At a glance
Groups of 4 · rehearsed in class over six workshop days · performed on Thread 1, Day 15 · roughly 90 seconds on stage
What you are making
Your group will tell one complete story in exactly five tableaux — no more, no fewer. The limit is the assignment: choosing which five moments a story cannot live without is a director’s judgement, and your audience must follow the story with no narration.
Between pictures, the group moves slowly and silently — freeze, flow, freeze:
graph LR T1["1"] -->|flow| T2["2"] T2 -->|flow| T3["3"] T3 -->|flow| T4["4"] T4 -->|flow| T5["5"]
Two requirements sit inside the sequence. Levels and focus must be deliberate in every image — “why is she the highest body in tableau three?” should have an answer. And exactly one moment of Thought Tracking happens somewhere in the piece.
How to work
- Choose a story everyone already knows — a fairy tale spares you the plot.
- Argue about the five moments before you stage anything. That argument is the most important rehearsal you will have; it is the exploring stage of The Creative Process.
- Build each image one at a time. Sculpt each other. Step out and look.
- Rehearse the transitions as carefully as the freezes — the flow is performed too, and rushing it breaks the spell.
- Decide where the Thought Tracking moment lands, and why there. The thought should say what the picture cannot — often the tension between what a character shows and what they think.
Rehearsal time is class time, and it is where most of what I judge actually happens — see How Marks Work.
You work in a four, and you are marked as yourself
There is no group mark here. Before you perform, your group tells me which images each of you led — sculpted them, argued for them, and can say why they belong in the sequence. Four of you and five pictures means somebody leads two; sort that out early. Your mark comes from the image you led, from your body’s work in the others, and from what you say in the conference during the first working period. A group can be uneven and you can still meet every criterion below.
Success criteria
| Quality | What it looks like from the audience |
|---|---|
| Story clarity | A stranger could retell the story after one viewing |
| Deliberate images | Levels and focus are choices, and the group can say why |
| Stillness | Freezes are truly still — eyes, hands, breath under control |
| Transitions | Flow is slow, silent, and controlled from first freeze to last |
| Thought tracking | The spoken thought reveals what the image alone could not |
| Ensemble | Every body in every image is doing work — take one out and the picture loses something |
If your group is stuck (click to expand)
Stuck groups almost always chose their five moments too fast. Ask: which picture could we cut with the story still surviving? If you find one, it is the wrong picture — replace it with the moment just before or just after the biggest change in the story.
Curriculum connection
A1.2
select and use appropriate forms to suit specific purposes in drama works (e.g., use tableaux to tell a story to a young audience; use improvisational games to dramatize a proverb; develop a ritual that could be part of an Aboriginal celebration)
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A2.2
use a variety of conventions to develop character and shape the action in ensemble drama presentations (e.g., use corridor of voices or a day in the life to extend their understanding of characters; use flashbacks or flash forwards to introduce new perspectives or create tension)
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C1.2
use correct terminology to refer to the forms, elements, conventions, and techniques of drama (e.g., tableau, blocking, setting, improvisation, flash-forward, guided tour, upstage)
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