Workshop Lessons and Activities

Lesson Activities

Activity one - Clarity/Communication

We were split into pairs and told to stand on opposite sides of the rooms. We were all asked to simultaneously sing a random nursery rhyme at our partners. When we were told to stop we were asked what nursery rhyme our partners were singing and we all had no idea as we were so hell bent on our own nursery rhyme that we didn't register our partners Rhyme. We were also quite vague in our actioning and we became aware that in order to communicate our message as clearly as possible .We needed to make our actions bigger. After this we were told to do the exercise again, this time bearing in mind that we would be asked the same question after the alloted time, if we got the questions wrong we were threatened with execution. This time the room was significantly less chaotic, there was order and polite communication.

Michael - salute scenes

Universal cultural symbolism used to provoke thought from the audience. Michael represented a gesture rather than an individual character eliciting intelligent responses as opposed to emotional responses.

V- effect

We created naturalistic scenes with 3 characters (1 liked 2, 2 didn't like 1, 3 wants to kill them both) 

We were then asked to include specific brechtian v-effect techniques

Sybil has a crush on Adjei who is oblivious to this fact - Ana Maria joined the group late and became a narrator - they also did episodic flashbacks imitating the montage technique.

Thaliqua and Miquel are in a relationship but Miquel doesn't really love Thaliqua so they are arguing at a bus stop and I am a random psychopath at the bus stop. - (I was asked to voice my murderous thought process / employ narration)

Vlad, loves Amber but Amber loves Tom who wants to kill both of them after discovering that Amber was with Vlad (they added narration)

Tatenda is a third wheel on a "date" between jack and Thalia, she eventually gets sick of them both and therefore wants to kill them.

Clays doesn't love Frank any more but Frank still loves him - they staged a melodramatic Victorian drama style price (Clay "You're a cage Frank") - they were asked to include placards

Lesson Group Discussions

University - is it worth the increasingly severe financial disadvantages?

Grants being turned into loans by the tory government.

The american FBIs opposition of communism. (Russia, Cuba)

Focus groups - how idiotic it is to make decisions for the masses based on them

Media - how they present things (fear)

Evil protests - You don't hear about protests unless they are violence mean is that violent