Performance Workshop with Leah Lowe
February 2, 2015
Vanderbilt theatre department chair Leah Lowe offered a workshop in performance to the Scholars, hoping to help their project ideas continue to take shape.
To begin, Assoc. Professor Lowe led the Scholars in some introductory games. One game involved half the Scholars moving around in a space until one Scholar in the ‘audience’ said to stop. From there, the audience interpreted what the actors were doing when they froze.
Next, Lowe separated the Scholars into groups and challenged them to choose an issue they see as problematic on Vanderbilt’s campus. They were tasked with designing sculptures in order to convey the issue as they see it now, what it would look like in an ideal world, and what it would look like if it were transformed (not simply removed).
The workshop encouraged the Scholars to consider how performance could be made part of their projects, but it also challenged them to think about how theatre reflects and impacts daily life, as well as how it can be used as a vehicle for change.
