The Ritual

Brook believed that theatre should be based on ''rituals'' as they are an integral part of our lives which we aren't always aware of. They bring us back to our ancestors and bring our the animalistic nature humans have. 

as an introduction to rituals, we split into groups of four or five and were each given a theme in which to create a ritual around. Our theme was ''triumph'' which we took to mean a triumph in battle as that is what we associated the word with. As Khai was the only male in our group, we placed in him the middle as Kate, Shaniqua and I surrounded him chanting and half bowing to him. The feeling of triumph wasn't conveyed when we performed it, but I still feel as if it was accurate and effective use of a ritual to show a triumph. I think our chants were too low pitched, and maybe we should've danced more in order to show our triumph better. The audience got a sense of war and battle so that part worked. I feel that Ruby's group had to best and most effective ritual, as their movements and sounds conveyed fertility well. The pace and sounds gradually progressed and I thought it was a very effective and simple way to show this theme. It could also be repeated nicely which it key in rituals. 

After this I felt as if I had a better understanding of what a ritual looks and feels like to perform. We then began to expand on it and used two large groups of people to create two interlinked rituals. My group started off celebrating something, the atmosphere was energetic and happy. It felt like we were doing a weather dance of some sort. When the second group came in it changed the atmosphere completely as we felt like we were being attacked. I felt like I had to make my noise even louder and jump higher to be heard. This ritual exercise helped me to realise the true core and essence of a ritual and how it can be used to create meaning. Rituals are brilliant ways of creating an atmosphere within a piece and including the audience. I like how different circumstances and emotions can completely change a ritual so quickly and how they can sometimes confuse and distort the audience. 

At the end of our piece, we all come together to perform a massive ritual, ridding of the modern day complications and calling back the spirits of earth, fire, water and fire to bring England back to its natural state. To start we all discussed the various aspects of Britain that we would like to get rid of and added a physical action to that. We would then send that problem into the centre and shout 'gone!'. I chose concrete and did a suffocating action with it. This actions will start of the nature ritual. We will then go into summoning water then fire then earth and then air, adding movements and sound to each. I think this is a good way to end our piece about England, as it includes the audience and brings us all back to the roots of our country.