Trestle unfinished

Trestle theater is another workshop we did recently. It is mostly mask work, but our work on it was entirely mask work. The masks we were given were a multitude of emotions which we had to try and match. We were made to do bits of improvisation backed by music, before a scene at a wedding. This was helpful to distance ourselves from faces and focus on our physicality. We were then put into groups; mine consisted of myself, Luke, Zach, Lydia and Nikki. We were quick to decide our scenario, that of a late night in a bar. We assigned ourselves characters; me and Zach as two drunken mates, Luke as a barman, Nikki as a creep trying to hit on Lydia who was a girl on her own in the bar. We slowly choreographed a scene around these characters to the tune of  Chelsea Dagger. This came together until we had utilised both crosscutting and mime to make what was, in my mind, a effective performance

Brecht

A bit back now, we did about Brecht. Brecht is very different from everything we have done before. It is supposed to be thought about, rather than just taking everything as it comes and accepting it as it is. It is meant to challenge you, make you think about what's actually going on. It's meant to distance you from characters and focus you on what's actually going on. It means you have less of an opportunity to do plot holes, meaning you have to think harder about what you are doing. You have to focus on your ability to tell a story, rather than your characterization skills.

Me and Luke, who I was working with for this particular project, decided to use a genre which we had already modified to relative success; detectives. We set up a vague plot and the rest just kind of got invented along the way. I especially enjoyed the constant narration. I'm not sure why, but it appealed to me. We encountered some problems along the way, for instance we had some difficulties with having to keep one eye on the other pretty much all the time, so as to narrate the important things they did. This was dispensed with quite easily, as we found that if we get some choreographing we know whats going to happen before it actually happens.

Our end performance was quite good. I think we embodied what Brecht was saying rather well and got across something that would make an audience think. It was very interesting to be a part of this and would love to do Brecht at some time in the future.