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?