King of UBU workshop sessions march 2013 prepared by neil puttick (IDST!

) for a-peg

cover photo: Archie fitzgerald photos: from audience performance of King of UBu by a-PEg workshop material neil puttick (IDST!) 2013

In March 2013, we created a series of workshops with actors & non-actors for A-Peg. As part of their investigation into using participation in a radical re-staging of Alfred Jarrys (1896) play Ubu Roi, we trained participants, giving them methods for organising audience & creating audience-driven theatre whilst exploring the motifs in the story of Ubu Roi (or King of Ubu). We took some of the most familiar workshop games & activities (memorable to many of the participants) and Ubu-ised them to fit into our themes. Starting from a simple matrix of wellknown instructions means there is equality between members of the group and much more open potential for everyone to input & generate work. Workshop facilitators Neil Puttick & Mel McCree created the framework for attaching the ideas from Ubu to the actions of the activities & exercises. Workshop 1- examined bringing out the grotesque, gluttony & hierarchies in King of Ubu Workshop 2- explored ways of telling the story & the motifs of tyranny and revolution We undertook two sessions of open workshop training, before Hannah Clark of A-Peg revealed to the participants of the workshops that she wanted them to perform the play King of Ubu to a paying audience at the end of the third session. So, as an added element whilst we, the workshop facilitators, were examining potential readings of the play with participants, implicitly, we were also adding basic performability: tracing stagecraft, performance skills & what I call participant stooge training (particular to this type of performance) - the turning of participants into super-participants who create and activate an event. Workshop 3- unveiling of participants performance - consolidation of ideas, presenting & building of work & stooge training To quickly define the levels of involvement: the people taking part in the workshops were participants, the people who came to watch were the audience (or punters). Hannah Clark & Eva Marino of A-Peg were orchestrating in the middle as directors (or auteurs of the vision). Please see diagram at the end. Our Stooge Training gave our participants skills to manage the audience, & lead the audience whilst pretending to be a part of that audience. Please read Stooge Training for more detail. Many of our activities normalise a hierarchy and prepare participants for taking orders from the directors as part of the action. This is why you can see call & response and instructional activities embedded into the workshop. As workshop facilitators, we looked at how to setup situations for Hannah and Eva to diffuse their ideas and act as auteurs. In keeping an aesthetic and a vision to a participant-driven piece, it is important that we keep both the artists vision & the freedoms of expression for the participants. The layering of motif, simple workshop activities and subtle training created a potent model for working with groups around a text, which is why I have written it up for you to read. Here are some of the results, which you can try for yourself!

A-Peg use a variant on One Kate In The Bush in performance

In order to investigate mediated chaos in participation, we explore Ubu through binaries encouraging booing/clapping etc.

Workshop 1 - bringing out the grotesque, gluttony & hierarchies in King of Ubu
wHO bU ?
King of Ubu (or Ubu Roi) caused uproar, literally provoking rioting when it was first staged in 1896 in Paris. It remains one of the most pointed and controversial theatre texts of all time. A-Peg are making a re-working where everyone ends up taking part. Building complicity into our actions. In these workshops well investigate some of the themes, not to show it as a historical thing from its own time, but investigate in our own time using what we know to show the action and revolution within it, to explore our own situation... This piece will be audience powered and we want you to help us come up with the dynamic methods to get our audience to make our show for us. We need to discover the right instructions and activities to motivate people to play & move. Today were looking at how to make an active audience.

Guide with your Eyes

in pairs

Participants take it in turns to guide their partners with their eyes. If their eyes point down, they must move down. Participants squint their eyes to make the other person get smaller, and widen their eyes to get bigger.

The Elephants in the room

whole group; half group

Everybody together pushes an invisible elephant into the room. Now, splitting the group in half, participants imagine there is an elephant farm. Everybody shepherds them into the space, and finds places for them to park.

Pantomimic/Over-the-top characters are encouraged

Accreditation choir

whole group

Originally created by live art trio, Sedated By A Brick for the Cube Microplex, Bristol. Participants are invited to think of all the accreditations and certificates they have been given throughout their life. They are asked to think of the accronyms that go with each certificate. Together, we are invited to shout or sing these accronyms in order. So for example, my list is GCSE (gske gske gske) A (ah ah ah) BA (ba ba ba) CACHE (cash cash cash) MA (ma ma ma)

The effect should be something like a group of beat boxers - participants should be aware of other people, to create an environment of accreditation. Together we can build (dis)harmony. As part of King of Ubu, this exercise was competitive, with different participants trying to prove that they were more qualified than the next to carry favour with the King. In order to be inclusive, this exercise should celebrate all qualifications & achievements & we find, in this environment, people are much more respectful of a badge earned at Brownies than a Professorship from Cambridge.

One Kate In The Bush

whole group; scattered

Participants stretch different parts of their body whilst describing names of famous people. For example, Jack Nicholson in the fingers President Obama in the hands Kate Bush into the wrists Felicity Kendal in the elbows This exercise is brain gym usually following either downward dog Yogic stretches or similar Wushu exercises, in order to get participants to stretch to warm-up & to cross the body, associating social and mental functions with movements. Participants are not expected to show the personality of that person or even know who is described but merely consider that person in connection with that body part thus building a mnemonic. Awareness of moving gently is important, not crossing your body sideways beyond your bent knee or over-exerting because we do not form a dead pose after this exercise.

In the performance, the audience are asked to use their imagination

whole group mingle, with instructions: sounds on whiteboards, pens 1. As a group we walk over vowel sounds. When we come close to one we make that sound.... ee - ea - oy - oi - ay - a-e - igh - i-e - ow - o-e - oo (wood) - oo (food) - u-e - ar - or aw - air - are - ir - ur - er - ou - ow - ai - oa - ew - ire - ear - ure - tion - cious - tious [if necessary - guide around].

Phonic-ular

Distinctive Noises / Call of the bats

whole group; teams (1/3s)

Get into one of three groups. Now disperse, but remember who is in your group. Everybody goes to the edges of the room. Now each person must say their name and give themself a distinctive sound to identify them. Participants must try and remember the sounds of each person, especially those of their group. Everybody now puts on blindfolds or closes their eyes. 1) The challenge now is for everyone to calmly get across to the other side without bumping into anyone else. They must use their distinctive sound to tell people where they are in the room. If someone is getting too close, participants can get louder to tell others. 2) After several attempts by everyone to cross the space (and mixing everyone up) participants are asked to find all the members of their group from the distinctive sounds. There is a competition to be the 1st group to find everyone.

alfred jarry & the pataphysical (spiel) whole group

Alfred Jarry, writer of King of Ubu, claimed to be exploring a pataphysics - a beyond physics - where ideas can be turned on their head and mixed together. This was not as some sort academic grand falooting. As it turned out, Jarry admitted that Ubu was a cartoon character he had scrawled on a desk when he was at school. Ubu was based on his physics teacher, a man who he disliked, and pataphysics came from this. At the same time, exploring pataphysics is useful for creating the grotesque, the unseamly & unexpected To explore nagative ideas in the story of King of Ubu we must always bear in mind their opposites / their binaries. To show a world that sits on two poles. I want to divide the world up into two halfs - with one polar extreme on one side and the polar opposite on the other.

The character of Ubu tries to provoke the grotesque, as well as represent it

put yourself in someone elses shoes swap clothes with someone

build a pile of chairs - put the meekest person on top of it

build a boat to escape to france

Find a big tub or a paddling pool. Into it mix all the paint you can find. Together we make a stockpot of colours

Be a piece of furniture for someone.

push an invisible elephant into . the room

stand opposite someone and point at your face. say this is my nose, my mouth and begin pointing and explaining. the person opposite must now try and say what you are saying at exactly the same time..

In describing the environment the scenes should be set in, Jarry wanted a dislocated mixedup world of tropical palm trees covered in arctic snows. The descriptions of the first ever set of King Ubu talk about a place that is full of opposites = a place that is both hot and cold - an atmosphere at once both comforting and challenging . We need to turn the world on its head. Lets create the atmosphere of TROPICAL/ARCTIC world.... We are going to try walking around in this chaotic world: on one side it is tropical, on the other it is freezing When someone shouts SWITCH the poles change and we swap round.... Now we can try it with the binaries of CROWDED / EMPTY or CHEERING / BOOING

The Pataphysical Blackhole

whole group

A special Ubu variant of the shield & bomb game. Participants try and follow one person whilst keeping away from someone else. Because we are in a pataphysical environment, we shout SWITCH (& participants follow the person they were avoiding before). We try and build communication between the followers and followees: give a little wave to the person youre following / give a little scowl to the person youre keeping away from. Again and again the world turns on its head. As we form the blackhole of opposites, different ways of behaving with each other emerge. Try some new opposites: ANGRY WITH/FRIGHTENED OF, RESPECTFUL/SCORNFUL [for FEEDBACK - FREEZE the action & briefly see if we can all follow a line of peoples expressions for one another. See how the connections work all the way around the group and whether we oscillate between different reactions.]

Audience are asked to make the music

Cannibal Ubu

whole group; 1/2 groups

Our central protagonist - the character at the centre of the blackhole world is UBU who, in the play, later becomes KING UBU. He is a greedy figure, who pulls everyone around him into his orbit. 1) group blob tag - Two people start as Ubu. They tag other people (in slow-motion if the space is too small). When tagged, a person joins hands with Ubu and tries to build a giant figure. Whichever Ubu is biggest when there are no other people left gets to eat the other. The groups must decide how they are going to do that! 2) magnetic cannibal Ubu - We begin again with two Ubus. This time, the person doesnt tag them, but they have magnetic power (like a planet in orbit). Each Ubu will make eye contact with a person and pointing their hand at them pull them into their orbit. Once a player has been selected by Ubu they begin to encircle the Ubu. Eventually one Ubu might pull the other Ubu towards it, but other physical phenomenon might take place. 3) When players are confident we can combine this exercise with the Pataphysical Blackhole and experiment. All the feelings of anger, fear, love, hate, scorn and respect appear around Ubu. We make a little solar system. 4) - Using Flocking / School of Fish exercises (group S&M) - groups try moving together, copying one person. Whoever is at the front when facing forward leads the exercise. Noises and facial expressions are copied, as well as movement. The group are now working together.

a 1000 wishes

in pairs

One person is a genie trapped in a lamp. When the lamp is rubbed they must appear. The other participant must list as many wishes as they can in 30 seconds.

Bishop Brennans Arse

whole group circle

This is a variant on Pandoras box (the verbal imagination exercise) loosely based on the Fifth tale (II, 5) of Boccaccios DeCameron story. Exploring early renaissance ideas of the grotesque. A rich archbishop has died and has left a great deal of wealth stored in his bottom. There is a great deal of interest in what will happen to that buried wealth, and eventually one of the poor peasants decides that they will climb into the Bishops enormous arse to steal some of the wealth. When they are in they find a grotto....what is inside? [participants must describe what amazing things are inside] but now turning to escape they realise they are trapped. They must wait for someone to open up the arse on the other side to get out. Each new person is frightened by the person before and once trapped in must try and discover as much of the treasure before the next person arrives. The winner is the person who gets the most wealth without dying. The group works together to get people in/out.

Have a break

the court of ubu

Here is the court. At least here is an idea of it: If you were King, what would your court look like? Field ideas for the court from participants Im going to be unfair....Get into a line. The person with biggest feet at the top, smallest at the bottom. Im going to make you King (choose someone in the middle) The King has to always be the tallest. The person next to him slightly shorter, the next person shorter and so on, until the weakest are crouching. [Jarry himself had a low ceiling in his house to maintain his status! He was very small & anyone who was taller than him had to crouch to be his height.] The King has to always be the loudest. The person next to him slightly quieter. Everyone must pass the King or Queens message down the line until it is really quiet. Someone is now appointed God. They must decide how the next King is elected. For example, they might say get into a line - the person with longest index finger at the top, shortest at the bottom. They then elect the person on the end. Im going to make you King (choose someone at the end) The King can make demands: Everybody swap shoes! (everybody stays in their hierarchical line) The King can even change the order of the line, depending on different strengths and weaknesses. People with the biggest ears at this end! see VARIANT Sea of Knifes in WORKSHOP 2

Procession

whole group

The court now decides to move. The master leads the way and everyone copies - but no-one is allowed to be more ------- anything than the king. Everyone has to be lower. Everyone has to copy the king, and everybody has to repeat the king. If youre too loud - you get de-moted. There is a hierarchy...each person must be quieter than the last.

piece of furniture your way

in pairs

Be a piece of furniture for each other. whole group; one leader

Now we move in fast forward - time is moving quickly -THE KING uses people to shape his/ her idealised palace then dies (every 50 seconds) and then another King takes over. Very soon we can see what the whole dynasty has built. This is a variant on Master and servant exercise ( where a greedy master is being served, & has all his needs met) - people are enslaved - everyone who comes into the middle is caught into a power negotiation.

the banqueting scene

(final exercise) whole group; loose parts

In small groups, devise a bawdy / greedy song and dance....Work for ten minutes on lyrics ...When youve got lyrics...Think of gestures. [now put earplugs in.....try & communicate them this way] Tables are joined together/Chairs are put around. Someone gets to be King. We crack open a few beers. We nurture a loose parts play session (where the parts of all our activity are put together rather than being pre-arranged - think - lego is much more fun to play in pieces than when it is already complete!). We put a banquet together, using whatever objects in the space we want & using ideas we played with before.. We are going to combine all of the elements weve looked at to make a chaotic table: the procession/ the magnetic field of ubu / the imagination exercises. We have explored many STATUS LINES - - (superlatives games) - who can be most competitive / who can do a little bit more than everyone else? - EVERYONE TRIES TO BE THE TALLEST, WIDEST, CLEVEREST somebody shout something / an order / a superlative. People describe the scene around them. = take a picture of each....We sing our songs/dances / play Musical chairs /

FACILITATORS BACK-OFF
Eat some food / hangout together

Workshop 2- explored ways of telling the story & the motifs of tyranny and revolution
So the horrific Pere Ubu, our evil protagonist has been plotting to over throw the King. Several co-conspirators await a signal to kill the king and his supporters....but what is that signal?

Foot-Stomping Warm-up whole group; circle

The assassination of the King will take place when Ubu stamps on the Kings foot. We can emulate this as a warm-up. We form a circle. Now going round the circle, each person pretends to stand on the toes of the person to their left. That person then shouts out something. It is usually their name they shout out, but it might also be what they ate for breakfast or their favourite animal. whole group - quietly tell three people that they will be the winkers before the game is announced. Participants are told to get in a circle. Someone is chosen to be King in the middle. If someone winks at them they must pretend to die. As this is King Ubu, however, we are playing wink merdre (shitter!) so if winked at participants must die swearing loudly and unceremoniously. The King must try and spy who is doing the murdering. People are slowly poisoned until around the king is a pile of bodies

Wink Merdre! (a variant on wink murder)

Speaking Frankish franglais

groups of 4

Here are the words of the original french playscript by Alfred Jarry. This is the moment of the assassination. Sections of the following text are written on pieces of paper to be readout. Participants are asked to put them into an order. Pre Ubu: --Voil! (_Il lui crase le pied_ he stamps on his foot.) Le Roi: --Misrable! Pre Ubu: --MERDRE. A moi, mes hommes! Bordure: --Hurrah! en avant! (_Tous frappent le Roi_, un Palotin _explose_.) Le Roi: --Oh! au secours! Sainte Vierge, je suis mort. Participants are invited to interpret / misinterpret, to pronounce / mis-pronounce the words. Thus, through this exercise, we demonstrate that in the chaos of the world of Ubu words mean nothing. So there is a coup detat and the protagonist Pere Ubu takes over. Now people have to suck up to Ubu.

Suck up to Ubu whole group

(building together several exercises from Workshop 1)

We return to our activity, the accreditation choir, and again we all sing our certificates/ accreditations but this time were going to put Ubu in the middle. We are going to also going to re-create the magnetic field (like a planet in orbit) of Ubu that we used in Cannibal Ubu (but still singing accreditations).

As we sing our own praises think of who youre doing this to and why youre doing it. if Ubu raises their hand and make eye contact at you - you find you are pulled in towards them in orbits. You now want your accreditation to be stronger than everyone elses...After a minute Ubu starts to execute people who arent trying hard enough to impress him. If Ubu gives a neck cutting sign to you...you wither out of orbit and die on the outside. You are dependent on Ubu for survival. Ubu will give you a superlative. You must follow - e.g. sexiest - whoever is dances least sexy is out.

Slow-Mo Obstacle Chase Game

groups of 3+

Meanwhile the old Kings family is in hiding...... After killing the King and two of his sons, Ubus minions chase the Queen and Bougrelas to a cave in the wilderness. In groups of 3, participants re-create the chase. One is Bougrelas, one is the queen, the others are the guards. Each participant follows behind each other. The person at the front mimes obstacles - such as a fence to climb over or a tunnel to burrow through. Each of the people behind the others must follow suit, to show the route being taken by the chase. How do the Queen and Bougrelas escape the pursuers? With everyone working together see if you can find ways that the escapees can hide in the landscape.

Keystone Cops whole group

In the first motion films, actors would run on the spot whilst the backgrounds moved behind them on a canvas attached to a winch. This time, with the whole group, we will show the Queen & Bougrelas escape from Ubus cronies, but this time the background will move. In a line, people form different parts of landscape & obstacles e.g. mountains or fences or rivers. Now the line moves in one direction (it is good to mark point A -the beginning - and point B the end). When participants being the background get to point A they run round the back to make point B. 4 people stand in front of this human background. They will be the characters of the Queen, Bougrelas & two of Ubus cronies. They begin to run on the spot. When the line of obstacles moves past them they must pretend to encounter them.

Zombie Cave

- groups of 5

Eventually Bougrelas & The Queen escape their pursuers by heading into a cave. There Bougrelas is visited by the zombie-ghosts of his ancestors, given a sword, and charged with reigning down vengeance on King Ubu. Participants are asked to work together to make the cave, so that an audience can come and interface with them. In groups of 5, participants work together to build the cave. They work out how to show ghosts & zombies appearing out of the cave & how to greet Bougrelas to give him a sword. How is someone able to walk through it? What does the cave say to people walking into it? How is the narrative told? In the workshop, other people walk into the cave where they experience the action. Groups take it turns. Meanwhile back in Pole-Land...

Audience are prompted to join in the war

We explore the themes of Tyranny & Unfairness

Dissident Graffiti

in pairs;whole group

With an invisible marker pen, one participant writes their name so that their partner can read it out. At the same time, that partner has to say what letters their partner is writing, sounding out the letters to make the word. In King of Ubu, we use this technique to explore rebellious feelings: participants were asked to think about something that made them really angry and then without speaking write it down for someone to see. Participants can use any surface including the walls, floors & objects are asked to think about scale. If there was something you were REALLY annoyed about would you scrawl it across a whole wall OR is this something that really annoys you that want to keep to yourself? - that you might write in the palm of your hand. At the end we look at all the graffiti....

Randomised Queue of Death

whole group

Building on ideas of unfairness, as addressed in the court of Ubu scenes. Someone shouts out a group of people (this could be based on country, work, age, or any sort of demographic). A group of 3 participants are told to quickly build a guillotine machine. Other participants are asked to form a line to process these people in as many ways as possible. The group then, at random , begins executing other participants not involved in the exercise. [This exercise was used in the performance with an audience].

Torture Device - The Spanish Inquisition

groups of 4

Build a device for extracting admissions of heresy & information from people.

Making machines

whole group; groups of 4

Here I have a baby chick and we are a factory full of processes - We start with this raw material a baby chick & we end with the final product chicken nuggets.....I will start by feeding it but then it goes to you. Going round each person completes an action to represent one part of the process.......for example, wash the chick /add some horse meat/take it to the shop. In groups of 4 - I want you to see what machine you can make. What would you like your machine to produce? Maybe bubbles or pretty things. Maybe not. They must contain at least 3 repeatable actions. Show your machines to everyone. [if you want you can use instruments to make the noises of the machines]

Moving Status Caterpillar whole group

The mechanisms of the state are moving. We start an unfair line of people, we are ordered depending on arbitrary statements: whos got the largest ears? for e.g. Now participants suggest an idea. They then move under the legs of others to get into the correct order.

Sea of Knives

whole group

We move into an unfair line of status again based on who has got the longest surname. Someone is crowned Ubu. People are increasingly unhappy about Ubu. As before, in the court, messages are passed down the line but now revolution is in the air.....two swords are silently passed up the chain ....if you say the word STAB to the person up the chain from you without them seeing you they go to the bottom of the line, and you move up A PEG.

Hooker / Clown / King - Freeze Improv

in pairs

Ubus main advisors at the end of the play are a hooker and a clown. They advise him to fight the Russian but they could - now for ten minutes try puppeteering with the characters - Working together make an ubu puppet - Who controls the body moving ? Who controls the mouth?

Semantic fields

whole group mingle

Walking around participants try to build a cloud of associated words....

Shifting corridors of narcissism

whole group This is a group mirroring game, where we try to represent the court as a hall of mirrors. ### With arms outstretched participants line-up in a square formation . . . . . . . . . Participants raise their arms at 90 degrees from one another. Now they make a square with a partner. You are now making a mirror. Whatever walks inside you and your partner must be reflect by your face and your body, but your arms must stay connected, unless told to change.Taking it in turns people from outside walk through the corridors of squares. If they shout left or right everyone moves their arms to touch someone elses in the cube, and so they can move through.

In Pole-Land there is now unrest because of King Ubus behaviour and we can explore themes of Revolution & Dissent:

Besatzung whole group

Follow this link to see how to play Besatzung - http://globalweirding.weebly.com/

Occupy Repeat whole group

Whatever people say gets repeated by everyone else. Whoever is closest says it loudest.

Revolutionary game - countdown bomb

whole group

Were going to raise the tension in the room so that something has to break and a bomb explodes. This is essentially the crescendo bomb.....at the point at which you can all take nomore someone will explode Walk around the circle - it is angry january - no-one has seen enough sunshine, no-one has enough money everybody is angry. Think of what makes you annoyed and start to talk about it, from whispering. Together, gradually get louder, now everybody is talking to themselves angrily An object (in our training two pineapples) is passed between everybody. This object might make a ticking noise (as expressed by the person holding it). When the anger is at its apex, the person holding the object will make it explode (in a dramatic way). Everybody who is near to the explosion is killed also.

triggers A-Z 1 - 10

whole group

In order to establish the idea that chains of reaction for events can be built, the group must try and count from 1-10 collectively without introducing each other. When they find ways to signal to each other who is going to come next and build the sequence of numbers, they can count up really quickly, and be successful. Now they try it whilst everyone is moving at the same time. Now they try it with moves instead of numbers. These final activities must be open and interpretable, allowing more creative freedom for all participants. This exercise can become a group variant on the well-known blind offer or (with constant movement) fluid motion exercise, where one person does something and the rest of the group responds. The aim of building triggers is to train the group in self-organisation without leadership.

Revolution whole group (final exercise) loose parts

For the final activity, we use a loose part play situation for the second time. Again, we combine all of the games/material we have created. Facilitators move objects into the space and then BACK OFF. In their playing, participants can use musical instruments & all previous equipment brought to the session. Directors (in this case Hannah/Eva) /Trained Performers/Musicians / Cameraman are encouraged to join in, but not take over. What follows here are statements & provocations for imagineering exercises.....they are extremely simple, as starting points of an exercise, or the components of a revolution.......

make a new Pole-land! here are piles of garden poles.. . make an edifice make a corridor make a new Pole-land! think of a new name for poland write your name on someone else decorate someone else hibernate build a one-person cave - visit it write words with objects on the floor /

spell things out with objects sell someone something cover your ears - pretend its not happening and do something completely different. mirror the events around you in 3 snapshot pictures or make 3 frozen images to show a part of the story of ubu mimic what someone says Serbian neighbours (pallindromic game) start laughing and pointing at the sky tell a blatant lie to someone & put on a blindfold / close your eyes pretend nothing is happening