‘A warm-up, a workshop, an event a website, an app, a company’
A network of videos of monologues from a variety of different performances. We offer our rehearsal techniques, warm-ups and teachings alongside a platform to share your work with; students, teachers, potential casting agencies.
Additionally, we host workshops wherein we teach our style and rehearsal process in theatre to students, teachers, and theatre goers alike. Following this, we aim to encourage the likeminded young artists to network and socialise through the in person monologue slam that we host after a series of workshops around.
An array of our unique warm-ups, designed and tested to ease any level performer into a monologue, performance or start to their day.
Get all students to walk around as their character, and I will shout out instructions and scenarios that influence their character.
Whether they’re becoming 50 year older, becoming exhausted, followed by a monster, or temperatures drop to 0, climb to boiling.
All of changes will encourage active improv where students consider their gait, posture, gestures and overall vocal and physical skills in relation to the spectator through signs as signals.
Students will close their eyes and experiment with movement of body through the emotion/feeling/characters that the music makes them think of.
This improvisation of movement can then be collated and shared amongst 2-3 students.
Music - in order to inspire an array of different movements the choice of music should be diverse. It can be: sad, infuriating, slow, upbeat, ethereal, melancholic, inspiring.
Students explore proxemics by mapping paths they walk towards, considering, some of which may weave between or completely miss the paths of other students. This warm up inspires students to consider how the spectators perception of the characters is influenced through the; paths of travel, the characters proximity between one another as well as their physical closeness to the audience.
Visual stimuli, semiotics and signs are one of the biggest ways of encouraging active spectatorship. Challenging them through images of a hunched over, wobbly legged croaky voiced old man with a persistent cough encourages spectators to associate/compares them towards or against; archetypes/characters/people they know. It encourages you to experiment and focus on your gait (walk).
By discussing and commenting on how some students; became heavy footed, slow, used wider strides. How you change your posture as you walk etc etc. Visual stimuli, semiotics and signs are one of the biggest ways of encouraging active spectatorship. Challenging them through images of a hunched over, wobbly legged croaky voiced old man with a persistent cough encourages spectators to associate/compares them towards or against; archetypes/characters/people they know. It encourages you to experiment and focus on your gait (walk). By discussing and commenting on how some students; became heavy footed, slow, used wider strides. How you change your posture as you walk etc.
Mondays marathon, two person improv running a marathon and each implant an improv that changes the marathons circumstances; perhaps some stray dogs start chasing you both, or you were both being overtaken by an elderly woman, with one leg. Maybe the floor turns to ice, it starts raining acid, gravity suddenly vanishes, or halves, or doubles.
In pairs, I would instruct 1 or two pairs of students to walk around the space with the rest of the students spectating. As they watch the two students improv a scenario in a “marathon” (one which they must not stop for, even if it means running/crawling to the marathons “end”).
After I say the word “end”, both runners freeze in place as a new student replaces one of the marathon runners in their suspended position. After shouting “start”, they continue, either continuing with the previous improv with the addition of the new runners “scenario”. Or, instead choosing to create a new subject from the new runners “scenario”.
This Warm-up is specifically designed to get your blood pumping! Weather it's rehearsal or audition or workshop, you'll need to be ready to perform.
This warm up is as literal as it gets. Begin by doing high knees for 20 seconds and rest for another 20 seconds. Then go again" because all of these exercises come in pairs, 20 seconds in duration. After each pair take a minute break before going into the next pair.
So the list is as follows:
High knees x 2
Star Jumps x 2
Plank x 2
Squats x 2
Jogging on the spot x2
Methodology & Mindset
Marcell's mindset regarding theatre revolves around attention to characterisation, an essential layer that smoothly allows for an easier immersion into a character ad their setting / circumstances. His interest in the audience as a group of individual spectators that actively encode their own meaning in regards to textual (everything on stage) and extra textual (everything the spectator is and brings) factors. Is what influenced his unique rehearsal process.
With a particularly close resemblance to styles often affiliated with: Bertolt Brecht, Stanislavski and Frantic assembly. He places emphasis on the senses as they offer a gateway into the characters mindset, through music driven warm ups such as "Music Makes Movement". Weather it's the music, their wide strided gait, or raspy and fatigued voice, Marcell believes considering the senses and detailed mechanics of vocal and physical qualities in their simplest form. Can as a collective contribute towards a deeper understanding of an actors character, potentially enabling a easier pathway to performing a believable portrayal for both the actor and spectator alike.
Marcell is also the one who wrote this...but he thought it would sound less egotistical if he wrote it in 3rd person.
"Immersion is important and can become second nature through vocal and physical understanding of a character"
Saving the best for last, or just not found a warm-up that helps your monologue, well fear not! We have even more (As if we didn't have enough)
In pairs, one student (the mumzy) will start fluffing their partner, sstraightening their collar, tieing up thier shoe laces, moving their hair, brushing the cumbs off their knee, the other partner (child) will focus on wherever the mumzy is fluffing. After a while, the leader of the warm-up will shout 'time for school', in which the "child" will grab one of the fingers of the "mumzy" (eyes closed) and will be led around the space, trusting the path that the "mumzy takes them on, who's making sure to avoid and swerve other students. After a few minutes, the pair will swap roles and repeat the excersize.
Start off by having the students walk around the space and get them to repeat a line, any line. And as they do, the leader of the exercise will call out emotions, 'angry, frustrated, bored, confused, upset' and each student will apply said emotion to their respective line. After a while of doing this, the leader will call out a number 1-10, which will act as a level of intensity for the emotion that the students are applying to thier lines. Next the students will stop in their tracks and will turn by turn perform their lines with 3 different emotions, each with a different level.
In groups of 4, one student will visualise a food and start eating it, gradually becoming louder and excessive. During this, the leader of the workshop will call out a number 1-10, which will act as a level of intensity for everyone's reactions to the loud munching. After a while, switch out who's "munching", alongside a change in postition. If the students were sitting down, make them stand, or walk, or run around the space as they react.
The group leader will first begin by instructing the students on proper form for the exercise, pulled back and relaxed shoulders, upright posture, high chin. Next, the leader will count to 1-10 but restart after each new number, gradually raising pitch per increase in number. As follows 1. 1-2-1. 1-2-3-2-1. and it continues until 10. Ensure that the students are conscious and comfortable of everyone's difference in vocal range, position the lower vocal range students together to lower any stress through comparison.
All students will space out and face the leader of the group, who will perform actions and the group will all follow and repeat, similar to what Sid did in Ice Age (if you know you know). You could be hopping on one knee, rocking back and forth, blind really fast or fling your arms around. But as soon as the leader notices a student out of turn or taking too long, they point at them to sit down until the next round. Last student standing wins and repeats the exercise as the lead.
In groups of 4, students will become their character of choice and will construct 3 mannerisms unique to their character, the aim is to create 3 freeze frames with all of their characters, frozen in place with their respective mannerisms on display. After 10 minutes the groups will share the 3 freeze frames with the class.