Storytime

So we changed the characters of our folktale to fit with the members of our group. Our instructor emphasized the importance of the narrator and how he/she was the central of the performance, acting as the glue to hold everything together. And so I fulfilled the role of narrator whereas Michelle played the North Wind, Esther the main girl, and Eric the kleptomaniac landlord. The gist of the story is that the North Wind steals the girl's food one day as she is having lunch and so she goes to the North Wind's house to receive compensation for the food that was stolen from her. When she arrives there the North Wind gives her a magical cloth that serves all sorts of good dishes and this cloth is stolen from the girl by the landlord. And so she goes back to the North Wind's house for something in return and all the Wind has is a stick that will beat people up upon command. And so she returns back to the inn where the landlord stole her cloth to punish him with this magical stick. And so the tale ends when the girl leaves happily with her magical items.

Afterwards, our instructor critiqued about how our group focused more on dramatizing rather than on the aspect of storytelling. I suppose that because we were unsure about the task at hand, we didn't fully understand the purpose of this assignment. She told us of how she wanted the main focus to be on the narrator with minimal dramatization. She had hoped for the dramatization to add to the story narration rather than having the story narration add to the dramatization which is what winded up happening in our particular performance. This meant that she wanted there to be less dialogue between the characters and more speech from the narrator who was supposed to captivate the audience and hold their attention.

Starting Stories

After having completely exhausted the work of Oedipus through performances, masks, and discussions we decided to move on to explore another aspect of theatre. And so storytelling was next on the list. Each student was asked to bring in either a foreign fable, folktale, or fairytale so that we could delve into other cultures as IB is meant for students to attain this international aspect. As we were divided into various groups, I decided to work with different students than those that I had generally gravitated towards. When we got into our groups, we started sharing the different folktales that we had prepared and finally came to the decision to choose this folktale about a boy who had this magical blanket and magical stick. Once the decision was made, I began to ask the other members of the group for input on how to create our storytelling performance. These particular students didn't appear to be completely enthused by the assignment and thus displayed indifference towards the performance. Because of this, I ultimately planned the performance in regards to the number of scenes that we would perform as well as which scenes to actually perform.

In having to work with such students, it helped me realize that I won't always necessarily be paired with those who share the same views and work ethics as myself. This allowed me to realize that oftentimes, things don't work out as we plan or anticipate in our heads. And so I understood that in order to make this assignment and experience worthwhile, I needed to make the best out of this situation regardless of the challenges that I faced.

Masking the Effect

In addition to understanding Aristotle's theories about tragedies and performing sections of chorus from Oedipus, we were assigned with the task of creating a mask for a specific character and scene in the tragedy. I opted for the scene in which Oedipus discovers that he is in fact King Laius' murderer and must deal with the situation that he himself is the criminal that he has been searching for. As I began to design my mask, I didn't actually put much thought into each specific element and its relevance to Greek theatre. Rather, I tried to fit the design of my mask into the character and the scene that I was portraying. As a result, my mask didn't quite follow the guidelines of a mask utilized in Greek theatre but seemed to maybe have a more modern take on the idea of a Greek mask.

My mask contained an expression of being surprised and distraught. I illustrated this emotion with furrowed eyebrows as I imagine Oedipus to be surprised and confused upon hearing that he is in fact the criminal that he has been searching for. I also included wrinkles on the forehead of the mask to show this emotion of being distraught. In addition to this, I added a mustache for I imagine most kings and dignified figures of the past to have this thick, dark mustache. I noticed that numerous other masks of Oedipus included a crown for the audience to easily distinguish this character as being Oedipus, King of Thebes. My one criticism for the mask was the feasibility of the mask during the actual performance. Because Oedipus has this realization midway through the performance, there wouldn't be a logical way to change masks without the actor breaking character. As a result of this, I realized that my decisions need not be for aesthetic purposes but for feasible purposes so that it can be utilized during a performance if need be.

Creating Chorus

After three days of practicing and perfecting our chorus, we finally had the opportunity to showcase our performance to the class. The actual decision of which chorus section to perform in Oedipus was completely at random because there were so many different sections in the play itself. Despite this, we understood the meaning and context of this specific chorus in that it is when Oedipus realizes that he is in fact the murderer and is unsure of how to act because he has made an announcement to find and punish the murderer of King Laius. The purpose of this activity was to incorporate four elements: sound, masks, voice/speech, and movement.

In regards to sound and movement, our group decided to use these elements to highlight the more intense, suspenseful moments of the chorus. This was accomplished by having the sounds escalate to this one moment with faster drum beatings. Movements tended to be sharper and more sudden during these moments as those who maintained a constant movement in the background (those who walked back and forth) suddenly appeared between the speakers. The purpose of these actions was meant to capture the audience's attention and to help them understand when the climaxes of the chorus occurred.

When we watched the other group perform their chorus, they had fairly good elements throughout their performance. One critique was that a majority of the performers had their backs facing the audience for a good portion of the chorus. Although it did draw attention to the main/specific speaker, perhaps they shouldn't have remained turned around during the entire performance but rather for a short period. Both groups were critiqued on the speed in regards to the speakers. Our instructor thought that both groups needed to maintain a slower, more constant speed and that the other group had done a better job of this. What she did appreciate about our performance was that we included brief moments of silence which captivated the audience, but that we didn't pause for long enough periods in order to use this method effectively.

Through this specific exercise, I discovered a similar problem that I face with speaking in general. As I was practicing and reciting for an English presentation, I realized that I also tend to rush when I speak. I suppose this is because I have a natural tendency to read and speak at a fairly quick pace which accounts for my rushing in speaking for performances. As a result, I've come to understand that I must slow down in order for my audience to understand the message that I am conveying. Rather than rushing through the speech, chorus, or monologue I should take the time to enunciate the words so that my audience can follow what I am saying.

A Musical Mime

Our second acting performance consisted of a mime to music. This differed from our conventional idea of what a mime is supposed to be in that we think a mime is meant to be completely silent and without sound. I guess the idea of a silent mime is meant more for the actor to be silent and not necessarily for the entire performance to be composed in silence. As a result, the use of music brought a different element to the performance in enhancing the mood to give the audience a better sense of the actor's actions. I believe the purpose of this assignment was for us to find a stimulus, in this case our piece of music, and create a performance based solely on this piece of inspiration.

And so I began the search for my music and decided to opt for something with a more classical flair that displayed a variety of moods. This meant that the music went in a wave in terms of tempo and volume. After searching, I eventually came to the decision of choosing Hans Zimmer's composition of Maestro featured in the film: The Holiday. The song began as a mellow tune and worked its way up to this climactic moment of excitement. Because of this, I decided to mime the story of someone having a usual Sunday afternoon relaxing on her sofa with a magazine and a soda. She suddenly receives this call that her friend is coming over to visit, but must wait impatiently as this friend arrives. She continues to read until this friend arrives which is the end of the mime.

After performing this second mime, I received constructive criticism on how I needed to find a different activity to do while I waited for my friend because I winded up reading for a good portion of the mime. Another critique was that I needed to portray this sense of impatience as I waited either by shaking my leg or by checking my watch. In regards to finding a variety of activities to do while sitting down, my instructor pointed out a good example in another theatre student's pantomime. This particular mime consisted of a girl sitting down to eat this large, delicious-looking meal. As she was sitting at her "table" she was cutting up what seemed to be a steak, garnished her food, and was trying to force ketchup out of a ketchup bottle. Although she sat down for mime, she demonstrated how we can still show an array of emotions as well as actions.

Tragedy and Oedipus

Tragedy as defined by Aristotle should include an element of catharsis. Contrary to my original belief of the catharsis being for the actors, Aristotle intended this catharsis for the audience. To put this in modern-day language, these cathartic plays function on the same level as sad, "sob-fest" movies. These films are meant to elicit a certain reaction from the audience such as tears in which the audience leaves the performance/movie with a sense of having been freed of a burden with this "feel-good" emotion.

As a class, we discussed about the six essential elements of an Aristotelian tragedy. Our instructor's example of Oedipus was the ideal model of a tragedy in that the play included a complex plot, a character with a tragic flaw, a character's thought and diction, a melody (chorus), and a spectacle. We discussed the irony of the situation in that Oedipus believed that he was escaping his prophecy by leaving his suppossed family when in fact he murdered his biological father, Laius, upon arriving in Thebes. This irony illustrates Oedipus' hubris in his belief that he can control his fate and prevent his prophecy from becoming a reality.

Up until this point, our exposure to theatre has been mostly through textbook knowledge rather than actual theatre experiences. Besides the pantomime and family portrait exercise that we have done, most of our learning has been through texts. I suppose that our theatre instructor wants us to have a fairly good understanding of the textbook elements involved in various types of theatre because theatre consists of more than just acting. Because a good majority of our class consists of students new to theatre, she probably wants us to fully understand the textbook aspect that we are more comfortable with before we are taken out of our comfort zones to either act or direct.

Color Me Mime

Today I completed my first official theatre assignment: the pantomime. To be quite frank, I felt out of my element when I got up and performed in front of my theatre class. It was a new experience for I had never been in a theatre performance, let alone a pantomime where I was unable to express myself with words but with motions and facial expressions. As the lesser experienced theatrical students came together and brainstormed with the more experienced, we came up with the idea of miming someone who was painting a wall.

When I first practiced this, I had to become aware with my "props" and my "surroundings." I quickly realized the difficulty of miming as I had to remember where I had placed my objects to ensure that I was not trampling all over my painting supplies. Another issue that I encountered was the fact that my painting supplies had somehow vanished once I was done using them. As a result, I had to consciously think and plan out my actions throughout my pantomime to ensure that these problems would not occur during my actual performance. Once I had completed my mime, I received both positive and constructive feedback from my peers and instructor. The positive was that I was aware of my surroundings and therefore prevented my first concern listed above. My peers critiqued on the fact that I needed to become more aware of my "props" such as the paintbrush which I had held crookedly rather than in a straight line. Another critique was that I needed to give my supposed paint can more weight as I was pouring out the paint. My theatre instructor also noted the fact of how she wanted to see more of a storyline within the pantomime rather than having us merely perform the actions. Overall, I need to practice and work on giving objects a more realistic feel in terms of displaying depth and weight.

In watching other students' pantomimes, I realized some other important elements such as having sharp movements and including characteristic actions that further help the audience understand what the actor is doing. In one pantomime, a critique was that actor needed to show more force in her foot closing the refrigerator door. In terms of characteristic actions, this referred to another actor's pantomime in which he was making a peanut-butter sandwich. In order to show that the ingredient was in fact peanut butter, our instructor commented on how he could have shown the stickyness of his ingredients and that he could have taken smaller bites rather than if he were eating a larger sandwich. This demonstrates how because we cannot speak and narrate our actions, we must achieve a sense of communication of our actions to the audience through physical motions and facial expressions.

Expressions and Emotions

The task at hand was to create a still frame of our own take of a family portrait. As ideas were brainstormed and passed around, our original idea of the ideal family had changed into a strange family dynamic. Our "family" had started out as the typical suburban family with the quintessential perfect couple and their children. In seeing that we needed to convey a sense of differing and varying emotions, we decided to give this ideal family a number of flaws. Rather than having two siblings who were in agreement with one another, one remained the happy-go-lucky child whereas the other became the hostile and disagreeable child. In this way, we were able to convey two opposing emotions of liveliness and irritation. To further create another element of peculiarity within this family portrait, we added the character of the husband's mistress who was peering out of the corner of the portrait. And so my role in this "family" was to portray the oblivious wife who believed that they epitomized the ideal family as she closed her eyes and smiled in the shot. The one piece of criticism for our portrait was the reality of our situation because in a realistic portrait, the mistress character would not be included and so it showed us that in an attempt to portray humor, we must think about the realistic aspects of a scenario.

Strangely enough, I noticed that there was a common motif of the flawed family. One portrait contained the couple in the process of divorce while another contained quarreling siblings. I suppose that many of us were drawn to the image of this family with faults because it could be portrayed with great humor as the characters were put in extreme situations. The idea of flaws and mistakes seem to be humorous because it's different from the typical, perfect model and is most likely why each portrait had the element of the flawed family. This activity helped me understand the importance of expressions and emotions in theatre because it's one component that helps the audience understand the character's situation. As a result, I understood that our emotions must be sharp and emphasized so that we can convey our expressions to the audience.