Saturday 16 August 2014

Spoken Word in Pakistan - The workshop and event

Hello!

Yesterday Spoken Stage conducted a brief introductory workshop on Spoken Word and Performance in Karachi Pakistan at The Second Floor. It was in collaboration with another great organization I  work with called Open Letters.

The workshop was well attended by a mix bag of people such as students, people from the army, designers. Therefore conducting this workshop seemed to be more rewarding than expected, it's always exciting to have different schools of thought come together.

The Workshop was divided into 2 categories.

1. On writing
2. Performance

1. On writing

We did some basic warm up exercises to loosen everyone up. We did stretches, breathing exercises done by actors and then we passed around a ball and played the 'continue the story' game, and followed it with brief introductions around the circle that we sat in. (Because circle seating is the best way to sit)

We played another common free writing game where we choose 10 words and everyone has to write a free write incorporating those 10 words. An effective way to let your thoughts loose but also give it some shape.

Thanks to the blessing that is Mindy Nettifee's book - 'Glitter in your Blood' I was able to pan out an interesting 2 hour interactive workshop that covered inspiration, metaphors and editing. We played one of the most effective games that Mindy mentioned in her book about metaphors and wordplay.

She introduced it as a regular in Rachel Mckibbens' workshop, Where we make three columns - Concrete Object, Animal and Behaviours and aspects.* Then once this is all made, we dismiss the middle column and write sentences and phrases using the concrete object and the behaviours and aspects of the animal, but not using the animal!


Once again I must thank Mindy Nettifee for writing such a wonderful book and giving me permission to use it to conduct the workshop! it is available from Write Bloody Publishing and it's a lovely source material.
http://writebloody.com/shop/products/glitter-in-the-blood-by-mindy-nettifee/

2. On performance

Part 2 covered  a bit about voice, tone and emotion. As performers, especially as performance poets who start out it gets harder for us to shake off our inspiration enough to make it seem original and believable, and most of it has to do with delivery. We tend to feel like a particular style of emotion garnered applause thus it is our duty to follow those exact footsteps even if it is not who we are and especially if it is not what the poem or story is asking for. (and I say we because of course I also was a victim of it)

However, that is exactly where we are going wrong, we are trying to emulate and repeat someone else's personality on stage, and that is where the performance tends to fall flat even if the words are amazing.

So to evoke natural emotions, I practiced a common acting warm up exercise that I learnt.

Everyone walks around in random directions, When I clap, everyone freezes in their position and I shout out a random emotion. This is highly effective which is why I love it.

It gives very little time for everyone to think before they do their emotion, what their natural reaction is comes out as part of their personality and thus everyones' reactions are natural and pleasant to look at. It allows them to get in touch with their emotions and thus express original expression while reciting, performing or reading out their story.

Finally, I showed the attendees a collection of some videos that had varying emotions. Rafeef Ziadah's pain and anger in her poem 'Shades of Anger' Sarah Kay's hope and happiness in the 'B: If I should have a daughter' and Shane Koyczan's poignant display of a roller coaster of emotions in The To This Day Project. A perfect way to end the workshop don't you think? Fine, maybe I am a bit biased because he is one of my favourite poets out there, and probably one of the most innovative.

The best part about spreading spoken word in Pakistan is, that barely anyone is aware of this genre. So it leaves the ground wide open for innovation. Next up: The Event.

www.instagram.com/spokenstage