Assessment 1

1. i) Yesterday morning was eye opening for many. The beginning of the session concentrated on the group sections and those were brought those a step closer to resolution. The second half took on a different format to the one we have been working to this last month however; we returned to open improvisation and play. This session filled in a vital piece of the puzzle for many, allowing them to intermingle with the society as a whole rather than being segregated into small relationship groups. Creatively this allowed the group to expand its horizons. During the previous work in twos and threes, characters have been developed to a high level, with performers getting to know their characters intimately. This exercise using open improvisation allowed for that experience to fruit in a new environment. With the entire community together in such a way for the first time it allowed for the community to find, or not find, new ties between its composite parts.

I felt the exercise helped me place my character in relation to the whole. Before yesterday I felt as if I were floating free of the community, with no real ties or setting within it. Now however I can see the community and my character’s place within it. That in itself has provided some resolution for my character.

ii) These explorations provided the performers with new routes and relationships and the exercise also cemented them together as a community. The material for the final community section was taken from the conclusions drawn in this exercise. It opened the final chapter of our journey as performers.

The proposal of showing the journey of the characters in three short bursts allowed the performers to communicate their characters’ journeys simply and explicitly as a method to begin to come to some sort of resolution.

iii) This will impact, or has impacted on the earlier stages of the journey by giving a glimpse of resolution. Before now relationships and characters hung in a delicate balance, but after the session it feels as if that balance has solidified a little. Not to a level of being set in stone, but there is now a surety of direction and purpose. Knowing where the relationships will end up has changed perspective on the journey undertaken to get to that end. Whether this is a good thing remains to be seen. There is still a way to go and things may yet change.