Korean T'alchum

• Masked dance fought to be preserved. It is still fighting to live. 
• Characteristics of Korean Folk Dance
• Spiritual base of respect for nature and respect for freedom of expression. 
• Embodiment of feelings of HAN (deep inner sentiment that is manifested as profound grief or sadness) and SINMYEONG (artistic ecstasy or exhilaration that occurs at final dramatic moment (when tears turn to laughter, darkness to light)
• Self expression 
• Interpret yourself; manifestation of self. 
• Strongly improvisational
• Freedom of time and space
• Excellent device for satire
• Present dramatic confrontation and problems within society. 
• Eliminate gender/class distinctions
• Performance is done in the village, the backyards of homes (MADANG). Can also be westernized in a sort of thrust stage.
• Performances can last up to one hour, an abbreviation of much longer performances which can last up to several hours.
• Call and response -- Audience participation 
• Communal - There is unity between performers and the viewers. 
• Intervene in show. A play for conference and debate
• Puts them in realistic, grounded setting
• Rooted in ancient use to satirize daily life and social problems. 
• Spiritual ceremony of the mask -- Masks are burned (after usage) except in Andong --> Made out of wood. 
• Shape of nose, shape of eyes, wrinkles, small pox, warts
• Symbolic relationship/debauchery/sorrow
• Size of masks affect performances/movements.
• The bride - not happy
• First three years of marriage, they were not allowed to talk about life and could not leave the groom's house. 
• Mouth closed - no speaking, no opinion
• Eyes slim and looking down 
• Bar Maid 
• Mouth small - little speaking, no political say, speak to make living
• Eyes small - 
• Dots of mask 
• Bigger nose --> Exaggerated sexual activity and promiscuity
• Fur mask - More animal than human, depraved. 
• White spots mean leprosy 
• 
  

Freedom of Mind and Body

At first, it was strange. I didn't feel at place or at home. I was conscious and aware of what was happening around me. "To be brave and open requires a sentient and responsive body free from the limitations imposed by self-consciousness or fear."Dymphna Callery

Keeping that question in mind, I had to let the barriers of nervousness and anxiety go. I had to let the mask take control of the body rather than my body take control of the mask. To go over the activities done in class to prepare for the mask unit, I would like to start from the beginning. 

Objects to physicalize our bodies. We first practiced using random objects found in the hobbit room to physicalize our movements. Objects included sponges, sheets, feathers etc. It was really interesting to see the ways how different people reacted to the objects differently. Some were more literal with their ways to portray, others were quite metaphorical. There were many features of the objects that we could focus on - the sounds created, the textures, the way it moved, the way it reacted to physical changes... 

We then had to find objects as masks. This was quite an interesting project. I personally had two sticks that I taped on to my face - not nice; it hurt. I looked at the sounds that it could create; I looked at the texture how it felt; I looked at the physical characteristics - how it felt when I broke the sticks, how strong and weak they were. Then, rather than going for such a literal approach to characteristics, I decided to portray myself in a more feeble, shrewd, weak manner. Trees can represent a wise character, an old character. But because the sticks themselves were so thin and weak, I decided to depict myself in a falling, dying way. 

Some interesting performances included Emma's performance which was playful and comedic; I really think Emma has a way with the mask. She really incorporates the characteristics of the mask/object into her body language. Her object was like a wig/rainbow thing; it was kind of indescribable. It was really interesting. I also found Reca's performance interesting as she centered her movements from her chest as her mask was to a certain degree placed there. 

What was especially interesting were the ways that people actually described their pieces. Ideas that I didn't necessarily pick up were introduced and I could see the deep train of thought my peers experienced. Sure, some of them may have been made on the spot, but they really built upon some themes that encompass our lives today. 

Then we moved on to the neutral mask. The neutral mask has no expression and it represents no emotion. It really focuses on the today rather than the past or the future. We tried several activities that really built on these principles. When we were told to look for something, we just had to let the mask take over. We had to start from a blank slate. The purpose was to a certain extent I think to really delve into our self awareness, how we react and move to certain scenarios and situations. When we were told to wake up and see sunlight for the first time, many of us moved to the stereotypical, yes, but we all had different mannerisms that really encompassed these feelings. 

BTB: Color Blind Casting

http://jezebel.com/5980419/many-major-theaters-believe-in-color-blind-casting-except-when-it-comes-to-people-of-color?post=56927608

I think we're currently in the process of slowly breaking the bulletproof barriers of color biased casting. Slowly, we are beginning to see the emergence of actors of different ethnicity on the stage. Sure, much of the time, we see the Asian playing the stereotypical role of Math Teacher 2, but we do have cases where actors did break norms. We see the Persian actor Ramin Karimloo in the Phantom of the Opera and Lea Salonga in Les Miserables. However, we still have a long ways to go. Many people still have the perception that white actors are more suitable for the audience to watch as white is neutral. Everyone is able to put themselves into the characters of the play. Color overrides talent in this case. I am all up for color blind casting as it gives actors chances to shine in areas that they see themselves shining in. It doesn't necessarily have to be the character of Asian Genius, if you're Asian to play an outstanding role.

BTB: Quotes

"To be brave and open requires a sentient and responsive body free from the limitations imposed by self-consciousness or fear." Dymphna Callery

Word. I would actually say self-consciousness and fear are extremely similar or the same in this situation. Sometimes in diverse performances, I feel as if we are afraid to break free from the shackles of our conscious and isolate ourselves from the fear of judgement. This quote I think is perfect to prepare ourselves for the work to come and help us overcome the barriers of peer fear. 

Tranformasian

Transformasians:

I can't necessarily compare this APAC theatre to another one due to the fact that I haven't attended another one, but what I can say is that I thoroughly  enjoyed it. My muscles may be sore, my neck may not move and my work desk has homework piled up to the sky, but I am content, knowing that I have learned so much from the last four days. It would really be difficult to describe the entirety of APAC. So much was happening simultaneously that I'm not sure if I'll be able to share as much as I want to. So I decided that I would give a brief overview of what happened, offer a few of my favorite scorched moments and tell you what I ultimately take from this experience.

I would like to offer a little prelude to our APAC theatre experience. When you think of masks, you usually think of wooden, plastic or rubber molds that resemble faces. Some have vibrant colors, some have distorted facial structures and others are neutral. One mask that we often don't necessarily include in our vision is our own faces. Masks are supposed to disguise our identities. Masks are supposed to hide the face we were born with. What I can tell you about the face mask is that it does exactly that. It's like all masks. It can distort reality and emphasize/dramatize certain expressions or characters. The great thing about this mask is that we can change our mask without taking it off.

Creating these emphasized expressions on our faces though seemingly simple and facile was perhaps the hardest thing I had to do that day. We had to surpass the impossible and extend the possible movements that could have been done with our faces. By the end of the exercise, I'm pretty sure most of our class except for maybe those who participate in athletics had beads of sweat pouring down his/her face. It was an activity that stretched our faces as high, far, wide, low as it could go. And looking at it as an audience member, I was able to find that the piece, though grotesque was beautiful. Let's take for example, Reca's expression of happiness during the exercise where we had to walk forward and progressively exaggerate the emotion that we had to portray. Reca was contorting her face in ways that I did not think were humanly possible. And this act of pushing the boundaries and showing us a different side of the human face really allowed me to appreciate and admire the possibilities of our bodies.

We then moved on to try a side of Butoh that we hadn't necessarily experienced before. We were more accustomed to the slower, more solemn Butoh, but the activity that awaited required more movement than any game/warm up in P.E necessitates. Building upon the mask work we did, we learned how to perform the Butoh scream/Butoh mask. It's essentially rolling your eyes to the back of your head, opening your mouth as wide as you can without showing your teeth and staying in that facial expression for the duration of a performance. Boy this was difficult. My eyes started shaking and my face could not hold that position for a long duration of time. It's hard to imagine doing that for more than 5 minutes let alone an entire performance. What came after, believe it or not, was even more tricky.

We followed an abstract storyline of the story of Dionysus, the God of wine and fertility (shh sex). Two movements I really want to focus on: the guppy and the pulse. I legitimately could not do the guppy for more than two minutes. Maybe. With flat feet on the ground, and squatting, we had to hop from place to face (with the Butoh mask on while swaying our heads back) occasionally letting out one bigger leap into the air. While this was happening, we had to make figure eights with both of our hands at all times. Let's just say that my legs were very very sore the next day. The pulse was assuming a position where we had our butts risen to the air and jumping up and down making it seem as if we were humping the air. Whilst this was happening, our partners were viciously rocking their heads left and right as if they were devouring our bodies with their teeth. This story followed very figuratively the characteristics of Dionysus. I thought it was creative and difficult to manifest - a faster paced Butoh from what what we are used.

This theatre class was such a great opportunity and opening for APAC theatre. It prepared us for the new, different events that we would partake in throughout the weekend.

Our APAC theatre was separated into 3 main days:

Thursday - Taster sessions/School performances

Friday - Ensemble sessions/Tour of Korea

Saturday - Ensemble sessions/Breakout sessions/Performances

Scorched moments of this weekend:

- The tableau created by the UNIS group. The final picture of the bird soaring up in the air was so beautiful.

- Scatter my ashes, throw them in the air. Lord, cause I know where all my ashes are. This song was stuck in my head for the entire weekend.

- The rhythms of the Khatakali stomp.  Da Da Din Da. Very powerful images along with a very powerful soundscape.

- The beating of the drums in the Korean performance we went to see. The women in the back creating rhythms whilst dancing while the men lined up in the front slowly kept the beat.

- The beauty of Korea that I hadn't really experienced before: Insadong, Kyungbok Palace and the cultural activities we partook in.

- The wave --> the drool, the effort. I thought how much effort they were putting into their performance was beautiful.

- How much fun the cast of the Talchum group was having.

I learned so many things over this APAC event. The focus moved from the mouth to the body - the beauty, intricacy and effectiveness of this transformation. The coherence of the cast and the skill of meeting new people.  Pictures to come.  

BTB: Masks

http://2.imimg.com/data2/GM/OX/MY-457019/kathakali-mask-500x500.jpg

http://www.theater-masks.com/i/masks/commedia/pantelone1.jpg

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSPJpdZYnwZ0mz-xnQADf-wmem6K-4dvwmanJsEZYp6VuuaVcktPA