Michaela Lloyd : Blog Assessment Post 1

1: During the Process and Performance module the genre of ‘physical theatre’ has been explored using the key features of devising to create an ensemble and the body’s ability to learn and remember. The devising process of physical theatre develops the ensemble using a variety of exercises to build confidence and trust amongst the company. As the group developed building towards a performance, this has proven to be an invaluable feature that not only maintains our safety during performances, but also creates and maintains characters relationships and the overall effect of the performers being part of the same company. Together we learnt how to perform lifts and falls safely and how to walk and stop as a group simultaneously.

Another key feature that has been explored is an individual’s body memory, physicality and how the body signifies meaning to an audience as well as responding to impulses and instincts in lieu of stage directions or script. Each week we rely on our bodies to recall a learnt movement or exercise based on our relationship with the floor and gravity ass well as other bodies in the room. We recall how it felt physically and repeat each exercise or movement until it is as our body remembers it to have been learnt.

2: Physical theatre has been described as an ‘intertwining’ of popular theatre with either mime, avant garde theatre or dance. ([1] P 53 Murray, S, Keefe J 2007). Sanchez-Colberg clearly states that physical theatre has a ‘double-legacy … in both avant-garde theatre and dance’ ([2]P 17 Murray, S, Keefe J 2007) . The implications of referring to a hybrid character within physical theatre is a clear reference to the fact that physical theatre is an intertwining of popular theatre with another medium, in this case, dance. To be involved with physical theatre you need to have an understanding of traditional theatre as well as physical or dance theatre. Physical theatre is a hybrid performance genre because it is a collaboration of traditional acting methods with another medium. Though there is usually a personal or political core to every physical theatre performance, there is no given script, which distinguishes it from popular theatre. There is a clear narrative that is told through the body making its influence from dance ambiguous yet the emphasis being on body movements and gesture without facial signifiers assimilates physical theatre to mime.

3: DV8 Physical Theatre produce work that they themselves describe as ‘breaking down the barriers of dance, theatre and personal politics’ and ‘reinvesting dance with meaning’ (www.dv8.co.uk). The company generally work with trained actors but have also worked with performers from acting backgrounds. Tim Etchells describes DV8’s work as closely paralleling theatre performances and conveying the body for observation. According to Etchells, DV8’s work shows the body through various stages with ‘the body itself as witness’ (p 115 Etchells, T 1994 ). This is clearly a feature of physical theatre similar to that of body memory recall that we undertake as Process and Performance students. The manner in which DV8 research a piece before creating it and use their bodies to emphasise a personal or political conflict defines DV8’s practice as a hybrid of dance and theatre and positions DV8 as a definitive Physical Theatre company.

Michaela Lloyd 0709448

Bibliography

[1] Murray, S, Keefe J Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction London: Routledge 2007

[2] Murray, S, Keefe J Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader London: Routledge 2007

http://www.dv8.co.uk/about.dv8/artistic.policy.html (accessed Monday 23rd February 2009 20.05)

http://presence.stanford.edu:3455/Collaboratory/674 (accessed Monday 23rd February 2009 19.30)

Etchells, T Diverse Assembly: Some Trends In Recent Performance , in Theodore Shanks ed. Contemporary British Theatre P 107-122 London: New York Macmillan and St Martins Press 1994