Tuesday.6.00 p.m. It's been a very wet day. I've been to Camphill (back in the routine, more or less as it was before lockdown.) The journey to Camphill takes about twice as long during 'Rush Hour', because of the amount of traffic on the road.
As with each session in the drama workshop at Camphill, things begin with check-in, which is when every participant tells the group how they feel and what they have been doing up until that point. There are around 25 people in the group, give or take perhaps three, some are on holiday or at least, elsewhere, and somebody may come to get a taster of the group (rather like I did when I started with the group in around April 2019. I can't believe it's getting on for three years ago.) The check-in took longer than usual, probably just an hour. Some people have quite a lot to talk about. Then, a 'warm-up session is led by Terrie, the new leader of the group. I'm quite used to seeing actors going through something similar before they start a performance when I worked in stage management. It's rather like an athlete warming up before some form of activity, such as running a race. Then, a game called 'Grandmother's Basket', which entails everyone sitting in a circle. The first person has a basket and has to say the name of an object which they have in the basket and mime it (I don't think everyone did this, but never mind.) Then the basket is passed to the next person in the circle, who adds another of their own, as outrageous or imaginative as possible and also adds the previous person's item, and the basket continues around, with each person having to add another item and say the other items that have been added. It gets more and more difficult as the baskets further round. So, you can imagine, with around 25 people, the last person has to remember all the items that came before them. I think the group were quite brilliant at remembering all the items!
Terrie is developing a new show with the group (this had begun well before I returned to the theatre workshop.) which is a pantomime version of the William Shakespeare play 'Twelfth Night.' The group have been each been given their characters and has been working on the way they behave and move. At this stage, there is no written script. Some of the actual speeches will be incorporated into the piece, for example, the famous opening speech 'If music be the food of love, play on!' but Terrie is writing the dialogue so that it fits the capabilities of each actor in the piece.
After the tea break, there was an intriguing game set up on the stage and hidden behind the curtains. When they were opened, we saw the stage scattered with all manner of items, hats, pieces of costume, pots, saucepans, and goodness knows what else. The game we were instructed in was to walk around the stage and pick up an item and, in the manner of clowns, to use the item in a way which was not what it was intended for. You couldn't speak, having to communicate using mime.
After lunch Terrie launched into rehearsing some of the scenes from 'Twelfth Night, breaking down what story elements in each scene and then getting the guys to act out what they had been shown and extracting as much comedy out of the material as possible.
I have to say since I've been involved with the theatre workshop at Camphill, I have noticed how the group has increased their confidence. In fact, a great deal of confidence is required to stand up on a stage and perform, remember lines and put your heart and soul into what you're doing, and for people who have some form of learning disability, together with communication issues, speech, hearing or whatever, it must be very difficult. That is the benefit of working in some form of theatre, which is what the workshop is all about.
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