Evaluation

Our opening was really strong and I felt as a group we adapted really well to the audience size and the movement of the L shapes to lock them all in. There wasn't too much fuss either times if something went wrong or not to plan in the formation of the L's, we all managed to play it out and keep the piece moving. This meant that our piece was off to positive start and I feel this really helped keep everyone going and motivated to follow the positive vibes through. One particular area I feel everyone improved on from rehearsal was staying in the moment - I felt that that every member of the cast in all three performances were completely committed to simply working in that moment. We had struggled with this in rehearsals as many people would come out of the moment or not commit enough energy into their actions but I felt it was apparent in the final shows as it ran so smoothly and seamless due to everyone being so dedicated.

One of the strongest aspects of our piece I feel is how we all kept up the energy throughout the entire performance. This is the first performance I have done this year that I feel the entire cast put their all in the entire show. This was also one of my personal strengths as I personally did not drop in energy in my performances in any of the 3 shows and was utterly exhausted once we finished - but, that's how I knew we did extremely good work. In particular I feel we carried out emotional riffing extremely well each time, no member of the cat falling flat. This was also apparent in the exercises in which we had to interact with different audience members; blowing on the hands and telling them our childhood stories. I feel that a large percentage of the cast completely committed and gave it their all to keep the piece alive and flowing as it definitely would've fallen flat if one member or so had not put as much effort in. I felt the points of interaction were extremely effective as we were able to completely involve and confront audience members, completely affecting them and engaging them into the piece directly. On a personal note, I was dreading these points in the piece due to the audiences reactions - however, I found that I was completely focused on being in the moment and getting my message across and that no matter how the different audience members reacted, I kept on track and fully committed to the piece and to the art I was creating.

One of the aspects I really liked Sarah's group was the use of multi-media. I feel it worked extremely well with the way they were experimenting with it and it provided a creative and unique experience for audience members to take part it. They completely plunged the audience into a world of darkness and sound to effectively send their messages across; it done in an almost humorous yet light hearted way, that left me as an audience member left feeling both touched and inspired. This contrasted vastly against Simon's piece which took a more direct approach to experimental theatre. Their use of scarves covering the faces was extremely interesting as it completely took the identity away from each actor, allowing them to simply be experimental bodies and actors in the moment. They combined movements and spoken word to create a world that left the audience both entertained and informed. I really liked the use of ensemble in both group pieces, every single person had something to carry out - no actor had a more prominent role than another. Without one member, the whole piece wouldn't work and would carry less effect therefore leave less impact. I thoroughly enjoyed both pieces and found it extremely interesting to observe how different every director approached the experimental term.

One of the weaker aspects of the performance was that we did tend to shift the action down stage so that the audience were only watching from one side. However, I did personally try to bring the action over to the other; for example in emotional riffing when everyone was in a huge clump on one side of the stage, I would deliberately try to pull it over to the opposite side. I didn't want any members of the audience left unaffected or uninterested due to not being able to see, so this was an attempt to keep them all engaged and involved. I feel I was partly successful in this as other people in our group did also follow over to the other side which meant we were able to bring some action over to where it was lacking, however, it also made it harder to follow the different changes in emotions throughout the emotional riffing making it more of a challenge to take part in and fully commit to.

I felt my group piece with Chem and Georgia went particularly well on all three occasions. All three of us put a lot of effort into making our piece come alive and making sure our message got across and I feel we achieved that successfully. One of the weaker aspects was when Chem lost his pen on multiple occasions, however, he managed to play it out by carrying on chanting as if that was just part of our plan. It didn't throw any of us off and kept our message going on a continuous loop. We also managed to successfully adapt to the lack of paper we had taken out to the actual performance - instead of writing each statement separately on one piece each, we worked it out so we repeated it on the same page then turned it over when we changed. Not only did this mean we used less paper and was slightly more environmentally friendly but it also showed how we were able to morph our ideas to fit the performance space and adapt to our problems effectively and efficiently so that the audience did not catch on. One of our strongest aspects was our use of vocals - our use of chanting the same thing over and over again was supposed to echo the mechanics of machinery and conforming to rules; I feel this was captured as we all managed to keep in time together, meaning no impact was lost due to mis-spoken words or out of time chanting. I also felt when we turned on the audience and spoke directly at them was particularly strong as we involved them directly into the piece rather than letting them simply spectate and view, we wanted them to confront their own lives and views about society and I feel that was achieved. If we had time to improve, I feel I would've liked to explore using different multi-media within our piece as we were originally going to use a projection displayed behind us, however, we felt it would have been too much hassle to sort out and adapted our piece to fit without it.

One of the biggest strengths of our piece was definitely the ending. By ending our piece using botoh and "chasing a rabbit", I feel we effectively used two completely contrasting exercises to display a really important message. Botoh is extremely calming and demands a lot of energy to produce the correct sound, it leaves me feeling free and disentangled from everything else going on - allowing me to completely focus on my breathing and producing the sounds. I also felt focusing on the idea that it was representing the atomic bombs dropped on Japan really allowed us as a cast, and myself personally, to carry it out as effectively and honestly as possible. Though its an extremely challenge task, I believe we were really able to portray the horror of that situation through an extremely subtle exercise, yet it was able to hold so much meaning behind every movement and sound that we made. Our botoh exercise contrasted really effectively with the franticness and desperation of the chasing rabbits exercise. We were really able to end the piece on the note of how desperate and worthless humans can cause others to be and feel like; how our impact on other's lives could cause them to completely transform into an animalistic state and mindset. We treat each other like animals, rather than equals. This was shown completely through both the displaying of the Japanese atomic bombs through the botoh as well as the complete dehumanization of people during the rabbit exercise. We were able to tie up our piece effectively and thought provokingly in such a way that, I felt, left the audience questioning society, our views and the human race on a whole.

Overall, I am so unbelievably happy how our piece turned out. It was so liberating and freeing to completely allow my body to experiment with different movements and techniques that I hadn't necessarily explored in great depth beforehand. I have thoroughly enjoyed this term and being able to completely let go and experiment in everything I did. I will definitely transfer the skills and knowledge I have gained throughout these last two months into my future acting development and career.

180 Push/Hold & Female Monologues

This exercise offers a lot of beginnings for development and improvisation. Though it's extremely straight forward, the different layers added throughout the exercise - turning 180, pushing/being pushed and push hold/being pushed and held - allows different details to be added and begin to develop narrative, much like we did in the development of the performance of how we gave it the context of being in a concentration camp.

The action of pushing each other, really helps present the brutality we as race inflict on one another. We are exactly the same. We are all humans, yet some treat others like dirt. I really like exploring this as I personally don't think it's confronted enough in great detail, only merely looked upon. It also feels extremely realistic that trapped in those camps would fall to that level of desperation to survive, it's one man for themselves. I feel the action of holding someone down as you push them to the floor, really explores how those at the top control their power and status. They hold and push down those below them right to the very bottom to make sure they maintain their position.

This exercise allows me as a performer to explore different aspects of human life I haven't necessarily touched on enough through acting and theatre - it also allows me to do it in a really experimental and liberating way that just lets me and my classmates just be bodies in the moment. When the whole class completely gives themselves over to the truth of the situation we are trying to present, this exercise and section of our show, can be extremely powerful.

When we turns the exercise on it's head and give the females the power, we explore not only female empowerment but also the stories of all the men locked in Guantanamo Bay. This is done in such a all-inclusive way that all the men's stories that the boys tell can all be presented through the simple 180 push/hold exercise. They were all pushed and remain held down. I find this really interesting as it shows how you can explore so many different stories and ideas and capture the right dept and meaning through one simple action and exercise instead of having to completely act out them all in great detail.

Now look, see how they're dreaming. 

The black rectories while the children dream, 

Don't go so deep in slumber, 

Where you'll shy, 

Know your wondering sleep, 

Don't you fly too far away. 

Oh look, your wings are broken. 

A wide blue sky is very near. 

Soon, soon, soon, soon, soon. 

Now sleep, close your eyes, 

and have no fear. 

A wide blue sky is very near. 

I feel this poem presents exactly the emotions and mood that we as performers should be trying to portray after the piling dead bodies section. It carries a sense of sympathy throughout the text through the delicate language, such as "shy" and "dreaming". But, I feel it is also laced with a darker, more sinister side. As we are exploring a harrowing situation, yet we carry it with such a sense of familiarity - we have seen so much death that it doesn't effect us anymore, I feel like a poem that gives off both a dark and a light sense fits it perfectly. This poem also dehumanises the people we are saying it to, "your wings" completely transforms them into animals rather than human, as well as touching on the point that the wings could possibly also portray their freedom/life (or lack of it). 

Group Piece with Georgia and Chem

We decided to use Cao Fei's "Whose Utopia?" as our stimulus point for our group piece. We want to explore the institution's system and how that effects us as a person - should we chose to follow the rules put in by those in charge to follow? or should we chose to follow our own decisions? We want to incorporate all three parts of the video, the mechanism from the first part, the expressive creativity in the second part and the statement from the last. By incorporating mechanical and in-sync actions, we are showing the rules and the system we fall into as members of this society - we are taught to conform.

We're going to show this through using paper and writing lines of "I will follow". We chose to use paper in our piece as paper is a root that creativity can grow from; paintings, stories, poetry and plays are all birthed from being written down and recorded, so we are contrasting that creativity with the systematic line writing. We are then going to confront the decision of choosing to not follow the rules and let the creativity flow - this is going to be shown through ripping up the paper and writing "I will not follow". This is to show a break in the system, the creativity behind the machines; echoing the second part in Cao Fei's video. Our aim is to move at the exact same time to truly echo the machinery in the first part by using in-sync movements.

Creating a Story From Images

 In a group of myself, Georgia and Chem, we chose 5 extremely different images and were given the task at creating a story from them. Instead of going down the route of looking at them in great detail and developing a story from perhaps the more creative aspects of each photo, we went with taking each photo as we first interpreted them and came up with quite a comical tale.

Starting with the first photo of the old woman, we paired her up with the second photo of the fox and decided that she was cunning and sly - like a fox. We decided to show this literally on the photo by cutting out two eye holes in the page - as if someone was going to use it as a disguise when the spied on someone. We then moved onto the third photo, the old man walking down the street and paired it with the photo of the dice. This was developed into the old man being the previous woman's husband who had recently obtained a gambling problem (shown through the dice) and she was spying on him as she believed he was having an affair (he was, but with their money). We then concluded it with the last photo of the different pairs of scissors which we crumpled and ripped the paper of to portray that when the woman found out, she finished their relationship and cut him out of her life. 

Though we took the exercise and developed it into a more comical and less intellectual light - it was really interesting to hear other group's stories and how they linked up their images. It was quite surprising what different things people took from all the images and how many offers 5 simple images can give you as a basis to start a piece. I really enjoyed this exercise and it was also a nice starting point to start creating in my group - who I'd be working with for our little piece during our actual show. Using images was a really interesting way to start creating and finding the beginning of the piece and I will definitely use it in development for future projects. 

Butoh

When I first saw the video of the man performing Butoh back in physical theatre I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. However, after adding the layers to the soup exercise and exploring the vocie combined with movements - it became a lot more clear to me. The sound rides the movement and the movement rides the sound - both need to be held at 100% commitment otherwise the dance would fall completely flat. 

Though there's a lot less of a range of movements performed during Butoh, I believe it's just as expressive if not more, than the soup exercise. Neither the movement nor the sound dictate one another; the sound rides on the movements and the movements ride on the sound. I feel this made the exercise easier and more accessible as I was able to think of the sound and movements as on, rather than trying to perform them separately but at the same time. By grouping the movements and sound together, it was easier to stop my mind from interrupting what my body was producing as I could look at them as one thing and easily remained focused on my breathing. It was really interesting to see what my body was capable of when I didn't let my thoughts interrupt and I felt surprisingly confident in what I was creating, rather than worrying about the things around me. I was able to completely switch off and simply be a body making sound and movement in that moment, I was able to let go of everything else crowding my thoughts and just feel were my body took me. Like the soup exercise, centralising and focusing on my breathing definitely helped me succeed at letting my body go and leaving my anxieties behind as I found it much easier to just feel the movements as I focused on my in and out breathes. 

 

As we all came together in the center of the room, we were able to develop a group piece on the spot without any comment or instruction. Simply by all doing the same exercise, but carrying it out uniquely, we were able to create a huge barrier of movement combined with sound. Even though we were all in a group carrying out the same exercise, everyone had an extremely individual experience. It was extremely powerful to be part of and I feel that if we had taken time on developing our movements and being bold with the sounds we made, we would've been able to create a really effective piece of experimental theatre. 

Soup

By completely isolating movement in the first step, it really requires to work and focus on your breathing. I found the more I stopped thinking about the movement in my hand and the more I focused on centering my breathing - the easier the exercise became. Though it's slightly harder when you bring the movements into the rest of your body, beginning at the gentle level of movement really helped me become more confident and less held back in my movements, I was able to completely move freely without thinking about what other's in the room were doing or what they may think.

Then developing the exercise into communicating with your partner one at a time makes the exercise slightly easier as you have something to respond - you don't have to simply rely on your body to make movements without starting with an offer. However, this is also harder as you're working with another person so you're more than likely to begin to think about the movements and let your mind over take. I found stopping moving for a second and focusing on centralising my breathing really aided me throughout the exercise as I was able to remind myself to let go and stop thinking - focusing on my breathing really helped the exercise become easier and more natural.  

Moving onto contact came generally quite easy to me after all the work we have been doing on contact improvisation in Physical Theatre, however, letting go in the movements is still quite a feat. Though it was only simple contact, still one at a time, it helps ease you into the full responding to each other's movements at the next stage. Maintaining eye contact with my partner, Chloe, really helped us build the connection that we worked and created offers from. The connection was really important as it helped make our movements flow more naturally and intertwine creativity - without it, the whole exercise would be in vain.

Naturally, I was quite nervous at simply letting my body make noise without adding any movements whilst my partner observed - however, it came easier than expected. After I got past the initial hesitation, I found letting my mind leave the noises I was making and simply let go, quite easy to achieve. Then, when both of us began working together in making noises, it was really easy to let loose and just begin to respond to one another. I was a lot more confident than I expected which I definitely feel wouldn't have been achieved if we hadn't have eased into the exercise gently at first.

At the last stage, combining both the movements and the sound was surprisingly freeing. I was able to completely let go and let my body move and make noises the way it wanted to, without letting my mind get involved. It was easy to centeralise my breathing and commit to the exercise. Letting the noise happen whilst moving felt extremely natural as I didn't have to hold back in what my body was producing, I didn't have to conform to the normalities of movement and making sound.

By the end of the exercise, I genuinely think I was a little bit closer at reaching complete and honest truth in my movements, I didn't need to prove anything to anyone. That exercise could have been done in any place and at any time as it completely detaches you from all sense of time and the outside world. You completely unify your emotions with your physicality whilst trusting completely in your body and your own capabilities. I really enjoyed looking at all the levels of this exercise and building it up bit by bit, it really highlighted the layers and details the human body is capable at achieve. I feel I will definitely be using it in both development of roles and my theatrical future.

Untitled Painting - Michael Baldwin, 1965

This piece, though simplistic, I personally feel carries and offers many question towards those viewing it. Consisting of simply a mirror on a wall, this piece flips all the normalities of an art gallery on their head. The usual spectators of art are suddenly made the subject.The artist forces the viewers to confront themselves and completely go against the age old traditional ways.

I feel this piece really tunes in with identity and how one may be viewed as a piece of art. It also suggests ideas on how art and paintings may transcend reality as how us as viewers and the art we view become one. This piece has multiple starting points but I feel the obvious, turning the audience into the art, is the most prominent. From this piece you could develop a raft of theatrical pieces that involve and incorporate the audience - you could begin to break down the audience and actor relationship, bringing them in together as one.

Though many people would cynically look at the piece as someone simply placing a mirror on the wall and be done with it; I feel that's what inspired me the most. The piece is so simple and a mirror is such a common sight - yet it carries so many theatrical possibilities, so many starting points for an experimental piece of theatre. Starting with something so simple enables you to really experiment with your ideas and creativity, it offers you so many starting points that you could easily further develop into something extravagant.

Bill Viola - Tiny Deaths, 1993

When first walking into the screening room in which Viola's video was being shown, I didn't think much of it as the room was completely pitch black. However, as soon as a figure eerily faded into view and quickly flashed back out again, something about the piece caught me. I spent around 10 minutes sitting in the dark room with Chloe discussing our different takes on the piece.

The one thing that really stuck out to me were the muffled voices that continued in the background as the figures faded in and out. I closed my eyes and just listened - it gave off the sense as if you were under water or locked in a basement and there was a conversation going on overhead. This is an interesting starting point as it could be developed into taking away one of the senses, forcing another to really tune in and pay attention. However, another take on it, was that it felt like voices talking in your ear that you couldn't quite understand. It was quite unsettling. The piece experiments with the themes of spirituality, the possibilities of existence and how to test the audience's senses. It left me feeling unsettled but spurring with ideas.

Annette Messager - The Pikes, 1992-3

Messager incorporates many different types of materials into this eye catching instillation, she mixes completely different mediums in creative ways that helps convey her meaning behind the piece. The striking steel spikes were the first thing to capture my eye when I first saw the piece and it was only until I looked at it in greater detail that I was able to begin to develop ideas and gain inspiration.

The Pikes have a particular link to the French Revolution, as the pike was often used as a weapon during the uprising. It would be used to present the guillotined heads of aristocracy. By simply looking at the historical links with the piece it offers many different starting points for future devising and development. For this instance, you might use this as a starting point for incorporating history into a piece and how that may convey certain meaning.

Initially the piece is about human relations and how complex they may be. This is an extremely broad starting point as there is so many different ways one person can relate to one another, however, it can then be narrowed down into specifics. The vulnerability of the child's doll contrast greatly with not only the spikes themselves but also the images of dismembered bodies. The piece really outlines the possible evils of child's play which Messager parallels with that of modern and political structures, but trying to evoke both sympathy with a portrayal of sadism. This is really interesting take on the piece and I feel it would be able to be developed into a starting point for further development.  

Nam June Paik - Victrola, 2005

By smashing up an old gramophone and record player whilst paring it with a flat screen TV, Paik creates an interesting piece that contrasts two extremely iconic means of entertainment. A Victrola wasn't an unusual sight in many early 1900's homes, much like the flat screen tv. However, Paik places extreme emphasis on how outdated the piece of equipment is by covering it in modern style graffiti and placing a flat screen tv above it. Not only does this show a change in furniture and how we decorate our homes, but also the developments in technology and the advancements that have been made in the last 100 years.

I find this piece intriguing as it almost questions our values; how we, as a society, value a flat screen tv over a beautifully crafted phonograph when it is not as nearly as aesthetically pleasing. This could then begin to develop into questioning society and how we abandon objects and ideals as soon as a newer or more advanced version is released - how we're constantly craving advancements and technology, as well as questioning whether that's a good or bad thing. It also sparks ideas about contrasting our era to 100 years ago and how differently we live out lives now. The graffiti could also suggest something along the cliched lines of; no matter what life throws at you or if people leave you enough for you to fall derelict, you can still be a beautiful antique.

Cao Fei - Whose Utopia?, 2006

I was particularly captured by this piece and I watched the entire 19 minutes in the museum. Its begins with showing the mechanics of a light bulb factory. This captured me as it began to spur different ideas involving synchronised movements and in what they may be able to express and mean. Synchronised movements is a way that many different things and ideas could be suggested towards an audience without literally stating them. The use of the mechanical equipment could also possibly suggest a point about society and the rules people have to conform to - rather than breaking the mold and the usual system.

The second section is about the secret passions and creative sides of the industrial workers - I found this contrasting with the first part really inspiring as it shows that though they may work in a factory, that may not be their dream or their ideal goal. It could also possibly portray how the institution may suppress our ambitions to fit in societies mechanical ways, and that even if you're not allowed to express the creativity - it will always be there.

The third section focused on the workers and displaying the statement of "My Future Is Not A Dream.". It featured many different shots of the workers simply looking straight into the camera. Personally for me, this brought the entire video back to the workers, and how they are the real machines behind today's society - and that although they may be conformed to a future life of factory work, that most definitely is not their dream. This again links back to the idea of shaking the normalities of society up and turning all the rules on their heads.

As I was sitting the museum watching it, I began to discuss with fellow classmates all of the different offers and ideas that could be taken and sparked from the video and how they could develop into an overall short piece. There are so many different themes explored throughout the piece; mechanism and fitting into society's system, creativity, dreams and ambitions, suppression, are just a few of the many that were offered throughout the 19 minute video. It really intrigued me that from simply only viewing the film once I was able to come up with so many different starting points and how a video so simple can carry so much meaning.



Whose Utopia (Cao Fei, 2006) from Melvin Furnau on Vimeo.

Emotional Riffing

Exploring the emotional riffing exercise really opened my eyes to the wide spectrum of human emotions and how I found, as the exercise developed, it easier to access my own emotions in a way that didn't get effected by my brain or too many thoughts dictating how I expressed them. Personally I feel I'm quite guarded when it comes to expressing extreme emotions, especially so openly - however, this exercise allowed me to completely let go of all conflicting thoughts and explore myself and what I am capable of presenting. It was quite freeing to be able to explore the different emotions with complete unadulterated effort being pumped into the expressions, I was quite exhausted when the activity finished. It was really interesting to see the entire class bounce off one another's offers, with no one taking the easy way out or putting minimal effort in. Everyone was working at an extremely high level, putting in constant effort and I feel that if everyone hadn't, then the exercise and the effect would've definitely had fallen flat. I also found it particularly interesting that by the end of the exercise, every single person's responsive was unique in some kind of a way - even when copying one another, we were all completely letting go and all approaching it differently.

The way the exercise developed from being obvious portrayals of emotion, for example; crying to express sadness or laughing to express amusement, into more subtle emotions - really showed the wide range of emotions the human body carries and all the different ways you can express them. It really highlighted the less conventional ways to show emotion, something that's extremely important in creating experimental theatre as you want to approach it in the less conventional and most creative way possible.

I was able to get to a point in the exercise where I completely stopped thinking about everything that was going on, only responding to the emotions in the room and the offers being made. At that point, I honestly felt I could literally portray anything presented or offered to me. I feel being able to access your emotions easily and truthfully is extremely important when exploring experimental theatre as it offers a complete spectrum of possibilities; you would be holding back your expression and creativity if you didn't use your emotions, you'd be unable to really create something valuable if there wasn't an emotional drive to either the idea behind it or pushing the development. I really enjoyed that session and in particular this exercise, it really pushed me out of my own personal comfort zone and I feel i definitely came out on top. as both a person and an actor.    

Theatre Of Cruelty

Theatre of Cruelty is Artaud's theory in which he intended to create theatre that assaulted the audience's senses and cause them to express previously unexpressed emotions and reactions. The main intention would be to completely shock and affect the audience as much as possible, whether that be through violent imagery, sounds or lighting, as well as the main performance work. He wanted the audience to rid themselves of their natural mindset, free their natural energy and change the way they perceive the world. He believed that word's phonic sounds carried the ability to express emotions and trumau more successfully than the words themselves, this meant that many of his show featured gibberish, inarticulate sounds and cries.  However, he only produced a singular play that was created according to the theory; "Les Cenci" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which was a commercial failure.

I personally find this theory extremely interesting and if it was carried out successfully it would be really effective at shocking the audience and creating an impact that would leave them questioning not only themselves but the world and society as a whole. I feel developing and producing a successful piece involving theatre of cruelty would be extremely difficult - especially in modern times when it's become particularly hard to shock people than it might have been, however, I feel the creative process would be extremely beneficial as an actor and I would at least like to experience it in the future.

The Spurt Of Blood/Jet of Blood

After my first initial reading of the play, not only was I confused by Artaud's writing, but also the general story of the play itself. It opens with two characters professing their love for each other, repeating the phrase "I love you and everything is beautiful" - at first this just looked like the simple exchange between two lovers, however, it personally developed for me into Artaud displaying how desperate and simplistic the human world can be, they weren't truly displaying love - they were just desperate for a response from one another. However, this was my own personal interpretation of this segment as that's the beauty of Artaud's work, it can be interpreted in hundreds of different ways.

His use of stage directions leave no information for the director or actors to follow, purely the visual image he imagined. Though this poses a challenge for both the director and the actors, it also allows the director to have complete creative freedom with their interpretation. In our own interpretations of a segment of the text, I found it really interesting how every group chose to include physical movements to tell the story combined with vocals, rather than relying purely on the text and trying to literally convey what Artaud had written down. For example, each group decided to use stomping and physical movement combined with noise making to portray the moments of the hurricane and thunder. Not only is this an experimental way of presenting the stage directions, but they were also all completely uniquely carried out. By doing this exercise and developing a piece, it really helped me develop skills in regards to developing a piece from a piece of text that has very few straight forward stage directions - it really allowed us as a group to create it uniquely but still giving the original text justice. If we had been given the task of staging the whole text, I feel the entire class would've carried it out extremely interestingly, all drawing completely different conclusions about what Artaud is trying to present to the audience.

My personal interpretation is that Artaud is trying to display the extreme basics and showing the human race and it's most basic and truthful form. I feel this is highlighted largely with the character of the 'Bawd', who is possibly the most vulnerably portrayed throughout the piece - as well as being spoken to by 'Huge Voice' directly "Bitch, look at your body!"; who is assumed to be a God like figure. I feel this is Artaud's way of criticizing the human race as well as exploring our natural instincts as animals. Portraying us completely bare towards the audience, leaving them to develop their own ideas and interpretation of his text and the ideas presented.

Alphabet Exercise & The Group's Response

I found the initial spelling out my name through the pointing movements quite challenging because I chose to use my full name of Wilhelmina rather than going with the simple five lettered Willa. This meant I put a lot more focus on the positions of the letters rather than developing my movements into something deeper than just a sequence. However, what I did find interesting was adding the different layers into the movements, like having to do it really slowly as if i was moving in thick syrup or having to move far as if the points were meters away - this gave me an understanding of how many different layers pieces can adopt and how they may change the outcome and view of the piece, as well as how it feels for myself as an actor.

By looking at the different layers that we could add to just simple movements and how that effected them really shows how simply you can add to a piece to colour it slightly more and give it personality. Not only was this a good exercise to display this, but it also meant I learnt how I could apply those ideals and skills to other work, for example during character or scene development.

When we were performing the piece, I personally focused more on spelling out my name rather then colouring the movements with an emotion or developing a character, so for me personally, the piece held very little meaning. However, as we discussed in class, there were multiple people who saw different characters and situations in the different sequences created which displays the pure differences and ideals between how someone may make a piece with a thought in mind but the may audience take it in a completely different way. I find it really interesting what different people took away from the exercise, some developed a situation, some worked with the music and some, like myself, focused on the spelling of the times. It's just a brilliant example of how different a piece can be interpreted and what that may mean to meaning it may carry.

Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (4 September 1896 - 4 March 1948) was born in Marseille, France. At four years old, Artaud contracted a severe case of meningitis, beginning a very long line of both physical and mental health issues. He began both as a visual artist and a writer and moved to Paris to pursue a career.

In 1913 he experience Barlanese dancers at the Paris Colonial Exposition, however, didn't understand the intentions and story being told by the dancers - this highly influenced his future work in theatre. This was also the year of his first edition of "First Manifesto for a Theatre of Cruelty."  was published and would later join as a chapter Theatre and It's Double. Artaud was also extremely passionate about the world of cinema and appeared in around 20 films between 1924 and 1935.

Artaud was a theorist and philosopher, so although he had different theories, he didn't test them out to develop them into methods. This means that his work can be interpreted and directed in many different ways due to the lack of instructions on how to take the text to the stage. His manifesto of Theatre Of Cruelty has influenced the performing world throughout the last century and well into this century (and no doubt into the next).

After being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, Artaud died at the foot of his bed on March 4 1948 in his psychiatric unit, alone.