Frantic Assembly Workshop

Frantic Assembly was formed in 1994 by Scott Graham, Steven Hoggett, and Victoria Middleton, who all attended a university in Swansea, Wales. Although they weren't performing arts inclined, having no drama or dance experience, they were willing to learn and pass on what they had learnt to others. They were inspired by other theatre companies e.g. DV8. The main style of the company is that of physical theatre combining movement, design, music, and text, of which they have incorporated into many stage shows such as the renowned "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time". One of their most famous activities are "Chair Duets" which usually incorporate two people and two chairs creating movement, and sometimes a story from the simple movement they have created. They also provide "Ignition" which is a training project for young men aged 16-20 in the style of Frantic. They also travel around the world in order to deliver their style of theatre to more people through workshops.

This was my second opportunity to workshop with members of Frantic Assembly which I think gave me an advantage in confidence and ability to complete the tasks that were set out. I loved this workshop much more than the last workshop I attended in July 2017, potentially because I have gained confidence throughout the BTEC course and as I know the majority of the people in the small drama community very well and thus can interact much better than in July 2017.

The first thing that we did was a warm up, engaging our bodies and minds. Shaun (the member of Frantic Assembly who led the workshop) suggested that one of the reasons why its important to do a warm up alongside making sure we wouldn't get injured, was because in a rehearsal process it can feel as though nothing is getting achieved, but you can set yourself some goals in a warm up and then you feel more successful.

The first major exercise that we did was Slalom where chairs are used to create a running pattern. We had to maintain the same running speed as our partner so that we reached the same points on opposing sides at the same time - this calls for compromise because you shouldn't go at the slowest speed or at the fastest speed and thus this allows for more teamwork. Shaun then added two more chairs to the slalom which made the movement more complex and look more visually interesting. The chairs were then removed but we still had to keep the places where the chairs were in our movement. This demonstrates how Frantic Assembly works in that they start off simply and then make their piece more complicated by adding text. After this, we talked about what this sequence could relate to in terms of scenes - a hospital, restaurant, an actual race all of which were ideas accepted by the group. In order to define this I suggested adding text - this would come much later - as well as costume, props and manner of movement.

A major part of the Frantic Assembly devising process is that of the world before, during, and after any contact made. This allows for an audience to understand the relationships between each character - for example something as simple as holding hands or removing a hand from a shoulder can tell the audience a relationship immediately. A lingering touch after the contact can suggest that the two people don't want to leave each other - it is this concept that i feel defines the majority of their work and therefore will shape our work in this part of the Physical Theatre Unit.

This concept can be seen in the partner work that we did initially with lifts especially when developed into a full piece which we hope to achieve by the end of this unit. We were told to label ourselves A and B - I worked with Megan from the lower BTEC class for this section of the workshop and tried to work with different people at every part of the workshop - and did the Push Hands exercise, which can be demonstrated by the video below (although not of my class it does show the basis for what this entails):

 After this we discussed whether having our eyes open or closed was better for this exercise. Personally, I felt that having eyes closed was better because it allowed for less prediction making movements better. The person leading (with their hand on top) has ultimate control and this allows for development of trust which is important for the next lifts and group lifts that we did later in the workshop. The key points of these lifts is that the partner that you're working with is the same height and that throughout the lift a great deal of surface area is maintained.

The first 'lift' that we tried was the Balance Lift whereby the partnership leans into one another with their hips at the same height and feet at the same place. In this lift, and indeed in all the lifts, it is important to maintain as much surface area with the other person as possible as this allows the leaning to be much more supported. As shown in the photo to the right from last years Frantic workshop, when the balance is correct the middle legs of both partners will begin to rise. Megan and I found this lift the easiest to do as it required little strength which was detrimental to the next lifts that we attempted.

The video to the left demonstrates the first proper lift that we tried (video taken from Megan Allsop who was a BTEC on the course last year and attended the previous Frantic workshop in July 2017). In preparation for this lift, it is vital that the person lifting has their knees bent and has their hip below the other person's hip. First we tried this without the movement demonstrated in the video. This meant that the person being lifted would only move in the air. The pivot was added by some partners later, but Megan and I found this hard as we are both incredibly weak and thus felt as though it would be better if we were in a partnership with someone who was stronger and was more able in lifting.

Another lift that we tried is the one demonstrated to the right, again taken from Megan Allsop. The person lifting has to bend down so that the person being lifted can put their hands on their partner's hips. It is important that the person lifting has a straight back as it will become increasingly harder if they have a bent back as they won't be able to lift the other person. As the person lifting stands up, they support the other person's legs.

The Clamp Lift can be seen as demonstrated by Bruce and Peter below. The partner stand in a T-shape with the person lifting being the top part of the T. The person being lifted puts their arm over the other person's shoulder and squeezes tightly to maintain as much surface area as possible. The person lifting again has bent knees and a straight back with an arm wrapped around their partner's waist for support and to again maintain a greater surface area. If the person squeezing is tight enough then the person lifting will only need to stand up to move the other around and complete the lift.

After a 15 minute break, we needed an activity that would get our energy levels back on track whilst also maintaining the frantic principle of the world before, during and after contact. The ideas that we got around the topic of Flirty Disco was that of a nightclub sequence where we have someone going around everyone showing that the person is indeed flirting with everybody. This would come with character sequencing and development, but I do think that this is something that we could put in the Big BTEC final piece at the end of the physical theatre unit.

The major exercise that we did next was a Line drawing one. I was in the only group of 3 with Nasifa and Grace so our instructions had to be adapted so that it would fit the same time frame of that of the other pieces. We had to find 3 places on each other and repeat these in a sequence that makes sense while drawing lines on each other hence why this exercise is called Lines. We then had to link all the points together by adding movement such as round by through or by just moving but maintaining the physical connection with other people in the group. After practising this for a bit, we were told to add a lift into the piece if it come naturally and to loop the piece. The video is the entire group's pieces - mine appears at 3:14 to 4:17. I think that our performance could have gone a bit better than what is seen on the video - something that affects how effective the piece was is the camera angle which hides the lines that we were drawing and effects the perception of the piece. I do think however, that there was a lack of practise involved in the rehearsal time because we had to include 3 people into the piece rather than just 2 like everyone else. The inclusion of 3 people did allow for a story-line to develop - for me, this story-line is that we were all cheating on each other with each other which meant that we were constantly pushing each other away to the other person because we felt bad. This can be seen as I move Grace's hand to turn Nasifa around and because I lift Grace towards Nasifa potentially showing the guilt that my character may have had.

We then work-shopped some pieces:

Izzy and Imogen:

The storyline that I understood for this piece was that Imogen was in an abusive relationship with Izzy. This was seen in the initial video above because Izzy's face seemed to be stone-like and cold whereas Imogen's felt more warm. Shaun decided to enhance this feeling by slowing the movements down and by having Imogen's touches be light and Izzy's have more of a grip, maintaining as much contact with Imogen as possible. Izzy was to maintain a predatory gaze whereas Imogen's was to maintain as to what it was before. During their sequence, Shaun asked me that when he changed the music (seen at 1:35) I was to stand to the edge of the piece and keep eye contact with Imogen and she should keep eye contact with myself. This brought more to the storyline and suggested that I was trying to get Imogen away from the abusive relationship be it romantic or purely platonic. For me, it was easy to keep the eye contact with Imogen and therefore my focus mostly because myself, Imogen, and Izzy are very close friends. This already close friendship allowed for the onstage relationship to be much stronger. The change in music to something much more slow and soft allowed for a softer storyline to be seen between myself and Imogen even though Izzy was still using her harsh touches.

Jade and Marlon

The major change between this performance and the group performance above was the change in music which allowed for a time frame to be explored. The use of the song The Very Thought Of You allowed for the time of the piece to be placed in wartime Britain which holds some sort of nostalgia. As a group, we compared this performance to the start of the film Up and this is enhanced when Jade was told to leave halfway through the piece, leaving Marlon to dance by himself for a while. As Jade did come back at the end of the piece this allowed for multiple storylines to develop. My favourite of these was that in the first sequence Jade represented Marlon's wife who died and thus when she came back was actually showing Marlon's daughter or granddaughter - he was teaching the dance to later generations. It was suggested that this would be much better achieved if Jade was replaced by someone else who looked younger which would reinforce this idea. Another suggestion that was given was that Jade had again died but when Jade rejoins Marlon it shows that they are both in heaven dancing together because Marlon has also died. The continuation of Marlon without Jade shows that Marlon continued with his life as though Jade was still in it which in some ways made the piece even more sad than previously intended.

Bruce and Maya

The major change that was made to this piece was that Bruce and Maya were told to do the performance on the floor without changing much of the piece. This allows for an audience to see that the two are in a bed without there actually having there be a bed onstage. Not only did this change become much more physically draining for both of them, it seemed to be much more tender than what they had performed before. The storyline was enhanced when Shaun instructed Bruce to either look at Maya or either look away. The major storyline that we got from the piece was that the two were young lovers who were just coming to terms with their love. It was here where I started to see a theme as to what our big piece could be about - potentially how relationships change over time.

Bella and Hannah1

Their initial performance in the main group sequence above was reminiscent of someone going to space as the music that came on was someone talking about flying away. Certainly, within a tech heavy piece about someone leaving this would be very effective. The change of music I think for this piece was much less effective and thus I feel that the previous music would have suited this piece a lot better. The use of the paper airplane and then it being turned into a piece of paper was reminiscent of the passage of time. Maybe Hannah and Bella were in a relationship that was fun at the start but quickly fizzled out when Hannah got a new job. Or maybe it shows how Hannah grew up leaving Bella behind, their childhood's forgotten in a mess of adult responsibilities. Whatever the interpretation, the moment when Bella stops touching Hannah when drawing the lines marks a distance in their relationship from Bella - Hannah had already shown this before, but when Bella does it, it severely shows that their relationship is broken beyond repair. The use of the paper airplane is something that I would like to use in later performances.

The next few tasks involved major group lifts. including the Calippo, forward and backwards, all shown in the photos below:

This photo is Leah mid-Calippo lift. In essence it is similar to that of a Calippo lollipop hence its name. Those at the bottom (lifting) all push on Leah's legs the force of which allows Leah to be pushed into the air. Leah must stay straight in body in order for the lift to be fully accomplished.

 The image opposite shows Joel in a forwards lift. This is the lift that we have done the most of in previous physical work - my group used this lift in our Berkoff piece because both myself and Marlon had been to the Frantic Assembly workshop last July. Alex, the person who Joel is putting his hands on is the rock and is the person that Joel uses to stabalise himself whilst other people hold him by the chest, waist and knees for maximum support. This allows Joel to be easily moved around and manipulated whilst in the air.

The photo opposite shows us in the middle of a backwards lift. The person being lifted is this time supported by 2 rocks whom they put their arms around to begin with so they can be lifted initially. Other people support this lift by grabbing the areas mentioned in the previous lift. When the person is in the air, as shown by Bruce in this photo, they can take their arms off the two rocks and this allows for maximum movement.















The photo opposite is mid-crowd surfing Leah and shows how simple lifts like the ones above can easily mould into the lift of Leah curling into a ball. We also experimented with flipping Leah mid-air which actually worked pretty well all things considered.


















After a 30 minute break we applied the group lifts to smaller lifting in the form of an exercise called Bodyguard. As stated previously Frantic Assembly start off with something simple and in this case the simple thing was that of following a person round and when they stop, they fall in a creative way. The challenge is to get the person as low to the ground as possible generating risk which is another way in which Frantic Assembly like to experiment. We then chose someone to pick 4 spots in the room in which they would fall in a creative way to which we would then transform into a lift. The video below shows our (Alex, Imogen, Kathryn, and myself) final piece:

The main thing that we were trying to show with this piece was that Imogen was the main character and thus everyone else was trying to protect her in some way. This developed into Kathryn always being the one to catch Imogen, Alex the one to always take Imogen off Kathryn and myself to always push Imogen away from Alex - this was done somewhat because I felt that I was too weak to do much heavy lifting. Imogen wouldn't look at anyone in the piece, her only focus being on her next point. In the rehearsal process Shaun asked for there to be an element of risk whereby Imogen would fall and at the last second Kathryn would run in. This effect was lost on us even though I tried to stay away from Imogen when she was walking to her next point. This was because I didn't have the responsibility of catching Imogen so in a sense I could take more risks than any other member of the group.

As with the Line drawing exercise, we workshopped a piece. The piece that we workshopped is the one seen below and is the Bodyguard of Disney:

The major change was that the piece was now in the dark, the lifts of Disney only being illuminated by Shaun's phone torch. This was majorly effective as it hid the people who were lifting Disney allowing an audience to only see the movements being made by Disney. Another thing that evolved from this piece was the use of shadows for effect. The main shadow that was the most effective appears at 25 seconds in. This easily shows the effect that shadows can give to a piece and was reminiscent of Gecko's The Wedding (a description of this performance can be found here). The story-line that was produced was something akin to someone being born - perhaps a baby in the womb - portrayed as such potentially due to Disney's newly shaved head. In contrast, the piece could represent drowning due to Disney being brought up and down and only being visible when he was being lifted. this could be emphasised by his facial expressions and by windmilling his hands around as well as the music that could be played to show this.

The final exercise that we did was something called Nerves. The video opposite shows the group practising their own nerve movements about three minutes into the exercise. We were told to turn around as to not feel as self conscious when we were doing the movement which would further enhance our movement to be to the standard of what was achieved. Firstly we were told to experiment with 'pulling' nerves from parts of our body to the heart. Then to find a pattern that we could repeat with a slow, outward movement, one movement where on nerve jolts out and you have to catch it and the other two similar to what we had done in the first part of the exercise. After we'd perfected our sequence we were put into a group of three and told to learn each other's sequences to put them into a performance. I was in a group with Marlon and Lauren and feel as though we all easily grasped the movement. Once in the group it was suggested that we play with the pacing of the piece which is something that Frantic Assembly develop in their own pieces - making something more complex as we go along.

The video opposite shows our final performance. I think that for the most part our movements were in sync where we had planned them to be and in a canon sequence such as the head throw in the second sequence that we did. The constant changing of where we were sat/laid and the use of having back to the audience at some points was very effective because it stopped the piece from becoming too repetitive. The chair was used to give one person their own 'starring' moment. I think that the conclusions drawn from the piece by the audience were excellent as I hadn't really thought of the piece in that way before. For example, someone suggested that we were all the same person going through solitary confinement and were just trying to find ways to pass the time. So the other people in the sequence who were not in the piece were either the future or past self of the character assumed in the piece. Another story that was suggested was that we were inmates in a prison and were bored with how time was passing - perhaps it shows how people commit the same crimes again and again which would allow for the past/present characters would have more relevance. The inmate suggestion was called from the moment in the piece where we pass a nerve to and from each other which was suggested to be people passing notes to pass the boredom.

Overall, the workshop was an incredible experience and hope that in the future I have the opportunity to partake in another Frantic Assembly workshop.