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.