Task 1: Exploring Techniques: Physical Theatre: Frantic Assembly
Frantic Assembly
Classical Theatre Performance
What is Physical Theatre?
- Physical Theatre is a type of theatre where actors use their bodies to portray the emotion I of characters and storylines. Physical theatre is abstract and often conveys hidden metaphors relating to complex social and cultural issues.
WHO ARE FRANTIC ASSEMBLY?HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Background Information
- Frantic Assembly was founded in 1994 by Scott Graham, Steven Hoggett and Vicki Middleton. The company has developed into one of the UK's most successful theatre companies. The companies ambition is that they continue to 'Learn and remain committed to making brave and bold theatre'. At times it can be physically brutal and dynamic. Whereas, at other times it's tender and fragile.
- Frantic Assembly are all about the 'ethos of collaboration, or empowerment, of that constant desire to improve.' They're also about 'telling stories in a voice we don't always hear and about finding talent in places we don't always look'.
- The company is led by Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Scott Graham. They have influenced writers to embrace new creative processes and opened actors and dancers to new techniques as well as influencing contemporary theatre-making.
- Frantic Assembly have worked in over 40 countries and tour across the UK with their abstract performances. They have become leading theatre practitioners on 5 British and International academic syllabuses.
- 'I Think We Are Alone'
- 'The Unreturning'
- 'Fatherland'
- 'Things I Know To Be True'
- 'Othello'
- 'Beautiful Burnout'
- 'Lovesong'
- 'Stockholm'
- 'The Believers'
Elements/Techniques Seen In Their Performances
THE FRANTIC METHOD
- The Frantic Method is a process Frantic Assembly use when creating a performance. The Frantic Method is 'approaching devising as a series of tasks, each broken down into building blocks. This is designed to establish progress from the simplest discoveries. Performers are encouraged to take a moment back to its simplest truth and build from there. This places dancers, actors, students, teachers and all participants on the same starting point'.
STYLE
- 'Frantic Assembly’s work is often labelled ‘physical theatre’ and is often highly energetic but I believe it is merely story telling through physical nuance. This physicality can be brutally explosive or minutely observed. Each can have a dynamic and complex effect on an audience. This focus on detailed story telling through physicality has implications beyond work labelled ‘physical theatre.’
ELEMENTS
- MUSIC: 'Music is very important in Frantic Assembly's work. It is used in the devising process to create music to and creates mood and atmosphere for the audience.'
- LIGHTING: 'The lighting is usually integrated with the choreography to help tell the story. Lighting states drive the focus of the audience and help to create the atmosphere. Projection and LED pixel mapping is often used.'
- PUSH HANDS: 'A movement exercise to enhance partnership and teamwork. Actors move together with joined hands. Hands are placed palm to palm, the person with their hands on top is 'leader' and should explore space and levels with their partner.'
- PUSH/PULL: 'A sequence of movements/a string of material exploring the transference of control.'
- CHAIR DUETS: 'Physical movement based on and around chairs - includes touches, action, reaction, embraces, rejections etc. all performed at speed.'
- ROUND BY THROUGH: 'A string of movement material with R-B-T at the centre of each movement choice. "ROUND" = Any move that involves passing closely around the body of partner. "BY" = Slotting in move that is neat and efficient. Reducing the space between the partners to as small as possible. "THROUGH" = Passing through the partner, usually confined to the upper body and arms.'
- LIFTS - ROCKS AND LEDGES: 'Learning to Fly as an example from 'Curious'.'
- GESTURAL STRING: 'A sequence of movements using only hands and arms.'
- DIRECT ADDRESS: 'The style of questioning or speaking to the audience and breaking the fourth wall is essential to Frantic Assembly's style. This can be spoken in character or in 'role' as a version of yourself.'
- THE FIVES: 'Walking in unison, in beats of 5, in a grid sequence - Evident in 'Curious'.'
- BODY AS PROP: 'Creating shapes and movements with your body to replicate objects.'
USE OF HANDS/GESTURE HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
- We are creating a physical theatre inspired by the themes of Shakespeare's play, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. As a group we learnt British Sign Language (BSL) for Helena's line in her Act 1, Scene 1 monologue, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind...'. This sign incorporates one of the key themes in the play which is 'Love'. In BSL the is no sign for the word, 'the'.
- We started by learning this phrase and then we individually created our own sequence with random hands movements and gestures intertwining this BSL phrase. I know how to sign certain basic phrases and the alphabet so I decided to add the sentence, "My name is Kacie" at the beginning of this sequence. For the word, 'love' is placed one hand down at a time and then mimicked a beating heart. I carried on with the given sequence and then instead of signing the word 'eye' I decided to change this and sign the letter 'I'. I then decided to carry on with the rest of the sequence.
- Everybody individually created their own version of this sequence. Once we did that we got into 2 groups and combined all our individual phrases/sequences together to make one big one. We had to each others sequence. My group found it tricky to sign my whole name so we changed it to just the letters "k" and "c" which overall stills says my name and still has the same overall effect.
- We then had to think of a way to stage our sequence. We decided to perform the whole sequence on the floor but with different positions. There is 4 of us in our group so we sat in pairs back to back. This was our starting position. Throughout the performance we turn around to face the audience in a pause between one of the sequences.
FINAL PRODUCT
USE OF FIRST PERSON INSTRUCTION HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
What is it?
- 'First person is the term used to describe a text written from the perspective of the narrator.' Its when a sentence has "I" or "me". First person instruction is when you are saying instructions but in first person. For example, when making a jam sandwich in first person instruction you would day, "I get the bread. I grab a knife and the jam. I spread the jam on the bread with a knife".
Own Recreation
- We were given a task to create our own first instruction that is based on a forest walk.
My Forest Walk First Instruction
I locate my path.
I press the play button on my phone to my favourite playlist and take a deep breath.
I start to walk. To the beat of the song.
I look at the trees, the sky.
I hear a faint birdsong.
Volume up.
I take my steps slow as I reach a steep incline. I skip the song as its killing the vibe.
I carry on until the playlist ends.
I follow my path.
REFERENCES HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
FOREST SCENE FIRST PERSON INSTRUCTION HHHHHHHHHHH
Developing First Person Instruction
- Based on our first person instruction exploration, we are now developing these into an actual physical theatre scene/piece. Everyone has their own first person instruction and now we are puzzling and intertwining each others into one. For example, one person begins saying their first person instruction and they stop after a few sentences and then a new person started theirs. This repeats in a loop until you’ve finished reading your own first person instruction. Once everything was pieced together we then began adding movements. The group was then divided in half and we had to teach everyone in our group what the actions were for our first person instruction so when we say our section, our group does the movements for the person who is speaking their first person instruction.
Final Product
Examples Movements and Their links to the Words
- Throughout our first person instructions sections, our movements do correlate to the words we are saying. For example, in Verity’s first person instruction she says the word “trip” so our movement for that is to mime tripping over. In my first person instruction, I take an exaggerated deep breath after I say “press the play button on my phone”. I do this as my next line is, “I take a deep breath”. I then say, “I start to walk” and as I say this I do actually begin to walk. In Mathilde’s, she says “cold and crisp” so the action that pairs with this is rubbing your hands together as if you are miming trying to warm them up like you would do in winter. We also do this movement on the line “try not to loose balance”. We hold our arms out as if we are trying to stay steady while walking. In Verity’s second part she says “different levels” when she says this line we walk with bent knees and a more hunched over posture as if we are sneaking around. This links as our bodies are at a different level than before. In my second part, I say “volume up” and my action for that is too mime having a phone in your hand and swipe up as if you’re putting the volume up.
Use of Unison
- The use of unison makes this first person instruction become more like the physical theatre style - using our bodies to tell the story. Only one person speaks at a time but the rest of us tell the same story as what they are saying but through non-verbal communication compared to verbal. It also makes us work as a group/ one ensemble which is also key in the physical theatre style. By dividing the group into 2, it creates a variety of levels which nicely contrasts the two groups. The separate unison makes the piece visually interesting and it also looks neat and uniformed. As it was our first attempt at this element of unison and we had freshly learn each other’s actions, we aren’t in perfect unison so in places, our piece does look a bit messy right now. In time, with practice and attention to detail, the unison will create a very satisfying effect and really make us look like one ensemble.
Spacing
- Like I said when discussing our use of unison, we are divided in 2 groups. This not only creates a variety of levels but also a variety of spacing. They are parts when one group walks to one side of the stage and one group walks in the opposite direction. There are formations that make it appear that 1 group is weaving in and out through the group standing still. Having 2 groups is very effective when it comes to filling up the space. One group moves to one place and then the other group fill it. This means there’s not a gap on stage as there is someone standing in it still or not at some point; it covers all grounds. This is visually interesting to an audience as the action isn’t just happening in one place, it’s happening all across the stage. It makes the piece engaging. It’s also engaging as there is never a moment of complete stillness. There is constant movement. It keeps an audience on their toes. Our staging at the start begins quite tight-knit and more as one big group but as each person says their first person instruction, we start to expand, covering more of the stage. The all come out of the beginning shape, weaving through one another. By the end of the piece, e are a lot more spaced out and we are positioned in places that really make our 2 groups clear. We start as one and finish as 2 which is really effective.
USE OF PROPS
What Did We Do?
- We were experimenting with our setting of forest by exploring the use of props. We had to get in pairs and My partner (Harrison) and I were given 4 sticks and we had to come up with some movements that could link to a forest and portray a forest.
Final Product
- This video is stop motion and is made from all the action shots that were taken by our peers. This gives an idea of what we came up with and the image we wanted to create.
ACTION SHOTS
- The last 5 images are action shots taken when Harrison and I were doing over head spins while both holding onto each end of the 2 sticks. These spins gradually take us from standing, to the floor. This shows the many layers that a forest has, from the high trees to the low bushes and path.
- We are now going to be creating another small physical theatre section called, ‘Checking Oose’. We are doing this in pairs. Down below is how we developed and created this physical theatre section by 'Blocking'. We are miming/creating a sequence based on picking fluff off of one another. The overall emotion is that you are really good friends with your partner but there is something they do that really irritates you.
Building Blocks of a Sequence
① Improvise
- We started by sitting on the floor, cross-legged, and just improvised and mimed as if we were picking off something/fluff off of the other person. We took it in turns and we did this along to musical.
② Creating 5 Movements Each
- The next step was to actually create some kind of structure so we each selected 5 movements from what we did while improvising. I chose to flick the knee, brush the shoulder, blow on the other knee, pick at the hair and pick something off the other shoulder. Verity (my partner) selected her 5 movements. We then did our chosen 5 movements to music. She did her 5, then I did mine.
- We then developed this further by changing up the order of when we did each movement. We chose the order to be: V, K, V, V, K, K, V, K, V, K (V= Verity / K = Kacie, me)
- The next stage was to repeat our order and movements over and over again until we could do it without thinking about it.
④ Changing Levels
- In this stage, we changed our movements from being sat, to standing. This created physical challenges as our movements naturally worked better when we were sat on the floor, for example, blowing on the knee. This caused us to work with changing our levels so that we could reach where we wanted to go.
Action Shots
- In these action shots, you can see how we were changing levels in order to adapt our movements from when we were sat down to now standing.
⑤ Changing Directions
- The next step was to experiment with changing our directions as our movements did cause our to be facing the same way/towards each other. To help add that sense of irritation there are a couple moments when we are back-to-back and when we walk away from each other.
- In these images you can clearly see our change in direction.
⑥ Changing Dynamics
- Once we changed our directions, we then focused on changing the dynamics of our movements. Dynamics can portray very different things. Slow is calm and relaxed, whereas fast is chaotic and portrays irritation. We started by trying to do our sequence as slow as possible. Once we did that, we tried doing it as fast as possible. This helps us to see the moments where we can switch the dynamics up a bit. In our sequence, we decided to start slow but once we both lean in to pick at each other's hair, we start to speed up again. We then slow back down when we both reach for each other's knees.
- These 2 images show the moments where the dynamics change. The first image is when we start to get faster and the second image is when we slow back down.
⑦ Lifting / Catching
- The last stage of development was to add 'lifting / catching'. These are techniques used in physical theatre, particularly in duets/pairs. Lifting is the use of lifts. It's where one person lifts the other in some way. Catching is where you move around your partner for example, you could pick their arm up and swerve under it. This last step makes our sequence more abstract and alike the physical theatre style.
- These images are action shots from one of our movements where we use 'catching' as I am moving by travelling under Verity's arm.
- This movement begins our sequence. We simply lean on one another as shown in the above images.
- These images our action shots from the movement we do after we (in unison) pick at each other's hair. I move under Verity's arm and the she moves under mine. We almost unlink from one another during this movement which then allows us to change direction and transition into the next movement.
- These images show other moments in our sequence where we use the technique 'Lifting / Catching'.
FINAL PRODUCT
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