Identity
What We Have Learnt In Class
- Flexibility
- Good Posture
- Good Listening
- Eye Contact
- Being Clear
- Memorising
- Openness
- Motivation
- Facial Expressions
- Staying in Character
- Confidence
- Projective Voice
- Body Language
- Determination
- Teamwork
- Never giving up
- Stage presence
- Concentration
- Emotion memory
- Dramatic analysis
- Observation
What is Verbatim
Verbatim theatre is used as a platform for people who wouldn’t normally be able to use it, to express their voice, and to share their story or an event they have experienced. This allows students to be able to brainstorm a realistic character so they can produce dialogue of that person. They would also use this by analysing a person’s gestures, physicality and facial expressions. Actors that will use Verbatim theatre will replicate the person’s speech patterns in a conversation. Students would also have to imitate their accent as well as pauses and repeated words. The process of this is to create an authentic piece other than most playwrights that are based on true events, therefore giving off their own twist.Verbatim theatre, meaning word for word uses spoken words from real people. Actors will play as them with no changes to the dialogue usually from recordings or interviews. These testimonies are later used to construct the play of that explained topic. Sometimes an individual will work with a writer to tell their story. Verbatim theatre is similar to documented theatre/plays such as Rolf Hutchhuth’s Der Stellvertreter (The representative known in America as the Deputy) Which premiered in West Berlin in 1963 and Peter Weiss’s The Investigation (1965). These German documentary productions had a great influence on British documentary theatre. https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/genres/verbatim-theatre-iid-2551
Subsequently when Verbatim theatre is used there is realism to the piece. Verbatim gives out a narrative of truth to the play and gives you facts on how people have viewed in their lifetime. “ Verbatim plays offers the truth and authenticity to the audience that even the most well crafted and researched plays can’t,'' says writer and director Robin Belfield. This would also have to take skill to listen and observe the way people speak, and listen to the testimony to make sure it is “represented accurately”. There is also debating of which words can be placed within the final performance and ones that don’t make it in. As a result this would require the person to choose highlights of lines/moments that stand out!
What is good about Verbatim theatre is that it is direct quotes of people that lived through certain events. This way it will not get changed or adapted into any other source since this is a duplication of the original it will try to get as close to the original as possible. Without turning it to a writer’s choice of events and ideas to intrigue the audience.
What Have you studied on Identity in class ?
In class we have been looking at the theme of identity, and required us to use verbatim theatre to explore different styles, of real perspectives, from people’s viewpoints. For example, interviews, news articles and other people’s personal writing like an autobiography. First we were introduced to some games to expand our improvisation, so that we are able to think of ideas on the spot which will later assist us on ideas for identity. Normally, we do warm ups each session to get us active, and to ensure that we have good posture. Also some techniques to improve our breathing by putting our left hand to our stomachs breathing in and out from the belly or with a partner putting their right hand against your stomach and their left hand on your shoulder. Another technique would be to lay your whole body against the floor and try breathing in and out. This is to help project our voices, because if we don’t have a loud voice the audience won’t be able to hear us. The next step would then be to articulate our words correctly and clearly by not speaking too fast, and pronouncing words properly. An example would be by using “tongue twisters”, so we can get use to articulating our words, and exercising our tongue. For our Verbatim we have been interviewing our relatives questions: Where they were brought up? How they found their workplace? What made them happy? What made them angry? Etc. I recorded my mum by audio and her Verbatim is going to play in the piece. I am going to do a verbatim on Alice’s uncle who talks about growing up in Sierra Leone that is similar to how my mum’s interview plays.Rehearsal
During class we were rehearsing our devised piece for Identity, and we were working on poses to represent ourselves. Next we had to work on three still images, and I was paired up with Kenroy, and Aso. When we all worked together people were laughing and giggling and it was harder to move the scene forward. While we did this the current scene portrayed us giving compliments to Hanna. My first line originally was “ I like your hair” to “Have you lost weight” as I thought it would be more interesting to use, and was an example from our tutor. Furthermore, As others appeared next it was difficult not to laugh at how some others approached Hanna, because people were eyeing at each other and it was problematic as I couldn’t stop smiling. I needed to choose six lines for my verbatim, and I was deciding which ones to choose. I also thought I wouldn’t be able to remember each line as I picked big chunks for it. In addition, the next scene came and I was playing an old man with Alice as my old partner watching a street performance. I believe this scene was done really well, because no one was corpsing and got into their role as an audience. I used shocked facial expressions to indicate my character was enjoying the performance. Towards the end of the performance our tutors thought it would be a good idea to include a dance. I thought this would be a fantastic end to the performance, and decided to learn it. Henok choreographed the dance and taught it to a few students that wanted to take part. In the end it was me and Kenroy who had the motivation to learn all the steps to the routine.
Evaluation
In the performance what went well was my ability to stay in character as I was able to remember all of my verbatim without stuttering. I believe I handled feedback well as I walked around the room while I spoke and was able to transition to my next character. Another thing I found that I liked was my interaction with other characters in the background. As Henok was speaking his verbatim I portrayed the physicality of a primary school kid playing in the background when speaking with Alana. When Adina asks us to show her her class, we decline her offer by waving our hands signalling for her to go away. Moreover as we circle around her I thought this was a significant scene as the audience's reaction to Adina on the floor empathised with her and Taija who helped her up. Another scene I found that was significant was the Charlie Chaplin performance from Shadhut. I personally loved this scene as I act like an old married couple with Alice. I crouched down holding an imaginary cane to portray an old man holding unto Alice’s arm. When shadhut sneezes me and Alice stare at him in disgust backing away from him. A disadvantage to this was we couldn’t be seen to begin with, and it was much harder to see our facial expressions. Moreover in the next scene When Aso is talking about social media I try to interact with Adina taking pictures on our phones, as I thought it would be best to not sit alone without doing anything. Finally it was time to perform the dance, Although there were minor technical difficulties as the song didn’t start on time I thought it would be best to improvise and say “ D.J play the song” as a way to tell the audience it was purposely done. I believe the dance was well received as everyone from the audience was cheering and we got some amazing feedback. Even better if I knew the staging of the performance beforehand as I appeared to be out eye shot. I felt very frustrated as it meant I couldn’t get any feedback if I was in formation correctly. Next time for my next project I will try to articulate my words clearly and know the spacing on the stage.
