The First Arena
Key Disclaimer:
Participants must be open to learning the new skill of theatre-making, because the core aim of the programme is to learn the craft of theatre creation, and in that process, participants will ask themselves many important questions about their own lives: eg. what do you want to do?; why do you want to do that?; what effects do your actions have on your self? To fully understand the context of our work, please read the first three blogposts beginning here: Robust or responsible? — Split Theatre.
By the end of all five sessions, participants would have, through learning the craft of theatre-making,
Explored a personal story with art (visually), sounds (auditory mode), movement (kinesthetically), and text,
Explored new ways of looking at a personal story,
Explored new ways of relating to the self, to others, and to the world around them, and
Explored new ways of being accountable to the self.
Participants would also be sufficiently equipped to explore the more advanced arenas, where the interrogation of and the work on the self will be much more specific and rigorous. The First Arena provides a comprehensive introduction to theatre-making through movement, play, text creation, and the work on the self.
Outline for The First Arena
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Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants would have:
Explored their personal motivations relating to a personal story,
Explored their personal motivations in their daily interactions and choices.
Activities:
Body Mapping Part II: Representing the “Why” behind your personal story
Warm-ups and awareness-building exercises/games
Plastiques – Drawing from the Need
3 Chairs [Score-Building Ritual]
Safe Space [Wrap Up Ritual]
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Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants would have:
Explored using their imagination as a tool for movement and play,
Explored using their imagination as a tool to explore the self and a personal story.
Activities:
Improvisation and play
Awareness-building exercises/games
Plastiques – Imagining Scenarios and Actions
3 Chairs [Score-Building Ritual]
Safe Space [Wrap Up Ritual]
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Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants would have:
Explored the presence of movement and sculptures in their surroundings,
Explored how movement and sculptures in their surroundings can affect their bodies.
(Movement and sculptures are concepts adapted by Split Theatre through research. They refer to movement patterns of inanimate objects.)
Activities:
Improvisation and play
Awareness-building exercises/games
Sculpture, Current, Diving
Plastiques – Working with Body Memory
Safe Space [Wrap Up Ritual with Movement]
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Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants would have:
Investigated the presence of movement and sculptures in their surroundings,
Explored how power-relations between people can affect the way we move and behave.
Activities:
Improvisation and play
Awareness-building exercises/games
Sculpture, Current, Diving
Role-Playing Game
Care Exercise
Writing Your Personal Story
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Objectives:
By the end of the session, participants would have:
Explored ways of interrogating the self,
Explored new ways of relating to the self, to others, and to the world around them.
Activities:
Awareness-building exercises/games
Plastiques – “Is this really the case?”
Care Exercise
The Crossing – An exploration of relationships through space
Writing Your Personal Story (Part II)
Group discussions will take place after each activity for participants to make sense of their learnings in the context of theatre-making. All sessions are standalones — for instance, participants need not attend the “earlier” sessions to make sense of Session 5.
Note: To proceed to The Second Arena and beyond, participants must complete 15 hours of The First Arena, though they need not necessarily go through the five different topics.
