Continued IPP Research

I've been stockpiling research and failing to remember to put it on my blog... I'm going to start with my influences, and underneath in a different color I will talk about how I have applied concepts in my directing. I'm hoping that by condensing all of this in one post will give me clarity on which one practitioner I should focus on.

INFLUENCES


Megan Campisi/Lecoq
The aspects that I have taken into consideration most from her workshops is the idea of taking into consideration an inanimate object when acting or moving onstage. In her workshops we once observed a sugar cube melting in water. The physical interpretation that our class came up with to embody the characteristics of the sugar cube ended up becoming a key portion of the murder scene in our IB play. Though while not inanimate objects, following the Lecoq methods Ms. Campisi introduced the concept of absorbing an animalistic quality to our acting as well. Instead of obviously acting like an animal, the concept challenges the performer to instead inject maybe only 10% of an animal, vaguely giving a character the connotations associated with animals  that they imbue.
In my work with the British School, I mainly used the idea of animalistic qualities in my work with a piece entitled 'To Risk." The piece is a physical staging of a poem, performed by a large cast of fifty students. The first animal I challenged some of the students to embody was that of a "donkey following a carrot" or a "dog following a treat". The students were limited to remaining on two feet as they had to move quickly to their next position as they were led by other students who acted as the manipulators. By limiting the students from the impulse to go on all fours and act like animals, the eager nature of a dog or donkey looking for food was accomplished without the cliche. Later in the performance the students who were animals are now transformed to be rabid dogs, clawing to be released while the owners hold them on invisible leashes. Right now this is still taken very literally, but I am looking to repair this moment in the piece to where the message of submission and domination is clear, but the image is stronger and not wholly animalistic.

Pantomime
Pantomime as an art dates back to the middle ages, but during its prime the art form went hand in hand with the British style Music Halls in the late 19th century. Pantomime moguls such as Augustus Harris of the Drury Lane Theatre put on grand shows with processions and tableaux, pantomiming tales ranging from "Cinderella" to "Babes in the Woods", an adapted story of Robin Hood. The art of pantomime has had to adapt to the times and has in the process been influenced by many other art forms, namely the Italian Commedia D'ell Arte. However, since there was a language barrier between the Italians and the English performers, they found that pantomime was a simple way to communicate to all of the audience.
In the British school performance, since the style is  a British Music Hall performance, I got the opportunity to work on a pantomime piece. In their opening, "Once Upon a Mime", the children were able to experience handling pantomime objects. Using the research I had done on pantomime technique, instead of asking the children to mimic my movements I asked them to shape the object the way they imagined it to look, and then interact with it. This made the object real to them. They could pantomime a telephone better when they had built the telephone part by part in the piece right before using it. In a later pantomime/clown sketch, several of the boys wanted to perform a sketch where they were stuck inside of a box together. This sketch, while considered to be a basic mime sketch, was actually very difficult to work on because as a director i had to first take away all of the stereotypes associated with this and have the boys actually think about the placement, dimensions and textures of the box, as well as the way their bodies interacted with it. In the previously mentioned piece "To Risk", I worked with the element of pantomime when owners had to imagine their "dogs" were pulling at an invisible leash, challenging to students to work on maintaining the length of the leash as well as acting with the "dog" actor to know when to tug and be tugged.

GOB SQUAD
In the fall I went to see a production in Seoul called "before your very eyes", a joint endeavor by the artists collective GOB SQUAD from UK/Germany as well as the creators of the CAMPO trilogy, a series of three productions that while starring children were intended for adult audiences. The tag line for the show, the second in the trilogy, is a s follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Gob Squad proudly present
a live show with real children.
A rare and magnificent
opportunity to witness seven lives
lived in fast forward…
Before Your Very Eyes!
                                     (http://www.gobsquad.com/projects/before-your-very-eyes) 

The show was constructed almost like an experiment: seven children, ranging from ages 8-14, were placed inside a glass box, one in which the audience could see everything, and hear everything, but the children only saw mirrors on the walls and heard an omniscient voice that controlled how they "aged" throughout the show. While the production itself was almost entirely in Flemish, the concepts transcended the barriers of language. I personally loved this show and was inspired in many different ways. First, the use of children to create a piece of theatre that deals with a subject that many would consider to be "over the heads" of the children in the show itself created a raw sense of honesty. Part of the belief statement of the GOB SQUAD says "We make performances and videos which search for beauty in the everyday, and look for words of wisdom from a passing stranger," a statement that i believe they hold very true to in this production. It is said on their website that the writers improvised and collaborated with the children, so that this show would reflect not only an adults opinion of growing up, but highlight a childs perception of what the future brings. The irony of seeing a child reflect on his/her past as if it is so far away and so much time has already been lost when they are only eight years old in a way mocks the way of the modern adult. Yet the caricatures created by children when asked to "grow older" point out the children's naivete and misconceptions about what it to come. The combination of the adult content and the child actors executing it gives the audience a 360-degree perspective, whether it is for someone like me who is caught in between the two, or someone much older who has lived through many of the phases illustrated but may have forgotten what it was like to view thing in the way of a child. I also loved the idea of the youngest people in the theatre being the actors, for those who are youngest all too often can teach important lessons of life whether they know it or not. Another concept the GOB SQUAD uses is "to try and explore the point where theatre meets art, media and real life". In the technology filled era we live in, i believe that it is only right that those three aspects blend together, and that if theatre is to help us reflect on life, it must adapt to the way life is. By starting this project two years prior, this theatre project was able to encompass seven young lives for a two year period and make this show an even grander experiment than most theatrical productions would attempt.
I really love this form of "experimental" theatre (and i don't mean that in the prententious way, i mean like a scientific experiment) because I feel like it stretches the capacity of the performers, which is particularly important when the performers are children, who are so raw and natural that while attempting to capture that honesty they must be refined to a point.
While I was probably inspired most by the Gob Squad and its work during my research, I found this to be the hardest research to weave into my work. Most of it was logistics, in the sense that there were set pieces in the play by this point and attempting to create a piece of theatre with a select amount of kids would take up time and resources we really didn't have to spare. The closest piece I believe to reflect the ideas I absorbed from the God Squad would be "To Risk". The piece has a message that challenges the audience to take risks in life, a concept that the children failed to grasp when first reading it. I found that we had to break past the words and discover our own risks that we had taken, and then we are able to convey the message appropriately. For example, one boy was assigned to read a line, "to love is to risk not being loved in return". I made it seem as though the lines were assigned randomly, but I picked each of the solo readers for a specific reason-- that they might find inside themselves a sympathy with what they were saying. I had observed this boy after-school as I went about my business and learned through the grapevine that this boy has been in a committed relationship longer than anyone else in his grade so far that year. On the stage, however, the boy seemed to have no connection to his lines. One day I pulled him aside and said that I had given him this line because I was hoping he understood the risks involved in love and relationships. The next time we ran through it, his attitude throughout the performance, as well as his approach to his own line were totally changed. There was life behind the lines, and i believe that the Gob Squad aims for that idea of having the life of the person shine through the lines, creating a dazzling sense of reality in the piece. I aim to take this concept further with the piece, since the movement has been (hopefully) ingrained in the students' minds by now. I want to not only strengthen the delivery of the solo lines by the same methods i did with this one boy, but I also want to challenge the group as a whole to realize that even performing this show is a risk that must be taken. I wish I could have done more with the work of the Gob Squad and applying their ideas to my work, but in a restricted show where there are specific acts and schedules, it is much harder to achieve. Oh well....

THEATRE in EDUCATION

CLOWNING
 

TO BE CONTINUED

IPP Research, work in progress

Before Your Very Eyes

http://www.campo.nu/drupal/node/229

blog to come on all this research into CAMPO and the Gob Squad.

Why did they use children for an adult piece?

The idea of basing the script off of the childrens own thought and emotions

Use of film, reflecting on themselves

Moments of being children, natural moment

How this can change my IPP

<3

small metal objects- a reaction

Do you feel it?

Desperation

Loyalty

A feeling that burts at the seams

of your soul

only to be lost

a puff of smoke in the fog of humanity

human ity

Is being human feeling it-- feeling what?

or is it

being a beating heart

in an insensitive sea?

A poem reacting to small metal objects, play seen 10/16/2011 @ Seoul Station.

Notes on Susan Hilferty

1.       Intro

a.       Chair of design @ Tisch School of the Arts

b.      Designer of Broadway/Off-Broadway plays

c.       Collaborates with Athol Fugard

d.      “The TEXT is the trigger”

e.      “no such thing as a good costume design separated from a good production”

2.       Approach

a.       Text

                                                                     i.      Source of INSPIRATION, not INFORMATION

                                                                   ii.      Text could be the music, the play, the choreography, etc.

b.      Timing & Rhythm of a piece

                                                                     i.      Silences

                                                                   ii.      Punctuation  

c.       Light

                                                                     i.      Qualities? Of light and space

                                                                   ii.      Mood               

3.       Designing Hamlet

a.       Time

                                                                     i.      Brief time period

                                                                   ii.      Builds up until the death of Hamlet

                                                                  iii.      Increasing energy

b.      Light

                                                                     i.      Outside scenes v. inside scenes

                                                                   ii.      Scene of total darkness?

c.       Defining the “world of the play”

                                                                     i.      Begins in the time period it was written, never looks elsewhere

                                                                   ii.      Identifies the space

                                                                  iii.      Is it about movement?

d.      The play is driven by one or a few key characters, so the world takes on their qualities

e.      “so you don’t feel you’re solving a play”

                                                                     i.      Exploring instead

f.        Thinks about the essence of the places

4.       Translating text to design

a.       The “hard part”

b.      Taking the world, relating it to different cultures that make that quality of that world accessible

                                                                     i.      Ex. Stalin= paranoia

c.       Costume designer should know what the dramaturg knows

                                                                     i.      At the heart of the design is the dramaturg

5.       The role of the costume designer

a.       Practical role

                                                                     i.      Knowing how to design costumes and construct them

                                                                   ii.      Know about color, etc

b.      History role

                                                                     i.      Know about the clothing in the time periods

                                                                   ii.      Know the time periods and their relationships/effects on history

c.       The combo role

                                                                     i.      Know how to relate history to text to politics to science

                                                                   ii.      Brecht to Shakespeare

d.      Actor’s helper

                                                                     i.      Be close with them on their journey

                                                                   ii.      Don’t make them look bad

                                                                  iii.      Transform them so they know who they are

6.       Drawing the costumes

a.       From the very beginning you draw

b.      Think holistically

                                                                     i.      Black in white

                                                                   ii.      Black in black

                                                                  iii.      Black in black with light

                                                                 iv.      Black in black with candle

                                                                   v.      How the universe affects itself

7.       Working with directors

a.       Every director approaches it differently

b.      She never works with those who limit her or give her nothing to play with

c.       Athol Fugard

d.      Richard Nelson

e.      Garland Wright

8.       On time and Character

a.       Expanded storytelling

b.      Showing growth through a character

                                                                     i.      Wicked: galinda to glinda

9.       On Good design

a.       Can’t have a good design and a bad production or vice versa

b.      Inspired by a series of shows seen in London

                                                                     i.      Equus

                                                                   ii.      Rocky Horror Picture Show

c.       Considers herself fluent in set and costumes, but technically better in costumes

10.   Teaching at NYU

a.       The key is to constantly ask the hard questions

b.      You can’t dictate

c.       There’s no specific method

11.   Theater Versus Opera

a.       Interesting having a hit versus  a one-time deal of a show

b.      Lack of funding for the arts is bad

c.       Did Wicked not for the money, but for the director Joe Mantello

to woo, to woo.

   When writing reflections on the mainstage shows I've been in, I try to think about what made this production different than the rest. In this blog I will continue that trend, but also talk about some of the things that I learned from being in this play. I'm going to try to incorporate pictures as best I can, but sometimes they might just be random one that don't have much to do with the topic of the paragraph, so bear with me.

   WHAT WAS DIFFERENT

   a strong time period focus

   I think that it was a very brilliant choice on the director's behalf to pick shows that painted vivid, technicolor picture of decades that people recall even without having lived through them. In Our Town last year, the time period was one different than our own, but the early 1900's in America was neither glamorous nor particularly memorable, and combined with a fairly depressing storyline the play left a (good, but still) sepia toned memory in people's minds. Shakespeare in Hollywood, set in the rip-roaring 1930's, was a different story. From the mystery of black and white film to the luxury of the royal red carpet, the color and the lifestyle drew the audience in from the beginning. Even the poster drew the audience in with visions of the classic era of Marilyn Monroe, a woman who still sexually inspires from beyond the grave. For the actor's I think the emphasis of the time period gave a sense of direction; even without knowing of the plot many already had visions of 1930's in their heads. Long dresses with low backs, star studded movie premieres, sweeping kisses... as we continued with rehearsals we only immersed ourselves deeper into the era. One of the best linking factors our director mentioned more than once: The over the top acting of the 1930's often was not too far of a reach from the outgoing theatre kids of today. 

   camaraderie

   I've talked about this in the case of Fiddler, but I will never cease to stress the importance of unity in the cast. Even one spot of tension can ruin an ensemble, and we were blessed enough that our cast was guilty of nothing worse than loving each other a little too much. Particularly in an ensemble piece like this, where perfect cohesion equals perfect comedy, working together, even with those you don't know very well, is ESSENTIAL. The fall play last year was a mixed experience of positive and negative emotions for me, but even the audience could tell that the cast this year was much more in sync than the year prior. I firmly believe that to create any hard-hitting emotion on the stage, there must be total satisfaction and a solid sense of community behind the scenes. 

age imbalance

The amount of kids in the cast who were underclassmen was far greater than those older this year. I believe that this had a severe effect on the cast chemistry, in both good ways and bad. One of the good effects was the amount of peer pressure they placed on one another. The kids in the younger grades would strive to be the MOST enthusiastic out of everyone about the play. By continually setting the bar higher for one another, the underclassmen began to compose a highly dedicated and determined class. However, with the younger children also comes a level of maturity that leaves much to be desired. While trading the lack of motivation for childish antics doesn't seem to be a bad deal, the frustrations with backstage talking and petty problems amplify leading up to the performance. However, having a primarily younger cast empowered the seniors to try their hand at being role models and begin to pass down the metaphorical torch to the new up and coming talent.

WHAT I LEARNED

shakespeare is sexy, but dead

I feel sometimes as thought my love affair with Shakespeare started too late. Throughout the fall play I was enamored with the flowy beauty of Shakespearean speak, and when hearing others speak it the world did seem to just seem a bit better. Could you imagine a world where everyone spoke as such? Fights in the dodgiest of neighborhoods could be regarded as classics, a mere catching up between two friends could be analyzed by professors of literature. In a way it broke my heart to see children clamoring for tickets once the teaser confirmed that the play was indeed not ALL in Shakespearean text. It makes me wonder why we study Shakespeare in school, as it seems to only pile on the number of young people who grow up disliking the Bard. Cut the guy some slack, I say.

when your head gets big, remember where you are

All this past weekend I have heard nothing but glorious praise from people large and small, old and young, Korean and foreign about my performance. Small girls begged my for my autograph, and teachers stop in class to applaud the play and its success. All of the glory could easily go to anyone's head, including mine. But on Sunday, I had a brief but enlightening chat with my former husband from Fiddler on the Roof. We talked about how he is doing at college, and we soon came upon how we were both frequently asked why were chose to major in areas other than the arts. I knew why, but I hadn't been able to really hit the nail on the head, so to speak. He says to me, "in SFS it's not hard to shine... compared to the world". And that was just it. When I send in an application to a theatre conservatory, it's not against the 500 kids in this one high school, it's against thousands of kids who are from all over and care about theatre just as much as you do. Being a leading lady at a small school as this is no indication as to whether or not I can swim in a pool that big. So while I take pride in my accomplishments and accept all compliments with grace and gratitude, I also try to deflate my ego and remind myself that this is my prime and that different things lie ahead. Different, but possibly just as great.

IPP Breakdown

1.      My project will be:

Student directing and workshops for the British School KS3 production, “A Right Royal Performance”

2.      My rationale for doing this project is:

In pursuit of my career path (education and theatre), this could help me gain experience in both fields of working with children and devising theatre

3.      My plan of action is: (please include dates)

Next two weeks: plan material for KS3 performance

Between Oct. 20-30: Cast the show

Between end of Oct. and Mid-November: RESEARCH on vaudeville (already started), working with children, devising variety performance

Mid-November: Begin workshops to devise at least 3 variety performances

GOAL IS TO HAVE ALL VIGNETTES FINALIZED BEFORE CHRISTMAS

January: Show goes on, IPP complete                          

4.      Examples of the dynamic phases of the project that I can include are:

a.      Preparation- focus on the selection of the kids (what am I looking for in the students?), plus the research for the show

b.      Action- execution of the workshops, aim to create three variety acts: large ensemble, small ensemble, and solo piece.

c.       Reflection- Reflecting on the process of devising the pieces, working with the children, how children work well with vaudeville performance? Reflect on self as a director, limitations/advantages, etc

The sections that I will include in my portfolio are:

-          Potential Ideas for creative ways to organize portfolios

o   Royalty (crown jewels)

§  Research, reflection, action, preparation

o   Thought process (?)

§  Idea, storyboard, development, final product

Parts of my journal I can use for my project are:

-          Research

-          Previous blog posts on working with children in theatre

-          Reflections from being a director in SGD

Research I can do for my project is:

-          Vaudeville

-          Variety performance

-          Children’s theatre

-          Brechtian Theatre (asides)