Berkoff is an actor, director, playwright and general iconoclast of the theatrical establishment of the last 25 years. The actor-audience relationship is immediate, where the expressive physicality and general language of the actors in creating stage pictures and image is not just a display of technical skill, but a pre-requisite of the making of the drama. It is a form of theatre where the precision and economy of dialogue is paramount where “all the elements of the human being are brought into motion” (Berkoff 1991)
Elements of a Berkoff Production
- Large scale exaggerated mime and the juxtaposition of this with spare dialogue and phatic utterances.
- The replacement of props and furniture with what can be created by the actors bodies
- The almost hieratic leading characters, taking the audience through the narrative.
- The link with the idea of “total theatre”, which seeks to attract an almost spiritual response from the audience through using all the resources of theatre including athletic actors.
WORKSHOP
In our workshop, we were told how Berkoff would work with the audience. We realised that there was a lot of audience participation and that the actor on stage wouldn't know what was going to happen when they were on stage due to the fact the audience made up the story line. They did this by clapping when the actor was doing something that they would find amusing. The actor would have to clock different objects to see if the audience wanted him/her to use it, and then if they chose the right object they would then have to do something with that object, using clapping the audience would tell the actor again what to do. We then put down about 7 props onto the stage in different places and had a go our selves. This proved quite hard as the audience could think up anything and the actor wouldn't know what to do. After a while we got the hang of things and we were becoming quicker at doing what the audience wanted us to do, this workshop really helps with your improvisation and our imagination. We all had a go at sitting in the audience and being the performer and each time we tried to make it trickier, but eventually we got the storyline. We filmed this straight away instead of rehearsing, as there isn't any need for rehearsing as it is all improvisation, you could rehearse one thing and the audience want another. My weakness was trying to think what the audience wanted, but my strength was that I had enough confidence to do tbe mime and the clocking of the objects.
In our workshop, we were told how Berkoff would work with the audience. We realised that there was a lot of audience participation and that the actor on stage wouldn't know what was going to happen when they were on stage due to the fact the audience made up the story line. They did this by clapping when the actor was doing something that they would find amusing. The actor would have to clock different objects to see if the audience wanted him/her to use it, and then if they chose the right object they would then have to do something with that object, using clapping the audience would tell the actor again what to do. We then put down about 7 props onto the stage in different places and had a go our selves. This proved quite hard as the audience could think up anything and the actor wouldn't know what to do. After a while we got the hang of things and we were becoming quicker at doing what the audience wanted us to do, this workshop really helps with your improvisation and our imagination. We all had a go at sitting in the audience and being the performer and each time we tried to make it trickier, but eventually we got the storyline. We filmed this straight away instead of rehearsing, as there isn't any need for rehearsing as it is all improvisation, you could rehearse one thing and the audience want another. My weakness was trying to think what the audience wanted, but my strength was that I had enough confidence to do tbe mime and the clocking of the objects.
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