Performing the Self

Stage Two is an unassuming space, as you would expect the basement of Cowles Auditorium to feel.  On Wednesday night two friends and I arrived a few minutes before 9:30 so support our friends in the Performing the Self final.  This is a class in the theater department, which, according to its course description, offers “Theatre games and performance techniques for effective communication, problem-solving, relationship building, self-exploration and self-expression.” 

We had no idea what to expect, though my friend in the class had told me it would all be improvisation.  The class members were, for the most part, dressed in black and ready to perform.  Professor Diana Trotter stood up and greeted all of us, explaining that the class is split in to two parts: first, they cover how to address conflict through theater, both interpersonal and communal.  Then, they cover a unit called “interplay.” This is a series of forms which lead to combinations of movement and stories, silence and song, as she described it.  Basically, the class would be performing different spontaneous acting exercises that Diana called out for them to do.

The audience members yelled out themes to be written on the board so that the players would have something to go off of when improvising stories, and then they started.  The first piece was called “walk, stop, run,” which involved everyone starting on the sides of the room and then doing different movements across the floor in a completely random pattern.  Throughout the night groups of varying sizes would come up to perform different forms.  Three people got up and did interpretive dance to a song.  Three people did a “side by side story,” which meant they each stood next to each other and told three different stories all at the same time, talking over each other.  Another group created a “vocal choir,” each person making a new sound until the entire group was making sounds in harmony.

My favorite was the “gesture choir,” a form wherein one person monologues in the front while the rest stand behind her and imitate her motions.  The topic on the whiteboard she used as inspiration was “capitalism,” and she told a story about buying a burger at Zips.  It was fascinating and strange, and I really enjoyed it.  More than anything I admired the fearlessness of people who can take a class like that and perform completely on the spot in front of other people.  They were obviously comfortable working with each other, and it made me see how theater performance really could be a means of working through conflict, or at least expressing those emotions.  Would you ever take this class?