Every process has a different ending...

Description

This week we had the performance of the One Act Play festival. On Tuesday we had our final rehearsal and on Wednesday we performed. Then, on Friday we got our final feedback and now we are getting ready to perform two more times for two promotions at school. In general, the audience was happy and satisfied, but we know it could have been much more better.

Analysis

On wednesday, Roberto asked us to put the 3 things we think that are important to consider before we get to perform. I wrote:

1. Having clear what you want to get from this experience
2. Considering the quantity of the effort on the process 
3. Have fun, enjoying what you are doing 

We discuss these points and basically what I want to get from this experience is to learn about theatre by the creation of a play. The number 2 basically focuses on giving it all on stage to prove that all the effort was worth it. And number 3 its very important actually because if you don´t have fun you can´t play with your scene or with your character. Especially in this play, I realised that characters are a variable element of all the plays as they change and evolve in a process of searching. It is also important to play with your lines and explore ways of saying them and incorporating actions and face expressions to it. 

Now I would like to summarise the feedback Roberto and miss Alicia gave us on Friday

Miss Alicia´s feedback:

• Good understanding of the audience, we got into a dialogue between the actors and the audience as we waited until they finished laughing in order for them to react
• Good use of english---> better than other OAPs (clear language, understandable)
• Characterisation: "we weren´t us, we were the characters"and this was mantained
• The style characteristics were seen clearly
• First scene: clear information that makes audience understand that the play is backwards
• 2nd scene: we play with the scene and begin with high energy
• In my case, my intentions were too repetitive and flat 
• For miss alicia, the movements in the cliche phrases part make the essence of the phrases get lost
• 3rd scene: no urgency from berlinda---> no rhythm
• Eduardo dropping lines, loss of energy
• The technique of off stage talking was perfect and shows a developed skill 
• The ending could have been a little stronger, like in the novels

Robbie´s feedback:

• Use the next performance to do it better
• No rhythm throughout the whole play
• No reactions
• Make-up----->horrible issue :((( we didn´t rehearse with it (my fault)
• Low light in the theatre

The main things I pick up from both feedbacks are 

1. the lack or loss of rhythm
2. my intentions (repetitive issue)
3. the make-up disaster

This are the things that affected me the most, mainly because they depend on me. The thing with rhythm was that we had a lot of rehearsals, and the rhythm varies depending on the energy you put in eacc performance. I think that the main think that stopped the rhythm was the fact that people laughed and we stopped until they finished laughing. On one hand, that was a positive thing as we establish a dialogue with the audience. But, on the other hand, we were working with fast and dynamic reactions and responses so I think that was the base of the scene´s rhythm and to me it was damaged by this "pauses" Maybe we felt it that way because it was the first time for all of us that we performed with this pauses.

When it comes to the repetitive issue of my intentions I know that its my fault because I realised how important were the intentions too late. I mean, in the end I did read the script and find the appropriate intention for each line but the thing is I did it too late to start exploring ways of saying the lines in order to show the intention. 

Finally, the huge make-up disaster. The audience comments about this are were actually positive. People told me that the facial lines were seen as real as in real life and many people thought nathalie actually got a haircut. The problem was we didn´t rehearse with the make-up on, so we didn´t know how the actions were be affected by it in each case. Also, we had to solve this problems almost the same day of the OAP. However, I still have 3 more chances to make it right, even just to prove how would some things like the mother long nails will look. This will serve me as a lesson, so that it never happens again and it helped me to learn and realise how important is one part of the design of a play.

When I start thinking about why people have certain opinions about our OAP, the most interest part is that we know the whole process of it. For example, I know that our language and pronunciation were better than other years because later this year we worked with german expressionism, so we practice language exaggeration and pronunciation. Then, I think the phrases thing was because we added in the end so we didn´t rehearse and reinforce how the actions will me implemented with the phrases. I also came up with a thought after miss alicia told us that the end needed to be more like in novels, with more impact and letting the audience with curiosity as when an episode ends. The thing is that usually the audience reacts like that in novels because they don´t know what will happen in the next episode, but in this case, as the order is backwards, the audience already knows what is going to happen in the last scene so the intrigue is lost. We were also asked to loos at ourselves and see how we´ve changed during the whole process, and at least for me its a lot. I mean, I didn´t reach the peak I wanted to reache, but comparing it to how we started, I ended much better and learned a lot about melodrama and the practical and technical aspects of a play. 

Connections

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM: the base of this theatre practice helped us to understand melodrama as we learned how to work with exaggerated voice, faces, bodies everything! which is actually very similar to melodrama. This is why people notice a difference on our pronunciation, because we had been previously "trained" by GE.

THE BOSS PERFORMANCE LAST YEAR: this was a situation in which I felt the same way that now. I didn´t have clear intentions and when I found them it was too late. Now I now the importance of having them and the next time I will start from that point.

DOWN TO EARTH: I felt the same way that in my DTE scene as I worked with Nathalie in both of them. I have noticed that Nathalie and I have a very strong acting chemistry! We have a level of trust and we have fun acting together, so usually ideas just burst out of our heads. For example, in the third scene I think that was one of the problems, I noticed that renzo and ana lucia have more chemistry together than with eduardo so I felt he was kind of "ignored" in terms of reactions and relationships. 

Reflections

The main thing I had reflected upon is that it is very interesting how the audience just looks at one side of the coin. It´s like the iceberg theory, the audience just see the top while we get to see the whole bottom. I found it amazing, my aunt asked me the other day "and how did you get to the plot and everything" and I start thinking on our process of creation and I can say that it actually came out of nowhere, we started with an idea, then change it, then create the inverted game, the decide on the pyramid structure, then the fact of a family being involved and just like that the plot started to born. 

It was also very interesting, the fact that some people didn´t even understand it was backwards but they still liked it anyway. And, the fact that they laughed in the moments we didn´t expect them too and didn´t laugh in the moments we expect them to. I think that one of the most amazing things about theatre is to question and explore the relationship with the audience, because in the end, the art is for them to stop, watch, and think. 

Why did people enjoy it even thou they didn´t understand? Every art has different audiences? How do you target an exact type of audience? what was our target? do people really think when watching theatre? or do they go just to have a good time? do the audience also think they have a relationship with the audience? why do we often think that we could do it better? for an actor, is there ever a point when you say "I´m satisfied with what I did"? or is theatre an endless cycle where you always want more from yourself?

This is just the beginning ....

Description

This week we focused on rehearsing the One Act Play paying attention to the little details in each scene. This will be important as we are not doing the play in chronological order, so we need to figure out what needs to change in the stage of the play in parallel to time. Also, we pay special attention to the last scene, as Ana Lucia had some trouble finding a character and Renzo just figured out his final characterisation. It was very interesting to watch this as it makes me think of the difficulties of acting and I also had a few problems which I hope will be solved this week.

Analysis

Basically, the things worked this week made me realise that I need to research about melodrama, as I would not understand why i am doing the things i am asked to do and maybe that its what I need to solve the problems of my scene.

The facts I found about this theatre practice were

• IR refers to a DRAMATIC work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions
• It may refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them.
•  OLD MELODRAMA had always a hero, a heroine, a villain and a villian´s sidekick
• HOWEVER, we are working with modern melodrama--> basically trying to imitate latin novels

This basically makes me think on how much do we know about melodrama and our purposes. What is it? make people laugh? prove something? try another theatre practice? make fun of tv novels? the problem is that we don´t know. This is why, I am trying to give it a personal meaning. I think it is partially exploring a theatre practice and partially to try to get to the audience emotions through the exaggeration. Also, we can see that it is very interesting the fact of trying to appeal to the people emotions through the exaggeration of normal and daily events. The question is, HOW does exaggeration allow us to get to an emotional state? and WHY? I think its basically the rule of considering ridiculous. When people watch the exaggeration of a normal event, it is a tendency for them to see it comical, and the most interesting thing is that very often, people end up laughing of the things they actually do. Its as if we are letting people see how ridiculous they look when they exaggerate something or just make them think on their reactions. 

Moreover, I found it very useful to see how the other scenes rehearsed, as it teached me some technical aspects and let me open my critical thinking. It was very interesting to see how the scene of diego evolve and got better. I also found useful the fact that we are often changing actions and lines in every scene as you start understanding why are they not working or why the new ones work better. Also, its important to remember that we need to start checking the rhythm of the play, as melodramas are often of high dynamism and energetic as the whole body need to express your character´s whole internal state.....literally body language. This is very difficult for me as I still don´t feel my character´s vibe. I am having trouble on letting my body flow as I´m still too tense. My other problem is the looking. I just don´t have a still look and I need to focus more on that, this is basically concentration as I know that sometimes I lose my look when I am thinking on the next line or the next action. 

Connections

ROMPER LA PIEL: this makes me think on the time when I started to rehearse for the school play. I remember I built a whole character and then they asked me to change it. I literally wanted to die as I spent like 3 weeks creating a character just to start from 0. This is like my actual case, as I have this feeling of not having a CLEAR character which I almost feel like part of me. I need to let my body and mind flow with the character and instead of bringing my frustration in, bring it OUT.

EL ULTIMO ENSAYO: This also reminds me of the actual situation as I can connect the feeling of not having rehearsals the way they are planned. I think we are not giving the OAP enough importance or we haven´t realise that we are acting in almost 1 week so first of all before trying to polish the play we need to CHANGE OUR ATTITUDE

CONFESIONES: I connect this to my personal involvement in the OAP as this week I started thinking in own experiences that I have similar to this; like fighting with my mom or thinking on my mom´s attitude that annoys me so that I can start using it with Nathalie. I also did start having fun while playing my character, until I started to feel the pressure of not having a CLEAR character

Reflection 

This made me reflect on how we always do the things just for the sake of it or because the director tell us to do it. But, how often do you sit and start thinking on the reasons for your actions. Why is your character doing those actions? Do they help the play? Do they create an effect on the audience?

probably YES, and you don´t even know. 

The key thing is to understand the "why" of everything we are doing in order to believe in what we are doing. Personally, I think that every action needs a purpose and a response, and both link together as your purpose is to generate a certain response. Dynamism is also a part that made me reflect on how we need to prepare physically and mentally to have the energy a melodrama need, while trying to incorporate your personal rhythm to it. 

Why does exaggeration appeals to the audience emotions? how? is this always essential in melodramas? do professional actresses also have this kind of problems? how do we agree on a purpose? on a desired effect?

we are running in circles every rehearsal thinking we are near of ending it....but this is just the beginning ;)

THIS IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!!

Description

We are back from holidays and ready to start rehearsing for the one act play! This week we started with characterisation and basically having clear our intentions in each line we say. My scene was practiced in three rehearsals this week. This was very useful for me as I know that my scene is starting with the right energy, this is why nathalie and me need to focus and put more effort to it as we are starting with 40% of the melodrama we need in our scene.

Analysis

Getting to act this scene is very fun, but I still can´t flow with the melodrama thing. I don´t know whyyyy!! its as if my body was blocked from exaggerations and big movements and when I try to make them they seem forced, at least for me. Maybe I need to start relaxing my muscles with warming up or something like that. OR maybe its because I still don´t see my character, I only have the basics of a mother who is angry with her daughter and talks with a "high society" voice.

On friday, we did an exercise on creating our own biography, and it was very complicated as it forced you to create your personal life story in the second you got asked a question. This helped me to recognise and choose what is my relationship with everyone in my family and it goes like this:

SPENCER ALEXIS II (husband) : I think he is not useful, he just go to the gym all day long, no time for me, he just talks to Berlinda to make him shakes, OUR RELATIONSHIP IS DOOMED

SPENCER ALEXIS III (son): I JUST LOVE HIM!!! He is my favorite son, as I hate my daughter, this is basically because of appearances, I love my son because he is beautiful and the mother will have a certain favouritism to him.

CAROLINE ELIZABETH SHANIQUA (daughter): HATE HER. Feel that she will never accomplish anything, and if she does is because people want something from her. When my sons fight, it will always be her fault. I dont like her because she is ugly

GRANPA ALPHIE (dad): I don´t have a touchy relationship with my dad, I make my husband take of him as he is the one who pays everything in my house so my family needs to take care of him until he dies.

BERLINDA JONES (the maid): MY WORST ENEMY IN THE HOUSE. Always fight with her an we accuse each other of doing things, I hate her as she cooks amazing and I want that. So, my own family hates my food but love hers.

So, by having more clear my relationships with the characters, I can understand why am i like that with them. In the end, ill only share a scene with Nathalie (CES) but that doesnt mean i dont need to have a clear relationship with the rest. Basically i also need to understand my intentions of everything I tell to my daughter....most of the times I use a pitty or anger tone with her. Tones are very important when exploring intentions as a single change in your tone can change completely the meaning of what you want to say.

I also wonder, why the need of exaggerating everything? how melodrama can work in that work? Its very interesting to think how taking things to an extreme can have a humorous connotation. Its quite weird to see how taking something that isn´t THAT serious as something SUPERARCHIMEGAULTRA- SERIOUS can cause comedy.

Connections

Maria La Del Barrio: I remember when I first watched and episode from MLDB and I couldn´t stop laughing. It was sooooo funny and they were talking about serious situations but its just as if you can´t take them seriously because of their face expressions and tones.

CHILDHOOD!!: When I was younger I remember playing with my sister and my cousins to act. We used to play that they were the students and I was the "funny" teacher. I used to put exaggerated make-up and do grotesque faces that would make them laugh until they were blue! It was very funny and pleasant and It´s simillar to the effect we are trying to give to the audience

SCHOOL PLAYS: The whole process of creating a play is so similar but yet so different to the process we experienced in school plays. The main difference is that we are a cast of 6 actors that are in charged of production and part of the script writing. It´s our play, we create it  and we produce it. It adds more pressure on you as the results of it will go directly to you. However, this also motivate us to do it excellent as we expend awesome results from this OAP as we are trying to change the rhythm of traditional newton´s OAPs

Reflection

This week, while reflecting on what we have done, I reflect on my actual learning on the subject theatrically and how that connects to my practical work. Basically, the thing is that know I reflect upon my characters as I see them in a different way. I am starting to notice that now I am more analytical with myself when building a character as I can FEEL when I have a character and when I don´t, which makes think of the possibility of having being the character vs. trying to be a character. I am starting to notice how my movements don´t flow with my characters energy, they seem to forced and tight.

ALSO, I start reflecting on until what extend do outer states affect inner states, I always have this feeling, that i am not 100% my character until I perform it with a costume, make-up and everything. I don´t know why but it affects me and my acting, as if I feel that in that moment, I am not me any more, I am the character. Perhaps it´s because you are not dressed as yourself and when you look at the audience you know THIS IS IT. So, I was wondering....

Until what extend do design elements help acting? why do i have this feeling? is it unprofessional to have it? how do you know when you ARE the character? are there ways to adapt you body to a theatre practice? am I wrong when I say I can´t? maybe i´m not trying enough? how do intentions and relations affect the rhythm of a play? if there was a very small change in the play will it be completely different? why?

Production Task #2: MAKE-UP....get ready for me!

Description

The last week before holidays started we started to actually rehearse for the OAP. Also, we managed to decided the technical aspects of the play such as make-up and costumes. As my task is Make-up, I need to have a clear vision of what I want to achieve. The main thing is that it contains elements that help to exaggerate the visual way the play looks as melodrama is basically about exaggerating plots and characters and appeal to an emotional response.

Analysis

We decided on the following makeup for each character:

Spencer Alexis III: 

Some visual reference of wounds +glasses

• WIG
• HIPSTER GLASSES (White)
• WOUNDS (forehead, neck, ear and cheek)
• HIGHLIGHTED LIPS
• NAIL POLISH 
• FRECKELS 

wounds

HAIRSTYLE

hipster glasses

Grandpa Alphie:

• PARTIALLY BOLD
• WHITE HAIR AND BEARD
• THIK WHITE EYEBROWS
• EXPRESION LINES
• EARS (from school play)

Hairstyle and beard

Expression lines, hairstyle

Harriet Jessica Lauren:

Curlers 

• CURLERS
• FACIAL HAIR (lips)
• PINK NAILS
• HIGLIGHTED EYEBROWS 

Lips and highlighted eyebrows

Visual reference on how the glasses fit to a person

Spencer Alexis II:

• SPORT GLASSES (like swimming ones)
• MORE EYEBROWS (conceal) 
• LITLE MUSTACHE 

Sport glasses

Caroline Elizabeth Shaniqua:

HAIRSTYLE

• LONG EYELASHES
• HICKIE
• LIGHT BLUE NAILS
• SPOT
• PIERCING ON THE NOSE
• BANGS

Piercing on the nose + bangs

hickies

Hair color 

Berlinda Jones:

• ROUNDED NOSE (from school play)
• RED HAIR WIG
• SILVER TEETH
• PINK NAILS
• LILAC LIPSTICK
• LONG EARINGS

silver teeth

contexture wanted + possible hairstyle

lilac lipstick

In each different case, the make-up will provide a type of help to the characters and to the actors, not only by emphasising and exaggerating them, but by giving them the tools for their character essence. The make-up in the OAP basically will show a story behind it. For example, with Spencer Alexis III, when the audience sees him, they will already know he had an accident or someone punch him, we already know he is injured so obviously this will create a subconscious thought behind every watcher and each of them will start thinking on different possibilities with the story. This will be very interesting as we are letting the audience use their imagination since the play starts and by just providing a visual image. This makes me think, until what point an image can speak for itself? or it is that it stops showing something when you deduct what is in it or behind it?

Also, we can see that by working with a gama of pastel colors, we are giving a certain order to the play to have boundaries and explore within a design concept. I think that the fact that make up will be exaggerated will also help the actor himself as when you look like a character it is easier to become the character. 

So, basically, what I want to achieve with this make-up is that every single one the characters can give a certain story from just a single look. I want the make-up to be a indirect reflection of each characters personality and story due to the plot line, so I will have to connect the make-up to each characters intentions and roles in the play. 

Connections

IMAGINATION IN THE AUDIENCE: I can connect my point of view of every make-up having a story (by the audience imagination) with the fact that we decided of having scenes that are not seen by the audience but are imagined by them when they hear about them in the seen scenes. It will be very interesting to see how each person imagines these scenes as each one will have different views and images, the same way it will be very interesting to see what people imagine behind the visual image of a character

ROMPER LA PIEL: I can connect this to the school play as we also had the process of choosing make-up for each character. The similar thing between melodrama and german expressionism is that both are trying to exaggerate the characters in a physical way. Also, the actual process of selection is very similar as in both cases the make-up brings and effect on the audience that makes them wonder why are the things are portrayed the way they are. 

PAUCARTAMBO: In Virgen del Carmen celebration, I learned a lot about masks, and I associate them directly with make-up as both are masks you put to yourself to represent someone else. In the celebration, we could see that every mask represent a kind of stereotype or character for a story (of paucartambo), but, each of the masks from each of the comparsas have their own story behind the mask. That is the effect I want to create in the OAP as it opens you to a different way of seeing a play, so different emotions and responses will appear from the audience.

LAST YEARS OAP: This is a contrast rather than a connection. Last year in AMOD make-up was really light, they used some, but they didn´t have any effect on the audience. This makes me think on how the rhythm of the play will vary from last years OAP´s as we will try something different. It also makes me reflect on how people will   react to this new vibes we want to create.

Reflections

"Teenagers all think their life is a movie. If you break up with someone or you have a fight, you walk around with movie scores playing in your head. You sort of see yourself suffering as you're suffering. There's a lot of melodrama attached to the real events of your life"

This quote makes me think on how every part of life is seen as a form of theatre (like we heard in a conference some months ago). This led me to see that one of the reasons of people liking acting either in theatre or movies is the representation of situations that happen to you, so you feel identification or empathy for a certain character. Also, it makes me think on the reasons we have to do a melodrama, as maybe by exaggerating real situations you manage to "low the seriousness" of the events and actually make fun of things that actually make you sad and painful. I think that this quote´s reference to the fact that sometimes you see yourself doing something reminds me of watching theatre because of the fact that you see people in situations you can be in. And, for me at least, its actually true. I can manage to see myself in the scene i´m living from an outer point of view, and I know that you can do it too my dear reader ;) 

I want to explore how an image tells something visually and in what point it stops being an image and starts being an idea from your imagination of subsconcience.

This idea makes me think on how everything is a sign, and how perception can change its meaning. Two people can look at the exact same thing but see thing totally different, which reminds me that your whole essence as a person and the whole "idea" of YOU is built up by experiences and outer influences that get into you. I had always have this idea that you basically are what you absorb from society , and that nobody is themselves but have little parts of everyone. 

now I'm thinking....

How do we know who we really are? why is my idea of me different to everyones idea of me? do imagination always need to be unreal? why can an image speak more that words? how about theatre with no words? does it works equally effective? can make-up change the whole rhythm composition of a whole play? will it have a positive effect on the audience in the OAP? How do I know I am having an interesting idea? will I really know it before having a reaction of the audience? Or success is based on society reactions upon it?

Baby stepyrthons……one act play here we go!

Description

This week we started to create the One Act Play, which will be presented on September :) I am very exited about this experience as it will be a different way of exploring theatre on stage and theatre on the making besides the school play. An interesting thing is that only form V students get to act in this play, sometimes we have guests, but for now we don´t need any. Through this week we decide on what is the play is going to be about and the genre we are going to use. We also have an idea of the game but we want to develop it more.

Analysis

On Tuesday, we started by saying what each of us wanted to talk about in our play and after talking and discussing it we decided to try to do a kind of mystery. We wanted to have a crime scene in which we use suspense. The interesting thing about this is the way we get into this idea, just by hearing everyone saying three things they like. We also give alternatives of different settings we could represent in a small space as this play is in another school. In the end, we decide to research about mysteries and crimes to create a storyboard on next session. This part of the process is mainly important because its the root of the creation and it allows you to see how you can go from an idea to another one and finally create a play/concept/story.

On Thursday, the next session, we started trying to create the storyboard of a mystery. We started with the idea of a men arriving home and founding something out of place and we tried to form a story with this but we could not do it. We realised it didn´t allowed us to have more than three characters and that it didn´t took us anywhere. We finally decide we will leave the mystery aside and focus in another genre, we decide MELODRAMA. I am very exited about melodrama, specially because it will be new genre in the one act play festival, as every year newton college tends to do a black comedy. The key thing of melodrama is to exaggerate the characters and the plot in order to reach to emotions. Usually, melodrama is used to exaggerate the situations and make a bid deal of things that are meaningless. This creates humour as people tend to see its nonsense to worry about this things that are not that important and as everything is exaggerated it tends to be funny. Moreover, we started to give ideas on what could the story be. We begin by saying we want it to happen in a bathroom, which will be very interesting as the scenes will connect by the setting as they will be in different parts of the day, but in the same place. We also decided we want to use the following structure, which is kind of a pyramid:

MONOLOGUE(1 actor)

DIALOGUE (2 actors)

DIALOGUE (3 actors)

And…..as we are six it will be perfect. This will add more dynamism to the play as movement will increase from the first to the last scene as well as presence. This day we also find the root of our story. We will be a family that has a hatred for their neighbours and the neighbours have something of them and they want to find out who gave it to them. This will be perfect as we will play with the essence of a mystery as the audience will never know who is the one that gave away what belongs to them. Also, we will let the audience participate by just showing some parts of what happens and talk about the things that happened before, so that the audience use their imagination to picture the other scenes.

Finally, on saturday, we decided on what will happen in each scene and basically that 3 members of the family will be blamed of giving away the family´s possession. We also have the idea of dividing the bathroom setting into three areas for the three different scenes: the first on will be in the mirror, the second in the shower and the last in the toilet. This will help us on creating jokes with grotesque situations and also will allow us to explore more in terms of space. We needed to find 3 different reasons for the 3 members of the family to do what they did, so we divided in categories; one did it for love, other one for money and other for a game. In the first scene we will have the son, in the second scene we´ll have the mother and daughter and in the last one we´ll have the maid, the grandpa and the father. We will need to have defined personalities  for the different characters in order to create dynamism.

Connections

INDEPENDENT PROJECT: I can connect this to last year´s independent project as it reminds me of the process we used to arrive to a storyboard. Usually we analyse a stimuli and from that point we get a concept, but in this specific case we just started to throw ideas and decide on one story. Also, we can see how both creations help us to understand theatre as we get to contrast how plays work from a different point of view that we usually don´t see and are not aware of

SCHOOL PLAYS: We can see that the one act play connects to the school plays as it teaches us how to create a smaller version of a big play. you have only one act, in which you can use genres and games you are not able to use on school plays. Also, the duration lets you explore more alternatives to space in the stage which can help you as it enables the stage to different possibilities of settings that can be only represented in this stage.

PROYECCION PRIVADA: In proyección privada we saw a melodramatic scene. I would like to do a connection as when I imagine our one act play is like this, specially the acting style. The exaggerations they used were very humorous and added energy to the play. Also, a single change in genre did affect the whole dynamics of the play, which is something we want to accomplish

Reflection

This starting point of creation makes me reflect upon how every path you take (or decision) will influence the result. Maybe we change the plot, or a character, or something that happens. And, I know that in the end I will ask myself "what if we didn't do this or that" and I also know that probably I would think we could have done better. This is mainly because every choice you make will alternate the result of your work, but it happens that way for a reason. I am also starting to realise that working on the one act play helps you to see theatre from a new point of view as now we will have full responsibility of the whole play, and not a little part from the production like in the school play. When people talk in the future about this year´s one act play, it will be all our responsibility. I can also see that different stimulus or "inspirations" can affect your results true, either in a positive or negative way. You just have to learn how to select this inspirations in order to inspire the right areas of yourself. After all, the learning of theatre does´t come all from a book, it is a mixture of all your experiences, in and out of the stage, good or bad. and it makes me think…..

Will we ever know everything about the art of theatre? Do we reach a point in which we get to know which choices will give a good result and which ones will give a bad one? Will we ever understand the way in which a play is created? why is it better to start with a stimulus? are doing something wrong by having a starboard before a concept? is it normal to start worrying about the results of a play when you haven´t even started?

It was totally worth it.

30th June

Description

This week we really have the whole bunch of opinions on the play and we also get the chance to say goodbye to the whole crew. As you will expect, as in last entry I basically analysed the play externally now it´s time to analyse it internally. 

Success or Failure?

23rd June

FINAAAALLY!!! IT´S OVEEEEEERRR!!! muahaha……who am i kidding? I am going to miss it SO MUCH. :( :( :( :( :(. To close this chapter, this week I will like to analyse the play as an outsider, the visual parts and how the building up of this whole play helped me as a theatre student. 

check! check! check!

16th June

Description

yeeeee!! this week is the premiere!! wuuuuu FINALLY, we are going to see if everything was worth it! i bet it will be! Last week we focused on act 2, mainly in the last scene. I had to replace someone and I still need to work the manufacturing of some props for the general rehearsal. 

The answers are here....and success is arriving

9th June 

 Description

This week I started by directing scene 5 again, but this time I had so much better results. Then, on Thursday and Saturday I started doing my production task and work on the "pruebas" scene giving some useful feedback. I think this week was much observative for me rather than active, as I don´t appear in act 2. But, I learned a lot of things as my critical skills started to develop to another level. Finally, I will like to include some of my responses to past entries questions to reach a higher level of reflecting about my curiosity and questioning on theatre. 

Analysis

PLAY REHEARSALS
As I said before, I started this week direction scene 5 again and actually obtaining some positive results. We started by sending Alejandro a Jose Alex to rehears Alejandro´s part and see if it could get any better with the inspirational support of "Juana"´s creator, Jose Alex. I stayed with Katty to direct Pamela and Micaela and Nathalie and Mora´s parts. We followed a certain "structure" so that the actors stop complaining  about doing the same thing over and over again without having any improvements, so we followed kind of this order:

Micaela and Pamela present
we give them feedback
they reflect on their feedback while we are watching Nathalie and Mora´s presentation
we give them feedback

…..and kind of that cycle.

I think this was useful as we were able to have quick results as the actresses now have some time to reflect on their work, and they stop complaining about doing the scene over and over again, and the thing is we achieve to let them have a time without acting but without letting them do whatever they wanted and the change between each presentation they did was amazing….compared to the last two weeks! But I know they can still do it so much better, but I don´t know what to do. This method is seems to be working, but will it be enough? Maybe I am being to soft and I should find other ways of reaching a good performance . I am kind of desperate right now as the play is in 2 weeks and I have to have this scene ready by next Monday!!! I´m losing a bit of focus…..So, now these beats have much stronger energy, and the feeling of oppression is still there. Micaela and Pamela basically offer el hombre a lot of works and he is overwhelmed by different elements: the throwing of the paper, the fact that they have a short string of lines that are quickly said after the other and also the fact that they are almost in top of his (oppression). Nathalie and Mora´s part help too as they practically infer that el hombre doesn´t works for anything and that he is a loser. Although Nathalie is much more positive than Mora, I still think that the fact that she is almost forcing him to have a "gentlemen" life is also overwhelming and oppressing him. Also, the fact that the father and the mother are there during this scene helps to create an atmosphere of rejection as they basically want the hombre to understand they don´t want him as a son anymore. Me, as the mother, have to explore my reactions towards the different councillors that arrive as I want to give this image that although he isn´t my son any more I am still the one who will "approve" his job, which is the exact opposite that happened as the aunt represents the whole family when in the last scene she describes his job as an "easy one in which he hides like a "cucaracha""and in that way, we understand the disapproval of the family which is present all along the play.

Moreover, we got to see Alejandro´s upgraded performance. I went to work with him in some little details and to give him some feedback before showing it to katty. When we all saw the change in Alejandro´s characterisation, we were amazed! Now this scene was finally funny, and we decided that his first part was too boring so he just needed the second one, which was really good. I think this is the tension-lower part of the play and personally, I think it just intends to be funny and not to show themes like oppression and overwhelm so that the audience can relax from these kind of "strong" themes.

Connections

I can connect this week´s learning to last week blog questions: ANSWERS (on past entries) 

- A single action can change the rhythm of a scene? 

Yes, because alertness can be represented by a single action, and even if you do one action, it is still better that not doing any. Why? Because everyone prefers a kind of theatre that involves a mixture of actions. The rhythm of a scene is a whole and the actions are part of it. One single action can change the rhythm because it depends on the moments and the combinations of actions used. This also helps to emphasise reactions. For example, when in the school play the father starts yelling, I start doing actions of fear and rejectment that actually convey the fact that I am scared and that the father is scary, The thing is, if I do one less action o one more action will it change the EFFECT? 

- Why do dynamic scenes usually work better?
Yes, because the spectator's mind is more attracted to movement than to stillness. This is proved by the "Activation Theory", which can be explained in the following way:

The Yerkes-Dodson Law points out how people need a certain amount of activation to be motivated but not have too much stimulation. We have an upper limit to activation, beyond which we become overly stressed and fall into satisficing.

People will seek activation through different types of stimulation, including novelty, complexity, variation and uncertainty. At a low level of activation, performance is decreased due to three factors:

• A lack of alertness
• Dulling of the senses
• Limited muscular coordination

These in turn can lead to increased error or accident, and slower completion of tasks. Underactivation also leads to boredom and seeking of alternative stimulation (including by sabotage), unless the person has a low activation preference, where they are happy to daydream or otherwise be lazy.

 This is why we need to have dynamism, people react more active to this as movements and alertness create attraction and interest as your brain is working to process the complexity, variation and uncertainty of the acting. I also realised that this is also why we needed to change the scenery and the position of the tower, people will get bored with monotony, and limited movements, and this kind of theatre itself relies on muscular coordination and alertness throughout the whole play.

- Is it a good choice to direct your own scene?

No, Because you can't see what are you doing to support it. A single presence and reactions can change the visualisation of the whole scene and also its energy. Even if you don´t have lines in that part, you need to know how your reactions and actions are affecting the scene and that is why its better to have an outsider. 

- When you direct, do you reflect? or you only analyse? or are both necessary to do it?

Both, because when you analyse, you start checking for the details on the scene as a whole and of different specific things. When you do this you are reflecting on how is each element working together to connect with the concept or vision.

- Do directors always need to have a concept?
They need, because that is the thing that adds order to play and make you have every choice dependent on it. Although, not every play has a concept, but these plays are always bad as they don´t rely on a root 

- In our case, a play with many directors can have more than one concept? Or everyone needs to decide on one?
There should only be one concept because otherwise it will be too confusing as every scene will have a different concept and what we want will not be consumed by the audience

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM PLAYS: I am starting to connect the play with the play´s we have read. For example, in The Son, we can connect the themes of clashing of generations and death as a permanent solution with the ones in the school play, as they are basically the same. Also, in Masses & Man we can see the similitude between the "dream-reality" structure of the play and in From Morn to Midnight, how the family receives their son when he arrives, similarly on how the family receives the hombre in the school play

Reflections

This makes me reflect on how we basically took parts from other plays and just traduced them and used them. I kind of think that next year we should not do that because I believe play just works if they are 100% invented or 100% copied, because I think that by ADAPTING a play, you are taking their real and original essence and will not be as much as good. I always have this feeling, even in movies, that I saw one and I love it and then I found out it is an adaptation from another one, and I begin to dislike it or having a tickling feeling about it. Maybe is because I am a traditionalist, but I am also open to different types of ways of expressing yourself. I think it just the fact that I like to work extremes and not with middle terms as I found the fragile. I think  that I should not longer direct my own scenes and that I should start working more on the mother´s reaction towards this "finding-job" situation. Also, I need to be able to express myself as hard as I can and until now I´m happy with my job and my personal results. This week I also started working on my production task. I started to get some props to practice and was in charged of everyone having their props to get used to them. I liked the fact that I was able to answer some questions on my last entry, it really makes you think about how much are you learning and allows you to reflect more deep in that.

Can we have a concept for our learning method? Is this learning method always the same? or different people have different ones regarding theatre? Why is it that people choose between extremes and a middle point? Everyone will react the same way to an specific rehearsal plan? Why do people even enter the school the play if they are not going to give their 110% into this? Is it normal? Does this happens in professional plays? If yes, am I being to dramatic towards the cause? If I am, is it normal as it is my first year assuming some responsibility for the results of the play?

Every choice we make will depend on it.

Description

Wow. 16 days until the day of the play arrives. That was fast, and, it means we need to continue staying other days of the week in order to rehearse in more deepness each scene. This week, I continue directing and acting in scene 5, and i helped with the office scene, scene 8,9 and 10. During the week, we have been discussing the actual concept of the play and to what extent are we really showing it through the play. We realised that the concept should go from "every construction brings a destruction" into the simple action of "feeling overwhelmed" 

Analysis 

As I had this new idea in my head, I star subconsciously analysing the presence of overwhelm in the scenes I saw. Firstly, throughout the whole play there are some interesting elements that provide a feeling of overwhelming, and it´s the combination of acting and design elements what reinforces and emphasises the overwhelm. For example, in scene 3, the family not only overwhelms "el hombre" by starting to yell and criticise him, the overwhelm is also shown by the way the family is arranged around "el hombre", as if they were rounding him waiting for him to explote. 

Furthermore, we can also see that every "reality" scene have a "power" figure that oppresses "el hombre", we have the father, and the 2 bosses. This will help to emphasise the overwhelming from the powerful figures in his life and by the actual fact that they will be in top of him, we will reinforce this idea. Also, in the office there is a moment in which everyone starts talking to "el hombre" at the same time. This basically shows the literal meaning of being overwhelm. 

As I said before, we decided to change our vision and concept, as we were´t showing the other concept. Also, this concept allow us to explore more in terms of acting and design elements. In acting, we know that we need to cause the feeling of overwhelming and we should try to put that essence of every scene. Maybe in some scenes it will be more noticeable and effective but we should always have even a little presence of it.

We may also feel the overwhelming by the dreams, as the involve a large number of children that are literally around "el hombre" bothering him or messing up with him. In this dreams, there is also a lot of dynamism around "el hombre", which creates an atmosphere and feeling of confusion, disorientation and overwhelming. And again, reinforces the main concept in a way that suits the play.

In terms of the acting itself, we have some interesting things marked. For example, we decided that in some crucial parts, we will have everyone looking at "el hombre" as it will attracts the audience´s attention to the main action and "el hombre"´s reactions. Also, it will also give a atmosphere of overwhelming as everyone is driving their attention to one person (oppression)

Connections

La Señorita Julia: In this play we can clearly see that Julia is overwhelmed by her father (and society) until the point she commits suicide. This can help us to consider the fact that overwhelm could not only be shown by a group of people, but by a single one. Looking to it in detail, I consider we could apply this to scene 5 as it only have between 1 and 2 characters per beat. This will give us more variety in terms of showing overwhelm as we will not just have scenes with a bunch of people overwhelming "el hombre" and instead we will have variety as the number of characters will vary, but the intention of "overwhelm" "el hombre" will be the same.

Acreedores: In this play we can see that the concept and the vision was very clear. The director wanted to focus on the voices rather than the body and the set design. However, this proves that not every play that have a clear concept works effectively as the fact that the play was just voices make it kind of boring as there was no dynamism and it was like listening to a play in the radio. Still, it´s not the same, at least in the radio we can imagine how the scene and the characters are while in this one we get to see that there is nothing there.

Reflection

This made me think on the necessity of an actual concept. This is like the root of our play and every choice we make will depend on it. This means that we should have it clear and it should be showed clear. Theatre always start from a purpose, and this purpose usually comes from an inspiration. Plays start from a concept, a vision, a idea that will influence and mark everything you do and select for your play. For this, you have to have in mind that this things could change. Directors usually need to find the perfect concept to their play and see which suits better to it. I think not every play need a constant concept and some can change, but I prefer to stay with a concept and in any case, i would change the play to suit the concept, not the concept to fit the play, otherwise, it will be to forced and the concept will be there for the sake of it and not because it provides a certain road into the play´s achievements.

Are we being wrong for changing the concept in the middle of the process? or is that normal? is there an actual wrong in theatre? or every decision is part of a creative process? will people be able to recognise our concept? is that even important for the audience? is the audience even important? will a play work the same with and without an audience? the same thing for a concept? 

xoxo

TheatreGirl.