David's visit -- Film and Theatre

• How to get to film? Ideas start formulating from the age of 13; desire to involve himself into art. Loved immersing himself into art -- costumes especially.
• As a filmmaker, he can interweave all his diverse passions of art into one.
• Authorship of film. Who is responsible for the making of films?
• What is a director?
• What decisions does he make?
• Film school is good for building a reel (portfolio) and making connections with peers interested in the same field. -- Interesting, because Nancy Kim said the exact same thing for her time at University of Toronto for theatre. She ended up making partnerships with directors, actors and made a team to pursue her interest in arts.
• Problem with arts education -- you can't teach people to be a great artist. That's for life to shape. You need life experience to make films or art.
• You don't have to do art in college to pursue it and vice versa. You can major in film or theatre, but be a businessman. You bring in the elements and knowledge from the arts and incorporate it into your profession.
• Film is problem solving! This is what Gary Card said about his art.
• Director -- Making the artistic vision; cinematographer -- camera work; production designer -- the physical devising of the world;
• He has been a camera assistant; director's assistant; sound;
• Before it starts, you have fantastical visions, and then during the process -- depths of despair. You have to suffer deeply during the process in order for the final product to be satisfying and successful in the arts. The arts are not a neat process.
• "You just have to finish it." "Come to the table and stay at the table."
• Output is needed in order to be an artist.
• The fact that good movies actually exist is a miracle. A film is so difficult to produce. It's mind-boggling how good films are made.
• Directing is such a collaborative art. Give creative restrictions. Create a scheme. Create a space where you can let the artists explore and create - best outcomes.
• Be ready to be on set. I guess the same can be said for theatre. Am I right?
• Rather have haters than someone say "nice job" or "that was a 'nice' video." It's exciting.

RI

Three prongs:

1. The practitioner or theatre form
2. The aspect of it
3. Scene from a specific play and how it applies.

Things you notice about the RIs:

1. Writing style is formal and to the point - does not linger on the subject of the practitioner or type, but goes straight into the play.
2. 2500 words --
3. Quotes on every page.
4. Illustrations! They are very visual.
5. Related themes/ideas and weaves in the play throughout.
6. Annotated bibliography (10-15)

BTB: What The Body Does Not Remember

“The intensity of moments when you don’t have a choice, when other things decide for you, like falling in love, or the second before the accident that has to happen; suddenly they appear, with no introduction, important for me because of their extremeness rather than for the significance to be given to them. The decision to use this as a basic material for a theatrical composition is at least a paradoxical challenge, considering a theatrical event as repeatable and controllable. Perhaps when all is said and done, the body doesn’t remember either and everything is a subtle illusion of lack which helps to define or exhaust the game.” Wim Vandekeybus
I actually went to see the show so I will definitely be giving more insight on it later -- will write up on the weekend. I guess what I have to say for now is that the concept -- so interesting and that the actors take a risk by putting themselves through the capriciousness of their piece.

Why Directing?

I'm not exactly one hundred percent sure how to answer this question as I'm sure my views will change and deepen as we progress through our IB Theatre Arts play this year! Right now, I think in a broad sense, a director oversees and orchestrates a production come into fruition. He/she does this by devising a mis en scene or an artistic vision to unify different aspects of production - lighting, set design, music etc. The director acts as the glue of the production, helping these elements coalesce into a new world the audience can venture into. Why directing? I remember Mrs. Moon handed us a sheet detailing the devising of a play through the use of creating new universes or worlds. Directing is the map bringing different lands together to form a new world.

TPPP Outline

1. Pina Bausch

• What is dance? Is it theatre? Is it sport?
• Sparked the interest of physical theatre and conveying message through movement.
• There are some things inexpressible through words, so we use the language of movement to convey certain messages.
• The importance of set in her pieces and lighting in her pieces.
• Diverse philosophies she employs.

2. Mark Hill

• Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki
• Very intentional movements
• Spatial awareness
• 7 Levels of Energy
• Viewpoints --
• Very different from Pina Bausch in many regards, but there are many similarities (Butoh)
• Grotesque beauty
• Western vs. Eastern
• Hara vs. The Sky
• We have the western and then we have the eastern and then sometimes we have a mixture of both.

3. Andong - Korean Masked Dance (T'alchum)

• A much more different approach to physical theatre than Pina Bausch or Butoh.
• Rather than flowing movements, has more to do with characterization.
• Unification of IB class
• Satirical nature
• Improvisation nature; playing off of the audience.

4. The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

• One of the most meaningful experiences -- So many important questions
• Now that I'm thinking about it, the first /play/ I've been in.
• So many important questions; learned more about myself as a person.
• Utilized lessons learned from Mark Hill and thought of ways of how I could characterize El-Fayoumy with movement (Pina Bausch)
• Development as an actor.

5. Commedia

• Striking similarities between Korean T'alchum
• Characterizations
• Satire of the society - reflects the society

6. Good Soul of Szechuan

• Mis en scene
• Use of everything we've learned thus far and apply it to the play.
• Artistic process
• Production elements coming together
• The experience of the production elements - something not familiar to
• Actually building the set, putting the lights up
• Lighting -- The importance it bears in a production
• The attempt to do a Brecht play and the sacrifices we had to make to uphold his theatrical style

7. Mother Courage (Bertolt Brecht)

• The movie we saw also bolstered everything previously stated about the production elements, but more than that helped us understand Brecht truly.
• A different acting style than that of Stanislavski, but still passionate nonetheless.
• Meryl Streep is awesome.

8. The Tempest

• Studied postmodernism
• Helped so much with Romeo and Juliet
• How the actors transcended the language barrier and communicated with their bodies and vocal expressions.
• Also set in modern day like Romeo and Juliet
• Staging, so interesting, gives inspiration to future plays to direct.
• Music added so much to the play and so did lighting.
• What can you use from this play to other plays in the future?
• Elements of Anne Bogart, Commedia, T'alchum

9. Romeo and Juliet

• Rhythm and musicality
• Shakespeare's language
• Communication through movement - essential
• Character development
• Commedia and T'alchum
• Again, Mark Hill's lessons.
• OMG THE TEMPEST.
• You as an actor -- There are those who method act and then there are those who don't.

10. Philippines Service Through Theatre

• Theatre as a catalyst for change.
• Sparks a sort of confidence.
• First experience with workshops.
• Used Commedia, Korean T'alchum, Anne Bogart and Rasa boxes
• Everything learned in theatre.
• How to promote yourself in a positive light.

11. Water

• Explained in former blog post

The Crucible

Arthur Miller

• Death of a Salesman, The Crucible
• Was married to Marilyn Monroe
• Cynical; middle-class citizens being harmed, social justice
• Witch Hunt, Antisemitism, Red Scare, again and again, history repeats itself ; Miller lived familiar to all this fear.
• Miller found motivation in the liberals who wanted to oppose the violation of civil rights during the Red Scare Interrogations but were too fearful to attempt.
• In 1951, Miller wrote a screenplay called "The Hook", about union corruption on the Brooklyn waterfront.
• Harry Cohn, the director showed the script to the FBI
• Cohn then told Miller to change the threatening and murdering gangsters in the script into Communists instead.
• Miller refused, and Cohn sent him this condemning telegram: "The minute we try to make the script pro-American, you pull out."
• It is hard to let go of our belief that society must somehow make sense. Our unwillingness to believe that society is condemning and harming innocent people drives us to internally deny and ignore the evidence that is there.

Mccarthyism

• The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means "the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism."

"As with most humans, panic sleeps in one unlighted corner of my soul." I'd just like to take a moment to appreciate Miller's skill with language.

Analysis of The Crucible
*Notes in book; taken from Sabrina's page.

• Idea; The Special World (create a planet)
• Dialogue/Anything in PoMo
• Roots
• Given Circumstances
• Polar Attitudes (pendulum of change)
• beliefs
• prejudices
• perception
• tolerance
• assumptions
• Previous Action
• Dramatic Action of the Characters
• Character Development
• Archetypes
• Reactions
• Speech patterns
• Motivations
• Etc. etc. etc.
• The Crucible
• Religious beliefs
• Environmental situation
• Social environment
• Political environment
• Economic situation
• Geographic position
• Time

Daniel Foley + Chad Austin

 

Shakespearean ACTING:

1. Bite into the muscle of the verse. Burrow down.
2. When learning lines, do it as meditative act like Anthony Hopkins.
3. Keep your energy UP.
4. Gesture at the end of a line to keep it lifted in your mind as practice.
5. Give audience time to adjust as they get used to the language.
6. Whisper your lines and then say them in a normal tone.
7. Think of rhythm of the piece but don’t let it control you.
8. If you can’t see the audience, they can’t see you.
9. Standing at a diagonal is a strong position rather than a straight line.
10. Disturb your space on stage.
11. Take your soliloquies to the audience.  Dialogue with the audience. Engage in interplay between yourself and the audience.
12. See the conflict of your piece and get it over to your audience
13. Feel the rhythm with your hands, then your feet, then your whole body. Do the Flamenco.

*taken from Mrs. Moon's notes*

Daniel Foley's workshop was skillfully placed during our rehearsals for Romeo and Juliet. Everything we learned could therefore be applied to our characterization and presence on stage. He really stressed the idea of how we need to ease the audience into the progression of the play as the language is something that they are not familiar to. There are three ways to familiarize them with the language: first, to pace your lines well (slower in the beginning); second, to articulate everything you say loudly and clearly; and third, to use lots of gesticulation to help them visualize the poetry of Shakespeare's language.

We were also taught how to disturb the space on stage and to tell the beautiful story of Romeo and Juliet and pull the audience in. There's a rhythm to the language of Romeo and Juliet that we as actors had to maintain with our voices and our bodies. And the ends of the phrases should never drop.

With Chad Austin, we had a very short period of time with him so it was difficult to obtain a lot from his lesson. We kind of worked on the subtext of what we said by working on the exercise: Hey, How are you. We can say it like we met an ex, an enemy, a long lost friend. Everything depends on how we say the phrase. We also worked on how to act during audiences - to keep our heads up, to be natural yet avoid signs of the lack of confidence and unprofessionalism. This must have been very helpful for those who are auditioning for theatre programs in college COUGH COUGH George.




A Blog post dedicated to Romeo and Juliet will be up soon.

Postmodernist Plays Take 2!

Well, well, well...
Long time no talk blogger. It's been a long time since I've written these types of blogs, so please excuse the perhaps awkward nature of this blog post. But I guess I'll just begin?
I'm just going to drive right in and talk about the new worlds I journeyed into the past couple of weeks amidst the fall play, college apps and other pieces of school work. Despite the few hours this trek consumed, I'm so happy I took the opportunity to watch these plays. I'm still regretting giving that one ticket away! It's alright I still have What the Body Does Not Remember left - extremely excited for this one.

Picture of the set and music played. Projections.

The first show I saw - the Tempest - was spectacular. From all the shows I've seen so far, it's definitely been my absolute favorite. Sure the Russian was a little hard to understand, and I'm not the On a side note, I do not remember the names of the characters because it was in Russian.
best at following Korean text, but I'm pretty sure I got the basic gist of the storyline. Where do I start with this production? Scorched moments:  

 

• Any moment when the doors open. There's always something completely different in the doors and the audience is kept on their toes clueless on what to anticipate. I especially loved it when the son of the king was dangling from his foot, the lighting was blue to simulate drowning. Also when the doors revealed a buffet of some sort. A really deranged play for sure.
• The use of music to transition different sequences of events. The motif of the same tune woven throughout the play. Its live nature.
  
• When the characters stood on the top of the stage overlooking the craziness transpiring below them - he was the one performing the magic.
• The animal like state of the daughter. She was such a great actress. I wonder how it must have felt for her to be in a play with only men? Her name was Ariel and her dad's name was Prospero I think. Woah, I remembered some names!
• The use of water at any point. So beautiful.
• The wedding. Ariel's transformation.
• The smell of the cigarettes they smoked on stage. So realistic. Granted, I hate that smell, but still loved that element.

In general, the play really revolved around images of marine life. We constantly see projections of the sea, of storms, of waves and of clouds on the minimalistic stage. It involved three sides of a wall with three doors attached to each one and a platform behind it to elevate the actors behind the walls.

The lighting was quite bare and in a few instances, the audience was lit as well. I would say the play was set in modern day because the costumes definitely show the bourgeois nature of the characters. There was, not to mention, a scene where the characters went on a shopping spree buying designer sunglasses and suits with a credit card.
What I absolutely loved about this performance was how I could understand the sequence of events and the emotions the characters experienced through their body language. I speak 0 Russian, but their body language really transcended the language barrier.
Here's a video clip of their wonderful performance:

 

The next play I saw was Victor Ou Les Enfants au Pouvoir. I think this translates into Victor or the

Babies that Can - loosely. This was one of the most absurd plays that I've ever seen in my life. I kind of got the storyline, but I think I would have been confused whether it was in English, French, German or Spanish. But despite the nonsensicality of it all, I was still awe-struck by the end of the performance. There were so many eerie, strange, interesting aspects of this production. I'm just going to share some scorched moments first:

• The roots - the shadows made by them, their growth.
• Shadows projected onto the side.
• Victor's death.
• Scenes utilizing the pool of water in the front of the stage.
• Farting woman.
• How the stage gets bigger and smaller depending on the emotional state of the scene. 

The stage was really cool. It had mobile walls that moved closer to the middle or expanded outwards depending on the emotional state of the scene. As the play progressed the roots grew and the characters got more and more insane and the storyline more and more jumbled. Loads of expressive dialogue and some really weird weapons and such. I'm still perplexed by this as a whole, but I think I'll come back to this play a little bit later - after more research into the play and the company.

 

King lear will not be discussed in this blog - everyone saw it so What the Body Does Not REmember will instead be discussed. AT that time more on Victor as well.



TPPP Classwork 10/2/2013

List of what you're SURE to include:

• The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
• Mother Courage
• The Good Soul of Szechuan
• Pina Bausch
• Anne Bogart (Include pictures from Mark Hill workshop)
• APAC Theatre - capture a picture that best captures the assembly of all mediums of movement theatre we ventured.
• Shakespeare - the art of language

Paragraph on symbol:

        Water has been a symbol for my thespian endeavors from perhaps the onset of my IBTA journey. Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman really centered on this image of water. The symbol of water has so many philosophical aspects attached to it. It is a very malleable element; it can be frozen or evaporated and when we can motion the water to go different directions. I think this is like our state with theatre. We are constantly changing, perhaps evolving from our states. Water also has reflective elements. In Disney movies such a Mulan, we see the protagonist gaze into the water seeing her own reflection. Through theatre, I think I get a better understanding of myself - my beliefs and my personhood.

What the Body Does Not Remember

The debut of Wim Vandekeybus and Ultima Vez in 1987 stunned the world of dance of the time. In New York Vandekeybus and composers Thierry de Mey and Peter Vermeersch received the prestigious Bessie Award for this ‘brutal confrontation of dance and music: the dangerous, combative landscape of What the Body Does Not Remember’. In 2013, 25 years later and with a new cast, the show once again goes on a world tour.
Vandekeybus’ first choreography balances on the razor edge of attraction and repulsion. Sometimes this results in a confrontation between two dancers, then between two groups, between dancers and music, and between dancers and a compelling set of lines. But throughout there is an explosion of aggression, fear and danger.
Wim Vandekeybus: “The intensity of moments when you don’t have a choice, when other things decide for you, like falling in love, or the second before the accident that has to happen; suddenly they appear, with no introduction, important for me because of their extremeness rather than for the significance to be given to them. The decision to use this as a basic material for a theatrical composition is at least a paradoxical challenge, considering a theatrical event as repeatable and controllable. Perhaps when all is said and done, the body doesn’t remember either and everything is a subtle illusion of lack which helps to define or exhaust the game.”

http://www.ultimavez.com/en/productions/what-body-does-not-remember