BA ACT2 trip to Tarragona
We have been studying Greek Theatre and working towards a final piece of Antigone, discovering how to connect as a group and learning how to become effectively ‘one person’ ,so in reading week, the 2nd year actors and I launched ourselves at the opportunity to go and visit the amphitheatre in Tarragona.
The theatre itself was mesmerising. A lot of the open theatre was still the original building from Roman times and I must say even though it was built in the 2nd century AD, they had figured out a draining system from the rain which I couldn’t believe, they were very clever! We decided to do some of our chorus work in the theatre and a few began to recite the verse from ‘Antigone’ when a herd of visiting school children arrived. Incredibly, the school children started joining in, copying our moves and certain words, they were fully engaged and soon enough we had approximately 50 kids and us working as a group. We ran around for a long time practically improvising a group chorus, experimenting with our voices and seeing what silly sounds we could make. It was chaos and chaos is exactly what is needed for a Greek chorus, everyone is connected so they make one chorus but all as individuals. I loved how the children had no social boundaries, they didn’t care about what they would look like or worried about what other spectators may think about them, they just wanted to have fun and we usually lose that care- free mind as we grow older, so it was a nice reminder to just live in the moment and do what makes you happy! The experience made me realise why most actors do acting, because they don’t want to leave behind their care free mind, and even if as we grow social boundaries, we want a safe place to play, like the children wanted too! It was really inspiring!
The whole rehearsal process with our lecturer Sophie was an experience none of us knew we were ever going to have, working as a Greek chorus and suddenly becoming connected to each other was challenging, we all pushed ourselves out of our comfort zone and discovered so much about the human mind and physical body! Thank you Sophie!
MAY 17, 2018
