This morning, we reflected on our time spent yesterday with members of Pig Iron Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Our teachers, Dito, Alex and Olivia, worked with us on creating original pieces of theatre. We started the day with games and activities that made us aware of our own physical selves and our connections to other people. We worked on thinking about what the audience sees and how we use the physical space of the stage. The work required intense focus and thinking on our feet. We spent the rest of the day on a scene-building activity called “Five Frames.” We took a story and boiled it down to five still images that we could create with three or four actors. After we workshopped our images, we worked on the transitions between the frames, adding more of the story. Finally, we added sound and music and kept workshopping our scenes – the difference from our first try to our last was amazing! Enjoy our photo gallery from the day — thanks to Andrew Rowan for taking all of the pictures.
Here are some thoughts from the group about what we gained from our experience:
“We gained comfort with the work over the day – it started out feeling strange but by the end we were really comfortable.”
“We became mindful of things we aren’t normally mindful of – how our bodies occupy space.”
“It was a real ‘learn by doing’ situation – you have to experience it.”
“I learned to throw myself into something that looked weird from the outside – finding a dignified way to be silly.”
“I loved the end product of five frames that we really expanded on – we learned something as every step went on.”
“We learned about Krampus, which was terrifying.”
“We saw how music fills up the space and changes the tone of a scene.”
“We saw that one really small change can make an enormous difference – putting on a mask, or changing posture slightly.”
“It was tricky to work with the added variations on each scene we produced – moving from still images to still images with one line to a full scene – it made us appreciate how much goes into a full theatrical production.”
“It felt like storyboarding for a movie – showed how they take a bunch of things that kind of connect but are still by themselves, and then with the transitions, connect them and actually make a cohesive story.”