Harmonizing the body!

10^th September, 2015

Every movement, every gesture matters in theater. How you move your lips, what angle you smile at, how you speak (do you project or shout) all of it is an integral part of good theater.

Why do actors always stress about their movements? about their actions before, during and after a performance? That is because when the actions of a group of actors performing in theater or even on Broadway, are in sync with the actions of the actors surrounding them, when the actions are in harmony, it is then that the actors in their movements are like a living organism (various parts of the body moving together) or like one unit, one body – the living body or even the body of harmony within one family (in this case it is the theater family).

Theater like the military is all about discipline and balance. When one moves the other should move too, like they are all perfectly in-tuned. This is similar to the concept of kinetics in physics. Kinetics is concerned with ‘the relationship between the motion of bodies and its causes, namely forces and torques’. Basically it concerns the relationship between ‘the motion of bodies’ this is similar in theater. In class today, Prof. Boyd made us walk in grid and then follow imaginary circular patterns all over our theater space. This activity was conducted to (a) make us more aware of our theater space (b) make us aware of the harmony that can be acquired in the theater space (c) to help us in forming a connection with our fellow colleagues to better our movements as a group, as military (going along with the idea of how military and theater are similar).

Though at first going around in circles was complex and mind-boggling, towards the end of the exercise it was easier to connect as one unit. The practice of forming a frozen tableau where you freeze instantly, one moment you’re walking while the other you have stopped. The exercise of walking in circles was to better hone our balance as a team. It was to help us with our co-ordination. If one stops, all stop. If one moves, all move and so on.

Once we had improved the act of moving as one organism, one body, the instructors set us the task of performing a thirty seconds to one minute skit on any ritual close to us (it could be a ritual observed by one’s family or a ritual generally followed by the people of Pakistan). Initially I thought nothing could be better than a wedding scene or a funeral but, through deliberation with my team mates we were able to come up with a different ritual, one that involved everyday table manners. It was fun and it was quite unique since it involved a family sitting around the table communication, even if it was one child getting scolded by the parents and the other getting her ear pulled as an expression of the mother’s anger. As one of my colleagues has referred to the JSTOR article “Theater and Culture”, ‘theater’s objective is not to jell that masses’ it is to ‘present maximal aims, of great complexity’. In my opinion this statement furthers the importance of rituals and societal festivals. In theater these rituals and festivals play a vital role in engaging the audience and in presenting the ‘maximal aims, of great complexity’.