Starting a Rehearsal
At the beginning of the rehearsal process our director set a routine to start each and every session of work. It took some time for the cast to settle into the routine but not at all as long as i expected. Although there are some exceptions, on most days the majority of the class move through the routine with focus, dedication and precision.
The process starts with the cast entering the room (ideally in silence and neutral) leaving behind any negative energy or distractions. The cast is then to clear the space moving any furniture, belongings (inc. socks and shoes) or anything in the room that isn't relevant to rehearsals out of the way or into corners) maximising the available space. This was originally practised by buddhists in their zendo before a sitting linking the ideas of the practitioners Yoshi Oida, Stephen Brook and Jerzy Grotowski, back to the core belief of spirituality in theatre and acting. The performer must treat their performance like it is a meditation and remove themselves or anything outside of the performance from their sight and then mind. Yoshi Oida says that even the cleaning itself should be done with precision and conviction, starting as we mean to go on.
We then proceed to walk around the room in neutral, stopping when we need energy, to assume a sumo wrestler-like pose, facing our palms flat out to the ceiling, opening our eyes and mouths as wide as possible whilst sounding a firm "aahh" out into the space. - This is designed to energise the performer, it works both as a vocal warm up and a physical warm up/stretch preparing the actor for the rehearsal and the side stretch exercise.
YOSHI OIDA
Yoshi Oida is an Actor, Director and Author born in Kōbe (Japan) in 1933. He worked in japanese tv, film and contemporary theatre before eventually moving to France to work with Peter Brook and work on what would be some of his most well known performances.
Yoshi Oida wrote three acting theory texts
The Floating Actor - He details his experience working with Peter Brook over 20 years spanning from 1968 to 1988
The Cunning Actor - In this book he looks at the relationship between acting and everyday life asking "What have i learned on the stage that could help me live my ordinary life"
The Invisible Actor
Here Oida depicts a Japanese learning the customs and practices of the western theatre again noting Peter Brook as the "official" director of Shakespeare. The idea is that the actor should never call attention to themselves saying that "For me acting is not about showing my presence or displaying my technique... they (the audience) must be able to forget the actor and see something else. the Actor must disappear" Reading this you can see the director initiative to make connections between this text and Enron taking into account the ensemble elements of the play. a successful ensemble isn't lead by one or a few but is consistently strong throughout.
He writes that in order to be successful in being invisible the actor must be thorough, detailed, hard working, open and willing. These are things that Ben has emphasised a number times in various stages of rehearsal and almost every time we performed the side stretch. He rightly tells us that all of these attributes can be executed and performed whilst simply standing still waiting for the cue to end the exercise, therefore it requires vast quantities of dedication to apply this to your role throughout the play but we all have the ability to do so.
Yoshi believes that a performer "must learn the geography of the body" and know their way around it being aware of what they are doing, when they are doing it. This was also an idea presented to us by Ben in side stretch but i often kept it mind whilst performing or exploring elements of the Raptor movement. in conjunction with work on Physical Action and movement qualities using Laban efforts e.g. I isolated parts of my body to experiment with wringing my torso and legs whilst relaxing my shoulders arms or vice versa.
Side Stretch
After we feel as though the previous exercise has served its purpose we find an adequate space to assume the warrior pose where the body forms parallel lines with feet and arms and the performer is in a squat position. Here we face forward until one of the Skillings (Sam or Charlie) indicate the beginning of the exercise. In this position you are engaged, active and energised rather than lazily waiting to hear the command. The response to said command should be quick, committed and impulsive.
Charlie or Sam will begin to count from One to Eight and on each count you move your body from side to side, leading from the arms and facing each side you lean towards. This will happen in alternate directions (eg. "one"-right, "two" left etc.) starting with the right and then the left on the second go round. This abrupt start against the tranquility of everything prior startles your system and raises your heart rate.
On the eighth count you will find that you're leaning either to your left or right, now bring your backwards arm to join the leading arm in setting the body into a forward lunge with the arms and trailing leg forming a diagonal. This transition is softer than the previous movement and almost prayer like, this is especially notable when observing.
After momentarily sustaining the previous stance the hands move to the floor and the front foot joins the back-foot into a press up position. One press up is performed and then the arm away from the front of the class goes under the body rolling the performer onto their back arms and legs stretched out. This part of the exercise should look controlled and smooth engaging/working the performers core strength. the roll should also be smooth and controlled rather than abrupt in order to prevent injury.
Once the performer is on their back their arms and legs should lift off the floor and reach upwards engaging the abdominal muscles and hold for as long is felt necessary. When the performers feels the impulse to stop they slowly move their hands and legs to the floor in unison This is probably the most physically testing part of the exercise and should be somewhat painful but endured, it's definitely a test of the performers endurance.
After this the performer will banana roll onto their front and push their bum into the air in a catterpillar-esque fashion. They then slide their hands up till they are adjacent to the floor and assume the Sphinx position. In this position the performer almost scans the room by oscillating their gaze across the space from right to left, then back again. After the previous position this is almost a rest position but there is still a resting energy behind the eyes. Again this is one of the meditative, yoga like parts of the exercise.
The performer then brings their bum toward their ankles and the head down assuming and holding a prayer position. From here the performer slides their hands toward their sides and brings their head up to a sitting position where they will hold until an impulse to stand is felt. - This section of the exercise stretches the performer and engages the spine and back with moments of stillness to maintain this energised focus.
Once the entire cast is stood in neutral, "alive behind the eyes" and engaged, the director will eventually sound a warrior like shout to which the cast aims to sound in unison returning to the stretched sumo-like starting position. The aim of this is to eventually (physically and metaphorically) have the cast and director on the same wavelength and have an impulse to sound at the same time.
This process will be performed two times, once to the right and once to the left in order to balance the performer.
What i like about this process is that as well as touching on/exercising the psychological and physical, it breaches spirituality in it's almost meditative nature. It is probably the most well rounded exercise i have taken part in and i will definitely refer to this in the future working as an actor or possibly director. It is both personal to each performer (working off of individual impulses) and team orientated (working off of cast impulses). It focuses yet energises the body acting almost acting as a warm down from break or lunch whilst warming up for the lesson. It focuses the mind and i'm able to reflect on any ideas i may have thought of outside of rehearsal to bring into the room.
The director sometimes played music to accompany the side stretch and urged us to let it effect our bodies and the way we move. The music varied from tranquil ambient sounds to heavy dubstep often side by side to highlight and compare the difference between the two. It was interesting to see how the music informed our movement quality and speed, weather the movement was sustained or staccato.
Some sketches i made to help me memorise the form of the exercise at the start of rehearsals
As the rehearsal process went on this activity developed adding the vocal element of "Flat Back and Wide" in a big open American accent (the same accents we were to perform with so Ken Lay stuck with her texan) mine is more of a general American with some Washington DC influences. We sometimes added a closed eyes step forward as a sort of psychophysical way into the world of the play. After the lesson on gestures we sporadically worked with these movements in the warm up as a way into character. I'm not entirely sure on the success of this as i haven't used it consistently enough but i do find the action of "wringing" helpful to layer the tension and constant work underneath Fastows many layers.
