Thursday, July 15

A Final Visit to Regents College

Departing King's Cross

Aquassage

I missed the meat of Judith's work with the students as I was busy assessing their written work. From what I can best surmise, the activities that led up to the performances posted below included:

1. Judith broke the students up into three groups. Each was given the first page of text from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. The students were to to read the text and choose one sentence that they wanted to dramatize. The could use any methods they wanted so long as everyone was involved. A strong emphasis was placed on physical theatre (illuminating individual words, instead of specific characters) and I'm not sure if this was the result of their instructions or just emerged organically from the group. A water image emerged from this activity which directly powered the creation of the final performance piece (here labelled as "The Deep End of the Ocean").

2. Judith asked the students to create a piece using the title, "Once Upon a Time." As above, physical theatre was prized over clear characterization. My impression was that sound and movements were to unearth something unexpected for the audience. This focus on sound and movement were also heavily influential in the creation of the final performance piece.

3. In preparation of the performances, Judith led the students in a transformative re-focusing activity, where the students stood in a circle, essentially playing follow the leader. The leader would move his or her body in any variety of ways and the other members of the circle were to duplicate the movements as seamlessly as possible. The leader was changed whenever someone new decided to become the leader, but they did so imperceptibly so that the whole group appeared to continuously be moving together.

Performances

The Deep End of the Ocean:

Great Expectations #1:

Great Expectations #2:

Great Expectations #3

Once Upon a Time #1 (I didn't record 2 and 3 - sorry guys!)

A Secret Garden

Following the performances, we were to have a garden party for Gavin Bolton in Regent College's secret garden. Due to heavy winds, we were forced to hold the party inside, but we took the opportunity to enjoy the garden while the space was set up for the party.

At the party, Gavin was introduced by David Davis, who is currently editing a volume of Gavin's essential writings to be published in the fall. Gavin then spoke about a book he is currently editing wherein current drama practitioners were asked to comment on their work. Gavin indicated that though his work was influential, it was no longer current and he was fascinated by all the innovated areas in which drama was being practiced.

In the second image from the bottom, Gavin appears having a conversation with Latisha Jones.