Yoshi Oida

Yoshi Oida is someone Ben talks a lot about in rehearsal so to understand why he is so important I thought I needed to do some research. Yoshi Oida is a Japanese actor, director and author. Throughout his career he worked closely with Peter Brook; in 1970 he joined the International Centre of Theatre Research 2 years after moving to France to work with Brook. He has written 3 books-- the floating actor, the invisible actor and the cunning actor.

He believes in finding a rhythm of life and the connection between your body and the world around, being able to exist and notice the world and in turn listening to your bodies impulses to react. There is an exercise which experiments with this in which a group of people would clap together with no one leading, finding a rhythm which eventually begins to build and gain speed and momentum until it reaches a peak by which time you go back to the start and build once again. I think I understand the connection between this mans work and the work we do in rehearsal with side stretch. At the end of the movement when we all come to standing we try and notice the world around us, listening to our bodily impulses, syncing them with the intentions of the whole cast. Building that tension and feeling it rise is a very similar effect to the clapping exercise, when you finally reach a peak- the ha- and without talking or commenting you set up to start all over again.

Both our work in side stretch and the teachings of Yoshi Oida ask us to listen to what our body wants and not matter whether it is right or wrong. Learning to be attentive and sensitive to your surroundings so as to understand what your body is and wants. Developing this and putting it to use when I work with a scene or a character development means learning how to notice my bodies instincts and not deny them so as to keep playing and to keep building the energy and tension within the play.