As an extension to the performances that I attended on March 23 by Lisa Fay and Jeff Glassman, I opted to check out a workshop put on by the duo earlier this evening. The workshop started off with an explanation of scores created by the duo. Scores are instructions for movement represent in 2-dimensional drawings, designs, notations and structural patterns. Scores of often created with some sort of graphic medium existing primarily on paper that allow the actors to take their performance ideas from mental images to stage actions that can be documented and performed. Scores are a way to notate the body and the way that it is to move through physical space. The duo also explained a technique called "pivots" that they use in many of their performances. A pivot occurs when a position or movement stops midway and transitions to another, completely unrelated, movement.
In the workshop, students and faculty came up with brief situations to act out. We practiced the scene over and over again to gain a sharp understanding of the specific movement that we made and when and where each movement occurred in space is we made it. After we had a grasp on how to act out our specific scene, we were asked to act out the scene completely solo, but as if our partners were still there. After this exercise, we were asked to combine one persons movements from our group with the movements of one individual from another group. The two disparate scenes then occurred simultaneously to create one new, abstracted scene.
Participating in the workshop allowed me to understand the skits performed by the duo earlier in the week on a whole new level. Although the skits can make sense on a purely theatrical level, they are developed through a very exact and technical process, allowing them to exist as a specific an unique art form of their own.
Above: A variety of different scores created by the duo to map complex movements.
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