Soundscapes

Soundscapes are a really good way of immersing the audience in the world the performers have created and are used frequently by Brook in his pieces. he believed that sound had a greater impact on the audience and were more important than words on occasions. Soundscapes create an atmosphere suited to the style of the play which immerses the audience to new experiences. They are a main feature of Grotowski's theory of ''poor theatre'' and a prominent in most experimental work.
The Exercises:
Laying in semi supine, we all closed our eyes and focused on our breathing. We then got told to picture a beach and start to make noises using only our breath and plosive sounds to create the atmosphere of a beach. I started making ocean noises using my breath. We then gradually got louder and made the sounds more vocal. People started singing and humming beach side songs and the beach in my mind turned into a Victorian beach, with the brass band playing and the funfair music playing. The scene then changed to Piccadilly Circus and we had to make the sounds of a busy area. I started to make beeping noises to represent the buses and the traffic. As we had done some vocal and physically warm ups before we started this exercise, I felt as if my body was open and awake enough to be able to explore a different range of vocal sounds.

After the sound scape faded out, we talked about how the scene changed in our minds as the exercise progressed. To start of with, the beach seemed cold and rainy, then when we added in the humming and louder noises, it turned into a sunny sea side, old fashioned scene. similarly, with the Central London location, I originally felt quite isolated and un-energetic, as the sounds were very low and morbid. Once we had added on louder noises and varied the pitch slightly, the scene changed to Piccadilly tube station at rush hour.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWridXDgYc8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71O6E65YxM0
I think the beach soundscape was a success because it transported us all to the same place and it felt real. Possibly we could include a sea side soundscape in our performance, as it would include England's history, a Grotowski and Brook technique and be a symbolic typical location of England.