Date: 13th November 2018
The focus of this reflection will be on Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrating the skills and recognising the benefits of working collaboratively.
So far, we have come very near to the end of our rehearsal process. Our show begins on November 20th, and the anticipation is what is driving us to push ourselves to push forward and deliver a palpable performance.
Collaboration has been a key factor of this whole experience, in that drama productions are almost always built off of the collaboration and camaraderie of the cast and crew. In terms of the skills I’ve focused on as a collaborator, I definitely tried to prioritise the involvement and provocation of ideas by other performers that don’t get the opportunity to voice their ideas, as I feel I take charge as a leader very frequently and want to give others a chance to do the same.
Beyond the skills I’ve tried to train my focus on individually, I have also found recognition for the collaboration between my group within the play (the Incas) and myself. One of the main focal points for us as the Incas is authentically playing very complex and culturally significant characters. As we represent an empire that tragically fell, we have had to work tirelessly together to be able to emulate real people without being offensive in any way. We have closely worked together over the last few weeks to determine how we differentiate from the soldiers and how we differentiate from each other through the exploration of our physicality; how we walk, the rituals we perform at certain points in the play (especially the end), motifs like the knots we tie to document our story, and songs (the toil song).
To find individuality, we discussed which parts of our characters we could keep separate and develop personally. For me, I created my character of Villac Umu through voice work and through the rope motif. As I am the chief priest, I asserted my dominance through a polite and clear but loud voice, and tall stance. While rehearsing the rope motif, I found ways that I could connect with Atahuallpa through subtle nods, passing a rope to her, miming tools like scissors to cut the rope and pulling the rope towards myself to set myself apart from the other Incas.
