Tom's workshop

04/09/14

Tom's workshop-

During our second day in college we had Tom from RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) come in and speak to us about his experience in RADA and why we should consider going to a drama school after college and why it has been a good experience for him. As well as speaking through his time in RADA we also got to have a workshop with Tom which was a really good experience for me as I hope to go to a drama school after I have finished in Cronton. During this workshop we joined up with the second year acting and performance students which was good for us to have other people joining us. Tom got us to focus a lot on being in the moment and being present in that exact moment in time. The first task that we had to do with Tom was to create actions from objectives, what he meant by that was that objectives are something that you do and the actions are acting on that objective to make you do that specific thing that you want to do. Some examples of creating actions from objectives that we did was pulling the curtains in the drama studio, sitting down on the chairs and fixing our laces on our shoes. After we had done this task we then went on to partner up in pairs and we hugged each other and then tried to focus on being in that moment and what we felt at that time.

after doing this we repeated it over again twice with two other partners. Afterwards we continued to create actions from objectives and then see how we would react and feel if our actions were getting stopped by someone else by them getting in the way or disrupting what we were doing. This made the task a lot more dramatic as I began to feel frustrated and this created tension and conflict in the task that had been set. After that task, Tom got us to lie down on the floor separated from each other with our hands beside us and our eyes closed to think about the moment we were in and clear our minds after the task that we had just completed and to give ourselves a positive mindset and make us focus on the moment. After we had got ourselves into a clear and positive mindset we then paired up and acted as though ourselves and our partners were joined together by a coil (one of us at each end) and controlling the coil ourselves by taking both small and large steps towards each other and away from each other creating very little intensity or a lot of intensity depending on the emotion that we were supposed to show for example wanting to be close to someone but are scared to get close to them would be shown by moving towards your partner in a slow motion and then taking large steps back very quick. Whilst we were doing this task we made sure that ourselves and our partners remained constant eye contact which helped to make the task more intense and the pace of our steps helped to make the task that little bit more dramatic and show emotion. After we had acted like we were joined together by a coil we hugged and held on to our partners to be in the moment and think about the presence, atmosphere and feeling with that person. What Tom tried to make us do during our workshop with him was to be present and block out the past and the future and that is what he continued to say all the way through the workshop to keep that thought in our minds as it gave us good concentration and focus and it also helped us to create a connection with the people that we were partnered up with. Another thing that Tom continued to say to us during the workshop was to 'see the person'. By this Tom meant to have a complete connection with the person that you are talking to and not just look at them and see them but actually see what they are feeling when you look at them. One of the things that Tom said to us during the workshop was 'I can hurt you and you can hurt me'. Tom used this to show the realisation of the moment we we're in and tried to give us the understanding that although we we're looking at our partners in that moment and thinking that we are only looking at the he created the intensity by saying 'by looking at your partner you need to understand that they can hurt you and you can hurt them so keep that in your mind' and this made the whole task a lot more dramatic and really made us think about how the person infront of us could have a negative impact on us. I very much enjoyed Tom coming in and speaking to us about RADA as well as taking his time to do a workshop with us because to me I think it has changed the way I think of completing a task and the way I think of performing with a partner or a group of people as I will now be able to truly be in the moment by creating a positive mindset for myself and not just looking at someone I am performing with but truly seeing them and going beyond. After our workshop with Tom I am hoping that our group is lucky enough to have more workshops with other people like Tom who can help us to become better actors.