April 2021 下北沢 Workshop - COR

It was a real delight to return to workshops! Our first of 2021 and a long time coming. Safety is very important to us and we didn't want to risk anyone's health during the state of emergencies. We saw a window of opportunity and hopped through it.

Our returning champs welcomed new challengers and set to working on a couple of ideas in the first hour.

We started with your basic options: Continue, Oppose, or Redirect. These are true whether you are sitting down, walking, or talking with another person. You can Continue what is happening - agree with it and help it move in the same direction. You can Oppose what is happening - disagree with it and try to move it back on the other direction. And you can Redirect what is happening - neither agree nor disagree with it, just send it in a new direction.

We worked these options physically and with a short blank scene. Emotions were added and many odd results were had.

We moved on to a short exploration of how different genres play out naturally using another blank scene. You can and should adopt a tone that suits the sort of play or movie you are making. The audience is ready for it. You need to act with honesty, but always within the correct tone for the piece.

After the break we worked a couple of scenes. One from David Mamet's Duck Variations and one from a short film a friend of mine is making. The challenge was to apply what we'd worked on in the first half. The characters were arguing with each other, but also wanted to maintain their good relationship. Tricky.

We are very much hoping to get back to a monthly schedule, but we can't promise anything while Coronavirus is still active. Please keep an eye out for our announcements. We will update our website as we can.

I'm afraid I forgot to take pictures of everyone. But I got one and a returning champ sent in a couple more. So.