Final Blog - Luke Manley - 0705972

[1]

Before we digest the Reshearch, Score, Valadation, Process (RSVP) we must understand the meaning of Physical Theatre, in its broadest term.

Physical theatre is a general term used to describe any mode of performance that pursues storytelling through primarily physical means, this in the case in question, being the production of Porto.

As the process of Porto moved from the Valadation to the Process stage of devising, the most common themes and issues that the cast found that kept emerging were, conflict, waiting, self descovery, trust, love and a community of indaviduals emerging together as an ensamble.

An example of one the themes from Porto, specifically with my character was shearching. I felt that this was an immensly strong issue within my characters journey and indeed within Porto, as it was an extension of my personal emotions, and I feel that with the process of Porto, it helped me to overcome those emotions.

The obviouse experience that tied the Porto community together was the ensamble. This suggested, that even though we are all individuals there is one thing that conects us all together, this being the journeys we travel, creating a community ensamble.

Although we cannot comment on each performers personal jourent through Porto (each charcter is an individual) “The search for expression results in individual moments…” (Climenhaga, 2009, Pg62). We all had our own personal emotions which we wanted to explore, and by doing so we created individual movments, which was evident within the periphery as well as center area.

During the whole ensamble, although the movments were exactly the same as the whole of the commuity, each charcter would put a different ammount of emotion into it.


[2]

As Porto moved from rehearsal space (studio) to performance space (theatre), the cast felt an imidiate change. The professional attitude towards Porto took over, as we were no longer students, but performers.

The first experience of Porto within the theatre space was a difficult expericane to digest, as it was to be performed for technical reasons, and was difficult to fully grasp the emotions of my character as I had previosuly hoped for. We felt that although it was a necessity and needed to be done, the characters we not able to adjust to the new enviroment as quickly as we thought.

“The actors’s skill if to fill his space, to inhabit it fully: to be there, totally, in the moment of performance.” (Frost & Yarrow, 1990, Pg100)

Once the technical had sucssesfuly run through, the community had time to introduce the characters of Porto into the new enviroment. This allowed each performer to adjust changes with their characters, as each of the characters were being introduced to a new area, and some found that their emotions, movements, reactions and general behaviour changed.

This was immenlsy evident within my character, as I feel his emotions changed from shy, to desperation and despondent. The new enviroment was a major factor in adjusting my characters emotions. Once the lights and music where introduced together I felt an imidiate reaction to Porto, and thought, this area had changed the way I feel towards the persons he makes contact with. And although it was the performance, I was still exploring new emotions and meeting new characters within Porto during the transition between the two spaces.

Although with the technical and the transition, there were weaknesses, I feel that my character had evolved into someone different during the time. I felt that I was able to touch on deeper emotiond and to fully explore his own transition between the spaces.

The transitions also allowed me to reflect myself into my character, and by doing so, my character became an extension of myself.

Once in the new enviroment of Porto, I always become my character as well as the space itself. The space of Porto was mearly an extension of my character, which was an extension of myself.

“The central principle of ‘presence’ is mental and imaginative. It is a matter of concentrating without straining, attending and behaving in accord with the situation.” (Frost & Yarrow, 1990, Pg 101)


[3]

“Activating and sharpening the physical nature of preception is fundamental; it develops a consciousness linked to theatrical presence: being awake, alert, attentive, constantly being ‘in the moment’.” (Callery, 2001, Pg 22)

Over the three productions of Porto, my own physical precense grew immensly. I wanted my character to develop an understanding from each show and to use it to inflict into the next show, ultimatily growing his emotions and developing into a transformed character within the last performance. I wanted to take the knowladge and skills which I may have learnt from previous shows and to inject new life into each show, helping my character to understand his goal within Porto.


Reshearch

I would keep rechearching Physical theatre throught the whole process of Porto hoping that with each rehersal and show the influences I may have come across or the companys I studied would be able to influence me. An example beoing, I payed a lot of attention to DV8 and the social issues they inject into their productions. One DV8 production I payed particualr attention to was Strange Fish. Which looks at a quest for someone to love and something, or someone, to believe in. The tyranny of couples and groups, the pain of not belongingand the fear of being alone. This helped me to disect my characters emotions and to develop his movements and to use the influences of DV8 in my own work during Porto.

Score

Once the chronological order was announced, I felt that my character could then fully explore his journey, as he now knew where he could go through and what emotional state he was at certain points. This also allowed my character to explore new things, such as developing relationships once in the periphery.

Valadation

Valadating Porto was a very strong part of the process, as we had a long running time previous to working in the rehersal space. The timing and slickness of Porto is a major contribution to the effects of the characters emotions, as a character would not have enough time to reflect on the ceratin event, or have too much time to relfect.

Process

“When an improvising actor gets into difficulties, he or she has to know that somebody will come to their rescure, and that somebody will take what they are offering to develop it.” (Frost & Yarrow, 1990, Pg105)

Even during the final shows of Porto, improvisation was sytil a major player within. If something went wrong the cast would have to work around the difficulties on stage. Or also during the final shows the process for developing and finding new depths within the performers characters would still be developing, as I had found with my character, he was at conflict with himself during the final show of Porto, but this still led me to come to new conclusions about him and his journey.


Bibliography.

Climenhaga, R. (2009) Pina Bausch Routledge

Frost, A. and Yarrow, R (1990) Improvisation In Drama The Macmillan Press Ltd

Lecoq, J. (2006) Theatre of Movement and gesture Routledge

Callery, D. (2001) Through The Body A Practical Guide To Physical Theatre Nick Hern Books Ltd.

www.dv8.co.uk