In celebration of Halloween, we were assigned to create a performance in a specific venue using Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven as a stimulus. The purpose of the assignment was not to perform on the stage and have the audience sit in the chairs but to choose a different venue for our performance within the bounds of the theatre. As a result, we were able to explore with the different locations of the theatre rather than our typical classroom setting.
As we had previously learned, the purpose of a stimulus was to be inspired by the stimulus and create a performance using the stimulus as a form of inspiration rather than creating a performance based off the stimulus. Here is a simplification of the purpose of a stimulus: to not act out the poem line by line but to use a section of the poem to and base the performance off of an idea created by the stimulus. And when we heard of "rapping at the chamber door" Kavita instantly thought of having someone actually rap (song rapping) at the door instead of rap (fast knocking). While we were brainstorming we realized that we were actually dramatizing each line of the poem rather than using the poem as a stimulus. Because of this we decided to use that one line of the poem and use the hallway in the theatre to create a performance of how Eric was playing a Halloween joke by constantly knocking on Noelia's door as she was having a party. He did this about three times before the rest of us came knocking on Noelia's door as trick-or-treaters. And so when she realized that we weren't the ones knocking on her door, we all looked out in fear at the audience. We figured that the venue that we used was fitting with all the doors so that we could have smooth, clear entrances and the doors helped to stage the performance.
The one memorable performance by another group was done by utilizing the seating area of the theatre to portray a haunted house. This group really used its space and its surroundings to enhance its performance. As characters were attacked by this mysterious person, they hid between the rows of seats so that they would remain out of sight. And so this really enhanced this idea of how all the characters disappeared because since the audience could no longer see them, it was evident that they had all disappeared. As a result, I personally think that this group had the best performance in terms of really utilizing their venue to its fullest potential.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Scenes and Strasberg
As each student has been presenting her theorist in order to expose the class to more theatrical aspects, our instructor gave us an exercise after half of the students had presented. In this exercise one person in each group of two was to perform a brief section of the monologue according to a specific theorist's ideas. Since I hadn't presented, I paired up with Kavita who had researched about Lee Strasberg and his theories. Strasberg believed that actors should perform more naturally on stage by taking their given scene/situation and applying their own personal experience to this scene. According to Strasberg, he believed that actors could portray more natural rather than artificial emotions if they could somehow relate to the scene at hand.
And so the scene that we were given was of a girl who was scolding her sister for having stolen something from her friend. The ironic thing is that the sister who is doing the scolding has stolen her friend's bracelet before to show that she is a hypocritical character. And the character that I play is the sister who feels that she is being scolded at unfairly. At first when Kavita was directing me she had me substitute the sister's name with my own sister's name and the bracelet with a cellphone. Kavita told me to imagine my sister scolding and accusing me for something that I hadn't done so that I could portray this feeling of betrayal in my performance. Even after telling me this I was still holding back my emotions and was unable to convey this anger. And instead she had me imagine someone that I dislike and had me explain why I disliked him. In doing this I somehow started to feel irritated and angry which fared well for my performance.
There were multiple interpretations for this particular scene, and each interpretation was different based on each drama theorist. I performed with a more angry, irritated emotion whereas another group used this tone of blackmail. And since there were different interpretations for the different theorists, each group prepared in a different way. For example, one group used Meyerhold's theories of how the director had full control over the performance. According to Meyerhold, the actor wasn't supposed to put too much of himself into the character and not to put too much of the character in the performance. Instead, the actor needed to find this middle ground. As a result, our instructor brought up a point about how there isn't just one correct interpretation.
And so the scene that we were given was of a girl who was scolding her sister for having stolen something from her friend. The ironic thing is that the sister who is doing the scolding has stolen her friend's bracelet before to show that she is a hypocritical character. And the character that I play is the sister who feels that she is being scolded at unfairly. At first when Kavita was directing me she had me substitute the sister's name with my own sister's name and the bracelet with a cellphone. Kavita told me to imagine my sister scolding and accusing me for something that I hadn't done so that I could portray this feeling of betrayal in my performance. Even after telling me this I was still holding back my emotions and was unable to convey this anger. And instead she had me imagine someone that I dislike and had me explain why I disliked him. In doing this I somehow started to feel irritated and angry which fared well for my performance.
There were multiple interpretations for this particular scene, and each interpretation was different based on each drama theorist. I performed with a more angry, irritated emotion whereas another group used this tone of blackmail. And since there were different interpretations for the different theorists, each group prepared in a different way. For example, one group used Meyerhold's theories of how the director had full control over the performance. According to Meyerhold, the actor wasn't supposed to put too much of himself into the character and not to put too much of the character in the performance. Instead, the actor needed to find this middle ground. As a result, our instructor brought up a point about how there isn't just one correct interpretation.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Dinner Theatre
Since I have never been to dinner theatre, Kavita and I decided to go together as our first time since we are now both involved in theatre and to support our classmates for their hard work. This year the murder mystery was You Have the Right to Remain Dead. It was interesting when we first arrived because every theatre performance that I’ve attended has been staged in the classic theatre venue. And so this means that food and drink are not allowed. But when we arrived, we were first served dinner by the waiters and waitresses that were also part of the cast.
The show started once we had finished dinner and began with a narrator that captivated the audience with his humor. The cast embodied their characters in terms of action and accents to really fit these southern roles. Although there was only one setting for the entire performance, the cast utilized every inch of the MPR by including extensive audience participation. During the intermission, the cast interacted with the audience asking us who we thought was the murderer. I remember that when Hyacinth (played by Samantha Osaki) approached our table she had completely embodied her character and acted menacingly and threateningly. It was interesting that the audience could participate in solving this murder mystery because I have never attended a performance that allows the audience to question the cast members.
When one audience member had unintentionally referred to Sweet Mama as Big Mama, the actress playing Sweet Mama had stayed in character and played along with this name mishap. Because of this I realized that a good actor is able to perform in any situation and to improvise when necessary. Rather than breaking character because of what had just happened, she portrayed how Sweet Mama was offended by such an insinuation that she is overweight. This demonstrates how a good actor is able to maintain his or her character throughout the entire performance. Overall, dinner theatre was a great experience in exploring a different genre of theatre that I've never been exposed to.
The show started once we had finished dinner and began with a narrator that captivated the audience with his humor. The cast embodied their characters in terms of action and accents to really fit these southern roles. Although there was only one setting for the entire performance, the cast utilized every inch of the MPR by including extensive audience participation. During the intermission, the cast interacted with the audience asking us who we thought was the murderer. I remember that when Hyacinth (played by Samantha Osaki) approached our table she had completely embodied her character and acted menacingly and threateningly. It was interesting that the audience could participate in solving this murder mystery because I have never attended a performance that allows the audience to question the cast members.
When one audience member had unintentionally referred to Sweet Mama as Big Mama, the actress playing Sweet Mama had stayed in character and played along with this name mishap. Because of this I realized that a good actor is able to perform in any situation and to improvise when necessary. Rather than breaking character because of what had just happened, she portrayed how Sweet Mama was offended by such an insinuation that she is overweight. This demonstrates how a good actor is able to maintain his or her character throughout the entire performance. Overall, dinner theatre was a great experience in exploring a different genre of theatre that I've never been exposed to.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Constantin Stanislavski
As the first theorist that was presented to the class, Constantin Stanislavski and his theories appealed to me and seemed quite interesting. He was a Russian actor and theatre director that was born on January 17, 1863 and died on August 7, 1938 at age 75. His teachings have remained at the core of western performance/theatre training. Many other theorists that we have studied such as: Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, and Uta Hagen have developed their own theories through Stanislavki's ideas.
At age 25 he created his own Society of Art and Literature which taught dramatic art, the history of costume, make-up, drama, Russian literature, aesthetics, fencing, and dancing. He later then continued by creating the Moscow Art Theatre which brought this higher quality of theatre to surrounding towns. In order to avoid alarming authorities of its connection with the popular theatre movement, he called it "open" theatre.
Stanislavski wanted the actors to display this sense of artistic/theatrical truth onstage so that they could naturally portray the characters. His theory was to have actors "live the part" which could be applied to all types of theatre: melodrama or opera. This was clearly demonstrated in the exercise with the scenario of the dating game. Each candidate was given a character to embody such as an elf, Hermione from Harry Potter, and a farmer. Then when the dater came in, she was to determine what each candidate was supposed to have represented. And so each specific candidate responded to quesitons or acted as how these characters would be portrayed so that the farmer took on a southern accent and the elf a high-pitched voice.
At age 25 he created his own Society of Art and Literature which taught dramatic art, the history of costume, make-up, drama, Russian literature, aesthetics, fencing, and dancing. He later then continued by creating the Moscow Art Theatre which brought this higher quality of theatre to surrounding towns. In order to avoid alarming authorities of its connection with the popular theatre movement, he called it "open" theatre.
Stanislavski wanted the actors to display this sense of artistic/theatrical truth onstage so that they could naturally portray the characters. His theory was to have actors "live the part" which could be applied to all types of theatre: melodrama or opera. This was clearly demonstrated in the exercise with the scenario of the dating game. Each candidate was given a character to embody such as an elf, Hermione from Harry Potter, and a farmer. Then when the dater came in, she was to determine what each candidate was supposed to have represented. And so each specific candidate responded to quesitons or acted as how these characters would be portrayed so that the farmer took on a southern accent and the elf a high-pitched voice.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Medieval Morals
As our instructor was out for the week, our class watched a video about Medieval theatre. The video discussed various aspects of medival theatre such as how it was composed of three types of plays: mystery, miracle, and morality plays. Because I had previously researched this topic for a different assignment at the start of the year the video's information wasn't completely different from what I had learned.
Because I have already discussed the content of each of the three different types of plays in a previous entry I will only add on what new information I had gained from the video. One example that I remembered was an example of what I thought to be a morality play. Morality plays are more allegorical and function to point the character in the right path and direction. The morality play performed in the video involved a man stealing his neighbor's sheep. When the neighbor came searching for the sheep, the man lied to the neighbor saying that he did not have the sheep. The man told the neighbor that his wife was sleeping with their child which in fact was the hidden sheep. After much dialogue, it was eventually revealed that the man had in fact stolen the sheep. This morality play portrays the idea of how lying or telling untruths will usually lead a person to endure trouble rather than helping them to gain anything in return. It seems that the ideas conveyed in morality plays differ based on the audience member, but that all the morals seem to share a similar basis.
Because I have already discussed the content of each of the three different types of plays in a previous entry I will only add on what new information I had gained from the video. One example that I remembered was an example of what I thought to be a morality play. Morality plays are more allegorical and function to point the character in the right path and direction. The morality play performed in the video involved a man stealing his neighbor's sheep. When the neighbor came searching for the sheep, the man lied to the neighbor saying that he did not have the sheep. The man told the neighbor that his wife was sleeping with their child which in fact was the hidden sheep. After much dialogue, it was eventually revealed that the man had in fact stolen the sheep. This morality play portrays the idea of how lying or telling untruths will usually lead a person to endure trouble rather than helping them to gain anything in return. It seems that the ideas conveyed in morality plays differ based on the audience member, but that all the morals seem to share a similar basis.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Stating Subtext
After our first actual assignment involving dramatization, we were given another assignment in which we were required to create the subtext for a given script. I wasn't quite sure what subtext was, but understood that it was the motivation and reasons behind the actor's actions or tone of voice. Upon receiving our script, we were stumped as to what our plot would consist of. We started bouncing ideas off one another and started with the idea of the husband having infidelity with another woman but realized the triteness of this idea which was evident as a few groups did create subtext along those same lines. And so we finally decided on creating subtext between a teacher played by myself and the typical miscreant played by Shivani. As we read through the script, it got confusing at the part when I said that I would leave because most people would expect the student rather than the teacher to leave the classroom. We decided to change the plot so that the teacher would eventually leave the class because she is completely irritated by the student to the point when she wants nothing to do with the student.
When our performance was over, we received critique from both our peers and our instructor. Our peers had said that they had hoped to see more action besides our argument. At the end, our instructor had told us that the purpose of the assignment was not to focus on the text but more on creating action for the characters. She had hoped for us to fully develop our plot and characters so that she could easily and distinctly tell which character each actor was to portray. This was clearly demonstrated in one performance between Cindy and Jacqueline. Their plot was that they were partners-in-crime in a robbery scene at a jewelry store, but that they were unorganized. When they ran into each other and started shoving one another, it was evident that they both portrayed unintelligent robbers who had no idea what their plans were. In this case, the props (ie. jewelry) enhanced their performance because it helped to further the setting so the audience could get an even better idea of where they were. In seeing other performances, this helps me to understand the key components that make a performance not only memorable but successful.
When our performance was over, we received critique from both our peers and our instructor. Our peers had said that they had hoped to see more action besides our argument. At the end, our instructor had told us that the purpose of the assignment was not to focus on the text but more on creating action for the characters. She had hoped for us to fully develop our plot and characters so that she could easily and distinctly tell which character each actor was to portray. This was clearly demonstrated in one performance between Cindy and Jacqueline. Their plot was that they were partners-in-crime in a robbery scene at a jewelry store, but that they were unorganized. When they ran into each other and started shoving one another, it was evident that they both portrayed unintelligent robbers who had no idea what their plans were. In this case, the props (ie. jewelry) enhanced their performance because it helped to further the setting so the audience could get an even better idea of where they were. In seeing other performances, this helps me to understand the key components that make a performance not only memorable but successful.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Drama: Take One
Throughout the first couple months of school we have been given various assignments, but none of them have involved much dramatization...until today. For the most part, we have been learning about various methods of performances whether it may consist of storytelling or miming, but not so much of acting and dramatizing. And so our instructor started us off with a simple exercise that consisted of eight lines. Within these eight lines, we would need to convey a sense of setting, character, and situation. I decided to work with someone different, someone new, someone that I have yet to perform with and so Kavita was my partner.
We decided to portray the mother-daughter scenario. I portrayed the mother who was getting ready to leave for work while Kavita was the daughter who didn't want her mother to leave thinking that her mother was about to abandon her forever. During the actual performance, I had forgotten one of my lines and had instead jumped ahead to a different line. After doing so, Kavita quickly whispered that I had read the wrong line and we just continued as if nothing had happened. Despite this mix-up we tried our best to stay in character so as not to distract the audience and detract from our performance. Afterwards, our instructor commented on the fact that my suitcase had suddenly disappeared once my "daughter" had latched onto me. I had completely neglected our first lesson about pantomiming with the fact that we need to be aware of our "props". As a result, she said that in such a performance where pantomime isn't key, it's always best to use an actual prop rather than having to worry about correctly pantomiming the objects.
We decided to portray the mother-daughter scenario. I portrayed the mother who was getting ready to leave for work while Kavita was the daughter who didn't want her mother to leave thinking that her mother was about to abandon her forever. During the actual performance, I had forgotten one of my lines and had instead jumped ahead to a different line. After doing so, Kavita quickly whispered that I had read the wrong line and we just continued as if nothing had happened. Despite this mix-up we tried our best to stay in character so as not to distract the audience and detract from our performance. Afterwards, our instructor commented on the fact that my suitcase had suddenly disappeared once my "daughter" had latched onto me. I had completely neglected our first lesson about pantomiming with the fact that we need to be aware of our "props". As a result, she said that in such a performance where pantomime isn't key, it's always best to use an actual prop rather than having to worry about correctly pantomiming the objects.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Striking Stimulus
As an IB requirement, all theatre students are required to create a pitch based on a provided stimulus. This stimulus can be in the form of images or music. And so we were all assigned to find a stimulus at home and think about how we could possibly create a performance inspired by this stimulus. It was difficult to find something that we could potentially manipulate into creating a pitch for a performance. And so I decided to bring in a piece of instrumental music from the soundtrack of The Holiday.
After we all presented our various stimuli to our group, we decided on using Kavita's stimulus which was a song titled "Compassion" performed by the Bombay Dub Orchestra. As we listened to the song we thought of creating this morality play consisting of a dream sequence which starts with a man who travels through his past in his dream. He would fall asleep at his desk at work. During this dream the audience witnesses all his lost opportunities such as the job he should have taken and the studying abroad that he should have experienced. Because he had failed to grasp these opportunities, he's now stuck at the typical nine to five desk job which he resents. As a result of this, he wakes up at the end of the dream, quits his job, and goes out to pursue these lost opportunities.
We discussed how we would use black box theatre for this minimalist approach. The settings would be fairly simple as we would use a bench to symbolize a courtyard and just a desk and chair for his office space. Lighting would also change with the mood as it would start out with dull colors of grays, purples, and dark blues but would progress with brighter colors as this man comes to his realization. One critique that we had was that our pitch focused too much in terms of lighting and not in illustrating an image of what the performance would consist of. Another critique was that we had tried to shape our performance around the stimulus rather than using the stimulus to inspire us. The difference is that the stimulus is meant to inspire us to create a performance that doesn't necessarily exactly follow the stimulus but that uses certain aspects of the stimulus.
After we all presented our various stimuli to our group, we decided on using Kavita's stimulus which was a song titled "Compassion" performed by the Bombay Dub Orchestra. As we listened to the song we thought of creating this morality play consisting of a dream sequence which starts with a man who travels through his past in his dream. He would fall asleep at his desk at work. During this dream the audience witnesses all his lost opportunities such as the job he should have taken and the studying abroad that he should have experienced. Because he had failed to grasp these opportunities, he's now stuck at the typical nine to five desk job which he resents. As a result of this, he wakes up at the end of the dream, quits his job, and goes out to pursue these lost opportunities.
We discussed how we would use black box theatre for this minimalist approach. The settings would be fairly simple as we would use a bench to symbolize a courtyard and just a desk and chair for his office space. Lighting would also change with the mood as it would start out with dull colors of grays, purples, and dark blues but would progress with brighter colors as this man comes to his realization. One critique that we had was that our pitch focused too much in terms of lighting and not in illustrating an image of what the performance would consist of. Another critique was that we had tried to shape our performance around the stimulus rather than using the stimulus to inspire us. The difference is that the stimulus is meant to inspire us to create a performance that doesn't necessarily exactly follow the stimulus but that uses certain aspects of the stimulus.
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