Teaching Archetypal Gesture: preparing an exploration

I've been on hiatus the last several days, but am excited to be diving back in to the wonderful world of creativity today!

In a few days I'll be leading a 20 minute exploration of Archetypal Gestures for some friends of mine and I'd love to spend the time leading up to the session exploring all of the options for sharing this great tool.

I think the most important thing is how a tool is introduced. If the participants can experience the tool before it's even explained to them the great power of "knowing" frees them from trying to analytically grasp the tool's existence and function.

When I first experience AG with Lisa Dalton in our Chekhov class at TCU, she divided the class in two groups and gave each group separate instructions on an improv game we would play together.

Standing on opposite sides of the room were "children" and "parents," both groups were told there was a busy street passing between them and that stepping into it would result in death. The scenario was the first day of school and (even more important) the first bus trip the children would make without their parents. The bus was on the same side of the street as the children and it was the parents job to urger their children to get on the bus before it left. The children were instructed to disobey their parents by any means they saw fit, short of actually stepping in traffic.

The improv itself was a lot of fun, charging the class with a sense of creativity and unity.

What we discussed afterward was incredibly revealing. Unbeknownst to us, each group was using AGs to communicate with one another. Parents were frequently attempting to Push their children toward the bus or Pull at them to pay attention or Smash when they were frustrated, etc. Same with the children, all employing AGs subconsciously to achieve their goal of not getting on the bus.

Seeing that these gestures were already a part of our everyday human interactions automatically removed at least some of the apprehension that we could fail at performing a gesture. We were comforted by the understanding that we inherently knew these gestures, and that they were readily available to us.

I think this approach to introduction is invaluable, so I will absolutely use this teaching tool to introduce AG.

My concern, however, is mostly with the lead-in to discussing and exploring AG--I feel that a general understanding of the the Chekhov Technique's philosophy is necessary to better grasp the spirit of these tools and the technique as a whole. An overview of psycho-physical acting, the energy body, the role of creativity and the importance of a sense of play, what tools are, inspired acting, etc. So, in this post I hope to explore the many faculties I could discuss and to narrow them down so that I reach those most effective for teaching AG without spending a ton of time just lecturing.

It will be good to open with the ball toss. This helps to establish the body-mind connection while introducing PASS (the foundation for working with AG) and the mantra "it's perfect" (an invitation to relieve the actor of preconceived notions of success).

Following this, a brief discussion of Chekhov's vision for art, the concept of psycho-physical acting, and why developing the mind-body connection is essential for the creative artist.

I will be co-teaching this exploration with yoga instructor, Michael Newman. Michael and I feel that it would be interesting to explore the use of yoga as a means to warm up the actors body, focusing the poses and instruction in such a way as to bring awareness to the energy centers of the body which will be most used with the Chekhov tools we'll explore on that day. Being that AGs are used to ignite the actor's Will Force, after the ball toss and brief introduction to Chekhov and psycho-physical acting, Michael will lead us in a yoga warm-up focused on grounding the actors in their feet, legs and hips (the Will center).

Following this invigorating, grounding exercise I think we'll jump right in to the School Bus improv. For the sake of time, this should last about 3-5 minutes. Then we'll discuss what happened, but how?

Leading questions are the best to help the participants discover, but would that take up too much time? I need to be able to discuss what they experienced and introduce AGs along with how to perform them in the next 5-10 minutes. The essentials components of AG are PASS, TPT, and the Energy Body. Maybe I can combine explanations of AG with exercises...

I think it would be good to introduce AG with Push. Being one of the most universal and (in my opinion) easiest to perform, it will allow the participants to jump right in to the use of an AG while keeping in mind PASS and TPT. I can demonstrate how to perform Push using PASS/TPT and then get volunteers to perform the next exercise: the physical realization of the Energy Body while performing Push. This exercise has actors perform an AG as part of a group: one person plays the part of the actor performing a completely unveiled Push, while the others act as the Energy Body Pushing through the space.

Maybe this would be a good time to introduce Veiling as well. After we see a fully unveiled group Push I can discuss the use of Veiling, show an example, and then ask the person presenting the actor to Veil their Push, but have the Energy Body still perform the complete movement.

Then we can break off and each actor can practice Push on their own. I can walk around the room and address areas of PASS that need more attention, use of the full body, etc. I can also invite the actors to add dialogue to experience how use of an AG informs the voice.

Looking over all that's here, I see a lot of opportunity, but I'm also concerned there isn't enough time. I want the participants to get the most out of this experience, to walk away feeling like they have added something new to their understanding of their actor bodies and how they can inform them with certain exercises. I see a lot of missing information, too. An entire meeting could be spent on the ball-toss, PASS and TPT alone.

At this time I think it would be wise to step away from these thoughts and allow my subconscious to do some work for me. In the mean time I'll play with the AGs to further inform the Higher Ego of my purpose and invigorate my personal understanding.

----- After some practice and an epiphany ----

Okay, if you view this post you'll see I've had a breakthrough that fundamentally changes my approach to Chekhov and I think it will greatly inform how I should lead the exploration of AG.

First, when giving introduction to Chekhov and the psycho-physical connection we hope to strengthen through the inclusion of Yoga, I'll talk about the problem many actors face when approaching a role--the fear based reaction to control and direct the character which blocks the ultimate goal of transformation and inspired acting. I'll talk about how Chekhov's goal was to help the actor to step outside of himself and his experiences and allow the spirit of creativity to inform his physical body and mind. The job of the actor from this moment on is not to act, but to give over control to the power of the imagination. I'll introduce the concept of the Energy Body as the conduit through which the actor experiences the moment, other characters, the atmosphere of the setting, and the unseen, yet tangible connection to the audience.

Perhaps an exercise where the participants stand and imagine their Energy Body would be beneficial here...

Leading in to the yoga practice, I'll encourage the participants to let go of any desire for their physical body to perfect any given pose, and to instead visualize where the energy is flowing in their bodies and to imagine the Energy Body performing the poses in perfect form.

Exploring Archetypal Gestures (Day 2)

Returning to AG's today was a FANTASTIC experience. To better focus my attention on the tools I incorporated the use of a timer set to 7 minutes for each AG--I like the number 7 and something just felt right about the amount of time.

After a quick review of yesterday's reading from the NMCA handbook, I jumped into exploring Push, Pull, Lift, Smash, and Gather, with a brief veiled exploration of Throw.

The important foundation of BBEEP kept me on track, but I felt the greatest revelations came from Preparation: the visualization of the energy body performing the Grand Gesture.

Before physicalizing any of the gestures I explored today, I stood in a neutral stance, drew my awareness to the energy body filling my surrounding space and visualized it performing the Grand Gesture. I did this visualization 3-5 times for each AG, focusing my intent upon Breath, Body (Energy Body), Extreme Polarity, Effort (100% use of Energy Body), and PASS. After each visualization I did a brief Flyback to identify areas I could double stuff and then enjoyed the visualization once again.

I feel that this Preparation greatly informed my experience in physicalizing each AG and made it easier for me to Flyback and make adjustments to better BBEEP.

I thoroughly enjoyed incorporating the Synonyms and Actionable Phrases in the Appendix section of the handbook.

It was great experimenting with the form of each AG, and I found that varying the way in which I performed the AG identified physical forms that had greater impact for me personally. For instance, in my previous practices I performed Pull much like a person participating in a tug-of-war with a rope, however, this never felt right. In one variation I pulled as if I were grasping energy much like a straight bar and found that my will centers were much more engaged and that it was easier to give over to the AG, allowing it to act upon me.

I intend to work through the other AG's tomorrow in much the same way as I did today, however, after reviewing all of them in the broad manner, I believe spending more time on each individual AG will be of greater benefit. Some of the veiled movements I was exploring with AG's like Pull and Gather were greatly expansive to my physical vocabulary, and I believe more time spent can only mean more discovery.

Exploring Archetypal Gestures (Day 1)

Today I read about the use of Archetypal Gesture (AG) in the Chekhov Technique.

From my current understanding, AG's are intrinsic within the daily expression of our underlying intent; they are physical manifestations of the the person's desires/objectives/subtext/etc. These gestures are "archetypal" in the sense that these physical forms of expression are subconsciously used by all individuals to the point that they are identifiable with simple observation. (Example: when retreating from a confrontation, individuals are likely to raise their hands and make a pushing motion).

When practiced within the Chekhov Technique, AG's activate the Will Force--the driving energy which incites action. AG's when practiced by themselves are devoid of thought or emotion and can be used as a means to expand the actor past his habitual forms of gesture.

Flying back over my typical gestures, I see that I am prone to use Lift, Push, and Reach quite frequently in my acting, so I will focus on exploring other forms of AG.

Today I will experiment with the use of Tear.

Flying back over my first exercise in using Tear, I really enjoyed the sense of power in the movement and intention. Each time I performed the Gesture the intent felt stronger. I noticed what I thought at first was an emotional response of frustration or anger, however, upon further reflection I cannot be sure if it was an emotion or simply a highly activated sense in the will force--I want to explore this further to be sure I am not adding in emotion. I believe I activated my will centers because my feet, hips, and the heels of my palms feel tingly with energy and I have an overall sense of greater vitality, a desire to act (not to be confused with acting). I had difficulty maintaining enough breath for the 3 count sustain, but allowed myself to live in those moments anyway. Perhaps a faster tear will solve the breath issue. I would like to invest more in the image of the energy (Grand Gesture) during PASS. My favorite part was definitely the feeling of energy coursing through my body during and after the gesture.

Reading further in the NMCA workbook I see an interesting explanation of the exploration of Tear which I will now incorporate:

"Tear can be two Pulls apart or a Pull away from."

This also leads me to believe that it may be of greatest benefit to begin with the main six AG's (Push Pull Lift Smash Gather Throw) in order to approach Tear with a deeper understanding.

I can't wait to incorporate the practice of these gestures into my script work throughout the week!