16.09.2014 - Research: Radiating

   We started today's class with some skills we had explored before, like working with the bamboo sticks(LeCoq, among other practitioners) and going further into pulling and pushing, deepening our knowledge about relationships. In the exercise you simply shared a stick with your partner, each having one finger on one of the ends of the sticks to balance it between you. Then you just had to start experimenting with different movements and how you could move the stick between you to create something interesting. We especially talked about major and minor, and how you had to either lead or follow for the exercise to work, but changing the roles. This wasn't something you would agree on with your partner, but rather follow your instinct and trust your partner to either follow your lead or take control.

   Next we started to discover one of Michael Chekhov's techniques called Radiating. We have done an exercise like this last year, which we called 'Just Be', but rather than just standing in neutral, in radiating we had to give out a certain welcoming energy out to the room and the audience. We tried in couple of different ways, with and without sticks to expand our arms, getting small notes from our tutor, how to relax your body or how to radiate the energy. I honestly felt more comfortable doing the radiating without the sticks, even though they made me feel more powerful, it was harder for me to relax using them.

   After the class, we were asked to look into one of the things mentioned in class, like site-specific or -responsive theatre, epic theatre(Brecht) or pushing and pulling. I decided to look into radiating more, since I really wanted explore the background of it in more detail.


Radiating: Michael Chekhov

• It is the ability for an actor to willingly send out their thoughts, feelings, or qualities. 
• Invisible energy
• The actor is to become attuned to the direction their prana
• Prana: similar to chi, sanskrit word for "life force", universal energy drawn into the body through breath
• It was inspired by eastern philosophy, particularly Buddhist and Hindu spirituality
• Receiving: actors ability to take in the atmosphere, the audience and information from other characters(including what they may be radiating)
• Acting is the energy which is created by the two performers and exists in between the two and the space the bodies live in.