Week 3: Childhood and Space

Childhood and Space

This week I have been considering how to use space in my performance. The 3m square performance space provides a challenge, and I want to use the space creatively. I have found that this article by Cai Thomas about movement inspires me to be bolder with my physicality and the ways in which I will perform.

In the workshop this week, we focused on playfulness and the imaginative ways we used space as children. A performance for children, Egg and Spoon by the Lyngo Theatre Company, cleverly uses both space and props in an imaginative manner, which results in a visually engaging performance. I am drawn to this idea of playful theatre, and would like to explore it more.

Keeping the concept of childhood in mind, we were encouraged to work in a group to create a small performance connecting to the theme of identity. We were only given bamboo canes and sheet of paper and pens to make costumes. At first we found it difficult to devise using these props, but once we started to think back to how we would have reacted to them as children, we became far more imaginative. We made butterfly wings for one member of the group, weaved him into the middle, trapping him with the canes, and tore them off him. We felt as though this was reflective of the way that individuals are forced to conform by society.

Finally, I have been further researching possibilities regarding space, and found an article on Black-Box Theatre that discusses the performance opportunities it brings. This further encourages me to use my space creatively.

• Cai Tomos, Making Space, https://caitomos.com/writings/
• Lyngo Theatre Company, Egg and Spoon, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUfnM-IWfiw
•  John McCormick, Lynda Henderson and  David Collins, Black-Box Theatre, http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25488755.pdf