Monday began with our routine waking up exercises which were then followed by new stretching exercises which don’t excite me much honestly. Instead I see them as a means of preparing for the more challenging and rewarding tasks set out to us by Eadaoin. This edition being a more familiar improv setting. The group of 5 on one side of the room work together to set up a scene which needs an event of some sort to occur. However in order to make this event flow naturally the action needed to be justified.
Looking back there is an element to strategy to this exercise as well as restraint (that part really resonated with me…). Those in the Quintet had to make their scene simple enough for the audience to understand the setting but not obvious in the dialogue; eg “Hello mother I’m in the train station, train station!”. Where I struggle most in the exercise is trying to be boring. In most cases I’ve been the most outrageous and unjustified character in each case.
Tuesday introduced more stretches that I don’t have much to say in terms of reflection other than the ease of movement. We later added to last Tuesday’s musical based exercise. We later came to the conclusion that we became stuck in what we could do with the story of the boy named “Lost”. Our new exercise contained a more traditional sense of being lost and involved all of us rather than focusing on the individual.
Friday’s class in terms of our movement played to my weaknesses of bending my knees that are stiff from the bitter morning prior to class. We then moved onto the more comfortable pendulum based movements which I gain enjoyment out of purely for releasing all control of my body.
A return to the same improv exercises from Monday saw the return of my habits of causing something without justification. However come second time round I had held myself back and simply played a mundane character who blended into the scene. It wasn’t as satisfying as blowing a scene out of proportion but rewarding in a more boring sense.
We moved onto the brainstorming of our observations made from a public place. We came to an entertaining conclusion. It was fascinating to explore the narrative possibilities gathered from the world around us. Unfortunately we ran out of time.
David Quinn UCC first year (Drama and Theatre) 