Doug - Day 1

- by Shataf Figar

Today was the first day of the much awaited 2 week long workshop with Douglas. The day started with some text reading. We picked up a text from The Hungry Tide. Took the first line from it and worked on it with a new technique. "in our legends it is said that a goddess's descent from the heavens would have split the earth had the lord not tamed her torrents by tying it to his ash smeared locks". We looked at each word in isolation and then built an action for each word. Once this was done we spent time individually working on identifying the action to the word one by one. Then we got into a circle and read the text out with their respective actions one at a time. We then gave the lines more fluidity by going all the way. The objective was to let each come alive and live in the present moment. Not assuming what the next words coming up were. We were told not to attach our feeling but to look at it the way the author of the text wrote it. The muscular movement in the brain, face and gestures were to be recorded and then collectively put together for the final reading. The connectedness with each word was also very important. THEN WE ASKED THE QUESTION WHY? WHY DO I WANT TO SAY THIs?

The next exercise was a focus and connectedness game. Using the name, ball and touch. The smoothness of the game was focused upon. Being connected to everyone on stage and a smooth progression was highlighted. We formed a circle and created a pattern of flow with names. Once this pattern was created we passed the ball around to form another link. We played with these two in togetherness. Once this pattern was successfully taking shape we were asked to form another pattern or link by touching people on their shoulder and taking their place while the other person went and touched another person. Finally we put all these three different pattern together and tried to achieve smoothness while performing this exercise. What we speak, what we do and how we react.

Then we played GO, which was all about keeping the rhythm in place. One person in the center with the ball starts passing it to other people creating a rhythm. Once this process is on any other member could say Go to the person in the center and he would have to move away letting the person who said go to take centre stage while continuing the rhythm. The idea was to maintain the rhythm on stage and not disrupt it. Any wrong move or any change in rhythm will disrupt the others presence on stage.

Next was the chair exercise: 8 chairs and 7 people. The person who was walking had to be stopped from sitting on that one empty chair. All connected to the right movements and staying connected with the actors on stage.

Finally the day ended with some movement exercise with focus on breathing and connection of the breath to the movement. Lessen it and build it up. It was to first to be able to connect to the music and then allow the breath to connect to the music. And make the movement small and large. This was a challenge for me as I had taken the wrong start by sitting on the floor. It was the most exhaustive exercise and it left us sweating and warmed us up on the cold winter evening.

Finally the day ended with some movement exercise with focus on breathing and connection of the breath to the movement. Lessen it and build it up. It was to first to be able to connect to the music and then allow the breath to connect to the music. And make the movement small and large. This was a challenge for me as I had taken the wrong start by sitting on the floor. It was the most exhaustive exercise and it left us sweating and warmed us up on the cold winter evening.


[read more on the India phase of The Edge project]