Theatre Studies: Response Essay

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Theatre Studies: Response Essay

   Before we did the actual workshops in class we read “The Visit” because the workshops that were to follow would be based on and around the play. To remind us all what the theme of the play was and what it’s actually about we started our first workshop by going around the group with everyone saying what they thought the play was about. This exercise I found very helpful because when reading the play in class I didn’t pick up on some of the main aspects of the play and was therefore at a loss, but due to this exercise I now knew everything that was going on in “The Visit” and could work and interact far easier.

   In this workshop we then were asked to pick a prominent member of the town in “The Visit” for example the policeman, doctor or pastor. We were then instructed to walk around the room in character, whilst walking up to others and asking indirect questions to one another to try and find out which town member they had chosen. We were then told to group together into groups of the same town members.

   This in fact turned out very nicely as it ended up having three groups: (1) Cameron, Katie and Richard.W who were pastors or priests. (2) Lydia, Tayah, Olivia and Richard.S who were all policemen. And finally (3) Tom, Rupert, Yomna and I were doctors. We were all told by Mr. Watson that he is running an investigation to find out why each group thinks they need the money and why they need it more than everyone else does. We were also asked about Schill and what we thought we should do with him.  

   After a long arduous discussion, we were all told to elect a spokesperson that had to address chill and on behalf of their group try to persuade him to kill himself as in doing so he will prosper by helping the town. Rupert, Cameron and Richard. S were the spokespeople who all argued their point very well and added to the stimulus by showing me what it would have been like. I responded to this exercise in a positive way and enjoyed the hot seating.

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   Whilst still being based on “The Visit” the theme of our second workshop was grotesques. We started this workshop by talking about grotesques within the play and what makes someone grotesque. In the play Claire is quite clearly grotesque; she’s extravagant, larger than life, she’s experienced much suffering and has had many husbands and as a result has a tremendous amount of money. Grotesque people are unlike other people; they’re more frightening, chilling and different.

   Grotesques fit in very well with German fairy tale theatre and in this workshop we would explore this by using physical theatre. ...

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