Solo performance

Description
This week we only focused on the solo performance. Through a two ppts, we were able to see the key requirements for the solo piece and a range of theatre theorists we can choose from to place their theory into practice.

Analysis
One interesting aspect of this IB task is that we place ourselves simultaneously in the shoes of the director, producer, designer and actor. From this, I learned that this task encapsulates what a theatre maker is all about; directing your performance while producing your design elements and finally making them come alive through your acting. However, one challenge we will face is to balance all four perspectives in a single performance while at the same time following an aspect of your selected theorist. As a solution, we must plan a schedule for each area to not consume our time in only one and leave the other ones behind. Although, balancing is important, we must take in consideration the aspect our theatre theorist focuses on. For instance, if I was to choose Uta Hagen, I would focus more on the acting part of theatre since besides she was an actress, she believes that the actor must bring his/her psychological problems, passions, fears and rages in the service of the character. Therefore, I learned that at the beginning of the product we shall manage to pay equal attention to all four areas but during the process, give an extra focus on the area your theatre theorist is an expert in. An interesting aspect of choosing Uta Hagen is that it instantly connected with my interest in psychology as I explained before in her beliefs for the actors, thus, it is important to select a theatre theorist that attracts you since the solo performance isn't just about learning the theorist's theory like in history courses but to literally perform it.

By watching the ppt of the theatre theorists, I learned that the solo performance gives us absolute liberty in selecting which theorist we wish to elaborate a further research in. From directors, producers, designers to actors, we had the ability to choose theorists that could help us excel in our strengths, work on our weaknesses or approach new aspects of theatre we have never heard before. For instance, we have never done miming in school and perhaps Etienne Decroux can introduce us to the fabulous world of corporal mime. Assuming I have chosen Etienne Decroux, it could push me further in my ability of corporal expression because literally in mime there is no voice at all, instead the audience will rely their attention in understanding the story behind my movements which would be interesting to explore so I can discover if I really have the ability of delivering a message only through movements and face expressions as mimes do. On the other side, I learned that the process of the solo performance isn't about choosing one theatre theorist and just going with it, but it's about investigating from the ones of your interest and finally acknowledging fully about your favorite one.Therefore, it is essential to have knowledge on the other theorists (despite you won't choose them) who have, in a sense, marked the era of theatre (e.g Stanislavsky or Beckett) whose theories have helped contemporary directors create their theatre pieces.We must recall what Mrs. Alicia said this entire week" theatre maker que se respeta, ha leido Waiting for Godot, sabe quien es Stanislavsky or Brecht". What I'm trying to illustrate with this example is that this IB product encourages to know who are our theatre ancestors to take in account different perspectives on theatre and finally, place only one theatre theorist's theory into practice through the solo performance.

Reflection
It is interesting how the only product which differences SL and HL are the options of liberty. This can be explained by the Research Project which gives us a limited list of theatre traditions we can choose from which most are from Asia and Europe while the Solo performance we can choose whichever theorist theory we want to put into practice. However, time is what scares me the most since we have to do all four perspectives into a single performance which lasts a maximum of 8 minutes. So what I have been questioning myself all week long is that how will we be able to place ourselves in the four perspectives completely while we need to focus more on our theorists aspect? I mean... besides learning the entire theory and then focusing on a specific aspect, will time help us or consume us for good?

Proposals from papers to life

Description:
This week on Monday we had the proposal contest where each of us had to chose one of our moments of theatre from the mock director's notebook and the winning proposal would be staged. On Wednesday, Carlos and I as winners decided the cast of our actors and on Thursday we scheduled the deadlines for the IB final products for next year.

Analysis:
During the proposal contest, I learned that as a theatre maker I must adapt my entire vision according to the stage of the school theatre. Interestingly, although I will have some limitations it should not restrict my imagination of what is applicable for the staging of my proposal. By playing with the lights and scenery the stage offers, I can still be creative with my restrictions. For example, when Stanley delivers the line "You got plenty of room (...)" combining a gloomy musical piece, five red floodlights spotlighting Blanche and Stanley descending in the stage level, will create this caustic atmosphere I wanted the audience to feel, feeling the drowning of Blanche because her own lies have consumed her and led to her self-destruction. However, one difficulty I'll have is in regards of the lights and scenery since the school theatre doesn't have either descending stage levels or side/back floodlights. To solve this problem, I adapted my staging to the school's theatre by changing the lowering stage into a final balckout and because of a lack of canons, the intensity of the three red floodlights will be at their maximum rate to make the audience feel crushed by this chaotic atmosphere and acknowledge how lying leads to self-destruction, especially when lying to yourself.

On Wednesday, as a director  I learned about the importance of choosing wisely a cast. I must admit, the selection of a cast to represent your staging is difficult because you have to consider all the aspects of the actors you can cast, their strengths and weaknesses and the attributes they can apport to see if they fit the requirements of the characters inside your proposal. For instance, in my proposal of scene 10, Blanche can't difference between reality and illusion since both have eventually merged. Therefore, I interpreted this moment in an expressionist/surrealistic style where one of Blanche's requirements is to be elastic, walking in a slow paced rhythm, elongating her delicate body expressions and having a high-pitched voice with the purpose to make the audience feel immersed in Blanche's southern belle dream and letting them know from her perspective, the importance of being beautiful, innocent and young. Therefore, I had a strong decision to make between Olenka, Anita and Siu to see who can resemble my vision of Blanche. By considering Olenka's good projection of voice, Anita's capability of distorting her body and Siu's power on stage I finally casted Anita as my Blanche since even though all three can apport me significant attributes, my Blanche's focus is on her corporal movements and gestures which I believe Anita can deliver me. However, one challenge I have found for Anita is if she can determine a balance between her movements and voice because the twirls and spins she will do will require physique and strength, however for my proposal, I don't want the voice to be overshadowed by the movements, but complemented to them.

On the contrary, I imagined Stanley having a regular walking pace but each time accelerating more depending on his temper. This is because of now Stanley being alone with Blanche in the apartment, he will want to crush her hopes and get rid of her in the most destructive way he knows, unravelling her lies in a matter of minutes where his true self will be presented. From a fast walking pace until a grotesque type of jump and movements when imaginatively tearing the light barrier, I want a Stanley who can be able to shape shift from a human into a beast. By considering Daniel's good presence and projection of voice on stage and Carlos's strength on stage and ability of shape shifting due to his ability of controlling his body movements, I finally casted Carlos because my Stanley has to be able to shape shift whil having a hoarse and powerful voice which I believe Carlos can deliver to the audience. Yet, one problem is that I must take in consideration Carlos's doubling as a director in his proposal and actor in mine so in each rehearsal we have I must push him to his limit since I will have less reharsing sessions with him where I could polish his acting even more. Still, I will make both Anita and Carlos give all what they have, pushing them to their limits in order to achieve my vision.

Reflection: 
Finally with my moment, I want the audience to reflect about their past lying experiences and the outcomes of them. Also, I want them to take in consideration the disadvantages lies have since they were able to see it for themselves through Blanche's distorted vision of life, how lies whether than allies were after all secretly your enemies. Therefore, I question myself.... Even though I'm changing my vision slightly so it can be applicable in the school theatre, how can I emphasize more my concept and make the audience leave with the constant idea "Lying leads to self-destruction"? Meaning actually... how can the audience digest my concept when my design elements are highly symbolic and extremely linked with understanding my concept?

Just beginning the official IB products... Tasks 2 and 3

Description:
This week after handing in the first draft of our director's notebook mock, we went to the theatre's department library to search for plays and support material that we find interesting and useful for the official director's notebook. Also, we were introduced the IB product 3: the research product where we investigate about a convention of a theatre tradition of our choice, it's historical and theoretical context and stage it in a specific moment of theatre to prove the IB our knowledge and application of the convention chosen. As a guideline, we saw one exemplary video of this product.

Analysis:

On Thursday as soon as we handed in our first draft of the demo version of the director's notebook, we went to the theatre department's library to search for the possible plays we could use in our official IB product 2. Honestly, when I was searching, I had no expectations at all but just to find an interesting play I can stage next year. However, something curious about my random decision-making was that both of the plays chosen had one structure element in common, a plot developed from the perspective of a female character. In both "Desdemona" and "Eurydice”, Othello's and Orpheus strength masks the marginalized characters of Desdemona and Eurydice, however, Paula Vogel and Sarah Ruhl empowers them, giving them a voice so they can be in charge of controlling their destiny. Thus as a theatre maker, I have learned by reading more than one play as the IB recommends, I was able to find my interest in plays which the female characters are in battle for their feminist ideals.  

On the other side, we were introducted the IB product 3 which is the research project. One of the limitations of this task is the theatre traditions list we are given to choose from, being restricted to choose only one instead of investigating by ourselves unfamiliar theatre traditions we wish to explore. By seeing the list, I was able to recognize that all the theatre traditions are from Asia or Europe, but none are western traditions of the Americas. However I believe that instead of  restricted to a definite list, the IB could suggest it as a guideline to either choose a theater tradition within it or give the liberty and independence to the students to search of theatre tradition of their own interest which isn't found in the list. However, we just need to face requirements of this task and accept the theatre tradition that interests us the most. As a another solution to this limitation,  in the moment of a connection with a theatre tradition , I could link my chosen tradition with a theatre tradition i liked and studied before which will be quite easy for us since in the previous years we have studied several theatre traditions and its conventions such as greek theatre, commedia dell' arte, latin comedy and more.

For now, I wanted to decide on a theatre style that is completely out of my comfort zone or one i haven't ever heared before.The IB by placing a list of unkown theatre traditions (not from the entire world...literally Asia)engages the students to do theatre practices in their own style to develop into future authentic theatre makers.It is true, there are so many unknown theatre traditions I didn't know they existed such as the noh theatre, rakugo sit down theatre, khon dance drama and several more.However, one  problem with these unfamiliar traditions is that some are more rare than the other ones, meaning that maybe there will be a limitation of resources(that will be definetely a problem).But as a theatre maker i have learned that I should be open minded to all the traditions despite if they have limited information. If I've chosen a rare tradition is because i will attempt my best and develop a coherent and creative practical research. But at the same time, I learned that we should choose a groundbreakening theatre tradition in which we are fully interested and at the same time know we will find information about it. This is proved in our demo versions we did for the kathakali tradition in preparation of the school play.Although kalaripayattu and purulia cchau conventions we hard to find, I was still extremely interested in knowing more about them. Thus encouraging me to still investigate about these conventions despite the limited resources. Comparing my demo on kalaripayattu and purulia cchau I have noticed that they are actually quite the same, except in school we have always presented workshops as if they were performances. For instance, during one school play rehearsal we formed groups where in each group we were leading IB masters of kathakali and demonstrated our workshoop as if it was a performance, gaining confidence instead of being nervous as if it was a formal presentation of an essay.

It is time for the vision to come alive

Description:
This week, I have developed on my directorial vision, narrowing it down to apply it to my the two chosen scenes/moments of the play. Thus, my starting point for my directorial vision regarding the structure,design and acting elements was my stimulus: a ticking bomb and my concept: Lies lead to self destruction. Therefore, for my first moment, I have chosen scene 7 from pg. 78 until pg. 83 "It is late afternoon in mid-september (...)she was always-flighty!" where Blanche has eventually lied to others. In this specific moment of scene 7, Blanche is bathing while Stanley is exposing her reality to Stella, her sister. and the other moment of the play I have chosen was in scene 10 from pg. to pg. .

to be continued...

DN process: Artistic decisions of vision, target audience and intended impact

Description:

This week we have been continuing in defining completely our concept in order to access to our vision. By having the theatre in context part in the drafted version, I decided to continue developing my first impressions including finding connections with live theatre experiences that I could apply as a director in the staging of my two moments. Now, I have my concept cristal clear, it is "Lying leads to self destruction" while my vision of my two moments will be divided in Blanche's perspective, Lying to others and to herself.

Analysis:

In terms of the artistic decisions of the play, I have learned as a theatre maker that although my imagination can fly, my artistic visions must follow my stimulus and concept as well as respecting the playwrights ideas and themes, finally with the purpose of creating a coherent and unique vision. In an artistic decision for my vision, I believe that all my design elements must follow my concept "lying leads to self-destruction". Therefore, all the design elements I will use such as the lighting, props, scenery, costumes and more, must follow a color palette that will reinforce my concept. For instance, as a director I intent to use two type of colour palettes, containing cold and warm temperatured colours for the two different moments. In my first moment, when Stanley exposes to Stella all the lies of sister Blanche while bathing I want to give this idea that Blanche is lying to others since she still can differentiate between what is real and illusion. Thus deciding to use cold temperatured colors (blue, green, light blue, grey, purple,etc.) because the bomb of lies hasn't exploded yet, the lies aren't obvious and the truth is in disguise. Whilst, being far away from the warmth of the bomb. By Blanche overhearing the conversation between Stanley and Stella, I want her to feel this security and faith in her illusional world where the lies are her strong building blocks when she hears that her little sister Stella is not believing  any of Stanley's arguments illustrating Blanche as a complete farce (which she actually is).
On the other hand, for the other moment of the play, when Stanley exposes the complete picture of Blanche, before raping her I would like the colour palette to be the opposite, I would like my design elements to have predominant warm color trends to connote the idea that Blanche by lying inclusive to herself, has lost track of reality and is tangled in her own world of lies. Furthermore, I want to use warm colors because it approximates extremely to my concept, Blanche is in the moment she reaches her maximum level of insanity and auto-destructs herself by becoming a pathological liar and leading herself to her ultimate expulsion of society by being taken away to a medical institution.All her lies she believed were her allies, resulting being the contributors to her destruction. Moreover, the warm color choice gives this idea of Blanche  being consumed by all these lies she attempted to place as her authentic reality to society's eyes, explaining my connections of warmth with fire, the usual outcome of a bomb that destroys everything in its paths and inclusive, its self.

Finally, my target audience are teenagers and above, people who have had previous experience in lying. Throughtout the staging of my two moments, i want to prove to the audience through Blanche's perspective that eventhough you believe lying is the best alternative for escaping from reality, it the opposite. Instead, you are building a spiderweb of lies you will find yourself tangled in, with no possible way out. This is because, as having been a liar myself, I have felt to a certain extent connected with Blanche (not to that extreme) but where i believed lies were my allies, however, they turned out becoming my worst enemies, exposing myself completely and ending completely vulnerable and destroyed. It is true, sometimes lies pass unnoticed, but when you get used to them people will notice instantly that your life is an entire lie, and whether than feeling secure of yourself you'll be in constant awareness of your appearances like Blanche in "Streetcar". I want the audience to feel THAT insecurity, making them reflect about their past lying experiences and the consequences they have faced as an outcome. Finally, reaching my concept once again that lies lead to self destruction.

Reflection: 

I know that i am getting extremely excited with this project, being able to fly with my imagination with a stimulus created by myself as a starting point for structuring the concept, and with the concept cristal clear I am able to move on with my vision. However, I am scared that i am unbalancing the central concept of the vision, reflecting my stimulus and concept but at the same time respecting the playwrights themes and ideas. I know that Tenesse Williams ideas wasn't that lying leads to self destruction but i can still explore it through its contrast between the reality and fantasy world created by Blanche mind such as the bathtub action, the positions of characters or the lightining that will be explained in depth in my DN. But, what if i am passing that invisible line, I am paying attention more to my concept whether than the playwrights' ideas? how could i notice where that line stops if the directors' notebook main purpose fo students is to let their imagination fly?

Director's notebook: Part 1 done. Part 2, 3 and 4 ready to go!

Description:
In this week of vacations, I advanced part 1 regarding "the play text, its context and the ideas represented in the play" for our director's notebook mock on Tennessee Williams' social realistic play "A streetcar named desire"while recording some flourishing artistic responses of the play when read once continuously at a glance. However, these vacations I focused more on concluding part 1. Moreover, I also read "Alice in wonderland" by Lewis Carroll but still need to finish reading its sequel, "Alice through the looking glass".

Analysis:
The historical, cultural and theoretical context of a play goes beyond the play itself. In order to understand the behaviour and personal traits of a character or the purpose of his/her actions during the development of the plot of a play, directors must dig beyond the context.Why? Not only to know in which period of time was the play written or presented but, to link it with the cultural context of the era with the character development of the character,  to understand the true reasons and behavioral responses of each of them when acting in the play. Therefore, the context links with character's life, for the director to discover and understand the expectations each character has according to their individual and social context. For instance, in order to understand completely the play, it's plot, character behaviour or others in "A streetcar named Desire" we must investigate deeply in the inner and outer context of the play. E.g: Blanche DuBois as a fading southern belle represents the banishing southern aristocratic system that was defeated by the northern states in the American Civil war (1861-1865). While, Stanley Kowalski incarnates the newly industrialised era of America where as a polish soldier retreating from WW2 returns to his home, the metropolitan and developed city of New Orleans to pursue his "American dream", home ownership. Since the play was presented and premiered at the Ethel Barrymore theatre in New York near the endings of WW2, Tennessee Williams decides to explore these effects in his plays such as the industrialization era as a further effect of the great Depression (1930s). Therefore, these two characters are opposing poles that contrast completely in the play since Blanche as an intruder attempting to find her safe haven as an aging southern belle disrupts Stanley's haven as well. As a director, I learned that I needed a complete picture of the background of play and its' context in order to make precise linkages between the context and the characters attitude and responses towards the action of the play. whilst, being able to develop a vision and concept applicable to the play.

The director's notebook is about flying into your imagination, however taking measures to be applicable to the playwright's original ideas. For instance, Blanche DuBois has a constant struggle between the incapability of her fantasy world to overcome her reality and illicit past she sheds during the play, which is one of Tennessee Williams' themes presented in "Streetcar". As Tennessee Williams said in the new york post, " they reflect somehow the particular psychological turmoil I was going through when I wrote them”. As himself, he describes writing “as an escape from a world of reality in which I (he) felt acutely uncomfortable.” becoming to his “place of retreat, my (his) cave, my (his) refuge". Tennessee Williams plays are autobiographical, reflecting his psychological turmoil and dysfunctional family relationships.Therefore a strong connection between Tennessee Williams and his archetypical character Blanche Dubois is within the state of mind they share; their inability of fantasy to overcome reality because even though they attempt escaping from their reality, their reality reaches them, letting them never escape totally from it. Both feel extremely uncomfortable with their past, Tennesse Williams living with his dysfunctional family and Blanche Dubois with her remorse of being guilty of Allan Grey's suicide, the loss of her heritage plantation of "Belle Reve" or her promiscuous reputation in Laurel. Both need the medium to escape from the reality into their "refugee and place of retreat"(TW), leading to both making the decision of flying into a fantasy world while escaping from their world of reality at all cost. Therefore as a director, the principal artistic and managerial function is the decide-making of the interpretation of the script to produce a final performance. I had my ideas when reading "streetcar" again continuously without stopping, and an interesting impression I received was the fact that each scene seems to be as if a bomb was ticking.  This vision could be applicable since the plot of the play is about Blanche's fall and decline in New Orleans, how she becomes into a pathological liar with all the lies she states to the rest. Blanche believes that lying is the best escape from reality however Stanley at a first glance with his direct and transparent personality dismantles Blanche's fictions, doing everything he can do to unravel them. As Dorothy Allison once said “Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.”, in Blanche's case each lie to herself unraveled by Stanley approximates her to her destruction, one lie equals one second less for the bomb to explode. In Blanche's perspective, her world slowly falls apart, beyond her control when her addiction for lying controls her while her lies whether than saving her do the opposite, consumes her completely. By then, deluding herself and distorting her reality. 

Reflection:
However, one thing I noticed presently even in this entry is all the ideas, first impressions and visions are mixed together which are quite difficult in separating in different parts and sections of the directors notebook since all link and overlaps each other. I have so many ideas in my mind, overlapping each other from which I am scared if they distance me from my original vision and concept. Another struggle that appears to my mind is that we are not able to interfere with the original script, no changes or alterations. Since I want to have this atmosphere of tension, where inside Blanche's head there is a bomb ticking, waiting for her downfall and reaching the 0 each time as the play develops. Therefore, how can I fly to the sky if I can't make any alterations to the script? What if I want to use a different type of music for Blanche's ultimate destruction even though in the script it states that the Varsouviana polka has to be played? I mean, how can I make the playwright's ideas strongly clear through my two moments selected if I have a different focus for the staging of the moments? 

Looking for the future - Alice in Wonderland

Description:

“Alice: How long is forever? White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.” -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland. 

On Friday, September 11th we went to the Gran Teatro Nacional near Javier Prado where we saw a ballet style adaptation of Lewis Carroll's world wide acclaimed novel Alice in Wonderland. It was directed by the costume designer Pepe Corzo and coreographed by the costa rican dancer Humberto Canessa which focuses on a silent ballet performance where focuses upon the design elements arises and intrigues the audience. The play "Alicia" echoes Lewis Carroll's prestigous novel, illustrating through ballet the story of a sensible girl who's innocent dreams drived her from reality to an everlasting journey, Wonderland, a world ruled by fantasy and imagination. By seeing this ballet style play, it served us as inspiration to record our first impressions and our creative approaches that can be staged  in next year's school play, coincidently about Alice in Wonderland. 

Analysis: 

The ballet of Alicia was presented in the Gran teatro nacional. We went to see it since it is the same play we want to do for next year's play except for one difference, the theatre style. Rather than presenting it in ballet style, we will do it on the basis and conventions of surrealism theatre. From observing this interpretation of alice, we used it as a guideline to record our first impressions about the play and evaluate if they are appliable for next year's schoolplay which is a adaptation of Alice in Wonderland mixed with Alice through the looking glass.

Firstly, we could observe and qualify the scenery and use of the space in the Alicia ballet as a potential source of inspiration for next year's school play. The use of the hyper-dimensional cyclorama contributed in the painting the stage, creating unreal atmospheres without necessarily using exaggerated props and actual scenery to illustrate the magical and distorted world of wonderland, Alice's childhood adventure. The design of the cyclorama varied according to the scene presented. For instance,  scene XII focused on the Queen of hearts' courtyard garden as the cyclorama displayed a garden filled with white roses. To make the scene more interactive and fictional, the queen's gardeners were using paintbrushes with red paint poured out of a metal bucket as if they were actually painting the white roses red like in the actual novel when the queen commands it. Therefore, the displayal of a white rose bush turning magically into freshly red painted roses contributed to the fictitious scenery of the garden by not necessarrily placing literaly bushes or a water pilette to connote the environment of the courtyard garden in the queen of hearts' palace.  For our play, perhaps we could find a gif of white roses turning red while the queens' gardeners paint unethusiastically the bush since it will be surrealistic theatre, demonstrating their boredom of painting useless roses for a selfish and unwanted queen. In case if we couldn't find a gif displaying a lively bush of white roses, we could play with the lights by using the frontal fresnels covered with red coloured filtres with a strong intensity of light to represent the red roses. Continuosly, if the angle of the lens is closed, it can focus on giving colour to the cyclorama, especifically to the colourless roses while the queen gardener characters with paintbrushes are doing a sequence as if they were colouring the roses themselves. Thus, this will contribute to one convention of surrealistic theatre which is the action is going beyond a realistic situtation , transforming into a dream-like fantasy sequence. 

Continuosly, another interesting usage of the cyclorama was after alice's fall through the rabbit hole when reaching the hall of doorsto demonstrate Alice's random and ilogical size changing when drinking the Pishsolver potion to shrink and eating the Upelkuchen cake to grow. The cyclorama displayed the coloured doors increasing in size when Alice drunk the potion to attempt an entrance into the small portal that leaded her into Wonderland. By the use of the cyclorama displaying the increasing size of the doors in comparison to the microscopic size of Alice helped creating this sense of entrapment in a distorted reality of simple colorful doors growing with no logical explanations. However, when Alice tried eating the Upelkuchen loaf, she grew enormesly; making the cyclorama display rather than large doors, extremely diminute doors she couldn't even fit in. Therefore, the cyclorama contributed to the spacial setting of the hall of doors, illustrating Alice's perspective  in constant change regarding her surroundings. In order to create this moment, we could use two relative sized doors and one smal door to mark the entry of Wonderland. The two relatively sized doors could go each on one side of the stage while the small door can be closely attached to the cyclorama displaying a gif of doors increasing and decreasing in size. Otherwise with the use of fresnels, by opening the angles of the lens they could give a wider ilumination to the cyclorama showing the doors or reflecting specially the two colorful wooden doors to emphasize there huge size. Perhaps, there could be a mini blackout where backstage changes the regular table found in the hall into a tall legged table to demonstrate the microscopic size of Alice kneeled down in comparison to her surroundings which they are unattainable for her to reach .When eating the Upelkuchen, the cyclorama could display a hall of diminute doors where Alice is extremely big sized. Therefore, during the growth there could be another blackout where the tall legged table is changed for the regular table once again while Alice is perhaps in a stretched position.In terms of the light, the fresnels could close their angel of lens to shorten the size of the doors.   

For the school play, we don't need to necessarily in every scene use a specific and exaggerated scenery, instead corporal movements and body expressions can express more than words. In scene II, the fact that there was minimalistic stage use and  no physical scenery was literally staged gave emphasis upon the formation of circles and spirals  the silhouete characters performed to create a distorted reality, an unwaitened fall into a rabit hole which is the secret passage to the mad and illogical world of Wonderland. The absence of a structured scenery was covered by the use of black and white lights blacking out while there were silhouetes observed surrounding Alice, forming spirals and doing spins to create a disorder in the stage. For the silhouettes to portray the fall of Alice formed with their body close to one another building  stairs as if Alice when climbing it falls literally into the hole. As effect, it made Alice's fall magical and unique which catched the audience's immediate attention and placed them at the same time, in the same confused state of mind as Alice herself. Therefore, the used of silhouetess produced a confusion beyond reality, distorting it completely and renacting Alice's inlogical fall through a rabbit hole which with her conscious, she created the mysterious and mad world of Wonderland. For our play, I believe it would be effective in not doing a literal hole but accompanied with a turbulent and magical tune or several blackout of the fresnels, cenital and cans lights in order to mark the contrast between the real world near the river creek and Alice's unconscious creating her insane childhood adventure in Wonderland.   

Director's notebook

Description:

During this week, we began discovering and learning about one of the projects of our Drama IB course, the director's notebook. This task gives the student the ability of becoming a director, making decisions regarding the overall practical and creative interpretation of two specific moments or scenes of an established script of a play. In our case, we will do a demo version of the social realistic play "A streetcar named Desire" written by the American playwright Tennessee Williams, a play recently studied in the English IB course.

Analysis:

From the beginning of our course, the main aim we desire to accomplish by the end of the IB is to become remarkable theatre makers. We have been carrying this out by working hard in each of the three areas of Theatre: Acting, Producing and finally, Directing throughout the school play, one act play and others. In this task, we will demonstrate our talent of being competent directors by directing a published play text and recording our own artistic responses and creative ideas as if we would stage it. By having this task, we are putting in practice our abilities as potential theatre makers since we are placing our creativity as input in order to produce an outcome of our own. However, in this task we have encountered an obstacle that will challenge us particularly, the inability of making changes to the script of the published play selected. I must admit, we will have a slight disadvantage in this task since most of our plays, when we make them, are usually based on  improvisation, adaptation and own creation. Last year's ensemble project is an example reflecting this skill. In this final project, we were directors creating our own play, deciding a concept and vision of our own. In fact, we had complete control of the decision making of the play. We were able to create an own unique script and had liberty in choosing the design elements and acting style that would transmit our concept and vision to the audience, in my case "Everything happens for a reason, whether you wished for it or not". An example is that our inspiration was the butterfly effect, one small change can result large differences in the future. We illustrated this vision by having the stage divided in half; each side had the exact scenery (half of a yellow couch, a blue table and a prescribed bottle of pills to cure their daily impulsivity). One was responsible and drunk it while the other one did not, echoing the butterfly effect we originally wanted to transmit to the audience. Even though the ensemble project and directors notebook sound alike, they differ in some properties as demonstrated above. By fact, we must have recorded in our brains that this time, we are not creating the play but we are applying our concept and vision without removing essential motifs, themes or symbols reflecting the playwrights original thoughts and ideas. 

The director's notebook is taking us to a whole new level. It is true, directing is not as easy as it seems. I learned that as a director, you must acknowledge amazing research skills into the inner and outer context of the play in order to make relevant design and acting choices to echo the playwright's main ideas but adding with your own creative vision also. We were able to prove this semi- experience (we were not directors, we were producers and actors but practically we adjusted the original play) by doing this year's school play, "Retorno a Ayodhya". We had to do a further digging into the outer and inner context of the Ramayana, our inspirational play. Additionally, we had to investigate on the Kathakali dance-drama theatre tradition and its different conventions such as the mudras, exaggerated costumes, colorful makeup, moral beliefs (no showing death scenes), kalaripayattu body movements and more. Although, we made an extensive research upon the context of the play, we adapted it and did slight changes that would satisfy our concept and vision we wanted to transmit to the audience "el destino no esta escrito, cualquiera puede guiarlo". From this experience, I learned that directing is not that easy after all because you have to do a complete background research of the outer and inner context of the playtext in order to take the correct decisions regarding the design elements and acting style you wish to use to transmit your concept and vision. Nevertheless, without ignoring the ethical stance and ideas the playwright wants to transmit in his play.  

Connections:

This remembers me of the ensemble project, when we had our brainstorming journals where all our recordings of our artistic and creative ideas were written to contribute to the building-up process of our unique masterpiece. Like in this task, it is required to record every single artistic response, first impression or creative ideas regarding the play text in a brainstorming journal but then the relevant ideas will go within the official director's notebook that will eventually feel alive as our journals of our ensemble projects did. The difference was that we staged the ensemble project while the director notebook will not; however, directors must imagine in their mind as if their plays would be coming to life on stage. Since in the ensemble project we were actors, producers and directors simultaneously; it reminded me the feeling of being in control, sitting in the director’s position and seeing through his very own eyes how his creative annotations and ideas come to life on stage. 

Reflection:

Even though we have just started officially this project, I am enthusiastic about it but at the same time, it worried me a bit. It is because directors usually get excited and want to transmit their vision and concept with the different design elements and acting styles of their cast. However, what happens if their enthusiasm overthrows their reasoning?  How does the director notice if he has gone beyond his imagination and ignored the context and the important themes the playwright wants to transmit since the beginning of his play since he has been benighted by his artistic desires?   

"Sin Titulo"

Description:

On friday 14th, in the cultural center of Yuyachkani located in Magdalena, we went to see the play "Sin Titulo" made and presented by the Peruvian ensemble itself Yuyachkani which explores the tragic past of the Peruvian culture, encouraging the audience to form part of the disastrous history innocent Peruvians have passed through.  Therefore, this collective presentation engages the audience to acknowledge the political disorder, corruption, wars and terrorist activities innocent Peruvians have lived through from 1879 until the present day. 

Analysis:
In the following essay, design elements such as the scenery and props, acting techniques like body and face expressions and the plot of the play that contributed with the creation of an chaotic atmosphere will be analyzed to reflect the main purpose of the play, helping benighted individuals to recover memories of the past that affected negatively the peruvian culture. 

Firstly, the audience is invited to participate in the discovery of Peru's haunted past, the internal armed conflict leaded by the Sendero Luminoso terrorist party which evolved from a small radical cell to a guerilla army in an attempt to replace the Peruvian government with a centralized revolutionary regime.
This tragic background was transmited by the use of a messy scenery where many papers, articles, photographs, television broadcasting Sendero Luminoso's attacks and other props were found distributed in a small hall that the audience was previously invited into to acknowledge key events of the past to understand the play and create a connection with their roots and identity. As effect, this created in the audience a sense of empathy and loss since now they were aware of the misery Peru passed through; the constant military attacks affected innocent civilians negatively. As the auditorium walls were covered in black paint this helped in emphasizng the white quotations on the walls, the several newspapers hanging on strings, several magazines about the civil war which catched the audience's attention and make them feel in an opressed atmosphere where chaos is pereceived everywhere. Therefore, the colour palette of dark colours was used effectively to recall that this presentation is a sign of protest where the past must never be forgotten.

Another interesting characteristic of the scenery was that this play wasn't like other Yuyachkani collective plays, instead of the audience surrounding the actors, the actors formed part of us as well as we formed part of them. When entering to the actual stage, the audience was able to look detailly at the different sectors of the stage; the mannequins with the face of politicians like Fujimori and Guzman, photographs of the war of the pacific, a fish-net covering old photographs of indigenous communities, quotations and stories of catastrophic scenarios occured in Peru and others.  This is proved in one of the sectors where there is a sector where a fish net covered a wall filled with letters, date about indigenous children being sended to the army, photographs of indigenous communities threatened by the military and more. Therefore, by the use of the fish net it created a sensation of entrapment since the innocent indigenous children of the jungle were severly affected and obligated to form part of the army, risking their health and life. Since the  entire stage was covered with black paint; the photographs, letters, the fish net and other elements of this sector contrasted incredibly and excelled from the wall; creating a sense of community to unite peruvians to stand up and fight against the omission of this event to reach justice. Also, this created self awareness and remineded the audience the damage the corrupt governor Fujimori did to the Ashanika indigenous community that resides in the amazonic jungle of Peru.

Moreover, design elements and acting areas were strongly linked together to have a stronger impact on the audience. In terms of the historical context of the play, the internal armed conflict and terrorism era affected the most indigenous civilians. With the use of the props, Ana Correa was able to express with face gestures and body expression the suffering and chaotic situation indigenous women lived through. This is portrayed when Ana Correa on a moving platform represented the voice of all indigenous women who have once suffered of the unfair sterilizations the government of Alberto Fujimori did with the purpose to decrease the birth rate in the poorer sectors of Peru.(1990-2000). In “Sin Título”, Ana Correa sat on a cube and with the use of a ceramic pot with fire; she placed it near her private area of the body. By the use of the ceramic pot as prop, she expresses the pain and suffering the "burning" all indigenous women suffered through due to this new law established since they lost unjustly the ability to have a baby, which is metaphorically illustrated through the flame of fire that represented the destruction and loss. In terms of the acting technique of Ana Correa, by shouting loudly with a frustrating face expression while shaking the pot with fire was making a sign of protest as she made the audience feel completely surprised, ashamed, and anguished with Fujimori's cruel control of the government as he committed genocides and crimes against humanity's laws of life. Thus contributing even more to the chaotic scenery and environment created since it made benighted Peruvians realized the harsh treatment they received while being under the regime of Fujimori.

Finally, the plot of the play is about Peruvian history as it explores the chaos peruvian citizens lived through such as the war of the Pacific (1879), the internal armed conflict (1980), the era of terrorism and corruption and others. Yuyachkani presented the play as a memoir of Peru's past and how it must not be forgotten since it is the key for Peru's evolution. Therefore, the uniqueness of the play lies in the interactive mechanisms it uses with the audience. In this case, the audience feels included in every single moment of the play. For example, the characters act in wheeled platforms to represent different portraits of peruvian legends coming to life such as the widow of Miguel Grau, an indigenous woman, a nun and several more; each telling their story. These wheeled platforms move throughout the entire stage simultaneously while the actor made it's character come to live, which is suggested with the instant movement of the platforms while Augusto Casafranca is writing the exact information the actor is saying; except the difference lies in that while Augusto is writing "sin titulo", the other actors of Yuyachkani are making words come to life. This creates an intimate connection between the actors and the audience since the actor give the ilusion that the audience has travelled back in time.

Connections: 
When seeing the play "Sin titulo" it reminded me about the previous play we went to see of the Yuyachakani ensemble "Cartas a Chimbote" which explored Jose Maria Arguedas life as he lived in the era of terrorism in Peru which was originated by the terrorist and leader of the subversive organization Sendero Luminoso, Abimael Guzman. Inclusive, during the play a reference towards Jose Maria Arguedas was made " despidan de mi un tiempo del Perú (...) en la que cualquier hombre no engrilletado o embrutecido por el egoísmo puede vivir,feliz, todas las patrias" since he lived in the age of chaos as other innocent peruvians who did'nt deserve living through the tragic and horrible era of terrorism. Therefore, this era affected him negatively as his depression leaded him to his painful and peaceful suicide. 

Reflection:
In conclusion, the yuyachkani peruvian ensemble achieved succesfully its main purpose when presenting the different events that marked Peru drastically such as the terrorism era, the internal armed conflict, the war of the Pacific, the corruption and abuse of power that shall never be forgotten, but remebered to achieve justice. Therefore, yuyachkani managed this by the use of the props, scenery, the facial and body expressions of the actors and the plot of the play. 

Everything is unexpected

Description:

On Monday and Wednesday, we practiced on the sneak peak of the school play, a demonstration of the different acting conventions that would be used in the school play and shown on Thursday’s assembly. On Thursday we faced critical decision making regarding the final battle, the options there would so the final war could occur. Finally, throughout the week we had daily school play rehearsals where we practiced and coordinated our scenes with the music.

Sooner or later surrealism will come...

Description:

During the entire week, we have been rehearsing on Act 2, specifically on scenes 7 (the Great War) and 8(Coronation) that still need more development and completeness. Also, on monday we advanced a sneak peek of the school play that will be presented on Thursday's assembly. Whilst, on Saturday we went to the cultural center of the Pacific University in Jesus María to watch “La metamorphosis” based on the implications Gregorio Samsa confronts when transforming to a repugnant cockroach. Moreover, this surrealist play was the perfect opportunity to observe the mechanisms surrealism uses in order, for us, to elaborate next year’s school play. Finally, Rodrigo Chavez was who directed the play.

Analysis:

Lights are not only about illuminating the scene, the stage or the theatre. Instead, lights have several properties and uses to give importance to the body movements, hand gestures and acting of characters. Given to the temperature property of lights, during “La Metamorfosis” sinister and dark colors such as red or blue with a cold temperature helped to emphasize the aggression, violence and misery the characters passed through, specially Gregorio Samsa who suffered his own metamorphosis. Gregorio transformed himself from a disciplined and good comerciant who was sustaining the future of his family to a repulsive and repugnant cockroach who could not communicate or be understood by others. Thus, entrapping himself in his own world of misery. Therefore, the red gelatins used in the tachos helped in creating an intense, dramatic and violent atmosphere that clearly affected the audience by literally let them feel the pain and agony Gregorio Samsa was passing through when being a filthy unloved cockroach. For example, during “La metamorphosis” when Gregorio finally had the guts to come out from his room and try to communicate with Greta to tell her that he was going to send her to the conservatory so she could accomplish her dream in becoming a professional and well known violinist, the cold red tachos turned on. As soon as he was released, the bright white cenital light that was directed towards his cage, or other words, his room; immediately contrasted with the cold red fresnels. Thus, the cenital light automatically turned off to focus on the Gregorio’s action of leaving his lair and going towards Greta to tell her that HE was the one that was going to afford for the admission instead of the temporary renter who inhabited their home. Therefore, the red gelatins contributed to this scene, especially when his very own father throwed him an apple, injuring harshly his very own son. Whilst, from that moment, none of his family members could recognize him, Gregorio had lost his identity and respect.

Other characteristics of lights I noticed that Pancho had taught us when watching “La Metamorphosis” was the direction and intensity of the source of light through the use of  fresnels, which contributed to the interaction of characters. From dark red gelatins to smooth purplish pink fresnels were used to contrast two complete different environments: Violence and Happiness. For the representation of the happiness and well-being of the family, light purplish pink fresnels were used to illuminate the entire stage to create a sensation of contentment since the whole family was reunited happily remembering how joyful their life was before Gregorio had transformed to who he was now, a filthy and ugly cockroach. For example in that scene, the entire family,(including Gregorio who in that scene came out of his isolated cage) was dancing cheerfully while hearing to Greta’s masterpiece. A beautiful symphony helped the lights to illustrate how beautifully Greta was playing the violin as if she had been accepted in the conservatory she had always dreamed of. The light purplish pink fresnels gave a sense of calmeness to the entire play since so much tension had finally dissapeared for some minutes to illustrate the portrait of a happy family that is dancing and singing together with no problems or issues bothering them (well...that could have happened if Gregorio never became a cockraoch) .Finally, the smooth purplish pink fresnels gave the audience a sense of nostalgia since they could feel empathy and sympathy at the same time towards Gregorio since a simple transformation has ruined his future and the future of his family. Through this scene, we are able to see how Gregorio has placed an excessive amount of effort in a job he dislikes completely just to sustain his family and help his sister go to the conservatory.

Therefore, after seeing this precious moment, which was quickly contrasted when Gregorio returned to his cage and his cenital lights were turned on; he let out his deepest secrets and set free his true intentions regarding Greta’s future despite his unpleasable physicality as a cockroach. He transmitted that with all his will, he will try to gain that precious moment his family has always wished for. In addition, with the use of a bright intense white cenital light facing directly towards his cage, Gregorio transformed from a human being who was reenacting a scene of his future to his miserable present, becoming a cockroach once again who felt even more lonelier and abandoned due to its inablity of satisfying his family’s needs and desires. 

Connections:

While watching “La Metamorfosis” it seemed very close and similar to another theatre style we have studied before; German expressionism. Throughout the play, the actors were covered in white powder, painted greyish blackish bags under their eyes, acted with a pessimistic attitude and made exaggerated distorted hand gestures and body movements. Reflecting on this week, I reached to another connection within real life situations and issues that usually occur in theatre; there are always bumps in the middle of the rode or inclusive when reaching the end. I mean that nothing is predictable since anything could happen at last minute time. In our school play, there seems to be a curse haunting us.  The curse of the broken or injured foot has affected 5 girls in our entire cast, the weirdest thing is that it has been only their left foot, which is quite creepy enough. This can happen to anyone. While watching “La Metamorfosis”, the protagonist who was interpreting Gregorio Samsa had a broken finger and still was the one who required the most physical strength, he was able to manage it, distortioning himself completely and not getting out of character despite the injure he had. This leaded us to the idea that by placing commitment anyway (if you are hurt), you can easily reach success.  Finally, another connection I made is that in both plays, “La Metamorfosis” and our school play “Retorno a Ayodhya” will both use red warm jellows in different tachos to transmit the same feeling: violence and aggression. 

Reflection: 
After going to see "La Metamorphosis", i have reflected on how the lights were used to transmit different purposes such as violence, happines, misery and others. Moreover, this helped me because next year our theatre style is exactly surrealism and we needed to watch and analyze how a specific mechanism is used since we are the ones directing next year. Therefore, by seeing this play, i now have a wider knowledge about the use of the lights which will be perfect for this year's one act play and next year's school play since, so far, i have as choice to do lights as one of the design elements; however im still not a 100% sure. However, something i noticed was that this theatre had mostly every source in comparison to our theatre that isn't the best at having light sources, how can we adjust these surrealitic mechanisims to the limited resources we have of lights in the school? In what way can we manage a successful product if inclusive, last week we were told that the lights can't be modified to other positions that it's established ones? 

Its the end of me (at least I defended myself with kalaripayattu)

Description:

On Monday, we were given the exclusive opportunity to have a personalized workshop on kalaripayattu body movements that are animal fighting strategies taught from native Kerala, India. Valentina Vela, a graduated IB student gave us a three-hour session emphasized on kicks, hits, position transitions, respiration maintenance and combat to construct coherently scene 8, the great battle. Throughout school play rehearsals, we focused fully on developing the scene 8 to take advantage of Valentina’s presence and knowledge regarding original Kathakali combats. 

Analysis:
Same theatre tradition, same acting convention lesson. Except the main difference was the depth of learning, the leg strength we had to acknowledge in order to do professional Kerala transitions, kicks, stage combat and kalaripayattu animal positions. We began by doing yoga and kicking warm up activities to embrace better the future body movements, which were going to be taught and to have control of our respiration in order to maintain these postures perfectly. By doing the warm up activities, we learned three types of kicks: nerengala that involved kicking frontally, virungala, which was kicking in the form of a circle, and cornegala that was a quick kick directed to each corner. After doing the general warm up, we did actual Kathakali stage combat which was an amazing and unique experience for me. Previously, while sketching the scene 8 before Valentina’s intervention, we were doing a regular battle with no knowledge of the actual theatre tradition. With Valentina’s help, we were now more in touch with our theatre tradition: Kathakali. Thus, accomplishing our main aim, which was to stick to the theatre tradition as closely as possible since several established acting conventions were being broken such as the inability of speaking, the prohibition of portraying death scenes (only the final battle) and others. 

During practice, we did various transitions of different animal postures such as lions, horses or snakes, the different type of gala kicks, combats. Despite the suffering and discomfort of exceeding our leg capacity, stretching all our muscles and after that, these producing painful aches we still need to have perseverance in following correctly our theatre choice: Kathakali. An example was when Valentina taught us an animal sequence incorporated with a variety of gala kicks. There was a constant change between the different postures, from horse to snake, from lion to horse. There was neither stopping moments, breaks nor resting periods to calm down. Instead, we developed our elasticity abilities since we had to challenge ourselves in going beyond our comfort zone since as Valentina same said, “If it doesn’t hurt, the exercise isn’t done correctly”.For instance, I being Indrajit needed to do a ritual where all my source of power, my fury from within is released to burn Hanuman during the final battle. Before I did not know completely Kalaripayattu, I would have only done perhaps a circle distorsioning my chest as usual where I would finally release my fire with exaggerated hand movements or mudras. However, having kalaripayattu as inspiration, it opened my possibilities of creating an abstract sequence where animal postures with nerengala kicks where explored. To add a sparkling touch of Indrajit, I decided to add a distortion of the body with hand movements and exaggerated fury face expression to intensify Indrajit’s compulsivity and devilish appearance. I must admit, i finished with leg aches later since the entire transition happened in the same low leg base position. As a result, we learned about commitment and perseverance, which is not shown by all school play members. When placing in practice, some students were either complaining or bragging about these difficult postures and quick transitions. While warm up, they got tired very easily, which is crucial for preparation since if they can’t handle a regular warm up, then how will they maintain in a complex posture that is required? I admit it, it was hard at the beginning; coming back home was all about “ouch, my legs hurt” but after adjusting to the pain and reflecting on my learning of this amazing acting convention it was definitely an experience worth living because it had brought us one step closer to native Kerala, an fantastic Indian tradition, Kathakali theatre. If we are automatically breaking acting conventions of Kathakali theatre, than how can an adaptation of an Indian epopeya be identified?

Confidence and trust. Two exceptional memories. Two concepts acknowledged. By participating in Valentina’s workshop, we learned that kalaripayattu was based on trust and confidence. Battles and combats were staged as if they were realistic fights, whether than failures of attempting one. The key mentality when stage combating with kalaripayattu movements is that “hit if you are going to punch and defend as if you were going to be actually punched”, from that I discovered that if both persons involved in the battle put dedication and concentration, strength and speed; this “fake fight” can actually look pretty real and frightening. Therefore, the commitment of doing correctly the kalaripayattu postures and stage combat learnt will help impressively the play since we will be able to transmit the correct idea to the audience: a terrifying, intense atmosphere where warriors and demons are fighting for power and survival.  The Kerala corporal movements (kalaripayattu) will highlight powerful moments and at the same time painful deaths. I noticed this when with some monkeys and demons we actually sketched our mini battle that would happen during the great war. By imagining and practicing the fight, we incorporated the five areas of the body we were taught where is adequate to hit: the temple, neck, abdominal, forehead and finally the stomach. These five sections of the body are core for doing kalaripayattu, according to Valentina, because that is the only way where the attacker can direct exactly with strength the punch or kick and where the defender can perfectly block it because these parts can be healed by the same partner you are fighting against. While practing with one of the monkeys, we trusted ourselves that both would actually hit the other one since the other one will be able to defend it. Therefore, our battle became a success due to the the confidence we had between eachother and the intensity we placed in our movements. For instance, a sequence we market was that: I would kick him in the abdominal and he would fake fall while  he would then, hit me in the neck and I would fake fall as well.

Another value Kalaripayattu taught us was definitely teamwork, as Valentina stated, “The best of you is the same as the worse of you”. This statement has been clearly witnessed not only in daily situations but it is a perfect value that we will use in the future. An example would be when constructing the final battle; we had to make mutual fights occurring at the same time. Commitment is essential from all actors since not all of them have the same passion, activeness or natural ability as others in doing kalaripayattu. Due to this, if the actors don’t act as an ensemble, a team, the energy will be completely lost. This is something we definetly want to avoid because without assistance, our progress will be lost. Therefore, all actors must work together, fix each other’s mistakes and move on without leaving the worst of all because as Valentina said “The best of you is the same as the worse of you “Instead, the battle is considered the highest point where energy and strength are combined in battles. The fights are needed since it will show the concept of the triumph of good vs evil, a key characteristic of Kathakali theatre and our concept. 

Connection:

When being in Valentina's workshop, I connected and identified partially myself with her since I was previously in her same position, teaching kalaripayattu to others. However not as in depth as her due to my lack of experience in practicing this indian theatre tradition. Another connection I made was that when she was teaching, similar movements that I had learned before such as the elephant and the horse were taught in her workshop also, however the difference was that the posture was always in a very low base position which i didnt knew before.

Reflection:

Kalaripayattu is about caring for one another, having trust and confidence in your mate and fighting with determination. It was quite amazing to have an actual martial art expert like Valentina teaching is on an one on one specialized class for three hours only on staging combat. Taking advantage of this opportunity granted by Valentina gave us an extreme close up to our selected theatre tradition: Kathakali because not only we know about it now, but also we were able to apply the body movements of kalaripayattu taught by master Valentina into our very own school play. For instance, I being Indrajit needed to do a ritual where all my source of power, my fury from within is released to burn Hanuman during the final battle. Therefore, i added kalaripayattu positions to seem more alike to our theatre tradition.Finally, as I had said before, kalaripayattu is definitely not easily to manage and many people find it difficult to do so. How will they maintain in a complex posture that is required if they can’t do the warm up without complaining? How will the play be a successful Indian traditional school play if the closest convention we have can’t be done by the actors due to lack of commitment, tiredness or passion?

Brand new props + missing ones

Description:

Throughout regular theatre classes, we rehearsed the entire week scene 3, in the forest. Inclusive there were some exceptions, on Monday in the rehearsal of scene 3, Hawie and I went to the schools’ carpentry to paint the props while on Thursday, Sasmita Sahoo, a professional and experienced classic Indian singer came to watch the rehearsal and propose her music. Instead, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we had the school rehearsal where our focus was on the development of scene 8, the coronation of Rama. Finally, me, instead of going to the school play rehearsal on Saturday, I went again to the Centro of Lima to buy missing props.

Analysis:

The difference was clear, from two and a half hours in the busy streets of capon to the half a hour time in the straightforward block 3 of Abancay or in other words, Jr Huallaga, where the fabrics and cups were able to be found. By being once again in the Centro, I put in practice an ability learnt from the last time we went, the capacity of prioritizing the purchasing of objects due to the lack of time. I specialized my time and decided going to the fabrics was a better choice and chance of winning against time since the fabrics, taking the measurements, cutting 3metres per each color fabric would take much longer than buying 12 identical cups. As a result, from this, we calculated our time efficiently and in a matter of 30 minutes, we had finished buying both crucial props that were missing. Time was chasing me, but by returning to the Centro, I learned how to locate myself better, especially the same shops I wanted to go to where my missing props could be found. Additionally, before going I took advantage of my network of contacts and communicated with an expert of the Centro de Lima zone who could be my companion in this journey. With his help, He facilitate my journey much more since from his help, I learned how to situate myself better in the Centro and calculate my time efficiently. Another lesson I learned was that Jr Huallaga, was the third block of Abancay whether than the sixth one. Both shops containing my missing propos were one block distant from each other. Perfect for us! As a result, this will help me in the future since when I need to go or if I need to go, I will be able to locate myself more securely in the Centro for buying the props for the upcoming school play. By locating myself better, I can contribute the next former ib years when they need to go to buy props.Therefore, one last lesson I reflected on when returning to the Centro was that, since the first time we go, we must have taken previously the exact measurements and precautions to not have the obligation to return.

Monday, was a brand new experience for me. Going to carpentry and actually painting my very own props that would be used in the school play was a new stage of my theatre life. Actually having the chance of painting with the materials bought, the props that would be used was a unique experience for me. By painting, I realized that that the external materials that are not included in the prop like the paint aerosols and strings complete the package of the final product, or in other words, the final prop. If the prop lacks the color or external materials, the prop will not look the same, meaningless and poor. The sequence of painting was weird and extraordinary at the same time. Hawie and I learned how to paint with aerosols the props. In the case of the cups for the wine, we began by picking them up from their thinnest part and begin painting them. Whether than just focusing the paint spray onto a single area of the prop, the paint shall cover the empty region missing by “turning it around, painting, turning it around, and painting” continuously until the prop is completely covered by the gold dye. From this experience, I acknowledged how the people in charge of props actually manage the final development of their props. It is not only about buying the prop ready to be used, instead, creating the prop, finishing it yourself. Because of this unique painting experience, I will now be able to help the next IB year in charge of props, show them how to paint the props, the adequate manner to tint them and others. 

Moreover, during the school play rehearsals I was able to face the only situation I have not ever experienced before, the power of doubling. Experiencing it led me to one single conclusion: CHAOS, being in backstage is a CHAOS; however, it can be managed successfully with order and discipline. It was now my turn, I faced the terror of backstage; running from right to left to assure the correct props were being used in the accurate time, silencing actors that did not appear yet, remembering people who had forgotten to appear to go out towards the stage and more. By going to side to side in backstage while scene 8 was developed, rehearsed and presented; I was passing on props to the different actors. Additionally, I developed the ability of strategies. I coordinated the time and place where I was going to give the actors the specific prop needed or where it was left so they can pick it up, use them, and then leave them exactly in the same position.

Reflection:

Being in backstage was a hard task, although I learned about order, discipline, doubling roles and time management; one concern was crushing my brain, questioning me every single time. When I act in a specific scene, who could help me, assume my charge as props and organize the backstage? I mean… only one person was assigned props: me; only I know where each prop is used, at what specific time, where it should be so actors can access them more. Whom could I actually call for help, my cast members? What if the entire production team is acting? How do theatre makers accomplish this, find the perfect replacement for the charge while you are acting in stage.