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Clair, J.St. (2021) The real martial arts styles behind avatar’s fire, Earth, water, and airbending, Men’s Health. Available at: https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a32689010/avatar-the-last-airbender-martial-arts/ (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

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At first, Tai Chi had appeared to me as an unconventional method in acting as I had never encountered any practitioner who utilizes a martial art in theatre practice. But as we learned more about practitioners, I found that harnessing energy from the inner body and exerting it to the outer connects itself to Lecoq's 7 states of tension and Chekov's 5 pillars of acting.

As mentioned in the Lecoq section, finding my means of recentering myself to switch between states came from the tranquil techniques of Tai Chi Chuan as we would often conclude classes with a small session and I would be able to feel my body calm down after a hefty class. From these post-class breathers, I could bring these methods into my craft as I had managed to connect Tai Chi Chuan to Chekov's 5 pillars of acting, especially the 4th pillar, "witness", as they have similar qualities in its methods to connect to yourself from your outer to the inner body.

Being a visual learner, what helped me engage in this technique the most was a particular fighting style in Avatar: the Last Airbender (2005). As it appears, out of the elemental fighting styles, water bending stems from Tai Chi. I could envision the flow of energy through every stance which helped with the 5th pillar, 'Your Flow'. Envisioning that I was bending water whilst doing Tai Chi, I could truly understand the flow of the stances moving from one to another. Through that, I could then internalize that flow and use it to enforce my understanding of Chekhov's practice.

I could feel and connect to my inner self easier as it grounded me. The stability and ease it brought me helped me embody and focus on the pillar to bring my characters to life in various pieces as it often brings me into the headspace clear enough for the character to come to me naturally.

To understand it better, I found an article that explained Tai Chi and its benefits, and a quote to summarize all that I have said here, which is, "Tai Chi Chuan is attributed the capacity to endow those who practice it with states of great calm and mental tranquility, and has been classified as a form of “moving meditation” which connects mind and body." (Melendez, Jimenez, Albers; 2012)

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Jimenez, P.J., Melendez, A. and Albers, U. (2012) Psychological effects of Tai Chi Chuan, Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167494312000362 (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

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Churchill, C. (2012) ‘Savant’, in Love and Infomation. Churchill, pp. 36–36.

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In developing my scene for Love and Information (2012), I overcame a lot of trial and error to bring my second character to life and how to portray it without a scene partner I had turned a duologue into a solo piece. I started with an interpretation that involved me exchanging lines with myself in different voices to distinguish one from the other, much like the character of Francis Henshall in the play One Man Two Guvnors (2011).

Through further iterations, a different and better idea emerged. With my particular knowledge in audio engineering, I decided to make use of technology as my tools as well as props to aid me as my 'scene partner'. It made a clearer distinction between the characters and brought about a more creative take to the piece rather than playing with the obvious. I proceeded to workshop that idea and change the way the recorded voice was portrayed from a video recording to a simple phone call through an earpiece. When the audio recordings were completed, I started to perfect each cue and timing and achieved consistent timing with the recording.

I drew inspiration from numerous pieces of media for this scene which added a lot of fun to the piece as Love and Information grants its performers an endless amount of creative liberty with its writing style. To begin with, the distorted voice over the phone came from watching spy films which created an air of ambiguity to intensify the moment despite the context of the scene which one would assume is a regular conversation among acquaintances. All it took was a simple change to dig into greater depths of what the text implied and it was truly a fun part to play with.

Finding the character's voice over the phone was a journey itself as it was the element that established the storyline of a spy utilizing secret codes to return to his facility. I tried numerous different ways of distorting the voice but I was not getting the results I wanted. I started editing the recording again with a clear intention of what I wanted, using 'Charlie's Angles' as a starting point, so I made the voice deeper and louder until I found the perfect one to solidify the character.

All it took were the smallest adjustments and ideas to make the piece whole. That is the beauty of Love and Information.

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One man two guvnors (no date) Concord Theatricals. Available at: https://www.concordtheatricals.co.uk/p/12820/one-man-two-guvnors (Accessed: 01 June 2023).

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While I have encountered Lecoq's methods before, it was only in semester one of this course that I was bestowed a deeper understanding of the 7 states of tension (Farmer, 2022). I now know the mechanisms of each state of tension and how to engage them in practice across different modules.

It had all been in the breath work which has truly worked wonders to embody a certain state of mind as it deceives my psychological state with what change my breath has done to my physicality. For example, I have noticed that after getting out of the 'Tragic' state, which is the final and most intense state, my breathing was out of control and it took a while to calm myself down and recenter myself wholly, from my mental to physical state. Having discovered the effects of Lecoq's methods has helped me engage more in responding to the present rather than having to play an emotion that I need to embody.

However, the state that I had trouble connecting with at first was the 5th state of, "Is there a bomb in the room?", otherwise properly known as 'Suspense'. It was due to the lack of information I was given prior to the workshop. Going from one state to another was a challenge for me because I would be too indulged in a single state, especially going from 7 to 1 in an instant, because of how vastly different the breathing styles were, which severely affected my heart rate. It draws me out of the initial state and back into the one before instead of what the state asked of the teacher. I would still be able to feel the intense tension from which my body had attained in the 7th state before it starts to calm down slowly.

Though, with practice, by the end of the workshop I found it easier to switch between states, and I gained better control of my heart rate and breathing.

As a result, as mentioned before, I was able to bring these methods into my other modules. For example, I used how I felt during the 6th state, 'Passionate', in a scene from The Tempest for my performance at the end of semester one.

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Farmer, D. (2022) Seven Levels of tension, Drama Resource. Available at: https://dramaresource.com/seven-levels-of-tension/ (Accessed: 21 May 2023).

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Upon reflecting on my performance, I believe I could have been better when it came to character development because I have come to understand my capabilities better which will allow me to approach the portrayal of future characters with more thorough detail. Even though I missed a few lessons before the Easter Break, which had caused me to be a little backed up, the pressure of having to catch up pushed me to gauge the creative liberty of the piece, which was how I had turned an initial duologue into a solo skit.

Despite what little time that I had, I managed to turn it around and I got a final result that I was happy to show. However, after the performance, I realized that there was so much more that I could have done differently.
For example, one way I could have reformed the piece is by expressing my character more and having more fun with his story. As a matter of fact, the challenge of the piece had been trying to bring two characters to life with only myself as the performer and the worry had prevented me from bringing out the best outcome. Another aspect I would have explored would be utilizing the space and having more purposeful accidents like what I said my character was supposedly based on, which was "Captain Jack Sparrow and Johnny English."

In spite of these hurdles, This piece has brought out the most of the existing skill set I already possess, and though it may be of little relevance to theatre, bringing my own niche to my work has truly brought out a piece that displays my individuality. What worked for me was using my technological know-how in my piece because I was using the skills that I had before to help me in my showing. Tackling this module gave me more confidence in myself and allowed me to have more fun with it because I was not worried about the technological aspect failing and I could focus my full attention on being in the present.