October 25, 2008: The Workshop

Dear Friend,

I led my workshop for A.R.T. Fusion today. It was very well received, if not completely improvised. I had asked for four hours to do the workshop, but with people showing up late and breaks running longer than scheduled, the actual amount of time spent doing workshop exercises was around two and a half hours. Welcome to Romania.

I had twelve volunteers from A.R.T. Fusion at the workshop. The main purpose of the workshop was for them to see what kind of things I do at Northwestern. That being said, the workshop was rather simple to lead with regards to preparation. I just compiled a list of exercises that are characteristic of what we do in the theatre department back home. Trying to explain concepts and give reason to some of the exercises got a little complicated, but overall I was able to denote the importance of each exercise.

I started by introducing some focus exercises. Trying to get a group of theatre artists to focus can be quite difficult, but I realized today it can be even more difficult to get a group of volunteers to focus. I had to remind myself the way I felt when I was first introduced to a lot of these exercises. I remember as a freshman, I thought a lot of them were ridiculous. I think a lot of the volunteers thought the same. I was able, though, to emphasize the importance of focus within an ensemble, and I think the majority understood.

After a short break (explaining and then doing the focus exercises satisfactorily took quite a while) I moved on to some diction exercises. Diction exercises are always fun for me, as I love working with words. Also, diction exercises are rather quick exercises to do. I did a lot of call-and-response, as no one knew the exercises. The reason for these exercises is, obviously, to exercise your mouth so you don’t say your lines sloppily or lazily. Enunciation is the key and is the desired result of diction exercises. The one problem with introducing these exercises was that most of them were in English. Unless an ensemble is performing in English, English diction exercises could be a hassle.

Next were the energy exercises. These are difficult to explain and do at the same time. You can’t lead by example either, otherwise you just look silly. You look silly anyway, but if you’re able to explain the exercise and look silly at the same time, then you’ve accomplished something. Energy exercises also seem to be the most difficult to get newcomers to participate in. Some of these exercises do require people to be rather ridiculous, which is something most people don’t want to be. I’ve noticed that even at Northwestern it can be difficult to get people to participate, even if they’ve been a part of the department for a number of years. What’s convenient about these exercises is that some of them are also improv exercises. Some of the exercises require you to think on the spot. This made them a bit more appealing, as that’s why these volunteers were participating in the workshop.

Finally, after having gone through all of the exercises, we got to the part of the workshop where everyone would get the chance to do some improv. I introduced the inprov concept known to me as “Yes, and…” I learned “Yes, and…” while at Northwestern and believe very strongly in its fundamentals. This was, in my mind, the most important and most difficult exercise I had to explain during the workshop. This is what I really wanted to get to at the end and it took some doing to explain the concept. That being said, it’ll probably lose in translation as I explain it now.

“Yes, and…” keeps an improv scene going. If I ask my partner, “What do you have in your hands?” and my partner says, “It’s a kitten,” I can respond in two ways. I could say, “No, it’s not,” or I could say, “Really, what’s its name?” The first response completely halts the scene. Suddenly, my partner needs to find a way to save the scene, needs to work extra hard and come up with something fast. The second response, however, helps the scene along. My partner can answer, “Its name is Fluffy,” and then I can ask, “Where did you get Fluffy?” A scene is building. This is “Yes, and…,” a form of improv that encourages the actors to continue building things on top of each other and easily make a scene. What’s great about “Yes, and…” is that, most of the time, the building becomes funny, which makes the improv funny. Having to go along with each other’s ideas can take you just about anywhere.

The lunch break had gone longer than expected so time near the end was short. Everyone got the chance to improv for about two minutes with two different partners. Each of them actually did really well with “Yes, and…” and many of their scenes were quite funny. When everyone had their chance onstage I called the workshop to a close and invited the volunteers into a session of feedback and processing. They all wished they could’ve had more time to improv, but enjoyed the workshop nonetheless. They also appreciated the explanations of each of the exercises. After the feedback session was over, Carmen expressed her personal appreciation for the workshop and mentioned how she hoped A.R.T. Fusion would be able to use some of the things learned here in their forum theatre.

Before we all left, I expressed how I really wanted them to understand that theatre is for everybody. I confessed that a lot of my beliefs stemmed from being a Christian and that a lot of my personal theories on improv came from being a part of a Christian college (remember A.R.T. Fusion isn’t a Christian organization), but I wanted to stress my belief that theatre should be shared. I knew Boal would agree, so that worked in my favor when expressing this belief to volunteers of an organization that works with forum theatre. I also encouraged them to also practice “Yes, and…” outside of improv and in their own lives. I said that doing so would help them to create some very wonderful things. Granted, one can’t be “Yes, and…” all the time, but even in spirit being so could do so much.

The reason our improv time was so short was because there was a party scheduled for after the workshop. I was told the party was New Horizon’s “thank you” to A.R.T. Fusion for helping out with IMPACT artfest in Cluj two weeks ago. We all headed over to the office where the party was held. We ate pizza, watched some powerpoint presentations of pictures taken during the Festival, and had a meeting (in English this time) about upcoming events. Shortly after the meeting, everyone started leaving, so Diana and I did, too.

I have to admit that I was exhausted after the workshop. Just the mental power it takes to facilitate even the smoothest running workshop must be draining. I felt very good about it, though, mostly because everyone who participated felt good. Eugen commented how he wanted the workshop to go longer. I was told that usually such workshops go for about eight hours here in Romania. At least, that’s how A.R.T. Fusion does their workshops. I couldn’t imagine, quite frankly, what it would take to lead an eight hour workshop. I’m lucky I got by after four hours. The sentiment, though, meant a lot. It meant that these people not only appreciated what I did, but also trusted me. For me, that counts for something.

Blessings.
Kailen