Week XX — Pending Work

Before I begin, I must apologize for the incomplete entries these past weeks. But now, I'll go for a complete entry and do my best to keep the completeness up.

Description

We rehearsed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Monday during the class periods 5, 6, and 7 (at the theater at the Hiram Bingham school, where the British Schools of Peru One Act Play festival took place) and after class (at school); Tuesday both during Theatre Arts class (again at school, my nose bled during rehearsal) and after class (at school yet again); and on Wednesday during periods 5, 6, and 7 (again at the theater at Hiram Bingham) and after class (at school). At about 5:30 pm, we departed towards the Hiram Bingham school (and practiced the lines a bit). That day we presented A Matter of Dissection.

The play ran along quite smoothly, but there are always things you cannot control in theater. In our case, the dead man's feet were left uncovered during some part of the play (which they should have not been), my mustache fell off more than once (and threatened to more than twice), and Stefano had a little accident with one of his characters. His female character, in fact; one of the small plastic footballs he used as a boob fell off. He improvised his way out of the problem, and it went so smoothly it seemed as part of the play.

I was absent to school on Thursday (so I didn't have Theater Arts class that day) but I went to see the presentations of the last day of the festival. Five schools presented that night (four plus Markham College's presentation, which was supposed to be for the previous night but "one actor got sick". We (Santiago, myself, and two other people non-related to our class) arrived late and missed the first play. What we saw were Markham's Seven Jewish Children, a play about the actor's interpretation of the bombings at Gaza; followed by St. George's College's Maruf the Cobbler, an adaptation of a story from The Thousand and One Nights. Then came the intermission, where much needed food came. After the intermission, we saw San Silvestre School's The Gilded Bat, an adaptation of Edward Gorey's book; and then the much expected 13 Ways to Screw Up Your College Interview, performed by Hiram Bingham School, the host.

Analysis

My assigned production task, as it was mentioned earlier, is Scenery & Props, together with Manu. The long table finally arrived this week, and we (Manu, actually) sew the cloths that were to be put over the table. I made the papers that were wrapped around the cups that were to contain the chemicals for the autopsy (in the play, of course).

Week XVIII —

Description

               This past weeks we rehearsed a lot for our One Act Play; A Matter of Dissection. And by a lot, I mean from Tuesdays to Saturdays —after all, the play's September 5. Anyway, as it was mentioned in a past (and incomplete) blog before, I've had trouble with the characterization of my characters.

                I was also assigned the production task of scenery and props, together with Manu. The props we are using (and some we plan to add) include construction tools (such as a saw, a hammer, a screwdriver, and a wrench), and simple things to aid with developing our characters (such as cellphones or rosaries). The scenery of the play is quite simple: A big table at the center front stage and a fluorescent light hanging on top of it; and two panels representing either a huge door or twin doors. These panels will have 

Week XVI — A Blank Entry

Description

• This Tuesday class, we worked on our characters, starting from a base position and working towards the physicality of them; this includes but is not limited to the character's posture, way of walking, psychological gestures and 

Week XV — Blank Minds and Characterization

Description

• For these three weeks, we were tasked to write the script for two scenes per person for the One-Act Play. Each character should talk at least five times per scene, and the play was to be fast-paced. I was in charge of scenes 9-10.
• On Tuesday class, 
• On Wednesday class, we were given our production tasks. I wanted to do props, but was assigned Scenery. As the class developed, I was teamed up with Manuela on both Scenery and Props.
• On the Thursday One-Act Play rehearsal, we started characterization. I found it difficult to adopt my character's personality, ways of walking and, most difficult of all, accent.
• 
  

Week XIV — A Matter of Dissection

"An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience."
—Rosamund Pike

Power as an illusion, identity and power. These were key concepts of Shadow Queendom, this year's school play. Now, there is another play this year where we, the First Year IBers, will act that is in part about identity. We are participating in the British Schools of Peru's One Act Play Festival in our own small play, which by tradition is created by us. This is called A Matter of Dissection, and will have a subtheme of identity.

Description

On Tuesday, we had a test on Paucartambo, for which we had to read five excerpts of books in the form of handouts. In the end, Roberto (our teacher) let us use the handouts for the test.
After class, we stayed in our first One Act Play rehearsal, and came up with a few ideas, mainly the setting of the play and the genre; the latter being black comedy. Here, we read two small one act plays, Us and Them, by David Campton; and another I believe is called Over the Wall.

On Wednesday, we reviewed Paucartambo and talked more about its main festivity; festival of the Virgin of Mount Carmel, known as the Virgen del Carmen in Spanish. We learned about some characters; the masks they use, how are their costumes, and the main points on their dances.

On Thursday, we again talked on Paucartambo characters.
After class, we again stayed to rehearse on the One Act Play, and this is when Stefano came up with the game. And when I was given a character I actually don't like at all.

On Friday, we had the second part of the test on Paucartambo, this time without handouts. We also decided on the name of our play, A Matter of Dissection.
That afternoon, we went to an adaptation of a play by Federico García Lorca, called Yerma. Yerma is the Spanish word for Barren, and the name of the protagonist.

Analysis

The Paucartambo part was a bit straightforward, and it leaves me not much to reflect upon; but I can't help but to wonder on which character to focus on. Probably something that needs physical work.

In the One Act Play rehearsals, we read those two plays and talked on them. I decided I liked the fast pace of the plays, and how the lines intertwine to make a constant counterpoint that leads to the wordless climax. 

Weeks XII-XIII — Royal Mayhem

"Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself."
—Jane Wagner

And that also applies to me; the greater I want to believe I am, the less bad I feel. Mostly because I waste time as if there was nothing to do. Anyway, there were actually some great stuff this past week—our school play was about power as an illusion, after all.

Description

This past week, as you may have guessed, a lot of things happened. Important things. And since I love making use of bullet points, here goes a list.

• Monday:
• School Play rehearsal. Act 2.
• I acted out my part on Scene 9 from scratch:
• Deciding on the use of props (which was actually simple).
• Improvising some lines.
• Improvising the character's voice and way of acting.
• Improvising the entering and leaving of the stage.
• Some costumes arrived; my Damien costume arrived that day.
• Some costumes were taken back for final tweaking.
• Tuesday:
• Production during class
• I started painting the mask for my character in scene 9 — Corrigan.
• School Play rehearsal
• The first rehearsal of the last scene of the play with all the actors.
• Parts of my monologue in this scene were changed for a better understanding of the story.
• The whole play was staged for the first time.
• The rest of costumes arrived that day; although again some were called back for tweaks, including my Santhagar costume.
• Wednesday:
• Production during class
• Finished painting Corrigan's mask.
• Fixed scenery.
• School Play rehearsal
• Every actor was taken off class the last two periods to rehearse.
• We did scene changes for the first time.
• Dress rehearsal from 7:30p.m. on.
• Two puppeteers (the ones that taught us how to make puppets near the beginning of the year) saw the play and gave us feedback.
• I had not yet memorized the whole monologue I had as a closing for the play.
• Thursday:
• Production during class
• Finished the last details on the play.
• Class talk about Paucartambo
• We learned about the second day and the third day:
• Parts of the festival and some of the meanings about them.
• The process of baptizing new troupe members.
• We learned about the festivities related to the agricultural cycle.
• The Paucartambo festival is linked to the end of the harvest and restart of the cycle.
• Shadow Queendom Premiere
• We ate pizza about two hours before the play begun.
• Just when we were about to eat, there was a tremor and almost everyone else got out in a chaotic, disorderly manner.
• I shouted "Calm down!" quite strongly.
• My scene as Lord Damien flowed rather smoothly. apart from one or two cases in which another person got very slightly stuck.
• My scene as Corrigan went smoothly, although I didn't get a reaction from the audience as big as I expected.
• The exit I was supposed to go through was blocked, so I nearly got trampled. Teacup and all.
• My scene as Santhagar was, well...
• I got nervous due to the little rehearsing that scene had, so I said parts of the monologue that had been removed.
• During the monologue, I still made long pauses.
• Friday:
• Shadow Queendom, Night 2
• My scene as Lord Damien went smooth. Except when the "prime minister" became confused... He dissimulated it by making use of his puppet.
• My scene as Corrigan went pretty much the same as the day before, except that the girls representing Deborah's conscience screamed before they should have.
• This day, the exit wasn't blocked. I was able to go out on cue.
• My scene as Santhagar went considerably smoother and less tedious; I didn't get stuck. Well, almost.
• Saturday:
• Shadow Queendom, Last Night
• My scene as Lord Damien ran with somewhat less energy than the previous two days.
• My scene as Corrigan had a couple of small variations regarding the previous days:
• I said Hakuna Matata instead of Goosfraba.
• The lights were cut right after that last line, with me saying my last line in the dark
• The Ghosts (aka Deborah's Conscience) did wait for me to go out before screaming
• The exit was yet again blocked. Again I had to dodge actors doing as stagehands.
• My scene as Santhagar had a minor change; I did said the line "Charming... charming" that time, although it didn't work as well as I intended.

Well, this was last week. This week (apart from being banned from class) the only thing we did apart from revising Paucartambo was watching some modern dance. Which I actually liked. That, and the Critique of Sources, part of the Research Project for Higher Level. Anyway, on to analysis.

Analysis

This two weeks can be resumed in a few things. The first one is that time is spare. I came to this realization actually on Wednesday, as we were one day before the premiere and there was way too much to do. Well, okay, a lot of scene changes. And smoothing out. This didn't stress me or cause hysteria; it only led me to the realization of this fact.

Another thing is improvisation. It was key to the making of Scene 9, since I had never acted it out before. I already knew what to do and the character was quite easy to figure out, so it wasn't as hard to improvise the scene. This experience, combined with some of the Commedia dell'Arte investigation I had to do, made me understand that given a sketch and some sample lines, improvising isn't difficult; and is actually a good method of setting up some scenes. In retrospective, last year's school play was directed that way —simple outlines of each scene that were developed into a praised play. The last scene, I remember, originated from a variation of a kid's song I sang the first day we rehearsed that scene; one that instead of talking of elephants balancing in a spiderweb was about ninjas, samurais, and geishas balancing on a couple of witches' web. That, and some funny (and accurate) lines that spontaneously sprouted from a former student of my school that had come to help. Other things that spring to mind are some improvisations during class time or rehearsing for the play. The one that immediately came to me was a short improvisation on Latin Comedy done by a rather big group of people. It went pretty well, but most actions were unclear and most actors were sort of lost onstage. Another of these improvisations was one we did the same year, in fact just a couple of week afterwards; one on Commedia dell'Arte. What I can tell from that experience is that a person cannot forcibly take protagonism in an improvisation; it will simply cause chaos in the performance. Especially if everyone wants the same. More improvisation exercises call to mind, but they bring no further profundity on the theme. Anyway, I can conclude that improvisation isn't the best way to perform (at least not if you're not trained in its methods) yet works quite well as a starting point.

One thing I mostly regret that week was Hakuna matata. The word Goosfraba did make a handful of people laugh, but not nearly as much as I expected. This was probably because just they understood the joke—I didn't get it myself. This was true for the first two days, but the last day I dared change the word to Hakuna matata; gaining the reaction I hoped for (this being the only part I don't regret), but overriding the director's authority. And this part I do regret; mostly because of what it showed younger actors (me supposed to be a role model, being an IBer) but also because it tramples over an authority. And what is a director for if he is not to be respected?

The dance we saw on Thursday made me rethink some old questions and give them new angles. Mainly, what are the differences between theater and dance? Or, actually, where do the similarities between theater and dance end? I'll hold this for the next section.

Connections

Okay, now back to dance versus theater. Theater is about reaching the audience. Dance? No. It is about movements, rather than actions, which is what I thought theater is about. Anyway, now to differences. I guess that dance doesn't need a story. Or, actually, it doesn't have a story most of the time. This one did have a simulacrum of a story, and though it was incredibly simple, it confounded me to no end due to its very simplicity; it left enough to make you realize why some things happened, but not enough to explain most things. Dance doesn't involve words, unlike theater (admittedly, theater doesn't sometimes). I am sure there are more differences than just those two, but it's getting late, so on to similarities. Which are simpler to see. Take reactions, for instance. Characters react to what is happening onstage, and actors rely this to the audience. In dances, dancers react to what other dances do with their movements. So, both involve some synergy amongst performers.

Some connections that I couldn't resist on putting back in the Analysis part were improvisations from past years. The experience gained by them let me reach certain conclusions, and useful ones at that.

Reflection

• How does the passing of time affect performance and performers?
• How can improvisation be used in a way that improves already fixed scenes in non-radical ways?
• What are the most important differences between theater and dance?
• What are the most important similarities between dance and theater?
• How much of puppetry and dance does theater actually include?

Week VII — Puppets and Actors (Finally!)

"Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in."
— Amy Lowell

 This quote relates to last week's, that is about actors showing themselves rather than hiding onstage. Actors are artists, and acting is an expression. An expression of what is inside the artist, often expressed in a cryptic way so that they are understood just by those who know how to read between the lines. Now, it ranges from a protest against the government, a declaration of love, a feeling of uncomfortableness... The second of the two plays we saw yesterday, called Más pequeños que el Guggenheim, was about a playwright and a director that came back to their country, Mexico, after wandering around Europe and not seeing each other after a decade. And they decide to make a play narrating their misadventures. And in this play, as he wrote it, the playwright deposited parts of himself in there; such as the death of his daughter. The director became an actor too and acted as himself, and put his inner sadness in it. But what does this have to do with the quote? Well, even an actor posing as an actor puts part of himself out there while acting.

Now, actors are not the only artists out there. There are also musicians, for example. Or puppeteers, in that case. But now, let's get back to the question posed two weeks ago. Who is the actor—the puppet or the puppeteer? I'll remind you of the most important things I wrote about the past two weeks in order to answer this question.

• The puppet makes actions—just as actors do.
• Puppets cause effects on the audience.
• An actor is a person that represents something onstage and produces an effect on the audience.
• There are different ways of being an actor.

By "different ways of being an actor" I mean  Stanislavski and Brecht. Andean theater and Kabuki. Puppets and masks. Puppeteers and puppets.

Puppets act, since they represent something onstage and produce an effect on the audience. But does that make them actors? I believe it does. But a lone puppet is lifeless, and it represents nothing. It is by the puppeteer that it comes to life, and it represents what the puppeteer intends it to be; let it be an archbishop, a pirate, a dragon. And isn't then the puppeteer who makes this happen? Well, then the puppeteer is the one who represents something onstage via puppets and produces an effect on the audience. So, the puppeteer is an actor. There you have the answer to the question and the why. Both the puppet and the puppeteer are actors, because together they represent something onstage and produce an effect on the audience.

Now that I have answered that question, I'll leave you with yet another one. What is a mask and how do we use them in daily life?