me arts ed

Workshop: Physical Character and Physical Comedy – by Kim Murphy

Michael Trautman

Intellectual, Emotional, and Physical are the three divisions of the body as identified by Delsarte.  This is the simple overview of the workshop on physical character and comedy as presented by Michael Trautman in a pack-filled hour.

We, the workshop participants, first did some simple warm-ups and then progressed to moving around the room while leading with different parts of our body.  This isolation of parts was later explained by Michael as how characters are presented on stage physically and how our interpretation of the character’s intellect, emotions or physicality should also be portrayed in the body.

I discovered ideas to bring back to the drama program here at Camden Hills Regional High School – and thoughts of how we could use these ideas in our duck-like movements of our current production of Honk! Michael Trautman’s session was more than a workshop on body language.  Through the following of Delsarte’s philosophy of the various qualities of the parts of the body – one becomes aware of how characters do portray those aspects….even if you’ve never understood why.   For instance, Michael explained that Fonzi is a strong, physical character – and so he leads with his hips when he enters the room; and Romeo is a character full of emotion, and so he leads with his chest when crossing the stage.

The most valuable part of the workshop was watching Michael portray different characters and talk about how he puts their qualities into his body.  He is very flexible  – I would liken him to the father character in The Incredibles! We asked about the qualities of certain characters.  Then watched as these aspects were acted out by Michael.  Watching Michael’s demonstrations was the proof in the pudding; plus,  it was very entertaining and educational for all of the workshop participants.

I must say – during our little romp around the room – leading with the nose, or the hip, or the thigh….we all seemed a bit stiff and silly.  But that’s because the majority of us have been walking with distinct patterns for almost a half-century…and unlearning those habits in a matter of minutes was nigh on impossible.  Yet – take this same workshop and do it with kids? – Yes!  The (more flexible) youngsters would pick it up in seconds and really fly with it.

My personal goal is to see if I can have Michael come to our school to do a workshop session with our students.  He would be perfect for our current play….but we may not have the time right now.  However, it would be a valuable workshop for students at any time of the year.  If there is another school(s) in the MidCoast area who would like to partner with me in bringing him to our area, please contact me at kim_murphy@fivetowns.net

Thanks to the conference organizers for bringing Michael to our conference – I only wish I could have been there on Thursday night to see that performance too.