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?