Independent Project

Stimulus

Carol Ann Duffy 'The Worlds Wife' poem anthology 

Key Ideas

• Female Perspective
• The character's point of view of a famous story.
• Example: Maleficent

1+1 = 1

Description

This weekend we went to the play 'Incendios'. This has a very intresting plot that revolves in the fact that a mother had recently died, and she left a strange testament. In which her childen have to look for a father and another son. This eventually creates an intresting trama that gives a shocking ending.

Moreover we worked in the school play as we already divided people in different scenes and started working with some themes that were similar to ours. I was in charge of the scene about the Donahue family.

Analysis

The first play we saw was 'Antigona' that really helped me have an idea of poor theatre. As it didnt have that much design element the actress managed to use her body in order to peform the play. I think it was quite intresting the fact that she acted all the characters and she could change characters very easily. She could completely change her whole characterization in order to help the scene work. Moreover, I saw my design element, which were costumes in poor theatre. In this play they had this intresting proposal that was the fact that she wore the same costume but she changed it as she changed character. It was this monotonus dress, which had a cape, and she would put it on the head or tied it to portray the king or the princess, etc.

Furthermore, we saw this play 'Incendios' which gave us a very intresting proposal for the reading of a letter. Because the actual chacter appeared when they were reading the letter of the mother. Since we can use it in our play when Mrs. Redwood is reading Leon Redwoods letter about becoming the next leader of the country. I also enjoyed the fact that they not only portrayed a single character but some actors represented differents ones. Also the special effects gave me a new perspective of how to do certain stuff. For example, with the bullet, they actualy had fake blood and created a great effect. The thing I liked the most was the imaged of this person covered in blood that gave crude sensation and this effect worked better than actually having the people killed in the stage. As everything is in your imagination and it creates more tension and curiosity. This is something we want to apply to the play in the scenes were the high governer is killed.

Morever, In the school play we started working with scenes and trying to get more ideas of how we would develop each one and which actors go with which characters. In order to achieve this, we divided our selfs in groups from different forms, sixth grade, form I, form II, etc. So in order, to train people into poor theatre, they were divided in forms. I was incharged of form I and II. We followed Grotowsky's training, as we did the warm up and explain the  'via negativa' that means that you have to break your barriers and dont limit yourself is you feel tired or thirsty. We also introduced the theory of 'face as a mask' and making sound effects themselves.

Connections

The Grotowsky theory of 'face as a mask' gives me a connection to German Expressionism that you needed to have a their face sort of a mask as it tried to be distorted as to break the conventional way to be, to act and behave.

The play 'Antigona' made me think about ' Confesiones' because there was one actress that had to change completely their phsicallity and characterization as a whole in order to portray by herself the different characters that were demanded.

The use of lighting to create a different level of reality in 'Incendios' created a conection to 'Proyeccion Privada' because in incendios the mother's ghosts appeared and talked to the children. The same happens in Proyeccion Privada, which had as a game, the play of the different colour lighting in order to alter reality-dream-reality. This also happened in Romper La Piel as they had different color lighting in order to show a change with reality and dreams, to portray different levels of reality.

Reflections

In conclusion, i think we need to see more plays to have more ideas to apply in ours. I think is also better to have some more knowledge in poor theatre, not only practical but also actually seen more poor theatre to have an idea. This is because we are not doing the exact poor theatre but is our stimuli and we are having some conventions from them as the 'actor as prop' but I think we should explore it more to have more positive results. Moreover, I think we should work more with discipline as the final scene were there is a final fight, needs to be organized because if not it will look like a complete mess. This is why coordination is needed, as well as timing. Also I think we should work more in the special effects and help the actors have ore training in poor theatre in order to use as much as they can their body. 

How can we portray intresting deaths? How can sound effects made by actors be applied? To what extent our actors can work without getting tired? How can lighting help create different levels of reality?

So it begins...

Description

These two weeks we worked in the structure of the play, as we discussed which scenes were going to use or take from our stimuli. We also did a further study in Grotowski and poor theatre. Moreover, we had the first rehearsal of the school play.

Analysis

To begin with, the structure of the play for me was quite hard to separate or select scenes because I was in charge of the act I and in that act all the scenes have key events as they introduce the characters and explain the play as a whole and the purpose of the actions of the characters, as well as given us background information of their origins. This would be such as the witches, the main character reaction and his thoughts for the future. I just managed to take one scene from the act as it was irrelevant but we also merged scenes into bigger ones instead of having to make more scenes. I think that perhaps this process is long but it makes it easier just to extract scenes from our stimuli rather than creating our play, which is a longer process and it is hard to get all the production team agree on it.

Furthermore, we study Grotowski and the idea of poor theatre that involves the fact of having less elements or over produced, such as makeup, scenery, costumes, props and just having the essential. This is because Grotowski believes that the theatre was trying to be more like films rather than theatre which in this case have to focus more in the acting and the actor as a whole. He describes how the audience has to empathize with the actor in some point of the play. It was quite interesting to see the relationship with the audience and how he tries to destroy conventional theatre and the proscenium arch and states that is better to have the actors amongst the audience.

Moreover, we did the first rehearsal of the play! For me it was at first demanding to be in charge of younger actors and have to direct the rehearsal. But as a team we made the usual games and introduction of the play and the commitments for each participant. We also saw the kids acting which led us to think of the kind of character they could act in.

Connections

The first connection of the year I made was having a stimulus of the play although we always use this for each of our play it made for me a strong connection to the one act play because we have to look for a game, type of theatre, etc.

The second connection was the fact that poor theatre has some similarities with german expressionism because they have the theory of having your face as a mask.

The third connection is with paucartambo because of their relationship with the audience was they don’t have a fix stage but they act next to the audience. This gives another connection to ‘sin titulo’ because the actors didn’t have a fix stage but the audience moved and saw from different perspectives.

Reflections:

Although I was absent for two explorations of poor theatre I think this type of theatre is quite interesting and im very excited because I like to explore in depth the conventions as they are reasons behind why the do things the way they do. Also because I share the idea of having the actor as the main element because overall we are losing focus and rather prefer more visual stuff than what the play is actually trying to transmit. I also really like the fact breaking tradition and having the characters be next to the audience rather than doing something conventional  and separate the actors with the audience. It would be a wonderful and unique experience if we manage to do this with discipline and train our actor to get fully into character the whole time.

Moreover, I think we are doing well in the production of the play because we had a great start and ideas are flowing and everything is exciting right now. The first rehearsal for me was a success because we manage to control the situation and the children have great potential and are very excited about the play and they want to contribute and I think this would make it a wonderful experience and we are going to have a great play!

Questions:

To what extent can we interact with the audience without losing concentration?  How can we last more time doing acrobatics? 

September 8th: HE SAAYS IM A PRINCEESS :'(

It's over, the ending of another chapter, the memories that came along with it. The One Act Play. What everybody who loves theatre in newton dreams of. Your moment to shine. To finally have a more private play. A moment to give all your effort and time. And I cant believe my moment had alredy finished. I seems like yesterday that we began searching for ideas for the one act play. As we started with crazy ideas of being bees or even being inside a mouth. I am really happy with the final project. 

Description: 
After  the one act play we had Miss Alicia coming to the class to reflect in the final product we did and some feedback from Roberto of the things missed. It is quite intresting to compare all the previous feedback we used to have to the final feedback and comments about the play. Eveyrone that went to see the play congratulated us as they thought it was really hilarious, but once again as Roberto said the audience was already willing to laugh as they were our friends and classmates. The part that was most harder for me was pronunciation as I just said my text with intentions and characterization but I was not putting that effort in making the lines easy to understand. I thinks was I was more worried about was that the audience could understand the play more than anything that is why we tried to keep it simple. At the end they did and I was really happy about it. Also as a whole there was a lack of RHYTHM, in the play as Roberto thought it went really slow and sort of I felt it the same.

Analysis: 
Overall I am really please with my scene for all the comments and even people chose it was they favourite one. This is because we had an understanding of the audience as our relationship with them was really good. I could hear the 'oohh' or the 'eww' It was more than laughter, they actually reacted outloud of what we were doing on stage. Me and Micaela in our scene we actually entered in a dialogue as Lu told us it already looked as if we were already fighting. As at the last rehersals I decided to put effort and inspire myself. Also the language was WAY better than it had started. It is good that Miss Alicia said that are english was very good. The tone was clear but still; the beginning of my sentences were strong and clear but at the end of the line it kind of drop, and is something I have to work on. The key factor my scene had was dynamism as it was very easy to follow. It had a very good rhythm entretained the audience as it had very intresting energy. This is because I started playing with the scene and actually enjoying it. As before I entered the stage I decided that I would have fun because at the end I am the one who judges myself the most. Also the 'tecnica mixta' we did the one in which they lip sync the dialogue said by another actor was fascinating as we manage to get it perfectly syncronized. I had to do this for the first scene. Most of all it was practicing and taking a slow pace to actually give entonation and emotion to the words rather than just saying the same text at the same time. We had a part in which we said cliché frases more of 'quotes' to fight with each other. This part used to make the scene really static so we added more actions blocking. But we kind of lost the confidence on it as before it was more like a fight, a competition of who said the better frase. But we lost it and I think we should work on it for the following presentations. Overall the play lack of rhythm, is such a pity because in previous rehearsals it was more dynamic and very funny. But also because of the audience some jokes were lost as they laugh and cut lines from the other scenes. In my case we made pauses before continuing. Also! I told roberto about the bangs for my head and he didnt quite like the idea /: but at the end he loved it! (roberto te dije) As it gave me another perspective of my character and it was really melodramatic <3 . 

Connections:
GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM. Firstly we still have certain aspects of a how to pronunce by German Expressionism, as we had to really exaggerate what we were saying as we all had creepy and weird, sort of distorted, voices. This really helped us in MELODRAMMA. Because we had a base to work on as we had to make the play very understandable. Also my scene has a distinguised influenced by moment: shadows. The part of the shower everyone could see my shadow taking a flawless shower. I still remember how stressful it was for me 'showering' in all rehersals'. At the end I saw the pictures and my shadow was stronger than I thought and people could see me very clearly. I have to work more on poses because I was just standing there instead of in a pose showering. The shadow was created by Myra's LiCo, just like in the school play. Another connection to german expressionism. Is the fact that you had to create another character. Change what you see in the mirroir. A new way of looking. 

Reflection: 
I should have started doing an effort at the beggining not just start in previous rehersals before the play. This way you dont get the 100% of your full potential. At the end I started adding things and actually improved my characterization as I realized the one act play was very soon and I did an effort to enjoy it. Playing with the scene and my character. You may all wonder why? why did nathalie started making an effort very near the play? I will tell you all. It was a cold saturday when Roberto decided to say one thing in an instant that would give me a heartache for a lifetime.He said 'Micaela is a better actress than you are' This was quite shocking, no for the Micaela part but because is the worst thing an actress could hear. Telling them someone acts better than them. I was heartbroken! I have always being taught that 'the only person they can compare you to is youself'. That day I lost motivation, even now and then I think of that day. haha just kidding. But still! that was the mayor reason why my energy dropped and I lost motivation and started doing my scene for an obligation more than a fun thing. (thanks rotten) But at the end I realized that the only one that was losing was me. Because there were wonderful things I can gain for this experience. So I standed up and putted my tiara on and began acting and applying things to my scene and it turned up to be awesome. I even improvised some actions and face expressions that the audience loved. This play was also really hard emotionally because I had to act inlove and I was going through a breakup and I was heartbroken. And at the time I got to write my scene I was dating someone so all the script was kind of my thoughts towards him in a very exaggerated way. I even chose the name of Algernon Balthazar Clayton Middleton Mcfarland (the ''love of my life'') as the initial was the same of his. (THE SECRET STORY BEHIND IT HAHA, i doubt anyone read my blog) Ok, the most awkward part was when we stopped dating and we did not talk to each other anymore, once again I was heartbroken and had to act inlove! you see what im saying? But as a professional, I didnt involve my personal life to my acting life. So I just felt what the character felt a the moment. Want to hear the worst part? ''Algernon'' knew I had written my scene thinking of him and that the characters love interest name was given because of him. Even worst when I knew he had to watch the play. awkward! Yep that was my main worry. But you now what? I am Nathalie. I dont care what people think about me. 

Questions:
How can we apply dynamism to the quotes without losing intention? How to practice my lines so I can pronnunciate them well? How to mantein pronunciation? How can we apply more rhythm without losing intentions?

P.S; Special thanks to Robbie Rotten, that eventhough he is a bit harsh sometimes he manages to make awesome plays and we have a great time at dramma.

Also thanks to Miss Alicia, I really loved her comments about my acting. She is a great inspiration for me.

Thanks Alejandro; you inspired my scene and made my emotions be on the edge. 

Slapstick much?

26 MAY 

Description

This week we started working on estacion 4. Which were the scene of  'Las pruebas'. In which the man has to go through a series of tests in order to get his new job. This scene was previously worked on and because of the absence of the Doctor. I had to replace in several opportunities and really help on the Doctor scene. This is because there was always someone missing. We tried to give more dynamism to this scene. I think this scene is really creative because it shows the three main stages of tryouts. Which were the answering of hard questions, a psycological test and the medical test. We had different proposals for each of them as we manage to have a more fixed actions to apply to the script. Also we were able to finally develop more this scene as it is crucial no have all the scenes. I think this was the harder one because there was always someone missing and they had to keep up. Eventually I helped a lot replacing everyone. But the scenes changes completely when all the actors are complete. We also worked on their voice characterization and its pitch. As sometimes they talked really low and they had to talk in direction to the audience in order to be heard. Also some characters were missing some elementes of german expressionism thats why we ask them to be more 'deformed' as to create a more intresting effect.

Analysis

We used the tecnique of blocking in order to get more ideas for the scene. Different ways of saying the script with intention instead of just saying the text evokes the effect of overwhelming we wanted to achieve. The entonation and pronunciation of the actors was the weakest point although they were doing a good job they did not put the enough effort into it. That is why they needed further work and try to pronunce the words correctly because then the audience does not understand what the characters are saying or either what they want to transmit. This made the scene lose power and made it seem bad prepared. Also the fact that they were leaving too much time between lines. They needed to say their text really fast without leavin gaps in order to create dynamism. The fact that the doctor part is meant to be funny, in order to achieve this dynamism was crucial but actors were taking too long to say what they were ment to. This is why we gave them more creative actions while speaking faster. Also im really impressed by the work of 'The jefe' as I see it very creative and managed have a great voice characterization. The relationship between the man and the jefe had to be establish. After some rehersing we made the jefe give the man more pressure and overwhelm the man. This achieved a great effect to the audience as we seen the struggle of the man in order to keep up with the jefe.

Connections

I see some connections between this scene and 'A matter of dissection'. This is because 'a matter of dissection' was a really great and got a lot of possitive comments as everybody thought it was funny and enjoyable. The same effect is tried to achieve in the doctor part. We also try into putting some slapstick in that part because it would give more comedy relief. We indeed have a part that is very funny and I think the audience really is going to enjoy it (dont want to say it, i hate spoilers). Also the 'enfermeros' connection to the oompa loompas as they are ment to act weird and sort of be like 'los tres chiflados' in order to make it more funny and dynamic. I think this scene will give a comic relief to the play as we hope it will be a hit.

Reflection

This week was really hard working as we had to place the stage to the scene of the prubeas. over and over again. But is alright because we needed to really establish who was going to take what in the changing of the scene. This is one of the main elements of the play as we try more to give a zombie-like change of scene as to make it believe that is part of the scene itself, which it is. This creates a whole new complete look to the play, I think is rather original than just having backstage running and changing the setting. It gives the audience to reflect more about the hostile world and how dreams change into reality and so on in a distorted way. Just like german expressionist itself. We are not trying to hide anything we are trying to show the change, the slow transition to the hostile world. Also I learnt, something that I already knew. It is crucial that everyone should come to rehearsals because we change things very quickly to make them fit. And when people are absent they missout and we slow the process. 

Las papas se queman

description

This week have been a really challenging week for me because I have been really ill and I was not able to go to school and I had to miss one play rehersal. I need to catch up with the work in class. I just managed to go to one theatre arts lesson, in which i learnt about rhythm in more depth than before. During rehersals I was not feeling to well either but i am really excited we got to finally start to work in my scene that is the office. Unluckly for me that I could not enjoy it fully because of my health. 

analysis

This week I learnt about rhythm and that is a kind of tone we could say of the play. Which defines the mood of the play in a way. For example if could be really fluent and relaxed. This can be shown by the design elements that convey into a rhythm and gives the play a way to be. for example the in proyeccion privada the rhythm of the play in the 'green scenes' also known as the dream scenes ( in which is the woman's perception of the world) the rhythm is fluid and relaxed yet tense because it tries to create confusion by the use of masks and random props that appear. In contrast of the reality scenes the rhythm is really harsh and unconventional this can be reflected bu the short/long dialogues because contrast each other at all times. Also the fact that there is no dialogue and only music creates a total new effect in the audience because it gives anothe rhythm to the scene as it create a flow sensation in this case because the music tranquil as it trying to create amends. I learnt that is better to define the rhythm by the analysis of the design elements rather than concentrating on the acting. I also look a bit about pitch and that is the central idea of the play in this case for proyeccion privada was 'the consequences of watching too much television' this is because the woman is no lo her satisfyed by ther reality but rather rely on television. 

In rehersals I learnt more about creating a scene. In the first rehersal i attended we had to start developing from a set of base dialogues our director gave us and try to add more to it by improvising. We had a good work as we first tried writing a script but I learn that is better to act and do blocking as to get a brainstorm of things that could happen and that we can use for our scene. Furthermore in the next rehersal on saturday we continues to work on my scene which is the office. we placed the scenery as it is ment to be with props that are the typewritting matchines. I was not feeling really well so I could not manage to work at my full capacity. This rehersal help us to develop more our characters and create a really tense atmosphere in the scene for the man to feel pressure of the real world. So We had to create little text to say at the same time to create kind of a riot on the office as to create the sensation of one. Everything happening at once. This effect is really fun but I learnt that there are certain frases you repeat, those that nobody hears but creates noise. I had forgotten about it as I havent apply it for a long time. This is really intresting because it gives realism of everyone speaking at the same time.

connections

There are several connections in this analysis. First of all the fact of the rhythm brings me back to all the previous school plays I have being because the rhythm had to be really determined in each scene. We also had to be careful and not be monotonous so we had to apy different rhythm within the play to create dynamism and attract the audience. 

This gives me a connection to 'confesiones' because there were different rhythms because she changes rhythm everytime she was acting. also each character she performed had a different rhythm as to show contrast in the and the rhythm was state by the characters personality. The design elements went acording to the character portraying more the rhythm. There is also a connection in all of the previos plays but more from down to earth because it really had freedom of speech as each one created its scene from basics and this time we are doing kind of the same because we are applying our ideas to the scene. This is really great because rather than do what we are told we get to have more fun with the character and actually find a reason for why we are saying a line rather than just say it because we have to.

reflection

I hate being sick. I have missed a lot this week because for real many things happen in a week in school. I missed all the fun! I really enjoyed my character and is such a pity i could not develop it more on saturdays rehersal. I was really afraid all this time that i might loose all the character developing because i knew I wasnt going to be able to work in my character for a long time. All these weeks I have being helping other scenes that was really important but i missed a lot of character work. I really look foward into putting an effort into seeking again the character. Also is really hard to make a different voice and worst in my case because I had throat ache. But hopefully im going to be better and healthier on the next rehersal and in going to put all my effort into it.

questions

how do you re explore a character? how do you not hurt your voice while changing it? how to speak louder in the theatre? 

Best of Both Worlds

Description

This week in theatre we did several things. In which it includes a research of a certain topic, in my case distorted shadows.  We also had to do some research in our design task for th play, mine is make-up. After school we also had rehearsals as usual and as I appeared in the last scene I had to help direct. In this week I helped in 'Estación 2' in the family scene.

Analysis

First of all I would like to comment on my topic which are distorted shadows. I have a wider knowledge of this use of shadows and is really going to contribute in my more in depth research of my topic. I learned that the shadows create a contrast of light. It also gives another look to the same character. It creates various effects throughtout the plays. For example in Dr Caligari the shadows were actually fixed as they were painted as part of the scenery. This gave me a complete new perspective of shadows as I was not aware of the different tecniques that were applied. I need to improve my research because I need to explain how it is helpful for me rather than describing the source. Is the first time I do source analysis in theatre and is quite intresting. 

Apart from that research I did another on in my design task. I did a powerpoint full of pictures to show my makeup ideas. I also had various creepy makeups which we could apply to the play. I also found intresting the propposal of contouring. This is meant that you use a darker powder to contour your facial factions in order to exaggerate them. I have used contouring before but in a more natural way but it is going to be more fun to make it exaggerated for the characters in the play. I have to also create exaggerated physicallity. for each character of the play. This is going to be a really challenging thing although I love makeup it is going to be really hard to create extremities like longer fingers. I have to start looking for materials or maybe were I can buy them.

Furthermore I continued to help in the family scene which in my point of view has improved a lot. I is really hard to work in this scene as it is static because only few characters actually move and we havent been working in the moving chairs or piano because we dont have the actual props or scenery but instead of complaining we are trying to give more dynamism of the same. I would like to mention that it is also hard to find actions when there are monologues because it takes a lot of time and characters actually start to get repetitive as they have to be a long time listening to the characters speaking without interacting and just staying. So one propposal would be having a spot light in characters which are doing their monologues and blackout in the other characters rather than taking them away from the scene. I would like to comment that for me the actors are working really hard not only by learning their lines but to listen to the fedback and actually applying it.

connections

There are several connections on of the is a few years before at Miss Alicia's class we had to research for several estimuli's to help us have a better base for our character. We are doing the same when researching more in depth of german expressionism because we can really apply it by been aware of intentions. Also in Miss Alicia's class we did a research of Lima in the 80's in order to have a wider knowledge of the context of the sketch we were going to perform. This is were I think is really useful to do research because you just dont do thing for doing it but there is a deeper meaning to it and you are aware of the purpose of your actions.

Reflection

Altough I like more the practical part of theatre because I adore to act I have to work harder in the theory part because I am not really good at describing the processes or analysing deeper meanings as I do it by myself rather that write it. I definetely have to work more on my connections because I forget were did I learnt that in. I think I am improving more in directing because I am taking it more seriously than before and I am going to work harder in my theory part of doing the research and my work. I think that in order to be great at theatre you need to have the best of both worlds which are theory and practice. Because you need to be aware of what are you doing in order to do it. Miss Alicia once told me that I had to work on both not just one. My weakness is theory because I dont dedicate a lot of time to the work but now im more aware of it and im determined to work on it.

Questions

How do you improve your connections? how to apply more dynamism to the scene? how important are design elements? how do I improve my research?

Dedicated to my loving teacher Miss Alicia, who always saw me as a great actress :)