Theatre Ritual

Aim of Task:

To bring us close together as a class and as a theatre group. To learn how to better express our feelings in front of other people. To know each other better and feel more comfortable when working as a group.

Description of Task:

This ritual, Steve said, is made every year for the theatre class. He called it a "Theatre COP day." And indeed, it was not a usual lesson of theatre.

We stayed out of the classroom while he prepared everything for the ritual. After a little while, he started calling each of his students, one by one, calling us "disciples." I think he used this word to describe us to express the devotion and dedication we must have towards Theatre. One by one, each one of us came into the classroom. The room was dark, and we seated in a circle, with a candle in front of each one of us.

After we were all seated, Steve introduced us to the ritual. The first thing we would do was to express our feelings of hate towards different things in the school. I think he wanted us to express hate first because it is a more intense feeling than happiness and helps us open as a group. People said a lot of things about their experience here at LPC. They said how they missed their friends and family back home. Other said that they hated something in their relationship with family, and many other things. I felt identified with some of the things that the other ones said because I also hated the same thing as them. This made me feel closer and more comfortable with the group.
After saying all the things we hated, we then started saying the things we loved. I think Steve chose to do this after because then it will leave us with a positive mindset. We started saying the things we liked. Many of us said that we loved our families and friends. It was interesting that some people said the hated something in their families and friends but at the same time, then, they said they actually loved a quality in them. It makes me think that whenever there is a strong relationship with a person you get to identify better the attributes you hate and the attributes you like about that particular person. I said I loved life, and I liked that many people repeated the phrase "I love life" after I had said it. It was something really good to hear that other people felt the same way about life in general. Expressing what we hate and loved helped us identify with each other and know ourselves better. It also helped us to reflect and share our experience in LPC.

After this, Steve asked us to stand up and grab a partner. He told us to hug him, with a warm feeling. I felt cared for when I did this. Then he asked us to go around and keep hugging people. It surely made me feel really close to the group, it was a gratifying experience to receive hugs from my classmates.

When the hugging finished, we paired up with somebody randomly. Steve told us to express our feelings about this school towards our partner but without saying anything. We could just do body gestures. I felt grateful, yet, confused so what I did was to kneel down with a frustrated face. My partner tried to follow the feelings I was showing. She also sit on the floor and started to look at me. I felt comprehended. Then she also did a gesture to show how she felt about the school so far and I tried to follow her by trying to complement her moves.

After all, we ended the ritual. Steve told us to not behave differently in other classes just because we have had the ritual already. However, I did feel different in other classes.

Reflection:

This day was really good and totally enjoyable for us, as students. After that class, that day, something felt cold about the other classes. This was because I felt so comfortable, confident and warm in the Theatre class that other classes seemed very sour. I am definitely very glad we had something like this, and I hope our next generations will continue with the ritual.

Conclusion:

LPC can be a stressful experience. For must of us, it is a completely new way of life, with completely new people; a completely new environment. This helped us reflect on what we had done so far. An excellent activity for bonding.