Читать книгу The Art of Foreign Language Teaching - Peter Lutzker - Страница 68

The improvisations can be considered to be the heart of the clowning workshops. Certainly, all previous activities build up to them and the choice of warm-ups and games are thematically linked to the specific improvisatory structures which will follow in that particular workshop. With the beginning of the improvisations a clear line is delineated between all previous partner and group activities and the following solo and group performances. Until this point, the exercises and games were done with the others; either in pairs, or in groups, and generally simultaneously. Although there are some elements of performance which can be found in some of the warm-ups and the games, most notably in the pivot dance, the feedback indicated that this was not generally experienced as such, probably because at least half the group was generally doing the activities at the same time. Moreover, since there was a strong focus placed on the presence and contributions of the others, there was generally a concurrent lack of self-consciousness.

However, even the simplest introductory exercise with which the solo-improvisations begin evokes all the qualities and feelings associated with performing alone before a waiting and expectant audience. In the course of increasingly complex improvisations, this basic framework remains. In reviewing the feedback letters from the participants, this demarcation line between the first part of the workshops with the warm-ups and games and the second part with the improvisations was clearly experienced by the participants. Whereas only some participants experienced fears and anxieties in regard to the first phases, nearly all described different types of fears with respect to their initial improvisations.

There are central rules underlying all the improvisation exercises. The golden rule of improvisation is not to prepare or plan anything before coming on stage. At first, this rule invariably frightens people and seems to them like a certain recipe for disaster. What only becomes clear for the participants during the process itself is that it is exactly this absence of planning which opens them up to be more receptive and to listen to what is actually happening on stage. Moreover, this rule is inextricably connected to the very nature of clowning for it is more important to see how the clown ‘lives’ than to see the clown actually do something:

It is an invitation to do something that feels totally counter-intuitive to any normal people – that is to come on stage and not plan what you are going to do or come with an idea, but to wait until something happens – not to make it happen, but to wait until it happens. The thought is terrifying and totally weird. (Interview 4)

A second essential rule is to look at the audience. This is what grounds the clown in the reality of the here and now. It establishes that unique and fragile relationship between the clown and the audience which is based on transparency and is thus dependent on eye contact. It creates a feeling of a kind of immediate complicity between the clown and audience which is one of the significant distinctions between clowning and acting:

Clowning invites you to look at your audience and makes that relationship very visible and explicit. Because clowning is about being emotionally transparent, we get to see how the actor feels about the role he or she is playing. In clowning, we know whether the clown is enjoying playing the role of a king. In the theatre, the actor isn’t also telling us how they feel about their role. They have to be the role. In a way, clowns are ham actors. If, for example, they play a death scene, their eye contact with the audience will tell us they are playing at dying. If they did that as actors, they would be considered to be very bad actors. (Interview 7)

The third rule of improvisation is not to touch, remove, or refer to the clown’s red nose. The nose has been called the smallest mask in the world. It clearly defines the character of the clown and thus protects and transforms the person behind the nose. The audience sees the person first of all as a clown:

You cannot touch it, look at it, point to it, or talk about it. Don’t take it off – it’s part of you. Never say this sentence, “I’m a clown, Hello” because you never know who you are. This is the only taboo in clowning. (Vivian at the English Week Workshop, 2004)