Triple - Historical Context - Blog 7 (Greek) - 20/01/16

Today, I got physical with directing my Greek theatre play. We first started by reading through the script; this meant everyone else understood what the play was about and what happens within it. Following this we got up and started acting.

My idea to make the piece more modern was to create a piece of physical theatre based around the script. The way I wanted to do it was to have all of the actors mime their lines instead of speaking them (except for the chorus). I got everyone to act out the scene with speech first; this got everyone familiar with the story before miming it which is a bit trickier. I also created a new verse for the chorus to say at the beginning of the piece. This is because the story would lack an introduction if the verse wasn't added. 

Partway through trying to mime the whole story, I decided that mime wasn't really fully using physical theatre and decided to start again. I thought about the Greek soldiers being much like the Romans, moving in formation to improve tactical ability. From this I devised a short movement sequence for our formation of 5. Below is the movement I devised:

• SL: Formation facing right (Tom centre, Dan right, Toby front, Lewis left, Lorna back)
• At 0:33, step LRLR, one per bar
• At 0:55, Lewis 90' L, Dan 90' R, Lorna 180'
• Shove shield, stab spear, shuffle forward (and back for Tom) ] x2
• Shove shield, stab spear, go to original stance
• Step back RLRL, turn to original directions, turn heads to audience
• Music fades out, Chorus Verse 1, Music fades in
• Cyclops enters SL, all turn 180'

After this I was planning on having some contact improvisation between each soldier and the Cyclops (excl. Tom) but I will have that devised with the rest of the scene ready for next lesson. In the next lesson, I will aim to teach everyone the newly devised choreography and then iron out any creases.