Through this week’s RED LEAP THEATRE WORKSHOP, I really learnt lots of cool stuffs and achieved my learning goals for each class, which are being creative, playing with new ideas, trying them out and exploring different aspects of Theatre.

Retroperspective – Key Learning

• Ensemble awareness and knowing our roles are necessary in a group performance. We need to really listen, pay attention and make eye contacts with each other to communicate throughout the show. (For example, the actvity of five people pausing at the same time really challenged our focus as a group. During the first lesson of HL students, we did that for a long time but still didn’t succeed. While in the next lesson when there were even more people, we rapidly made it. This shows the progress of our ensemble awareness.)
• Actors can be influenced by others’ performance naturally. When we respond or react to others’ stimulas, it could create a more powerful image to the audience. (communication)
• We can play with the most common things in our daily lives with different paces, scenarios and moods to make them “uncommon“. (eg. daily routine, key of this is to clearly show the audience what you are performing)
• TRUST YOUR PARTNER(S)!!!!! (For me, I really think that the activity which you close your eyes and let your partners to push you to different directions is super cool. At first, I was a bit hestitated about whether I should put my whole weight on my partner, because the sense of weightlessness was very scary, but as we continued, I became more confident toward my partners and fully trusted them to push me around. It was an awesome experience for me! )
• Don’t be scared of improvisation. You might not be satisfied toward the things you try and do, but every tryout can be a very powerful image toward the audience. (For example, I failed a few times to get onto Ian’s back during the weight-taking activity and I felt a bit upset about that, but Shreya told us that it still created a strong visual impact.)

Action – Things to do in the future

• When we need to perform a scene and don’t have any idea of what we are going to do, we can first choose a music/prop which fits the scene most or could be interesting to play with, and then respond to the stimulas (eg. the beat, the shape) naturally.
• Use contrasts: Fast paces & sudden pause; leading & following; chaotic & sycronized
• Mirror imagery
• Adding some dance elements/movements. (The weight-taking activity reminds me of urban dance since I tried to extend my legs and flex my body on the “basis person”, and I found that urban dance also has partnership and storylines, so it could be a very cool combination.)
• THEATRE IS ABOUT REAL EMOTIONS, SO FOLLOW YOUR HEART 🙂