Lesson 1, Term 3.

The first exercise was to imagine that the floor was made up of an imaginary grid. Each individual  had to also think of something they desired, to be at the end of our journey. To get there, the actor must follow his own imaginary journey, taking the paths created by the grid. For instance, one can only turn 90 degrees as such, and avoid any contact with everyone else.
This exercise was useful because it allowed the actor to concentrate something (the grid) which was, unsurprisingly, boring. However, the desire gave everyone motivation. So, even though they we doing something monotonous, there was a reason to do it so in the end, we walked with purpose and accuracy, two things that are hard to do spontaneously. This was useful in relation to Artaud because he focuses on visual poetry, which focuses on the visual imagery created by movement-something this exercise focused on. It allowed us to both discipline ourselves AND make sure we had “light in our eyes” because as Artaud himself said, “acting is not to entertain, nor instruct, but to effect” which the individual motivation allowed us to achieve. Artaud also believed that an actor has to have total commitment as an actor. Each actor must be emotionally involved, and this exercise allowed us to achieve this because each actor had their own motivation, so the actors where emotionally attached and committed as a result of this. Had the exercise had a general desire, some actors may have become more attached than others, but where we created our own, it was personal, and something that everyone wanted, therefore achieving emotional attachment, in order to effect the audience, and give them the motivation, which allowed the actor to become emotionally attached.

The second exercise was very physical. All the actors were told of an inanimate object to become. However, they all had objectives. For example: “Baked bean warming in the microwave.” or “a potato growing underground” or “a sausage on the grill.” We had to exaggerate these as much as possible, because they were inanimate, so they had no emotions, and so the movements in our body had to compensate for this.
This exercise contributed to Artaud’s theory of “Deliberate cruelty.” I think this contributed to this because of the utter chaos that this could cause if it had been used in a theatre piece. There were no limits when people were doing this and so with the right music and lighting, these movements could have put the audience in shock because of the mayhem caused by all this. Especially with the sausage one, we had to emphasise on how hot the grill was, and did not stop for quite some time, forcing us to persuade everyone it was really THAT hot. Because we have never been in that situation before, there were no limits as to how anyone would react, and so everyone was stripped of all dignity, and reverted back to animal like states, which would contribute further to assaulting the audience’s comfort, because the actor is voluntarily making himself vulnerable for the audience, which not only allows the audience to connect with the actor, but assaults them too, by revealing their true-selves whilst the audience conform to certain social rules.

Our last exercise was to play tennis with a partner in absolute slow motion. We were told it was never slow enough.
This exercise contributed to several of Artaud’s theories. One of which being creating a dream world. Where we live so fast, we do not take into account small details that affects everything that happens, wether we see it or not-they are all vital. So, when performing this exercise, not only was it a dream like state because we took a vigorous sport and slowed it down, but it involved our entire body, and so all the movements created a whole new world. Even though we partake in these movements often, they are only seen for a split second, but when it is broke down into slow motion, we see the journey that everything takes, and our thought towards our every move and why we do it, and the contrast between real life and what actually happens, creates a dream state. It also increased our skills as actors, because we had to depict to the audience that this is what happens, and allow the audience to think about their every move. It allowed us to become fit, because our body was constantly tense, and so we had to control our muscles as well as concentrating on how to get from one position to another, rather than just spontaneously doing it, as we are used to in everyday life.