“Movement, to me, is integral as an actor is concerned,” stated Patrick Earl at the beginning of his Laban workshop. Appropriately, movement education makes up a significant part of the ASC Theatre Camp’s agenda. But prior to Patrick’s workshop, Laban was foreign to many of the campers. All week, returning campers were able to answer the frequent question, “Wait, what is Laban exactly?” with a promise that Laban is transformative in how it helps an actor move and speak. Laban Movement Analysis is separated into three categories: time, weight of the movement, and the way you move through space. Time pertains to how quickly the movement occurs, the weight refers to the strength behind the action, and Laban defines manner in eight effort actions: press, punch, dab, flick, slash, wring, float, and glide.
Patrick began by having the campers walk and explore the space in a natural, personal manner. Then he introduced the first effort action, asking the campers to “float” without direction. As the campers floated listlessly around the room, he called out numbers that indicated pace, 1 being the most subdued float and 10 being the most heightened float. Eventually he asked the campers to add purpose and direction to their floats, changing the action completely. Through these alterations, the campers discovered the diversity of a simple float. Patrick proceeded to take the campers through the rest of the eight effort actions, constantly changing the intensity and speed on the 1-10 scale while adding and removing direction. During each new action, he’d ask the campers which Shakespeare character they would associate with the action. For example, the “flick” motion brings to mind Ariel or Puck, while the “wring” motion conjures Richard III.
Throughout the exercise, Patrick prompted the campers to think about how their bodies were making these motions and to be aware of what their bodies’ centers were doing at all times. Randomly he would call for a switch from whatever movement they were doing to their normal gaits, saying “Shake it off! Back to you.” By the end of the cycle, the campers were familiar with the general Laban structure and were ready to apply it to text.
Patrick explained that while Laban obviously aids the actor with his or her physical choices when forming a character, it can also be applied to vocal choices as well. To illustrate this, Patrick asked the campers chose between two short monologues, one being Romeo’s proclamation that banishment is worse than death, and the other Juliet’s plea to her mother to break her engagement to Paris. The campers walked around the room and read their monologues eight times, each time reading in the style of one of the eight different effort actions. This way they could see which parts of the monologue fit well with certain actions. The campers then chose four to five of the actions and incorporated these actions vocally into their text. For example, Romeo may start out with a slash, then move into a punch, a dab, a wring, and end with a glide.
Once the campers developed their monologues, they performed them individually for the group. Every camper had made completely different choices for where they applied actions. When a camper’s actions were too vague, Patrick asked him or her to do the physical action while reading, to remind the camper of the actions’ distinctiveness. With the physical action in mind, the camper would perform the monologue again with more success, winning applause from the group. The end product was eighteen incredibly specific monologues that offered wide range of interpretations of these two texts. Patrick provided the campers with a wonderful toolbox of actions to help inspire them when forming onstage personas.
--Emma Lo
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