues on my course. I wonder if she expected that lesson to be recalled time and time again as I further my understanding of making art, of living.

As a teacher myself now, it's remembering leaps of learning like this that remind me it is not necessarily our 'important' classes, the ones in which we 'really get stuck into the material', that are the most impacting. Sometimes a simple task, presented in a gentle, easy-going way, can have a huge impact on a student's learning.

Theatre is not...

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 08:30:00 +0000

After reading the January 2016 edition (Provocative Theatre) of Scene, a monthly Journal from ISTA, I was reminded of my slightly more 'anarchic' days as a student and contemporary theatre maker, in particular by the words from Jess Thorpe in her contribution These bridges, these walls. Discussing the value of arts practice in the context of a prison, she reminds us that
"Theatre is not just about entertainment - although it is important to find enjoyment in it.
Theatre is not about showing-off - it takes a brave person to stand up in front of others.
Theatre is not a soft option - it requires a huge amount of hard work to create something authentic.
Theatre is not a treat - from the beginning of time humans have used creativity to respond to the world around them and to reflect their experiences. It is part of who we are."

When I reflect on the role of drama here at ISB, in a school community that is by most comparisons incredibly privileged, I am always asking myself 'What impact can art have on these students' lives?' and in turn 'How can these students have an impact through art on their community and the world in general?'

I feel very lucky as a teacher, to be given the freedom and respect to choose the content of my course and also have the flexibility to make plans based of the particular interests and requirements of each group. But I also feel a responsibility to these principles of theatre/art/performance/whatever, that the things we create to be shared with the world should have other values than just entertainment.

Myself, back when I was a high-schooler devising a piece called Charity with my local youth theatre; as a student learning about the Performance Art of Marina Abramovich, Ron Athey, Stelarc and others; studying Sarah Kane, Moisés Kaufman, Pina Bausch, Goat Island; and as a theatre-maker with our company Trace Theatre, I wore the mantra of 'changing the world through art' on my sleeve. I turned my back on all forms of theatre that were escapist, masturbatory, money-grabbing or any other derogatory definition I would give and became passionate only about performance that was socially and politically engaged.

A little older and little more experienced I have since broadened my terms of validity in the art world, but I still long to see and make work that has impact. Now, I have a responsibility to make work with my students that is engaging and catches the student's attention for longer than a single 40-minute block. At the same time, it is our duty as conscientious citizens of our community (/communities) to make art that is not just for entertainment
is not stagnant or stifled
is not pretentious or entitled
is empowering, determined, passionate, considerate
is aware of and designed for the wider communities than just the drama classroom

In one of my classes right now, we are working on writing and performing Slam Poetry. It's not traditionally something you might encounter in a Drama class (but is more likely to appear in a class entitled Performance Works) and at first students were hesitant to jump into the topic. Can't we do a script? Can't we play more games? Poetry, seriously? - were some of the initial reactions to the idea. Yet, after a class chatting openly about what the students are passionate about, what angers them, what they would change in the world, etc, they eventually all warmed up to the idea.

We began the project by writing down their thoughts ('the writing's on the wall' in this case). I felt that the students were not just paying lip-service for an assessment criteria or other such nonsense, with the contributions they made to the conversation. They were genuinely passionate about the topics they suggested, as well as being reasonably well-informed about the initial arguments they might have on such subjects.

The poems the students are creating are powerful, brave, passionate and thought-provoking. Our plan is to film the Slams and share them with as many people as we can, because we believe that their work is important and should be heard.

For the rebellious, often idealistic, mind of a teenager the thought of changing the world is not inconceivable. It is only older, with more defeats under our belts, perhaps, that many of us become more weary, more cynical.

Reading this edition of Scene and working with my students has shaken me up again, filled my energy tank with some fuel and once over reminded me of the power of art and performance.

As educators, if we can help students find their voices they will show us that are not afraid to use them; for making noise, for disrupting the peace, for speaking out.

We should look more to the passion and energy of the young. We should remind ourselves that art is not disappearing, it is not insignificant and neither are we.

Making + Sharing

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 17:13:00 +0000

HS and MS students collaborating on a devising project with Action Hero

Of course, Making is central to a Performance course. Long gone are the sterile times of Theatre Studies, where a script is poured over again and again by students, to divine some great meaning from it. Furthermore, I'm an advocate for the messy exploration and discovery of Devising. The best drama classes bring Making to the fore-front, pushing ahead of the passive, reproductive presentation of ancient texts. Students are not practicing being actors (with a single mindset of one day going into the acting profession) but performance-makers and self-expressors, tasked with creating all aspects of the rehearsal/production process.

In answer to the questions posed by Ashley Bayles and Ben Doxdator's post But is it making?, in my pedagogy I highly value lots of the elements of the chart, some on both sides. As Will Vreugdenhil pointed out in Making PE Better there are skills and techniques to be learnt from teacher-led instruction and student reproduction, the same is true for Performance class.

Gemma Paintin from Action Hero devising with ISB students

It's hard to pick a single element out and raise it higher than the rest; so many are intertwined. However, if you were to hold a keyboard (or a gun) to my head, I'd be forced to pick 'Learning with head, heart & hands equally valued'. The head has to combine all the generated material that the heart has dreamed of then the body has created.This principle is core to Performance, and Art in general and encapsulates many of the key-skills that I think are improved by studying the subject.

Art involves the mind, the body and the soul, in both the creation and reception of it.

As we strive to move more towards the right side of this chart I look forward to the idea of Making bouncing around between more people's ears. But at the same time as we concentrate on Making, here at ISB and elsewhere, we are shifting much more into Making + Sharing. There will be times when our work remains personal and private, but increasingly we are asking our students to share their work online, to broadcast, perform and present in digital and physical spaces.

I am excited for Performance (performing in all it's forms including broadcasting and public speaking) to become even more embedded across all aspects of education, not just in the drama classroom. For us as teachers, its an opportunity to combine our understandings of Maker, Performer, Audience and Format as we blend disciplines and subjects together into a vision of education which more closely resembles real life.

The beautiful chaos of making performance

21st Century Skills From Devising

noreply@blogger.com (CarlERobinson) — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 08:30:00 +0000

Drama matters, now as much as ever, and devising is a particularly important and powerful part of the subject. In a recent post, my colleague Alan and I talked about why Drama = Life and here I want to expand on how devising supports this. If you're not sure what devising is, or want to her some of my take on it, then I have a blog post on it here: Devising: My Favourite Definitions.

This is also in response to the blog post 21st Century Skills In The Drama Classroom
written by Lindsay Price on the fantastic Theatrefolk blog.

The Four E's

Exploration

Pic: Frantic Assembly- Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime
(words by me)

Without the relative safety of a script guiding the rehearsal process, students find themselves exploring the realms of uncertainty. Devising provides us an opportunity to develop ideas without a predefined understanding of the final performance. We can discover surprising, new ideas and themes as we go, enjoying the ever-shifting nature of the process.

There is no script for life. Unexpected events happen all the time and having a positive, open-minded approach to the unknown is important to develop.

Egality

Pic: Forced Entertainment- The Last Adventures
(words by me)

With the strict roles of playwright/director/actor/crew and their associated hierarchies becoming challenged more and more in the performing arts, we find ourselves in a field were many people can be many things. Dancers make the costumes and have an influence over the content of their work. Performers have written their own scripts and created the video trailers to promote their shows.

The best devising promotes collaboration in a more egalitarian hierarchies. By using the right strategies and methodologies , everyone involved can have an influence on the process, production and performance of their work.

Expression

Pic: Tanztheater Wuppertal - Vollmond
(words by me)

Performance has always been about self-expression but devising puts it at the heart of the creative process; importantly, for everyone not just the writer and director. Devising harnesses the makers personal stories, thoughts, skills and ideas and embeds them into the art.

Experimentation

Pic: Cupola Bobber- The Field, The Mantel
(words by me)

Without a script acting as road-map, without a single vision from a director, and with a wealth of stories and ideas to rub together, experimentation is the engine through which sparks of inspiration are developed into final material. Innovators are supported by their other collaborators, who are in turn innovating themselves. Together they can dabble or dive into all manner of disciplines, styles and techniques during the course of any given process.

If Performance is the body of the theatrical art forms, then for me devising is its soul. It has been the method by which many great contemporary performance companies have made their work. Personally, it forms the core of both my artistic and teaching practices and continues to accompany me through my life.