Week 5: "Advanced Techniques in Actor Composition"
Compositions with furniture
In the previous lesson, on the pictures (Figures 28 through 39) it has been assumed a bare stage because the intention was to show the techniques of making good compositions; but the bare stage is, of course, a very exceptional circumstance in Realistic drama as a rule. The rules of realistic drama are universal and can be applied to any genre of the performance.
What we would like to work on with you this week is a composition with
furniture.
The problem is to see compositions in the midst of furniture (properties) placement. If a workable groundplan has been devised, compositions will fall naturally into it, for actors will feel relationships on the basis of where they can sit or stand. Groundplan designing thus always gives prime consideration to how composition can be exploited by the actors and the director.
One important aspect is how furniture pieces participate with actors in compositions. Without actors, properties are dead objects; but when actors move around them and use them, they take on a presence resembling that of silent actors. Triangles, in all their variations, can be made in this way, with two actors and a piece of furniture as the third point. Again, if you and the actors think of a groundplan as an obstacle course, good compositions will mature themselves. Remember: Using the stage compositionally does not imply clearing the space for the actors to move in front of the furniture pieces, but it means allowing the pieces to interrupt space (obstacle-course concept) and thus interrupt an actor’s goal to reach and touch another actor (see Figure 40).
An obstacle course will automatically defeat the desire of actors to make climactic compositions, which can then be saved for the appropriate moments. An actor moves in a groundplan, not in front of it. Consequently, the more objects there are in a groundplan, the more difficult it will be for one actor to reach another. If your groundplan is skillfully devised, you can suggest compositions to actors that will impede them—that is, compositions that will keep actors from reaching one another easily, with the result that they will unknowingly intensify the illustrations of their dramatic actions.
Staging a Practice Scene
Scenes can be performed either in the classroom or on a proscenium stage (if a stage, preferably a smaller rather than a larger one, so that you do not encounter too soon the challenge of filling a large space.) You must not violate the proscenium line by advancing in front of it; always play behind it. This is essential so that the framing effect of the proscenium opening is fully perceived and you learn to “see” the stage picture in this way. You will have opportunities later on to break out of the proscenium space, but for now, learn how to make it work for you. If you are using a classroom, set the proscenium positions by placing two chairs 24 to 26 feet apart, or the maximum width your space allows (less than 20 feet will cause problems), and then carefully observe all the laws of the proscenium stage as if you were playing on one. (A good substitute for chair walls is to use a twofold screen unit or similar on either side of your stage.)
Rehearsal Furniture
As was suggested in Week 3 on the groundplan, you should learn to work with whatever rehearsal-room equipment is available. It is far more important to learn how to occupy space with chairs or odd pieces, and to learn the concept of the obstacle course as well as the nature of architectural mass and line than it is to try to reproduce things exactly as they appear in everyday life. Use chairs as chairs, and tables as tables, of course; but if you and your actors use them properly, you can make these same chairs and tables appear to be different sizes, different shapes, different textures, and even different styles. You could let stacked chairs represent cabinets, bars, fireplaces, and even tables, if necessary; chairs, side by side, might represent sofas; and so forth. Learn to get along with relatively few items, but never forget that you are delineating space, not leaving it empty.
The suggested items in Figure 50 are explicitly designed for a director’s rehearsal use because of their wide range of deployment in proscenium staging as well as in other types. Note that they have a neutral quality and do not have to be used as a literal representation.
The four-screen units are provided to give a variety of wall ideas because walls help directors and actors to know the specific limits of their groundplans. (See Figure 51 for sample illustrations of their simplest use.) Wall units (note the two sizes of the screen units in the drawing) will also help enclose all your other pieces, as well as make your obstacle course specific. The stools, benches, and rock provide a wide variety of sitting positions. A round table is included in addition to the two square tables because it has different compositional possibilities than square tables have. The practical pylons in three sizes open up all kinds of groundplan arrangements; also note that they can be used in front (closed) or back (open) positions with different meanings respectively. The platform and step units will encourage the use of levels.
A word about the color of these materials: All the items in this rehearsal set should be painted a neutral color, perhaps a pearl gray so that no single item has any particular emphasis through color value. You may at first think gray is too somber, but you will soon discover that it lends itself equally well to serious plays and comedies. The intention of using little color is to reduce the materials to expressions of line and mass without the distractions of particularizing details.
Whether you use classroom furniture or the more elaborate rehearsal-room setup described here and illustrated in Figure 50, you must try to be as ingenious as you can, remembering that a groundplan is a tool of communication to actors and that actors will be only as free as your imagination encourages them to be.
Tasks Assignment
EXERCISES 1.
Summary Exercises for All Aspects of Composition
1. Coordinate all the exercises throughout this chapter by setting up a groundplan (with furniture pieces) on the classroom floor and by arranging compositions within it. When the instructor gives a signal, use three actors to change locations, thus making new compositions. Other students should identify all the elements in each composition and then evaluate the effectiveness of the elements on the groundplan.
2. Each student should compose at least three different groundplans and then set up multiple compositions on each. Intensive practice in this problem will prepare the director for all that is to follow, for without a basic understanding of the techniques and the uses of composition, he will not be able to bring about truthful illustrations in a play.
EXERCISES 2.
1. You and two other members of the class “play” on and around chairs without moving them, each person doing something different with his or her chair at the instructor’s signal.
2. Try the same exercise with a table and a chair. Each person should continue to work independently.
3. With you as the leader, have the class improvise a usable groundplan. Criticize and revise the plan to get as much ingenuity into it as possible. Now have two people use the groundplan, changing locations on signals from the instructor. Have the class judge the freshness of their uses of the set properties.
4. Repeat Exercise 3 several times, each time trying to find ingenious uses of furniture pieces. Have your classmates, acting as directors, suggest specific uses to the two individuals.
5. Ask two people to improvise a dramatic action around and on a chair. Warn them that they must not point up the functional use of the chair but must employ it only in finding contact with one another. Let the chair tell them what to do. Repeat the exercise with a table, with a sofa, and with other items.
6. Combine the use of hand properties and set properties (see ) in the same improvisation as outlined in Exercise 5
Complete all the preparation steps before meeting with the group for a practical experiment. If you have a question or need any advice, feel free to contact us via "Chat with NIPAI" and our teachers will reply as soon as possible.
For the report, you can record the video and send it to us. Make notes as you observe the process. After all exercises are complete, send an essay summarizing all phases of work: preparation before meeting with students, task delivery, result, and analysis.
Deadline: December 28
Studying Materials
Reading:
“Mastery of Movement for the Twenty-First-Century Performer” (page 88) by Karen K. Bradley
“Mastering Movement” by John Hodgson
“Jacques Lecoq and the British Theatre” by Franc Chamberlain
“Movement Directors in Contemporary Theatre: Conversations on Craft” by Ayse Tashkiran
