American Theater Lecture 9: Twine Twine!!!!

Voice is the most important tool that an actor possesses to emulate emotions and to communicate with the audience. Its importance is further emphasized when the performance is theatrical. It is with the element of voice that an actor develops different characters and produces variety in his speech. So, in order for us to acquire control over our voice and speech, Dr. Erika Hughes made us do certain exercises with her. She stressed upon the breath control for proper voice projection on stage. We practised this. While all of us were on the stage, Dr. Erika Hughes was in the last row of the seats in the auditorium. We all employed voice projection in order for us to be clearly heard by her. This helped us to gauge how much successful we will be in gaining the attention of the audience once we will be on the stage. Our professors want us to tame our voices so that they are properly projected while using the flow of air from the diaphragm of our body rather than just the lungs. Later on in the day, we further practised this. This time half of us were on the stage, while the rest were in the last row of the auditorium. We had to throw our greetings to each other. The whole idea of the voice projection here was to be loud without shouting.

Art has a strange quality to it. It breaks the barriers and connects. The students of Arizona State university designed a twine game for us. Twine game is described as a tool for making interactive fiction in the form of web pages. This game contained textual commands that we had to follow. The early part of the game greatly comprised questions related to the personal information about the person playing the game. We not only shared our personal choices but also wrote about our dreams in this game. We piled up those paper strips that carried our dreams for Ms. Asma Niaz to keep with her. This is how the pile looked like:

The later part of the game demanded us to be in two groups and to make a tableau that presented Pakistani culture first and then to present a tableau on the American culture. It was enthralling to watch the colourful graphic presentation of the Pakistani and American culture on the stage. 

Pakistan Tableau (Group A)

Pakistan Tableau (Group B)

American Tableau (Group A)

American Tableau (Group B

I think this game serves as a bridge that will ultimately help the students on the both sides to have a better understanding of the two cultures. It was fascinating that how people whom we never met were in a way controlling us and that also through technology. Moreover, I conceived the twine game to be all about exploration. It was just like a treasure hunt, where the clues lead you and take you towards an end. You never know what is going to unfold. At the end of the presentations, we brainstormed in groups to think of employing the concept of twine game and technology in theater and discussed it with our professors.

Eventually, we presented the dialogues written by us in pairs and with this our four hour American theater class of Friday came to an end.