The AS students were very lucky to have a workshop from Max Stafford Clark, the Artistic director of Out of Joint and the orginal director of "The Permanent Way" by David Hare.
The workshop consisted of techniques that Max Stafford Clark uses in rehearsal. He started with status games. Asking the students to take a card and then using the number on the card, play that status, 1 being low and 10 being high. They then had to line up against the wall in the order they think they should be, not knowing what each others card number was. They discussed status and then applied this exercise to the Permanent Way gang. They discussed how the names of the gang suggested their status. They then looked at status through the financial means of the other characters in the play. Max gave excellent insights into the characters and their real counterparts.
Next They looked at pictures of war and one by one the students entered the space and created a pose appropriate to recreate the war pictures. The students were asked to keep changing their pose to help support the development of the picture. They then applied this technique to the passengers scene, including one line for each character from the scene.(see Photos).
They then looked at the superintendent's speech using "Actions" Max Stafford Clark's famous adaptation of Stanislavski's objectives. They finished off the workshop asking questions about the real people the characters were based on.
The workshop was invaluable for the students who will perform their exam on May 10th. Look out for a student's assessment of the workshop.
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