GUERRILLA an 'AKA Performance Squad' project. GUERRILLA is a suggestion for improvisation by Ariel Efraim Ashbel and Efrat Aviv.

. It is based on the signal language introduced to us by free jazz musicians Yedo Gibson and Maya Dunietz in Den Haag in January 2007 (which is based on the London Improvisers Orchestra's signals). We took the formal principles and the playful approach that made the musicality of the improvisers graceful and seemingly effortless and adapted it to our theater-performance context, where the performers are using themselves as instruments. We first performed the piece with the 20 actors & dancers that form our loosely-defined independent theater company AKA Performance Squad in April 2007 at the Levontin 7 club in Tel Aviv, and then held weekly sessions in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, concluding in a Grand Finale at the Dance Arena Festival at the Zira Performance Art Centre in Jerusalem. General Instructions: A Session is comprised of a conductor and a group of performers. The conductor is assigning the performers with tasks using the gestures listed below. Each gesture can apply to a single performer, numerous performers or the entire group. In each paragraph in the list, the text before the colon describes the conductor's gesture, and the text that follows, the task the noted performer/s need to perform. The signals are divided to three groups: a) the basic signals, b) the Blue: signals which indicate the demand for creating a new action, and c) the Red, which indicates formal instructions, such as rhythm, volume, spacial relations etc., that manipulates an existing action or situation. BASIC SIGNALS: 1. Hand out flat palm upwards, moving inwards: Enter. 2. Hand out flat palm upwards, moving outwards: Exit. 3. Hand across neck: stop what you're doing (but remain on stage). 4. Hands roll over each other (followed by another sign): continue, and perform new assignment on top of what you're doing now. * when this sign isn't used, every new sign erases whatever the performer is doing. * when it comes after stop (#3): go back to what you did before you were stopped. 5. Pulling shirt down: change clothes or put on costume/mask/wig. (if none are at hand: make some adjustment/manipulation on whatever you have on).

AKA PERFORMANCE SQUAD Ariel Efraim Ashbel 23/4 Peretz Hayut st. Tel Aviv 63262 tel. +972.77.8160117 arielefraim.ashbel@gmail.com

THE BLUE SIGNALS: 6. Hand out flat palm upwards, moving forward chest height: perform a slow, continuous action/movement. 7. Fist held up: At cue (finger downbeat to fist) perform a fast, abrupt action/movement following the conductor's beat. 8. One hand pointing on eye and other on someone/something: imitate this person/object. 9. Palms gathering, fingers weave together, then pointing at someone: join and support what that person is doing. 10. Fists brought together, then pointing at someone: interrupt or destroy what that person is doing. 11. Hands twist an imaginary Rubik's Cube: do something completely different from what you were doing until cued. 12. Hands illustrate a bird on lips: sing a song. 13. Hands and head waving high in air: sabotage. Gradually destroy whatever it is you're doing. 14. Holding up index finger in front of someone: do something FABULOUS. *the fabulous thing has it's own timing, usually it won't be continuous. 15. Hands play imaginary juggling balls: Shuffle. Listen to the space, take responsibility and do something that will force a change on what's happening. (shuffle can evoke an action, placement on stage or anything that implies a shift to the existing conditions.) 16. Hand drawing a circle, two fingers facing down: change your placement continuously (by walking). 17. Hand drawing a circle, palm fisted: change your placement continuously (anything but walking). 18. Hands on heart: tell a true story. 19. Holding an imaginary skull and looking at it: perform a monologue you know by heart. 20. Index fingers alternately pointing on head: talk (whatever). 21. Index fingers alternately pointing on pelvis: move (whatever). 22. Index fingers pointing outwards, hips swinging: dance. (a specific kind of dance). 23. Fist on forehead: give a lecture regarding something you know absolutely nothing about. 24. Putting on imaginary hat: portray a character using minimum of time and means. 25. Hands framing: portray a situation using minimum of time and means. 26. Index fingers in dimples: make audience laugh. AKA PERFORMANCE SQUAD Ariel Efraim Ashbel 23/4 Peretz Hayut st. Tel Aviv 63262 tel. +972.77.8160117 arielefraim.ashbel@gmail.com

27. Harakiri (hands stick imaginary knife in stomach): do something bigger than life. 28. Palm open, wrist turning three times: do something in an almost manner. *this one I'm ambivalent about: it can come as both a trigger for initiating a new action or a quality change to an existing one. 29. Index fingers pointing on two different people then up, one moving towards other: do something to that someone. 30. Fingers illustrate horns: play an animal. THE RED SIGNALS: 31. Finger on mouth (sshhing): work in complete silence, don't produce any sound. 32.a. Hands going away from each other (open): turn up the volume of your action. 32.b. Hands coming together (close): turn down volume of your action. 33. Pointing at different people in each hand, then slowly raising one hand while lowering other: fade out (down) or in (up). *this is actually the same sign as 32a & 32b, only with one hand moving up and down instead of two moving towards each other or away from each other. 34. Index fingers rolling over each other, moving away from body: faster. 35. Index fingers rolling over each other, moving towards body: slower. 36. Index fingers draw an imaginary circle: create a loop out of what you just did and continue performing it until asked to stop. 37. Pointing to head and holding up one or more fingers of the other hand - Memory. The first time you see this signal, remember what you are doing at that point - the second and any subsequent times, reproduce it. 38. Index finger illustrates a bow: continue what you're doing, and change location. 39. Hand makes a stop sign: continue what you're doing, and stay in one place. 40. Palms flat above placed above each other: continue what you're doing, and change height. 41. Fingers closing to fist: do something really (opposite for #28). 42. Hands slide on chest away from each other: change the direction you're facing.

AKA PERFORMANCE SQUAD Ariel Efraim Ashbel 23/4 Peretz Hayut st. Tel Aviv 63262 tel. +972.77.8160117 arielefraim.ashbel@gmail.com