A Practical Guide to View Points and Composition ~ Anne Bogart Viewpoints ~ a Philosophy translated into a technique for training performers, building ensemble and creating movement on the stage. ~ Names given to certain principals of movement, creating a language for the onstage action ~ Points of awareness shared by the performer and practitioner makes use of while working. Viewpoints of Time ~ Tempo - The rate of which a movement occurs ~ Duration - The length of a movement or sequence, in terms of viewpoint work this also includes the duration of group movements until they change. ~ Kinaesthetic Response - Spontaneous reaction to motion outside of yourself, the timing of which you respond to this as well as the impulsive movement that occurs from this. ~ Repetition - Internal repetition when you repeat a movement yourself as well as external repetition which is the repletion of pace or tempo, or something outside of the body. Viewpoints of Space ~ Shape - The outline the body/bodies create within the space. These shapes can be broken down into either, lines, curves or a combination of both, these can also be either stationary or moving. ~ Gesture - Behavioural Gesture - belongs to the concrete world of observable behaviour. e.g. pointing, waving, scratching. This can give information surrounding time period, wether and physical health, as well as distinguishing between a public and private gesture. - Expressive Gesture - Presents and internal emotion, desire or value, it is abstract and symbolic as opposed to naturalistic and representational. Architecture This is broken down into ... ~ Solid Mass - walls, floor, ceiling, doors ~ Texture - Whether the material is metal, wood etc ... This will change the relationship towards it ~ Light - The source of light within the room including darkness and shadows ~ Colour - Creating colours from within the choreography in the space, e.g a red chair amongst black chairs and how this affects the movements. ~ Sound - Created by and from the architecture, such as a creaky floorboard/ Within this architecture we can create spatial metaphors such as entrapment, being forced up against the wall etc ...
Spatial Relationship The distance between components within the space e.g. One body to another, one body in relation to a group, one body in relation to the architecture. Topography The landscape, patterns and design we create through movement within a space. When creating landscape one stage area may have more density then another etc ... Where asa floor patterning and design creates a more reflective patterning of the space. Composition ~ A Method for Creating new theatre ~ Practice of selecting and arranging the separate components of theatrical language into a coherent work of art. ~ Method of generating, defining and developing theatrical language that will be used for a given piece ~ Method for revealing our hidden thoughts and feelings surrounding the material ~ An assignment given to ensemble so it can create short, specific theatre pieces addressing