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 :)