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.