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 ;)