Home » Rehearsal Excersises

Rehearsal Excersises

First Stage (Araya)

1 Carrying salt

In this exercise each actor should configure their bodies in different ways in which they could carry a basket full of salt. They should vary the options over time, through slow transitions, exploring all the possibilities. For variation, the actors could act out the basket getting heavier over time in each position, with the gravity & weight pulling them toward the ground, thus forcing the actor to change positions. Options include the hands, the head, the back, the chest, and more.

After a few minutes the actors should carry the baskets in pairs. They should utilize new methods for carrying the basket that would be impossible to do on your own but should organize these methods of carriage through body language — communication should occur through the muscles, the visual. The exercise can continue increasing in group size as necessary. Within the bounds of the possible, people should try everything.

2 Beating the salt

Four actors should line up, side by side. Upon the start of the exercise, the actors should begin to ‘beat’ the salt as we see done in Araya. However, the goal of this exercise is not just to mimic the beating of the salt — the actors should aim to synchronize their steps and beating with each other. The actors can’t talk during their attempts to synchronize nor stop their own beating, they should simply observe others’ and their own movements and adjust their pace slowly until all four find themselves in sync.

Second Stage (The Battle of Chile)

1 Expressing political dissent & support through movement

A leader will be designated in the group. The rest of the actors are assigned roles that describe their politically preferred candidate, occupation, etc. An example could be “Manufacture union leader sympathetic to current government”. The leader will then go around and interview the actors, but the actors can only respond to the interviewers questions via movement. The goal of the exercise is to encourage people to use their bodies to express their political dissent — it is a rehearsal of protest, of revolution.

Third Stage

First Phase (Yawar Malku)

1 Demanding action in a hospital

Here the actors will play out a scene in which a patient desperately needs to be seen in the ER, however the doctors refuse to see them without verification that the patient has health insurance. Upon the doctors’ refusal, the exercise is opened to the participants, they are asked: what should the patient (and their family) do in order to solve the issue? Through simultaneous dramaturgy, they control the rest of the exercise through their edits — telling the actors what to do, say, and feel — in the hopes of getting the patient treated.

2 Responding to missionaries

The actors play out a scene in which missionaries come to a small, rural Andean town to build a church. To gain the favor of the people of the town, they offer them gifts in the form of gourmet foods, ‘modern’ clothing, and a variety of other trinkets. Elders in the town believe the missionaries come with the mission of converting and assimilating the townsfolk to society and Catholic religion, something they do not approve of. Facing this dilemma, the participants are asked: how should the actors playing the townspeople proceed?

Second Phase (Lucia)

1 Reimagining masculinity

The ‘sculptor’ should first be asked to sculpt an image that represents the current state of what masculinity is considered to be, this is the actual image. Then, they should be asked to sculpt what they envision masculinity should be, this is the ideal image. Finally, they should sculpt the change that must occur to go from the actual to the ideal image — this is the transitional image. All images should be sculpted using only the bodies of the other participants.

2 Patriarchy in the home

The ‘sculptor’ should first be asked to sculpt an image that represents features of the patriarchal system that can still be seen in home dynamics, this is the actual image. Then, they should be asked to sculpt what they envision home dynamics should be like in the absence of these patriarchal systems, this is the ideal image. Finally, they should sculpt the change that must occur to go from the actual to the ideal image — this is the transitional image. All images should be sculpted using only the bodies of the other participants.

Third Phase (Oiga, Vea!)

1 The exclusion of the people

First Action: Teresa is a secretary at an office. She is invited by her coworkers to attend a horse race. She is very excited as she has never gone; tickets to go are expensive and not something Teresa could otherwise afford. Her coworkers have been attending for some time, it has become a sort of tradition among the higher-earning staff.

Second Action: Teresa goes home and tells her family the exciting news. The family is happy for her, but Teresa’s husband afterwards reveals some unfortunate news — he’s been fired. This puts Teresa in a difficult situation as she is now the only one providing for the family.

Third Action: Teresa is in line for the race with her coworkers. Some people are lining up against the fence to be able to see the horserace from outside the venue, being unable to afford tickets. A cop approaches asking the people to leave if they don’t have tickets. Upon their refusal, he threatens to arrest them. Teresa speaks up and offers reasons to her coworkers as to why they should be allowed to stay, feeling empathetic for the people since she could not normally afford it either but they shut her down. They offer their reasons as to why the people should be removed from the premises. Teresa eventually concedes — she needs the job more than ever and wants the bosses to like her.

2 Unionizing for the people

First Action: You are a member of a steelworker union. The city in which you live in has been declared the host of some important international games and/or festival. As you are walking to your union meeting, the people of the city are protesting the city’s decision to host the event; they believe the money would be better spent on social programs that aim to eliminate the poverty and hunger that exists in the city. Counterprotestors argue that the event will bring economic prosperity to the city, including the steelworkers as they will have employment opportunities in the construction of new venues.

Second Action: At the union meeting, the leaders declare their support for the city hosting the game. One member shouts in opposition, he asks that the union instead call for a strike that will force the city into either cancelling the games or negotiating with the union for support programs  that help the working classes. A few others shout in support. The meeting is adjourned and a vote is scheduled to be held the next day.

Third Action: The vote is held. The union votes to not strike.

Fourth Stage (Maria Candelaria)

To be performed in the Subway or Metro.

First Action: At the first stop, two female actors get into the cart — they are dressed provocatively. Other actors get into the cart and scatter around. Through the next two stations nothing abnormal takes place; the actors do their own thing or engage in minimal conversation.

Second Action: At the third station, more actors enter. Three male coworkers enter together; one sits next to the two women and the other sit across. After a little while the man begins to proposition himself to the two women, asking them how much they are charging and caressing their thigh. The women kindly tell the man that they are not looking for anything at the moment. His male coworkers stick up for him in support from across the cart. The man stands up and sits with his coworkers.

Third Action: At the fifth station, a group of older women enter. They begin to comment on the ladies’ clothings as a group. One of them turns to the group of men and says:

‘They’re dressed like they are ready to get off the train and into a hotel room with someone,’

To this the men laugh and respond with comments on the provocative nature of their clothing. One passenger attempts to intervene, telling the group of women and men that they have no right to be commenting on women’s bodies nor what they wear — stating that even if they were sex workers, they are in their full right to be so. The people shut them down saying sex workers should be in jail for spreading moral depravity.

Fourth Action: In order to ensure the whole cart knows what is going on one actor asks his ‘mother’ what is happening, and the mother tells her son all about it. The groups of men and women continue to escalate tensions in-between them and attempts to get others in the cart involved. At some point, the women threaten physical aggression against the two supposed sex workers.

Skip to toolbar