7th February (Wednesday) 1st session
We walked around the space without leaving any big gap between each one of us. And each time, Toby will add in a movement for us and we need to quickly react to it when he shouted words that represent those movements.
Here are the words for the movements of this exercise
Clap - clap together
Jump - jump together
Side - use the fastest speed to move to the side, standing straight and be ready to get back into space
Center - quickly move to the center of the space, standing like the atoms in a solid.
Survivor - one person in the group stays standing, and the others will kneel down on the floor
Sacrifice - opposite from 'survivor', only one person will kneel down while the others stay standing at where they were.
TV - There will be an invisible television and all of us need to squeeze to the front together in order to watch what's on the television
What did I learn from above?...
This exercise is to let us work together and assemble with the others in a group. Like 'Survivor' and 'Sacrifice', none of us know who's going to be the one different, we can only communicate with each other by using eye contact. This exercise is also helping everyone to stay focus on the activity and concentrate on what Toby is going to say next in order to stay engaged with the group. I need to be in a multitask situation while assembling with the others because most of us forgot our first objective was to fill in the space whilst walking without leaving more gaps in between.
Then, everyone stood in a circle like how we play 'WA'. But this game needed everyone to look down and when we were asked to look up we need to pick a person to look at. If the person you're looking at is also looking at you, then both of you are out.
What did I learn from this game?...
This was an intensive game, it made my heart pound as I was waiting for Toby to say look up, I do not want to lose the game so quickly, so in my heart, I was wishing that the person I'm going to look at wasn't looking at me. But it was also a surprise when you found out that the person you're looking at is also looking at you, it was something like a tacit understanding. I don't think it's a bad thing as if I am an audience, I would love to watch if there's something like that on stage. Looks like the characters on stage are related in some kind of way.
"This is for you." "For me?" "Yes, for you." "Thank you." All of us sat in a circle facing everyone and someone started off with the first line by walking towards a person he wanted to pass an invisible gift to. The person receiving will say the pink lines. All of us need to react with each line we said, including when we're going to pass a gift to someone. It must be creative and contain with stories.
I did mine like this...
When Malcom handed me a gift, I received it with full of confusion to show that he'll never give me a gift for nothing. I opened that gift, it was a smaller box inside and when I open the second box, again, a smaller one. As I was opening the gift I became more and more angry because of being fooled by Malcom. Bringing the anger with me, I hand another gift to Abdul angrily too, I walked to where he was sitting at a faster pace and saying my lines in a higher volume.
What did I get from above?...
I got to see different ways of how people reacting to their gift and how they tried to build the story. I found it interesting by them reacting with exaggerated facial expression. This was a game to build up our creative ability, to produce something that everyone else couldn't see with our actions and expressions.
27th February (Tuesday) 3rd session
We did an exercise before starting the class.
In the first round - we pointed at anything in the room and said their names out loud.
In the second round - we pointed at anything in the room but saying names of other things. For example, I was pointing at the chairs but said bags.
In the third round - we pointed at anything in the room and gave them random names that do not even exist. For examples, saying "rondidondi" or "gatalala" at anything.
In the fourth round - At first, we need to point at a thing but not saying its name first, then point at the second thing and say the name of the previous thing. For example, I point at the lights first and then point again to the projector, but saying lights when I am pointing at the projector and so on.
Which round I found easy and which is hard?...
The easiest one must be the first one because whenever I point at a thing, the name of that thing will pop up into my brain even without thinking of it. I think the fourth one is hard for me because I must be really focusing if not I will keep saying the original names of those things I was pointing.
We did another exercise that was about improvising, everyone will be in pairs and we started off with saying "no, but..." whenever we wanted another person to stop telling the story, then we will need to start with another story until that person stops you with "no, but...". The second one was "yes, and...", this will able the story to continue but in their own different way. For example, Jaychelle started with a line "The other day, I was walking down the street..." then I interrupted her with "yes, and..." and continued with "... there was a homeless guy eating fried chicken..." and she will come in to interrupt me with her lines.
What I think about this exercise?...
I found this difficult because I will run out of stories as the game going further and further. This exercise actually helped me to think faster and to pay more attention to one thing, I will definitely need to think fast during a performance and be able to improvise with something when other characters couldn't remember their lines.
After that, everyone stood in a circle and one person went into the center and froze in a pose/action, the second person then had to go in to improvise a short scene with the first person, the first person will need to work with it as well. When people outside think the story was going bored, they could shout "freeze" and pat on the first person's shoulder then the person who shouted "freeze" will now be the second person. Only one person can shout "freeze" at a time. Everyone will take their turns to go in and improvise a scene base on the action of that person inside.
What did I learn from above?...
Toby always reminds us of how we need to work as a group. This exercise helped us to be brave and step in to help out others when their scenes were getting boring.
We then started another word game, which we need to create a story starting with "Once upon a time" and end it with "They lived happily ever after". Each person can only say one word each round. We kinda failed it in the first game as everyone was giving out random words and the story was unable to be connected at all. During the second game, some people weren't listening to others carefully, and there were so many long pausing in between and the game just couldn't continue smoothly. In the third game, Toby asked all of us to close our eyes in order to focus on our hearing and be concentrate on what did others said. I think the story was going on well, at least better than the first time. There were still some cracks in between like random words were added in, but we were able to finish the whole story.
5th March (Monday) 4th session
We began with a person holding an invisible energy ball, in order to pass to someone else, we need to clap our hands towards the person and the person will need to clap his hands to receive it. We were walking in the space as usual, Toby then passes an energy ball to someone to start the whole exercise. During the exercise, few people tried to make it interesting by adding some movements rather than just clapping hands. As the game went along, we started to put in levels from low to high while we were catching the ball or when we wanted to pass it.
Slowly, Toby took people out to give them objectives, for examples, Ilonka came in being really kind, whenever she gets the ball, she will pass it to someone by walking slowly towards him and clap softly to pass it hand over hand. In the opposite, Georgina came in to start blocking everyone's clap.
What went differently?...
Everyone started to play in a more energetic way as people tried to catch the ball will many big movements like jumping or sliding over the floor and in between of it some people will slow down the pace by having the ball for a longer time to increase the tension between all of us.
Toby then asked everyone out one by one and left only Molly in the space. He then added people in again but this time once they get the ball, they will have to do a daily routine in the space and shout "This is where I live" after 10 seconds. There're many different movements like martial arts by Abe and Jeremy did his sprinting, Ilonka was drawing. When it's my turn to join in the space, I thought of a movement which was sleeping on the floor as I love to sleep and my routine will be way more smooth and chill compare to others, I thought this will be a way to stand out in audience eyes because it would be really boring if everyone was going to do all big movements.
After that, we started to work on the story that Toby wanted us to write about, a thing/person that makes us feel comfortable with. There will be two groups working on different things, Molly will be working on hers. It was about her being around with her little brother. And Kamal, Gabriel and I will work with Ilonka's story, it was about the place that she feels comfortable with.
What I think about Ilonka's story?...Without knowing we're actually going to perform this in the Donmar Theatre, I really think Ilonka's story is very beautiful. It was about trying to escape from a place called "home", but when she really got out from there, the cruel wind and lonely feel make her think of returning back to that home which is also the safest place to be. Words she used in her story and the emotions, and how she described the place and all that feeling around her. It was a really nice piece to work on. But due to the lack of time, we did not really get it well at the first time of working on that.
We walked around the space without leaving any big gap between each one of us. And each time, Toby will add in a movement for us and we need to quickly react to it when he shouted words that represent those movements.
Here are the words for the movements of this exercise
Clap - clap together
Jump - jump together
Side - use the fastest speed to move to the side, standing straight and be ready to get back into space
Center - quickly move to the center of the space, standing like the atoms in a solid.
Survivor - one person in the group stays standing, and the others will kneel down on the floor
Sacrifice - opposite from 'survivor', only one person will kneel down while the others stay standing at where they were.
TV - There will be an invisible television and all of us need to squeeze to the front together in order to watch what's on the television
What did I learn from above?...
This exercise is to let us work together and assemble with the others in a group. Like 'Survivor' and 'Sacrifice', none of us know who's going to be the one different, we can only communicate with each other by using eye contact. This exercise is also helping everyone to stay focus on the activity and concentrate on what Toby is going to say next in order to stay engaged with the group. I need to be in a multitask situation while assembling with the others because most of us forgot our first objective was to fill in the space whilst walking without leaving more gaps in between.
Then, everyone stood in a circle like how we play 'WA'. But this game needed everyone to look down and when we were asked to look up we need to pick a person to look at. If the person you're looking at is also looking at you, then both of you are out.
This was an intensive game, it made my heart pound as I was waiting for Toby to say look up, I do not want to lose the game so quickly, so in my heart, I was wishing that the person I'm going to look at wasn't looking at me. But it was also a surprise when you found out that the person you're looking at is also looking at you, it was something like a tacit understanding. I don't think it's a bad thing as if I am an audience, I would love to watch if there's something like that on stage. Looks like the characters on stage are related in some kind of way.
"This is for you." "For me?" "Yes, for you." "Thank you." All of us sat in a circle facing everyone and someone started off with the first line by walking towards a person he wanted to pass an invisible gift to. The person receiving will say the pink lines. All of us need to react with each line we said, including when we're going to pass a gift to someone. It must be creative and contain with stories.
I did mine like this...
When Malcom handed me a gift, I received it with full of confusion to show that he'll never give me a gift for nothing. I opened that gift, it was a smaller box inside and when I open the second box, again, a smaller one. As I was opening the gift I became more and more angry because of being fooled by Malcom. Bringing the anger with me, I hand another gift to Abdul angrily too, I walked to where he was sitting at a faster pace and saying my lines in a higher volume.
What did I get from above?...
I got to see different ways of how people reacting to their gift and how they tried to build the story. I found it interesting by them reacting with exaggerated facial expression. This was a game to build up our creative ability, to produce something that everyone else couldn't see with our actions and expressions.
27th February (Tuesday) 3rd session
We did an exercise before starting the class.
In the first round - we pointed at anything in the room and said their names out loud.
In the second round - we pointed at anything in the room but saying names of other things. For example, I was pointing at the chairs but said bags.
In the third round - we pointed at anything in the room and gave them random names that do not even exist. For examples, saying "rondidondi" or "gatalala" at anything.
In the fourth round - At first, we need to point at a thing but not saying its name first, then point at the second thing and say the name of the previous thing. For example, I point at the lights first and then point again to the projector, but saying lights when I am pointing at the projector and so on.
Which round I found easy and which is hard?...
The easiest one must be the first one because whenever I point at a thing, the name of that thing will pop up into my brain even without thinking of it. I think the fourth one is hard for me because I must be really focusing if not I will keep saying the original names of those things I was pointing.
We did another exercise that was about improvising, everyone will be in pairs and we started off with saying "no, but..." whenever we wanted another person to stop telling the story, then we will need to start with another story until that person stops you with "no, but...". The second one was "yes, and...", this will able the story to continue but in their own different way. For example, Jaychelle started with a line "The other day, I was walking down the street..." then I interrupted her with "yes, and..." and continued with "... there was a homeless guy eating fried chicken..." and she will come in to interrupt me with her lines.
What I think about this exercise?...
I found this difficult because I will run out of stories as the game going further and further. This exercise actually helped me to think faster and to pay more attention to one thing, I will definitely need to think fast during a performance and be able to improvise with something when other characters couldn't remember their lines.
After that, everyone stood in a circle and one person went into the center and froze in a pose/action, the second person then had to go in to improvise a short scene with the first person, the first person will need to work with it as well. When people outside think the story was going bored, they could shout "freeze" and pat on the first person's shoulder then the person who shouted "freeze" will now be the second person. Only one person can shout "freeze" at a time. Everyone will take their turns to go in and improvise a scene base on the action of that person inside.
What did I learn from above?...
Toby always reminds us of how we need to work as a group. This exercise helped us to be brave and step in to help out others when their scenes were getting boring.
We then started another word game, which we need to create a story starting with "Once upon a time" and end it with "They lived happily ever after". Each person can only say one word each round. We kinda failed it in the first game as everyone was giving out random words and the story was unable to be connected at all. During the second game, some people weren't listening to others carefully, and there were so many long pausing in between and the game just couldn't continue smoothly. In the third game, Toby asked all of us to close our eyes in order to focus on our hearing and be concentrate on what did others said. I think the story was going on well, at least better than the first time. There were still some cracks in between like random words were added in, but we were able to finish the whole story.
5th March (Monday) 4th session
We began with a person holding an invisible energy ball, in order to pass to someone else, we need to clap our hands towards the person and the person will need to clap his hands to receive it. We were walking in the space as usual, Toby then passes an energy ball to someone to start the whole exercise. During the exercise, few people tried to make it interesting by adding some movements rather than just clapping hands. As the game went along, we started to put in levels from low to high while we were catching the ball or when we wanted to pass it.Slowly, Toby took people out to give them objectives, for examples, Ilonka came in being really kind, whenever she gets the ball, she will pass it to someone by walking slowly towards him and clap softly to pass it hand over hand. In the opposite, Georgina came in to start blocking everyone's clap.
What went differently?...
Everyone started to play in a more energetic way as people tried to catch the ball will many big movements like jumping or sliding over the floor and in between of it some people will slow down the pace by having the ball for a longer time to increase the tension between all of us.
Toby then asked everyone out one by one and left only Molly in the space. He then added people in again but this time once they get the ball, they will have to do a daily routine in the space and shout "This is where I live" after 10 seconds. There're many different movements like martial arts by Abe and Jeremy did his sprinting, Ilonka was drawing. When it's my turn to join in the space, I thought of a movement which was sleeping on the floor as I love to sleep and my routine will be way more smooth and chill compare to others, I thought this will be a way to stand out in audience eyes because it would be really boring if everyone was going to do all big movements.
After that, we started to work on the story that Toby wanted us to write about, a thing/person that makes us feel comfortable with. There will be two groups working on different things, Molly will be working on hers. It was about her being around with her little brother. And Kamal, Gabriel and I will work with Ilonka's story, it was about the place that she feels comfortable with.
What I think about Ilonka's story?...Without knowing we're actually going to perform this in the Donmar Theatre, I really think Ilonka's story is very beautiful. It was about trying to escape from a place called "home", but when she really got out from there, the cruel wind and lonely feel make her think of returning back to that home which is also the safest place to be. Words she used in her story and the emotions, and how she described the place and all that feeling around her. It was a really nice piece to work on. But due to the lack of time, we did not really get it well at the first time of working on that.
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