Theatre and art

One billion rising poem. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj7Zw4P8LPo

"Some people are so poor, all they have is money" 

Is the first quote that comes to my mind whist reflecting back on The Good Soul Of Sechuan. 

Things that went really well: 

Doing Bertolt Brecht is such a challenge and was very admiring of the risk you took.

The set was beautiful and surprising and used in very smart ways. I was so surprised when you turned the shop around and how it was used. The elevated audience in the black box was new for me and it gave the opportunity to really fill up the space of the black box. 

Lighting, although not Bretchian, was very well used. It was very smooth although highlighted everything that needed to be highlighted. One of my scorch moment was when The water boy would talk to the Gods and how the light hit him. 

The acting!!!! You guys are all so very talented and with all the lines, all the monologues and the limited time, you really pulled off the characters so well. I heard that lines were missed, although I hadn't noticed. I mean the court scene seemed a little short but I believe the most important points were said throughout the play. I was also told that, even though important lines were missed, one of you was always able to go back and fourth into the script to remind others, and finally get through the line. I hadn't noticed that either. Give yourself some chocolate for pulling that off. 

The actor-audience relationship. I believe that this was one of the best handled characteristic of Brechtian theatre. The barrier that was purposely broken was well done as the audience reacted and listened carefully when spoken to. The pointing and when all the actors were in line facing the audience it was really powerful. 

Things that didn't go as well: 

When Sabrina mentioned that the play was some kind of a comment on capitalism and communism, I was a little a surprised but then thinking back on it it makes a lot of sense, so I think it was just me who got lost into the smeller messages rather than the whole picture. Because duh, China, Brecht, Gods and poor.. it kinda speaks for itself. 

It was left undecided if the actors were supposed to be frozen or if they just kept on doing whatever they were doing when one actor was speaking to the audience. Some were frozen, some weren't.. it was a little distracting at times. 

If you were sited on the sides of the black box, when the actors were standing on one side of the tobacco shop you weren't able to see the actors at all. 

Chose now or never move on. 

Traditions: 

greek 

comedia 

noh theatre 

balinese 

shakesperian

Styles:

physical 

comedy of manner

musical

stand up 

tragedy

monologue based 

post modernist

traditional

surrealism

street theatre

Movement:

mi 

kabuki

stanislosky 

Epic theatre

Viewpoints

butoh

deadly theatre 

theatre of the absurd 

theatre of the oppressed 

Form:

 masks 

pantomine 

cirque de soleil 

puppetry 

interpretive dance

 Strengths and weaknesses: 

what is theatre? 

comparing theatre to old cell phone. Pyramid to show growth of understanding. reflects on society. relevance

roles taken throughout the years, different methods,commitment to it, workshops, bringing the metaphor back constantly, Group work, importance of community, practitionersssss, different techniques, film inspiration, audience effectiveness, short play analysis, critical eye, eye opening experiences, goals,

My technical element for our devised play was projections and sound. Starting off I honestly didn't know too much on both projection or sound. Although sound was more familiar to me as it is used in every play and I had learned a little about it in class but for projections it was a completely new concept which I only saw got used twice in two different plays. In both case it had a great impact on me and the audience in general so I was eager to learn the process of it and test myself on what extra factor I could bring to the play. 

I learned how to use cue-lab and also that finding inspirational songs wasn't such an easy thing. The determination needed to make sure every sound cue is correct, that the quality of the image and movie is perfect, all that attention to details. 

As we working with the art class a lot, it was counted that projections were counted to emphasize their work. Trying to use the artwork that represented the dreams and main topics the best without messing up the quality of the artwork itself and its meaning. Learning to work with other and especially to really highlight their work and make sure that everybody is happy with the ideas proposed. 

I wish I would have had more time to fix the projections to make it perfect with the screens as well as the effect of it coming in and out. As for the sound of the video they were some things that weren't as clear as they thought they were. Earlier run tests would have helped, also some of the sounds weren't suppose to be as loud as they were. The difference in the volumes really bugged me. Also sometimes both projections and sound worked together and I'm pretty sure they is something that could make it work better but I hadn't had the time to find out about it. 

For research I looked up projections designers, most of them working for singers and designed for concerts. I also had to learn how to use iMovie to its best advantage and took a while. I had help from Mr Black to research and set things up. Also spent a few hours around youtube tryingto find music to fit the play and the moment it would be played at. 

As for the devised script I wasn't in charge of any dream, as from the beginning I was given the main character and a time consuming tech element. Although I felt bad and guilty about that, so I was there every time someone needed help, for every brainstorm I would do my best to give ideas and opinions.  Thinking back about the beginning of the process through the end is crazy. Pretty much none of it went the way we expected. The dreams that were written by one person but once going through it as a class it would change a lot. The process of the writing of the script technically never ended. Even the day of the first performance a few lines change. That was challenging but exciting and having that freedom felt comfortable. I was happy to learn that you can't write a script that easily, that sometimes when you get the actors to say the lines on stage it sounds so much different than when its on paper. For example our ending just kept changing. Every week it was different, that was caused by working with the art students, who had different views than we had and we all had to respect each other's ideas. We got our final ending only two days before the show. As for the transitions there were never written, we went with the feeling and all the ideas that we had to try to make quick and simple, yet useful transitions using physical theatre. 

Once the first performance was over, it was such a relief. It went so much better than expected. We technically never got to do the whole show with all the lighting, the sound and projection cues, the costume changes, we never even got to practice the ending with all the details included. So when we got through the show with no problems coming up it was almost a surprise. I was prepared for the worst. But nothing was forgotten, lines were almost never messed up and if so they were covered really well. All the lighting cues went perfectly, the sound cues were sometimes a little bit late. And I can't say if all of the projections worked perfectly or not as I couldn't really see the screens.  The audience also understood things I thought they wouldn't understand and were more responsive than I expected. I really do believe that we were able to make them think about the position they stood in in society, and what our dystopian world represented for them.

I believe that our play had many many themes. Each dream represented new themes and questions about life and art. Although to me the main theme was truth in fantasy, that the influence of our dreams and the meaning of them couldn't be ignored. I've always been fascinated in the meaning of dreams. Our play was mainly about trying to find yourself through what you love and really let who you really come out of you even if who you are is different than everyone else. Even if one believes that their thoughts are crazy because the mind is spectacular and everyone should follow what it tells rather than what the society tells you. The feedback that were given from the audience sometimes made me really wonder about a few things we had done. For example for the acting some people said that it could have been better, that a few emotions could have been convinced better, I initially thought that the acting would be what the audience would have been able to enjoy the most. The emotions were suppose to gradually come in and be explosive in the end, which I thought we were able to represent well. 

For the IPP:

Search for pictures 

More researching from books

Some of his work: 

For my IPP I have decided to do projections and sound as this fits into the film world which is somewhere I want to get into later on. 

Our play will actually be working off a lot of projections and some kind of mini films to have effect on the audience and also help with understanding the play throughout the entire time. 

We have done our pitches as a class, presenting. Although, the pitches felt weaker than the ones we had last year as we weren't as far into the development of the play, I had a feeling that it went well, and really helped us pick up things, and realize which parts we were still missing. 

I mainly used quotes and images to represents my thoughts and ideas such as "art should comfort the disturb, and disturb the comfortable" -Cesar Cruz

Spatial relationship vocab (Bogart, Suzuki) 

Exercise:  Japanese rock garden

Asymmetry

symmetric

extreme distance 

line

counterpoints

center stage

extreme proximity

Shape (Bogart - viewpoints) 

exercise: group 

literal 

abstract 

geometric

Architecture (Bogart) 

pointing out details 

exploring 

uniqueness 

Compositions: 

theatre created in 20 minutes in groups of 5 -Bogart

Performing Physical theatre: 

7 levels of energy - Jacque Lecoq

Group focus: 

In group of 5 three always down with eyes close. - Bogart

Body awareness: 

group train exaggeration -Bogart

Group awereness: 

Shapes

Kinesthetic response: 

running, clap, partner, slow, stop

Bang bang. 

lanes 5 people line up, rock, jumping, laying down, fetus

Gestures: (Bogart) 

 6 movements, all together

expressive emotions 

behavioral 

cultural 

Butoh: 

follow the finger 

isolation a of body parts 

Suzuki: 

the hada (centering your part/strengthen) 

west focus on upper body

east focus on lower body 

(dance your imagination) 

Viewpoints: 

body 

shape

space 

spacial relationship 

architecture

time

kinesthetic response

desire/love/humor/laughter, pity/grief, energy/vigor, fear/shame, disgust, surprise/wonder and peace/bliss. 

9 different emotions... Probably the nine most intense emotions ever too. To get to the point of those emotions, I try to recall moments in which I have actually felt those, sometimes it can be really painful but, and hard. Although I felt so relief once I would step out of the boxes of emotions that I usually keep inside. It's like letting it all out, and then you feel in peace with yourself once again. It's an exercise that asks for a lot of focus and courage, but I honestly very much enjoyed it. It got easier once we were able to put in sounds. Scorch moment for me was when I was in the box of heartbreak, and I fell to the floor and stopped making sound, and I suddenly realized and could hear everyone else, I observed i silence and it was so intense, it felt like I could feel every vibration of the emotions lived through everyone else, all the noises. There was laughters, screams, puking, desperation, excited noises buzzing in my ears. It wasn't bad though, it felt like everything was coming together to find a center of peace.

The play feels so far yet so close. To me all of our ideas are great, and I am so inspired by our theme of dreams although it makes me so nervous. Creating my own dream, there is just so much I'd like to do but at the same I feel so blocked and afraid. I'm not sure I can be able to make a script good enough for the level of our class. I don't believe myself to be on the same level as the other girls and as great of a writer or inspiration than them. Stressful.com