EXERCISE IV: A TREASURE

CREATING A CHARACTER (Need 4 people)

Well through the exercises, you’ve memorized something, written it, and said it out loud to a mini audience. Now it’s time to create a character. An exercise I played with a lot during my times with the Loading Zone in Santa Rosa and as a director for “Skeleton Woman” is perfect for a taste of how to do this. Beginning here can keep you from getting caught in one-dimensional acting which happens when an actor plays the stereotypes and has no interiority or physical truth with the character. When that happens, I’d rather be at the movies.

This exercise was developed by Jerzy Growtowsky a brilliant Polish director who grounded his work in the unconscious and body memory, but did it through precise external tools. This work “the baseball exercise” comes via Stephen Wangh’s “An Acrobat of the Heart”. It was named by one of Wangh’s students and gets its name because it takes the form of a baseball diamond. 3 participants stand around the starting actor who is on the pitcher’s mound. There is an “audience” which is upstage beyond the baseman.

Lets begin:

1. THE BEGINNING ACTOR TURNS TO THE ACTOR IN THE FIRST BASE POSITION AND IS GIVEN A PHYSCIAL STANCE such as head thrown back, chest thrust out, and feet splayed out. Think of statues. The central actor mimics the stance until she feels she’s got it. It can be helpful for the other baseman to give the actor feedback to get the “exact” stance, i.e., how far is the right foot turned out? the left? ( Usually the more precise the stance, the more successful the exercise.)

2. WHEN THE WORKING ACTOR FEELS SHE’S GOT IT, SHE TURNS TO THE SECOND BASEMAN AND GETS A VOCAL CHOICE which should include pitch, intonation, placement and accent while including tempo and rhythm. It can be more fun if the vocal choice doesn’t “fit” the stance. Also don’t get bogged down here if you get too flummoxed with all the details, just throw something out. Or just pick one or two things to work with like high voice, low voice. Husky?? You can just imitate voices you’ve heard. Getting the voice, the actor checks back to first base to make sure she remembers the stance and includes it with the voice.

3. THEN SHE MOVES ON TO THIRD BASE WHERE SHE GETS A MOVING PHYSICAL GESTURE INVOLVING ARMS, HANDS, FACE, OR FEET. She integrates this with the two previous ones.

4. WHEN THE ACTOR FEELS SHE CAN KEEP ALL THE CHOICES GOING AT ONCE SHE ASKS THE AUDIENCE FOR A FIRST LINE. Then taking that phrase and using all of the other elements the actor starts to improvise trusting everything that comes up: thoughts, movement, words, images. If the actor gets stuck she goes back to the first line or asks for another. The basemen support the work if the “pitcher” starts to loose any physical or vocal elements. Of course this should be done on a minimal level. A rule of thumb is only if the actor is stuck or way “off base”.

5. IMPORTANT: AT THE END OF THE EXPLORATION, GIVE YOURSELF
A CHANCE TO DEBRIEF and come back into yourself. Breathe and let the elements and phrases go. It’s important to remember that the content that does emerge is the “character” and not you. The central actor then sits down and the other actors rotate their positions and everyone begins again.

QUESTIONS? e-mail lighttouchtheater@gmail.com

haiku

I found what for me is a definitive description of haiku in R. H. Blyth's "Haiku Volume III". He's speaking of the following haiku:

With last night's rain,
Snails have increased
On the aspidistras.

"At first sight this may seem a simple statement of fact, only meteorological, botanical and sociological in its scope. But haiku has a far wider range than this. It includes all science, all fact within it, and goes beyond it, pointing with no uncertain finger to the ground of being, the living tie that binds all things together in one. When we attempt to explain it, we say it is a mystery, but to the poet there is a region beyond wonder, where the commonplace and the wonderful are not distinguished, where the thusness of things is bright with a light that never was on sea or land, and yet is oddly there."

("Aspidistras" by the way belongs to the lily family.)

Exercise Three: Group e-mail haiku

A couple of weeks ago, full up with spring, I wrote a haiku and sent it off to friends and family via e-mail.  This fun haiku conversation resulted.  (You should also know my birthday was approaching.)

The buzz of bees

The bonking of beetles

The awe full smell of wisteria.

additions, transferences, spoofs, dalliances??

--christina

The following haiku came in:

The buzz of bees

The bonking of beetles

The woeful whiff of wisteria.

-Saul Griffith

Glowing in the sun

smelling like raspberries

a yellow iris.

On my rooftop deck

everything is bursting,

except the rhubarb.

-Arwen O'Reilly

The buzz of bees

The scent of flowers

Saul prefers the ocean wind.

-Tim O'Reilly

The buzzing of bees

The rhubarb's late song

Birthday's joy comes soon

-Olivia Crawford

bonking beetles

sqawking jays

hip hip hurray  - a birthday!

-Bridget Brewer

another haiku

Twisted apple trees
A blossom falls
Footsteps home

-- Christina

four by Christina

This old apple tree
Twisted, gnarled, covered with lichen
Bears apples.

Moon above the elm.
Moon above the pines.
In every bend in the road, a different
         moon.

Stillness when dry
Stillness when wet
Stillness in different cloaks.

Laundry glows white on the line
An owl hoots one note at a time
April full moon.

Excercise Two: write

Write your own haiku. It’s easy. American haiku does not require 15 syllables which is the way it used to be taught since many current scholars say it is ridiculous to try to create rules from Japanese which is not an alphabet language. More importantly it’s succinct. Three lines, imagistic, and usually has some mention of the season. For me, most importantly, “haiku” takes you into a moment of nature. The best way to learn to write haiku is to read a lot. After it’s written, memorize it, and perform it. You can figure out which rules are most important for you.

It would be fun to post some of your haiku here so that other people can use them for performing. Please use the 'comments' field to add them, and we'll post them on the blog. Putting your work out into the world gives it more dimension. Here are some of my mine. Use them for “performing” if you like. Please give credit in the performance. If you’ve enjoyed someone else’s haiku, let them know on this blog. A nice rule could be: lend one, borrow one.

FOR ISSA
The cheeks of the man in the moon
Are ready to burst
Shut your eyes.
-- Christina

I feel like ripe fruit
kissed by a thousand bees.
The flowers have fallen.
(Co-written with my husband. This is also fun to do. You come up with a line. Another person comes up with the second line and you complete it.)

Exercise One: Begin

Pick a haiku that touches you. Now memorize it. A great way to memorize is to read it from an enjoyment/ flow place several times. Then see how much you know. You’ll be surprised. Next, feel your feet on the ground, breathe in, and let the words flow right out of you. Let the words speak and that’s all you do. Practice a bit and now for the most important part: Remember this is for fun. It’s about giving a gift. Ask someone if you can share a haiku with them—that creates the performance space—and off you go. (And of course if haiku is not your bag you can do it with something else: a joke, a poem, a short song. You’ve gotta love it.)

Why haiku? They’re little 3 line nuggets with overtones that go on and on. You can find them online or check out the local bookstore, amazon, etc. I’d start first with the old masters like Basho, Busson, and Issa. Their poems really sing. (Two favorite editors of mine are listed below.)

1. THE ESSENTIAL HAIKU, edited by Robert Hass.

2. HAIKU, edited by R. H. Blyth was first printed in Japan in 1949. This is hardcore and has 4 volumes. The first volume has an amazing account of the evolution of haiku and takes you across Chinese, Indian, and Japanese cultures and the seeds of haiku in paintings and ancient poetic forms. If you’re into metaphysics and religions this is like candy. The other volumes have poems from the seasons and grouped around topics like: “frogs”, “butterflies”, “rain”. Blyth’s knowledge and love of haiku is very deep. And, it’s his love that makes these books such a fun read.

Link to R. H. Blyth's books on Amazon.com