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The Brussels Post, 1975-07-30, Page 4an gat Co Jul Sh enj pic will Re out ment El perm Cont and unde Twe one c al C On A. Ti edi Sider sion Mr. Sider and vehic Ja Cliffo road How' and WaltI Cliffo to th On Rutta bouni Centr vehicl shout Dama were Iii m Cs Tha you day righ mon toda will buil and Vigil( at Vi ' 1111111 1111111 1111111 111111 111111111 111111 111111 III 1 11111111111 PROCLAMATION. I hereby proCitiim. MONDAY, AUGUST 4th CIVIC .HOLIDAY 4 Public Holiday and ask-ail etoters 0. observe if as such o. McCUTCHEON i Reeve Village of Brussels At the Blyth Summer Festival Amateurs learn to act By Nancy Andrews The two newcomers opened the door and cautiously entered. Sprawled on the floor were about six teenagers. Standing in the large basement. was a tall, thin man in his late' twenties with a goatee and his' brown hair tied behind his back. He was telling the kids to "relax' Imagine you're sinking into the sand at a beach. "Loosen up, there is tension in those feet," he said as he bent over to move one of the teenager's feet to a more relaxed postion. • It was just a little after 10:00 o'clock Saturday morning and .as he looked at the newcomers rather quizically, he said some- thing very conventional like "may I help you"? The newcomers , my cousin who w as visiting and myself, equally conventional, asked if this was the Blyth Acting Workshop, though it was fairly obVious to us both that it was. We were. answered in the la I affirmative and told to remove our shoes and join the others on the • floor. 1 I This was the second of four workshops being held at the Blyth 11 Summer Festival, sponsorei by a provincial grant. Workshops were also being held in directing with about ten t • I attending, in stage management, one present and in child- ren's acting, with about 15 from the area. The jadult acting workshop was being instructed by StevenThorne it co-writer of, the play, Mostly In. Clover, and director of the Blyth Summer Theatre. The group was told about the different skills needed to become a good actor including proper breathing, posture, and voice. With the exception of one, everyone was a chest or a ;:ombination of chest and dia- phramatic breather. Mr. Thorne went around and placed his hand m the kids back and stomach. Mr. Thorne said it was impor- tant that actors becornediaphram- tic breathers or breath from the diaphram because they can, breathe deeper and alsd it causes less tension in the chest area. He said it was easiest to practice breathing with the stom- ach muscles while flat on your back. He said babies breathed this way, but children and 'adults pick up bad breathing habits along the way. He had the kids gather around him, place a hand' on his chest and stomach and proceeded to demonstrate the two types of breathing. The workshop was in many ways just to learn by seeing and doing. The kids, in turn, started to practice ,diaphramatic breath- ing, one hand on their stomachs and one on their chests. One teenager told the instruct- or that she didn't breathe through her diaphram because she didn't like to see her stomach stick out. Mr. Thorne is not involved in theatre for nothing and he was quite comical when he demon- strated the different ways people walk. He said everyone walks in a different way, but to be an actor you had to learn to control your body and to walk in different ways so that each time you come on stage you can assume a different personality. He said each person has their own center of gravity, for some its in the knees, so the knees go first and the rest of the body kind of tags along behind. This is how he used to walk, he said. Others have their centers in the chest and walk as if to say, "This is. me, aren't I great?" He had several of the kids walk across the room, and had the others try to guess where their centers were. They decided I was a "hip and thigh person". One Girl walked naturally across the floor, and the group decided her center was in. her waist. Mr. Thorne Told her to imagine there was a string attached from the top of your head pulling you up. She did this, and the change was quite re- markable. Mr. Thorne said actors have to learn to combine the relaxation of the natural position which is often the slouch with the upright stage posture. He said the stage postion was leaning alightly forward on the ball's of your feets, so you will always be ready to move on stage. Mr.. Thorne said as an actor a person has to learn to control his voice. He can learn to do this by sending his voice through differ- ent resonating spots in his head. Some actors become so special- ized at this, they can resonate their voice off a given tooth. The group was told the majority of our voices were trapped in our throats. An actor must learn to throw his voice out the top of his head. There was surprisingly little embarassment at the manyantics we did. Only one girl said she couldn't throw out her voice to hit him in between the, eyes. "It would take me a year to learn to do that," she said as she glanced at the others nervously. "It will take you a year if you think it will take you a year," Mr. Thorne said. "Try again". She tried and everyone down the line also took a turn. The theme to this section was that an actor must control his body, and not let his body control him. The group did several exercises to`develop imagination. We threw an imaginary football around for awhile and we played tug-a-war with an imaginary rope. It took awhile for me to get into the swing of this for I was tugging while everyone else on my side was being pulled. Finally I started to concentrate which is the secret of the game, to watch what the other • fellow is doing. I was starting to sweat before the instructor called the game off, and if it had lasted much longer I think I might have got rope burns. Another attribute an actor must learn, the group was told was "trust." Oh, no, I thought, has he learned I'm a reporter with the Expositor? To my relief, 'he said, actors must share a lot of emotion on stage, and often real tears are shed, so actors must be able to learn to trust others on stage with these emotions. The exercise was to tip back on your heels and fall and trust that your partner behind you would My bones do hurt My head cloth ache Lord - help me please This flu to shake. Here come my babes One, two and three Poor little tykes Feel worse than me. „ Their quarrelsome ways And runny /roses Make motherhood. No bed of roses. "To bed; to bed catch you. The truth was, out, I wasn't a very trusting person. Come to think of it, I wouldn't even trust my mother, in this type of situation. I tried to fall, but my body wasn't going for any of that as my foot would shoot out to regain my balance. If I wasn't very trusting, it was equally true,of the others, Our lack of trust, perhaps was well founded when we were dragging a partner around with his eyes closed. Trying to avoid the milling kids, and a couple of poles in the room, a collision occurred between two groups. Screams rose from the Blyth Theatre basement. I'm sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going.. They will never trust you, if you're not careful, he said. As he warned before, if you let them fall, they will never trust you again. Mr. Thorne asked the group what they thought of the work. shop. One teenager said, "I never thought I'd be able to do any of this." The group was small but maybe there is an advantage to that. When he was humming, everyone bad to place their hands on his head to feel the vibrations. In a larger group, he might have needed a bigger head. Of those present about four weren't from the county. My cousin from Windsor came with me, and three girls who were bicycling through the area at. tended. They said they saw an advertisement for the Blyth Theatre and bicycled down for the play. They stayed the night with some local people who put them up, and stayed for the workshop. They were enthusiastic and said the worksop was `fun James Roy, was giving the directing, Ross Ferguson the set design and Jim Schaefer, the children's acting workshops. We all will go" For once - I'm glad - No one said !`No!" I hope after sleep We'll all feel better Rest and God's hand Will fix what's the matter T'is just a wave As we sail along Tomorrow morn Will bring a new song. Bev. Cardiff •• It . FIGHTING OFF A BOA CONSTRICTOR- Actor Jim Schaefer seems to be enjoying the improvisations of the youngsters at the Children's Workshop held at the Blyth. SuTnmer Theatre Saturday mornings. About 16 kids from the area attended the workshop and in the picture three are trying to fight off boa constrictors that are Wra pping themselves about their legs. (Staff Photo) r.m." A.sTAR: IS BORN, Those attending. the Blyth Attihg. Workshop practice sensltivl and concentration 'White relaying linpU1666...thrdUgh their hands and feet.. The Expositor reporter pantS at the top of the star, joined the group, , to get an inside view of the -Wdekthoo, . (Staff photo) BRUSSELS POST JULY 3O0 1975 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A Poem about The flu