'The Human Zoo' Physical Theatre Assignment Blog

                                                           The Human Zoo

Introduction To Assignment:
Throughout our second term in the Level 2 Performing Arts course, our Physical Theatre lessons have been leading up to developing and understanding each of our own individual physical movement. For this new assignment, we are to be assessed by our Physical Theatre teacher, what he is looking for is if we can use our own individual physical movement to relate towards how animals would move.

To start off this assignment, we were all given the exercise to create our own animal. The purpose of this exercise was to show off our understanding of animals and how they have their unique way of movement, it also prepares us for the task ahead where we have to move and act physically the same as a real life animal. To begin with, we all had to create an animal, present its key features to our teacher and to inform the group about its habitat and if it was a predator or if it was a prey of another species. In creating our own individual animal, we were to show off our own understanding of how to present an animals movement without background information to help, as well as mixing several animal features in order to further develop our own creations.  The animal that I had created has its natural habitat in a Jungle, its key characteristics were having big long arms with big hands which had sharp claws, and the legs were similar to a Monkey's, were they were always bent. After the creation of the animal, I then had to present its movement to my teacher and the rest of the group. My idea of its movement was for it to move quite slow (much like the tempo of a bear), having the big long arms, it balances itself by wobbling side to side and using the long arms to help support its movements. To conclude my presentation of my newly created animal, my teacher asked me to present also what my animal is like in a combat situation. I presented this by having my movement increased to a much higher tempo, I did this so any potential predators would be caught off guard and be caught by my animal with his large arms. it would then use its sharp claws to quickly dispatch any animal that may now be considered prey toward it. I left this lesson feeling prepped for what was next in this new assignment, this lesson gave our teacher a good impression on what could potentially happen next lesson when we were to act as a real life animal by our choosing. Performing this exercise was a good start to the new assignment, and was very enjoyable to experience, as I have never acted like an animal before and it would give me time to develop on my new ways of physical movement.

On the next week of the assignment, our teacher had arranged to go to the animal care department in the college to observe an animal and later on return to the classroom to mimic our chosen animal with both physicality and personality features included. The animal that I had observed and mimicked for this task was a Ferret. Acting physically like a Ferret was much the same as a Meerkat and, looking back at it after the assessment for this project, some of the things I had to do physically to act like a Ferret was merely the same as when I had to act physically like a Meerkat. The things I'm talking about is how I had to manipulate my body to come as close as possible to portraying my own interpretation of both the Ferret and the Meerkat. When I talk about manipulating my body, I specifically mean doing things like tensing my abdominal muscles, to help support my weight whilst I'm in a uncomfortable position, these positions include just trying to stay above the floor with my hands and feet helping me move around, since I couldn't use my knees to help support me since a Ferret doesn't use its knees to move around. I also had to relax my shoulders as much as I could, to give the portrayal that I may look smaller, since Ferrets are small animals, much the same size as a Meerkat. Relaxing my shoulders, especially when using my hands and feet to move around the room, became more difficult for my hands/biceps, since my shoulders actually do help me a lot when I have to move around this way and, after a while, it came to a point where I needed to take a small break to relax my hands/biceps since they did start to hurt. But further practice outside the lesson trying to move like a Ferret once more, the process of movement did become substantially easier to achieve. Tensing my butt also helped me towards stability when I was moving around as the Ferret as, in some ways, it felt like the weight of my legs decreased and allowed me to move around at a tempo I could feel more comfortable with at a long period of time.

 
In our next Physical Theatre lesson, we began to look at our own individual physical movement, and discussed as to how we could relate it to a real animal. The animals that we all had to choose for this assignment had to live on land and also had to be an animal that you would find in the zoo. Our teacher carefully analyzed each of our movements when performing an exercise where we all had to move around the room in our normal walk pattern and tempo, doing this would then result in our teacher telling us what animal would fit all of us perfectly for this assignment. My teacher made the decision and said that I would fit being a Meerkat in this assignment. This made this assignment much more exciting for me, since the Meerkat is my actual favorite animal, and I have also seen many Meerkats in real life form at zoo's before. Being chosen to act physically and personally like a Meerkat made the assignment look easier for me to complete, since I acted like a Ferret in the previous Physical Theatre lessons, and Ferrets and Meerkats combined together, do have the same movement patterns but with the Meerkat moving at a much faster tempo, but moving at faster tempo was the only thing that I felt I was going to struggle with the most on this project, but with much more practice at home in my own time whilst researching a Meerkats physicality and personality, this should help with when I have to present my performance as a Meerkat later on in the Physical Theatre lessons.

The following lessons aloud me to present my Physicality of a Meerkat and also its Personality, this was all help by researching into how I could develop the characterization of a Meerkat and when it would later transform into a Human. The research I looked at was some footage I found on the BBC's YouTube channel, the footage was the cameraman going into Meerkat territory and learning what a Meerkat would do in everyday situations. Later on in this Blog, I talk about what happened in these clips, and how it helped me develop my Meerkat impersonation further as we went through the whole assignment up to the point of our assessment.

What I Had Learnt From Watching "Kafka's Monkey" And "Project Nim":

Before rehearsals began in this assignment, we had two lessons prior where we were watching two movies which showed two different stories of animal to human transformation. The first movie we watched was of a stage production called “Kafka’s Monkey”, and the second movie was a documentary called “Project Nim”.

“Kafka’s Monkey”, in my opinion, was a great example of a Humans portrayal of a Monkey. The story of the play involved the one and only actor on stage to break the forth wall by telling the audience the story of how she was originally a monkey and, over countless years of being experimented on, transformed into a human. The script of the production had a lot of detail as to how painful it was for this character to transform, both during experimentation, and even the journey from her original home to the land of Humans. Whilst the plot was interesting and intriguing to follow along with, the main focus for us to grasp by watching this film, was to look at the actress’s physicality whilst on stage. The idea that she was once an animal and had become a human, meant that she would have to walk and talk like a human but show past references to her being a Monkey, this showed the audience that she still had a bit of the Monkey within her still after all the experiments. This was shown both physically and verbally. Verbally, we could understand her perfectly, but there was that slight impression that the English language was still new to her and she was still learning how to pronounce different words. Whereas Physically, her body was split into two differently acted sections. The bottom half of her body was almost normal, with the legs being in use for normal human pacing; whereas the top half of the body had more relation to a Monkey, having a bent back and the arms looking longer than a regular Humans. But mainly, there was still a strong hint of the Human aspect as she communicated with the audience, she did use some of her physicality as a regular human; but there were times in the performance when she acted physically like a Monkey again, for example, there was one part of the performance where she had to hang on a ladder, the way she hand sat on this ladder was similar to how a Monkey would sit on it, with one arm dangling off the side and also leaning out towards the open air.  After watching the film, I thought that the production was excellent and brilliantly detailed in terms of storyline, as the actress gave an incredible presentation of a Human who was once a Monkey physically going back through all the horrible experiences she had been through on her journey form a Monkey transforming into a Human.

When it came to watch the documentary movie called “Project Nim”, the experience of watching it was different entirely. This documentary told the story of a group of scientists in the 1970s that began a project, in which they took a live Monkey in captivity and taught it sign language, so it would later be able to communicate with humans in the real world. I thought watching this documentary was interesting, yet it was not as effective as "Kafka's Monkey". “Project Nim” showed us the physicality of the Monkey later called Nim, and how it would slowly evolve and develop a hint of the same characteristics of a normal Human Being. This documentary did show us that Monkey's can develop their own unique personality, and it was also interesting to see how it neglected against learning the ways of a human. The story of the scientist trying to change Nims personality was interesting, but not as effective as "Kafka's Monkey's" storyline, in the way of showing us the physicality of the Monkey being both Human and, at times, going back to how a Monkey would move. We saw what it was like for the Monkey to be slowly developing into a Human in "Project Nim", but it wasn’t as detailed as “Kafka’s Monkey”, as in that, we saw the point of view of the story from the Monkey who became a Human. Whereas “Project Nim” showed us the point of view of the story from the scientists, and they didn’t think that the project went through as a success in the end after all the years of trying to make Nim a Humanized Monkey.

But in the end, I thought these videos were very helpful towards my final performance for the assessment, because I knew that when it came to the physicality of turning into the human variant of our animal, to remember to also show a few hints of the animal it used to be in the actions, as well as to give a slow change into the human, to show the slow development of the animal turning into the Human, as by watching and understanding these productions, the process takes a while to complete.

My Chosen Animal And Why I Chose It (Similarities Comparison):
The animal that I had chosen to study and develop for this project was a Meerkat. I chose the Meerkat because I felt that my overall personality is, along the lines, the same as a Meerkat, for example, Meerkats, whilst in the wild, tend to be very aware of their surroundings and can be self conscious when protecting both themselves and all the other animals around them, specifically their own families. After studying my own personality, I had come to realize that I also act the same way, for example, I constantly try to keep out of any sort of danger that may harm me physically or mentally, and I am also very aware of my own surroundings when in a public place by myself or with friends. This is why I thought choosing a Meerkat to both study and develop on for this project would be perfect for me personally, since I think both of our personalities are much the same. It also, in my opinion, makes me stand out among my fellow actors in the group, since my animal is the smallest one in the zoo, and could be a challenge for me to mimic the movement of it..

Key Discoveries About A Meerkats Personality:
When I first decided to perform as a Meerkat for this project, I thought it would help if I got a better understanding of its personality, so I can give the most effective performance when it came to our assessment for transforming from a Meerkat to a Human Being. I understand that Meerkats are a very shy/nervous animal, and are always aware of their surroundings to see when predators are coming before they even see them. They are also very self conscious about themselves and when protecting their offspring from incoming dangers. Whilst researching further into their personality, I found a great website talking about all the things to do with Meerkats, things like, how they reproduce, the habitat that they live in, what they eat, and it also talks about its typical day and what they do to survive in the wild.

Here is the web link to the website I found: http://www.meerkats.net/info.htm

This website helped me a lot more when it came to performing my assessment, as I could build an imagination of the area a Meerkat would associate with, for example, in the rehearsals for this project, the whole group were put into a their own individual cage, and whilst rehearsing as our animals, I imagined the cage being filled with sand since that is the natural habitat Meerkats live in. This helped me since we were all being recorded and we would get marked on using our imagination for building an area, whilst in the cage, that each animal would naturally live in if they were in the wild.

Key Discoveries About A Meerkats Physicality:
When discovering about a Meerkats personality, I thought it would help me also if I had researched into a Meerkats physicality, to get a better understanding on how a Meerkat would move in the wild. For example, I researched into the Tempo of a Meerkat, to see how fast or slow it moves. Having already known the answer, a Meerkat moves very fast because of its hind legs and small figure so they can get away from predators very easily. I also discovered that Meerkats burrow into the ground, to either protect their offspring whilst the adult looks for food, or to make it a safe-house for when predators are after them and all the Meerkats have a place to rendezvous to later. Since the Meerkats are so much smaller than an average sized human, it was hard for me to move as fast as they do, but after much rehearsal time and practice at home in my own time, I was able to pull off their fast moving attributes effectively. Since Meerkats aren't a very large animal, throughout rehearsals and developing further in my own time, I tried to make myself look smaller by when the Meerkat would stand on it hind legs, I would bend my knees much more than it would normally do. Whether or not this affects my overall grade on this assignment, I felt that doing this may have shown my teacher that I tried to fully experience what it would be like to be a smaller compared to larger actors in the group, since my animal was the smallest in the room and other actors animals were much larger.

A task we did for this assignment was to print off the internet five, or more, different pictures of our chosen animal and we were to try and mimic the physicality of the animal in the picture. One picture I wanted to perform physically was a Meerkat actually smiling at the camera, this wasn't very hard to accomplish, as I only had to smile when my teacher observed us all. The challenge for me in particular during this brief period, was to try and hold the smile when my teacher observed me, as it potentially shows my teacher that I can't be put off easily during a performance.

When it came to achieving the physicality of a Meerkat, after watching several clips of them, I identified my own physical structure and tried to achieve my own interpretation of a Meerkat. I achieved the physicality of the Meerkat by standing in front of a mirror at home and I simply relaxed my shoulders and controlled my breathing pattern, and step by step, I went from head to toe mimicking the physicality of the Meerkat. The things I did to achieve a Meerkats physicality, in terms of movement, was that I had to manipulate my body by tensing my butt and my stomach and also keeping my back straight at all times during the performance; this would help me when the Meerkat would stand on is hind legs to look out, since tensing my butt and stomach made the top half of my body very stiff and still whilst performing with a straight face since half the time, during my research, Meerkats don’t have much physical features in terms of their faces. I did the same when I moved around the room on all fours but with my knees not touching the floor, since a Meerkat doesn’t move around with its knees touching the floor, the back legs, which I discovered through research, are bent when they move but aren’t touching the floor, this is when my abdominal muscles would come into play, as they would help keep my stability whilst I was moving around the room having a straight back and my butt tensed in. The idea I was focusing on the most whilst doing this was me thinking that my head would be the heaviest part of my body, this allowed me to move much faster around the room. A Meerkats inner tempo is very quick, for example, when there was music to be played during the performance, I would react very fast to trying to discover what triggered the noise. This was easy for me to achieve since I as well am very aware in all situations of life, this is one of the many reasons I thought that performing as a Meerkat was the best choice for me personally. The outer tempo of a Meerkat is also very quick, they would always move very fast even if they are relaxed. I said earlier in this part of the blog that I had rehearsed in my own time to move at the same tempo as a Meerkat and it came out effectively.

Whilst Observing A Meerkat, What Was I Looking For Specifically: 
Whilst I was watching different clips of Meerkats on YouTube, I was specifically looking at how they would do things naturally, these things would include, how they sleep, how they act around other Meerkats (be it family or a stranger), and how they would react around Humans and other animals also. There was one funny clip I had found of a Meerkat nodding off to sleep whilst sitting down on its butt and then eventually just falling asleep whilst curled up in a ball shape. When acting around other Meerkats, they tend to fight the ones that they don't know and hug the ones that they love which signifies that that Meerkat was part of its family. Some of the other clips that I had observed contained the cameraman taking the video trying to interact with a Meerkat whilst it was looking out for predators in the wild. The person was a fair distance away from the Meerkat sentry, so it didn't react whilst he was recording it with his camera. But he told the viewers that he was going to make a quiet distinctive sound for the Meerkat to hear to grab its attention. When the Meerkat realized he was there making the quiet sound, it surprised me that it could hear even the most quietest sound from such a long distance. Other clips included the same cameraman very close up to a Meerkat family scrounging for food. There was one point in the video where an adult Meerkat had climbed onto the cameraman's head to look out in the distance for any predators that may potentially come by. This interested me as the Meerkat didn't react to the cameraman being there and had him look like some obstacle that was part of the surrounding environment.

When looking for how Meerkats react around other animals however, it wasn't an easy task. After not finding much information on the internet, I went to my colleges' library and found a book about Meerkats, the book contained information about how they survive in the wild, what animals were classed as predators towards them and, more importantly, how they would act around the potential predators. When a Meerkat is put up against a large creature, it would become very nervous for whats going to happen next. One key thing I found was that when a Meerkat thinks that the rival animal might eliminate them, the Meerkat would look up into the sky. This got me thinking that Meerkats don't want to see their own deaths coming by another if they know they are outmatched by a larger animal.

Another thing I looked into also was all the sounds that a Meerkat would make in different situations. The first noise that a Meerkat would make when nothing is happening and it is resting is a quiet cute squeaking sound. After further researching into this squeak sound that it produces, it dosent really mean anything, its just a natural noise that a Meerkat would make a on a regular basis. The second noise that it produces is when it is being chased by a predator, the sound is a loud bark, this bark sound is much similar to that of a dogs bark. The barking sound is meant to distract the predators away from the Meerkat when it is being chased. The sound is meant to be bounced off rock surfaces and create an echo for the predator to hopefully follow giving the Meerkat an easier escape. After learning of this sound that it produces, I can understand that Meerkats can be a very strategic animal, as being able to get away from predators using a technique is very smart and well processed, especially from an animal. The third and final sound that a Meerkat produces is a hissing sound, which is similar to a Cats when it looks at threats. This sound is meant to lure away predators when face to face with a Meerkat, as the hissing sound is meant to make the predator feel fear when the hiss is heard by it, hopefully making it turn away form the Meerkat. This sound however, dosent always work, since larger potential predators wouldn't feel as much fear compared to a smaller predator. I also leaned that when a Meerkat thinks that this predator would eliminate them, they would look up into the sky, I'm guessing they do this so they don't see their own fate coming, and it also shows how nervous Meerkats could be when put up against their predators. I used each one of these sounds in the assessment at the appropriate moments that I felt were normal to perform them. I felt that doing these sounds would also go towards my overall grade and it would also show my teacher that I further researched into my animal by discovering the different sounds that it produces. And since we were also being recorded by our teacher, it didn't leave me doing nothing but movement whilst on camera.

What I Found Easy/Difficult In This Assignment And How I Overcame Them:
Throughout the entire assignment, I found it very interesting to know the physical movements of a Meerkat through research and development, and how that can be reflected on your own physical movement. What I found easy in this assignment was learning how to move and embody a Meerkat, the process wasn't very hard to accomplish since I always had to have a sort of poker face whilst performing since Meerkats don't have any form of using facial expression. But the only thing I found difficult in this assignment was trying to move at the same tempo as a Meerkat, since they move really fast, and I tried to do it without going on all fours, since Meerkats don't move like that, and doing this movement for a long period of time hurt my lower back and my arms to the point where I couldn't do it any further without having a break first. However, before the assessment began, I did manage to overcome these difficulties by spending more time, at home, practicing moving like a Meerkat and the Human form of the Meerkat. I also constantly watched videos to help so I could analyze the Meerkats movement and facial expressions to get more detail in the assessment, and fully understand how to embody the Meerkat both as the animal and Human variants. Another thing I found easy to achieve in this assignment was to physically and mentally embody a Meerkat form. I say this because as soon as I had to become my chosen animal in front of my teacher, i knew exactly what I was going to do to achieve the tranformation from Human to Meerkat. The things I did to become the Meerkat, at first physically, was I bent my knees and my back was always to be straight throughtout the potrayal. I also pulled on a straight face with no expression to be done throught the potrayal, I did understand through research that Meerkats can put on a smile when looking at a friendly human/animal, but since I was performing in a cage at a zoo, I thought that the Meerkat would be sad and have no reason to smile because of that, so at all times I kept the straight face. This only became harder for me to achieve when students came to observe me for my assessment for my portrayal as the Meerkat, when the students looked at me, I found it hard to smile since I'm friends with a lot of the students that came in, and it was hard to look at them with a straight face. But I overcame this by still thinking about the atmosphere of being in a cage with no escape route possible which made me sadder overall since personally, I don't like looking at animals in cages in real life, I always have the urge to release them but also realizing I can't. The students also did find it obvious that I was acting like a Meerkat, they may have figured this out by either noticing the the piece of clothing I chose to wear with my portrayal, which was a brown hat with ears, or it was how I was acting physically, with my bent knees and straight back when I was standing on my hind legs and looking around with increased awareness to accompany it. It became even more obvious for them when I made the squeaking sound that a Meerkat makes, them catching on really quickly as to what animal I was performing as for the assessment made me think I was a really good interpretation of the Meerkat after much research and development at home.
 
So after completing the assessment, I felt that I gave the best interpretation of a Meerkat with both Physicality and Personality, and also with further evidence supported by a recording of my assessment, I think that I will be marked very highly by my Physical Theatre teacher, and after completing this evaluation of 'The Human Zoo', I think that alongside my performance, I will achieve a much higher mark.