Stories, Status and Space

Ok. New People. Gina, Giedre, Andrew, Pierre, Gina, Kendra and Marlo.

Hopefully we have all the emails now.

We are looking at Stories again. Anna and Bryony re-tell their school-stories from last week. Again, we listen o them. We notice the way that they're told as well as what the stories are. About the physicality of the telling. The gestures of the tellers. The faces of the tellers.

In between times, we contact improvise and , later, non-contact improvise.

But today's stories are more centred on an elder us. In the realm of a first kiss. Or a first love. The older us. Everyone has something to tell. Marlo telling about a boy in American school called Randy. About how they hugged. But she's not sure whether they ever kissed... About Paul offering to give some gloves to one girl who always wore her sleeves over her hands... and how she then just disappeared from school one day. Kendra plucking up the courage to text a boy who wouldn't give her a straight answer....

We look at status. Everybody is given their own number from one to nine - each written on a scrap of paper. That is their status. One is lowest. Nine highest. The situation is a some kind of party. They have to mingle. And then, after, to guess the number each had on their scraps.

Next time round, I whisper a status in everybody's ear. Most are 1. Two are 9. Not much conversation. Then, we change the situation. The first day of school. Everybody is a one. Everybody WANTS to talk. But everybody is shy. Hesitant. Tongue-tied. We play with this for a while. We practice AWKWARD.

Finally we look at telling stories in space. By where we are in space. And how we are in space. The idea is simple. Two people. One on either side of the room. The only instruction: negotiate the space between yourselves. Andrew and I begin. Later pairings include Kendra and Bryony and Marlo and Pierre. And each time is unique.

It raises questions of: who is the most powerful one of the two at any point in the exercise. About what physicality tells which story. About whether this is a 'story' of people who know one another or not. Whether it is two stories rolled into one. About openness and closed-ness.
About what we 'feel' as the performer and what is seen.

And many others.

This post is meant to be a guide to remind me when I come to think before next week's session, so please feel free to write a posting of your own thoughts, however short or long.