Focus and ensemble work as performance skills, including individual focus, ensemble focus, listening, responding, shared rhythm, and the practices that build ensemble

What this dot point is asking

NESA expects you to know focus and ensemble as performance skills, the techniques used to develop them, and their function in performance. Strong answers distinguish individual focus from ensemble focus and describe specific rehearsal practices.

The answer

What focus is

Focus has two meanings in performance, both of which matter for HSC Drama.

Individual focus. The performer's commitment to the imagined situation. The performer is fully present in the scene, not thinking about the audience, the marking, their next line, or the lighting. Strong focus reads as alive and committed; weak focus reads as performed or self-aware.

Audience focus. Where the audience's eye is drawn. The performer's focus directs the audience's attention. If the performer is looking at their scene partner intently, the audience looks at the scene partner. If the performer is looking at the door, the audience looks at the door. Skilled performers compose where the audience's attention goes by controlling their own attention.

What ensemble is

Ensemble is performance by a group that is acting together as one body rather than as several separate performers. The ensemble:

• Shares attention across the playing space.
• Listens to each other in scene.
• Responds rather than declaiming.
• Shares rhythm, breath and energy.
• Composes stage pictures together.
• Carries the meaning of the scene collectively.

Ensemble is the standard against which Group Performance is marked. A piece in which four performers take turns soloing is not an ensemble piece; a piece in which four performers are continuously alive to each other is.

Practices that build focus

Sustained silence

Performers stand or sit still in silence for sustained periods, fully present. The exercise builds the muscle of focus without performance.

The single point

Performers focus on a single specific point (an object across the room, a mark on the wall) and sustain attention. Then they speak text while sustaining the focus. Trains the ability to focus on one thing under pressure.

The whispered conversation

Pairs hold a long whispered conversation in front of an audience. The audience reads the focus because the audibility forces it. Reveals to the performer what focus actually feels like.

The pre-show focus

Five to ten minutes of silent presence before performance. Each performer settles into the present moment. Calms the body, focuses the mind.

Re-focus exercises

Mid-rehearsal practice of bringing attention back when it drifts. Notice the drift, return without judgement.

Practices that build ensemble

Listening exercises.

• Pairs facing each other; one performer makes a sound, the other repeats it; reverse. Builds the skill of attending to another performer.
• Sound circle: the group sits in a circle. One performer makes a sound. The next performer makes a sound that responds to it. Builds collective listening.
• Echo work: a leader speaks a phrase; the group repeats it exactly, including timing, pitch and texture.

Shared movement.

• Group walking: the whole group walks in shared rhythm through a defined space, accelerating and decelerating together without an obvious leader.
• Mirror work: pairs mirror each other; eventually the leader and follower become indistinguishable.
• Boal's image exercises: the group sculpts itself into images that respond to themes (oppression, family, work). Builds collective body awareness.

Shared text.

• Choric speaking: the group speaks a passage in unison, attending to breath, pace and pitch.
• Alternating lines: a passage is divided among the group, with lines passing fluidly from performer to performer.
• Group breath: the group sits and breathes in unison. The exercise builds the embodied experience of shared rhythm.

Status and impulse work.

• Keith Johnstone's status exercises (high status, low status, status reversals) build awareness of social dynamics.
• Boal's Forum Theatre techniques build responsiveness to changing situations.
• Mike Alfreds's "Different Every Night" approach (his 2007 book) trains performers to play each other rather than at each other.

Trust exercises.

• Falls (catching, controlled falls).
• Blind walks (leading a blindfolded partner).
• Weight-sharing exercises (leaning, partner balance).

Trust exercises are physical foundations for ensemble work. Without trust, performers play defensively.

The connection to character

Strong focus and ensemble are not separate from character work; they are part of it. The character's focus (where they look, what they listen to, what they care about) is part of who the character is. The ensemble's collective focus shapes the dramatic world.

In rehearsal, this connection is built by asking the question repeatedly: "Where is the character's attention right now?" The answer shapes both individual focus and ensemble composition.

Practitioners and pedagogies

Several traditions inform contemporary ensemble training:

Konstantin Stanislavski (1863 to 1938)

Russian director. Stanislavski's "system" includes the work on attention (the "circles of attention") that became a foundation for modern actor training. Stanislavski emphasised the actor's commitment to the imagined situation as the basis of focus.

Sanford Meisner (1905 to 1997)

American teacher. The Meisner technique builds responsive listening through repetitive exercises that train the actor to play off the partner. Many film actors trained in the Meisner tradition.

Jacques Copeau (1879 to 1949)

French director. Founded the Vieux-Colombier school in Paris in 1913. Copeau's school emphasised ensemble work and physical training as foundational. His students included Jean-Louis Barrault and Etienne Decroux.

Joan Littlewood (1914 to 2002)

English director. The Theatre Workshop's ensemble training drew on Brecht, Stanislavski and Laban. Littlewood's company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East built a sustained ensemble across decades.

Mike Alfreds (born 1934)

English director. His Different Every Night (2007) sets out a practical method for keeping ensemble work alive across long runs.

Ensemble in Australian theatre

Several Australian companies have built sustained ensemble work:

• Belvoir Street Theatre under various artistic directors has worked with returning companies of actors who develop ensemble over multiple productions.
• Bell Shakespeare, founded 1990 by John Bell, has built a touring ensemble across decades.
• Sydney Theatre Company's STC Actors Company (2006 to 2008) under Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton was an experiment in a permanent ensemble of around twelve actors.
• Legs on the Wall, Force Majeure, Chunky Move and other physical-theatre companies depend on ensemble training as the foundation of their work.

How focus and ensemble are assessed

For HSC Drama, the Group Performance is marked partly on ensemble work as one of the four criteria. The panel watches for:

• Whether performers are listening and responding to each other or playing past each other.
• Whether the group shares rhythm and breath.
• Whether stage pictures are composed together.
• Whether each performer's choices support the others or compete with them.

Strong ensemble reads as one breathing body across multiple performers. Weak ensemble reads as several solos arranged side by side.