LABAN EFFORTS

Having previously explored the Laban efforts in the naturalistic term, though I may have forgotten the details over time, my basic knowledge was there. I find using Laban efforts extremely useful when developing roles as it enables you as an actor to simply begin to look at the small details of your character's physicality. I found that as soon as I applied a Laban effort to my World War One character, I began to think about other aspects of her life, personality and physicality. By looking at Laban, I am able to simply explore and colour different characteristics of my character from the very beginning of the development process, it gives me a really powerful starting point to continue building on.

Though some of the movements - like flick and dab - may seem similar,  the strength, timing and control you carry them out at allows them to develop into distinct and unique actions. By looking at each effort individual and breaking them down into each component, really allowed me to get to grips  with of each different movement and how  they may combine to and add an effect to different characters I may develop in the future.

I feel that the chorus would possibly operate mainly with a combination of glide and dab. This is because the chorus' role is to tell the story to the audience and to bring them up to date, so they sort of glide into the story at the beginning of every scene yet deliver the information and lines with such dab like likeness. I developed the physicality into moving quite lightly and sustained, then moving quickly onto the tips of my toes to raise my level, and then begin moving again. This was to show how the chorus insert themselves at the beginning of every act to perform the prologue, deliver it in a way that is quick and sharp in comparison to the rest of the show, then they leave until the next prologue.

I began to explore my World War One character by looking at slash and sudden. From those efforts I began to develop my character into a woman who really found her place in the factory, she enjoyed coming out of her shell and getting "down and dirty" doing - what was traditionally - a man's job. I used the efforts and those first initial thoughts to start to shape her character and it was really interesting to see how many different details and ideas I came up with just from exploring the efforts and applying them to a character.

Overall, I really enjoy looking at Laban as it really helps me focus on the simple details in a character's physicality that could completely change the way the audience perceive that character. A singular effort carries multiple of different offers that could be the starting point for development of a completely different range of characters. It's definitely an exercise and method that I like to use and will definitely be using it when looking at physicality in future roles.  Exploring basic physicality is something I don't usually think about when developing a character or I don't find it the easiest task, but with the Laban efforts I am able to develop and colour my character's physicality in such a way that's so simple yet so complex and able to carry so much meaning right from the very beginning of the development. I am able to get on with the physical development as soon as possible to leave as much time as possible to see how that may influence the further development of the character and how the character may end up being shaped.