Games for Actors and Non-Actors, 3rd Edition

get link Cover Page Half Title Page Endorsements Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Page Contents Page List of figures Page Translator's introduction to the first edition Page Translator's postscript to the second edition Translator's postscript to the third edition Preface to the second edition: The Royal Shakespeare Company, theatre in prisons and landless peasants Postscript: with pride in our hearts Preface to the first edition: the fable of Xua-Xua, the prehuman woman who discovered theatre Postscript: actors and non-actors 1 THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED IN EUROPE Introduction The Godrano experience: my first Forum Theatre in Europe or the ultimate spect-actor/protagonist! Feminism in Godrano The police again The oppressed and the oppressors 2 THE STRUCTURE OF THE ACTOR'S WORK The primacy of emotion Muscular exercises Sensory exercises Memory exercises Imagination exercises Emotion exercises Rationalising emotion A la recherche du temps perdu The dialectical structure of the actor's interpretation of a role The will The counter-will The dominant will Quantitative variation and qualitative variation 3 THE ARSENAL OF THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED Introduction: a new system of exercises and games from Theatre of the Oppressed Two unities Five categories of game and exercise I FEELING WHAT WE TOUCH (RESTRUCTURING MUSCULAR RELATIONS) First series: general exercises 1 The cross and the circle 2 Colombian hypnosis 3 Minimum surface contact 4 Pushing against each other 5 Joe Egg (aka trust circle) 6 The circle of knots 7 The actor as 'subject': the Greek exercise 8 The actor as 'object' 9 Lifting someone out of a chair 10 Equilibrium of the body with an object 11 A balloon as an extension of the body 12 Racing on chairs 13 Rhythm with chairs 14 Musical chairs 15 Movement with over-premeditation 16 Difficulties 17 Divide up the movement 18 Dissociate coordinated movements Second series: walks 1 Slow motion 2 At a right angle 3 Crab 4 Crossed legs (aka three-legged race) 5 Monkey 6 All fours 7 Camel walk 8 Elephant walk 9 Kangaroo walk 10 Leaning-against-each-other walk 11 Strapped-feet walk 12 Wheelbarrow 13 As you like it 14 Imitating others Third series: massages 1 In a circle 2 The movement comes back 3 Sea waves 4 The rolling carpet 5 Back massage 6 The demon Fourth series: integration games 1 Person to person, Quebec-style 2 The bear of Poitiers 3 The chair 4 Leapfrog 5 The Brueghel game 6 Stick in the mud 7 Grandmother's footsteps 8 Millipede 9 Apple dance 10 Sticky paper 11 The wooden sword of Paris 12 American football (aka British bulldog) 13 Three Irish duels 14 Little packets 15 Cat and mouse 16 Homage to Tex Avery - cat and dog(s) 17 The handkerchief game (aka the hat game, aka dog and bone) 18 Good day 19 Cadavre exquis (aka consequences) 20 The parachute 21 Balance with an object Fifth series: gravity 1 Horizontality sequence 2 Verticality sequence 3 Sequence of rectilinear and circular movements II LISTENING TO WHAT WE HEAR First series: rhythm 1 A round of rhythm and movement 2 Game of rhythm and movement 3 Changing rhythms 4 The machine of rhythms 5 The Peruvian ball game 6 The clapping series 7 West Side Story 8 The Portuguese rhythmic shoes 9 The two brooms 10 The four brooms 11 Horseshoe rhythms 12 Circular rhythms 13 The big chief 14 The orchestra and the conductor 15 Rhythm dialogue in teams 16 Chain rhythm dialogue 17 Pretend Brazilian 'Indians' 18 Lines of five 19 The president's bodyguards 20 Walk, stop, justify 21 Carnival in Rio 22 Bolivian mimosas 23 How many 'A's in a single 'A'? 24 Two by three by Bradford 25 Crossing the room 26 Circle of names of Belo Horizonte 27 Circle of rhythms of Toronto Second series: melody 1 Orchestra 2 Music and dance Third series: sounds and noises 1 Sound and movement 2 Ritual sound Fourth series: the rhythm of respiration 1 Lying on your back completely relaxed 2 Leaning against a wall 3 Standing up straight 4 Breathe in slowly 5 Explosion 6 Breathe in slowly while lifting the arms 7 The pressure cooker 8 Breathe in as quickly as possible 9 Breathe in as slowly as possible 10 Breathe in deeply through the mouth 11 Breathe in with clear definition and lots of energy 12 Two groups 13 Breathe out, standing in a circle 14 One actor pretends to pull the stopper out of another's body 15 A, E, I, O, U 16 All the actors, standing facing the wall 17 Two groups of actors, facing each other 18 With their bodies in maximum possible contact with the floor 19 Lying on their backs on tables Fifth series: internal rhythms 1 Rhythmic images III DYNAMISING SEVERAL SENSES The blind series 1 The point of focus, the embrace and the handshake 2 Noises 3 The imaginary journey 4 The glass cobra 5 One blind line, one sighted line 6 The magnet - positive and negative 7 Swedish multiple sculpture 8 The vampire of Strasbourg 9 The blind car 10 What is the object? 11 The smell of hands 12 The figure-of-eight chicane 13 Goalkeeper 14 Friend and enemy 15 Draw your own body 16 Modelling clay 17 Touch the colour 18 The blind person and the bomb 19 Find the hand 20 The siren's song 21 Find a convenient back 22 The melodic hand 23 The sound of the seven doorways 24 Recognising the 'Aaah!' The space series 1 Without leaving a single space in the room empty 2 Instead of simply saying 'Stop', the Joker says a number 3 The Joker says a number and a geometric figure 4 The Joker says a number and a part of the body 5 The Joker calls out a colour and an item of clothing 6 The participants run slowly 7 The participants touch each other IV SEEING WHAT WE LOOK AT The mirrors sequence 1 The plain mirror 2 Subject and image swap roles 3 Subject-image, image-subject 4 Everyone joins hands 5 The two lines form a curve 6 Symmetrical groups 7 The mirror breaks 8 Changing partners 9 The distorting mirror 10 The narcissistic mirror 11 The rhythmic mirror 12 Unification The modelling sequence 1 The sculptor touches the model 2 The sculptor doesn't touch the model 3 The sculptors spread out around the room 4 The sculptors fashion a single sculpture together 5 Sculpture with four or five people The puppet sequence 1 String puppet 2 String puppet with rod Image games 1 Complete the image 2 Ball games 3 Boxing match 4 One person we fear, one person is our protector 5 Furnish the empty space 6 Atmosphere of snow 7 Building character relations 8 Characters in movement 9 Observation 10 Complementary activities 11 What has changed? 12 Tell your own story 13 The antiquated telephone exchange 14 Concentration 15 Animals 16 Professions 17 The balancing circle 18 The 'Indian' in the city, the city dweller in the forest Games of mask and ritual 1 Follow the master 2 Follow two masters - who metamorphose into each other 3 Rotation of masks 4 Unification of masks 5 Collective creation of a mask 6 Addition of masks 7 Pushing the mask to its extremity and nullifying it 8 Following the master in his own mask 9 Changing masks 10 Mask exchange 11 The masks of the actors themselves 12 Substitution of mask 13 Separation of mask, ritual and motivation 14 Changing a whole set of masks into a different social class 15 Making the mask all-encompassing 16 Changing actors mid-ritual 17 A round of masks in different circumstances 18 Natural and ridiculous 19 Several actors on stage 20 The game of complementary roles 21 The politicians game 22 Exchange of masks 23 Exchange of roles 24 Fainting at Fréjus 25 The designated leader 26 The clown of Amsterdam 27 The animals of Vienna 28 Looking first at one another and then at the same spot 29 Cookies The image of the object 1 The found object 2 The object transformed 3 The object created out of simple things 4 Homage to Magritte - 'This bottle is not a bottle' The invention of space and the spatial structures of power 1 Space and territory 2 Inventing the space in a room 3 The great game of power 4 Chairs in the empty space 5 Where is my place? 6 Six chairs 7 Photographing the image Games involving the creation of characters 1 Murder at the Hotel Agato 2 Cops and robbers 3 The embassy ball 4 The child's dream - what I wanted to be when I grew up 5 The child's fear 6 What grown-ups wanted me to be 7 The opposite of myself 8 The two revelations of Saint Teresa 9 The fighting cocks 10 Catchphrases 11 What am I? What do I want? 12 The blank character V THE MEMORY OF THE SENSES Reconnecting memory, emotion and imagination 1 Memory: remembering yesterday 2 Memory and emotion: remembering a day in the past 3 Memory and emotion and imagination 4 Remembering an actual oppression 5 Rehearsal on the stage of the imagination 6 Extrapolation IMAGE THEATRE Image techniques: models and dynamisations 1(a) Image of the word: illustrating a subject with your body 1(b) Image of the word: illustrating a subject using other people's bodies 2 Image of transition 3 Multiple image of oppression 4 Multiple image of happiness 5 Image of the group 6 Ritual gesture 7 Ritua 8 Rituals and masks 9 The image of the hour 10 The kinetic image 11 The merry-go-round of images Images of transition - the technique in action Examples from Europe New Image Theatre techniques: the cop in the head 1 Dissociation - thought, speech, action 2 The analytical image: the multiple mirror of how others see us 3 Somatisation 4 The circuit of rituals 5 The three wishes 6 The polyvalent image 7 The screen image 8 The image of the image Four very simple demonstrations of embryos of Forum Theatre pieces, based on projected images REHEARSAL EXERCISES FOR ANY KIND OF PLAY Exercises with or without script 1 Improvisation 2 The dark room 3 One story told by several people 4 Change the story 5 One line spoken by several actors Games of emotional dynamisation 1 Breaking the oppression 2 The oppressor's confession Emotional warm-up exercises 1 Abstract emotion 2 Abstract emotion with animals 3 Abstract emotion, following the master 4 Animals or vegetables in emotional situations! 5 Ritual in which everyone becomes an animal 6 Stimulation of the dormant parts of ourselves Ideological warm-up 1 Dedication 2 Reading newspapers 3 The evocation of historic events 4 Lessons Exercises for the preparation of a Forum Theatre model or for the rehearsal of other kinds of theatre 1 Play to the deaf 2 Stop! Think! 3 Interrogation 4 The reconstruction of the crime 5 Analytical rehearsal of motivation 6 Analytical rehearsal of emotion 7 Analytical rehearsal of style 8 Opposite circumstances 9 Artificial pause 10 Self-interrogation 11 Opposite thought 12 Rehearsal of the cue 13 Two touches 14 Silence on set - Action! 15 Invisible characters 16 Before and after 17 Transference of emotion 18 Slow motion 19 Sensory focus 20 Low volume 21 Exaggeration 22 Free-style rehearsal 23 Reconnaissance 24 Caricature 25 Swapping characters 26 Need versus will 27 The rhythm of scenes 28 Rashomon 29 Keep talking 30 The ceremony 31 Secret whispers 32 I don't believe you 33 Long Beach telegram 34 Holy theatre 35 Analogy 36 The tick-tock sequence 4 THE EARLY FORMS OF FORUM THEATRE Introduction The rules of the game Dramaturgy Staging The performance game Examples of Forum Theatre 1 Agrarian reform seen from a public bench 2 The people judge a secret policeman 3 Leader at work, slave in the home 4 The return to work at the Crédit Lyonnais 5 The nuclear power station 5 FORUM THEATRE: DOUBTS AND CERTAINTIES: INCORPORATING A NEW METHOD OF REHEARSING AND DEVISING A FORUM THEATRE MODEL Twenty fundamental topics 1 Oppression or aggression? 2 The style of the model 3 Do the problems have to be urgent or not? Should they be simple or complex? 4 Do we have to arrive at a solution or not? 5 Does the model of the future action need to be depicted or not? 6 Model or anti-model? Error or doubt? 7 The conduct of the Joker 8 Theatricality or reflection? 9 The staging 10 The function of the warm-up 11 The function of the actor 12 The repeated scene 13 Macrocosm and microcosm 14 How to replace a character without transforming it into another 15 What is a'good'oppression? 16 Who can replace whom? 17 How should a 'model' be rehearsed? 18 Can a forum change themes? 19 Can people remain 'spectators' in a Forum Theatre session? 20 When does a session of Theatre of the Oppressed end? 6 FIRST EXPERIENCES WITH INVISIBLE THEATRE Examples of Invisible Theatre 1 Sexual harassment 2 Queen Silvia's baby 3 Racism I: the Greek 4 Racism II: the black woman 5 Picnic in the streets of Stockholm 6 The audience's children 7 ARTISTIC CREATION AND DIVINE MADNESS: A MEDITATION ON ART AND THE MIRACULOUS Passion and art The mad artist and the artist madman 8 INTERVIEW FOR THE PORTUGUESE EDITION (1977) 9 TO THE PEOPLE, THE MEANS OF THEATRICAL PRODUCTION: INTERVIEW WITH ÉMILE COPFERMAN 10 SPECIALISATION AND PROFESSION, VOCATION AND LANGUAGE 1 The Theatre of the Oppressed: a liminal theatre 2 The concept of 'Oppressed' 3 Oppression and subversion 4 The oppressed spectator POSTSCRIPT: THE PEDAGOGY OF FEAR - THEATRE AND THE TWIN TOWERS: AN ESSAY AFTER 11 SEPTEMBER 2001 AFTERWORD: THE DIALECTICS OF PERFORMANCE