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?