Day 1: 11th October 2021 (Mon)
Interesting day today. Went back to basics in a way. Used tableaus for storytelling. Reminds me of my secondary school days.
Day 2: 12th October 2021 (Tue)
Made tableaus of our own personal stories today. 3 images of a time we felt most embarrassed of ourselves. Fascinating. I forgot how many things you can create without words.
Day 3: 13th October 2021 (Wed)
Started to discuss the topics of which our forum theatre piece was going to be based upon. There are so many things we want to talk about… I wonder if we are ever going to have a consensus.
Day 4: 14th October 2021 (Thur)
Started to vote on which topics we would like to tackle. It’s interesting. After a lot of analysis, we have realised that most of the topics we want to talk about are centered around discrimnation of some sort. My definition of discrimation has been defined as: “Making negative assumptions of a person based of a harmful stereotype that has no basis for the assumption made.”
Day 5: 15th October 2021 (Fri)
Got taught the basics of forum theatre today. The anti-model in particular. It’s fascinating. There is no beginning, middle, and end, as convention dictates. It starts out with the issue, and slowly escalates to a crisis, and ends there. There is no ending. Only windows of opportunities for intervention.
Day 6: 18th October 2021 (Mon)
Went through the anti-model again. Now with more complexities and questions answered about the “rules”. “Rules of engagement” in particular are quite hard to grasp. There is a fine line between giving space to an audience member to try out their choice, and giving in to the audience, i.e (letting them make their choices with no consequences.)
Day 7: 19th October 2021 (Tue)
Finally decided on the topic of discrimination. Particularly of Gender, Mental Health and Class. We came up with the setting of the forum theatre piece: a plane. It seemed to fit the justifications well.
Day 8: 20th October 2021 (Wed)
Started devising our presentation today. We first started with the characters, then the layout of the plane. I found it interesting that the set does not have to be realistic. I did not know that Forum Theatre employed the suspense of disbelief, and the alienation of the audience.
Day 9: 21st October 2021 (Thur)
Completely stuck in today’s devising. Li Xie was very surprised that we do not have a single improvisation class in a BA in Acting. After we told her that we don’t, she proceeded to give us a crash course on improv and acting. It was the most I have learnt about the craft in a long time.
Day 10: 22nd October 2021 (Fri)
Finally finished the “concept” of the presentation today. We have the issue and the crisis. Now we just have to put things together for the middle parts. Li Xie said we did very well for people who have never been trained in improv.
Day 11: 25th October 2021 (Mon)
Did a lot of character work today, really trying to flesh out our characters for our presentation. It’s a lot harder to find “redemptive” elements in Forum Theatre. We have to oppress, but also BE oppressed. It gives the audience sympathy for the character, not just outright hate. Interesting. We also started “finalizing” our lines.
Day 12: 26th October 2021 (Tue)
More “rules of engagement” today, and Li Xie explained how the “Joker” functions. The “Joker” seems to be a facilitator of some sort. The “Joker” has the ability to break the fourth wall, replace people, slow down and rewind time. Quite godly actually, if you think about it.
Day 13: 27th October 2021 (Wed)
We did a run from prologue to Act 1 today, all without words. Just actions. It was a lot harder than I thought. Sara also had to do a hotseat as “Keisha”. It was the longest hotseat I have ever experienced. Almost a full hour. I’m honestly quite worried about MY hotseating coming soon.
Day 14: 28th October 2021 (Thur)
Finally did my hotseating today. It was a lot easier than I thought. It was also a lot of fun. I guess I forgot how much I love inhabiting other characters. ESPECIALLY, when you have free reign to BE your character. I guess I didn’t realise how often I’m just following someone else’s direction.
Day 15: 29th October 2021 (Fri)
Did a full run of the play today, but with no words. It’s amazing how much more alive my body is when I’m deprived of words. I guess I rely on text way too much.
Day 16: 1st November 2021 (Mon)
Had our first intervention today. The verdict from our “Joker” is that we were being WAY too polite. It was very strange. I’ve never been rude to an audience member before. It was a real bizzaro experience. I guess I just have to see the audience member as that character when they step into the scene and just play the way I would with my other cast members. It’s harder than it looks.
Day 17: 2nd November 2021 (Tue)
I tried doing an intervention for the first time today. I took the role of Michelle. I thought I did the job well, and the situation was easily solved. However, the Joker remarked that the cast had made things too easy for me. We have much to learn. The Joker continued to stress the difference between “giving space” and “giving in”. I hope I learn the difference. Time is running out.
Day 18: 3rd November 2021 (Wed)
We had our first costume run today. We also had our first “test run”. Li Xie had brought in Jasmine to be our test audience. Jasmine graciously took over many roles, and accessed many windows of intervention. As expected, I found it very difficult to treat her like any of the other cast members, and was starting to treat her like a guest. The challenge is balancing “giving audience space to try” vs. “making it realistically hard”. I hope I perform better next time. Cause the next time we’re running the show, is the actual one itself.
Day 19: 5th November 2021 (Fri)
With our presentation completed, we came to the end of our Forum Theatre experience. The presentation went better than expected, with a very well behaved and docile audience. I am sure that having our Programme Leader in the audience had something to do with it. I am satisfied with my work, and felt that I managed to do Will Tan justice. I will miss him very dearly. He was one of my favourites.
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