Summer Workshop

Yesterday (Monday) was the first day of our Summer Workshop. We're working with guerrilla theater and the idea of street performances in general. Learn more about the workshop here.

The first part of the day was quite relaxed. There weren't many of us. We did a few warm ups and games, we did some Bound to Grotesque work, we exercised facial muscles we had never quite been conscious of before, talked about public performance, and got lunch. Over lunch we talked about theater some more.

Just after lunch Ellen showed us a couple of videos of street theater. Before she showed them to us we talked about the effect of a live street performance being filmed at all. We talked about the difference in people's reactions when there's the possibility of being on camera and their awareness of the performance changing.

This video I particularly loved. It doesn't hurt that it comes with music I love. That never hurts.



Later in the day we talked about what we wanted to create and how we wanted to approach this. We learned about how other groups have approached guerrilla theater and what they've used it for: entertainment, protesting etc. Ellen stressed the importance of us not creating a disturbance. We want to get people's attention. We want to surprise them, to entertain. What we don't want is to create hostility from business owners or police. We don't want to create anything like a faked emergency -- for a variety of reasons, really. We discussed what we might do if people ask us to move along or become hostile to our presence.

But it's unlikely that this will be too much of an issue. We aim to be well-organized, respectful of our surroundings, and respectful of the people around us. Not least of all, we intend to be respectful of the law.

I managed to grab a few snapshots from today. Enjoy!