Getting up to date- 25/2

Today in class we just continued setting up our blogs.. nothing much to say about that, but yeah! Its pretty tricky going through eveything from last year, time consuming, but it will help me in the long run , especially with my TPPP.. so i’m off to work on Ancient Greek theatre!!

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Starting over

I’m so happy I made this blog. It’s going to keep everything up to date, organised and help so much with my TPPP. i just wish i had’ve had this at the start of last year! but never mind now.. Today I focused on getting up to date with Ancient Greek theatre and starting to make posts of what i had learnt from Medea and SOTM.

The year elevens were watching  a video about Kathakali dance, which I watched vaguely as well. I learnt a lot about the dedication that was required by these dancers. They trained for 10 years, started at the age of twelve. The physical fitness that is required of those dancers amazed me. There was 24 different hand movements alone that signified different words and meanings.

This picture shows a traditional costume of Kathakali, the green makeup symbolises nobility. The makeup involved withn Kathakali dance is an intricate an particular process which can take many hours to complete.

Kathakali dance dates from the 17th century, it can be seen during  religious ceremonies, for it is performed for the gods. Kathakali has a unique combination of literature, music, painting, acting and dance.

Following watching the video, we wrote down everything on a large piece of butchers paper that we had learnt about Kathakali dance. This was a valuable experience because it expanded my knowledge abotu theatre in the world.

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February 17- Term One, Week four

Theres a little bit of Laban in all of us..

 Today we were introduced to Laban’s movements, and became aware of how useful these can be when acting, especially using Stanivslavski’s techniques.

The eight movements are:

• Dab
• Flick
• Punch
• Slash
• Glide
• Float
• Wring
• Press

 

• As we identified them, we completed physically doing the movements, trying saying lines such as ‘I don’t love you,’ or ‘don’t put it there,’ ‘you will do what I say,’ ‘bubble bubble toil and trouble.’
  • Saying these words with the actions made the words become even more emotional and filled with feeling. i found it strangely liberating to do this exercise.. in that slashing and saying “i don’t love you!” is something that we don’t necessarily do every day. And the Laban movements allowed there to be truth in the performance.
• Stanivslavski’s ideas of acting with true and real emotion and character is helped by Laban, it makes you feel what they would be feeling.. because the actions really make you become the character!

 

Personally, I liked wring and slash the most.

Wringing was interesting in that it made me feel and remember times when I was in real agony. I hate pretending that I was truly feeling that way, but I can see how it would be effective and useful for a character. Slash provided the sustained, indirect, but strong movements, and I liked this feeling of having no control.. even though occasionally its a bit scary being like that, flinging my arms around really gave me that emotion of just garghh!!!

 

All the movements are very interesting  in the ways that they are so simple, are all totally linked, and yet again are completely different. Laban was an interesting exercise for me, I found the ways in which I could channel real emotion inot what I was saying when I added the moevemtns in.

One thing that we learnt was that breathing was very important in order to say the words, and effectively perform the action. Breathing meant that we were always channeling all of our energy into the moevement before we carried it out.

 

How can I apply this?

I can use these movements to really help develop my characters, make the emotions and motivations stronger. Having a movement such as a punch behind my lines can really help me to show conviction and really feel the emotion behind the words. The script becomes more than words, it becomes real!

 

I can use Laban in every acting experience that I have from now on, the movements are so so relevant to everything that is required when acting. Each Laban movement can change the mood, and affects the tone of your voice. And so in the future I can use Laban do create my character, develop it and really become (as Stanislavski likes) my character. 

 

 

Laban Questions:

1. Its important for an actor to atudy Laban’s work on moevement in that it shows us the phsycality that is involved in tehatre. It reminnds us that most of theatre is based on body language, and movements; and through learning about Laban’s eight moves, we can see how varied our body movements can be.
2. Laban outlined that space, time, weight and flow are the essential components of moevement.
3. Classical dancers aim to escape the pull of gravity, whereas Laban focused on the grounding of someone, he embraced that standing strong can have a better effect that leaping into the air.
4. Kinetography is the language of movement that Laban developed
5. The extremes on te continium of flow are continuous and disjointed.
6. Rhythm and pace make up time in the language of movement
7. Rhythm is directed into regular and irregular, meaning that some actions take place in a methodical manner and others take place at random. An example of rhythm at a regular pace is marching, whereas irregular could be supermarket shopping
8. Pace defines whether the movement moves from fast ir sudden to slow and steady.
9. The extremees on the continium of weight are light and heavy. It is defined by the weight of gravity. Light and gentle moevemnts such as tiptoing, or tightrope walking are on one end of the continium, whereas a person stamping is a heavy and strong movement.
10. The eight basic efforts are

• Dab
• Flick
• Punch
• Slash
• Glide
• Float
• Wring
• Press

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without the clever ones #2 16/2

Independent Project Ideas Class

Today we spoke about the different areas of theatre that we had researched, and used there forms of theatre of the world to discuss ideas for our idependent project. 

 

 

Process of IPP. 

 

• Concept, stimulus, source

○ I need an Idea, then a stimulus (group of poems), a source: (text, idea) which will lead me to my process.

• Process

○ Writing a script

○ Interpreting a script

• Applying the knowledge

○ Done practise, got information, start drawing up fourth step

• Action plan

○ How I will actually go about conducting this. 

• Journals

○ Reflecting and recording.

Some ideas for my IP.

○ How can … be adapted into a modern school setting?

○ Street story- dealing with the issues of contemporary schooling in Australia..?

○ How can… be adapted into a modern street setting

○ America

§ Incorporate dance aspects. 

 

This session really got some thoughts flowing about my IPP.. and I realised that there was so much scope of how interpretive you can be about the TIW and TIP you can be. 

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Theatre of the Oppressed

·       Theatre of the Oppressed originated in Brazil originally as a way to deal with local problems, and has since branched off into many other forms of the theatre. It was created by Augusto Boal.

·       These include:

 

o   Newspaper theatre

§  This was the first form of TO, it’s goal was to deal with the local problems; and soon was used all over Brazil.

o   Forum theatre

§  Originated in Peru, as a part of a Literacy program

§  Involves a practised or improvised play being performed (traditionally in the street.) Here, audience members ( or spect-actors) can watch the play; which is about oppression.

·       This means that the oppression is relevant to the audience The play involves an oppressor, and the actor who is being oppressed.

·       The same play is then repeated in front1 of the audience, usually in an abridged version. However this time around, the spect-actors are empowered. At any moment can yell out STOP! And they can take the place of the oppressed actor.

o    Contrary to the original ending of the first showing of the play in which the oppressor overthrows the oppressed characters; this time around the spect-actor aims to use different methods to that of the original oppressed actor, in order to overthrow the oppressor, while the original oppressive character aims to finish at the original scripted ending.

o   If the audience decides that the spect-actors actions are deemed to be unrealistic and couldn’t be used ina real situation, then the audience calls out ‘magic!’ and the spect-actor changes their approach to the oppressor.  If the spect-actor is unsuccessful then the original actor takes their place back and the play continues until another apect-actor sees an opportunity to overthrow the oppressor and takes the role of the actor through yelling out stop again.

o   If the oppressed spect-actor manages to overthrow the oppressor, then the play is remodified again, and the spect-actors can take the place of the oppressor, this means “a more realistic depiction of the oppression can be made by the audience, who are often victims of the oppression.”

o   Forum theatre results in the audience not only imagining change in their society, but practising it, they can reflect collectively on the situation, and this thereby encourages real social action.

 

o   Image theatre

§  This was developed to establish communication between Indigenous Nations and Spanish descendants

§  It involves participants showing an emotion, situation and thoughts through sculpting their body to represent this. All participants then group together and create the ‘image’ using all these individual ideas.

§  Participants can also sculpt others into shape.

§  Boal’s idea with Image theatre is that the physical movements in Theatre are the first most important aspect to show expression. ‘By using the body rather than speech, the normal ‘blockades’ and ‘filters’ of thought can be bypassed.’

§  The movements are encouraged to be formed instantaneously, to stop any thoughts from changing the raw emotions.

o   Invisible theatre

§  The aim of invisible theatre is to convey the violence that exists within the society, as well as to focus attention on common and recurring problems. As political activity, this was developed in Argentina. It is a previously practised play, which is performed in public without the audience’s knowledge that it is in fact a play. Social injustice, sexism, racism and ageism are all targeted. The intention to invisible theatre is to begin debate and clarify the problem, which is addressed. It not only incorporates the oppressor and the oppressed, but often, other actors disguised as passers-by voice strong opinions, therefore encouraging the real audience to also participate.

o   Rainbow of desire

§  Often considered a type of drama therapy, it incorporates aspects of image theatre

 

This diagram I feel visually maps what Theatre of the Oppressed encompasses. It shows what influences it, such as ethics and politics which branches up eventually into different forms of TOO. 

 This photo shows sculpting occurring. The actors are using Image Theatre to convey their emotions through the use of their bodies. 

 

 This photo is amazing in that it really conveys how TOO can be staged. This could be a demonstration of Forum Theatre, with the action taking place in the street and these many spect-actors having the chance to take part in overthrowing their oppressor. 

 Here is a script that i found in the style of Theatre of the Oppressed:

 

This script doesn’t involve improvisation and the opportunities for spect-actors to influence the action, however it is an example of a possible base script, in that the real actors learn this and this is somewhat of an issue in society. It depicts something ethical, and something that shows these children being oppressed by the officials and the system.   

 Bibliography:

http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?useFlash=1

This source is reliable in that it is written by Boal himself, the creator of Theatre of the Oppressed. It doesn’t go into enough detail about the different branches of TO, I needed more information on Forum theatre and image theatre, but luckily this was provided by other sources.

http://www.stage-left.org/past_youth.htm

This is where I got my script from, and I think it is an interesting script of TO. It doesn’t incorporate the improvisation that is so key to TO, but it still addresses the idea of challenging a society or practice within a society. 

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Oppressed

Although this is wikipedia, it gave me a far better understanding on the different branches of TO, it isn’t as reliable as other resources though, as it can be edited by other people; however this particular article matched the information that I found in the other articles.

 

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a country practise 12/2-19/2

 

 This week we were given the task of developing a directing plan for an excerpt from A Country Practise, and this is what I developed. It took some time to develop a sufficient backstory and the given circumstances, and this activity, when it was my turn to direct two other classmates, taught me a lot in that I learnt that you have to be prepared when directing, you have to have direction. Without this, your actors will not understand what you mean and begin to doubt your decisions. So heres my directing plan!! 🙂

My directing plan for a Country practise:

In this scene I am trying to show the relationship between Annabel and Shirley, but most of all expressing Annabel’s anxiety to get a place in the ballet, she is pacing around, showing her unsettlement, perhaps revealing her inner state, ( connotations to her mother’s death.)

Set design:

 

This was the vague idea that i wanted for when i directed the scene.

 

 Props list:

 

Salad Bowl

Fruit bowl

Fruit

SaladSalad servers

2x plates

1 x saucepan

2 x knives

2xforks

9x photos

2 x curtains (part of set?)

1x salt & pepper shakers

3 x chair

1 x table

 1 x drying rack

1 x tea towl

1 x dishcloth

2 x chair cushions

1 x clock 

 

Costume ideas:

AnabelI want anabel to be wearing something that emphasises her figure, as well as her ballet.This picture (below) is a good idea, as the baggy jumper gives the idea of losing weight, and the leggings the idea of sport/that she had been doing ballet all day. Perhaps Anable could take her jumper off when she rubs her lower stomach, and she would wear a plain singlet underneath which would further show her weight problems.   

 

               

                                                                                        This was inspiration for Annabel. 

 

(photo on top)This just gave me an idea as to how her hair could be, in a loose bun, aybe with curls out like the first image, but also with the idea that it was before in a tight ballet bun.

 

These two photos show how was thinking Shirley could be costumed, perhaps a bit older and not necessarily blonde! But with the causal look of a white t-shirt and jeans. Also alludes to the ‘country’ setting and shows that she is just comfortable in her own home/ area.  

 

 

Relationships:

• Is Shirley the mother or teacher figure? Is she an aunt?
  • An aunt. Annabel’s mother has died and her father is at work.
  • The relationship between Shirley and Annabel is put at strain because of Annabel’s condition, their separation, and the loss that they feel because they have only lost Annabel’s mother 5 months ago. Gives a reason why Annabel doesn’t want to lose ballet as well.

• Given circumstances:
  • Annabel’s father is at work, she has come round to Shirley’s. Annabel lives with her father and travels an hour to ballet classes everyday. It is around 7.20pm and the dinner has been served with much argument before hand at what they will eat and Shirley wondering whether Annabel will eat any of it. Annabel has her hand on her head because of the stress she is under, and she feels pain in her stomach because she has secretly not eaten all day.

• Perhaps when “Shirley studies her for a moment,” Annabel gets up and takes off her jumper to show her body, and then she rubs her lower stomach. This will give some blocking but also show her figure. “if I don’t do any good at ballet…” she can be pacing around showing her distress.
  • She ends at the sink, leaning over it, gripping the counter. This is when Shirley is taken aback. Looks out the window “there’s got to be more to life that that!”

• At one stage she can stop and look at the photos on the wall, to look at her mother (alluding to her death and that Annabel misses her?)

 

What I learnt from Directing

• It was interesting to see the ways in which the script could be interpreted differently to that of mine

 

• Sometimes a bit difficult to explain exactly what I wanted, giving verbs to describe the emotion could have worked. I should have gotten up and actually shown them what I thought.
  • Also had to be open to their own interpretations because what they did also worked.

• Found that the more they had read through the script the more passionate it got

 

• I found that having a prepared ‘given circumstances’ really helped them to find their characters, helped them to establish motivation.
  • I liked the advice I gave about their conviction, and I loved the way in which they interpreted my advice.

• Establishing the movements and blocking provided th actors with more

Watching other directing approaches:

• The ways in which the relationships changed
  • Mother’s friend and the daughter, they don’t get along
  • Annabel is cynical and not responsive.
• I needed to read the script perhaps more thoroughly. Thought setting the scene at night, the line ” i promise i’ll eat dinner” does not make as much sense.
  • This was a good learning curve for me, I saw how important it was to understand every aspect and possibilty within the script.

Not only did I participate in directing my own ideas, I also took part in acting in other people’s directing visions.

Nick’s vision

 I played the role of Shirley, however this version (nick’s,) was recontextualised. I found this really interesting, as it was a completely different take on the scene as to the one I took. The script was changed minorly to ensure that it matched what was being implied. We developed that my character of Shirley was:

• Divorced, (for 20 years)
  • Was married when she was 22,
    • My husband treated me badly, but I put up with it. He then left me for another woman. Since then I haven’t found a man but am not necessarily looking for one/
  • Has no kids
  • Doug is like a son to her

• Was best friends with Doug’s mother
  • This is why she helps Doug’s dreams
    • She understands that he is not a very good dancer but supports him anyway. 

• Hairdresser
  • I owned my own salon, was the only one who worked there and I was happy with this. My income was enough to sustain myself and Doug and his ballet lessons

 

This was a perspective that I hadn’t previously thought of, and changing the character annabel to a gay, australian bogan proved to be very comical and original. I liked being directed in that it gave me more ideas while also gave me room to interpret my lines and character.

 Other interpretations:

While watching Lachie’s interpretation, I saw how along with Ms Anketell, this group had incorporated Laban’s movements into their speech. Through identifying what they had done, such as dabbing, and gliding for shirley and slashing and flicking for Annabel. This characterised their characters and made me see how Laban can be incorporated into Stanislavski so easily. Seeing this was a good example of the realism that Stanislavski outlines, and then how the moves can compliment and build upon the emotions.

 

This exercise showed me how to direct and also how to be directed and how to take on board what the director suggests.

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T triple what? 11/2

TODAY…..

Firstly we borrowed the theatre texts, then I did my practise TPPP. While doing it I realised it was a good thing to be practicing this before the real TPPP, so I have experience and can properly refine what I want to talk about, so by the time my real one comes about I will have a flowing and cohesive presentation.

• My feedback was generally good, but there were areas in which I needed to explain and elaborate. This being said, I can easily fix these criticisms, in that I noticed several of them myself when performing my TPPP.

• The TPPP isn’t as daunting now as it was previously, as I have  good idea of whats expected when I do my real oral. Because I felt fairly pleased with what I had said in this time around, I feel confident that with some more refining, my TPPP will be successful. 

•  
  • however.. in order to be more successful in the future- my journal needs to be AMAZING, and so here I am trying to make it that way so that my TPPP is 7 quality 🙂

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my tree of ib (theatre) 10/2

If you could put your IB Theatre Course into a CD model.. what would you do?

Today we presented our 3d models, I found it interesting to see how everyone had taken a different approach to the task. A couple of the year elevens had portrayed the course as a solar system, another as a pond, another as a tree (similar to my own,) one as a clothesline and another and a coat hanger. The thing that stood out the most was the emphasis on the journal, in the ways that everyone showed it in their model to be vital to the balance of their model. 

We then listened to the yr 11 orals, then to lachie’s practise TPPP.

I found the year elevens hard to mark in that it was difficult to mark their performances because they are only very new ib students. They didn’t mark well according to me, but I know that they are in the very first steps and I can see their potential to grow. It was interesting to see these new students, as I was them this time last year.   

We then looked at the short script from the other day and used new emotions to make it new. Joseph and I got up infront of the class, and were to show many different verbs, not only through our lines but through expressions and body language. Even before I spoke, I showed my suspicion, and then changed my emotions as a spoke. I then tried the same verbs, but a different approach. It was interesting to see the different ways the same words and verb can be interpreted, and shows how it can be contextualised into any situation. Joseph had the same task, and our verbs contrasted and added onto each other’s.

 

Towards the end of the lesson we were given an excerpt from ‘a Country practice’ and were told to create an entire vision for the play.

• The set design for my version

• Costume (magazines and pictures for inspiration)

• Props list

• What I will ask my characters to o

○ I need to

§ Establish relationships (give a backstory to each character)

§ Storyline, give the extract context

§ “the given circumstances”

□ I’m not given any so I need to establish this so I can direct the scene effectively.

§ What actions can I perhaps suggest to my actors?

□ Can’t tell them what to do, but can propose ideas or suggestions. 

Todays class was interesting in that I got some extra ideas for my own TPPP, and I learnt a lot more about how Stanislavski can be used

• His theory allows us to use to many different emotions/verbs to motivate our lines. This means that there are countless different was in which the same line can be said, and each can be adapted to a new context. I can use this knowledge when interpreting future parts that I have, in that there are many many verbs that can be applied to any situation, and they can change the mood entirely!

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without the delinquents who are smarter than us #1. 9/2

This class was only year 12s, and we spoke about our RI. 

I found thisdaunting, as I didn’t know much about what it was and what was exptected of me. We wrote down many theatre genres that we knew of. 

• Elizabethan theatre

• Kathakali theatre

• Noh theatre

• Vietnamese water puppets

• Roman comedy

• Restoration comedy

• Ancient greek

We then discussed areas in which we may be interested and read a document which showed us how to properly critique a source. This was a lesson in how to properly do this and provided me with appropriate knowledge and examples that I will need when completing my own.

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the fifth of the second two thousand and nine

Today we began with discussing dates (when things are due etc.) about our year. This made me a little stressed to tell you the truth.. but it also made me see the requirements this year. 

We then did an activity in which we were saying a simple generic script. And saying these same lines:

A: “I didn’t know”

B: ” I thought you did”

With a partner, but changing the emotion and verb behind them. This made me see how a line/ words can be interpreted differently, and there is always so many possibilities within the same line. I can apply this to my own acting, in that whenever i have a line now, I will look in to the different ways in which I can say this same line, and how the meaning and mood is changed through this. 

Some examples of the ways in which the lines were said were:

A:• To adore

B:○ To reject

 

A:• To belittle

B: ○ To overwhelm

 

We were given the verbs and had to establish a way in which to contextualise it. 

The generic script, had no ‘given circumstances’ and so we had to develop our ideas ourselves. This meant changing the context every time greatly changed the ways in which we delivered our lines. 

We were then given different genres to try out, and experiment with. Some examples of these were:

• Sci fi, romantic comedy, western, days of our lives episode, comedy, action film, as if we were soldiers, as if we were thieves. 

○ It was interesting to see how this generic script could be applied to any situation, in that the situation that we found oursleves in greatly affected the way in which we portray our role. Just one word such as ‘western’ made us change our voice, body language, facial expressions, emotions.

Automatically the way you said your lines changed with the genre with the concept of actions, the different verbs helped us to make it this way.  This exercise helped us all to grasp Stanislavki’s method even more so, and will provide us with some basic techniques to improving our character when needed in the future.

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