This was my first workshop study at University, I took part in a workshop with Juwon and learnt about the historical and political sides of emigration whilst also studying a poem called Originally. We spoke about ways in which we would speak and relate to a 9 year old girl, Amal, how she would feel about travelling so far and wide by herself knowing that she can never see her family again, and also how we may react to meeting her in person and what we would say to her from our own points of view. We discussed the topic of trauma and self image, and how we perseive ourselves through the eyes of others. For the poem we were given, we read out the lines and created a piece where we used choral movement and also individual speaking on specific lines of the poem. As a group performance we were all placed in The Round and went through the do's and don'ts of what to do and what not to do when performing to an audience in this style of staging. The start of the poem was this;
"We came from our own country in a red room
which fell through the fields,
our mother singing
our fathers name to the turn of the wheels.
My brother cried. One of them bawling home,
home, as the miles rushed back to the city.
the vacant rooms
where we didnt live anymore. I stared
at the eyes of a blind toy, holding its paw."
After reading this poem, I started to think about how I would personally want to stage this kind of performance to a audience, I liked how we used choral speach on lines but I also really liked how we were in lines, so when a line was said we would seperate to different sections of the stage, in my case I would move to back right to say my first line. I really enjoyed doing this type of work with Juwon, I personally think that it expanded my knowledge on staging types but also on ensemble work whilst also improving my team working skills too. This workshop has helped me progress in thinking further into what things mean and how to express them through theatre, which I think will help me also in future situations. I think that I still need to adjust to adapting my ideas around choral movement and speach as it makes a piece more effective towards an audience or even more effective between two actors on stage. I really enjoyed expanding my ideas and bringing them to life in the performance with the rest of the group.
Comments
Jodie, I really like the different texts here, including your descriptions of the workshops and the use of the poem. It's great to see you getting so much out of the workshop process with Juwon! 🙌
tital was really enaging! really ejoyed reading this post as it gives a great insight to what youve learned!:))
yes, I liked the title too!
Really detailed and engaging, you've explained what you did really well! Great blog :)