Introduction to Trestle Masks


Today we were introduced to trestle masks. We began first by exploring physicality in character and also movement on stage.

We looked at this idea of a balancing act, imagining that the stage was held steady by a single point in the centre. This then forced us to be aware of other people’s movements on stage, making sure that our movements were equal and opposite of our partners. So for example, if one person stood at the front left corner of the stage, the other would have to be stood at the back right. We then began to explore different scenarios whilst creating this balancing act.

We looked at an instance where two people were trying to reach an object in the centre of the stage whilst simultaneously preventing the other person from reaching it, using the rule of balance that we had created. When watching this scenario we were able to observe some of the interesting moments that were created, most of which came from the distance of the characters on stage. This showed the importance of preventing characters from clumping. Translated into mask work, it shows how space is important in scenes for keeping the masks and individual physicality of the characters separate.

We also warmed up with puppet exercises, which involved moving sections of the body independent from the others, as though only certain strings were cut each time. This allowed us to practice isolating body movements so that our physicality when creating characters would be more intricate.

Then, we explored the power of the masks. (Video) shows how you can create a point of focus by turning masks so that only certain ones remain facing forward. This will be a useful tool for directing the audience and placing the actions of one particular character into focus.

This can be taken further with the fight scene that we explored. We created sequences of fights in slow motion, looking at the way in which we would move physically, so for example curling up over the area we were hit, but also how you can use movement and masks to shift the point of focus. If a arm was thrown forward slowly in a punch, this directs the audiences eye from the face of the person to their arm. This would be accompanied by the puncher turning their face towards the other person, whilst the punch itself turns the other persons face out towards the audience. This then creates the similar movement of the turning masks in the video above, but in a less noticeable way- more driven by narration than technical exercises.

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