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.
