PUBLISHED 28 November 2023
The workshop ran on Wednesday 15th November by The Voloz Collective, a physical theatre company that originated in Paris, was very physical and helped introduce ideas to make a character that is different from others, due to how they physically look; this was portrayed through several aspects like posture, movement, and head position. One exercise they asked us to do was act as various elements, such as earth, wind, water, and fire.
“The elements were useful in creating a building block to form a character from.” - Evangeline Doyle, Year 11.
The workshop was hosted to students from Year 9 to Year 12, to those who have an interest in Drama as both a subject and a career. By taking part in this workshop, I was able to explore physical theatre and learn new skills from current actors in the industry.
I really enjoyed their style of theatre overall as it was much more physical than other styles I have learnt, and it allowed me to embody a character more and even look like inanimate objects. The company were extremely interested in our ideas, and we regularly had to perform to the other groups; one idea we created was a sized-up keypad that physically moved backwards when other people pressed the buttons. This gave the impression of zooming in on something so minute, like a keypad and is referred to as cinematic styling.
Cinematic styling wasn't something I thought about before the workshop, but now I have seen what creativity can be developed from it first-hand and it will influence my own pieces in the future.
Their performance of ‘The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much’ was engaging from the very first second, it contained humour at the perfect timing, such as when the actor who took on this narrator-esque role at the end of the performance had his speech cut short as he was shot. The whole piece took on a narrative from the viewpoint of a normal citizen, who then became enveloped in this Hitchcock-inspired spies piece. I also enjoyed the visual of having live music being played onstage, next to the action, and the pianist also took part in the performance. I found this performance extremely effective, as my current piece in GCSE Drama follows a similar narrative of spies and someone being chased due to knowing too much, with information being discovered throughout the piece.
Overall, I thought the workshop and performance were taught very well and they have inspired my work, as I can use more theatre techniques within my pieces. I was also helped to believe that no matter the number in the cast, it doesn’t limit creativity.