Since British Arts has been a relatively independent project between my partner (Eric) and me, our teacher decided that we would perform our piece for the class today. Prior to today we had rehearsed our piece at four different times on our own time over the weekend. Without the guidance and the instruction that we were used to, it felt strange having to choose the piece and rehearse on our own. Despite this, we managed to work fairly well together in terms of coming up with ideas to enhance our piece and to further our characterization. In our performance today we pantomimed our props as we had not compiled our props yet.
After performing our classmates had numerous critiques which made me feel a bit discouraged because I felt that in their eyes, we hadn’t even done anything near an adequate job. For example, they said that we needed to utilize our environment and to better our physicality because all they saw was our profiles. We were also asked to cheat out more. They asked Eric to create a more defined setting so that the audience felt that he was more at home. In the script, my attitude towards my “husband” changes from being scared to coming to terms with the idea and I was asked to define this moment so that the audience could have a sense of character change. Because Eric and I were extremely nervous, we put out a one-note performance, and so we were told to exaggerate our emotions and to dramatize each word. Adding on to our nerves, our piece went by quickly and it felt more like reciting lines than it did a scene. At the end, I felt as if we had a tremendous amount of work ahead of us and left me feeling as if we wouldn’t be able to pull it all together in the end.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
"Family 2.0" by Walter Wykes
Before I start discussing about my experiences through British Arts I'll start off by giving a brief plot summary about our piece. This scene is titled "Family 2.0" by Walter Wykes. The fact that it's called "Family 2.0" essentially details what the scene is about. The two characters are the wife and her "husband" who is actually a stranger who passes by the house on a daily basis and figures that he should try something new with a new life and family. As the wife is tidying up the finishing touches in her living room the husband enters and she is confused and terrified of what is going on. She tries to threaten him by claiming that she is going to call the police but her "husband" never shies away because of his determination for her to come around and change her mind. As the scene progresses he does things that her husband has never done for her: reciting to her a poem that he has written and bringing her flowers. These acts combined with the qualities that her husband does not posses ends up changing her mind about this man. So in the end her mind about him completely changes and she is convinced to accept him as her new husband.
For our performance, the only thing that we did differently was having the wife (played by me) watching TV as her "husband" (played by Eric) walked in. Other than that we remained true to the script and only edited out extraneous lines.
For our performance, the only thing that we did differently was having the wife (played by me) watching TV as her "husband" (played by Eric) walked in. Other than that we remained true to the script and only edited out extraneous lines.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Putting It All Together
In thinking back on the senior IB performances, I've come to realize how much work and effort goes into any type of performance big or small. Even for a small 15 minute performance, I did not realize how much thought goes into actually planning the production and then into its execution. Although I was casted as an actor and not part of the planning/backstage work, I was exposed to the stress and anxiety that our director and crew felt in the weeks proceeding the performance. The costumes that our performance required were not necessarily the easiest to find because it required finding different animal parts in order to associate each actor with its respective animal. Karina had just so happened to find donkey and elephant tails and masks that we could both wear. These were definitely lucky finds because without these components, the audience would have had a difficult time distinguishing our characters. I realized that Karina made a good portion of our costumes in terms of animal ears and animal patterns on shirts.
In addition to costuming, I understood the extensive planning and creating of props. For example, Anna made the hens' flying contraption and to create the banner for the festival. In addition to making props, she had to find decorative props such as trees and food which she was able to find in storage boxes in our theatre classroom. For the actual performance, I realized that everything had to be planned up until the last minute of the production. For example, during dress rehearsal we realized that we wound up with more props than people to carry the props on stage. And so we found that we had to plan on having someone not involved in our production carry in the trees. There was precision to everything, from assigning Iris and Kaitlyn to bring in the table, Irene to bring in the tree on stage left, Karina to bring in the tree on stage right, etc. I've come to see that theatre isn't merely actors on stage and have come to appreciate the complexity that goes into each production and hope to experience this once I help with costuming for our school's upcoming spring musical.
In addition to costuming, I understood the extensive planning and creating of props. For example, Anna made the hens' flying contraption and to create the banner for the festival. In addition to making props, she had to find decorative props such as trees and food which she was able to find in storage boxes in our theatre classroom. For the actual performance, I realized that everything had to be planned up until the last minute of the production. For example, during dress rehearsal we realized that we wound up with more props than people to carry the props on stage. And so we found that we had to plan on having someone not involved in our production carry in the trees. There was precision to everything, from assigning Iris and Kaitlyn to bring in the table, Irene to bring in the tree on stage left, Karina to bring in the tree on stage right, etc. I've come to see that theatre isn't merely actors on stage and have come to appreciate the complexity that goes into each production and hope to experience this once I help with costuming for our school's upcoming spring musical.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Not-So-Subtle Politics: The Performance
Today we performed the independent projects that the seniors have been devising and preparing for since the end of their junior year. There were three performances: the Commedia dell'arte piece directed by Esther and Diana, the Like Water For Chocolate piece directed by Michelle, and Not-So-Subtle Politics directed by Kermeka. Because most of the cast was in the dressing room preparing for our performance, we weren't able to watch the other two performances; however, as our classmates were walking in and out of the dressing rooms I kept hearing of the success of the Commedia piece. I think what appealed most to the audience was the humor involved in the Commedia piece. At our last dress rehearsal, I noticed that the small physical motions of the actors really enhanced the piece such as Irene's mocking behavior of Fabio in imitating his staring at Isabella's portrait.
During our performance, everything seemed to be going as we had rehearsed until the scene with the big crash and destruction. What was supposed to happen was that in the midst of Kaitlyn, Iris, and Karina, and my argument there would have been a huge crash representing an attack to the Land of the Prosperous. But when the cue for the crash passed and there still was no crash I decided to go along with the script and continue on with my lines out of panic. After saying "What in the world just happened?" I realized that the lack of a crash didn't match with what I had just said. Karina then added "Did anyone hear that?" in order to clarify to the audience what had happened. And so we continued on until the end of the scene. Once Cindy had said "Chaos breaks loose" the sound system finally kicked in and the crash appeared then. With this, we were all backstage frustrated and embarassed at what had occurred. The day before we had practiced with tech and had perfected this scene...all for nothing because in the end it was unsuccessful. After the performances, Diana who was responsible for tech/lighting claimed that the mics were plugged into the sound system that we were supposed to us for the crash. And so I don't think that it is fair to place this mishap as a fault of our director or our technical person but that it was genuinely an accident because of something that we had not accounted for. Because we had never practiced this in rehearsal, we were unaware that there would be such a conflict.
Overall, being in this production as my first performance was a really great experience. I feel that this is attributed to the fact that I had the opportunity to work with a great cast, director, and tech/make up/costume crew. I could not have asked for a better director who was able to take control of any situation and to be a true leader in this project. Kermeka's extensive experience in theatre as a result of having drama one experience as well as experience with last year's spring musical gave her the skills that she needed. Not only did she give us instructions on what we had to do, but she also gave us input and ideas on how to better characterize our roles. I feel that our cast respected Kermeka as the director because she treated the cast with respect and was extremely understanding. Our costume, make up, and props crew consisted of Anna (Ling) and Karina who also did a great job compiling the props that enhanced our performance. With the costumes that Karina had created, it helped in our characterization and gave us the chance to embrace our roles.
During our performance, everything seemed to be going as we had rehearsed until the scene with the big crash and destruction. What was supposed to happen was that in the midst of Kaitlyn, Iris, and Karina, and my argument there would have been a huge crash representing an attack to the Land of the Prosperous. But when the cue for the crash passed and there still was no crash I decided to go along with the script and continue on with my lines out of panic. After saying "What in the world just happened?" I realized that the lack of a crash didn't match with what I had just said. Karina then added "Did anyone hear that?" in order to clarify to the audience what had happened. And so we continued on until the end of the scene. Once Cindy had said "Chaos breaks loose" the sound system finally kicked in and the crash appeared then. With this, we were all backstage frustrated and embarassed at what had occurred. The day before we had practiced with tech and had perfected this scene...all for nothing because in the end it was unsuccessful. After the performances, Diana who was responsible for tech/lighting claimed that the mics were plugged into the sound system that we were supposed to us for the crash. And so I don't think that it is fair to place this mishap as a fault of our director or our technical person but that it was genuinely an accident because of something that we had not accounted for. Because we had never practiced this in rehearsal, we were unaware that there would be such a conflict.
Overall, being in this production as my first performance was a really great experience. I feel that this is attributed to the fact that I had the opportunity to work with a great cast, director, and tech/make up/costume crew. I could not have asked for a better director who was able to take control of any situation and to be a true leader in this project. Kermeka's extensive experience in theatre as a result of having drama one experience as well as experience with last year's spring musical gave her the skills that she needed. Not only did she give us instructions on what we had to do, but she also gave us input and ideas on how to better characterize our roles. I feel that our cast respected Kermeka as the director because she treated the cast with respect and was extremely understanding. Our costume, make up, and props crew consisted of Anna (Ling) and Karina who also did a great job compiling the props that enhanced our performance. With the costumes that Karina had created, it helped in our characterization and gave us the chance to embrace our roles.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Jersey Boys
When my family and I spent this past President's Day weekend in Las Vegas, the perfect opportunity arose to attend the production of Jersey Boys in The Jersey Boys Theatre at The Palazzo casino. I did not have any knowledge of the production before actually attending the musical so I found a quick online synopsis of the play. The musical is a documentary focused around a 1960s rock n' roll group called the Four Seasons. It is focused mostly around the main group member, Frankie Valli, and his trials and tribulations throughout his life with the group. The three other main characters are the other members of the group: Tommy DeVito, Bob Gaudio, and Nick Massi. As is evident with its title, the production is set in New Jersey.
When I first entered the theatre, I was taken aback by its large size in terms of staging and seating because I have not attended a professional theatre production aside from Wicked which I attended many years ago. So being in such a grand theatre was a change because I have been accustomed to smaller-scaled high school or college theatres. It utilized a proscenium stage and had stairs to give the set different levels. The stairs would lead to a platform which allowed for a two-story stage. It was effective to give the stage different levels so that the actors could be dispersed throughout to fully utilize the stage rather than having them clumped together. Atop the stage was a screen for projected images that helped to further the setting. Throughout the performance, pictures and words would be projected onto the stage to give the audience a sense of time, season, or mood. For example, when Frankie Valli had discovered the death of his daughter, a projected image of a crying man appeared on the screen to mirror Frankie's emotional state. The use of projected images only enhanced the performance to give the audience a better sense of time and emotion as they were able to discern the various events.
I felt that this production was extremely technical and fully utilized technology to its benefit. Rather than having the crew come out onto the stage to remove the props and to bring in different props for set changes, all the props were completely mechanized. For example, the props would either be lowered from the ceiling or would appear from under the stage. When the Four Seasons was about to perform in a concert venue, mic stands would appear from under the stage. Having this really worked to the benefit of the production because the audience was not distracted by the crew working on stage and could focus all their attention on the actors. In addition, I was amazed by the use of technology to imitate the shooting of a televised show/music video. In order to take the audience to the point when the Four Seasons was performing on live television, video cameras emerged and shot the group from one end of the stage, and the image captured on the video cameras appeared on the projection screen. It was such an innovative element that really acted to engage the audience. What also amazed me was the use of the stage to act as an actual stage for the Four Seasons to perform in a concert. We either felt as if we were part of the audience or were backstage at one of their concerts. I thought that it was really interesting when the audience felt as if they were part of the concert audience because it actually felt as if we were at a concert rather than in a theatre watching a musical.
The theatre's large size really helped with the music portions of the production. The large size allowed the music to reverberate throughout the theatre and allowed for the audience to absorb the music. I believe that what made the musical such a hit was the choice of music. And not only was the music catchy and easy on the ears, but the actors also had such voices that completely captivated the audience. I think because the music was derived from a musical group's music rather than the showtune music from a musical, the music replayed in the audience's head even after the production was over. As a result, Jersey Boys seems to be in a similar genre as that of Mamma Mia! because the music from the production has come from that of a musical group. Overall, I do not have any negative critique for the musical because I personally felt that it was clever and brilliant.
When I first entered the theatre, I was taken aback by its large size in terms of staging and seating because I have not attended a professional theatre production aside from Wicked which I attended many years ago. So being in such a grand theatre was a change because I have been accustomed to smaller-scaled high school or college theatres. It utilized a proscenium stage and had stairs to give the set different levels. The stairs would lead to a platform which allowed for a two-story stage. It was effective to give the stage different levels so that the actors could be dispersed throughout to fully utilize the stage rather than having them clumped together. Atop the stage was a screen for projected images that helped to further the setting. Throughout the performance, pictures and words would be projected onto the stage to give the audience a sense of time, season, or mood. For example, when Frankie Valli had discovered the death of his daughter, a projected image of a crying man appeared on the screen to mirror Frankie's emotional state. The use of projected images only enhanced the performance to give the audience a better sense of time and emotion as they were able to discern the various events.
I felt that this production was extremely technical and fully utilized technology to its benefit. Rather than having the crew come out onto the stage to remove the props and to bring in different props for set changes, all the props were completely mechanized. For example, the props would either be lowered from the ceiling or would appear from under the stage. When the Four Seasons was about to perform in a concert venue, mic stands would appear from under the stage. Having this really worked to the benefit of the production because the audience was not distracted by the crew working on stage and could focus all their attention on the actors. In addition, I was amazed by the use of technology to imitate the shooting of a televised show/music video. In order to take the audience to the point when the Four Seasons was performing on live television, video cameras emerged and shot the group from one end of the stage, and the image captured on the video cameras appeared on the projection screen. It was such an innovative element that really acted to engage the audience. What also amazed me was the use of the stage to act as an actual stage for the Four Seasons to perform in a concert. We either felt as if we were part of the audience or were backstage at one of their concerts. I thought that it was really interesting when the audience felt as if they were part of the concert audience because it actually felt as if we were at a concert rather than in a theatre watching a musical.
The theatre's large size really helped with the music portions of the production. The large size allowed the music to reverberate throughout the theatre and allowed for the audience to absorb the music. I believe that what made the musical such a hit was the choice of music. And not only was the music catchy and easy on the ears, but the actors also had such voices that completely captivated the audience. I think because the music was derived from a musical group's music rather than the showtune music from a musical, the music replayed in the audience's head even after the production was over. As a result, Jersey Boys seems to be in a similar genre as that of Mamma Mia! because the music from the production has come from that of a musical group. Overall, I do not have any negative critique for the musical because I personally felt that it was clever and brilliant.
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