Camden Peoples Theatre workshop

Today we did a workshop with Camden People's Theatre and focused on many aspects of theatre. We looked at physical theatre and devising pieces of theatre. We warmed up by walking around the space in a neutral manner and then getting into groups to create a range of different freeze frames such as: at the best party ever, at a wedding and creating objects such as a spilt drink. This taught me to work collaboratively as a group and to use my initiative to create a clear image for the audience to understand. I used good team working skills to make sure everyone in the scene was connected and this also helped to convey a clear still image.

We then moved onto doing some pair work and we started off by doing trust exercises. We each had to fall back and be caught by our partner and this helped to connect our pairs and also to let go mentally and physically and feel looser. I learnt that you have to be flexible as an actor to be open to all different experiences to create the best theatre pieces possible for the actor, actors involved and the audience.

After we had to devise a piece of theatre based on the title 'Prison Break' and we did this by using the trust exercise movements and developing these into a piece, where we bent down to show us climbing under a fence, then running away on the spot and jumping for joy to show our success in breaking free. I learnt that you can create a strong piece of theatre with a basic stimulus and it taught me to use my imagination more freely as there was no boundaries.

Our last exercise was to devise a piece of theatre with a question or topic that we had written earlier on in the session. In my group we got given the title 'Travelling'. I started off the piece by stating: "I want to go travelling with my sister" and then tapped each member of my group on the shoulder as they revealed each country I wanted to visit. We started off by having Australia, and the actor playing this part spoke in an accent stating ''Good day mate'' and used physical theatre to portray a crocodile. We then represented France stating "Bonjour", Italy with "Ciao" and Spain with "Hola". This gave a authentic atmosphere and set the scene for the audience.

In conclusion, I learnt that to be a strong actor you have to be imaginative and use good team player skills to connect the actors to create a strong piece for the audience. Moreover, for the audience to understand the pieces devised, clear images have to be displayed with confidence and energy. I also learnt that it is freeing to devise pieces of theatre without having set guidelines as you can be as creative as you like which is beneficial to creating unique pieces.