So you Want to Be a Physical Theatre Performer? A lecture in 7 freeze frames.
Pilar Orti
So You Want to be a Physical Theatre Performer?
by Pilar Orti
Copyright Pilar Orti 2011Pilar Orti is hereby identified as the author of this text in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ISBN 978-1-4580-0326-3
However, if you are a student or teacher and wish to use this material in class, please feel free to do so.
So You Want to be a Physical Theatre Performer is also included in the e-books and paperbacks Five Plays to Play With and Your Handy Companion to Devising and Physical Theatre. For more information, visit https://devisingandphysicaltheatre.com or go to the last section of this e-book, About the Author.
CONTENTS
So You Want to be a Physical Theatre Performer? A lecture in 7 freeze frames.
Notes to the lecture – using the lecture to teach devising and physical theatre.
Afterword.
About the Author.
So You Want to be a Physical Theatre Performer?
A lecture in seven freeze frames by Professor Phillipe Hoffmanonsky, from the LeyCoke Institute of Bodily Mimed Expressive Arts
Written by Pilar Orti
PROFESSOR
Good evening, and welcome to the first series of lectures delivered by Forbidden Theatre Company. Here to help me, are my visual aids, students of the LeyCoke Institute of Bodily Mimed Expressive Arts.
(The students remain motionless, expressionless, the extraordinary representation of NEUTRAL.)
PROFESSOR
This programme of BODILY lectures has been DEVISED in order to further our education Programme. Tonight’s PIECE addresses the question: why do so many young people in our current society want to be physical theatre performers?
It is important, first of all, to look at the origins of British physical theatre. How this complicated yet emotive art form came to be. Being an horticultural society, it was only a matter of time before this branch of theatre prominent in Europe planted its first seeds in our country.
(Of course during this, the students “become” a tree, growing.)
PROFESSOR
And now it is time to ask: what qualities should one look for in the physical theatre performer? The most important thing to remember is: that although there IS an “I” in Physical Theatre, (one in its written form, two in its spoken form, I being the “EE” in PHY and the “I” in SICAL, and of course there is another EE in THEatre, although this one is only spoken, not written) although there is an “I” in physical theatre, there is no “I” in ensemble, if not, it would be insimbil, or eenseembeel.
The physical theatre performer has no ego, he, or she, must give themselves entirely to his or her craft. Black rehearsal clothes are imperative, to form a true ensemble, where the whole is larger than the sum of its parts. Which neatly leads us to the Chorus.
(The students clump together, like a Greek chorus.)
PROFESSOR
Ah, the Chorus. It reacts, (the students act surprised) it moves as one (the students move forward together, as one) and yet, if you watch carefully, you can still see the individual characters coming through (the students take on individual characters, waving at the audience.)
PROFESSOR
The physical theatre performer uses his body as his tool to create Character. The physical theatre performer does not waste his time thinking of the emotional makeup for their new persona. What’s more important is how they move: how they walk, how they look, how they scratch their nose. All this allows for instant communication with the audience about the character’s state of mind. There is no need therefore to find your character’s “motivation” as long as you know its “movilization”.
This question of a character’s movement leads us neatly, (unusual for a physical theatre piece for there is very rarely a linear narrative and nothing leads neatly from one thing to another) to Running.
(The students run, on the spot of course, in true physical theatre style. They change their actions as the Professor mentions them.)
PROFESSOR
The physical theatre performer must be Oh-so-fit! They need to run, and jump, walk in different manners, run, and run and run, fall on the floor, bash themselves against the wall, hit themselves…..
And they need to be able to do this at varying speeds.
(The students move in slow motion.)
PROFESSOR
Slow motion is a very important part of physical theatre. It serves to highlight those important moments which you want the audience to remember. It is a very useful device used by those who are, indeed, devising – unfortunately in this day and age, audiences expect a theatre event to be a certain length. Slow motion can be very handy when a company runs out of creative juices and need to, as it were, flesh up the show.
Then there is The Clown. But of course, Clowns are not part of proper physical theatre.
It is very important, in order to attract a young audience, that at some point in a physical theatre piece, the performers do, “a little dance”, to a well-known contemporary track. In order to do this at your own will, and for no apparent reason, the description of your show has to have the word “surreal” in it. Or, should you want to explain to your audience the reason for it happening (which, I would like to reiterate is not always compulsory when working within this genre) I suggest, you say, it was “A DREAM”( mouthed)…
ENSEMBLE
A dream… a dream… a dream…. (whispering and echoing, while moving around the space, in darkness.)
PROFESSOR
Thank you. Repetition, Stylised language, especially delivered in a violent manner, is an integral part of physical theatre. To illustrate this, my students have prepared their own adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s Bloody Wedding.
GROOM
Mother
(Ensemble as Echo: Mother mother mother.)
MOTHER (obviously symbolising death)
Yes?
GROOM
I’m going.
(Echo: Where? Where? Where?)
GROOM
To the vineyard.
(Shock from chorus.)
MOTHER (under her breath, to the chorus)
Not yet….
GROOM
Give me the knife.
(Shock from Chorus. Chorus break out into "The Knife" (different poses).)
(They all freeze and a slow motion sequence follows where people kill each other and love each other in many different ways.)
BRIDE
There was no moon the night the poet died.
CHORUS
The moon….. DEATH!
(One of the students comes in, holding a lit lamp.)
GROOM
Mother.
I’m going.
To the vineyard.
Give me the knife.
(GASP from the Chorus and THE END.)
PROFESSOR
As you can see, the economy of language means that the author’s ideas are conveyed in the most pungent manner, hitting the audience in their gut, before they have time to process what they are watching or hearing.
So, not to lose the purpose of this lecture. Why do so many young actors want to go into Physical Theatre? It is not a medium to further a showbiz career. Indeed I always ask my students to leave their ego outside the rehearsal room. The ego lingers around, tries to creep in, but never manages to make it back into the performer’s body. Every time you work with a new ensemble, there is a need to develop a new physical language – company members must make sure they are talking t
he same talk, walking the same walk, miming the same wall. Or indeed, becoming the same wall.
If what you are interested in is developing emotional characters, with deep lives and lots of lines of text, physical theatre is not for you. Indeed, often you will find yourself becoming some inanimate object – your character, will not even have a name. Just “chair” or “section of wall number 1”. Physical theatre performers will become large objects, like, a wall….
(The students become a wall and follow the Professor’s list.)
PROFESSOR
Or a river, or an ocean….
Or a forest, which can engulf some poor passer by….
But they can also become smaller objects, like chairs, sofas, tables…
(As they become the different objects, the students start fighting, in slow motion of course, and making the accompanying sound effects.)
PROFESSOR
Hey, please, we have a lecture here to finish. Come on! Focus! Focus! Discipline!
(One of the students punches him, music kicks in. as the different students fall on the floor, the lights start dimming, until only the light from the lamp used by “The Moon” earlier is left.)
BLACKOUT
THE END
NOTES to 'So You Want to Be a Physical Theatre Performer?'
Even though this piece is a satire, it can be used as an introduction to the devising process. Students might not be used to working together on their own for long periods and this exercise can help them to identify some of the difficulties they might encounter once they start working together without a teacher to supervise them.
If you have a small group, you can give them the lecture and ask them to stage it. With larger groups, they can work on different sections or they can all work on the text in different ways.
The students can address the following questions before or after they have played with the text. As with all exercises, it’s important to analyse what worked and what didn’t, raising the students’ self-awareness about their own preferences. Here are some questions you might want to ask:
- Before they start working on the piece, how will they decide who does what?
- How will they make sure that everyone feels like they’re involved in the process and in the play?
- How will they make the transitions from one part of the lecture to the other?
- How can they work as a chorus but also make sure that their characters are well defined?
- How bold can their choices be in a defining their character’s physicality?
- Is it important that the text is spoken by one person or can different actors take the role of the Professor? How will this work, how will the changes be smooth?
- Is music suitable? What about sound? Or maybe we don’t need a soundtrack at all?
- How much does the chorus need to demonstrate and how much can we rely on the audience just listening to the Professor’s words?
Elements of Physical Theatre
The following elements of physical theatre have been incorporate in this lecture. You can use the text to introduce the students to them or to remind them of the range of devices (beyond those presented here!).
The Ensemble.
The ensemble is the group of actors in a piece, all of which have parts of more or less equal importance. While in Musical Theatre the ensemble is usually the chorus, in Physical Theatre, the ensemble tends to refer to the full cast.
There is emphasis on "ensemble work" during physical theatre, as importance is placed on the whole piece rather than individual stars or roles. This is of particular relevance if chorus work or configuration mime is used, as you will see later on in the lecture. A piece has an "ensemble feel" to it if all the actors seem to be working well together and being generous to each other.
The Chorus.
The Chorus is a group of people who move and/or speak as one or as if they were one entity. In some pieces of physical theatre you might to see clumps of people moving together. The difference between a chorus and an ensemble, is that the actors in an ensemble can work independently of each other and have character parts. For example, the actors playing Romeo and Juliet can be part of an ensemble. (If well directed, even plays with "lead roles" can have an ensemble feel.) Some of the cast from Romeo and Juliet (or all of them) will form the Chorus at the beginning of the play, an entity speaking the prologue.
The Clown.
The physical theatre clown is different to that of the circus clown. Sometimes they wear a red nose but this is not necessary.
The physical theatre clown is a character who wants to please everyone (the audience, mainly) and will go to lengths to do so. "Can you lift that wardrobe?" "Yes!" or "I've heard that you are really good at banging your head on the wall, will you show me?" "Yes!"
As you have gathered, the clown first says "Yes!", whether they should or not and then performs the action.
If they hear you laugh, they will do it again… and again… and again, for your pleasure.
The clown also moves and thinks with the Yes/No rhythm. They are never sure of where they are going. So they will always be late, always get on the wrong bus, end up in the wrong town… Yes, there are many people in real life who are natural clowns.
Surrealism.
Physical theatre performers will use the body in ways that you wouldn't observe in real life. That's the beauty of it, you can go beyond realism.
Federico Garcia Lorca's 'Blood Wedding'
(Of course the real title of this play is 'Blood Wedding', you wouldn't expect the Professor to get it right.)
The poetry and style of this play allow it to be adapted for physical theatre. As it is, it has some wonderful scenes in Act 3 with characters such as the Moon and Death and a Chorus of Woodcutters. This is a good reminder that there are many ways of delivering dialogue and it doesn’t need to follow conventional speech.
If you don't mind not being precious with the play, you can also include other chorus scenes to highlight the tragic undertone throughout.
Configuration Mime.
As opposed to the more popular object mime, when someone pretends to use an object that is not there, or stuck behind an imaginary wall, configuration mime involves performers taking on the "role" of an object or part of an object. For example, as in the lecture, all performers can pretend to be the wall (as opposed to miming it). My favourite example is The Haunted House, where performers pretend to be all kinds of objects and furniture in a haunted house: a rug, a chair whose arms strangle you, a lamp etc.
