Leslie Jacobson: Devising Theatre for Social Change: Exercises and Strategies.

 Last week, my classmates and I have attended a workshop given by Leslie Jacobson entitled Devising Theatre for Social Change: Exercises and Strategies.

The workshop began by introducing us to the different kinds of communication which are: art, theater, music, sculptures etc. She also emphasized on the fact that the music is the most powerful expressive art and highlighted its importance in expressing emotions.

This workshop was mainly about displaying the ways of getting our voice away with effectively transmitting the message through body languages and posture.

In the first part of the workshop, Leslie Jacobson settled up the class into a round circle so everyone sees and can be seen by each others and asked us some questions. The only thing we had to do is to come to her if our answer was “yes” and to stay in our places if the answer was “no”.

 The second thing was about telling our names along with a gesture that everybody has to repeat in order to memorize both the name and the gesture.

The final activity consisted on teams that had to reflect on a concept that she gave them thanks to a status that we had to shape; and the other persons of the class had to comment in order to find the word. For my group and I, we had to reflect the word “respect”. 

                  The most interesting part of the workshop was about the final exercise that pointed us the power of the body language. In fact, we could understand each situation displayed only thanks to the gesture and the position that each one of us took. The exercise showed us also that gestures vary from a culture to another. Meaning that the gesture and the face expression that represent “authority” for us, can represent another thing that will have nothing to do with the true meaning. I also preferred this exercise because it had more meaning than the first one which was fun, but somehow tiresome.

One the other hand, the second exercise was also a way for us to know about each other only thanks to movement even if the question about parents who left were very harsh. Especially when I saw that my best friend was the only one concerned, mainly when I felt the pain in his eyes. In other words, there are a plenty of questions to ask beside these ones and which won’t change the meaning of the exercise’s message...

The strategy displayed in the “sculpture” exercise to transmit the message was very interesting; we apply it indirectly within daily life. For instance, the way of looking at my professor and the posture I would take are not the same as that of my boyfriend. It does change since when I look at my professor, my look displays respect. One the other hand, when I look at my boyfriend; my look can show love, hate, affection and so on. In what concerns the gesture, I cannot be close to my professor as my boyfriend for example.

To sum up, I can say that it was a very interesting workshop where we learned about the power of communication and how to commit our bodies and faces according to the situation we want to display.