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. The grotesque way of life is the way of life in “The Visit.”
Everyone had to create his or her own individual grotesque. We then had to walk around the room in a grotesque way. After this we were put into one of the four corners of the room and had to act like an animal in a grotesque way. Using this we had to walk from our corner to the one diagonally opposite and walk past someone in the grotesque animal manner that you chose, (I chose to be a lion). Following this we went into groups of two and three. We had to come up with a scenario, which involved all of us acting in our grotesque animal fashion; my group was Richard. S, Yomna and myself.
Everyone performed theirs, then we used forum theatre to improve each piece by having the audience giving suggestions to what they think would make it better as a dramatical piece and what the audience thought could make the individual more grotesque.
I felt that the best exercise we’d used and the most helpful was forum theatre, and that after having used it in a smaller dose in the second workshop I was delighted to find out that the third workshop would be on exploring forum theatre. We were divided into groups of two and three and had to choose a scene from the play that is significant. We were told to spend about 5-10 minutes staging it and then we would have to perform it. After having done this forum theatre took place, with the rest of the class saying what they think could improve the piece. I was with Richard.S and we did a scene, which involved Claire (me), and Schill (Richard.S) reminiscing about when they were young and in love. After the forum theatre we were asked as directors what we were trying to convey. In ours the message was through the use of an extended metaphor that Claire was coming on to Schill, at first I felt that most of the audience found this disturbing but then through forum theatre it was improved and became more evident.
When everyone did theirs we were told to write down what we would change and when we came back to it we could tell the actors. This is another form of forum theatre, which I found just as effective.
My initial response to this workshop was that people didn’t put enough thought into what the audience might think, and that no one set it as well as they could have done. This was due to the audience being on one side and the camera being on the other which meant that you would have your back turned to one of them, which was a big problem.
Our next workshop, workshop number four, again involved aspects of forum theatre but the theme of this workshop was based on physical theatre. We had to look at physical theatre as it occurred in “The Visit.”
Before we got involved with the main part of the workshop which involved the script, we had to devise a small scene which takes place in a supermarket. My group contained Richard.S Yomna Cameron and myself. By using physical theatre we had Richard being a customer with Cameron being the trolley. We did this by having Richard hold Cameron like a wheelbarrow. After Richard had walked around the room shopping, he pushed Cameron over to the till. Yomna acted as the till by being on all fours with the person at the desk being played by me. Everyone else performed their small piece of physical theatre as a warm up to get in the mood for the main aspect of the workshop.
We had to work in-groups of five or six and construct a scene from “The Visit” and see what you can do with physical theatre. My group consisted of five people: Cameron, Richard.S, Yomna, Richard.W and myself. We constructed a scene, which involved Claire (Yomna) and Schill (me) in the forest. We had Cameron and the two Richard’s acting out as trees, animals, clouds and the sun as well as other things, to help our piece of theatre become more physical.
We performed and the general outcry was positive, after the two groups had performed their pieces we spent the final minutes of the workshop doing forum theatre which helped an immense amount in my view as it made to good pieces very good.
Using physical theatre in this way acted as a stimulus to me by helping me understand the play more extensively as well as helping in my acting because it allows you to act in a combined way of how you’d act alongside props as well as with other actors.
Our second to last workshop, workshop number 5, was all based on preparing a piece for the final workshop. In this workshop we had to focus on lighting as one of our priorities, this was because in our final workshop the performance needed to involve lighting, as “The Visit” does. However we didn’t have to use the same lighting colours or cues.
In the fifth workshop we found out that we’d be working together as a group for the first time, as we’d never done this before. This created problems, as Mr. Watson told us that we had to use the script and that the performance in the final workshop would be on Schill's death in Act 3. Everyone in the group had to have a part to play, and during the workshop we discussed which section of Act 3 was the best one to do.
After this we had no more teacher input and we were left to work out what to do on our own. Throughout the other four we had worked on various dramatical skills. These came into this fifth workshop as forum theatre especially helped us as a group by having those who aren’t in the scene telling those who are what they can do to make it better. This helped to enhance our play as a dramatical piece and made it better for the audience to watch.
We decided to start our play by having Rupert and Lydia as reporters, then go to the family scene. In the family scene we made it evident that Schill was being neglected by own his family by having their backs turned to him. We used lighting in our piece to show how Schill was the only one left in the town who hadn’t be corrupted and therefore was the only one in the light, whereas everyone else was in darkness. We ended our piece by having Schill’s death.
In the final workshop we were given thirty minutes to get our piece together and then we had to perform it. In this final workshop we had a serious problem, both Lydia and Richard.S who was supposed to be Schill were away. This meant someone had to be Schill and Rupert had no other reporter. Thankfully Rupert just did all the reporter lines as he knew what to do, however, we still had no Schill. Cameron was elected by the group to be our new Schill, and in a small space of time he had to learn everything we’d decided Richard.S would originally do.
Even though the factor of two of our actors being missing, I thought we coped extremely well. The fact that we used a T.V. reporter (Rupert) added to the grotesques of the play by making it even more chilling as it was for everyone else’s amusement,
The hypocrisy in “The Visit” and the fact that people can lose their morale scarily easily we showed extensively throughout our final workshop as well as our previous ones.
This was the end of our workshops and I felt that they were extremely helpful as an actor as well as helping to understand the play, and I think that throughout the group everyone did very well.
By Finn Mcnulty