Family Theatre

I don't know about you but have you noticed the lack of children's theatre at seaside resorts in the UK? I know when I was younger, there were lots of small sideshows for family entertainment, like Punch and Judy and Magic Shows. 

I think of everywhere I have been over the summer I have seen two shows, one at Land's End where there was a magic act for children and a guy doing football tricks in Leeds City Centre. I know this is not what you would class as 'serious' theatre but every performance that you see is important in some way, especially for children of a young age. 

Young children respond well to bright colours and simple, educational story lines. It helps stimulate the imagination of these young minds and develops their creativity. They like to laugh and join in with magic shows and similar talent acts; but where are all these disappearing to? 

As well as the decline of children's street theatre, I've noticed an increase of children's cinema, which is all very well and good because as a society we need to develop but we all know that watching TV all day is not good for you so starting this from a young age can't be good can it? Yes, it helps the learning development of young children and helps parents control a busy household by putting on children's programmes so they have something to do but really we should be promoting healthier options, like going out to the theatre or seaside and finding sideshows to watch.

I might just be naive and there are still lots of acts like this around the UK, but I do know that there aren't as much as there used to be when I was small. It's not as if I have been ignorant and haven't noticed these around because I have two cousins which are quite young and I like to find things for them to experience. 

Should we produce more street theatre for children and families? Is media taking over theatre? Let me know what you think. Sorry this is a short post.

:D

Pause for Thought

My workshop today informed me that we must take time to pause after each thought. So when we started this I thought, well, yes, it's common sense to pause after each thought. We were given this extract from Electra - Sophocles:

ELECTRA: Sometimes she would let me stay while she undressed. Sometimes she would sit here while I brushed her hair. My mother. She would let me open jars and bottles, sniff and touch, she would let me uncover close things from drawers, treasures, and tell me where they came from. 

Tell me stories of a life before. Sometimes she would hold out her hands for me and I would rub them with oil, taking the rings off, one by one, feeling the deep lines on her knuckles, shifting her skin, gently, over veins and bone. I wanted to climb back inside her, always, and settle down behind her heart. 

As we started reading through the dialogue, our tutor started shouting out more things to think about. 

• What can we gather from the words we have just spoken?
• How do I feel after saying this phrase?
• What is my relationship with the person I have just spoken about?
• How would I react to this memory?

Now when I started getting into this, I completely conjured up a situation that I hadn't ever been in, but still I was feeling emotions towards this situation. After every thought, I revelled in what I had just said, thinking out every possibility. It was quite nice to be forced into thinking about the text in hand, finding out every way you could interpret it. 

Once we had thought about our own little story, we performed them to the whole class. What was interesting about this was that no two stories were the same! Because of the gift of imagination, we were able to think of so many possibilities for this extract that we didn't repeat ourselves. This is why I believe it is important to use your imagination when interpreting a text. 

Normally, when reading a play you look into the given circumstances, which tell you the facts about the characters and their histories, but we were given a lot of freedom in this extract, and we were not expected to know the back story of Electra. If you are ever privileged enough to be able to do this please try what I have just done! 

1. Separate the thoughts in the dialogue
2. Really think about the possibilities of each thought in terms of emotion and physical movement
3. How would you react to these thoughts?
4. Revel in a moment of thought after you say the phrase
5. Stay in these moments throughout the dialogue
6. Repeat this over and over until you have your own story, whether made up or coming from your own experiences.

You may find that you have shifts in thought throughout your dialogue. THIS IS GOOD! Real emotional memories contain shifts in thought and this is the key to keeping the audience engaged and touched by what you are saying. 

All these techniques revolve around Stanislavksy's methods, using absorption, concentration and focus; engaging your imagination and separating your thoughts. Use your own emotional memory and use the words to engage with your own emotions, rather than manufacturing them. Be honest to the text and keep present in the moment rather than thinking ahead. Whilst using your emotional thoughts, find the impulse that makes you want to say the words you're about to say. 

I hope you find this useful! I did which is why I wanted to share this with you all! If you have any comments or questions about this, please comment below! Also if you have any other methods or exercises which you would like to share, again, comment below! If you don't understand any of the words or phrases I will be adding a Glossary to my site in due course which I hope you find helpful too! 

:D