A few more things to say about the weekend workshop.
First, the venue, which I really liked. It was the London Buddhist Arts Centre in Bethnal Green, clearly a low-budget location, but well looked after. A tatty old building in a rough part of town, heavily used. The kitchen made me want to cook, even though the plates and mugs were a random assortment. It was just a good place.
Saturday and Sunday had a lot of dancing, just "to get into our bodies". Dancing works fairly well as a set-up for acting, because, after a certain amount of time (say half an hour), you just have to let go of "what this will look like to other people". All the "this will look cool" or "this must look rubbish" or "I'll clown" or "I'll be very unobtrusive and stay in this corner" or "doing it correctly" stuff has to get worn off. Most of the dancing was with another person, changing partners frequently.
There was a more explicit exercise about receiving attention: this consisted of dancing while being watched intently by someone else (who was not dancing, just watching) and getting used to it, by a variety of manoeuvres.
Then the main exercises were about just "following your instinct". Again, no specific process was taught for this, just practice. For example: take a fairly random prop or item of clothing, spend a few minutes getting used to the prop, and who you might be with it, and then in pairs, improvise a little scene, doing whatever comes to mind. No words, no dancing, no interacting with other pairs, no changing who you are (or what the prop is) half way through, go with your instinct... Act as if it's not personal, but act as if it matters.
I'm guessing (though I've never done it) this is all pretty standard fare for beginners theatre workshops. And I'm also guessing it's many people's idea of their worst nightmare. Mine included. But after a while, it started to work. The useful thing, for me, was just learning to trust that something will come. And, to be specific, how it comes: which is not as an idea (like we'll pretend to be fighting over this thing) but as a physical movement (I feel the urge to step in this direction, or to fold my arms, or touch his face, or whatever).
It's pretty good advice for many things in life that involve interacting with others: don't worry about doing it right, or impressing people, don't try to stick to a preconceived script as to how it has to go; just notice what your body wants to do.
