How does music affect theatre & workshop planning.

2/11/2017

Today we started of the lesson with the question "How does music affect theatre?" To explore this further we each played a different song and reflected on how each song made us feel. We noted that fast paced songs created a higher energy in the room and made us all want to dance and move our bodies. However songs with a fast beat also created a tense atmosphere depending on the song and lyrics. For example, the song 'Paint It Black' by The Rolling Stones created a panic in the room in comparison to 'Shake It Off' by Taylor Swift which left everyone feeling positive and motivated. We also listened to 'Grown Woman' by Beyoncé which has a strong message about being independent and left all the girls in the room feeling empowered. I believe lyrics can be very strong and send a subconscious message to our brains which can affect our mood. If the lyrics are positive and align with your morals, you are more likely to feel upbeat and lifted. In opposition, if the lyrics are negative or provoking you could be left feeling sad and deflated. I also noticed that whilst some people played instrumental music, this left the class feeling more free and light as there were no messages being fed into our minds and you could be more mindful and focus on the sounds.

After this we split up into groups of threes and started to plan a workshop to run to the class. This was to prepare us for our own workshops we will be doing after our performances. We started off by listing different games to engage and break the ice and then chose music to go with our workshop. We had to discuss the length of time on each exercise and ways to get the focus of the class. In my group, we chose a trust exercise. We started off by getting the class into pairs and labelling themselves: 'A' and 'B'. All the 'A's' had to close their eyes whilst the 'B's' guided them around the room. We then moved onto playing IT with their eyes closed. We ended off the workshop by explaining the benefits of trust in acting and how it is important to trust each-other on stage so you can be comfortable and have a connection which creates a naturalistic and believable performance. We kept the first exercise to 1 minute each as we didn't want to cause too much anxiety as closing your eyes can be very challenging. We kept the second exercise of 'IT' to 10 minutes as more focus is needed and was our main exercise for the workshop. To improve our workshop, we learnt that slower music would of been more beneficial to keep a calmer atmosphere and doing more warm ups before closing their eyes would cause less anxiety.

Another group ran a workshop and this was based on character building. A piece of music was played and we had to walk around the space as a character we would associate with the song. The song was a laid back rapping song and I chose to walk slow with a slouch as this felt most appropriate with the lyrics which were talking about 'not caring.'

The next group ran a workshop on movement. We did this by getting into pairs and mirroring each other to ballet music. This helped us to connect to our partners and the music helped to set the tempo and created a calm soft atmosphere.

The final group created a workshop with emotions and warming up. A song was played with a fast tempo and we had to walk around in the space with the emotion the song made us feel. Then a slower song was played and we had to react with the emotion the song made us feel. This was useful to connect to emotions and find comparisons with happier feelings compared to sad feelings.