Final Post - Lauren Walker

1) As the ensemble transitioned from the Validation stage to the Performance stage indivually and as a group we had issues. The personal issues I encountered within Porto were that I both needed and wanted, love and attention from the other members of the community. Sometimes I would receive this love and attention for example from Gina’s character but that was short lived when I stumbled across Edward’s character who found enjoyment out of my misery. “Our bodily relation to society is explored, in terms of both our placement within the structure of society and the longing to find some sense of true definition beyond that realm.” (Climenhaga, 2009, p.91) As well as our own individual issues, the ensemble as a whole encountered numerous group issues. Some of these include love, hatred, conflict, self discovery but the main issue that brought us together in the end was the fact that each and every one of us was waiting. Waiting in a world where none of us really knew why we were there. Waiting for something to bring us out of the rut we had let ourselves get into, whatever it may be. What reflected this feeling of waiting was the movement we performed as an ensemble, the opening scene sticks out for me when discussing this issue. It was the first time the audience saw us a whole and cohering with each other, and with the particular movements executed they in turn portrayed the idea of us waiting, together. “It is not just what each successive image says about the underlying structure, but how they infect and affect each other, creating a web of sense.” (Climenhaga, 2009, p.124)

2) When it came to moving from the studio and into the theatre space it allowed Porto to really come to life, it also allowed us as characters to get a more meaningful understanding of our environment. While working in the studio we didn’t really have the opportunity to fully understand our surroundings which were going to be used in the performance, what we were able to do was to get a grip of our characters with both hands and know them inside out. Because we already had a great understanding of our characters it was just the matter of getting use to our new environment. The main problem that occurred was the use of the periphery; it changed a lot when moving from the studios into the theatre space. Even though we had a lot more space to use when doing the periphery work it was a challenge to keep it low key, what I mean by this is that we had to alter our work in such a way that it didn’t obstruct the main action but also didn’t take the audiences focus again from the main action on the centre stage. Another problem faced when altering the periphery work, we had to make sure that even though we weren’t upstaging the main action we were still 100% in character and all throughout the performance we were building on our characters story until the very last moment when we leave Porto. When reflecting on the transition, personally I didn’t feel there were any major strengths and weaknesses just minor issues we needed to adjust which we all knew were inevitable when creating Porto. I believe that we only encountered minor issues purely because as a group we managed to connect so well, so if we were having problems we were able to overcome them because we all understood what each individual was experiencing.

“Being fully open to other actors is not simply a matter of creating pleasant working relationships. You must be able to work as an ensemble to tell the story moment by moment.[…] Eye contact is a crucial ingredient, so is a heightened sensory awareness of others in the space.” (Callery, 2001, p.88)


3) After performing in the afternoon on the Thursday that initial anxiety of the first show had gone and I personally felt as if I could go on and truly enjoy the idea of performing a show I had worked so hard to help create. While that being said I didn’t think that when it came to the evening performance (on the Thursday) some of my interactions would be altered. The way in which the interactions were changed closely follow the ideas of theatre company Theatre Machine and their idea of “throw-away” theatre, where in which if something happens in one show it doesn’t necessarily have to happen in the next.

Theatre Machine’s method of working depends on very close mutual support by all performers. Timing is one important example: if something threatens to flag, for instance, the actors on stage are dependent on one of their colleagues taking the responsibility of entering and changing the direction. They must all be highly sensitive to each other and to what is happening, totally ‘present’ and alert, prepared to support each other and not ‘block’. (Frost and Yarrow, 1990, p.58)

Even though we believed to have completed the RSVP model, we really hadn’t it was still present throughout the three shows, and this was because of the interactions forever changing. While saying this, that some of the interactions did change it can’t be said that all interactions were changed. If that was the case we wouldn’t have the solid structure that we went into the theatre with. Reverting back to the RSVP model, personally I was still using it in both the Thursday evening performance and Friday evening performance. There are two clear instances when this occurred for my character. The first one was my interactions I had with Rian, all throughout the process of Porto I never had a connection with her character up until the Thursday performances when my character felt the need to ‘rescue her’ from the struggle she was having with Sean and Kelly. My character felt the need to help her in her quest to steal Sean off Kelly, although my intentions were cut short and Rian only wanted me for my bag, I kept the connection for the two other shows which were the Validation and Performance stages within the model. The second instance was the interactions I had with Antoinette, even though I had minimal interactions with her during the process in the studios they came to life during the performances in the theatre. And by doing so it gave my character more depth and more of a reason to be where I was at that specific time, where as before I was just standing there because I needed to get to the other side of the stage.

Overall I didn’t really think that the process would still be on going when we entered the theatre, but Im glad it did. It opened up a new found enjoyment to my character.

Bibliography

Callery, D. (2001) Through The Body A Practical Guide To Theatre Nick Hern Books Ltd.

Climenhaga, R. (2009) Pina Bausch Routledge.

Frost, A. and Yarrow, R. (1990) Imrovisation In Drama The Macmillan Press.

POSTED BY LAUREN WALKER.