3A. Falling Leaves with Movement, Sound and Dialogue

With Movement

• Stand somewhere in the room. Close your eyes. Watch your breath. Place your attention somewhere in your body that specifically senses breath: the base of your nose, diaphragm or abdomen. Observe the experience of the breath as it comes in and goes out. Watch the pause between each breath.

• Every five or six minutes, I'm going to call out words to you that describe natural phenomena. These phenomena "move" in a particular way. Their timing, how they travel through space, their weight, shape and dynamic are peculiar to them. As you imagine each phenomenon, explore movement that reflects the these qualities. Don't pantomime, or act out, or pretend that you are the phenomenon itself. Explore motion within the movement quality the image evokes.

Falling leaves.

Electricity.

Rock.

Lightning.

Mud.

Thunder.

Gentle breezes.

• As you are moving, allow whatever feel­ings, thoughts, attitudes or states of mind entering your awareness to affect what you are doing; the tension of your body, the expression on your face, the gaze of your eyes may change. Don't hold onto anything or make a story but stay on one thing long enough to define it for yourself. Let your imagination respond freely to your body's actions.

Rock.

Falling leaves.

Whirlpool.

Lightning.

Thunder.

Tornado.

Electricity.

Rock.

Electricity.

Rock.

Falling leaves.

Rock.

Electricity.

Mud.

• In the next few moments, associate with one, or two, people in the room and continue to explore the qualities you've been investigating in relation to one another. You may both be moving with the same qualities, or different ones. Respond to your own behavior and to your partner's behavior as well.

With Sound

• Again, I will call out these nouns. But, now,explore sound and movement. The kinetic quality you associate with these images is expressed physically and vocally. Remember, every sound you make must be connected to movement and every movement is connected to sound. Other wise, be still and silent.

With Dialogue

• Stand facing a partner. Again, I will call out these nouns. When you hear them, assume the quality of energy in your body that these words suggest. Don't do any movement. Stand fairly still. Let these energies affect your voice, feelings, attitudes and even the content of your language. Have a dialogue with your partner. As you hear me say each new noun, shift to the appropriate energy while continuing the content.

Falling Leaves is a shift exercise. Stu­dents change abruptly from one psy­cho-physical state to another. This is not pantomime. To pantomime a rock, one might pretend to be something other than oneself. In Falling Leaves/Rock, students go inside themselves to find the un-ordinary states of body-mind, rather than going outside themselves to find the ordinary. An inner quality of "rock" can manifest in a variety of ways: one can walk down the street with looseness of a pebble in a stream; respond to a barroom seduction with a hard, cold, impenetra­ble rock-like demeanor; discuss the pros and cons of waging war with an ancient well-worn wisdom. One might eat soup in time with leaves falling, talk about last night's sleep in thunder voice or play with a child as electric energy.

At first, as students embody these energies, predictable feelings or states of mind arise. Thunder elicits loud rage; electricity, erratic mad­ness; leaves falling, swaying peacefulness; mud, thick sensuality; light­ning, directed aggression; etc. As students repeatedly play in these energies, the mind states released from each form become less pre­dictable and more surprising, less nameable and more knowable.

Later in the training, practiced students may pretend that they are in fact a "rock." But at that point, they're prepared to approach the ordi­nary with extra-ordinary attention. Rather than hearing "rock" as a lim­itation, they explore rock with a mind open to sensation, feelings and imagination. "Rockness" becomes an avenue into hidden personal realms, the "rockness" living inside.

Who Are We?

One of Action Theaters objectives is to detail perception by expanding awareness:

• of the energy and tension of the body

• of feeling and imagination s link to the body

• of ourselves from the inside out

We don't use the word "character" in Action Theater. Sometimes we say "entity" or "physical presence." Or we say "being." "Character" pro­duces stereotypes. It asks us to be somebody other than who we are. A somebody that can be described, "a cranky judge," "a bored wife," "a hard-talking waitress." Instead, we manifest a vast array of entities, parts of ourselves that are, up until then, hidden in our psyches. We build upon our uncovered components to create "beings" who are whole and complete.

The detailed perception we acquire through practice is reflected by precise expression. In order to express ourselves in detail, we must know and control our body and mind. If we are still and empty, we become a blank canvas on which to project the nature of our psyches.

The following exercises lead students toward physical awareness, a first step toward an expressive body.