Issue time: Rehearsals, Conventions and Concepts are flying everywhere

Description:

On Monday, instead of finishing our demo versions of the first product for the IB, the presentation of a convention from a specific type of theatre, we discussed on the concept of the school play. Many ideas appeared, however either of them were the perfect one that fitted. On Tuesday and Thursday were the school rehearsals where participants interpreted different titles related to the scenes of the school play with the help of the form IV years that were directing them. The difference between Tuesday and Thursday’s rehearsals was that on Thursday while doing balancing the space as always, students were shown warm up exercises by Aileen that will apport to the physicality of their future characters. On Wednesday, we continued finishing with the presentation of our demo versions. On Thursday’s afternoon, we had our pre-production meeting where we made the final decision of our concept with outer help, “El destino es ciego, cualquiera puede guiarlo” which will be the central theme of our play.  

Analysis:

By sharing  the diverse acting conventions witnessed in Indian theatre, specifically Kathakali style;  we reached the main conclusion that all conventions have a strong link between each other, complementing, meaning that they can’t be taught by separate but joined as a group of conventions.This will be a bit difficult and challenging to achieve since we are only 6 ib former students that have studied different concepts highlighted in indian theatre that have to teach these to approximately 40 students in less than one month time. An example that I learned was that eye movements shared a strong connection with the mudras. This is since “Where the hand go, there goes the eye” because without the eye movements, the mudras lose their whole significance since “the face is the index of the mind” reinforcing the idea that the mudras are meaningless without a face expression that in according to Indian theatre, the focus is on the eyes. Therefore, eye movements are a difficult topic because they had to complement with the different mudras that conform in the diversity of hand gestures because in a slight movement in the hand,  changes the significance, affecting directly the movement of the eye.

Regarding the kalaripayattu body movements that inspire themselves in the fighting tactics of a wide range of animals,  will be difficult to teach the young actors since warm-up of muscles nad strength is difficult to have in a small amount of time. Moreover, the reason of this is that it is difficult to maintain a same posture in place since it requires high muscular strength and resistance for being able to hold still in a specific position of an animal. As a result, if there is a slight change in the posture, the audience’s credibility will weaken and confusion will be achievable because they are not able to understand completely the animal portrayal. This can be a constant problem if students do not focus and constantly miss the rehearsals because the warm up and maintenance of posture depends on the quantity of practice they have had previously. Without a good quantity of skills acknowledged by the warm-up exercises and practices of different postures of animals, our animal environment will not be transmitted as we expected it to do.

In order to present the different interpretations of scenes, we formed previous idealized groups depending on the actor’s possible or chosen character for the play. By this formation, we discovered different abilities each student had since by being given a specific scene that would fit them, they developed different acting skills and interpretations full of innovation. In the case of other students that did not have a concrete character, by placing them in scenes as try outs we discovered true potentials that made us reflect on the selection of characters.  However, in some cases, people were not able to develop their physicality to the maximum point. In order to avoid this, we must do more flexibility or warm-up exercises that will help with the development of the portrayal of different characters in scenes.

The decision making of our final concept was considered a very difficult task because we were not given a great amount of time to think of a proper stimulus or visualization of the play that will help us adapt it in the correct way. Instead, we inversed the process. We began by reading and adapting the play first, without previously reach a concrete concept that will be highlighted throughout not only the play but in the design elements too. I have to admit, it was a difficult process that we faced since we had many disagreements on the concept. In addition, we couldn't reach quickly that tiny spark that will contribute with the final decision of our play. Moreover, we were able to create a vision of the portrayal of the play, but having to reach to a concept that is similar at some point to a vision was not easily achievable, as I had imagined.

Reflection: 

Concepts are considered transcendental ingredients in the creation of a play; they are the core piece that the play relies on. We were made many questions to ourselves to reach our concept “el destino es ciego, cualquiera puede guiarlo”. However, it was not simply THAT easily as we thought before since we had to inverse the process. We had to reflect on our adaptation once again as we haven’t ever did before in such depth in order to rescue our concept that was in the bottom of the ocean of ideas. Questions of “what are we trying to transmit to the audience with our play?”, “why is our play adapted in this specific way?”, “With which reason were these changes made regarding the scenes?” and more constantly began to arise in our minds. Many questions leaded to many ideas that were usually mixed up because we had to reach to a concept that highlighted the main ideas of our play.

 This leads me to several questionings. Have we actually reached the proper concept or have we left something behind? Alternatively, how can we join important features in a specific line that reflects the entire storyline of the play?  Finally, after these questions, this main concern has constantly been in my mind: Is a concept actually essential as it looks? Because we were able to idealize an entire play completely having only a vision and having by accident forgotten the concept.

The first rehearsals of a brand new beginning

This week we began rehearsals of the school play. Tuesday, the first day of a new project,I wasn't able to go to the first rehearsal of the play due to my illness, being sick cost me the opportunity to meet all the new participants of the play, having them sit in the a circle and asking about their wonders and expectation of the play. As usual in all of our school plays, we began by playing games that help us in our theatrical performance such as balancing the space, Ha Hondom, groups and shapes and more. However, Thursday was my new beginning. Due to our last pre-production meeting, we had a complete outline of the different activities we were going to do. Olenka and I began on taking attendance of the students participating in the play while Carlos, Anita and Siu were in charge of making them play balancing the space and then, Ha Hondom, a game full of energy. Hence, in a moment, Carlos showed the form six IB years our version of the play, the structure, the different scenes that were going to be acted in our own modified version of the original play of “The Ramayana”. We decided on changing the acts into scenes since the original play was 9 hours long performing and we had to adapt it in 2 hours to show it as a school play. As a result, Carlos was showing the result of our ideas and hard work done in this week. After having all of our proposals attached in a single presentation, we considered Aileen and Gonzalo’s feedback on our proposals, added important visions for given scenes that helped us reach a concrete idea of our play. Finally, we ended with an impro-match with specific titles such as “Rallando bananas”, “El cielo se cae” and others in different acting styles like theatre for children, German expressionism, melodrama and more.

These days have been a challenging and changing experience for me. It is true that every single person has once have wished of the idea of being in charge, having control and power upon the young participants of the play. I have to admit, it is difficult to accept and confront the idea that actually we are the producers of the play, the play relies on us now and we do not have any former students we cannot look upon since the sixth IB drama course has been closed. We look upon the 6th IB grade students that volunteered to collaborate with the play although they do not take the theatre IB program as a course. However, although they are sixth form students, we are the one the school play’s success relies on since we are the producers of the play. Thinking of production, I have learned and noticed that being a producer is not just about being in charge of the design elements but it is about plannifying the play, taking direction and being the role models young play participants want to be in the future. I noticed that being a producer is a huge responsibility since we have to plan each single hour, minute and seconds of the rehearsals, take in charge if any problem occurs and affront it in the most practical way as possible. Another essential learning I achieved from these rehearsals was that without the theatre group complete, disappointment and failure will be easily achievable. This is because the actors will not have the exact support they were thinking of having before. As a result, slowing the process and reaching to misunderstandings. Theatre relies on the support of the whole team, not a partial part of it. If the team itself is not complete, success will never be achieved due to the irresponsibility and lack of consideration from the missing participants.

In my life, I have not ever felt so nervous for a regular and common rehearsal, which we have not even started working on the scenes yet. Being a producer is still a difficult position I can’t still 100% endure. Since the first weeks we have already began practicing and planning the school play, a lasting process that requires lots of effort and hard work. Another thing I have to get used to is the difficult problems that we will begin to face. The different conventions of Indian theatre are the essential ingredients of the Kathakali recipe. It is true, that without managing the acting and design conventions in an exceptional and outstanding way, we will not be able to achieve the main goals of Kathakali or Indian theatre, the heart of our play. This is because without a complete understanding of the conventions that are difficult to teach such as the diverse variations of mudras, the purulia cchau movements for different animals or the control of the eye movement the play will lose its essence completely. As a result not being considered a Kathakali success.

These theatre experiences have led to me several questions. How will we maintain the essence of the play if the conventions aren’t truly teached completely? I mean that the conventions are crucial for the play to succeed and without a proper teaching, failure will come along. In addition, including the teaching of the conventions, being in charge of the rehearsals, will we have enough time to develop our characters completely if we have to consider the fact that we have to produce the play at the same time? 

The school play, a creation and adaptated version of an indian epic

Theatre is the art of interpretation, the opportunity given to human beings to transmit ideas of diverse periods of times in their own way. Last monday, we presented our proposals regarding the specific scene we were given, in my case, The Great War. We were given to present our vision of the original act, how we would adaptate it in our way without losing its essence. In order to not lose it essence, we were specified to propose the act with 3 to 5 main acting conventions portrayed in indian theatre. In my case I presented the purulia cchau movements that can focus on the lower part of the body to reinforce the characterization of the monkeys; a violent dance to represent the death secene of Raveena because in indian theatre it isn't allowed to show a death scene since it transmits impurity and finally, acrobatics that would help give an animal-like characterization to themonkey figures, but especially, it would contribute with the movements and actions of the monkeys in the war.On the day of the presentations that took approximately 5-10 minutes each, we received special feedback from Mr.Gonzalo, Aileen and our classmates from each of the different proposals presented. On wednesday and thrusday, we joined each of the proposals which were 6 slides each on to a single powerpoint presentation which would be sent to Mrs. Alicia as our final proposal for the school play. As a total, it reached approximately 42 slides including the actual summary of the scene, our proposal and the acting conventions we each added. Finally, after school we had our second pre-production meeting where we decided on how the first rehearsal of the play will be managed.



This experience made me feel exited since we, as official drama ib students, were given the chance to adaptate and change a specific scene into our own one, presenting it to Mr. Gonzalo, Aileen and our classmates to see if they could consider our personal ideas for the presentation of the play.This provided me different organization and creativity skills that could be applied to future workshops.  I can admit, it made me feel partially as a producer of a scene of the entire school play which i haven't ever experienced before although it's just one of my first week in the drama ib program. However, it was a difficult task to idealize an entire vision of a scene yourself since we had to pick the best acting conventions that could fit precisely in specific moments of the given act. As a personal experience, it made me open my abilities of creation which made me think beyond my comfort zone, something completely different to my usual life. As a result, this made me reflect on the idea on how the drama ib course isn't only focused on acting skills but it bases itself on each persons creative and analytical abilities.


 Well, the difficulty of adaptating an entire play without the support of the 6th ib years is quite challenging since as a group, an ensemble we must do all the writing, the design elements, the teaching of the conventions all by ourselfs. Im actually fearing of the idea that perhaps, we are ignoring important scenes and moments that must be in the play by adaptating it in our own way. I actually found exiting and challenging at the same time in this course is that we are given the activities of creating adaptated versions of scenes of epic plays such as the Ramayana which can't be done in any type of course. In conclusion, the fear of producing and creating an adaptation of this lasting play has leaded me to different questioning of the total success and satisfaction of our school play. Moreover, for the benefit of my theatrical life, having to do an adaptation teached me how to pick specific and important acts of an entire lasting play.I couldn't completely understand how people can adaptate whole play that includes diverse elements such as lyrical narrations, exploration of mudras, dances and more in  approximately 10-9 hour plays to a specific time limit of 2 hours maximum. Furthermore, translating an indian epic helped me  to notice key spaces where several indian design and acting conventions are used without having a complete knowledge of the original play. Also, i achieved to learn the different aspects of the cultural indian context i have never studied or analyzed in depth. I learned that having fear gives you the courage to go beyond yourself, open your mind and free your beliefs. This sense of defiance helped me to create my adaptated version of the scene I was given.



Will our journey pass through a difficult lane without the complete support of the 6th ib years? I constantly wonder if our adaptation will become as successful as we think eventhough we removed parts that we believe were absurd while in indian theatre had a true significance.How effective will our play be following indian theatre ideals? Reaching to my final conclusion, we as directors, producers and actors will be able to keep the nature of indian theatre in our adaptated version?

The ensemble project, a memorable moment in theatre

Life gives you new chances, new experiences, new moments for being remebered. I was given the chance to have an ensemble project, a group work with my classmates where we were the owners of our creations, the governors of our imagination. Deniel, Benajamin, Patricio and I we able to have the freedom to create an own vision, concept, develop different characters and scenes in our own way. We began this project in August where we were selected and joined together beacuse of our different weaknesses, strengths and future aims we wanted to accomplish in theatre. Moreover, we devided ourselves the different design elements such as lights, scenery, props, make-up, music, costumes and sound effects. Benjamin was in charge of the music and sound effects while Patricio was in charge of the lights. Myself, was in charge of the scenery we would use develop our scene in. Finally, Daniel decided to select  the different props we would use in our scenes.After having a clear vision of our play, we began to have reunions, we had journals where we were constantly anotating our ideas in order for our presentation to become the perfection we had imagined. Moreover, we joined after clases, in recesses and during IGCSE examination period. In case if anyone had a problem, the remaing people developed the scenes in which the missing one didn't appear to focus and strengthen those scenes that were lacking of special devotion since other scenes required more time. We apported each other  different ideas in order to create a unique piece of theatre, making an outstanding performance. Reflecting on our process, we began with simple imporvisation to develop our future scenes because as we were improvising, new ideas began to appear. As the storyline of our presentation was long, we divided the scenes and wrote scripts to locate ourselfs in time and not forget concrete moments. Finally, we presented our performance which highlighted the idea that everything happens for a reason whether you wish for it or not. 

The ensemble project is considered a memorable moment of my life due to the fact we were able to be directors, producers and actors at the same time which is extremely hard to direct. By having this opportunity, we imporved our abilities of management since we weren't able to have any outer support or help .Its true, altough it was exciting, it was an extreme stress to imagine the outcome of our final performance. It was nerve recking to be in the moment, the final moment in which we could show and prove our true potential in the final presentation after reharsing insainly day by day. I have to admit that it was a demanding period of time which required full dedication and effort, however, i felt grateful for having the opportunity of presenting our final product. Portraying Laura, an innocent woman who is fisically abused was quite difficult since i didn't had the previous experience of being mistreated. Personally, it was exiting to challenge myself beyond my barriers, my comfort zone because it made me feel curious to encourage myself to represent a whole new different person. I couldn't believe how could i complete a massive transformation of being a normal girl in school to living an awful story that actually happens in real life. I was really happy with the idea of creating my own character, a character who i discovered and looked throught deeply since i opened myself to a new perspective of life, a outlook of a person who is crushed completely inside out. At the end, i felt happy with our final result although things didn't go out as they were supposely to have been, but, I completely assure myself that it has been a memorable moment for me in my entire and future theatre life. 

But i wonder, what would have happened if i didn't create an opposite character of my true-self? i believe that i wouldn't have acted the same if it wasn't for the constant demand i placed on myself, acting an unknown character, a whole perspective of life i haven't ever experienced before and hope i won't. Would the storyline, the plot itself been as successful as it was if i portrayed my usual self? Therefore, theatre isnt about comfort but actually outsanding from others, going against yourself, your comfort zone, your barriers or isn't it?