On Status!

A quick note on Wednesday's workshop (I seem to have lost track of time these days!)  Albeit a smaller number of attendees - teenagers are very busy people - we had one hour to explore the concept of Status in society.  One of the actors' first impression was to come up with the word authority, which sums it up!

Activities were based on who and why has authority in different scenarios and how Status can change within a situation, but not before linking this to Emotions and how to observe someone's status from their non-verbal communication.

I used an activity I found extremely interesting during one of many workshops I enjoyed with Pepper's Ghost some while ago.  French playing cards are handed out and, without showing the card to the others, the actors have to portrait the given Status on the card only through body language, face expression and eye contact (if applicable).  Status is directly proportional to the number / figure on the card, the ace being the lowest status and the king being the highest.  I gave it a twist, though, and handed out the Joker, too!   :D

They enjoyed taking their Status around twice, thankfully drawing different cards both times. It was amazing to see how they verbalised Status matters that are often taken for granted, coming up with amazing description and terms and really trusting their intuition.  In fact, at the end of each turn, they had to guess each other's Status, and they were amazing!

Not sure if I mentioned this already, but working with Pepper's Ghost, a theatre company based in Worlverton, Milton Keynes, has enriched and inspired me immensely.  I was very lucky to work with extremely talented people of different ages and from various backgrounds.  I did log my experience and feel I can draw from it safely like rummaging in a prop box and knowing exactly what to find!

On top of this, when I was dreaming to get into the magical world of Performing Arts through a youth project in the parish church I used to attend a few years back, I got hold of an interesting little book, which I later lost, along with my Dream.  This happened because I was not ready then to allow the Dream to take off.  Now, I bought it again and want to share it with You in case You also feel that working with Youth is one of the ways forward.

The booklet is entitled Act Out! Drama and role-play activities for young people and was written by Vanessa Rogers, published in the in the UK by the National Youth Agency (ISBN 0 86155 295 4)  It's a precious piece of writing to have at hand, although nowadays more activities can be downloaded with easy access to the Internet.

I'm still feeling a bit weird, though...