1. As the Process of Porto was moving on from the V to the P stage many different themes were produced, this was because the community in the peripheral and centre stage felt that they needed to change their actions. The actions in the community made them want to be more experimental with their own groups.
An active model of community was being forged through ‘action and interaction’.
‘a set of shared social meanings which are constantly created and mutated through the actions and interactions of its members, and through their interaction with wider society’. (Kelly 1984, p.50)
This makes the activity of the community intervention more powerful.
As everyone started finalising their own characters, other characters then had complete interactions with them and were sure of what they were doing. In the Validating stage interactions kept changing because the individual’s character kept changing their emotions and feelings towards another character.
The finalization of each individual then made it a living and breathing community of its own space where although your characters purpose was to be alone you would have no choice but to interact somehow with the people around you just like you would in the outside world.
The questions of freedom, rights, love and other themes were centrally there.
‘Class was not a structure nor a category but something that happens in human relationships’ (Thompson, 1963 preface).
Issues of class and gender were being raised in the community. The way people dressed gave the audience a sense of what type of characters were in Porto but it was only when the characters communicated with audience or with other people in the performance would you then understand who they are.
‘the interactions within a group of people who choose to see themselves as a community continually alter the nature of that community, so that it is always in a state of ‘becoming’ therefore, growing and thus avoids the stasis of a ‘thing’ to be serviced’. (Watt, 1991, p.61)
2. The space in the studio was different from the actual space in the theatre. The theatre had a much larger space so it gave the character much more sense of freedom to move around and explore.
The studio was a much smaller space so the interactions with a majority of the characters where active and constantly changing into some great work whilst being experimental with others. The theatre space had distanced relationships that were created in the studio because of the new found space so there was a lot of self exploration. When the lighting was being fixed on day one in the theatre, there seemed to be plenty of distractions and confused faces, this was because no one felt like they were in Porto because of the new stage.
The three intense rehearsals on day two in the theatre before the performance had changed the way people were interacting with each other; it felt as if though the validation phase had come back in the first rehearsal.
The individual characters that did make the few connections with others had to re-think how their own body would move and use the space in the theatre.
Utilizing the same devising tools in a radically different space changes the context of the characters and also produces a new sense of shared community.
The disadvantage for some characters was the constant habit of using the same space constantly, like they would do in the studio.
This implication is because of the training done with our body memory, it was not that we didn’t know we had enough space to spread out and do the performance it was the fact that it had been trained to be at a particular position at a particular time within the space and with others.
Other problems were the lighting, for some characters it was a chance of making sure the audience all the way at the back could see them. The prayers would make people around the peripheral change all the time and the space would be a struggle for the third prayer where the character had to constantly move in a fast pace. This problem had occurred with the positioning of the chairs and also the ensemble with the suitcase, the character would be pushed too much to the side and was not able to put in that one hundred percent for the fear of bumping in to others and ruining the work or injuring himself.
Although there were a couple of disadvantages the new stage experience had bought the play to life and gave it a new experience, also new themes. The space being used always altered the nature of the community.
3. The RSVP model throughout the three shows was being used consistently. My reason for this is because my character kept changing its interactions and it wanted to explore different areas. It was evident that the characters had started to get more confident in what they were doing and also the ensemble work got stronger with every show.
With every performance the community had got a better understanding and so each performance was getting a better.
When I originally worked on my character, he was supposed to be someone that did not interact with anyone and had made a relationship with just his bag.
Moving my character into the Arena Theatre had given it a new purpose, he wanted to develop a relationship with other people around him.
When I would do my prayers it felt very different from the studio, the blue light that kept going on me made me feel more comfortable because I felt like no one was around me and it kept my character completely drenched in his ritual. As the performances went on my character would notice the annoying people around him as he ends his prayer and really tries to interact with them, this is due to the fact that my character had already accomplished the fact they are there in the same place throughout the three shows and did not want them to enter his personal space.
In the periphery my characters loneliness made him want to go out of his corner and explore other people. After doing my first two prayers my relationship with the man and the bible (David) got stronger, as the bible and my prayer matt were two religious symbols and we both felt that there was some type of isolation between us that the other could not understand. Also my character had the urge to reach out to somebody doing this made me gain a random connection with the man at the platform (Dan) who also felt that his character was complete by saving me from the insanity of my bag and helping me to my feet after my third payer.
Simon Woods of the Zen Zen Zo physical theatre articulated that,
‘In some ways the training j ourney is more interesting then the production. Watching a group of people who go through this incredible process of transformation, physically, spiritually, mentally, intellectually over a period of time together in training room is a truly profound thing. The performance is like opening a door to say ‘This is where we’re at; this is what we’re thinking about’, and the door closes again and we go back into the training room. (Bradley & Woods 2003)
Our rehearsals have changed the way we interact with our items and other people. Also the final performance felt like the end product from the first two. Going back into our own mind and taking a break makes us then come back into the theatre space and re-tell our individual stories but improving them from the last performance.
Bibliography
Heddon, Deirde and Milling, Jane (2006), Devising Performance - A Critical History: Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Oddey Alison, (1994), Devising Theatre – A practical and theoretical handbook: Routledge, London.
Secondary References
Aston, Elaine (1999), Feminist theatre practice: a handbook: Routledge
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