Kaos

This was the Theatre game we spent longest on as it challenges us as actors psychologically rewiring our brains to drop the negative idiosyncrasy of dropping the ball. The games main goals was to get us to believe that when the ball is connects with the floor simply to ignore it. We should no longer feel that failure is bad, it is part of the road to successes which isn't always easy to see working in an ensemble. This exercise was also to (as most drama games do) focus our minds as there were different layers to concentrate on and as they slowly built up it       became more and more difficult.

The first layer involved us simply creating a chain of names across the circle. I didn't have to be in any particular order we just had to make sure everyone's name is said and it ends with someone saying sir's name to complete it. We did this a few times just to make sure we knew what we were doing it right. We were then told not to forget about the first layer but to keep it at the back of our minds. Mr. Rennison then     introduced a ball, Now this is were the "Kaos" came into it. We were then told to throw the ball across the circle creating another chain but this one was inaudible and purely physical and we didn't have the luxury of hearing the name to remember this chain so we had to concentrate on this layer a little more than previous one. As we did the previous we repeated it a few times to make sure we really had it in our heads.

We then brought together the two layers together to create a pattern of voice and movement two of the most important elements of Theatre. The vocal layer could also stand for lines and the balls is a prop! We had to throw the ball in succession in the already defined order whilst simultaneously saying the names we had worked out before. Another way this exercise is useful is that it helps us to be sharp on our cues and as one of the most important capabilities of an actor... to listen on stage. To me personally if a performance lacks that then it's not even worth watching as it becomes fake and cliché so this exercise becomes even more useful in the prospects of giving and receiving lines while performing scripted plays. The game became harder as we had quite a few things to concentrate on not being negative about the now more or less inevitable ball drops, the vocal layer and the ball throwing but after awhile it started to become easy enough to do!

The third layer threw another spanner into the works. We now had to move across the circle one at a time and tap someone on the shoulder creating another chain of people. Now we had all the layers together we were truly creating chaos as we know had another piece of movement happening along with all the names and ball throwing going on. This was to not only teach us how to concentrate on more than 3 things at once but also our own spatial  awareness as we move across the circle. This also helped within Blackout to create smooth transitions as we moved across the stage. Finally this game helped to give us a collective responsibility as an ensemble moreover contributing to the feel of the Theatrical piece.