Conclusion

In conclusion I have used world theatre and creative approaches to performances from all over the world to explore the idea of narrative and story telling and being able to make this in to physicality. From my experiences so far I have learnt how important stories are in our lives and I understand that they needed to be treated with respect and care. I respect the Butoh principles of moving in any way we wish to do so and free expression, and I have also learnt some valuable information by connecting to images in this way. I realise how powerful physical performance can be and how important it can be in terms of passing stories on and telling them to audiences around the world. This has been a very valuable experience and I plan to continue working with the ideas I have learnt to help me in my devising.

Bibliography

Enright, Helena. (2011) ‘“Letting it Breathe”: Writing and performing the words of others’, Studies in Theatre & Performance, V. 31(2): 181-192

Schweitzer, Pam. (2007) ‘A Sense of Place and Time’ in Schweitzer, Pam. Reminiscence Theatre: making Theatre from Memories, London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. pp. 111-129

Barba, E. 2002. The essence of theatre. TDR/The Drama Review, 46 (3), pp. 12--30.

Smith, Brett. and Sparkes, Andrew C. (2008) ‘Contrasting perspectives on narrating selves and identities: an invitation to dialogue’, Qualitative Research, vol. 8, no. 5 pp. 5-34.

Conquergood, Dwight. (1985) ‘Performing as a Moral Act: Ethical Dimensions of the Ethnography of Performance.’ Literature and Performance. 5(2): 1-13.

Session 7

Today the session was on playback theatre and was led by Veronica Need of True Heart Theatre. With Veronica we looked at how playback theatre is a unique collaboration between the performers and the audience. In one of the exercises we did with her we revisited the idea of using personal stories of narrative as performance and we did this by taking a story from a member of the audience and created a physical performance reflecting this. It was incredibly interesting to see personal stories be immediately recreated on stage and Veronica allowed us to explore physicality as much as possible in terms of representing peoples stories. One example of an interesting piece of physical performance we created was when a story was told by a colleague about their day at university. She talked about constantly looking at her mobile phone that day. When this story was performed as a piece of playback theatre, one individual actually took on the role of the mobile phone and looked at how they could physically portray it using their whole body. We saw how she shuddered with her whole body when the mobile phone vibrated, and physically followed the main character around as though being attached to her. We were also able to explore physical exercises with Veronica such as the "fishing" exercise where we would move as a group in close proximity to one other, in a type of "follow the leader" way where one person would come up with an action for the rest of the group to copy as they moved around the space. We played with this idea by having different groups of "fish" interact with each other and create a story. In terms of our devising we have decided to explore this idea when we are portraying the "shadows" that follow our main character around. The idea of all moving physically as one unit is a very interesting and creative idea and is a simple way to transform narrative stories to physicality. Veronica also talked about how in playback theatre or in performance in general we should not seek to find resolution from performing or telling stories but simply just acknowledge their importance and accept that they need to be told. This reminded me of Helena Enrights "letting it breathe" in that it places emphasis on the importance of narrative, and this reminded me that narrative stories should speak for themself and not be over complicated. The session with Veronica really supported my point that narrative can be transformed in to physicality making an interesting piece of performance, and I have contacted the playback theatre school to hopefully begin some training with them to be able to explore this idea further and use it as inspiration for future devising.