Jason El-Khoury| Drama, Ensemble| line two, Adam Salter
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” (passiton.com, 2018)
It’s in the performers blood to always strive to be the best and aim as the main focus of a performance. Due to the little selection of star roles, performers are often put in the ensemble. The meaning of an ensemble is a group of support in a theatrical production (kerryhishon.com, 2013), with this support, together they can work to create a full and engaging piece for the audience. Due to the benefits and convenience of an ensemble, this technique has spread across the drama world and now used across worldwide.
The word ‘ensemble’ comes from the French word ‘Complicité’, which actually investigates working together in more depth. Complicité explores the feeling of understanding and ease of communication between two or more people (interglot.com, 2018). Similar to the word ensemble, complicité examines the use of communication and understanding with all the members within the performance. When working as a team, they must communicate and with each other to master movement and for everyone to be comfortable and able to perform to their best ability. Complicité talks about understanding, this could be understanding with the team and their choices, but also reach a level of understanding the audience and how to target different audiences to make it as engaging as possible! This is an important factor for any performance- that the audience continues to stay engaged.
The most excellent performances are the ones that clearly portray that they have taken the time out and prepared the show with the most accurate and astonishing way to express their story. An ensemble can provide this greatness as there are now more than one star’s expertise, but a mixture of the different skills that can come together to many other factors such as, social and emotional support. Although things may be done ‘quicker’ on our own than with doing it with a group, it’s all about the memories with others and the experiences that occur while working with your new friends. You share the joy of working together and are able to share different ideas that benefit the performance.
Another skill that working with an ensemble requires as well as teaches you, is teamwork skills. Working with a team can always be hard for individuals but working as a team forces one to sacrifice their ego, (tsc.nsw.edu.au, 2018) making them listen to each other and bounce off each other ideas. Teamwork skills forces everyone to gain trust for each other and working in different ways that may be uncomfortable for everyone, but actually benefits the performance and their communication as a team (example: stunt that when done safely, requires lots of talking and communication).
Lastly, when working as an ensemble, we learn and require major organisation skills. When aiming to appeal to every member’s needs in an ensemble, it can often be difficult as everyone has different wishes and situations. An example of this could be when an ensemble needs to regroup to practice their performance. Each member needs to work together to organise a time that suites every member. Meaning the team must communicate and organise a time so that they can get the performance up to 100% and everyone on the same page.
Ensembles create a place where all members can make their contribution, be part of a discussion about how aspects of the performance are working and make necessary adjustments (bggs.qld.edu.au, 2018). Members can continue to work on their part, as well as assisting others and being there as support. All of this is in order to achieve the outcome of an amazing performance.
Working in an ensemble can be used in any of the art but can also be used in the little activities that we do on the side. The great Adam Salter once organised a game (space jump or jam) that would allow the students to work together and create different stories with the positions that one was in. There was a situation where two members in class were just playing a role of being in space, until they were called to pause in their position. I was able to observe their placement and quickly create a new scene that worked with them. I saw that their hands were in a place that looked as though they were carrying something. Using my teamwork and communication skills, I was able to move forward and allow them to understand that now we were building a bridge. They were able to catch along and allowed the audience to understand the situation by pulling faces of struggle, to show that what we were carrying was extremely heavy!
When performing on stage with my dance crew, we all require trust and communication skills to allow us to preform to our best ability. We must all have trust that we know the choreography and that we can rely with each other with the stunts that occur throughout. Messing up choreography at a competition can seriously affect the result of our placing, so we all have trust that we know it and are ready to perform. Although we may only be on stage for 2-8 minutes of routine, constant movement can make us seriously tired very quick. We are all able to communicate on the stage by yelling and chanting for us to “keep looking up” “lets go” “heyyy go Jason”. By communicating on stage, it sets little reminders for us to not go on auto-pilot and to give our best for the audience. Preforming on stage is the best feeling, but we cannot do it without the memories and friends that we make back at the studio. By working as a team for such a long time, my crew and I have a bond like no other and we are all comfortable to perform on stage as we know we are all ready!
Working in an ensemble is extremely powerful for both the performers and audience, it is clear why it is used widely in the drama world. Ensemble creates new friends and experiences for every member as well as teaching new skills that are required for to create a strong bond. By having all of these skills and a hardworking dedicated team, the performance can be lifted through the roof and can be an amazing piece for the audience. My quote (first line, top of page 1) talks about how working together can get an ensemble to go further than one working on their own. This is because with the right skills and training, a group can be unstoppable.
References
Anon, (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.bggs.qld.edu.au/2018/06/power-ensemble/ [Accessed 21 Aug. 2018].
College, T. (2018). Six benefits of performing in musical ensembles. [online] Tsc.nsw.edu.au. Available at: https://www.tsc.nsw.edu.au/tscnews/six-benefits-of-performing-in-musical-ensembles [Accessed 21 Aug. 2018].
Kerry Hishon. (2018). Why Being in the Ensemble is Awesome. [online] Available at: https://kerryhishon.com/2013/06/28/why-being-in-the-ensemble-is-awesome/ [Accessed 21 Aug. 2018].
M.interglot.com. (2018). Translate 'complicité' from French to English. [online] Available at: https://m.interglot.com/fr/en/complicité [Accessed 21 Aug. 2018].
passiton.com. (2018). “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”. [online] Available at: https://www.passiton.com/inspirational-quotes/7293-if-you-want-to-go-fast-go-alone-if-you-want [Accessed 21 Aug. 2018].
The Theatrefolk Blog. (2018). Creating A Strong Ensemble. [online] Available at: https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/creating-a-strong-ensemble/ [Accessed 21 Aug. 2018].