Creative Pressure

Last week was a unbelievable week of learning for me. I had two final presentations due within 2 days and I can honestly say I had never felt more underprepared for either going into the final rehearsal. I am a type A personality so structure and scheduling are my best friends. I had to throw caution to the wind this week and let creative pressure drive me. I am so proud of my midterm group members for allowing our pressure and stress about the scene to take over and allow us to have an amazingly productive and successful final rehearsal. The last 4 hours we spent on our piece before presentation day were the most meaningful and productive hours we put into the whole piece. It goes to show that editting is so important and we had to learn to be unafraid of cutting things like mad men and starting from scratch. Looking back on all the things that we cut I can't believe it, we had so much great stuff and so much horrible stuff. I am so glad we could come together to pull out the important stuff in time to make it rain!

I am looking forward to the next few weeks of class, I already feel intrigue to Edgar Allen Poe and the thought of obsession. I like that both of these inspriations are universal, I was talking to my roommates yesterday who have no theater background and lets face it, think my classes are just weird circus shows. They both knew who Edgar Allen Poe was and were fascinated to hear about his obsessions with death and lonliness. I want to explore more about what it would have been like to have your life encompassed by the darkness of obsession with such soul sucking things. I am looking forward to seeing where our collaboration and creativity takes us!

some random thoughts

There is a topic that has been discussed a lot recently in many main Chinese network website. The discussion started because of a series of photo with some people doing Peking Opera half naked. The photos were taken about 10 years ago, and recently some performers were actually doing that half naked Peaking Opera on stage. So Chinese people start talking about it and finally turning into sort of debate. And it was even on news channel right now. So basically, the hottest topic in China right now is should our traditional art being reproduced in such way? And is it still art?

Peking Opera is the most crucial traditional theatre performance in China, its like panda for China. So when performers were doing it half naked, most people can’t accept it. They are saying that this kind of adaptation ruined traditional Chinese art. Someone argue that it gave them a new level to look at the Peking Opera. So pornography or art,that became a debate.

 Since the purpose of these photos is not clear, I cannot really draw clear comments on that debate. But I think artists got the freedom on what he or she want to do, and the way how they do it. The kind of freedom gives them the possibility to reach something profound and great. And the various ways how they do it, such as nudity in the show, evokes the audiences with different emotions. But the issue is that these ways did not cross sort of morality line, like killing people and collect their bones in jars are considered as art for some freak. sorry if i am not making any sense.

And I do think that the makeup, costume and the sound in Peking opera are awesome.

A (not so) brief reflection on many things

A brief reflection on inspiration and our midterm:

Inspiration comes in the oddest ways. On Wednesday when Hans and I found out that we had to create a new piece with just us because we had lost the Ninja in team Awesome Ninja Rapper (as I called us, i'm not sure it caught on), our first impulse was just to figure out a structure and go with that. We didn't really have an idea, but decided to go with the classic theme of relationships and explore how a relationship changes over time. This was all well and good, but I don't think either of us were really invested in it. After meeting we walked away from it, to meet later and figure out our actual piece.

Throughout the afternoon I chatted with friends, one of whom mentioned that a bell would be a fun sound effect to input into transitions, as we were planning to start our exploration in grade school. Another friend mentioned, in an entirely unrelated conversation, that she disliked one of her Education classes because she did not agree with the way they were being taught to teach children. An hour later, these two nuggets of information collided in my brain and exploded.

When I told Hans my idea later he was on board, but hesitant. It was totally different from what we had discussed earlier in the day. But as we worked more and more on our project we began to believe in it more and more. Finally, we created a piece that both of us were proud of.

I found it so funny that after three weeks of wracking my brain for inspiration, searching the world for something to spark a thought, it was two unrelated and mundane conversations that ended up providing an inspiration that refused to be ignored. The world really does inspire us, but not always in the ways we are expecting. You can't always search for inspiration, sometimes it has to find you itself.

A brief reflection on dementia:

This song has been in my mind since I first heard it, and it seems somewhat relevant: Muse - Madness

I sometimes wonder if it isn't terribly beautiful to lose your mind. Dementia has fascinated me for a long time, because I have seen family members experience it. What is more fascinating to me is the knowledge that it runs in my family, so there is a fair chance that I will one day be a loony old woman. The idea that one day all of my thoughts and memories will be completely skewed is very interesting to me. It is so funny to think that, although you may be all alone in the world, you may not know it because you cannot perceive reality. Or, your reality is something others cannot perceive, because whatever your mind says it is experiencing is inevitably real to you. My great aunt had a very meaningful friendship with a small doll before her death. She did not recognize most of the people around her, and this doll became her confidant and friend. No one can really know, but from what I heard of her she was not unhappy, in fact she was quite content.

The cutting room floor

As we all ended up doing a lot of revisions to our midterms projects, I was wondering: what were some golden bits, or props, or ideas, or interactions that didn't make the final cut of your project?

Inspriation for the final

after talking about an asylum I was listening to my music and heard this song game me some thoughts

Asylum by slaughter house feat eminem

post midterm commentary

So post midterm I'm both relived and mentally exhausted, this process has been one speed bump after another. And to do it sans Lily just sucked since Lily and I are a duo since first year, however, working with Kara was both fantastic and enlightening as I got to journey into the mind of a drama honors theater wizard. We panicked then we achieved in three hours we built a project that we were both proud of and confident in. Sometimes in our world you hit the wall and have no choice but to go through it and that is what we did with a full head of steam.

My brain is friend and I feel emotionally empty I will however sleep well tonight and be ready to restart the journey next week.

Break ALL the legs!

Alright, it's crunch time ladies and gents! We've got our pieces of pieces and now we've just got to get up, sploosh out some glue and do some hands on beautifying. Yesterday, after some feedback from Tara, we did a lot of ripping and cutting and are left with a few chunks. We wrote our own wills, read them, and then played. This process occupied the majority of our rehearsal and now today all we have left is to clean clean clean.

Something I'd like to say that I learnt from this project is to never say never. I didn't think I'd ever be able to produce a written piece that had any sort of merit or worth, but, alas, I think at least a few of the things I did share did indeed have some worth. It's funny how sometimes all we need is for someone to say: "Don't worry. Trust me. Just do it and it will be great."

Well everyone, tomorrow's the day, and I just want to say: break ALL the legs, I know you'll be great!

If that sounded extremely lame to you then imagine it in my head and it will be fabulous!

Art and suffering.

I find rehearsals are the most productive when everyone is freaking out.

I find the best work is done the night before a performance.

I find everything is more fun when you're scared that you're going to fail.

Failure is what makes us do great things.

Also, sometimes its great to admit that you were wrong. No matter how rare it is ;-)

After feedback, a new and essentialised piece, like the phoenix, rose from the ashes.  We have one more rehearsal. Tomorrow night, from 7:00pm till we are satisfied. Our messaged condensed, our minds focussed, and our arc created.

Game time.

Let's pretend it's still Sunday.

I realized today I hadn't posted anything on Sunday and since all my days seem to be blurring together, today is just as good as any to post. We have been rehearsing and meeting a lot for this midterm creation and sometimes it just feels like it's going no where and othertimes it's just coming nauturally and effortlessly. The times it gets stuck are frustrating. It seems like there is no where to go. And after the workshop on Thursday, it felt like a realization that we were stuck on where to go because we had no where left to go. And that was ok. Now we have changed almost everything about our piece and it's coming along a lot faster than what we had. The idea of picking a thesis and just sticking to it, going with it and making it work wasn't happening for us. The emphasis shifted because of the workshop. We tried making things more clear, putting more focus on our own languages and the need to communicate instead of loneliness. But even now our idea of communication caused us to look at even more option until we found one that worked for us. The idea of exhausting all options is really key to creating something amazing. The same seems to be happening with the composition piece I am currently working on. I can honestly say I'm in a rut and need to try every possiblilty before I can commit to one style/method. All the research I have started to do has begun to help already. The idea of a painted score with colors is drawing my attention and peaking my interest. I guess I'll have to see. (wow that was a slight tangent)
 
Last thing to say... I broke two mirrors in one day. Anyone know of any superstition that could help reverse the next 14 yrs. of bad luck?

Did I go to bed late? Or wake up really early, write this, then go back to sleep again.

Its no longer Sunday.

I think talking is more important than we are led to believe. The binary is not as clear as it seems. I have the feeling that it is not talk, then do. It is talk, then do, then talk, then do, then talk, then do some more. 

We were able to really nail down our piece after we talked again, for like, the fifth time. I find I cant work off of just doing, because then the direction isn't clear. Which is where the message comes in. Even so, I find the fomula of "when we blank we blank" hard to work with. Not to say there isn't any merit in it; it makes everything essential poignant and efficient. But sometimes the structure rules out other possibilities. Tis the nature of drama though. If we were able to do every possible thing, theatre as we know it would never exist. 

I suppose what I'm saying is, once our group got all the crap out of the way, and finally all got on the same page (we had to talk to do this though), we were able to re-vamp our piece, consolidate, and condense. Now we have a clear framework from which we can add and subtract. 

I wonder what it means to say something personal in theatre, especially collective creation. We look for it, do we not? The personal that is. My inquiry is more directed to the idea that, even if we aren't "saying" something personal, aren't we always anyway? If a performance is merely a depiction or presentation of something, isn't it personal because we created it? I would like to assume that everything we come up with has a purpose, or a point, or is saying something. I certainly feel this way about my work. Otherwise I wouldn't be invested in it. 

Art is a funny thing. So is life. And love. I would much rather post about philosophical notions, but alas, we live in a realm in which we must follow the framework, if we want to take part in the societal majority. 

If you haven't noticed yet, I like to make shit up. Good night. Or good morning. You decide. 

Thinking

This is an assortment at random:

1. Our group since workshop have changed our set, our thesis, and our minds. We are now focusing on self reflection (in self image, regret, and such) which really compliments the aspect of the piece we love the most: mirrors. Working thesis: When we view ourselves positively, we are able to live our lives more fully. We now also have a song that we have chosen to score our piece as well as have incorporated flagging ribbon as a costume piece and prop. We are breathing new life into our piece and focusing on new aspects that I think we are more excited about and give us more room to play. Loneliness still lingers in our piece, but I think its a smaller portion of a larger pie.
2. I just saw Next to Normal this evening, and I highly recommend it to all. Its a fantastic show and is jam packed with familiar (as in family) themes that I believe anyone can relate to. It has made me think of the relationship I currently have with one of my sisters, how a void is growing between us and I feel helpless, unable to stop it. But that is another matter. The important thing is that the show affected me. My room mate and I talked about the show afterwards and about theatre and the point was made on both sides: "If a work of theatre doesn't affect you (make you think about who you are, your place in the world, your life, your loved ones, a social injustice, a petty thorn in the sidewalk) than what is the point of it?" We are in a business of change. We change ourselves in order to change others in order to change the world. If one didn't think about what the social commentary of a show was after it was performed, the show didn't do its job.
3. I need to think more about my obsessions. Procrastination is a formidable opponent and makes me obsess about my school work and life. Its interesting because its an obsession I never show. It boils in my gut but never breathes a day in my life. I am obsessed with my path in life. Like it were a child, I want to make sure that it is in the right place at the right time, but in essence have (or feel like I have) no control over it. 
4. I will write a poem tonight.
5. I want to be a better person.

This week I learned

The thing about being in a drama program is that unlike other faculties what you learn is not your only tool. As my group is discovering who we are and who we were are just as powerful tools. We have been exploring our identities so to learn who I ‘am I went back and learned how I got here my trial and tribulations that culminated into the person you seen.  I realized that there were five points that defined me before that definitely don’t apply anymore:

11)      Religion

22)      Meekness

33)      Shyness

44)      Quite

55)      Reserved

So my big question for the week was learning how I abandoned those 5 traits where was the turning point that brought me to now. I learned that my life really changed when I took a revaluation of my faith and started taking stock out of God and putting it into myself, my turning point was find my atheism. Now to most this might seem strange as most people go the opposite way but as I learned I only became a strong person when I freed myself from my faith.

I found that this was a more personal and stronger and more deeply connected topic for me to focus on for the midterm and have since become a flurry of discoveries that apply strongly to my sense of identity.

P.S now that 483’s are done I have my brain back woot

Rising to the Occasion and obsessing

After getting feedback on Thursday we had a rehearsal in which we decided to scrap everything and explore something completely different. Lily was a daemon, Hans and I were weird monsters, and we generated probably 20 minutes worth of random material. Then we realized that was silly, and went back to work on and improve our original concept. As much as it felt like an entire rehearsal was wasted on making useless material, it actually really helped us. Not only did it help us reconnect to our original idea, it also kicked us out of the rut we were stuck in in terms of our previously created material. There is something to be said about going way off track in order to find your way back to your original path.

Play has also been very important to us in our last couple of rehearsals. Personally, I find it hard to play sometimes and not just focus on product. At the same time, it is easy to get lost in the play and lose track of what the original purpose was. I think we are finding a good balance between our play and finding structure and material, which is working well for us.

Concerning obsession, I have been thinking about things that people obsess about over the past few days. Here are some thoughts: cleanliness, order, morality, appearance, love, popularity, friendships, money, mortality, making a difference in the world, nature, animals, illness/health, work, technology, the news, other people.

Bridging the worlds

It's so interesting to work with people who have different learning and creating styles than you do. At first it's a little challenging, and even frustrating at times, but it really is a great learning experience. Once we were able to bridge to each other's worlds, the real learning happened. We know how we personally work, but when we are forced to take on a way of working that we're not used to, I feel we learn new valuable skills we may have been weary of exploring before hand. 

(thanks Nick and Kelsey :p)

Taking the Risk

We decided to write personal feelings on death and the afterlife for our project and I told my group that I was very inexperienced with writing and that I didn't think I could produce anything worthwhile. I got some great encouragement from the group about just writing what I feel and just let it come out onto the paper. Once I decided that I wanted to write about how I wanted to be cremated not buried it all just seemed to come to me. It was very encouraging knowing that my group was helping me take a personal risk to create something that I was so unfamiliar with.
When we decided to use what I had written in the workshop in class I was very nervous because I am not used to reading my own thoughts to an audience. I am glad that my group pushed me to move out of my comfort zone to perform written work of my own. I thought back to what Tara had said about accepting risk and not being afraid to fail and realized that no matter what happens after I read the piece, I was going to learn something.
I am going to post the piece that I wrote as a reminder to myself to take the risk because the best lessons you can have come from failure.

Don’t Put Me in the Ground

 

When we die we are placed in an ornate coffin with plush interior, done up to the nines and dressed in our finest clothes.

 

That’s not for me.

 

The way I see it, I don’t want to spend the rest of eternity in a stuffy box dressed in clothes I wouldn’t have worn down the street today; rotting away.

 

That’s not for me.

 

When I die, don’t put me in the ground to socialize with the worms, to settle into darkness forever.

 

Don’t put me in a little box on your mantel, I don’t want to be decoration.

 

Instead take me to a quiet field, with wildflowers and weeping willows. Take me to a cliff overlooking a lush valley with shadowing greenery and overwhelming views.

 

Take me to the sandy beach where I can hear the crashing of waves and the smell of the salt.

 

Set me free and watch me dance in the happiness of my own freedom.

 

I want to experience riding on the wind, being the sunset, exploring the earth.

 

Come visit me and feel my spirit around you. Watch the sunset and cherish the times we used to spend together.

 

Don’t sit on the cold, hard ground above me and mourn. Don’t put flowers on my tombstone.

 

Don’t put me in the ground.

Here are some interesting images about self refection which may lead us to some new point of looking at the thesis.

What matters most is how you see yourself.

the fear

the idea of there are negative and positive reflection

Our group is thinking of change the thesis that we worked before. So we wanted to be more focused on the self reflection. But there are lots of connection between the new topic and the old one which is lonliness. It do take a lot of time to re-consider the thesis, but I think it worth to do that. It is exciting how we find out the new interesting aspect  through the process of creating the project.

Here is the poem by Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher. it is called The Lonely One, I found it when we still doing the Lonliness thing, but I can it may better suit the new thesis.
 
I detest following, but also leading.

To obey? Never! And just as bad—to govern!

He who wishes not to be terrified, will summon no terror for others:

Yet only he who peddles fear can lead others.

I even detest having to lead myself!

Like the creatures of the forest and the sea, I love

To lose myself for a while

In meek error thoughtfully to cower

Drawn home at length by distant things

Being enticed by myself to my Self.
 

Focus?

I finally figured out how to add myself as an author on the blog so here is my post that should have been up on Sunday!

Terri, Nick and I had a great rehearsal on Friday night. We have been doing a lot of talking lately so we decided to get up on our feet and play a bit. We put on different styles of music and personified death. It was great to see the things that came out of exploration with music.

The step we are stuck at right now is creating our message. We have a lot of strong images or ideas for larger pieces of movement and text but we have no actual structure to work with. I think that by coming up with our message we will be able to focus the piece and incorporate all the elements that we have created through playing around with the theme of death.

I am excited to see where our next few rehearsals take us in terms on the focus of our piece. We decided as a group in class today to challenge ourselves to write a piece of text for the piece. I have no experience in writing text so I am looking forward to taking the risk and seeing what comes out of it!

Blogs Will Always be Due on Sunday!

You Heard ME!!!!

Fits well to our class!

Expressionism background and pictures

Expressionism background:

• Originated in 1901 as “Expressoismes” in Germany at the beginning of the 20^th century. 
• It can be seen initially in painting and poetry such as the painting of Auguste Herve
• It was developed as an avant-garde style before WWI, and remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin.
• After WWII it became a mode of production rather than playwriting
• Fully embraced in the 20’s
• Was intended to oppose impressionalists, but ultimately it revolts against naturalism and romanticism.
• Expressionalists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than a physical reality.
• There is some speculation about the origins of the term “Expressionism” and one thought is that the term was coined by the Czech art historian Antonin Matejcek in 1910 “An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself. . . (an Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psysic structures. . .”
• Some examples of early expressionist painters include: Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch. 
• The leading dramatist is George Kaiser, but Strindberg and Ibsen have made large contributions to the movement
• Large influences of Expressionism include Vsevolod Meyerhold’s biomechanics theory of acting (gymnastics, ballet, acrobatics) and Sigmund Freud’s dream analysis.

Information received from:

1. Notes given by Tara
2. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism 

Wikipedia contributors. "Expressionism." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Sep. 2012. Web. 16 Sep. 2012.

Complicite

Complicite: An ever changing company of devising

From the Complicite website (Complicite.org)

• “The only aspect of the company that has stayed the same throughout it’s history is that everything changes”
• There are four aspects that have remained more or less constant with the company:

1.The principle of working collaboratively

2.The designers of the piece are involved right from the start

3.There is a strong emphasis on the body, even if working from an existing play, and this leads to the inclusion of many games, physical exploration, and improvisation in rehearsals.

4. A large commitment is made to research and background work.

• The company uses a range of techniques including neutral mask, clowning, storytelling, gameplay, as well as multiple technologies, such as projection and camera, to explore lyrical and philosophical contemplation of serious themes. 

From On Directing (2002) by Simon McBurney (Co-founder & artistic director)

• Rehearsals include large amounts of play; chaos; pleasure-full yet with a turbulent forward momentum. 
• Usually begins with a piece of text: text can include a visual, text of action, musical piece, or the conventional form of text including a plot and characters.
• “What people DO must be as clear as what what they SAY”
• Example: In The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol there is a scene in which Jean and Lucie make love in a barn. After a little contemplation and a lot of play, the group came up with the idea of having the love making represented through the explosion of the space and the movement of objects.
• “A Piece of theatre is, ultimately, in the hands of those who are performing it.”
• “. . . as an actor, you have to feel that you possess the piece. And to possess the piece you have to be a part of its creation. Involved intimately in the process of its making.”

From Why I go to the Theatre by Lyn Gardner (Guardian Theatre critic)

• In 1983 Britain, Simon McBurney joined Annabel Arden, Jaques Lecoq, Marcello Magni, and Fiona Gordon and devised Complicite’s first piece Put it on Your Head
• “What it is impossible to do is say what makes Complicite itself
• The company has no permanent building and no permanent company staff
• The original intention behind it was to put something new out there and disrupt the spectacle of British Theatre
• They intended to really embrace otherness by taking the marginalized and dispossessed and placing them in the centre in a surreal way.
• To Complicite, a company is not just work, it represents a community and a family
• The actors involved always have to be ready to take risks, be physically intimate, and mentally couageous
• Their pieces are in a constant state of development; even in the final performance new discoveries are being made.

Sections from the interview shown in class:

2:10-3:22

3:40-4:25

Complicite videos

ENSEMBLE WORK from COMPLICITE.ORG

> Exercises: 

Play co-operation games, particularly those in which there 

are physical problems to be solved. These are crucial for 

building a sense of ensemble. 

1. In groups of five or more, move to the four corners of the 

room. Get the participants in each group to knot themselves 

up in a ridiculous position. For example, they must all hold 

one individual's ankles and at the same time link arms with a 

neighbour. Then, without breaking their position and 

contact, they must move to the opposite corner of the room. 

2. Cross the room without losing physical contact with the group, 

but this time only one person is allowed to move at a time. 

3. Cross the room with two people not being allowed to touch 

the ground and with the rest of the group not using their 

arms to carry these individuals. 

4. Move together as a group without touching, so that from 

the outside you can't tell who's leading. 

5. Simply ask the group to walk in space. Frequently the 

group ends up walking in a circle, or dispersing as two 

individuals take different decisions simultaneously. 

It is important that the group should move naturally, not in a 

choreographed line or holding hands. They should begin to 

sense the other participants' movements: to listen to 

each other and to anticipate how they want to move as 

a group. 

> Questions 

1. How easy is it for the group to take a decision to 

change speed or direction? When is the group united? 

Does one person take the lead all the time? 

2. When a good sense of ensemble has been established 

ask the group to take on specific characteristics. Can 

they move like chickens, cows or custard? Does this 

unite or disperse the group?

LANGUAGE OF MOVEMENT

> Photos and paintings 

This is the next step to take with this series of 

explorations. Finding the dynamics of movement of a 

photograph or painting is more complicated, partly 

because it is a static representation of something moving, 

and partly because there are many elements and 

materials contained within one picture. This really 

requires imagination on the part of the students and can 

lead towards developing quite complex movement 

sequences. 

1. Ask your students to find the dynamics of movement 

in photographs and paintings. 

2. With students in groups of five or six choose a 

painting or photograph and ask them to prepare a series 

of movements which they think expresses the dynamic of 

movement of that image. 

The aim is not to show what the photograph looks like 

but to express other things about it, including the 

atmosphere, weight, light, shadow, space and colour. 

3. Get the students to present their version of the 

painting or photograph to the other groups and then 

talk about what the spectators received. 

4. Finally show the spectators the original painting or 

photograph and talk about what was captured in the 

improvisation and what was lost. 

These exercises are central to devising because they 

explore the creation of a physical text. They transpose a 

frozen image or object into a series of movements which 

exist in time. They can be a useful way to start talking 

about dramatic construction in microcosm. In these tiny 

pieces of movement theatre you can see progression, 

contrast, variations of rhythm, surprises, transformations 

of space and even characters emerging. 

SPACE

> The space between performers 

1. Ask the students to get into pairs and to take one bamboo 

cane between them. They should hold the cane between their 

forefingers, exerting a little bit of pressure to keep the cane 

secure between their fingers. 

2. Ask the pairs to move about the space trying not to let the 

cane drop. Encourage the use of eye contact (but no talking) 

to communicate. 

3. As the participants begin to be more sensitive to each 

other encourage them to make their movements more daring. 

Is it possible to sit down, roll along the ground, change the 

speed or rhythm whilst still keeping the cane link? 

4. Gradually get a whole group of pairs working in the same 

space. Encourage the students to be sensitive to all the other 

pairs and to avoid clashes. 

5. Try to get all the pairs to create spaces, shapes and 

rhythms together as a group: to be daring, to weave in and 

out, under and over other people, to play together and be 

imaginative.

Crazy Cards. (Study Break)

Monster video

So check out this video its sweet

Monster

Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh’s Process:

          Depicting the lives of real people and the rejection of the Hollywood structure

Mike Leigh was born in Salford, Greater Manchester, Leigh trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, later attending other venerable British arts institutions including St Martins College of Art and Design and the London Film School.

Throughout, Leigh used his idiosyncratic production methods which rely on a unique style of character development: lengthy improvisation sessions with actors, often lasting months, gradually building into a cohesive script. Initially working one-on-one with each actor, they explore the character intricately before he or she is introduced to another character in a realistic scenario. This highly stylistic method discards the need for a concrete script, and lends a fresh, realistic flavour to the finished project  CITATION Mad12 \l 4105 (Party)

Mike Leigh uses a theatre style of rehearsal, weeks even months in advance of picking up a camera in order to write and integrate his actors into the creation process of his screen plays

Step 1: Picking a theme

Mike Leigh starts his process by picking a one line theme that will guide the story of his film. Some examples could include:

·         Secrets and lies

·         Relationships

·         Work

·         Family

·         Eating dinner

Step 2: Working with Actors

Each actor gets extensive one on one time with Mike in the character building process Mike will use the theme to encourage actors to remember people from their lives and find ways to relate the person to the subject matter of the film. This leads to a building of character for the actor. This person could be:

·         A girlfriend or boyfriend

·         Parent

·         Brother or sister

·         Acquaintance

Or some bloke in a pub (as Mr. Leigh would say)

The character should be well constructed so that the actor can be fully embodied in the character, however separate enough so that they don’t get stuck as the character. The person chosen as the example should not be the actor him/herself but instead  have a relationship to the actor that maintains some distance. This enables a separation between the character and the actor.

Step 3: Building Scenes

After a character is established, Mike will then introduce scenarios to the actors that will spark a session of improvisation around the theme and characters that were devised. Take for example:

·         First date at a restaurant

·         Afternoon stroll in park

·         Car pool lane to work

·         Crowed bus

·         Street at night

·         Chill bar

These scenes will be the first time the actors meet the other characters in which they will be working with. Mike continues the process by choosing the scenes that were notable and stood out. And so begins the screen writing process.

After the screen play is finished actors may be fully cast into characters either of their creation or of other actors’ creation to build the full narrative.

Leigh says he is now and will always remain “the guy with no script.”

 Mike Leigh