Getting ideas up on their feet was quite a time-consuming process, I had to accept that things may need to be changed or altered slightly in rehearsals. It was also important to “be prepared to change direction if the moment calls for it” (Graham and Hoggett, 2014, 88), realising that everything I had choreographed may not be achievable with the performance space or physical abilities of the company. Therefore, in rehearsals I had to be quick on my feet to provide the company with alternatives to the choreography, many of these I took upon myself to think of before the rehearsal started, should the need to edit choreography occur. Majority of my creative scenes stemmed from the verbatim dialogue, collected by dramaturg Eloise White. Consequently, it was my responsibility to merge movement and dialogue together. Arts Council England state that they “champion, develop and invest in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people’s lives” (2018) and it is my opinion that the decision to use verbatim theatre was an enriching choice. Audiences were made aware that the material we had created came from real words from real people, some of those who were amongst the audience. For the participants to see how they had an impact on our creative work has the potential to be highly rewarding.
John Wright suggests that “the conventional approach when rehearsing a scene is to ask: ‘What’s your objective?’ In other words, what do you want at this moment in the action” (2006, 33). I kept this at the forefront of my mind when I was creating new material, constantly making sure I knew exactly what it was I wanted to say from a particular piece of movement. I wanted my movement to be true to the words of the participants, so this technique of knowing my objectives was extremely helpful to make the movement as accurate as possible, especially when dealing with verbatim language.
L.R.
Works Cited
Arts Council England (2018) About us. England: Arts Council England. Available from https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-us-0 [Accessed 18 April 2018]
Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. (2014) The Frantic Assembly book of devising theatre (Second Edition) New York: Routledge.
Wright, J. (2006) Why is that so funny? London: Nick Hern Books Limited.
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