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?

Week VI — The Actor

"Acting deals with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Each time an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself."
— Rodney Dangerfield

I believe that that is true. Actors often have to show cry, show fury, be joyous, etc. onstage; and to do so, they have to channel real emotions and use them as tools. As Mario Vargas Llosa put it in his book Cartas a un Novelista: "el novelista se alimenta de sí mismo, como el catoblepas", meaning "the novelist feeds of himself, as the catoblepas" (the catoblepas is a mythological being that eats itself bit by bit). This, I believe, is true for any artist.

However, in the school play this year masks will be used. Literally. This will render face expressions useless and thus force the actors to use voice, body movements and actions (among other things) more than the normal thing. Which reminds me of something; there are different styles of acting and thus different kinds of actors. For example, yesterday in the rehearsal for the school play, I helped direct a dance for the first scene, and all the actresses did was dance, yet they are actresses. This leads me to the key question: What is an actor?

What is an actor?

For myself, an actor is a person that represents something onstage and produces an effect on the audience. What does this mean? Well, a person acts as a character (represents something) and keeps the audience's attention (produces an effect) as well as making them laugh, cry, feel identified...

Yesterday, I saw a  play with my grandmother and great-grandmother (by the way, my Curse of Analysis is in a low degree; I was able to enjoy the play). This play, El Próximo año a la misma hora, talked about a man and a woman during an affair that lasted between the sixties and eighties; but they only saw themselves once a year. In class, during the hardcore warm-up the others probably talked about, we saw some key points to get the attention of the audience; amongst them were opposition and disequilibrium. My point is, I didn't see opposing gestures in the play; and the actors were just occasionally in disequilibrium. What do we mean with this? There is no defined way of acting, as Constantin Stanislavski prove it more than a hundred years ago. So, there are different ways of being an actor.

So, until next time. But before I leave, I want you to ask yourself a question, which I promise I'll do my best to answer next week: Who is the actor, the puppeteer or the puppet?

Week V — Puppets, Actors and Trying Again

—"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett

So, missed Samuel Beckett? No? I expected as much. Anyway, that's what I expect from this blog: If I fail, I'll try again, having learned from my mistakes. Or so I hope.

What is a puppet?

What I hope our pirates will resemble.

It depends according to who do you ask. But I think it's a tool; an extension of the puppeteer. The puppeteer has a special bond with his puppet, which starts when the puppeteer begins crafting his puppet. As the puppet begins to take form, the puppeteer slowly becomes attached to the figure, as it's the fruit of his work. This makes the puppeteer want to actually employ his puppet onstage.

Puppets are used because they can do things human actors cannot: they can be disassembled and assembled again; they can move and contort in ways impossible for humans; they can fly, float, swim... However, they have restrictions. Which can be used as advantages, too. For instance, we saw a small play featuring a puppet representing Ian Curtis. This puppet was about one foot tall, almost completely white, and with literally a blank face. This gives a certain mood to the play, in this case grim. The small size of the puppet was used to make a stage out of a table, and make something close to the audience—both metaphorically and literally. The fact puppets cannot speak by themselves (this one didn't even had a mouth) was compensated by a radio playing Joy Division and moving the puppet's head as if it was singing next to a tiny microphone on its stand. He was made to fly. We were shown how an epileptic seizure looked for the puppet (or at least how the puppeteers felt it would be).

Reflecting on this last class made me think on the school play and how to take advantages of the limitations of puppets. The most evident way is to employ different sizes of puppets (or actors) to show how the character watching the scene (the audience's character) sees those characters; let it be a giant puppet showcasing the respect or fear towards that character, or a small hand puppet to show inferiority. I, however, wanted to look for something deeper, and couldn't really think of a way. This will be my self-project this week.

Another limit is the expressionless face a puppet has. Or the face caught in a single expression chosen by the puppeteer—or by the puppet itself, depending on how you see it. This faces resemble masks, in the sense that they are frozen in a single expression. This can be overcome by playing with lights and shadows; check Noh masks. This limit can be turned into an advantage and even exploited using the Activation Theory. You could introduce different expressions, use puppets that can vary (even a little) their expression, or even make the puppet be involved in events that should produce emotions in the puppet; emotions that aren't shown to the public until later on. Play with novelty, complexity, variation and uncertainty.

Anyway, back to the question. What is a puppet? We were asked this question at class on Wednesday. And I came to this conclusion: a puppet is an actor, as well as the puppeteer. How? Well, the puppet makes actions—just as actors do. Puppets make effects surface on the audience, and I believe that's key on acting. but to know whether the puppet or the puppeteer is the actor, we must know what an actor is. I don't want to ruin a perfectly good theme for next week's blog, however. So, think about it until next time. What is an actor?

Puppets, Cooking and Hard Work.

"All things are difficult before they are easy."—Thomas Fuller

All things are difficult before they are easy. I learned it the hard way. For instance, playing a videogame that includes a story (let it be Donkey Kong 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards) is harder when you are six than when you have six years gaming. Or take swimming; it's easier once you know how to rather than learning. And it gets easier just by a single way: working hard.

Hard work was what made Kevin (aka Chiclayo) get a better-paying job in La Cocina. He came from northern Perú to the capital following his dream of having his own place (a good job he liked came in the package) and he did. He worked hard, and he got what he wanted. And an orderly chaotic job with dysfunctional coworkers.

Hard work is key in the IB if you want to get good grades. Even if your teacher doesn't. Which includes classwork, homework, and of course, the Extended Essay. Regarding homework, I'm conscious that I'm not working as hard as I should; and this is why I'm getting behind in my research task: I've got problems with the index cards, the closest place where I can get the play I chose is in Mexico, and books with actual information about Talchum are scarcer than it seems. I'm also probably the one with the less advanced puppet of the group, I haven't even pasted the nose. I seriously need to stop lazying around.

Well, that's it for today (will probably continue on the comments) yet I'll leave you with one question. Before I do, however, I'll ask you to comment on the new background of the blog. Is it going on the right direction? It will probably be changed, however.

Anyways, here it goes. Are you motivated enough so you actually start working hard?