Week 1

Applied Theater Blog: October 7th 2011

Today was our first meeting with Fiona.  It is strange having such a small class.  The only students are Kaley and myself.  We worked in a studio on the ground floor of the white building.  Fiona first went through a warm up with us which I did not expect.  We used a Thai Chi movement which served as what I believe is a metaphor for the work we will be doing in class.  We were in dragon stance.  That is one foot in front, the other behind and turned out with the front knee bent.  She asked us to imagine that we had a bag of sand resting in our stomach with two holes in it.  When we shifted our weight to either leg (Into dragon or duck stance) we were to imagine the sand flowing into that leg.  We then added and arm movement where we used our right arm to create a circle.  Fiona asked us to imagine that our elbow and our knee was connected by a string.  With our eyes on our finger tips we circled our arm around and around.  The energy was supposed to be about give and take.  Since we will be working with other people in this module it is important for us to understand give and take and to keep them in balance.  We then did several exercises.  A few of these I have done in school as a way of breaking the ice with new people.  The first we did was two truths and a lie.  You say two pieces of information about yourself that are true and one that is a lie.  Then the others in the group have to guess which one is the lie.  Then next exercise we did was one where we stood in a line and each of us would say a statement about ourselves.  For example I would step out of the line and say, “I like scary movies”  If anyone else liked scary movies they would step out of line with me and then we would both move back.  This exercise was meant to find common ground with others and build foundations of familiarity.  However if the topics turned more serious, for example, “I don’t know who my father is.” and you were the only one standing out of line, it could make one feel more isolated and alone.  The third exercise we did was a movement exercise.  We came up with individual physical images of the words closed and open.  Once we came up with our images we would pair up and work these movements at the same time.  Thus a silent narrative came out of our movements.  We also had to encounter each others movements as well as focusing on the way our own bodies were moving.  I think Fiona shared these exercises with us to give us examples of things we could do in our volunteer work to start build a foundation of trust and familiarity with the people whom we will be working and interacting with.  We then talked about what we are planning to do for the term.  We will be working in a prison for one or two days, and we will be doing workshops in med theater.  For our final term project our presentation will be about who we are as an artist.  In thinking about that right now I don’t fully know who I am as an artist and in a way I don’t think that is a bad thing.  I would liken myself to something like a seed pod or something in a youthful growth stage that is adaptable, limited, and hopeful.  I want to be able to do something interactive with my presentation as I think that would be much more engaging that just a powerpoint.  We ended the class by making a little book out of construction paper that will just be something for us to doodle, write, and create in if we wish.  Fiona also suggested that we record what happens in these classes and our excursions as it will be beneficial to us in the long run.  It will be something to reflect upon later.  So this blog is the beginning of that.