The Carousel Concept as Assemblage Acting

By Mette Tranholm

Excerpts:

The carousel and the disincarnation practice: Acting techniques in the carousel

In my PhD dissertation Disincarnation: Jack Smith and the Character as Assemblage (2017) I argue that performers in performance theatre pick and choose from different acting methods in a disincarnation strategy. Simply put, disincarnation refers to performers incarnating a character – understood as classical/naturalistic psychological and physical immersion into and representation of a character in a script à la Stanislavski – while simultaneously breaking away from it. However, I point out that in performance theatre, the situation is more complex as actors drift back and forth between elements from four character concepts: the classical, the Brechtian, the Artaudian and the postdramatic.

Disincarnation is characterised by different acting techniques crossing over into each other in a character assemblage. It is my thesis that performers in performance theatre pick freely from the four different acting techniques in creating character assemblages: “The disincarnation practice is a practice in constant becoming, constantly in flux driving back and forth between centers such as the four concepts of characters, never settling in one of them” (Tranholm 2017:85).

I aim to examine how the carousel concept activates the biography of the actor in relation to elements from established acting techniques. The main player seems to play him- or herself, while the supporting players seem to take on roles in a more classical sense. The acting students/actors play in the carousel, and during this game they activate and cross over between elements from the classical, Brechtian, Artaudian, and postdramatic character concept.

The figure of the assemblage

The carousel concept and disincarnation blur traditional distinctions and dualisms between scenic functions and character concepts such as actor/audience, classic/postdramatic, which are tied to broader developments in the performing arts:

Postdramatic theatre genres such as participatory theatre, devised theatre, reality theatre etc. have popped up during the last few decades. A new generation of performing artists is also marked by ensemble-devised performance (McGinley 2010:12). In these performances, the boundaries between acting techniques and traditional scenic functions such as actors and dramaturges, actors and audience, actors and directors are blurred. Christel Stalpaert notes how the separation of dramaturge and actor installs the mind-body dualism in the sense that the dramaturge is usually and historically considered “the brain” of the scenic functions and the performer “the body”. As such, the blurring of the scenic functions dissolves traditional dualisms (Stalpaert 2009:x). As an example, Stalpaert describes how the performance collective Need Company refers to itself as an “artistic family”, where the artistic process of creation is collective. Jan Lauwers is not the traditional patriarchal leader. On the contrary, all the members of the group carry a “shared intellectual responsibility” (Stalpaert 2009:121-122). Although Reuter sets the groove as the DJ, the carousel concept is a non-hierarchical method in the sense that everybody tries out every part/scenic function: Interviewer, concept/objective developer, main player, supporting player, audience, set designer, light designer, and reflection partner. This contributes to the feeling of shared responsibility. As Stalpaert points out, conventional dualisms and hierarchies between mind/body, dramaturge/actor, director/actor are rapidly dissolving or are crossing over into each other, forming new assemblages. How does the contemporary acting student navigate these waters? I turn to theories that think beyond conventional dualisms because both Reuter and I wish to enable the acting students and make them more reflective and critically aware of themselves as their own instruments and of the techniques they apply. Disincarnation is a tool for mapping the artistic practice of the carousel in order to name, differentiate, and pinpoint the techniques the students apply. As such disincarnation contributes also as an conceptual tool that makes it possible to develop a language for understanding the events in the carousel and thus strengthen the autonomy of the acting students.

As I set out to examine, interpret, and map the carousel through the concept of disincarnation and the relationship between different acting techniques, Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptualisation of the assemblage will serve as an analytical and practical key concept. Here the assemblage is understood as a material montage of heterogenic elements (Deleuze and Guattari 1987:4). The concept of the assemblage is related to two other key concepts in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari: becoming and the rhizome.

Becoming is a key term in Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy. Becoming refers to an in-between identity that is never fixed, but in a constant process of becoming. Deleuze and Guattari compare becoming to the rhizome in order to underline the unfinished nature of becoming (Deleuze and Guattari 1987:239). According to Deleuze and Guattari, the rhizome is a subterranean stem or a special network of plants entangled underground (Deleuze and Guattari 1987:6). The rhizome refers to a state characterised by constant movement: an ongoing process, with no beginning, middle, and end (Deleuze and Guattari 1987:21). One of the cornerstones of Deleuze and Guattari’s thinking is a positive account of a multiple or schizophrenic subject with an identity in constant variation or becoming. In “What Is Becoming?” Deleuze uses Alice from Alice in Wonderland as an example of a character with an infinite identity or an identity in constant variation or becoming: Alice is becoming larger and smaller, that is more and less, simultaneously. Alice does not have a fixed identity: she is multiple things at once, a multiple or schizophrenic subject. (Deleuze 1993:40).

With the disincarnation practice, we are better equipped to detect, analyse, and understand character (re)presentation in a world of collapsing or intersecting dualisms such as actor and role, the dramatic and the theatrical, Stanislavski and Brecht. Here the body and bodily presence can be intertwined with a subject in constant change.

The main player: an assemblage of character concepts

For the actor performing the main player the carousel round dance starts in his or her concrete biographical reality. The main player acts and reacts more or less as he or she would offstage. Although the dance starts here it often ends in the realm of the autofictional. How does this happen? It happens as a result of the main player’s encounters with the supporting players. During each encounter different performance modes and character concepts are activated and the main player jumps between performing her/himself as her/himself and performing different characters/roles/acting-selves. As such, the main player crosses over into an autofictional assemblage created by the supporting players.

The nomadic subject

In the following section, I argue that the multiple acting techniques are mirrored in the multiple subject of contemporary Western society or rather vice versa: The multiple subject is mirrored in the use of multiple acting techniques.

Alongside the activation of different acting techniques, the carousel activates an experience of different segments of the actor’s personality or subjectivity as material for auto-fictional performances. The main players perform themselves as themselves in the carousel; they do not perform a character from a script. They use their real names etc., and different aspects of their personality are activated. ……

In relation to the multiple subject, Rosi Braidotti in her book Nomadic Subjects – Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory (1994) argues in line with a number of other poststructuralist philosophers that humans are not one thing, but contain a variety of characteristics that point in different directions. Braidotti and the poststructuralist movement argue that the different postmodern subject positions break away from the universal subject and represent a rebellion against essentialism. Braidotti explains that if one wants to understand the postmodern subject, “one needs to emphasise a vision of the thinking, knowing subject as not one, but rather as being split over and over again in a rainbow of yet uncoded and ever so beautiful possibilities” (Braidotti 1994:158). For Braidotti the subject has many different colours, shapes, and sides. Braidotti presents her subject position or the “figuration” for her theories about subjectivity that she calls the nomadic subject (Braidotti 1994:4). The nomadic subject is always in the making, in process, in becoming, moving around between different stages, positions, and identities. These movements have the potential to bring about change and contribute to the creation of new images (Braidotti 1994:29).

The nomadic subject displays that we are not passive, but active and fluid bodies and personalities. Reuter recognises this nomadic or multiple subject in the main player from the carousel. The main player does not attempt to perform many different characters, e.g. a new character in each scene. Instead, s/he displays a nomadic multiple subject. The main player displays different “colours, shapes and sides” of her/his subjectivity/personality. S/He is performing herself as herself while responding to the supporting players, just as in life we respond differently to different people in different situations. The fact that s/he is performing herself as herself and lets herself be affected by the circumstances, the atmosphere, and the supporting players means that each scene challenges different nuances of her personality, and this creates a transformation process in the ongoing play situation. Every time a new person enters her/his room we see a new colour, shape, or side of the main player because each meeting creates new demands. Similar to a dream or like Alice in Wonderland, his/her acting-self is in flux in the carousel. S/he is in a constant process of becoming. In each unit, each supporting player has a desire or longing that they wish to fulfil with the main player. This desire creates an (autofictional) goal that addresses a specific segment of the main player’s personality and biography. They all want something different from him/her and in the process of addressing these different demands s/he utilises a number of different acting techniques.

The nomadic actor

Inspired by our collaboration in Reuter’s carousel, by the concepts of the nomadic subject and disincarnation, and by Reuter’s experience as an actor, we developed the term the nomadic actor. The nomadic actor is an example of how disincarnation can be applied to the practice of the carousel and how the resonance between the carousel method and the concept of disincarnation makes new terminologies and images possible. The carousel and the practice of disincarnation cast the contemporary actor as a nomadic actor moving between different acting methods, techniques, positions, and identities. The staging of the nomadic actor in the carousel training is mirrored in the traffic between acting techniques that defines disincarnation.The nomadic actor is in a permanent state of playful mobility and travels around between positions and oppositions such as presentation and representation, self and role. The carousel concept trains and plays with these multiple possible selves and identities.

The knowledge generating process of my artistic research is coined of the dynamics of an interplay between:

Theory and Practice (1) – Experience, insight and acquisition of knowledge (2) and the collaboration of many diverse knowledge producers (3):

Acknowledgements

Mette Tranholm, PhD, dramaturg. Department of Arts and Cultural Studies. University of Copenhagen. 

Niclas Nørby Hundahl, (Denmark) Research Assistant at Rhythmic Music Conservatory Copenhagen. 

Martina Ruhsam,(Germany) dancer/choreographer/ Teaching and research assistant for the MA Program „Choreography and Performance“ (CUP), Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen. 

Mari Lassen-Bergsten Kamsvaag (Norway) is a scenographer, costume designer and visual artist. 

Stefanie Lorey, (Germany) director/performer/PhD, Professor of Directing, Head of the Master’s programme specialization in Directing, Zürich University of the Arts. 

Petra Adlerberth-Wik, (Sweden) director. 

Pauliina Hulkko, (Finland) Doctor of Arts/actor/writer. Head of Acting Department, The University of Tampere.  

Laura Luise Schulz (Denmark) Associate Professor. Department of Arts and Cultural Studies. University of Copenhagen. 

Marcus Mislin(Switzerland) Actor. Director. Author. 

Eduard Erne (Austria) TV-journalist. Actor. Director.  

Signe Allerup (Denmark) Producer. The Danish National School of Performance Art 

Six acting-students from The Danish National School of Performance Art, Aarhus.

Carina Randløv, (Denmark) film director and author of the original design for this exposition. 

THANKS

Without their input, work, argument, dedication and knowledge-sharing on this matter, nothing of this research would exist.

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KNOWLEDGE 

Forms of Knowledge generated through the Research

The Carousel Poem

The carousel is an end, spun from the life we all take a ride in. The baseline for the carousel has been the end of the ride when we end up as bones. There is a loose perspective of elements in the ride, that is taken in our thoughts.

In the nineteenth century a medical team in the USA declared that it was recommended to take a ride in the carousel to stimulate blood circulation. Up, down and around. I do not think that psychiatrists in the year 2000 will recommend this. But I think that up, down and around in life is more rewarding than straight ahead. And a ride in the fantasy is healthy for the soul.

The chameleon: A true radical

The lion: For strength.

The dove: For hope.

The snake: Who gave us the possibility to choose.

The dog: For humans. You can make them do anything.

The horse: Belongs.

In this carousel the horse is the only traditional feature.

Lone Pedersen, Danish artist. Carousel poem found at an exhibition at the Ovartaci Museum DK, 2018 (Mette Tranholm’s translation)

Aspects of theoretical knowledge

This research project is a practical-theoretical conversation between Tranholm’s theory of disincarnation and my Carousel Concept. This manifold investigation turns the implicit knowledge – the secrets of the multiple practice of the carousel – into an applicable, explicit tool. It develops an understanding of the carousel concept as an assemblage of different acting techniques.

Our dialogic reflection was and is a processual form of knowledge generation.

My hypothesis – that the theoretical perspective of disincarnation would support and expand the practical and intuitive strategies and methods of the carousel concept – was verified.

Inspired by our collaboration, by the practical work with the carousel improvisation, by the theories of the nomadic subject (Rosi Braidotti) and disincarnation, and by my experience as an actor, we developed the term the nomadic actor. The nomadic actor is an example of how disincarnation can be applied to the practice of the carousel and how the resonance between the carousel concept and the theory of disincarnation makes new terminologies and images possible.

Via Tranholm’s concept of disincarnation – essentially an assemblage of the four character concepts: the classical, Brechtian, Artaudian and postdramatic – I discovered the figure of the assemblage in the carousel. The assemblage structure shines through at different levels in the carousel:

• The assemblage became a tool to systematise and verbalise the multiple practices of the carousel and inform the actors’ self-authorization in the carousel: I discovered that the actors in the carousel practice instinctively use the assemblage of techniques from the postdramatic tradition (performing the self, autobiographical references), from Stanislavski (goal-oriented, the given circumstances), from Brecht (acting a split between self and role), and from Artaud (the bodily presence). As such, disincarnation is a tool to map out the acting assemblage in the carousel. The acting assemblage of disincarnation allows for enhanced interaction with the carousel, e.g. by providing a theoretical vocabulary for the practical work in the carousel. This reflects my artistic research method as an assemblage of theory and practice.
• In terms of the actors’ self- authorization, I experienced that knowledge about the acting assemblage makes the actor/student more aware of what they do: which acting techniques they use and when, in this way opening an infinite number of new assemblage possibilities, which is an invaluable tool for the training of the contemporary actor.
• The figure of the assemblage also shines through in the carousel’s transdisciplinary dynamics as the students get to try out an assemblage of different roles and scenic functions.
• Knowledge about the assemblage figure allows the acting students to travel inquisitively and alertly as moveable identities in the artistic practice.
• The traditional dualism between dramatic acting as representation and performance as presentation is misleading when it comes to the contemporary actor. The contemporary actor may easily represent a character while simultaneously putting his or her own personality at the centre. As such, an interactive relationship between performance and representation characterises the work of the contemporary actor who is in a position in-between presentation and representation, using both tools, not either-or, but both-and. The carousel concept is a tool to rehearse this performance mode. The interlocking serial improvisation structure of the carousel makes it a useful methodology to test the third in-between mode of performance as traffic and encounters between acting techniques: The Nomadic Actor.

Aspects of practical knowledge: Framing the research

Developing applicable Categories and Terms referring to the lively production process in the Carousel Concept

PLAYERS:

MAINPLAYER,MP/SUPPORTINGPLAYER,SP/NOMADICPLAYER,NP/AUDIENCE, AU

STAGING:

PROLOG/ INTERLUDE/ MAINPART/ EPILOG 

ACTING STRATEGIES:

METAMORPHOSIC ACTING/MIMETIC ACTING/ NOMADIC ACTING

PLAY POSITIONS:

PERFORMING MODES/POSITION OF SELF AND OTHER/PRESENTATION // REPRESENTATION/CONTEXT/FORM/ACT/MOVEMENT/TASK/PROCESS/

ATTITUDE/TRANSFORMATION/AUDIENCE CONTACT/AUTOFICTIONAL GOAL/

COSTUMES/PROPS/METHODS

CONTEXT STRATEGIES:

ASPIRATION/ REPETITION/ MEMORY/ IMPROVISATION

THEORETICAL STRATEGIES:

DISINCARNATION

Aspects of knowledge during the interplay between experience, insight and knowledge acquisition in the artistic practice of the CC based on life-knowledge.

The tangible processes through the different stages of the Carousel practice accumulate different forms of perception and knowledge.

Superior elements: 

-          Awareness-knowledge about the actor’s own instrument. Her/him self.

-          Perception-knowledge about a second order consciousness.

-          Experience-knowlegde about the actor’s self-authorization process.

-          Context-knowledge about the relation between self-role-other and the collaborative processual    

            work process.

-          Collaborative-knowledge about creating the carousel event together with a group of participants.

The carousel concept is built on a questioning technique

The carousel concept is built on a questioning technique in all phases: Prologue: Interview (1). Interlude: Preparation and transition (2). Main part: The carousel round dance (3). Epilogue: Reflection (4). I discovered that the questioning technique is a very useful tool on the road to the self-authorization of the actor. The questioning technique helps guiding the actor/student towards independent decision-making, thinking for themselves, and reflecting independently upon their craft as opposed to being guided by adirector.

The carousel concept is built on repetition

Through the repetition structure in the carousel the problems of how to deal with different play positions get more obvious. New play strategies as well as different forms of behaviour appear, get tested, and open up for an expanded understanding of performing oneself as oneself and as someone else. The point is that the players in the carousel not only become better acquainted with whom they are when they act, but also become better equipped to the extent to deal with and handle this inner plurality and multiplicity as material for acting. A releasing perspective that is something that you in part discover, but in part create.

6 aspects of context, collaborative and experience knowledge in the Prologue: Interview

The interview is presentation-training for the actor/ student.

Listening to what people say is the key to increasing our knowledge of human nature.

1. The interview develops the possibility of making the actor/student’s own biography heard and negotiated in scenic situations on stage.

2. The actor/student learns to develop awareness about how to take responsibility and authorship of their own biography and way of performing.

3. The actor/student learns to acquire different material through the interview and transform it into fictional concepts.

5. The actor/student learns to interact with the audience.

6. The actor/student learns performing oneself as oneself in the Interview through contemplative listening and tentative speaking.

7 aspects of context, collaborative and perception knowledge in the Main Part:

The carousel round dance

1.The carousel improvisation combines presentation and representation training for the actor/student.

2. The actor/student trains shifting between different performance modes such as representation and presentation and learns to handle the position of being an actor and the position of being a performer simultaneously.

3. The carousel creates a learning space for the actor/student where he or she is able to understand how to shift between role and self.

4. The carousel improvisation develops the collective work of creating and being an ensemble on stage, a space for the actor/student to be simultaneously active in different roles while participating in the collaborative production process of the carousel.

5. The carousel strengthens the actor/student’s ability to act spontaneously within a certain frame.

6. The carousel improvisation develops the actor’s to navigate through unknown situations on stage in open encounters with each other and to shift between them. An experience, that allows the actor/student to unfold their own way of acting.

7.The actor/student learns to fictionalise his/her own autobiographical material and move through improvisations and performance modes where the autobiographical and the fictional, presentation and representation twist into each other.

5 main-aspects of context and perception knowledge in the Epilog:

1.  Changing Consciousness

The reflection is a filtering process of meaning where all the pre-rational, unconscious and pre-theoretical actions are lifted to another level of consciousness and transformed into know-how and perception.

The reflection process develops a reflective relation to the actor/student as themselves in the different work stages during the carousel round dance. The reconstruction process is to make the students more aware of who they are when they act, which acting strategies they have chosen, and which strengths and weaknesses they experienced as actors during the carousel  improvisation that enable them to take responsibility for their own working process. It aims to develop a second order consciousness through the awareness of the phenomenon that the act and process of the actor is creation and presentation simultaneously. The actor/student gain knowledge about to stand him/herself as witness by 

staging and creating the event of role and self simultaneously. 

The problem we have to face in the reflection is: How do we deal with the point of intersection between past and present?

    (1) How do I remember as an actor/student WHAT happened during the act of acting?

Phase 1 consists of symbolizing the play process through talking out loudly. The main player and the supporting players recollect and reconstruct the events of their experiences together.

    (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 carousel improvisation.

    (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 carousel improvisation.

    (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.

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WORKSHOPS

To supplement my artistic research into the carousel practice, I arranged  five  workshops with five different workshop captains/collaboration partners and the 2.year acting students DNSAP Aarhus to revisit the Carousel Practice through their working approaches. Two of the central research questions of my project are: How do I ”perform myself” in a fictional framework? And: How do I perform myself  as a pluralistic thinking and feeling human being on stage?

How can we reflect upon the production practice of the Carousel Concept from different artistic  perspectives?

During the five workshops, I invited other artists/teachers/collaborators as workshop captains to provide the Carousel practice with additional exercises. I presented the research questions to the workshop captains/collaboration partners and asked them to bring practical exercises, theoretical texts etc. that address these questions from their unique perspective and expertise. After each workshop, I tested exercises and central findings from the workshops in the carousel and developed new improvisation variations for the Carousel Concept.

Collaboration partners

Carina Randløv, (Denmark) film director. Her focus was on character and costume.

Petra Adlerberth-Wik, (Sweden) director. Adlerberth-Wik focuses on creating fiction through personal longing/desire and self-presentation.

Martina Ruhsam, (Germany) dancer/choreographer/PhD student who focuses on the physical and the body. Teaching and research assistant for the MA-Program „Choreography and Performance“ (CUP), Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen.

Stefanie Lorey, (Germany) director/performer/PhD. Professor of Directing, Head of the Master’s programme specialization in Directing, Zürich University of the Arts. She works with arranging and collecting as an artistic method and presentation form.

Pauliina Hulkko, (Finland) Doctor of Arts/actor/writer. Head of Acting Department, The University of Tampere. Works with the concept: The actor as dramaturge.

Martina Ruhsam workshop “Between us” 

One of Ruhsam’s points - that she takes from the French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy - is that we are all ”singular plural”, which means we are already made up by a multiplicity of voices from our surroundings. What does Nancy’s theory mean for this artistic process? How to give voice and presence to the multiplicity of beings that we are? Rather than the impersonation of a character or person, the exploration of the body as a place of transition is central, a place that is inhabited by various personas at the threshold of reality and fiction, a place that is traversed by numerous voices and gestures. Everyone is a group – with others and alone (singular plural). Ruhsam underlines that text, movement, and gesture are things that we can use collectively.

How can we create something where the personal interest of the performers generates the performance?

How can Nancy’s theories on ”being singular plural” be applied in a practical context?

Ruhsam does a number of exercises: choreographer and mover, duo with eyes closed, interview and approximation game. Central to all exercises is that some of the students always have the opportunity to watch as audience. On the last day, she does a durational performance through a combination/assemblage of exercises designed in collaboration with the actors. The assemblage is a hybrid between:

1. Two people performing a duo with closed eyes while two other people are observing and taking care of the two “blind” persons. The movements are guided by the soundscape of the space, responding to them through movement.
2. Interview exercise: Improvised interview where the students approach the interview as a performance in itself.
3. One person is “the choreographer” and the other is “the mover”. The choreographer moves and the mover takes the “movement” further and makes it their own.
4. “Approximation game”. The one person in the group who is most visible is the one proposing movements to the rest of the group, and the group takes it further and makes it their own.

How to be singular plural in the carousel?

Carousel assemblage merges with being singular plural. I bring Ruhsam’s being singular plural exercises into the carousel with the students. The students use the exercises as well as the underlying collective ”between-us” ideas in the carousel: they propose movements to each other, one person proposes a movement that the others copy by making it their own, they use the interview format or do a blind duo. I dissolved the pas de deux carousel session, and the students brought the carousel situation further in an assemblage group improvisation. Led by experience and knowledge from the carousel encounters mixed with the elements and rules from Ruhsam’s workshop, they were able to improvise in a bubbly and bizarre jam session with many crazy transitions over one hour without getting stuck.

Central realisations

• The students were able to keep themselves going in a dissolved carousel space with the sense and awareness of “being singular plural” and make a performance together, without losing the basic technique of the carousel.
• Ruhsam’s exercises in the carousel further developed the idea of the carousel as a heterotopia.
• Ruhsam’s exercises in the carousel provide input as to how to drive the carousel as a performance development machine.
• Ruhsam’s exercises in the carousel strengthen the idea of a coincidental dramaturgy.
• The students develop new techniques of how they can shift between the concrete (e.g. the interview) and the abstract (copy in your own way exercise) as an example of nomadic acting and disincarnation.
• The theory-practice axis is strengthened by the transference between Nancy’s being singular plural theory and the practical exercises. Heightened awareness of being singular plural: Of not just being an individual meeting another individual, but also everything in-between: space, atmosphere, the other in me etc.
• Awareness of each student about being an assemblage.

Petra Adlerberth-Wik workshop: Creating fiction from personal desires and self-staging

Adlerberth-Wik is interested in how we can combine autobiographical elements with fictional layers, especially: How can we produce fiction through the means of longing/desire and self-staging?

Adlerberth-Wik’s first exercise is Contact ad/breakup letter. She asks the students to write a contact ad where they imagine themselves as 75-year-olds searching for a new partner/or write a breakup letter after a longer relationship. The following exercises are Reading the contact ad/breakup letter and staging the contact ad/breakup letter. Writing a question to my 75-year-old self and Exploring one of the questions physically.

In the carousel, creating fiction from personal desire and self-staging

I do a carousel merge with the students: How can we produce fiction through the means of longing and self-staging? Carousel form: I dissolve the distinction between main player/supporting players. All the students are main players and supporting players: A meets B, B meets C, C meets D and so on, very much like Schnitzler’s Reigen. Instead of working with a goal, I chose to work with the idea of further developing the workshop theme as a starting point to generate material for the carousel improvisation. The students enter and meet each other under the influence of their experiences and desires as 75-year-olds, seeking a new partner or wanting to leave a partner.

Central realisations

• To work with a theme as a starting point for the carousel improvisation instead of thinking goals.
• The linkage between desire/longing and self-staging that creates an experience and expression of ambivalence.
• The conjunction between the serious and the trivial or banal.
• Everything (all kinds of material) can be transferred into the carousel.
• Adlerberth-Wik brought the element of self-staging to the carousel, making the students more aware of the fact that they perform and that they are creators even though they perform themselves. They are aware of the element of self-staging and thus of not just behaving as themselves. To experiment with the fact that it is artificial to be on stage.

Carina Randløv workshop: Putting on and taking off character/costume

Randløv is interested in the costume in the character and the character in the costume. How does costumes affect character representation? How can we use the costume in terms of character development? What happens when you put on clothes? What happens when you put on a costume? What happens when you take it off? The students did exercises where they improvised a character based on a costume and reflected upon the effect of the costume. As an example, every student picked a costume and put this costume on, on stage. Their task was to go with whatever happened to the character when he/she put on the costume and stood on stage like this. The goal of their task was also to observe the transformation process from “themselves” into the character while putting on the costumes.

Costumes in the carousel

I sample the costume/character exercises in the carousel with the students. We did the costume-character interview in third person, Brecht-style. The students developed their characters in third person. The supporting players ask e.g.: “Is he into sports?” “Is he sensitive?” What does his hair look like under the wig? The division between actor and character is laid bare. Le Bal entry exercise. They encounter material from the outside, such as costumes and a film clip as a reversal of the biographical starting point of the carousel volume 1. The costume characters from Randløv’s workshop are developed and brought into the carousel already during the interview.

Central realisations

• A new variation of the carousel interview is invented. This version does not start in the biographical self. Instead, the actors come up with a fictive narrative from outside in. In the interview, they speak about/answer questions about their figure in third person, Brecht-style.

Stefanie Lorey workshop: Collecting/arranging and the autobiographical

Lorey works with collecting and arranging as an artistic method. We collect and arrange to sort ourselves out and find our peers. As an example of collecting and arranging as an artistic method, Lorey introduces an artist who collected all her trash for a year and presented it on stage: She takes stuff out piece-by-piece and talks about it. 48 boxes, and she goes on and on. The performance is a collection of memories and a way of presenting herself by way of collecting. Lorey defines a collection like this: One is one. Two is a pair. Three is a collection. One of Lorey’s exercises is getting the students to make a photographic collection. The task is to take a picture 3-5 cm of x or a collection – e.g. five photos of chewing gum. Think of a headline for your collection.

Collecting and arranging in the carousel.

I watch the TEDTalk from Julian Baggini “Is there a real you?” with the students. Baggini proposes that there are many. We are a collection of different selves pointing in different directions without a centre. How can we connect with this as an idea of acting? I try out a carousel with different versions of the self: stereotypes mixed with their own personality mixed with mythical beings. I give the students a list of stereotypes and mythical beings to choose from. I define a topic for the carousel: At the municipality at 12 o’clock. We worked without goals. I suggested doing a presentation round, where each person enters alone and presents his/ her collection of a stereotype, the mystic being and oneself. The last person stays in the carousel, and then the encounters will start after the A-B/B-C/C-D/ … rule, with the option of breaking this rule and sending more people in. As an example: X enters and captures the room. My name is Lars. I am the jovial Dane, and a werewolf.

X stayed and Y entered as the drunken Greenlander. He explained to X that he is a physical therapist, and we want to help X with his leg, because X had a pain in his leg. X did strange and psychopathic shifts, which arose out of his idea of mixing the jovial Dane with a werewolf.

Central realisations

• The interesting thing was to investigate the stereotype merged with the fairy tale figure and the actor him- or herself. The most interesting discovery for me was X’s approach and his implementation of the stereotype Lars the jovial, the werewolf and himself: I am a collection. Concretisation of the assemblage, a collection and being singular plural. That released a new way of assemblage acting and being in the carousel and added a new technical approach to the work with the idea of an assembled character. The form of this carousel method invites simultaneous presentation and representation.

Paulina Hulko workshop: “The Dramaturgy of the Actor”

Research question: Which dramaturgical strategies can the actors use to perform themselves?

In this workshop, Hulko examined how dramaturgy could be understood in terms of acting – and vice versa: how acting can be discussed and articulated through dramaturgical tools and concepts. The work oscillated between studying historical theories of dramaturgy from Aristotle to ”New Dramaturgy” and experimenting with the dramaturgy of the actor. In these experiments, the students worked on the basis of their own life stories and habitual bodies, exploring them through different dramaturgical operations. 

Exercise: “My family”. As an example, one of the students dances around an invisible Christmas tree, singing well known Danish Christmas carols and holding invisible family members by the hand. She performs a new family member with  new verses of the Christmas carol.  Hulko asks the student to repeat the performance and make ruptures/interventions in the structure as commentator or reporter.

Central realisations

• The actor can use dramaturgy as a working tool, e.g. to create their own structure on how to act and compose their own performance. The actor can make changes by using different dramaturgical tools and concepts to change performance modes, e.g. to embody or comment (Stanislavski or Brecht). Do you choose to ”be” the character and then step out? You can bring in such aspects, which is also dramaturgy. As such, the actors’ dramaturgy shine a light on phenomenal modes that varies in the course of the performance between e.g. a self-expressive, collaborative, or representational mode.

DRAMATURGY: Form, story, pattern, structure, recipe, storyline, dramatic development play. As actors, we can utilise dramaturgy in relation to: flesh/sensation/commentator/character/analyst/reporter/performer. 

 [To top]

1. WHAT`S THIS ABOUT?

2. IN SEARCH OF LANGUAGE

3. KNOWLEDGE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements

Forms of knowledge generated through the research

WORKSHOPS with other knowledge producers and realisations of these approaches

“The Carousel Concept as Assemblage Acting” excerpts of Mette Tranholm` theoretical article