Friday, November 8th 2024 at the John Van Duzer Theatre will be the first time there has been an entire evening dedicated to physical theatre at Cal Poly Humboldt. Historically, physical theatre had a more frequent presence in the theatre department, but for the last decade or so it has been dormant—waiting in the wings to charge directly into the heart of the audience. The production, titled Voices of a Silent Stage: A Physical Theatre Performance, is under the direction of Michael Thomas, who holds an MFA in Stage Direction from Humboldt State University and studied mime at Northwestern University and with Etienne Decroux in Paris, eventually performing the art of corporal mime in Britain, Yugoslavia, and Israel.
What is physical theatre? “It’s a good question and I get the question a lot. Without being facetious, I say, ‘come and see the show and that’s what it is.’” This explanation is one Michael Thomas might give you if you ask him the question. “Mime, pantomime, physical theatre—to me, it’s all the same stuff. But how we define it is what you will see at our performance, that is how you define physical theatre with this group of people—with this group of students—with this company, this is our definition, that’s what physical theatre is.”
There is no script for Voices of a Silent Stage. Auditions were held in August at Cal Poly Humboldt and the goal was to find a group of actors who could “move” with no prerequisite for body type or experience. An important component was having time available to make the commitment, because the process for this show was very consuming—on the actor’s time, on their body, and on their mind. “I didn't care if they had a vast experience in mime or anything. I knew a lot of training was in store. So we started with, well, physical workouts. I think the respect for the body and what it can do is very important. And so we have spent a lot of time conditioning, strengthening, stretching, so they get to know their bodies. The point of this—the big reason I wanna do this—is because this is training for the actor's body.”
Student Actor Stephan Chittenden has been involved in many of the performances at Cal Poly Humboldt in the last two academic years. This is his first foray into physical theater and it has given him some perspective on him being an actor. “[Physical theatre] has allowed me to explore more of what my body is capable of,” comments Stephan. “While I have no intention of becoming, say, a stunt double, it has shown me that I, and people in general, can use their bodies to an extent they are unaware of. They just need to study themselves and have more belief in themselves.”
The evening will feature 16 pieces, or vignettes, that are each a self-encompassing story. A few pieces within the performance are ones Director Michael Thomas has explored before in physical theatre. The others have been developed by the actors and crew since casting was complete.
Director Michael Thomas explained the process of developing new pieces for the production, “As far as creating stories, one of the first assignments I gave them was to become an inanimate object. They had to develop a short piece— 1 to 2 minutes. The prompt is: You are an object. You come to life. What is your attitude? You are an alarm clock sitting there and it's time to go off. Finally, you, the alarm clock, go off and the person—imagine the person not waking up, maybe he's waking up. What does the alarm clock do? Is the alarm clock happy? Does he like his job? What does he do? And he rings again. He rings again…We use our imagination, does this cartoon take out a sledgehammer and bong the guy to wake him up? They all had the assignment, based on being an inanimate object coming to life—this is the beginning of creating stories.”
For the student actors, the experience of creating has been very meaningful. Stephan Chittenden speaks to this, “This is a new experience for me and many in the cast; not coming from physical theatre backgrounds, and others among us, a background other than theatre. There was also the wonderful challenge of coming up with many of the scenes ourselves, rather than relying on a script; in a way we ended up being sort of mini-directors and mini-playwrights.”
The sets and costumes for the production are very minimal. Most of each story is conveyed through the actors’ bodies and the emotions they project to the audience. And there is very little speaking. It will be a quiet theatre, with only sparse use of sound.
Despite the absence of speaking, Michael Thomas is certain the audience will be moved. “[Physical theatre] is the most viable form of theatre, for some reason it always has been for me. When I, in speaking theater—I'm an actor and I think about something and I say [my dialogue] and it goes to your ears, your brain processes it, processes it, and then you have a reaction. Oh, that's sad. That's funny. Okay. In the physical theater, I have some emotion, and I don't put it into words. Instead, I just move and it goes right into your heart. From my heart to your heart, you have a reaction. It cuts out that middleman of speaking the communication and hearing the communication. It's much more direct—from heart to heart without from heart to brain to speaking to ears to brain—it's a more of a direct communication.”
Voices of a Silent Stage will run November 8th–17th at the John Van Duzer Theatre at Cal Poly Humboldt. Tickets are $13 General (includes a $3 CES processing fee) and $11 Student/Children (includes a $3 CES processing fee). Avoid the long line at the box office. Please purchase tickets in advance online at tickets.humboldt.edu/calpolyhumboldt-presents.
