Act 1 slightly done...and this time, with platforms!

Description:

During Monday and Wednesday classes, we practiced our specific scene, in my case, the presentation of the demons. On Thursday, we tried the different platform levels placed in the theatre to act out the scenes. We intended to get used to it since we have not previously practiced with them before or adjusted our specific scene to that structure. Finally, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we had the school play rehearsals where we developed the entire Act 1 that included the advance and improvement of the prologue, scene 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Analysis:

Finally, the platforms are here! During this week we officially have begun practicing with the different platform levels, but specially, getting used to them. Each platform represent the level of hierarchy of the characters in our adapted play of the Ramayana. The first and second platform represent the upper class. In the first platform, which is the highest one is where the throne is positioned, emphasizing the idea that the nobility such as Sugriva, Dasaratha, Rama or Ravenna are the only ones able to be there since they are considered superior since they are either kings or queens that belong to nobility. The second level also belongs to nobility, however not as superior as above. While, the low level is for the collective characters such as the monkeys, demons, Royal dancers and others. By using the platforms, we learned how to adapt our scene to the different levels since we have not had any previous experience with them. In addition, another thing we acknowledged was that we characters could not move to another platform since we do not belong to that level of society. We are not permitted to move to the other platforms unless we have a valid and coherent reason that supports the movement to a given level.

Demons, Demons, Demons. We are now getting close to the success of our character, well a bit there. In order to succeed in our characterization, an essential element is the VOICE, although it breaks one of Kathakali’s principles. This made me learn that although we are breaking just that single convention, we can still maintain the essence of Kathakali Indian theatre because we are still doing theatrical dances, mudras, kalaripayattu fighting strategies, not showing death scenes and others. Kathakali focuses on characterization and postures more than the dialogue and voice of each character since the message of the play is mainly transmitted with the use of mudras and body positions. Indrajit is the daughter of the powerful evil demon queen, Ravenna. Due to this, she has is the legacy and has inherited a similarity in Ravenna’s voice. While doing the exploration of voice, I attempted to modify my voice from my usual high pitch to a medium pitched voice. I must admit, it was challenging. However, in the overall, it felt quite satisfying feeling the sensation of success after they tell you your voice is now acceptable and better than before. From this, I learned that if I mix my voice and accidentally do a high-pitched voice, the audience would not be able to differentiate Shurpanaka from Indrajit since we would have very similar voices. It is true; I find it quite difficult being a young impulsive demon daughter that has to do a medium pitched voice while marking the r and s consonants. With a constant practice of my personal variations of the fury Indian face expression, the exaggerated tongue and torso movements joined with wicked and creepy hand gestures, and mudras; I learned that I could actually transmit to the audience Indrajit’s impulsivity by focusing in a majority on my body composition and movements whether than reinforcing the voice. However, the voice is fundamental for Indrajit, because without it, my character would be lost and not even slightly identified.

Connections:

For the construction of the trinity of evil demons; I mean Ravenna, Shurpanaka and Indrajit; we inspired ourselves and used as stimuli the evil trinity from the Harry Potter Saga that is conformed by Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix. In my case, Bellatrix is the ideal role model for Indrajit since she is a crazy psychopath who is arrogant and wants to prove her power and abilities to perform evil spells to her master, Voldemort. While in the play, Indrajit by using her impulsivity and pride, she is motivated to constantly demonstrate her mother her capability of being the legacy of the throne. As well, she desires to prove her strength and power towards her mother Ravenna. Referring to the play, Ravenna would be considered as Voldemort since she does not need to do huge actions to destroy something; instead the slightest movement destroys a complete village.

Another connection that I made was that the presentation of the demons is quite similar to last year’s presentation of the evil witches because both create the same sensation to the audience: FEAR. As the same as we did last year, we must do a powerful entrance that frightens the entire audience even though it causes tears (like last year).

Reflection:

By being in this week’s rehearsals, I noticed that some demons are still lacking the consistency of the fury face expression taught by Carlos. A main error I have perceived from these rehearsals is that they specifically loose it while they say their collective lines. This taught me that, as actors, we need to constantly practice the physicality of our character, repeat constantly our lines while linking it to the adequate face expression in order to transmit better the intention of each character. In case of the demons, in order to transmit and cause the audience a sensation of terror, panic and fear; we cannot simply rely on the fact on our voice and boy movements, but instead, incorporate it with a furious facial expression to connote the idea of malicious demons. Always, in every play, movie; the evil characters MUST and HAVE to have an impacting introduction because if there is a lack of power I the entrance of the arch nemesis of the protagonist, the outline of the play, story or movie will lose importance and attractiveness.

This leaded me to one single question that has been haunting me. How can we make an impacting entrance of malicious and wicked demons if the same demons lack characterization? It is a huge issue that characters do not have the exact fury face or actually cause fear instead of making the audience laugh of the goofy face expression they are doing.

Its officially the time! Scenes, Scenes, Scenes

Description:

On Monday, we defined the schedule for the daily rehearsal of the different scenes we would present until the final demonstration of the school play. During Wednesday and Thursday’s class, we explored the physicality and personification of our given character starring the play. Finally, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we had the school play rehearsals where we advanced the progress and development of the prologue, scene 1 and 2. 

Analysis:

Wow, stress in now a constant sensation I feel. During the rehearsals, by focusing on the demon's characterization I learned that I constantly, consistently and daily need to practice my different postures, the mixture of a low and high pitch for the projection of my voice, the pronunciation of the “r” and “s” consonants and others to maintain the essence my character, Indrajit. It true, this is the slight break we are doing to the Kathakali principles, but I learned that although there will be lines, the physicality of our characters will become the main focus of the play. This means that my strength resistance has to improve, has to majorly improve. By portraying, Indrajit, an impulsive daughter who wants to prove her strength to her mom, I noticed that I have to go beyond my comfort zone and my personality because Indrajit is the opposite of me. Theatre is putting yourself in other's shoes although it does not fit you. While exploring my characterization, I learned that evil forces are definitely NOT THE SAME as the demons. Evil forces are consistently at a lower base position while, use demons, need to follow the purulia chhau principles which consist that the basic position forms a square. Simply, without forming the square, you are no longer a demon. This constantly challenges me because throughout the entire play I cannot stand straight, or sit. Instead, i must stick to the square bas position because, or else, I am no longer a demon. This makes me constantly wonder that if I just do a slight or minimal change to my feet posture, would it break the tradition completely. Because the issue is that, it is quite exhausting to be in the same base position for a longtime. 

All acting conventions finally link together to create a worthy Kathakali theatrical environment. As demon, I combined and corporated some kalaripayattu postures for the interpretation of my character. For Indrajit, the twisted movement of the torso and arms are a key movement that defines and differentiates her from the other demons. I used the kalaripayattu elephant posture where it lifts its tusk for the androgynous movement of Indrajit’s arms. In addition, I added leaps from purulia chhau movements to portray the childish phase of Indrajit. Scene 2 is the introduction of the demons, the powerful moment where fury and fear are combined.  The exaggeration of face and body gestures is fundamental for the success of this play because if the presentation of the demons isn’t outraging, the play will lose essence and significance since the rival isn’t presented as powerful and defiable as we wished it to be. I must admit, there are some actresses that get lost in the moments or they do not do the face expressions clear enough since exaggeration is lacking. Okay, perhaps, I understand the reason they do not do it correctly because the fury expression is quite weird, creepy and ugly. Nevertheless, if you do not exhibit it, then how are you going to be a trust worthy demon if you have a plain face expression with no intentions! On top of this, after presenting the scene, it made me feel happy because we caused fear towards the audience, which was our main purpose and aim.

Connections:

By doing the construction of my character, I noticed that my inspiration source was my representation of the witches in Something Wicked. Although the posture was not alike, some similar exaggerated hand gestures fitted, to an extent, to Indrajit’s physicality. Another connection was that in Something Wicked, our triple witch had to emphasize on the r sound, just like Indrajit’s! While the s sound was a predominated sound of the minions or evil forces. However, although these two connections I discovered just linked to last year’s school play. I would like to place my personal perspective on the personification of Indrajit’s character just as I created Laura in my ensemble project “Nothing is what it seems”. However, I will use Mrs. Alicia’s suggestions about the projection of voice, but I will include my own interpretation so that Indrajit has a slight spark of myself. In addition, another connection I made was that when Olenka and I had to act the confrontation between Indrajit and Shurpananka, we had to constantly do exaggerated mad face expressions while bumping our heads against each other. This leaded me to the idea that we seemed like two dogs or bulls actually trying to kill each other.

Reflection:

The satire of being a teacher is actually quite funny. While I was teaching the conventions, I claimed all the effort and strength resistance from each actor even though they could not reach that barrier of trespassing their comfort zone. Now, when I did it, poor creatures. I felt so bad, now I completely understand the suffering they were passing through. It is actually much hard doing it completely in depth like the ones they were doing it in my workshops. This made me reflect on the more pressure you have, the outcome will be better. I placed myself in the same conditions as them, I attempted to maintain in these postures or actually complete to perfection the warm up (specially the one leg sit down which I still can’t do!!!) and simply, nothing is what it seems. You can believe warm up exercises are the easiest part. Well, they actually are; but for a non-Kathakali theatre actor it is difficult because in comparison with real famous Kathakali practicionists, we are not even near of reaching their level of performance because they have practice for several YEARS. In comparison, us, just nearly a month. However, this made me reflect on the idea that a constant practice of the postures and movements must be made, or else, we will not transmit the correct message to the audience, failing completely in maintaining the essence of Kathakali Indian theatre.

By being a demon, it is quite difficult to transmit the audience that we are not anymore evil forces or witches. Establishing the difference is quite hard because, to an extent, the hand gestures are similar, except, the inclusion of mudras marks the difference. The square, the square, the square. The demons must and have to form the square, slide on the floor with the square and live with the square. This is because if there is a slight modification to the parallel movement of your feet, the square is broken and there is no longer a Kathakali essence. This makes me reflect on the idea that what would happen if I just do a minimal movement of my toes, would it break the tradition completely, or just a bit? Moreover, how can I maintain for a long time in the same square basic position if it is seriously, very exhausting? (I mean it, seriously). In terms of the mudras, how can the demons not get distracted with the exaggerated hand gestures and focus more on the mudras? If the finger gestures contribute to the actresses a much better demon physicality whether than the mudras with thousands of meanings?

A teacher experience... not that bad after all, quite entertaining!

Description:

During classes we discussed on the different design proposals, we decided on the official selection of the cast and we finally made a slight change to the concept: “El destino no esta escrito, cualquiera puede cambiarlo”. Regarding the school rehearsals that were on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday; we teached the assigned acting conventions as well as being part of them to have a full comprehension of the principles of Kathakali theatre. In my case, I teached kalaripayattu animal postures and purulia chhau dance style for the demons.

Analysis:

I teached the different body movements to the actors which were either kalaripayattu postures or purulia chhau basic positions to reinforce the physicality for the characters that are considered essential elements for the transmission of our tradition, Kathakali Indian theatre. Kalaripayattu are specific postures that bases on the fighting strategies of animals. From this, I discovered these would be perfect for the representation of monkeys. While teaching these movements, I explained the key information and specific animal postures of kalaripayattu like the elephant, rooster, horse and others. However, in my workshop on animals, I gave them liberty to create their own interpretations of animals, which were not available in Kalaripayattu whether than relying fully on the specific postures of kalaripayattu. I learned that personal perspective and imagination from the characters were needed to create a unique interpretation of the given animal. Due to the innovation given by the actors, we were able to create kalaripayattu movements with a spark of their own. As a result, that we must stay stick to the convention, however adding a spark of imagination by the actors themselves, we can manage to stick to Kathakali acting style because even though its their own created posture, they are still sticking to Kalaripayattu’s main element which is a fighting strategy of the animal.

In addition, this process was similar on Saturday’s rehearsal where my focus was not on the animals, but instead on the physicality of the demons using purulia chhau body movements that are based on martial arts movements such as kicks, leaps and more. I began by showing them videos exploring purulia chhau dance movements where the base position usually forms a square. A main issue which dissapointed me was that in that workshop was that my team was not complete which leaded me to the idea that without the full cooperation of the entire group, we cannot advance as quickly as we wish to because this is a difficult theatre tradition that requires a significant amount of practice. Since in Kathakali theatre the physicality, makeup and costumes needs to exert beyond the acting skills, practicing constantly the movements will be essential for the school play to advance its process and keep the essence of Indian theatre. By doing both workshops, I learned that actors require a huge amount of concentration because these postures are difficult to preserve. This made me reflect on the idea that each character needs to discover and identify their center to maintain themselves in these diverse positions either animal or demon because if there is the slightest change in the posture, it will not transmit the same character they intended to transmit before.

On Thursday, by being in Olenka’s workshop about Mayurbhanj chhau dance movements, I learned that the basis for body expressions is concentration. Simply, without the sufficient concentration, characters will easily reach failure and transmit the wrong meaning to the audience since they could not do correctly the posture assigned. We explored different base positions that required muscular resistance, especially in the legs. One essential thing I learned was that we need to overcome the tension even though it is too high. This means that although the specific movement required loads preservation and concentration, tension became to appear, instead, we need to overcome it and by the time our body will get used to it and not suffer the pain as the first time ever done. These positions suggested me the idea that Mayurbhanj represents battles with acrobatics and martial arts which I did not know before. To an extent, it is similar to purulia chhau movements but the difference is that I used and focused only on purulia chhau body expressions whether than the collective movement as a dance.

Finally, all the actors were able to reach my expectations, which were to go beyond their comfort zone to perform and maintain difficult animal and demon postures without complaining. In some few cases, some actors did not reach the necessary line of conservation and gave up. However, as I told them constantly to maintain for just a few minutes the vast majority was able to accomplish it even though it was their first time ever trying a workshop that in the original Kathakali preparation is 10-15 years which made me feel happy and proud for them. Although, they just believe they are a collective actor like monkeys and demons, but they are essential for the play because without them, the play itself would fail completely. We need to teach them they are important by being collective characters because they have learned the body expressions that are KEY for the play to maintain it’s Kathakali essence because without it, it wouldn’t be considered a worthy indian theatre representation.

Connections:

By comparing Olenka’s workshop on mayubhanj chhau movements for the great war and mine of purulia chhau, I noticed that both met the same base positions because they are two different variations of the chhau movements. This relatively connected both workshops since mine included the exploration of supernatural creatures such as animals and demons while Olenka teached  the heroic dance where these same characters would show their dexterity and agility skills while portraying the great battle. Another connection I made was that for the construction of the physicality of the demons, I took inspiration from the evil forces from last year’s play something wicked.  As inspiration, I used their low positions for the transition of the posture for the demons while mixing it with the square base position and the acrobatics like leaps that are from the purulia chhau tutorial to maintain the essence of Kathakali whether than loosing it. 

Reflection:

This was actually our teacher week. It taught me how to have a constant patience with each actor because each one has a different rate of learning. Due to the cooperation of the VI form IB students, we were able to fasten this process since they helped us direct and at the same time be our students since we taught them the acting convention. For the future’s benefit, the form VI ib students by acknowledging these conventions, they would help us by directing the scenes and verifying if the actors are accomplishing to excellence the acting convention while we need to act and produce the play at the same time. Their outer support has helped us in many ways.

I discovered that the teaching of the body movements has to be exquisite, focused and unique because Kathakali theatre involves mostly elaborate gestures and body movements whther than focusing on the dialogues. This is because, to an extent, Kathakali is a miming style of theatre because the style of the acting is important while the actual talking isn’t considered highly significant.

This also caused me stress because if I did something wrong, I wouldn’t only affect the learning outcomes of the actors but would affect negatively the play itself since it can’t advance without acknowledging the true principles of Kathakali theatre.

Now, these  questions have been haunting me... How can I teach the different body movements and postures as similar as posible? I mean like the actual kathakali experts when i only get to teach them a month while professional kathakali actors have 10-15 years of preparation!!  Also, will they remeber the several different acting conventions of body movements i've taught them? Which would be the best and efficient way to teach them the movements to perfection if they can't practice at their homes or don't have that natural talent of preserving the posture?