Directing My Life

   This week was rough.

   From an actor's perspective, I always viewed being the director as fun-- not necessarily a walk in the park, but enjoyable nonetheless. I was so used to being told to "go here" and "cross over to there" that I longed for the power to direct myself.

   But this week I got quite a wake up call when it came to the world of directing I had so fantasized about. I'm often too stubborn, and I tend to find myself losing track of things in the forefront of an actor's mind, like memorization of lines and character development. I can't multitask very well. I feel like everyone has a problem with something I'm doing, and I worry about what others are saying about the show when I'm not around. 

   I think that the basis for many of these problems is in the fact that I cannot work in close proximity to other high schoolers for extended periods of time. I can wrangle 200 first graders easier than 8 eleventh graders. Small children can be herded like sheep, and forming a group mentality is simple. High school students all have different ideas and opinions that must be voiced, particularly when there are so few of them.

    Another root to my frustrations as a director may be that I have a fairly basic background in theatre. I have really only served as an actor, and have performed simple technical work but never made it a major role. My bread and butter is musical theatre, that compared to other forms is often suggested to be trashy, flashy, and essentially theatre garbage. I was so eager to do this class to prove to myself and others that I could be more than a "Broadway Barbie". 

   After and week and a half of co-directing, I feel like I have disproved my theory more than anything. I desperately long for rehearsals for the musical, almost as a detox from the far more intense political theatre I have to deal with on a daily basis. I find myself wanting to stereotype characters, or create scenarios that ring reminiscent of shows or movies. I feel completely unoriginal the majority of the time. 

   Someone whom I used to admire very much for her thoughts and ideas told me that I needed to be a more experimental director, and that if I didn't do so I was a bad director. I told her that we brainstorm, but to experiment with all aspects, one would need much more time than we had-- a mere three weeks. Then she called my attitude self-defeating. Maybe it is. I do feel defeated at the end of each day. But every morning I get up and I go out there and try to be the best I can be and guide people in the right direction, even if it does feel like the blind leading the blind.

   Thinking about the future, this experience has been making me reconsider career options. What if I can't direct like I thought? If all I can do is act, then how do I turn this skill into a career I can be passionate about? What troubles will I have if I choose to be a drama teacher after all? 

   My mind is exploding with a million different thoughts, and here's hoping they all organize themselves soon.

I will be the best I can be.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

WEEK ONE: We Are Family! :)

The first week (or more, half week) of rehearsals, things have gone surprisingly well, considering the things against us: one of the leads was constantly out for dance, and callbacks ran into rehearsal time on Wednesday. One of the things that I really noticed this weekend was the drastic change in group dynamic. There are two in particular I have in mind.

The first is the relationship between Erin and I. We’ve always been good friends, but now this play has thrust us into total dependence on one another. We almost always have something to say to each other now in the halls. There is so much coordinating and planning involved in directing, and I would most certainly not be able to do it without her. Often when we block Erin serves as the voice of reason, telling me that I can’t move a character there because there is a wall there, or that only half the audience will see me, or that we had definitely planned something else before and I had totally spaced. At the same time, I help her with blocking when she doesn’t know what to do next without being repetitive, or help get an aspect of characterization across that she is struggling to convey. We have this perfect yin-yang balance that I think is key for brand new directors like us to have—we’re like training wheels for each other, the tap on the shoulder that we’ll need until we are sufficient enough to be on our own. As the process goes on, we’ll have to make sure that we’re careful with when to consult one another and when an executive decision is imperative. I think it’s also important for us to continue to revisit the central vision, and to always have it in mind when making any choice about the production.

As with Erin and me, this concept of a closer relationship should hopefully apply to anyone who will be partnered with someone in a design team. Their growth may not begin as soon or as quickly as ours has, merely because we were thrown into the heat of the fire as soon as the play was selected. Hopefully, however, by the time the blackout period rolls around each of these groups will feel very close and comfortable with each other (at least to where they aren’t hindering their design process by arguing).

The second relationship I would like to focus on is the group dynamic as a whole. Being without a teacher present during these rehearsals, they have allowed us to truly work as a team in a unique environment, where their “authority” is also their “peer” and are able to approach us with problems without seeming insubordinate. We do not consider ourselves dictators, and every blocking session is more like an active production meeting, with everyone from the separate teams contributing when we discuss the production and how it affects the scene we’re working on. We laugh and have fun and learn to relax with each other, again getting a unique experience of an organized and mostly effective school environment where everyone is equal. At the end of a rehearsal one day, one of our costume designers began singing the song “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge. We all laughed and sang along, joking about how we all are a big family now. By the powers of late nights in the Drama Lab and “mis en scene”, working so closely intertwined with each other onstage and on technical aspects, we have grown closer. We learn not only about each other, but about the technical aspects they are working on, and learn to integrate them into the knowledge we retain as actors. I believe that not only is a familial form of familiarity essential to executing the full meaning of “mis en scene”, but this closeness shines through in the production. I am by no means saying that one must be in love with the person who plays their lover, or hate the one who plays their foe, but that connection enables actors to play off of one another in a scene.

In conclusion, I think that the growth this week has been tremendous, and I know will only continue to exponentially succeed. We’ve blocked over a third of the show in just 3 short days, with minimal attendance, so who knows what wonders we might achieve with an entirely present cast!

Notes, Chapter 16

NOTES (I apparently did not post this, so here goes)

Chapter 16: Contemporary Trends

I.                    The Dawning of a New Century

a.       Worldwide issues affected theatre in the late 20^th century

                                                              i.      AIDS

                                                            ii.      Genocide

                                                          iii.      Religious conservatism

                                                           iv.      War on terror

II.                  Today’s Theater: Diversity and Eclecticism

a.       Diversity

                                                              i.      Many different forms of theatre available in multiple translations, and to multiple groups of people in different locations worldwide

b.      Eclecticism

                                                              i.      Contemporary theatre covers such a variety of topics and reminisces on so many different events of the past.

c.       Asian American Theatre

                                                              i.      Moved on in the late 20^th century from being cast solely as stereotypes

                                                            ii.      East West Players in L.A. founded in 1965, P.A.R.T. in 1977, Asian Exclusion Act in 1973

                                                          iii.      Groups focused on putting on plays that were from Asian heritage or written by Asian-Americans.

                                                           iv.      1980—Song for a Nisea Fisherman, 1988—M. Butterfly

d.      Hispanic Theatre

                                                              i.      Three Groups

1.       Chicano Theatre

2.       Cuban American Theatre

3.       Puerto Rican/Nuyorican Theatre

                                                            ii.      Some plays written in Spanish, though most are in English

                                                          iii.      Often grew out of the labor protests with Cesar Chavez, etc.

                                                           iv.      El Teatro Campesino, Teatro de la Gente, Teatro de la Esperanza

                                                             v.      Zoot Suit (1978), Roosters (1987)

                                                           vi.      Nilo Cruz won the Pultizer Prize for Anna in the Tropics.

e.      Native American Theatre

                                                              i.      American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1972 allowed for more religious dances/ceremonies

                                                            ii.      Led to an awareness and then emergence of “Native American Theatre”

                                                          iii.      Spiderwoman Theatre: Feminist AND Native American, longest running in North America, since 1975

                                                           iv.      Theater has separated from the historical and ceremonial significances.

                                                             v.      Playwrights: Diane Glancy, Bruce King, William F. Yellow Robe, Jr.

f.        Feminist Theatre

                                                              i.      Main goals to question gender roles and the place of women in society

                                                            ii.      Maria Irene Fornes: Fefu and Her Friends (1977)

                                                          iii.      Feminist theater companies have sometimes teamed up with gay theater groups (i.e., Belle Reprieve)

                                                           iv.      Rachel Crothers: earlier playwright who paved the way for feminist theater

g.       Gay and Lesbian Theatre

                                                              i.      Lesbian/Feminist Theatre sometimes interchangeable, but Gay theatre is its own movement.

                                                            ii.      First presentation of gay life through theatre was The Boys in the Band (1968) by Mart Crowley

1.       While celebrated for the milestone in gay theatre, this play is often criticized for painting a false and exaggerated view of gay life and people.

                                                          iii.       Angels in America, The Normal Heart, Take Me Out, The Ritz

h.      Performance Art

                                                              i.      Performance art is experimental theatre that initially incorporated elements of dance and the visual arts. Nowadays, most of the productions are based upon the vision of a single performer or director, and is often the form of an autobiographical monologue.

                                                            ii.      Example: Eric Bogosian (WUASTC)

i.        Postmodernism

                                                              i.      SEE---POSTMODERNISM---NOTES

j.        International Trends

                                                              i.      Previous notes apply mainly to USA, but theatre is flourishing in other areas of the world, including but not limited to:

1.       African Theatre/Drama

2.       Middle Eastern Drama

3.       Asian Theatre

a.       TADASHI SUZUKI

4.       Alternative European Theatre

III.                Today and Tomorrow: A Look Ahead

a.       Digital Theatre

b.      Theater has SHIFTED, not suffered.

c.       Lot of making the audience re-examine thoughts they have/had

How To Put on a Play in 25 Days.

From right now, we have 25 days. 

We need to be off book in 15.

We have rehearsals on 16 of them.

That's about 48 hours total. Or 2880 minutes. Or 172800 seconds.

Whichever way you want to look at it, we have little time for a big show. Sometimes I feel like we're that unsuspecting little beach shack in the shadow of a 40 foot tsunami. I feel like the best way to be time efficient is to know what we're going in there to do and DO IT. So in order to calm my frenzied mind, and to blog about something, I'm going to break down what I want to do in the next few weeks, and what I want to NOT happen.

January 17th-21st

During this first week of rehearsals, I want to do a readthrough for SURE. First day we must get through the show, and introduce some of the essential script changes, but not dilly-dally on it. If we finish the readthrough early (which I highly doubt), I would like to hear what each person wants to do with their character. Otherwise Erin and I may just catch up with them personally. As far as the rest of the week, we should jump right in with blocking. It might be good to block certain scenes with character groups, and allow the others to work on tech elsewhere. For instance there are multiple scenes that are Jory and Bekah alone. These days before our big pitch presentations might be a good time to get some solo scenes out of the way. 

January 24th-28th

Kaishi, who plays the role of "Man", will be gone during this week. This eliminates work with two scenes, but the rest should be fine. We might begin with a warm-up exactly at 4pm, which allows for those there to get ready and those who are late to get there. Then we could continue with blocking, hopefully by the end of the week being able to run at least 1 of the 3 days/scenes. We have an extra all day rehearsal on the 29th, which should be a big help, we may be able to run the show starting the following week.

Blackout Period (Jan.31st- Feb. 11th)

We're gonna play this by ear, and see where the first tow weeks take us... More updates soon!

Bye, Benji :)

Let's get some...SHOES.

Well, I thought it was funny.

Anyway, so I posted this whole revelation on the Facebook page as well, but I am really quite excited to flesh it out here. Thanks to the lovely brainstorming party Shivangi, Eloisia and I had (under the watchful eye of Mrs. Boske), We came up with this idea of shoes for the play.

But first, a little background. There is a museum in Washington, D.C. that remembers the victims of the Holocaust during WWII. I haven't been able to visit it myself, but many people I know have, and they all say that what moved them the most was "the shoes". What they refer to is a huge pile of shoes (seen above), enough to form almost two walls of solid footwear in a long hallway. This really drives home how MANY people died in the Holocaust, with those shoes only representing a small number. I really liked the idea, but one of the messages we are trying to convey is how these people AREN'T just numbers. So how would we use this newly thought up- motif?

First, we would use a simple line of shoes. A line dividing the audience from the stage, their world from the ones of Rebekah and Aysha. Instead of the uniform shoes that were issued at the concentration camps used in the museum exhibit, we would utilize shoes of all different styles and varieties: big, small, colorful, dull, worn, shiny, male, female. It wouldn't be hard between the nine of us to acquire a multitude of totally different shoes. This diversity in footwear would symbolize how every single pair is different, and so is every single person who used to wear them.

As the play progresses, and people die, their shoes would be added to the line, in order to tell the audience that the casualties are still growing. Erin really liked the concept of "walking in someone else's shoes" from her Christmas assembly video, so we had the idea to have one of the "mirror" pairings put the shoes on the line, instead of the person who actually dies. For instance, Ahmed would put the little boy martyr's shoes on the line, Jory with Ahmed's and then Rebekah and Aysha would do each other's at the end.

This is a motif I really like, and hope the rest of the crew does too.

Peace and Love, Benji ;)

Thailand Performances

Hey, Benji.

I really honestly have ZERO idea how far behind I am on blogging, and I intend on fully catching up and giving you all the love and attention you deserve-- once I find out how much that is :P

For now, I'm doing this blog as insurance. For the first week of my winter vacation, I flew of to Phuket, Thailand. Now, Mr. Moon predicted I would love it and he was RIGHT. Go figure :) The real reason I loved it so much was not the beach, or the cute boys, or even the new swimsuit I bought. The REAL reason I love Thailand was to be exposed to some brand new types of performances, and twists on some I'm already familiar with.

I'll go in order:

First, I was able to enjoy a few little musical revues done by the trusty entertainment staff at the Sunwing Resort. The first was "ABBA: Greatest Hits" and the second was "Greatest Hits From the 90's". Now before I get into how these shows ran, I should let you know that these shows were done by the same four people every night, each from a different Scandinavian country (this was a Swedish resort), though the shows were in English (Thank goodness!). 

The ABBA show was a great one to watch on our first night, the crowd was packed and very lively, as this was a trip down memory lane for all too many of the audience members (including my mom and dad). These four had excellent singing voices, and I was astounded by the sheer number of costume changes during the 45 minute spectacular. The choreography was often dizzying and over the top, sometimes too big for the small performance space they had. This problem worsened in the 90's show, as their re-enactments of hit boy bands took a turn for the worse with popping and locking and bleach white overalls. 

 

On Wednesdays at the Sunwing, these four dedicated employees get a well-deserved break and the hotel fills the slot with a local act, which I was very excited to see. I marveled at their costumes, the music they danced to, the "Specificity in their fingers" (As Mark Hill would say) when they performed with their extra long nails, making their hands look double jointed in more than a few places.

Following this performance, my father said how much he disliked it, and how he wanted to only see the Swedish people perform. This once again stuck out to me as an example of how a craft that takes much longer to perfect can be overshadowed by cheap musical numbers with brighter lights and faster movement. It also showed me how even when in a foreign place, not even a fourth of those at the ABBA show showed up to the local production, which featured fire breathing as well. Are they only coming to a foreign land to see shows they can see probably done much better back where they've come from?

Alas, Our family finally found a happy medium: Phuket Fantasea, the grandest Las Vegas style show about the most classic of Thai stories. I have no pictures, but I can tell you, this show knocked my socks right off into oblivion. Seeing 20 live elephants doing tricks on one stage, the next minute seeing trapeze artists in skintight white suits under florescent light are directly above you. This show had minimal words, so it appealed to all foreigners. They had more trained animals at this show than that of anything I had ever seen: Chickens, dogs, a tiger, doves, goats, oxen, and of course elephants galore! In addition to this menagerie, there were over a hundred dancers, all trained in multiple Traditional Thai dances.

Overall, it was a great vacation, but in many ways I felt I didn't see any of the REAL performances. I saw the shiny tourist-y shows, but I didn't see how the Thais really boogie, or jam, or sing. That's my one regret in this holiday.