28th April

Today we established what we had really done when creating and performing First Breath After Coma on Theatre Camp. This had been added into my Theatre camp journal (below.) we also researched several theatrical figures, mine was lepage and I will be inserting a sheet onto here soon with all our collated research. We then discussed what can be used when creating Visual, non narrative,  non-text based and non linear theatre piece:

 

Tools that are used for visual theatre:

 

• Masks
• Laban
• Music/song
• Acrobatics and gymnastics
• Appropriate performers
• Tableaux
• Ritualised costumes
• Improvisation
• Exaggerated movements
• Theatre of cruelty
• Lighting- contrasting light
• Strong makeup
• Props – symbols
• Background images- on set, projected
• Sets
  • Minimalistic
  • As symbols

• Biomechanics
• Primal noises
• Sound effects
• Man staging decision are symbols/representations of something
• Repetition
• Visual comedy
  • Lazzi techniques
  • Slapstick

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Mask making- 24/3

Today in our double class we made masks out of mod rock with the year elevens. The year 11s are to use these masks and paint them and use them for their Kathakali presentation.

Actually making a mask was a process that was interesting, it made us all understand the time and care that is required when hand creating a mask- it is time consuming, repetitive and must be done a certain way.

Materials:

• modroc sheets

• scissors

• protective plastic sheets

• paint brushes (large ones work best)

• mask moulds (can be female or male- we all used male moulds because the face was larger.)

• buckets of water (this is used to dip paint brushes, it shouldn’t be situated far away from where the mask is  being created.)

• some form of protective clothing probably would have come in handy in retrospect…

The Process:

The first step was to cut a quantity of mocroc sheets (as seen below) into smaller sized pieces. This makes the mask stronger, if one was to lay down large sheets, the overall strength of the mask would be lessned greatly.

 

This is how the modroc came originally, using scissors we cut it up before we began.

We next organised ourselves so that we were sitting on the proctective plastic, with appropriate paint brushes, water nearby and a mask mould and sufficient pieces of modroc.

The next step was to begin!! The process involed placing one piece of modroc into the mould and then applying water (on the paintbrush) over the top until all the small square mesh shapes were not to be seen. This was repeated over and over again until the mould was completely covered.

Care must be taken when applying the modroc to the outer edges of the mask, keeping in mind that the the modoc must overlap the edge quite substantially or else taking the mask out and painting would prove to be difficult.

Around 3-4 layers of modroc should be applied, overlapping and constantly applying the water to the modroc so that the mesh is not visible and it is a smooth white surface. When held up to the light the mask should appear consistent and evenly layered, with everywhere including the eyes and nose covered with modroc.

At the end of the double we placed our masks in a cupboard so that other students or people would not touch them as they were drying.

Now all we have to do is wait for them to be dry and then take them out and paint them as we like!! I probably would have rathered to do some work on my RI during this time, but nonetheless it was a fun, creative exercise and made the class appreciate the process of making masks.

 

AND….

 

heres a photo of how they all worked out.. pretty well in my opinion!!

 

the final step was painting them with a sealant that would ensure the paint would not bleed into the modrock when they were painted.

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Theatre Camp- day two.

 Day two:

 

The first part of today was spent creating a ‘naturalistic’ and realistic protrayal of an accident that takes place on a corner. Using Stanislavski techniques, a representation of life. ‘a slice of life,’ realism.  I was in a group with Nick, Clare and Sophie and we presented outs that there was a split scene taking place. Using Stanislavski techniques we were trying to make a scene where the audience could see what would happen but the actors could not.

Storyline brainstorming

• Suicide that kills someone?
• Car crash
  • We built upon this, we all gave in ideas of why it would occur.
  • Then gave out roles and started work shopping it .
    • Tried to make it as real as possible, with Clare and Nick really pretending to be distraught with the situation and ME and soph really pretending to be angry
    • The actual crash was difficult to figure out- we didn’t have a car or the materials or lighting to enable us to show the crash properly, instead nick just lay down when he was dead and we freeze framed with our reactions at the end.

A couple was having a fight, approaching the corner, while two girls in a car were talking heatedly about the driver’s boyfriend and how he was being so terrible. Because they were both so caught up in their own worlds, they werent aware of the danger. It was done so taht it was a split scene, in diffeent places, and one group would freezeframe when the other was approaching the corner. Eventually the male of the couple was hit by the car.

one problem with ours was that thorugh making it a split scene, it lost its realism, it was not in real time. But we had already incorporated Brechtian techniques!..

Because we didn’t know much about Brecht, on thisvery hot day we then learnt about Brecht’s theories and what his theatre involved. Our task was that an ‘accident’ had taken place, on a corner, and using Brechtian styles we then incorporated these into our scene. Ours was changed in that there was a narrator, that there was comedy at the end.

• Given brecht handout and we looked at the distinguishing features of his theories.
  • We tried to apply this to what we had already done.
    • We decided to run with the idea of meshing completely opposite acting styles, such as comedy and drama. SO we kept the first half of the piece as dramatic and then added in aspects of comedy in the second half. Played with the idea of puttingon voices (another aspect that Brcht worked with.. Mroeso accents but yes.)
    • After snack we wanted to add in even more Brecht, so we had the idea of adding a narrator to make the audience even more aware that they were watching a play.
      • The narrator would be overly involved, making the audience feel alienated from what they were seeing, they could comepltely tell that it was a part of the play.
      • The difference between the dramatic emotions that we were showing in the first half contrasts against the way in which we react to his death (but he’s not actually dead!!)

 

• Through this activity, I saw that adding in the aspects is hard. We tried to detach ourselves from our character, but it was very difficult and so the first half is still very dramatic.

Ours was already brechtian because of the split scene and still frames.

This was annoying in that we hadn’t done Stanislavski as wel as we could have, but aided in that we already had brechtian aspects.

 

 

 MOTHER COURAGE:

 

We made a tableaux of the front cover picture of the play, trying to recreate this image was difficult, especially without the props and costumes.

 

we read the scene together, and i was given the task of directing the play and maddie- lighting. Everyone else was acting in the play.

Directing:

Went through the script with the class. I then picked where I wanted to stage this scene, it really got what i wanted the scene to do across.



 I helped maddie figure out some lighting and we decided that we wanted to set up some lighting for that night, so that we could go through the script with maddie’s vision in mind. I operated the lighting board which helped me to get some experiene here.

 

During the day when we were going through the script, i found out how bloody hard it is to direct. It was really hot, and it was difficult to get the feeling right in the scenes, especiallly since i had been given next to no preparation time, and that everyone was pretty expectant of me to direct them. Also, because everyone was rightly reliant on their scripts it was difficult for them to move and do it as though they were really performing it. When reliant on teh script, its difficult to get blocking and movements and language really distinct to each character, but we did get a vague idea of what the scene would involve for each character

 

Lighting:

• pinkish lightsfor the general wash.
• Split lighting between the conversations between Eilif and recruiter and MC and Sergeant.
• a special on the tree/where the conversation between Sergeant and recruiter was taking place at the beginning

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Theatre Camp- day one.

We next had to think of a person/people who may be there at the pier or on a boat. I already had an idea of a storyline- and so I began creating the characters that would be present. My two characters were: It all began when we finally moved off in the taxis and made our way to Avalon College. We got a tour of the facilties and began making friends with the kids that boarded there. To begin with.. we were impressed with our room! But not so impressed with the Nazi-style alarm system at night!!

First off… 

we went through the weekend’s schedule..  And we found out that it was going to be intense as! ahaha

we then moved on to PPP practise

we were firstly given a stimulus  

• Picture of boats on a pier

It was a big annoying though because it was in greyscale and this perhaps took away the other feelings that could have been inspired as a result of colour. Maybe this greyscale influenced our interpretations and thoughts on the stimulus.

We documented   

• Feelings, moods, emotions that were inspired from the stimulus
• That came to mind when we saw the picture. Things like ‘lonely’ etc.

This is my list: 

 journey

peaceful

lonely

water

nature

gloating

quiet

unity

family- bound together at common root.  

 

Who might be there? and Why?

We next had to think of a person/people who may be there at the pier or on a boat. I already had an idea of a storyline- and so I began creating the characters that would be present. My two characters were:

• Next, we had to justify why the characters were there, what were they doing etc.?
• Tableaux images that we thought of
  • This involved first of all thinking of different pictures that could take place in the stimulus, but I continued on with my story, creating my tableaux in order to run the small storyline.
• Key phrases – lines of dialogue
  • ones that tied in with the tableaux?
  • We then formed phrases/ dialogue that we thought would fit into our scenes/scene, this meant just writing down quickly as many words that would fit in.
 
 
 
 
 

 

• Drama/conflict: what could take place here?
• Is there a myth of legend that has “connection”/vibration to what you’ve considered.

This was mine:

• The old man who hires out the boats, he is perhaps lonely o a bit grumpy. Wearing a hat,
• A second man:
• Grieving his father’s death, lonely, scared.
• Old man: sits in the hut (visible in the stimulus) waiting for people to take the boats out.
• Man #2: His father has just died, therefore he has come back to the town for the funeral.
  • Perhaps  before or after the funeral now, doesn’t really matter..?
• Man is in the area because his father has died.
• He sees the boats and it reminds him of a memory, or else he is just taken to rent a boat.
• So he goes down and asks for a boat, he is not chatting to the old man, just doing business.
  • The old man begins to ask if he knows how to row, but the man cuts him off saying Yes. And then he hops in the boat.
• Man rows out into the middle of the lake, rowing strongly and aggressively, until he stops rowing and just floats with the momentum. He starts crying
• The man just sits, solitary on the lake for hours, or a long time at least, the man in the hut just watches wondering what is going on
• The man in the hurt eventually hops in a boat, rows out, and just floats in his separate boat next to the man’s, now there is a tableaux of two solitary men in their boats on a lake.We then: Made our tableaux with others making the images.

Examples:

Maddie’s:

She had also created a story,

• There was a volcano about to erupt, and the people from all the different islands in this area had come to this place to discuss what to do.
  • Fist tableaux is of people hurrying out of the boats to get to the meeting.
  • There had been a boy warning the village people of the danger for some time now, but noone had listened to him.
• Everyone goes to the meeting but the little boy sneaks off and unties every boat, in spite of the townspeople. (this is anouther tableaux)
• The boy’s mother, noticing her son’s absence, catches his doing this and is shocked by how pelased he is with himself, she grabs him by the ear and drags him into the meeting to show everyone what he has done.

other’s ideas:

• A man with a can sitting back and enjoying life.
• A school group, with some sunbaking, onr about to jump in the water.
• A guy dumping his girlfriend’s belongings into the lake because they had broken up
• Murder (joe)
• Forced marriage (maddie)
• Volcano
• Shark attack (soph)
• 19th century man wondering if he should marry the gypsy girl whom he loves, or the higher society woman who he feels obliged to marry. (van)
• World in peril- clans, boatmen meeting so figure out what to do (lachie)
• Son in grief, father died (me) 

The next thing that we did on the friday was:

The pitch with Joseph, Van and Soph.

We formed groups, I was with joseph van and sophie. We all shared our created stories, and then decided that we’d recreate a story, using aspcts from all of our ideas. (we had previously gone through a sample PPP with a year eleven.) We decided early in to incorporate a message of change- to encourage our audience to make changes about Climate change.

here was our pitch that we presented to the group: 

Pitch

 We are faced each day with the growing threats of climate change, and what we are trying to achieve through our piece of satirical theatre is to increase awareness on this issue and to encourage action. Although the work is relevant to all age groups, we will be predominantly targeting the younger generations as they have the power to create change.

To enhance the audience’s connections to the play, we have chosen to set the story in a classroom. The classroom is representative of the sheltered environment present in school life, the teacher promising security and help- but in reality diverting the students from seeing the bigger picture outside of the classroom. Stereotypical characters will be utilised to increase the actor-audience relationship.

The narrow vision of the classroom’s characters reflects the stimulus of every boat facing inwards towards the pier, ignoring the large and potentially dangerous lake that surrounds them. This incorporates aspects of symbolism and metaphors to inspire the audiences to bring about change in their society, as is targeted in Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.

The characters are so focused on their worries that are insignificant in comparison to the turmoil that surrounds them and we hope that this will cause the audience to see the problems with the Western ways of life.  A traverse stage allows the audience to feel as though they are the problem that is closing in on the classroom and this reflects how we have become the threat destroying our environment.

This was an exercise that helped us to understand what was required in ta Pitch for  a PPP, over the ocurse of the weekend we completed a couple more of these and therefore gained a lot of experience in writing pitches.

 As a bit of a break/ a change of what we were doing we did some improvisation: 

It involved pairing up with someone, (i was with Sophie) and pretending to give each other gifts. The other person would have to accept the gift exactly as the person a had presented it. (ie, was it heavy, small, cuddly, square..?) They had to express genuine excitement about what they had recieved, and create what the present was on the spot.

We then did:

• Lets go… yes lets!

person a must create a place that they were going to go, as in: ‘lets go clean a toilet!’ and person b must rpelywith ‘yes lets!’ not matter what the exercise was. Then they both had to go and complete this action through mime.

This exercise was a fun one, but also gave the year 11s and us a bit more experience with improv. It taught us the importance of ‘always trying to make the other person look good’ as well as that you must keep in check with what the other actor does in order to make it believeable (especially using mime.)

Set design with David

was next, it was interesting and showed us the importance of being exact when drawing this. He showed us that all measurements were written in mms, and we then meaused the room, and drew an accurate diagram (to scale) of how large the room was. we used a 1:50 scale so that it could all fit on the page.

personally, this exercise was pretty boring to me. I like graphics and art, but i find it really tedious when one must do it so exact. I’d prefer creating the set rather than drawing it up with rulers.

We were then given a small excerpt of a script, of which we had to create a picture (to scale) of the set that was described in the script. This taught us how everyone can see a set differently, different interpretations influence how it will look, and gave us experience that wouldbe necessary for our PPP and IP.

Theatre of Cruelty:

perhaps the most memorable section of our weekend was this. We were given a stimulus (more preparation for our PPP)

it was ‘firth breat hafter coma, by explosions in the sky. It was a piece of music, without any lyrics, but it really moved everyone! it was also interested to see how it was interpreted differently, clare and i really had a connection with a love story of some type, but as our task was to create theatre of cruelty we staryed away from that. Before this though, we were given pieces of material and just had to move acording to the music, let ourselves go!! Everyone was a bit shy, but it  was a good exercise, especially trying to incorporate the laban movements.

We then seperated into groups. Our direction was vague, we wanted to express the cruelty. So we put the audience in the middle of us, ours was basically a trial and error improvisation method of creating our piece of theatre. Through using the masks we made it even more eerie. Basically our concept was the ways in which violence takes over people, even though we are all made the same way. Clare, was juxtaposed against us in that she was wearing a brightly coloured, pink piece of material, and all white under that as distinct from our all black clothing and drk navy blue material. The masks made us seem very uniform, but clare didn’t have one on.

It was an intreresting method, creating it through improvisation, and it took us several practises to get it right, but the overall effect was amazing. We had achieved: scaring our audience, and the scream which clare did (which we had never practised properly before) really added in an extra dimension. Sophie cried, we were shocked by how well our piece had worked because we had all been feeling quite disconcerted about it consdiering the other group seemed so organised.
Here is the pitch we wrote:

 OUR PITCH:

Our piece is a confronting work which incorporates Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty, and the Laban effort based movements. It is inspired by “First breath after coma” by Explosions in the Sky. Lighting, costume and the environment in which it is staged causes the audience to feel overwhelmed and trapped. The audience is further affected by shock tactics such as heavy breathing and a piercing scream. Considering the disturbing nature of our performance, our target audience is 15 years and above.

The aim of our performance is to force the audience to reflect on the violence in today’s society, the way it corrupts innocence and its detrimental effects on individuals. The journeys of the characters from creation to death and the afterlife and the ways in which they murder and realise their atrocities is portrayed through the use of Laban’s movements, especially flicking, wringing and floating. These movements were enhanced through the use of masks to create a disconcerting effect on the audience.

A peppercorn tree serves as the backdrop to the outside staging environment, lit by red and yellow fresnels, to create a dappled and eerie effect. A blue general wash accentuates further the depressing and horrific themes in the piece. Costume is used to contrast between the violent and the pure. Dark cloaks and masks are worn by three characters to symbolise their dark nature, as opposed to the bright pink cloak and unmasked face that symbolises this characters untainted soul. Artaud’s idea of placing the audience in the centre of the action engulfs and overwhelms the audience and creates a piece which is shocking yet insightful.

 

This exercise also incorporated lighting, we designed our ligting so that the trees were lit up with red and white light (red symbolising death/violence), it created an extra eerie element, and the blue general wash of the area made it all seem very solemn. This activity was amazing, it made us appreciate Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty and what is possible with it!

Here is a picture of what the other group’s performance was:

 

Here are some extra notes that were taken in class on the process that was taken to achieve our First Breath After Coma performance.

 

process

• Listened to music
• Moved to music
• Discussed what it it meant to us
  • Lachie and Joseph took it literally that it was someone coming out of a coma
  • Clare and I something about lov
• Ours was in that we all wanted each other to have an individual motives, we are all born the same.
• We took it from there in that we improvised until we incorporated in Theatre of Cruelty aspects
  • Put audience in the middle- artaud’s theories
  • Added in violent aspects, that everyone is affected by violence.
    •  Joseph is affected by drugs etc ( a problem and violent aspect of our society)
      • This was difficult to show through the images, so we changed this.
    • Lachie is the overwhelming power that is killing everyone
    • Clare is innocent
      • She ends up killing herself because of the violence around her
        • We changed that she shot herself to that she screamed because we decided that the gun was not shocking or real enough.
    • Julia is momentarily taken by violence and then realises.
• Labans movements were also added, the flicking in the beginning, which moved into gliding around the circle.

The reawakening of our spirits after our deaths and clare’s death was symbolic of our souls observing and realising what had taken place, the tragedy of violence, what we had brought about as a result of our violent ways.

 

• How we made decisions:
• Improvisation
  • Kept trying until it fit inside the time limit, we added in extra parts when it didn’t last long enough, this made us refine our work.
  • Collaborative process, the things that were left out were still used but became less prominent as we identified other areas that we could more heavily focus on.
• Our costumes were symbolic and representative of innocence and tainted souls. Masks to show how we are all born the same and then we can be tainted by society or the violence that is around us.
• Masks and cloak. We had been using the cloaks before hand, we changed slightly the colour of the cloaks to represent personal qualities.
• Lighting:
  • Blue general wash
  • Wanted the bigger area outside, and the peppercorn tree can be our background
  •  red special on tree to symbolise the violence
  • White specieal on tree to add eerie dappling shadows.

Theatre of cruelty principles that we used:

• The scream added an extra dimension
  • Was not expected
• Themes of violence
• Strong imagery to shock the audience
  • The murders of the other characters
  • Julia getting hit in the face
  • The heavy breathing added eerie affect
• Audience in the centre
  • Make them feel cornered and targeted.
• From our original performance, we did not make any changes
  • Except for the addition of 4 people, and a larger circle for the audience because of the enlarged audience size, this is why we added extra character
  • Everyone had to begin evenly spaced
  • Everyone had to die spread out
  • The running needed to be faster and very accurate
• No changes to lighting except that it was earlier in the night so lights were not as prominent and therefore was less satisfactory for us as performers because it stopped the scary aspects- there were less shadows.

This did not work as well as the first night because it was not as powerful because it was harder for the audience to see everything was happening and needed the targeted feel. First performance was better because it did achieve this targeted audience feeling, communicated the themes of violence.

The extra people didn’t know how rehearsed this needed to be, so the movements needed to be a lot more precise in that it was a larger area

 If it was in a theatre, a smaller audience is vital , as well as if it was staged outside. There is no doubt that  the smaller audience was more affective, the bigger it was it was harder to communicate our ideas properly. It did work better with 4, but whether that was because we had more rehearsal time or because of the size of the audience was smaller. The outside environment makes the audience feel vulnerable, there are no safe walls around them and the darkness is unknown, it is more real to them. The lights also add to the feelings that the audience have about this.

This fits into our understanding of theatre in that we realised how powerful theatre of cruelty is as well as outside and site specific theatre is. There are some feelings that we wouldn’t want to do Theatre of Cruelty again in that it is too indirect, but on the other hand it an communicate a message to the audience- it depends on the piece of theatre that is created. The effect on the audience was important in that it made an impact on them, and this is something that we all enjoyed because we were surprised at how successful our ended up being because we weren’t too sure in the rehearsal period. Site specific theatre worked in that the tree added to the performance, it created a background and the lighting added to this as well. It can be created as a unique performance in that the light was particularly effective under that particular tree. The audience can consider the power of a blind mob, a group of people who are overtaken by violence. There was some different interpretations of Clare’s character- the innocent  factors of hers were not necessarily communicated towards the audience. It was interesting to see how powerful the scream was- we all have realised how important shock tactics are in Theatre of Cruelty.

The other performance gave us the ideas of:

• To stay on the light side he needed to do it himself
• There were strong messages of the different forces- good and evil.
• Could see the Theatre of Cruelty elements, lighting was used very effectively.
• Difficult to understand what Maddie’s role was?
  • Found out that she was a motherly role, someone who looks over Nick’s character.
• Could see the importance of effectively mask use- it only works to an extent.
• Interesting how comedy was utilised in the middle of the performance (nick looking about.)

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World Theatre- Kathakali- 18/3/09

Kathakali Handout

we were sent this from the year elevens, and it contains information about many aspects of Kathakali.

• History

  ·         The history of Kathakali originated in South India, Kerala during the 17^th century. The Kathakali dance began when a Zamorin Raja composed a poem that was to be performed in the great Krishna Temple of Guruvayur

  ·         When a member of the royal family requested this to be performed by Zamorin’s troupes of dancers and musicians he was denied due to the political conflict between the two.

  ·         So the two had a competition to see who could invent the best art form with Krishnanaattam evolving into Kathakali.

  ·         It is performed to workshop Gods

  Training

  ·         Boys used to start training from 8-10  years old

  ·         Includes dedicated training for 10 years in order to become a kathakali dancer

  ·         These days kathakali training is started any time until 16

  ·         The training is rigorous and painful

  ·         Preparing for a performance takes hours and starts during the make-up process

  Stage Craft

  ·         Thiraseela, curtains which are held up by 2 people. Could have name or logo of troupe on.

  ·         Lamp (only source of light)

  ·         Stool; could be sat on or stood on for actor to gain height to act like a chariot etc.

  ·         Tends to not use props as mime is used.

  Make Up

  ·         Use to use mask, but then used much make up to allow more facial expressions and use of eye movements

  ·         Make up is organic

  ·         Used to convey different characters and emotion

  ·         Green = godliness

  ·         White = spirituality

  ·         Red = ambition/anger 

  ·         Yellow = passivity

  ·         Black = evil

  Costumes

  ·         Consists of massive skirt that is empty beneath which allows plenty of leg movement

  ·         Big and colourful

  ·         Some aspects are not part of the performance as such. E.g. some cords of the costume have mirrors integrated so that the actors can check their make-up.

  Performance

  ·         Used to start at dusk and finish at dawn

  ·         Now days runs for 2-3 hours

  ·         At the end of the performance, the actors thank the audience and Gods

   

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Mask work 17/3/09

•  

 

Why are they used?

• Because from a long way away it is too difficult to see the expressions on an actor’s expressions
• Create character
  • That is larger than life
  • Take the character into the world of the absurd when a mask is worn. When wearing a mask, things that are not usually accepted in society can be done, because you are not human, you are in a mask.
• Mask can be a disguise, hiding behind the mask.
• They can be used to frighten an audience- witch doctors etc. Takes away the human elements

 

• Religious ceremonies to create an otherwordly experience

 

Golden Rules:

• Never put your mask on in front of the audience,
  •  turn your back and put the mask on, and then tu
  • turn around and show the audience
• Never speak as yourself while you are wearing the mask
• Never touch the mask to make adjustments infront of the audience
  • The mask becomes your face, if you start playing with the mask this allusion is ruined.
  • Turn around if you need to make adjustments
• Never dress another person by their name, if they are wearing a mask, you address as their character
  • If you are wearing a mask- you are the character
• Take your mask off by turning away form the audience, then becoming yourself again.

 

Respect the mask

•  when the mask is on, you are the character

• Handle them carefully

Exercises that we did :

 

Laban movements

How would the mask move with these movements?

• Gliding and dabbing
• Flicking

 

 

Let the:

• Nose lead
• Chin lead
• Forrid lead

 

• On all fours like an insect.

 

Never seen yourself before

• As though there is another person there
  • New experience for the mask
  • Works out who the mask is- themself
• My experiences:
  • I found that it really does immediately transformed you as a character
  • i was completely my characterm no longer Julia,

Laban movements were interesting, it was a lot easier to depict the movements with the head through using the mask than it had been before. You could show the flicking movements with the mask, because it was so clear that the mask was flicking itself.

• Discovering myself in the mask was an inetretsing exercise. It was amazing to see how I didn’t really have to think about what I was going to do next, it just comes to you. Perhaps there is something actually In the mask, in that once you put it on, you become the character that lives in the mask. In another way I suppose that we create the character that lives in the mask.
• There is a certain way that everyone moved- the mask makes you grow to an extent timid, But this can be interpreted differently. Big bold mpovements are emphasised by a mask, and smaller ones can be highlighted through the way in which the mask moves.
• Must be sure that you don’t turn the mask past a certain point because then it loses its character and hold on you.
• I had an itchhy forrid and it was extremely annoying because I couldn’t take the mask off.
• I found that some of my dancing backgrounds came in handy, as I was able to use some past movement skills that I had accquired in order to emphasise the movements

 

 

 our own characters…

 

• We tried out the eight effort actions

 

• Development of my character
  • Cheeky
  • Crazy
  • Happy usually but has a very short temper
• The costume made a visual character, and made me really start to be the character even more so. Through blocking out the hair, and school uniform, we were transformed.

My character was best suited to the Laban movements such as, flick, punch, float. Most actions worked however, I just changed the context that I imagined m character to be in. The overalls, mask, hat and green shirt made me a new character. Somewhat of a hillbilly, but friendly and always up to mischief. The mask made me feel almost clown like.

Finch is the name.

 

I am a person who is non descript in the sense of gender. I’m always ready to have some fun,  playing tricks. I like chocolate/caramel milkshakes and I get excited very easily. I love surprises, and assume everyone else does too. The way I move is erratic and I am rarely still. If I was an animal I would be a puppy. I’m clever in my schemes, but perhaps I’m not clever enough to see the bigger picture and get in trouble as a result of the fact that I think I am lever- but compared to others, am not. There is no specific age that I am, I have the traits of a young child who is inquisitive over everything, yet I have some wisdom in the tricks I play. I am Finch.

 

Chorus acting

• We put on large pieces of cloth, therefore disguising everything but the body shapes and the mask. This meant that
• Difference of the emotional and visual impacts were different because they were such strong images. Several cloked figures looking into the mirror with suchdefinite and strong body position and positioning of the mask.

Some emotions that we depicted in a still tableau were:

• Despair
• Love for the gods
• Horror
• Fear

 

• The chorus like group that we formed meant that we formed big groups that seemed very powerful and strong.

This will be further updated..!

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a short idea of Brecht…

• Brecht wanted his audience to always know they were watching a play

Even in a romantic moment, the audience perhaps sinking into a relaxed ‘bourgeois’ moment, but immediately following this he would change the mood and atmosphere so that

always the message that you can only afford to be good/morality if basically if you are fed, clothed and sheltered. If those three things are done then you can be kind, a moral person. But if you are hungry etc. whats the point of being good? Brecht doesn’t think much of  religion. He was practical.

• alienate the audience

does not mean that the audience is uninvolved, what he wanted was that you would always be the informed observer. He did want us to be involved

• polarity

Mother Courage is both a mother, but also a war profiter- but these two roles are contradictory to one another. As a result of trying to profit from the war, Mother Courage loses all three of her children.

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Forms of Theatre- 10/3

Today we listened to four oral presentations about different forms of theatre. Mine was Theatre of the Oppressed. I actually really like this form of theatre, so i was pretty enthusiastic during my presentation and I think everyone unerstood what it was about pretty thoroughly. Mrs A suggested this could be something that I could use for my Independent Project, and that was an interesting idea!

This is the handout that we received from Maddie on:

Symbolism and Expressionism

By 1900 playwrights and directors began to use non-realistic forms and styles in their plays. Many European playwrights turned away from Realism and Naturalism and adopted techniques of symbolic and other non-realistic drama.

Symbolism in Drama

Symbolists ventured into the world of the subconscious mind and dreams. The Symbolists believed that it is possible to take all that we have seen and heard from our subconscious and bring it into harmony with our consciousness.

The symbolists urged viewers to look through the photo-like surface of appearances to discover more significant realities within – spiritual realities that the naturalists had ignored.

In their symbolist work, some early playwrights called for simple, evocative sets and relied primarily on the sounds and meanings of their poetic language to involve and inspire the audience.

Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) evokes a mood of mystery in his plays through multiple symbols, eerie sound effects, and ominous silences; with little overt action, at times relying as much on sound as sight.

Russian Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) had success with symbolism in his production of Hedda Gabler. He ignored, Ibsen’s realist stage directions and deployed bold colours and sculpted, repetitious movements to evoke the claustrophobia of Hedda’s world.

The basic ideal of Symbolism is the aesthetic autonomy of art. They used symbols to transcend what was normally considered ‘realistic’ in everyday life. They hoped that the symbols would take the audience beyond the truth to a higher level of understanding.

Characters were created in poetic terms. Ideas were expressed in sophisticated, abstract forms and terms, as opposed to the simplicity of Realism and Naturalism.

They created an abstract rather than a real world.

Lars Von Trier employs symbolism in his film Dogville in order to create focus on the characters, their story and message. He believes that by having little in the way of set and scenery, audiences will not be preoccupied by things that do not matter, not distracted from the acting and action.

Expressionism

Expressionism emerged as an avant-garde movement in the German theatre around 1910. Art critics had been using the term since the turn of the century to denote a non-realist painting suffused with the subjective emotions of the artist, and this general connotation was conferred on the new theatrical movement.

Early German expressionist plays called for such anti-realistic techniques as grotesquely-painted scenery, exaggerated acting and movement, and ‘telegraphic’ dialogue, so named because it copied the abbreviated, mechanistic quality of a telegraph message.

Its main aim was to transform nature rather than imitate it. The result of the transformation was often distortion.

Expressionism as a movement began with artists such as Edvard Munch as early as 1892. These artists turned observed reality to distorted reality in order to make both political and social points. Their art was not merely an imitation of reality, but a transformation of it.

Early expressionists explored the tensions between spiritual desires and material constraints. Although censorship before and during the First World War prevented most expressionist plays from reaching the stage, expressionism flourished in Germany immediately after the war.

Early expressionistic plays had tended to be liberal or anarchist in orientation. Optimism about the overthrow of conventional German society in the wake of German defeat in the war and revolution in Russia, however, turned expressionism toward utopian socialism.

In Expressionism, fantasy and symbolism are combined, as well as fragments of Realism and Naturalism, just as the dream sequences of the human mind.

Expressionism was a home-grown style (though not an avant-garde movement) in the US before American artists and audiences had seen much of it from Germany. American expressionists Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953) and Elmer Rice (1892-1967) used the term ‘expressionism’ to refer to the expressive culture movement, a broad-based programme in the US that sought to counter anxieties about new technologies by drawing on the performing arts.

Characters are more or less representative of states of mind, comparable to dreams, deliriums or opinions, in which appearance, time and space lose continuity. The playwright, then, ‘objectifies the subjective,’ that is, puts on stage the happenings inside the mind.

 

 August Strindberg – A Dream Play

By the 1890’s August Strindberg had achieved as international reputation as a writer of historical epics and naturalist plays. After 1898 (and a difficult period of mental instability the dramatist called his ‘Inferno’), Strindberg strove for a theatre that he hoped might synthesise the materialism of naturalism with the spirituality of the symbolists. His post Inferno plays (To Damascus, A Dream Play 1902, The Ghost Sonata 1907) attempted to embody the experience of mythical journeys and spiritual dreams. Not surprisingly, theatre artists before 1914 had difficulty realizing Strindberg’s quest to merge external details and internal realities in theatrical images and sounds that would lead spectators toward both material and spiritual truths. Later productions of Strindberg’s post 1900 plays were more successful, and the plays widely read, exerting a significant influence on the European avant-garde, especially on a movement later termed German expressionism.

A Dream Play posits a disjuncture between an eternal world of abstract justice and the subjective, human world of pain and struggle, where eternity is a shadowy dream. The protagonist, Indra’s Daughter, journeys from the eternal world into the subjective realm and gradually loses her identity as the illusions of humanity draw her into the mire of human visuality.

–          To establish this dream world on stage, Strindberg suggested the use of light, projections, and screens, techniques that derived from his fascination with photography.

–          As in many symbolist dramas, Dream Play and Ghost Sonata, also make significant use of sound to suggest spiritual presences. The former involves several passages of ethereal music and invites singing, chanting and reciting poetry from its actors, while the latter features a singing milkmaid and a transformed figure in a closet who squawks like a parrot.

Unlike most symbolists, Strindberg never posited the superior reality of Platonic abstraction or spiritual transcendence over the concreteness of the material world. Instead, like the expressionists whom he influenced, Strindberg sought the realm of the spiritual in the material.

v  “Avant-garde” was originally a French military term referring to the forward line of soldiers – those leading the charge into battle. Likewise, avant-garde artists thought of themselves as the front ranks of artistic progress, fighting bourgeois propriety to expand the boundaries of the possible. Avant-garde movements generally consisted of small groups of artists and spectators who reinforced each other in their rebellions against middle-class conventions and established cultural institutions, and in their desires for utopian change.

v  The more important legacy of the avant-garde was its insistent challenge to conventional modes of making and enjoying theatre.

Through listening to Maddie’s presentation I’m beginning to understand the purpose of this theatre form. It makes us see perhaps the strageness of life, the script we looked at made almost no sense at all and this is symbolic of the life that we lead.

Theatre of the Absurd

I’m still not entirely sure about what this really involves, but I do have an understanding that similar to symbolism/expressionism, this theatre form allows us to see the absurdity of life and whether there is any point to our crazy routines.

This is what I did learn:

• that the sets, costumes, lighting and props can be anything and everything. Colour is used to be vivid and create atmosphere. The costumes do not have to resemble anything that we are used to, and the set can be as absurd as it wants to be! 
  • One aspect was that the audience would be sitting in chairs (that spun) in a circle, and the actors would surround them, making it very overwhelming
• a common theme is that of repetition. As an udience we may see something repeated any number of times. This is a way for the director to communicate the madness and absudirty of life. For example watching an order go through at McDonalds is something that is crazy, repetitive, yet a part of many people’s daily lives. 

Theatre of the Absurd makes us really realise how crazy life is, or we are. It shows in an exaggerated way the ways of our society, and can cause one to realise the this, and even inspire some changes to be made about the way in which we live. 

Theatre of Cruelty

To be honest- I hated this. I can see the ways in which the cruel nature of the tehatre can force us to really think about our society, to see the cruelty that exists in life, to make us question things that occur daily. It is there to shock the viewers, make them feel uncomfortable because they are faced with images of pure cruelty and violence. 

• Bold colours such as that of red are used to emphasise what is going on on stage.
• Images can be shown, or be a part of the set, or the set is constructed in such as way that it communicates the cruelty or meaning/message of a show.
• ]

We watched a youtube video of Film of Cruelty (similar to TOC,) and it was disgusting. The man who was aiming to seduce the woman really disgusted me, and resonated with me for the rest of the day. I was shocked, disgusted and didn’t want to have anythign to do with this form of theatre, but it also made me see the reasons that TOC exists.

It makes us see the problems in our society, they may be exaggerated, but it shocks the audience into really thinking about things that they may not normally think about, because they are too controversial or cruel. This being said, I still don’t like this theatre form!!

 

***Next week we will  be learning about Kathakali dance form the year elevens, and hopefully this will help me to understand a little more about this form of theatre, and the things that are involved when acting in it. ***

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Lighting- 3/3

Today we had a very productive and educatinal class! David Horne came in and helped Ms. Anketell to teach us about lighting. We learnt about what types of lights there are, the technicalities of the patching board and the dimmer rack and how to actually rig a light. This involved a hands on approach, we got up on the big ladder and adjusted lights that would work for a specific scene we were trying to create, we then patched them and used the dimmer board to create the right lighting that we wanted. We learnt how to change a gel, and which lights to use for what effects. We also began to understand how to create certain types of lighting, such as that at night or in the afternoon. Here are some notes that I took about our session:

General wash-

this is usually created by a fresnel. The time of day affects the general wash that you decide on. It is possible to create several general washes to convey the time of day.

Night time could be created by a general wash of blue, and perhaps a candle/lamp could be providing the light. The candle wouldn’t actually give off enough light, so a special would be placed on where the candle was burning to create the idea that the candle was giving off a larger amount of light. 

A general wash means that you are lighting every part of the stage evenly,

 Specials

Specials are arranged to hit exactly the right spot, and the one section is directly lit.

backlights:

• if someone is backlit, the light is behind them.
• this can give allusions to religious/angelic

 What is the importance of lighting?

• focus the attention of the audience
• create and atmosphere/mood/setting the scene
• to light the actor!!

It is imperitive to know the source of the light

• is it from a lamp, the sun, what time of day?

In general there are three types of stage lights, there are other lights that can be used, such as Strand PATTs bt these all fall into the category of one of these:

Profiles:

These can either have a hard edge or a soft edge, and it is used for specials.

this is an example of a profile light

Fresnel:

these are generally used for softer lighting, usually for a general wash

This is an example of a fresnel light.

Flood:

cyclorama white backdrop at the back of the stage and this is lit with flood lights with colours. To create sunsets, sky scenes.

You can’t adjust flood lights with barn doors etc.

This is an example of a flood light.

Parcan: these cannot be damaged, no control of them, they could be used for general washes, but used more for effects. It is great for floods of colour (such as red,) these are used to light music events.

 

this is an example of a Parcan light.

 

LED Parcans have all colours inside the light, but they take up more dimmer channels, and are pretty complicated so we won’t be bothered with them quite yet!

This is an example of a LED parcan

when taking down lights:

unscrew the G clamp, but not completely, then undo safety chains and unplug powerplugs. The next step is to finish loosening the G clamp and to close the barn doors.

 

when rigging lights:

attach G clamp to the lighting poles, attach safety chain, tighten G clamp.

This is an example of a lighting rig.

changing gels:

this requires flicking the metal clip back away from the front of the light. the next step is to take out the entire gel and its holder, making sure that if the light has been used that you dont burn yourself. You then take out the coloured gel and replace is with the colour of your choice, the new gel having been cut to size of course. Once the new gel is in its case then put the gel holder back into the light, ensuring that the open side is facing upwards! Then secure the metal clip again, and enjoy the new colour of your light!

 

Here are some examples of the colours that gels come in:

readjusting focus:

this is done by loosening the round screw at the back and bottom of the light and moving the knob up and down, this makes the light with sharper or more blended edges and changes the use of the light. 

 

I found this session really very helpful because I hadn’t had much experience in lighting previously, and now I know what is required when designing a lighting plan for a vision of  a play. 

 

 

 

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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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