The Workshops

Sound & Light:
I found that this was the most useful and informative workshop. The hand on approach threw me in at the deep end, as I had little previous knowledge of the technical aspect we explored during the week. However I found the basics of light explained helpful and I learned from the other students. It was great to see what my peers brought to the table in terms of sound and light background and experience.
Our group's performance was not particularly successful, however the basic idea we had would have created a fantastic piece if carried out in the right way. On the days where we devised the composition and tried out different ideas, our teacher was absent, which I did feel had an impact on our performance (in the sense that we had a lack of technical and theoretical advice). Watching other groups carry out the same task in different spaces with different equipment was very informative as to the range of of atmospheres and visual effects that can be executed using the amazing light and sound equipment available to us. The group in the White Lab's piece was very effective because it was clean and the narrative was easy to follow. In addition there were elements of humour which made it even more impressive, including trapping a torch between black curtains and running it vertically in order to emulate an elevator.

Space:

Flocking

Photography by: Jiwon Sueng

During this workshop we learnt about the actor to audience relationship within space and different staging methods. This was very interesting and incredibly relevant to me as I like performing. It gave me insight on how I could make myself feel safe or vulnerable when standing on a stage. A talk given by a drama student meant that what we were being told was accurately informed and he could speak from first hand experience. He was invasive and charismatic meaning the morning session flew by and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having acting experience I felt like i understood the ideas and concepts being discussed yet still found them exciting and helpful, especially as classical Greek theatre and staging was discussed and how the body/ actor naturally responds to the space.
Learning about flocking interested me to an extent, experimenting definitely illuminated and clarified the concept but after the first hour I did not find I was learning anything new. Watching example videos of artists using this idea, or performances in which flocking is evident would have been something enjoyable to watch and given us more depth on the topic. I understand the importance of getting to know the space but measuring in methods such as bananas and scissors was tedious and not the most informative of practical class.

Northern Cafe Space Exercise

Photography by: Marina Bussandri 

During the week we did short exercises, where in our groups we had to arrange the audience in the space to allow them to guess the scene (eg. football match/crowd, supermarket ). These exercises were effective, to the point and very enjoyable. Quickly my group understood what worked and what didn't ad we started to build up good communication.

Audience:

Home Made Top Trump Cards
Photography by: Marina Bussandri 

During this week I learnt the importance of knowing your audience. In both an entrepreneurial and performative sense. We started by establishing different types of audience members (eg. The child, the creative, the business upper class theatre goers). After that we researched the target audience for many major companies and organisations, mainly in the theatrical/ performance world. We made Top Trump cards with potential audience members and the levels of categories such as wealth, intellect etc. It was a useful exercise which i found benefitted me and the way I would approach a task in the real world.