So Figment Festival happened and Hit the Mat was there! It was an interesting experience in which we tried a few things, learned a few things, and proved a few things.
For various reasons, On Friday I was at the event on my own. I led mini workshops in which I instructed participants in a few basic grappling moves and then got them to build very short scenes incorporating these moves. On Saturday, we were able to do one performance of a couple of scenes, and then the rains came and we left before the mats got wet.
Sunday was a better day. The weather held out, and the sun came out. Simon, Faye, John, and Kittie, were on hand to perform and assist in the workshopping all day. We found people with varying degrees of physical skill and experience and were almost universally able to get them to learn the same basic moves and put together and improvised scene. The best moment of the day was when two wandering actors who were going about doing Shakespearean sonnets gave it a whirl. We had them alternate lines of their respective sonnets, combined the techniques with their moves, and came up with with a remarkable piece of theater.
Between this and the work we have done up 'till now, I believe we have proven that the techniques of the grappling arts can be used successfully in a theatrical context. The physical proximity of the actors and exertion necessary for the moves encourages a strong emotional delivery. The techniques are applicable to a wide variety of scenarios. The moves can be taught relatively quickly to untrained performers.
We are taking a few weeks of of our workshops while we plan for the future of Hit the Mat. Watch this space for an update real soon.
Videos will also be posted here in the next few days.
Captain Z
Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts
Friday, June 24, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Some Updates and New Discoveries
OK, lotsa stuff has happened to Hit the Mat since the last performance at the Anachronism Steampunk Event at Webster hall.
One performer had decided that he needed to focus on his MMA because he had a fight lined up. A couple of them had changes in their works schedules and could not make rehearsals. A couple hit the “busy season” in their lines of work, a couple joined the renaissance faire, one moved out of town, and a couple have been having personal issues or simply flaked. Put all this together and rehearsals have been a little sparse. However, this has proven to be an opportunity.
The remaining performers have proven to be the rocks of the company, showing up, working hard, and giving me a great foundation on which to build the future of Hit the Mat. It has also led me to put out new casting calls, which have been bringing an interesting collection of new participants.
It has also enabled me to focus on a small number of performers, rather than having to divide my attention among a large number of people. In the past week the new people who have come to our workshops have had almost no grappling experience at all but a lot more dance and theater. This has forced me (I mean that in a good way) to distill the basic grappling training into its most basic element. I am discovering little details about moves I thought I knew as I try to explain them, or have more experienced grapplers explain them, to these new trainees.
The show is changing, too. Whereas the “Drama Club Tag Team Championships” borrowed lines from famous movies and plays, we are now creating new scenes. We are discovering things that probably were taught to me in a writing or acting class somewhere years ago, but the act of discovery really brings it home.
There is more to this concept (grappling as a theatrical art) than simply applying lines to moves and vice versa...but we knew that already, in fact, that was sort of the point. We have to find the “beats” in the scene, where the shift of power occurs between the characters. We have to figure out what the scene says about the relationship between the characters.
Submission grappling is described as a sport of going from “position to submission.” That is exactly what an argument is. Each side attempts to gain a position that will enable them to make the other person submit to their reason, cause, or emotion. Thus, we have chosen to embrace the challenge of finding the moves and sequences of moves that best represent a particular argument.
We have been challenged to find uses of grappling techniques in non-fight scenes. The easiest direction to go from there is comedy, in which the techniques are expressed as accidental engagements between two people. A scene in which two people are trying to change a light bulb has proven to be a small gem of grappling slapstick, incorporating BJJ takedowns and sweeps and pro wrestling lifts.
When creating scenes from scratch through improvisation, we have discovered that an argument is not necessarily about the initial cause of the disagreement, it may be about something deeper in the relationship. It is in the moment where that deeper reason is revealed that there has to be a significant move, or a change in the pace and intensity of the fight (either to step it up or even slow it down or stop it entirely) to signal to the audience the change in the stakes of the scene.
Just yesterday at our rehearsal, two brand new people who never did any grappling in their lives but had plenty of dance and acting experience put together a scene and found, in the techniques, moments when they could use the position in which they found themselves to break the attitude of fighting and express the intention and emotion of their line, and moves that gave the opportunity to justify a line. Specific examples: One actress progresses from takedown to full mount, postures up, gestures to her outfit and says “I am in fashion!” Her scene partner then swept to wind up in full guard saying “last year!” The first actress expresses indignation my pulling her partner’s arm down and swinging her leg in front of her partner’s neck for an attempted gogoplata, and her opponent notices: “Is that my shoe?”
One thing I would also like to try that we have done far too little of is explore the relationships of bodies in time and space ie: groups of people on a stage moving and interacting through grappling techniques. Sometimes in unison, sometimes in counterpoint, perhaps in narrative form, perhaps on a form that is more abstract. Yes, something a lot more like dance.
So we now have one week to go before the Figment Festival. Our presentation will be smaller, tighter, and more original that our previous performances were, and we will be inviting the Figment attendees to join us in learning new grappling moves and creating scenes of their own.
One performer had decided that he needed to focus on his MMA because he had a fight lined up. A couple of them had changes in their works schedules and could not make rehearsals. A couple hit the “busy season” in their lines of work, a couple joined the renaissance faire, one moved out of town, and a couple have been having personal issues or simply flaked. Put all this together and rehearsals have been a little sparse. However, this has proven to be an opportunity.
The remaining performers have proven to be the rocks of the company, showing up, working hard, and giving me a great foundation on which to build the future of Hit the Mat. It has also led me to put out new casting calls, which have been bringing an interesting collection of new participants.
It has also enabled me to focus on a small number of performers, rather than having to divide my attention among a large number of people. In the past week the new people who have come to our workshops have had almost no grappling experience at all but a lot more dance and theater. This has forced me (I mean that in a good way) to distill the basic grappling training into its most basic element. I am discovering little details about moves I thought I knew as I try to explain them, or have more experienced grapplers explain them, to these new trainees.
The show is changing, too. Whereas the “Drama Club Tag Team Championships” borrowed lines from famous movies and plays, we are now creating new scenes. We are discovering things that probably were taught to me in a writing or acting class somewhere years ago, but the act of discovery really brings it home.
There is more to this concept (grappling as a theatrical art) than simply applying lines to moves and vice versa...but we knew that already, in fact, that was sort of the point. We have to find the “beats” in the scene, where the shift of power occurs between the characters. We have to figure out what the scene says about the relationship between the characters.
Submission grappling is described as a sport of going from “position to submission.” That is exactly what an argument is. Each side attempts to gain a position that will enable them to make the other person submit to their reason, cause, or emotion. Thus, we have chosen to embrace the challenge of finding the moves and sequences of moves that best represent a particular argument.
We have been challenged to find uses of grappling techniques in non-fight scenes. The easiest direction to go from there is comedy, in which the techniques are expressed as accidental engagements between two people. A scene in which two people are trying to change a light bulb has proven to be a small gem of grappling slapstick, incorporating BJJ takedowns and sweeps and pro wrestling lifts.
When creating scenes from scratch through improvisation, we have discovered that an argument is not necessarily about the initial cause of the disagreement, it may be about something deeper in the relationship. It is in the moment where that deeper reason is revealed that there has to be a significant move, or a change in the pace and intensity of the fight (either to step it up or even slow it down or stop it entirely) to signal to the audience the change in the stakes of the scene.
Just yesterday at our rehearsal, two brand new people who never did any grappling in their lives but had plenty of dance and acting experience put together a scene and found, in the techniques, moments when they could use the position in which they found themselves to break the attitude of fighting and express the intention and emotion of their line, and moves that gave the opportunity to justify a line. Specific examples: One actress progresses from takedown to full mount, postures up, gestures to her outfit and says “I am in fashion!” Her scene partner then swept to wind up in full guard saying “last year!” The first actress expresses indignation my pulling her partner’s arm down and swinging her leg in front of her partner’s neck for an attempted gogoplata, and her opponent notices: “Is that my shoe?”
One thing I would also like to try that we have done far too little of is explore the relationships of bodies in time and space ie: groups of people on a stage moving and interacting through grappling techniques. Sometimes in unison, sometimes in counterpoint, perhaps in narrative form, perhaps on a form that is more abstract. Yes, something a lot more like dance.
So we now have one week to go before the Figment Festival. Our presentation will be smaller, tighter, and more original that our previous performances were, and we will be inviting the Figment attendees to join us in learning new grappling moves and creating scenes of their own.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Second Casting Call
For the second casting call, a whole bunch of new people showed up, including four women, two MMA fighters, and several new lightsaber enthusiasts (Force bless ‘em). We began like the first one, with warm-ups, rolls and falls, the takedown, and training in the same basic BJJ routine.
Mark Greenfield, founder and creative director of the Faux-Real Theater Co was there. He is the man that got me back into theater about 11 years ago, and who’s version of Oedipus Rex gave me the creative breakthrough I needed to really see how this show could be done.
He led the workshopping of the grid this time, taking it places I had not imagine. In addition to incorporating the takedown, he added different speeds, added salutations, and added what I call the “centipede.” In this, when a player took down another player, that player joined his “army.” Working this in the grid, that led to long lines of “centipedes.” When two leaders faced off, the winner of the takedown would gain the other’s army. On those occasions when two facing actors could not decide who would win, another actor took the initiative of stepping between them and calling odds or evens.
Interestingly, the most experienced MMA fighter, one who professed no theatrical experience, stayed away from the other players until the very last moment, when it was one long centipede against him,. When we talked afterward he said that the point of fighting is always to attack. This is a concept I understand but had not considered making use of. I look forward to his contributions to the show.
At present, the cast is slightly bigger than I think I will have room for at Wicked Faire, but for the most part they are an enthusiastic bunch, and seem to be willing to “rough it” a little bit to do this show there. This is very encouraging.
Mark Greenfield, founder and creative director of the Faux-Real Theater Co was there. He is the man that got me back into theater about 11 years ago, and who’s version of Oedipus Rex gave me the creative breakthrough I needed to really see how this show could be done.
He led the workshopping of the grid this time, taking it places I had not imagine. In addition to incorporating the takedown, he added different speeds, added salutations, and added what I call the “centipede.” In this, when a player took down another player, that player joined his “army.” Working this in the grid, that led to long lines of “centipedes.” When two leaders faced off, the winner of the takedown would gain the other’s army. On those occasions when two facing actors could not decide who would win, another actor took the initiative of stepping between them and calling odds or evens.
Interestingly, the most experienced MMA fighter, one who professed no theatrical experience, stayed away from the other players until the very last moment, when it was one long centipede against him,. When we talked afterward he said that the point of fighting is always to attack. This is a concept I understand but had not considered making use of. I look forward to his contributions to the show.
At present, the cast is slightly bigger than I think I will have room for at Wicked Faire, but for the most part they are an enthusiastic bunch, and seem to be willing to “rough it” a little bit to do this show there. This is very encouraging.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
First Casting Call
On Saturday we held the first official “casting call” for “Ht the Mat,” the grappling arts stage show. We had a wonderfully diverse collection of skills, backgrounds, and types, including a pro wrestler, and actress/storyteller, a dancer, three lightsaber enthusiasts, a heavyweight, a BJJ blue belt, and an average guy/actor.
This went better than I expected. Though most of the people there were pretty much beginners, they all took to the instruction I gave them quite well and dove into the improvisational section with enthusiasm.
The format was similar to the workshop held in December. We started with a period of warm-ups and instruction, followed by improves and theater games. This time, there being no grappling expert present and because I had my own idea of how I wanted the cast to be exposed to the techniques, I lead the warm-ups and training.
After some basic and sport-specific calisthenics and stretches, I had them pair up, matching the more experienced ones with the beginners, for the most part. I then guided the attendees through a routine of BJJ moves, from takedown to side mount to full mount to hip/elbow escape etc. The attendees took to it well, considering the diverse level of skill among them.
We then took a break a shifted into the “grid” exercise. This involves the actors moving along an imaginary grid on the floor, forcing them to deal with each other should the happen to come face-to face. I added to this exercise the takedown that we had learned. This added a element of competitiveness to the exercise, and also some humor.
I noticed one person helping another one up after someone else had taken them down. I decided to add that as a choice. I then decided to make two of the actors, a pro wrestler and an experienced theater actress, generals of opposing armies, and gave them the task of recruiting an army. I had in my mind the idea that they would take down the other people and then herd them to their side of the floor, but left to their own devices, they each used distinctively different methods. The wrestler used his charisma and power to attract his soldiers, while the actress used a more supportive, sympathetic approach. Once the sides seemed even and lined up against each other, I set them at war. The forces advanced against each other, engaged in the takedown, and then, without prompting, all but one couple continued with the routine they had learned earlier.
After this we discussed how the actors felt during this exercise, and that gave me some good insight into how further to use the Grid in the show.
Finally, we workshopped a story one of the actors had brought in. This actor is a storyteller who has a story from India about two wrestlers,. This is one of those meandering tall tales, with adventures, animals, and impossible situations, like the throwing of elephants, and old woman carrying two wrestlers in her hands, and a bundle of 4000 camels. We attempted to use grappling moves to act out the story, and had great fun in the process. We ended with a group move to simulate/represent one woman putting her arm around the entire group. I think this piece has potential to use in the show.
One of the most interesting things I noticed was how the dancer's natural movements went counter to much of what we were trying to teach her as a grappler, even such basic things as forward and backward rolls. She had a natural grace and inclination to stretch out the line of her body. After spending some time trying to break through that, I thought that it might be interesting to see how to adapt her natural movements to the physical vocabulary of grappling.
Everybody seemed to have a wonderful time and was on-board with the project. I can’t wait until Wednesday when we will have our second casting call. I expect a bunch of different people and will have Mark Greenfield of the Faux-Real Theater Co. there to help me with part of it.
This went better than I expected. Though most of the people there were pretty much beginners, they all took to the instruction I gave them quite well and dove into the improvisational section with enthusiasm.
The format was similar to the workshop held in December. We started with a period of warm-ups and instruction, followed by improves and theater games. This time, there being no grappling expert present and because I had my own idea of how I wanted the cast to be exposed to the techniques, I lead the warm-ups and training.
After some basic and sport-specific calisthenics and stretches, I had them pair up, matching the more experienced ones with the beginners, for the most part. I then guided the attendees through a routine of BJJ moves, from takedown to side mount to full mount to hip/elbow escape etc. The attendees took to it well, considering the diverse level of skill among them.
We then took a break a shifted into the “grid” exercise. This involves the actors moving along an imaginary grid on the floor, forcing them to deal with each other should the happen to come face-to face. I added to this exercise the takedown that we had learned. This added a element of competitiveness to the exercise, and also some humor.
I noticed one person helping another one up after someone else had taken them down. I decided to add that as a choice. I then decided to make two of the actors, a pro wrestler and an experienced theater actress, generals of opposing armies, and gave them the task of recruiting an army. I had in my mind the idea that they would take down the other people and then herd them to their side of the floor, but left to their own devices, they each used distinctively different methods. The wrestler used his charisma and power to attract his soldiers, while the actress used a more supportive, sympathetic approach. Once the sides seemed even and lined up against each other, I set them at war. The forces advanced against each other, engaged in the takedown, and then, without prompting, all but one couple continued with the routine they had learned earlier.
After this we discussed how the actors felt during this exercise, and that gave me some good insight into how further to use the Grid in the show.
Finally, we workshopped a story one of the actors had brought in. This actor is a storyteller who has a story from India about two wrestlers,. This is one of those meandering tall tales, with adventures, animals, and impossible situations, like the throwing of elephants, and old woman carrying two wrestlers in her hands, and a bundle of 4000 camels. We attempted to use grappling moves to act out the story, and had great fun in the process. We ended with a group move to simulate/represent one woman putting her arm around the entire group. I think this piece has potential to use in the show.
One of the most interesting things I noticed was how the dancer's natural movements went counter to much of what we were trying to teach her as a grappler, even such basic things as forward and backward rolls. She had a natural grace and inclination to stretch out the line of her body. After spending some time trying to break through that, I thought that it might be interesting to see how to adapt her natural movements to the physical vocabulary of grappling.
Everybody seemed to have a wonderful time and was on-board with the project. I can’t wait until Wednesday when we will have our second casting call. I expect a bunch of different people and will have Mark Greenfield of the Faux-Real Theater Co. there to help me with part of it.
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