Acting with the Pleasure of Play

There is so much to learn in playing games on stage in the way children do, with the presence, commitment, freedom, creativity of somebody who is having fun and exploring new things all the time. These are the basics of theatre play because there we learn how to be present on stage, how to look at each other, listen, be ready, create surprises, create an order, or destroy it. They are also very advanced skills for actors to keep discovering.

We will look at many ways to find a good complicity, to incite, tease, listen, respond, connect, surprise and conduct rhythms using the pleasure to play as a driving force. We will grow an understanding of the dramatic power of games situations and changes of rhythm. We will see how the qualities of games can be repeated, changed and owned to shape performances and write scripts.

Working with games will allow us to create for the stage while deftly avoiding descriptions of acting styles, meanings and character psychology. We will rather look for each performer's lightness, charms and beauty. How can actors find virtuosity in their own foolishness, to give life to texts, songs and theatre plays? We seek to uncover each one’s sensitivity and humour.

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CONTENTS

Showing – how to play for an audience, to establish games with clarity and in touch with an audience's imagination.

Teasing – how to be inventive in inviting others to play, and create a complicity in a game.

Concealing – how to hide games in a theatre scene in order to create illusions and different rhythms.

Changing – how to change games on the fly and engage an audience with surprises, rhythms, presence.

Catching – how to be open and ready to use incidents in a game, without thinking or over-thinking.

Leading – how to be able to use and change rhythms in a game. For example, to escalate a game when it’s working.

Fitting – how to cleverly provide games with a context and purpose to stage texts, songs, theatre scenes