Day 4- Further , devising small sequences ...

Today we started the morning with a warm up, this included working on forward and backward rolls, also practicing to hold each others weight with flow movement , another exercise was for everyone to lie on the floor - sardines as Jon would say, then for us to roll at the same time, on top would lie a person and we would roll, soon the person would have moved from one end to the next.. It was fun!

'Sardine Roll'

We also worked on Grotowskis plastics for a short time, focusing on our elbows. This is very challenging and needs lots of practice to master. After a break we worked on placing ourselves in a pile to represent a pile of bodies, this is a very strong image that is recognized in the holocaust camps.

Original photo of a pile of bodies in the Holocaust camps

As we worked on this I began to smell people which wasn't all that pleasant , however it gave me a better feeling of discomfort to add to my emotion , I could never compare it as to what actually happened in these camps as these bodies where rotting and naked in a way I would rather not describe.
Soon after we had to come to life after Being thrown on a pile, holding hands and working on rising in a tight group. In pairs We had to devise a sequence of how this would work and create a style of movement , a kind of dance ish sequence , imagining we were stuck behind walls trying to get out. I did this with Dominique and shakira.

A picture of Liza's group performing their short sequence.

Soon we had worked on how Cassy and James would drag us into a pile of bodies , for they are the guards in the play. After we adapted our small devised structures to rise and move together, trying to escape the walls.
After lunch we rehearsed the song, Shakira and myself have been given the task to arrange the song as to who will sing each part.
Later in pairs we devised a small torture scene. I did this with Liza , working from images that we sourced through the Internet it allowed us to grow our scenes into further tortured sketch. We included whipping with belts, using a chair to be tied up on, and moving towards the floor for a further tortured positions.

Below is Dominique, James and Cassey rehearsing their torture sketch.

We ended the session with performing each sketch to each other. Jon has instructed us to devise a thirty second repetitive death sequence , this will be performed whist Rosie, Christina and myself will be performing our scripted words.
We also to source plain white pyjamas for Lauren, our wardrobe/stage/ prop manager to create a stripy pyjama look costume.

Here are a couple of original photos of Holocaust victims in their clothes 'pyjama clothes'