Challenge Exercise: Abstract Tableau Scenes

Abstract theatre focuses on representing themes, ideas, situations, and emotions in a visual, stylized, symbolic way, rather than acting them out realistically. Using stylized physicality, students can express themselves in different and visually exciting ways. Let’s explore this through the lens of tableau scenes.

Instructions

1. Divide students into groups of 6–8.

2. Give each group a prompt from which to create a tableau scene. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Emotions: fear, joy, rage, anxiety, suspicion, boredom
• Colours
• Time: time passing, seasons changing, waiting for something to happen, growing up, a visual representation of a particular month or date
• Situations: falling in or out of love, feeling pressured, dealing with parents/guardians, worrying about the future, feeling left out
• Concepts: popularity, isolation, community, fashion, art, friendship, mess, growing up, safety, connectedness

3. Give students 10 minutes to come up with their tableau scene. If students need inspiration and time permits, you might have them do a word association exercise to come up with ideas to represent their theme.

Every student in the group must be part of the scene somehow. For the first attempts at this exercise, students may only use themselves in the tableau scene — no costumes, props, or furniture may be included. Feel free to add these during subsequent rounds of this exercise if you wish.

4. How can students make their tableau scenes visually interesting? Consider the following:

• Determine what the focal point of the scene is and build around that.
• Use different levels: high, medium, and low.
• Explore different ways to pose their bodies: sharp or bent angles, loose and flowing lines, curved or twisted poses, fluid versus flexed.
• Use their full bodies: angles and/or placement of the head, neck, shoulders, elbows, fingers, hips, knees, feet — not just arms and legs.
• Facial expressions are very important for portraying the emotion of the scene.
• Explore how pairs or trios within the group could pose together — near or touching — to create different shapes and images.
• Consider distance and proximity within the group. Are all the students grouped together? How close are they physically to each other? What could physical distance or nearness represent?

Remember that students must hold their frozen poses for at least 10 seconds, so while they of course want their poses to be visually interesting, they also need to be physically achievable! So don’t plan on doing a risky or difficult move like a backbend, split, or pose on one foot if it’s not already within your skillset.

5. Once the 10 minutes are up, have groups present their tableau scenes for the rest of the class. You can have groups share their prompt topic and then present their tableau scene, or have students not share their prompt and have the rest of the students guess what the prompt was, depending on their interpretation of the frozen picture presented.

6. Groups should hold their frozen poses for at least 10 seconds. If possible, take a photo of each group’s tableau so they can actually see what they created and reflect on it.

7. For each group, discuss any or all of the following:

• How did the students’ choice of poses in the tableau scene represent their concept?
• What immediately caught your attention in the scene? Why?
• What worked well?
• What didn’t work so well? What might they do differently next time?

8. Once all the groups have presented their tableau scenes, have each student complete an individual reflection (found below).