Reflections and exercises on Space, light and atmosphere

Developed by Mari Lassen-Bergsten Kamsvaag and Marion Reuter for the Carousel Concept

Awareness of space: Become aware of yourself in the space to be able to operate more consciously

In a performance there is an audience

The view of the audience frames my experience of space.

I want to have the big picture of the stage, seen from the outside while being inside.

A mental map of the stage landscape.

And see it from viewing frame of the audience.

I want to listen to the space with all senses: Taking and giving space.

Spending time in space and discover the space not intellectually but through the senses.

How will you investigate a space when nobody is watching?

Can you navigate in the space blind?

What do you discover if you spend two hours without talking?

Memory creates space

Through repetition

What are we without history?

How do we create history together?

What does our bodily, mental and imaginary experiences tell in a room?

Investigate space through a play attitude:

A state of interest

A state of courage

A state of curiosity

A state of openness

A state of being tangible

A state of being permeable

A state of mobility

A state of need

A state of being hungry and thirsty

How do we build atmospheres?

12 components space can consist of:

1. Placement: Where are the elements on stage? Where is the space open? Relation between pauses and material, awareness about the room, the others and yourself. Where do I place myself within the bigger picture, from viewing frame of the audience? In relation to the other actors, elements in the room, audience, and the open space? I am my own compass.
2. Memory: How can actors create memories in the space, in rehearsal and for the audience? Make memories in the space that open up. Build language through memory. Memory creates secrets you can use as artistic material during performance.
3. Knowledge: How does it affect the space if this is a place with a certain history?
4. Sound: The music from the party in the flat above. The drone that never stops. Steps with echo. The sound of the shadow.
5. Smell: The smell of grandma’s waffles in between toy soldiers and stories of a war in a child’s memory.
6. Mood: The eyes of the people as you walk into a room.
7. Light: Light makes visible and hides. It colours, creates movement. Makes something ignite. How can light be a co-actor? In the church the light became God. How do you address the light then?
8. Temperature: The difference between inside and outside, awakens the senses on my skin.
9. Colours: The power that colours can give.
10. Architecture (Form des Raumes): The materials tell stories, shapes, voids, how the light comes in, references, volume, time. How is it to be in the space contra viewing the space from the outside?
11. Gaze: What do I make it possible for the audience to discover me? How do I want the audience to see me? As a priest, as a host, as an element of nature just being there as an animal seen or unseen in the forest? What do the audience see, hear, smell, taste? What did they hear first, and what does that give to the next? What does the illogical give? A horse that speaks about ownership? A piece of meat flying through the universe? The judge eating popcorn in the court? What does harmony give? A choir of voices in beautiful harmony? Twins that walk synchronically.
12. Rules: In the church I can change a room when I break the rules. I can create a rule through repetition.

Phase 4. HOW do I transform my performance experiences into theoretical know-how?

Phase 4 consists of translating and understanding the practical play experiences through a theoretical perspective:

1. Konstantin Stanislavski: Did you live through someone else “as if” you were someone else belonging to a fictional world that you believed in 100 percent?
2. Bertolt Brecht: Did you feel a split between yourself and a role? Did you make the familiar strange? Did you break the stage illusion/the 4 th wall?
3. Antonin Artaud: Were you in contact with a more primitive animalistic side of yourself? Did you feel a bodily presence and alertness? Were your senses attacked, and did you attack the senses of the audience? 
4. Postdramatic: Did you perform yourself as opposed to a role? Did you make reference to your autobiography? 
5. Disincarnation: Did you jump back and forth between the techniques mentioned above?

1.      Prolog: Interview

During the prolog the supporting players interview the main player about his/her personal life. The interview exercise is staged as a live performance by interacting with the audience.

2.      Interlude:  A secret meeting

The interlude serves as preparation for and transition to the carousel round dance. During the interlude the supporting players meet without the main player to decide on an autofictional goal for a scene they wish to enact with the main player. The Interlude is staged as a secret meeting.

Break 1: Before the CRD: Warm-up

3.     Main part: The CRD

The Carousel Round-Dance is a series of improvised episodes, each between two people, directed by the goal of the supporting player. During the CRD each supporting player jumps one after the other on the carousel and enacts the scene they wish to enact with the main player. The main part is staged as a theatre rehearsal.

Break 2:  After the CRD: Cool-down.

4.   Epilog: Reflection

The epilog is a reflection staged as a reconstruction, a conscious finding and recollection process of the experience-based parts of the Carousel practice.

4. The Epilog: Reflection

The reflection is staged as reconstruction of the carousel round-dance event.

A conscious finding and recollection process of the experiencebased parts of the Carousel praxis.  A process of meaning through interpretation, by making the implicit explicit. 

After the CRD the actor/student take on the role of a detective who travels to the scene of the CRD to reconstruct, reflect upon and analyse the events of their experiences.

The reflection process aims to develop tools for the actor/student to question problems in their work process. The purpose is that the actor/student develop a reflective relation to themselves as actors and performers in the different work stages during the carousel round dance. The reconstruction process is to make the actor/student more aware of whom they are when they act, which acting strategies they have chosen and which strengths and weaknesses they experienced as actors under the CRD improvisation that enable them to take responsibility for their own working process.

The epilog consists of five phases

Phase 1. How do I remember WHAT happened?
The focus is in reconstruction your practice, to describe in detail what happened.

Phase 2. HOW do I transform my performance experiences into understanding and knowledge? Focus is on awareness of your own play-positions and acting strategies/techniques.

Phase 3. HOW do I transform my performance experiences into know-how? Focus is on the analytical aspects.

Phase 4. HOW do I transform my performance experiences into know-how? Focus is on the theoretical aspects. 

Phase 5. NOW WHAT? (xxx) New questions come into being, focus is on the future/ individual learning and developing progress.

Phase 1 generates the recollection of the CRD through free associations, symbolizing the play process through talking out loudly. The main player and the supporting players recollect and reconstruct the events of their experiences together. It attempts to make the students remember what happened during the CDR.

Phase 2, 3 and 4 transform the experience-based adventures of the CRD up into subjective understanding, know-how and perception. It starts a transformation of the experiences the students had in the CDR, enabling a process of awareness and knowledge of the acting-self.

Phase 5 open up for new questions to investigate in the next CRD

Prolog: Main player in Interview

You present yourself. The audience will then ask questions. You do not have to answer all of these questions truthfully. Perhaps you want to tell one or more lies? Make a clear descision inside you, as to wether you want to answer truthfully or not. You can do everything, as long as you are aware of what you are doing. It`s your performance.

Audience: Supporting players in Interview

Questions such as to ask the main player:

What is your dream? Where will you be in fifteen years? What does control mean to you? Tell me about a situation where you were happy? Did you have any reoccurring nightmares as a child? What do you think and feel when you look at the stars? If you could not do theatre - what would you do? Why do you hate cats? If you were a weapon which kind of weapon are you? 

These are only sample questions, each interview will generate its own questions.

Once the prolog is finished, the Interlude begins.

2. The Interlude is the space between the Interview and the Main Part: The Carousel Round Dance.

The supporting players meet without the mainplayer and design the Carousel Round Dance, CRD, that the main player will experience in order to develop the frame for the carousel script. They discuss together which scene they want to play with the main player. The supporting players use the information from the main players’ biography as a starting point.

Each supporting player then creates an autofictional goal/desire and character for a scene they wish to enact with the main player. The autofictional character can get composed by: The Self mixed with mythical beings/ stars/ animals/things, with real persons from the main player’s life experience, with stereotypes, etc …

The SP can be: Myself staged as a lawyer and a barbie. Myself staged as a baby. Myself staged as a vampire and a neighbour. Myself staged as a politician and myself. Myself staged as a fictional version of the mother/ the uncle/ a friend of the main-player …

The most important thing is that the goal and characters are informed by the main player’s biography and get mixed with fictional elements. 

Thus, the memory lane of the interview informs the content of the CRD.

1. The Prolog is the staging of the main players interview as life performance  by interacting with the audience in which all participants of the carousel round-dance are involved. The main player performs her/himself as her/ himself in the interview. The rest of the acting students perform the supporting players that interview the main player about his/her personal life. The supporting players act as audience and interviewer.  The main-players position is “the performer”. S/he performs her/himself as her/himself.

"I  here now "   ("ICH HIER JETZT" Hermann Schmitz)

The term I Here Now refers to a position experienced by all players. It names an awareness about to act and re-act in the present as oneself in scenic play situations and be conscious about the public situation 

Example: 

Once the Main Player has arranged and is inside his/her CRD-room, the facilitator chooses the first supporting player to enter.

Supporting Player:

The supporting player from our example before who is performing herself as herself and a cat, wanting to lie on the main players belly, arrives at the door and starts purring, mijaving, scratching at the door. A cat can't open a door, but the main player can. Now s/he must decide how to progress. The supporting player will work towards her goal. The scene ends with either the SP reaching her/his goal, getting the MP to the bed and the SP lying on the MPs belly, or the MP eventually throwing the SP out or taking the SPs goal further. This is up to the improvisation and the flow of the scene. 

After the scene ends, the facilitator decides the next supporting player, based on what could best fit the flow, either reinforcing the current feel or making a complete break with it. This is all about the dynamics ofdevelopment. When the next supporting player enters, s/he has seen everything happening in the previous scene, and can incorporate it in their encounter. Now there are cat hairs in the bed and on his clothes, and the next character can also be allergic to cats, or love cats.                 

Function of the Facilitator during the CRD:

The facilitator should aim towards varying degrees of intensity.

Maybe the main player should have three easy fluent encouters in a row, followed by two very bumpy, or the opposite. This will depend on how the dynamics of the CRD plays out.

The facilitator is mainly there to create a lively and relaxed atmosphere during the rehearsal situation. A space with a certain kind of attention where the main-player can best experience her/his improvisation process supported by the supporting players.  An unstressed rehearsal situation that make space where the supporting players can best perform their character, so they don't have to focus on who gets to go next.

The carousel keeps spinning or the CRD is repeated until all the supporting players have performed their scene. The time frame should be at least one hour, willingly longer.

When the CRD is done, Break 2 can begin.

Phase 5. NOW WHAT?

Phase 5 consists of a critical approach towards the experience of the CRD, by reconsidering positions, acting strategies and identifying gaps in knowledge, thereby opening for new perspectives and possibilities in the next CRD propelling a learning process.

What questions came into being?

Phase 3. HOW do I transform my performance experiences into know-how?

Phase 3 consists of an analytical reflection on the vital aspects and skills of actors during playing in the CRD.

What did you want?

How did you find your strategies?

Why did you act in this way?

Why do you think things happened in this way?

How was the interaction with the main player?

How was the interaction with the supporting player?

Etc. You can use these samples of questions as a guide to develop more questions.

   3. The Main Part: The Carousel Round Dance (CRD)

The CRD is staged as a theatre rehearsal in which all participants are involved as main players or as supporting players and as audience.

It is a series of improvised encounters, each between two people, directetd by the goal of the supporting player:

The main player meets one by one the participating supporting players. S/he is the hero and the star-role of the CRD. The main player performs him- or herself as him- or herself.

The supporting players are the catalysts for the main players CRD adventure. They act their secret goals and desires/intentions as different fictional characters. 

One by one the acting students knock on the main players invisible door and enter as supporting player. S/he acts their encounter with the main player and exits the door. The door is central to the main part. It is a formal theatrical sign marking the entry to another world. The door becomes a co-performer and similar to a dream there are multiple ways of opening it: You can knock, use a key or walk right through it. The supporting players can wear a costume, bring props, and change music and the lighting. Every scene is improvised based on each supporting players secret goal, with the remaining supporting players functions as audience. Once the scene has played out, the current supporting player exits and now takes the position of audience, allowing a new supporting player to emerge and interact with the main player.

Every time a new supporting player enters the room, the room changes and the room and the people in it can be anything. The space and the room can be transformed in ways that are only limited by the imagination of the actors. This has to do with the fact that the form of the Carousel Round Dance is improvisation and during improvisations anything can happen: Alice goes down the rabbit hole.

Everybody knows the goals, except the main player – the one in the middle of it all -  who knows nothing. Like Oedipus.

The carousel keeps spinning or the ritual is repeated until all the supporting players have performed their scene. 

YOU HERE NOW.  Being in the CC happens Here and Now.

The term YOU in the Carousel Concept refers to a position inhabited by all players. It is a connection between YOU and the I, the other YOU’s, the room, the memories, the desires, the beliefs, the sensations, the experiences, and the knowledge. YOU is the meaning and the association to doing things. The key-moment in the CRD is the YOU.

PLAYERS AND ACTING STRATEGIES:

The Main Player (MP): The main player is the hero and the star-role of the carousel adventure.

Acting strategy - Metamorphosic acting: The main player performs him- or herself as him- or herself /presentation

The Supporting Players (SP): The supporting players are the catalysts for the main player’s storylines and adventure. They create the secret goals and the fictional layers.

Acting strategy - Mimetic acting: Performing oneself as a character/representation

The Nomadic Player (NP): The nomadic player is a hybrid between MP and SP. An in-between identity that is never fixed, but in a constant process of becoming. The nomadic player appears at the meeting between MP and SP and is a mix between performer and actor, the authentic and the fake.  

Acting strategy - Nomadic acting: Both positions simultaneously/presentation and representation

The Audience (AU): The audience consists of the supporting players, not currently in the improvisation. They observe the ongoing improvisations, reflect on how to best affect the main player, when it is their turn in the carousel round-dance. As an outer eye that also includes the task of being a witness to the ongoing carousel impro event for the reconstruction session in the reflection round.

Task to the Supporting Players

The Interlude should feel like you are planning a surprise party for the main player. What did s/he say that could make interesting plot points?

In the prolog, it was revealed that the main player was allergic to cats, but also had a strong drive to care for other people. So one of the supporting players decides to perform herself as a homeless cat, with the goal of getting the Main Player to let her sleep on his belly.

Her secret desire is that she want to be loved by him, getting cared for by him and live with him.

Each Supporting Player develops their own individual goal, desire and character, that can challenge, play with and develop the main players experience space..

There are no rules when developing your character, goal and desire, you can draw from any layers of culture and history, as long as your character supports the goal. 

Once all supporting players have worked out their goals and character the main part begins.

Now we go to Break 1.

Phase 1 - How do I remember WHAT happened?

Phase 1 consists of a filtering process, where the main player talks while the supporting players fill out ABC-lists, then the supporting players reconstruct the events of their experiences together with the main player.
It plays out as follows:

1. The main player and supporting players gather in a circle. The main player tries to guess the secret goals/desires. The goals/desires get clarified.
2. The main player talks/speaks out loudly about her/his experience through all CRD encounters without interruption.
3. The supporting-players are actively listening while filling out their Birkenbiehl- ABC lists.
4. Afterwards, the supporting players read loudly their collection of the main players words, associations and notes from the list to the main player to give him/her material for the further procedure of the reflection work as well as new thinking material for the group.
5. The supporting players reconstruct the events of their experiences.

This now forms the basis, from which the students examine the questions in phase 2, 3 and 4.

It plays out as a discussion.

Phase 2 - HOW do I transform my performance experiences into understanding and knowledge?

Phase 2 consists of clarifying the specific play positions and acting strategies of the students during the CRD .

What was my play position? Performer? Actor? Both?

Which acting strategy did I use? Metamorphosic? Mimetic? Nomadic?

Which movement/ attitude/act/ form/ attitude/ etc.

Use such as the Overview of Acting Strategies as a guide and use The Carousel Applied section here on the exibition.