Once again i feel that my group had a successful rehearsal. We continued begin our sessions with games such as 'bang' and 'what the duck?' in order to raise our energy levels. We then carried on improvising one another's stories, this time incorporating random objects into these improvisations where we felt it was necessary. Through doing this we were able to incorporate more people into the scenes and made the stories more visual. When group b then watched what we had so far, i was pleased to hear that they have gone in a similar direction, which will mean that hopefully the two pieces will gel nicely. They also gave us some helpful tips such as having the story teller walk around the improvisations as they take place, and also to explore ways of making smoother change overs. My group have booked the mirror room on Wednesday 2-4pm and we have now invited the other group to come along also!
Posted by Emma Bilton
2) Blog
It was exciting to see the other groups work yesterday and i was really impressed with what they had come up with. What was even better was the fact that we all seemed very keen as a whole ensemble to mesh the two pieces of work together. It was something i was sceptical about as i thought the pieces might be completely different but it feels as though the underlying issues of irrational fears and story telling are the same in both groups. I'm excited to see where we take this.
Posted by Fiona Allison
3) Blog
I really begin to enjoy the rehearsals for our final production now!! It was particularly useful that we showed each other (among the two groups) the outcomes of last week's working process. This was the first time where I could visualize, where all this might be going. Everything became so much clearer. I found that our permanent use of newspaper really works quite well and was astonished how the others who hadn't seen it before were able to understand our doings. Also the other way round: I experienced what Phelim means by using the notion of "gaps" within the plays. While they were doing their version of "Lifegame", I added my own pictures from my 'inner world' to those I saw on stage. It is really important to leave this specific allowance to dream to the audience. At least to me.
I also attached a picture of our work with newspaper ;-)
Posted by Mirjam Frank
4) Rehearsals So Far
I found Monday's class really interesting because we got to see where the other group are going with their piece in relation to ours. Despite some initial worries about not being able to mix the pieces well, there are obviously some ways that the two can be connected which is really good.
I am also finding that most of the things our group comes up with are simply through playing, rather than a clear structure to our rehearsal which is interesting and more improbable like than any other means of creation I think. It is relieving to realise that out group have a basic few scenes now and that we can work on these with the other group to create links and things with the help of outsiders to the piece - and that we can help them in any way as well. I am pleasantly surprised that we have managed to get something like this out of only a few weeks work, and I hope that we can make it into something even more improbable-like and interesting in the next two weeks.
Posted by Emma Fielding
5) Blog
in my blog for this week i would like to say i was extremely impressed by the other group's work, and am excited by the prospect of putting our pieces together, i think as a group we grow more like an ensemble everyday and that we are all very aware now of what is 'improbable like' and what is not!
Posted by Chloe Gosling
6) Improbable Blog
One of the most useful opportunities this week has been performing our work in progress to the other half of the class and also watching their work in progress. Both our group and their group seem to have been inspired by Improbable’s use of narration. I was impressed by how playful the other group’s performance was. I also thought that they used newspaper imaginatively. Despite the fact that they were playful the other group still portrayed fear appropriately. The newspaper baby being torn to shreds is a raw and quite unpleasant moment. I think our pieces will fit well together and hope our group can take some inspiration from the other group. I like the fact that our group use random objects within our performance but still feel that we can make more use of them. I think we also need to develop the human marionettes concept further. When not actively performing within the performance we remain in marionette poses but to the audience it is probably not clear why. This is something that we could explore when we experiment with the sections that link each story to one another.
Posted by Sylvie Barlow
7) Combining our Pieces
I was very pleased to see on Monday that our two group performances are quite similar and have great potential for combining. I really enjoyed watching the other group perform and found their idea to be very interesting. I particularly liked the spontaneity of the scenes. In our rehearsal on Wednesday we discussed ways in which we will be able to put together the two pieces into one performance and I am looking forward to exploring those ideas further in our next rehearsal.
Posted by Fran Smith
8) Blog
This week's rehearsals have been really insightful, working with the other group on Wednesday was really insightful. I've been really bogged down with flu lately but the energy in rehearsals was really invigorating, i especially enjoyed the games we began with. i feel as though the two groups have really come together now.
Posted by Gemma Moran
9) Blog and Review Thing
First the review that i had to do on how our process of devising at the moment relates to that of Satyagraha:
The whole process for Improbable seemed very unusual. For instance the story was already there and they just had to work with what they were given. In relation to us this way of working doesn't directly connect but there is a way in which it seems improbable are still not forcing anything to come which, i believe, is very true of our group. Progress in the beginning wasn't slow but it wasn't fast either as we weren't forcing ideas; we weren't making a piece for the sake of it so we could pass a course, we were honestly waiting for the right ideas to produce themselves. Although you could claim this is a lazy method of working, it really isn't, and to say it is, i think, is very closed minded.
All the members of improbable claimed that they really had to create a strong feeling of ensemble throughout the entire working process. Some of the interviews with Phelim and Julian made this very clear when they both said just that. Although Julian did say it was slightly weird not working with Phelim so closely as he is used to. Working as an ensemble is surely an obvious necessity for any dramatical/theatrical group but for work such as ours where we have to rely on each other massively for the work to be created, having a strong feeling of ensemble really is something we have created.
Finally, the way in which there are various different angles or visions being created at one time in the process of creating Satyagraha is intriguing. There are so many brilliant ideas being created by all the production team and it all seems to come together so well (or at least it seems so by the good reviews) and this can be said to be true of our work. Being split into two groups and now having to merge both teams ideas into one seemed slightly daunting but it was amazing how well this turned out and how simple it really was.
BLOG:
During this week i think a lot of our works initial ideas have become more emphasised and clarified. Characters have become more focused and most of us now really know what we have to do to make our performance a really good experience for us and the audience. Hopefully our last week of practicing and experimenting will ensure our piece will be the best it can as all our ideas are now essentially on the table, we just have to clarify them!
The way our two groups worked so well together is brilliant, it was a fairly simple experience mixing both pieces and i'm really glad there were no megalomaniac moments from anyone or such other problematic events! No one wants to take charge of the group which means our work remains our work and not a product of any one person's imagination or vision which is not what we are trying to create.
i hope that's all that's needed!
Posted by George Calderwood
10) Blog
Everything's coming together quite nicely now. The only thing that's worrying me at all is pace, but having a look at some of Improbable's work the pace is quite slow but you don't notice too much because of their intensity. Maybe this would help us.
Posted by Emma Berge
11) Blog for week 9
I was extremely pleased that my group progressed really well on Monday's lesson. We were able to come up with two new fears for our piece, death and nudity. We then focused on them for the remainder of the lesson, making sure they were polished and we were happy with what we had done. Furthermore, I was very impressed with what the other group had come up with, as I was able to see that both pieces were linked and would fit together. Also, yesterday's rehearsal went well in the Boilerhouse, considering it was our first run through of the whole piece put together. As a whole ensemble we worked well together making sure everybody had their say throughout the rehearsal. I enjoyed it and feel that the piece as a whole is coming together.
Posted by Charlotte Harvey
12) Coming Together
After our meeting with the other group on Wednesday I am looking forward to merging our 2 pieces together. However, at the same time I am pleased that originally we worked as 2 separate groups. By doing this we have given ourselves many ideas and concepts, influenced byImprobable, to create an innovative final performance as one unit. Although both groups have worked in different ways we have found many parallels in our ideas which will allow us to develop our piece as a larger ensemble. Our work with objects, puppets, spontaneity and the concept of 'fear' are excellent starting points. Also it is great that the other groups' playful work process has rubbed off on our group!
Posted by Faith Brandon-Blatch
13) Improbable Blog
This week our rehearsal went quite well. We decided on how to combine both of our pieces and the run through in the boiler house was structurally fine, although there is still a lot of work to be done. I watched Theatre of Blood and The Hanging Man. I found both pieces to be extremely interesting, I especially enjoyed The Hanging Man and its themes of death and the way in which Improbable dealt with this tricky subject. Theatre of Blood was extremely gory and entertaining! I loved the concept of theatre critics being killed one by one by a rubbish actor, it somehow acted as a parody of critics and actors alike which was very clever. I am becoming more and more fond of Improbable’s work and would love to have seen Satyagraha.
Posted by Ella Rhodes
14) Blog
in this week's rehearsal it was interesting to see how our small improvisations with newspaper could be turned into something bigger. pleased with our initial ideas, we followed their development and found that each separate section could be linked together to form one complete piece. After watching the other groups piece, it was interesting to see the differences but also the similarities between theirs and ours. Using the same sort of structure and sense of narrative, as well as having the same overall theme helped in our thoughts on how to integrate the two pieces.
Posted by Emily Cookson
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