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?