A Small Peace Called Imagination...

Portraying the realities

Today I attended my first workshop (a.ka. practical session) for TS1101E, Intro to theatre n drama. At first I was a bit scared coz I know no one in this module, I registered this module for curiosity sake n for having some fun. It turned out that the workshop was really really interesting.

26 of us, most of them are arts students (of course, they're theatre-major students). Only 2 students are from engine, n I'm the only one from SoC. Maybe they wonder if I took the wrong module =P The instructor for the workshop is Mr Chong Tze Chien. I think he's good at this field. He acts, he directs drama, he writes scripts, book, n TV scenario. I also borrowed his book called "Pie to Spoilt" (again for curiosity purpose) n read a bit, I think he plays with imagination very well n brings the reader to some suspense.

Ok, back to the workshop. All of us did some "warm-ups" today. The instructor asked us to do some exercises. The first exercise is mirror movement, where each pair of us facing one another, one is the leader n another is the follower. The follower must mirror the leader's gesture, but must look straight into the eyes. The leader can use any part of the body to make movement n the follower must focus until he reaches the stage of full concentration n he can "feel" the leader's movement n follow them unconsciously. When both of them reach that stage, the audience won't be able to distinguish easily which one is the leader or the follower. Okay, actually I wasn't able to fully concentrate for this exercise, not mentioning to reach that stage of "feel".

The next exercise which is more challenging is the expression of emotion. Mr Chong sat in one side of the studio (btw it's held in Kent Ridge Guild House dance studio, it's quite small but surrounded by mirror in all four sides) n he narrated a story of which we must express by every movement. The story is quite long, takes about half an hour. There's no script (he also told the story impromptu), so all of us just acted spontaneously. Initially the story is quite simple to act, it portrays the daily life of student, waking up in the morning, taking shower, chasing bus, etc. But when it comes to chasing bus, all the troubles come in. You didn't catch up the bus, the cab driver that u took is very noisy n didn't bother to take a shortcut even when u asked him to. Even there's traffic jam in express highway. U're very late for the class so u didn't bother to attend. U decided to go back home, took a bus, so crowded with people, very smelly n sweaty. Then during your way back home, someone called u. The caller told u that someone that u love has just got an accident. U're running to the hospital, only to find out that a large crowd of people that u know have gathered in front of the room. The person that u love has died. The world has fallen apart ever since. U didn't accept the reality, u prayed u prayed and u prayed. U asked God to give u one more chance. One last chance to meet that person alive. Even if it takes everything that u have, even if u have to do anything to "pay back" to Him. U shed ur tears in all your sadness n panic. But reality is still reality. U could never meet that person anymore. U attended the funeral, u lived as ur life as u used to do but all u feel inside is just an emptiness. Lonely. Until one day when u brushed ur teeth u saw as if that person looked at u from the mirror. When u're crying, that person is also crying. At that point of time, u just knew that u have to be strong coz u dun want the person to cry too. So u lifted up ur head, brushed away ur tears, n accept the life as what it is.

That's the excerpt of Mr Chong's narration for our spontaneous play. When we gathered n sat in a circle, everyone commented of what they think. Most of them said they couldn't really act the scenes coz they've never experienced it. Only two or three students said that they really got into the main character coz they've experienced it before. I knew I saw them really cried during those scenes. Honestly, for me, when those scenes are played, all kinds of emotion mixed up inside of me. I did experience it before so I knew how the main character feels. When one of the students shared her experienced of losing her relative, she said during that scenes she wanted to cry but she held it back. Mr Chong said that usually the beginner actors/actresses or even the professional ones will feel that way. When it comes to scenes which are very close to what they experienced, they may face do either one of the undesirable situations. First, they will be try to make a gap between themselves n the characters coz they dun want to reveal the real story of their lives to the audiences. Second, if they are really involved n become that characters, they'll be too drowned n depressed coz they can't hold back. Hm.. an interesting point to make.

As I said before, I start to enjoy this module. Well, of course enjoy much better... compared to my other 2 web programming modules (??!!). The lecturer is fun n the workshop instructor is very good as well. I like writing. I like reading fiction. Maybe theatre could be my next interest hehe. Who knows.

posted by pembual kata @ 1:35 AM