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.