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.