Teaching Practice 8

28.04.2014

17:00-20:00

I helped with a the two days workshop Ernest Tree that aimed to invent performances involving men and plants. The workshop was held at Espoo Adult Education Centre:

http://www.espoo.fi/fi-FI/Paivahoito_ja_koulutus/Tyovaenopisto/Ernest_Tree_workshop(47703

The first session was spent indoors and the participants experimented with their perception of plants in human habitat, using performance. First Egle led a warm up exercise workshop to ease everyone out of the daily stresses and open up the creative thinking flow. We asked the participants to bring a plant of their choice, food, mirror and drawing materials. These were out props in the workshop.

This was followed by a group discussion on how we interact with plants in our daily lives, we discussed the type of plant we bought to the workshop and if it had any specific significance. Then we looked at the food we brought and started to share it with each other.

After the group discussion we agreed that the plants had some resemblance to the owner, something of the nature, shape or colour of the plant and it's flowers had the similarity with the person who brought it. We decided to proceed with the mirror exercise where each participant found a pose that they thought brings out the best aspect of the plant and themselves. This was then followed by a drawing session where we drew one person at the time with the plant. There were nine participants including Egle and we took turns to pose with the plant for others in short intervals. These were meant to be quick sketches that were giving us the sense of unity with the plant and its owner.

 The next stage of the workshop was a sort of drama performance where we had to individually stage a role- play on a symbolic level that involved the plants and other objects in the room. We had to do the individual brainstorming and improvising on the set up for our performance.

Each individual performance was followed by group discussion on how we saw the performance, what was the symbolism and any interpretations of it's meanings. Some students decided to use the furniture, tables for example as a stage and involved their bodies, bringing out the sense of different habitats and the way they relate to the plants.