We had our first acting workshop last December with our very enthusiastic and sporting participants – Geraldine, Michael, Natalie, Michelle and Hyqel. The three-day workshop, held from 27th to 29th December 2011, was the first stage of our three-stage rehearsal process for our upcoming production, Far Away, written by Caryl Churchill. In the workshop, we explored a form of composition using Viewpoints (inspired by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau) and used it as a device to hone our awareness of our bodies and the space around us. Viewpoints is a useful method to enable us to focus on the different aspects of acting and direction. There are altogether nine time and space viewpoints – tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, repetition, shapes, gesture, architecture, spatial relationship and topography. The participants worked with isolating these individual viewpoints and explored the different permutations of how they could stretch their bodies and interact with the space.
On top of this, the workshop was a platform to develop the 5 to 10-minute scripts, written by Phua Jun Wei, Shawn Chua and Isabella Ow, which will be staged together with Far Away. The participants provided valuable feedback which was very constructive for the scriptwriters. We look forward to their next drafts!
“The exercises gave me a sense of the space on stage and made me aware that I was lacking environmental and bodily awareness.” – Michelle
We would like to specially thank Raffles Institution for being so generous as to lend us a fantastic space to conduct the workshop. It was a fruitful and interesting process where each of us learnt a little more about ourselves. It also involved lots of physical movement and was very tiring!
Our next workshop will be held in March and will be focusing on masks, puppetry and movement. It will be held on 10, 17, 24 March (Saturday) from 9 am to 6 pm. Anyone is welcome to join us. You can reach us at downstageleft.info@gmail.com.
Daniel Sim
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