Personally, I am very interested in Asian styles of theatre, dance, music, and other forms of art. The aesthetics of Asian arts are much different from the rest of the world, starting from precise and beautiful hand gestures to the colors and patterns of costumes. This fascination with Asian culture has pushed me to choose one of the theatre traditions from either Indonesia, Thailand, or Japan. In regards to Bali, there is a style of dance called Topeng (Indonesian for "mask"). This is a dramatic type of dancing in which one or more actors wear masks and beautiful costumes and perform traditional narratives involving kings, heroes, myths. It is a accompanied by gamelan music, made up mostly of percussive instruments. There are many different genres of Topeng, so if I focused on that, I would most likely have to narrow it down further. Another theatre tradition I'm interested in is the Khon dance drama of Thailand. Khon is a genre of dance drama from Thailand. It is traditionally performed solely in the royal court, by men in masks. These actors are usually accompanied by a narrator. A variation of this genre with female performers is called khon phu ying. In modern Khon, there are female actors playing female characters, and most of the human characters do not wear masks- but animal characters do. Lastly, there is Rakugo "sit down" theatre from Japan. Rakugo is a form of Japanese verbal theatre. The single storyteller sits on stage, using only a paper fan and a small cloth as props, and without standing up from the sitting position, the artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters, the difference between the characters depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head. This is very interesting as it is not normally done- usually one would have to act out every movement for the audience to understand exactly what they were doing, or were going to do. These Rakugo actors must have an extremely interesting voice and story to get the audiences attention. |
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Whilst reading this play, many ideas of set decisions popped in my head. As the play itself is very descriptive and the reader can clearly envision the set, costumes, and props. If I was directing this play, I would prefer to have a large stage-one that goes back a good 25-30 meters as I picture the yard being very large and the house propped in the background rather than the main prop. I would like to have a small porch and a door to go inside, so that actors can come on and off stage easily and seem as if they're coming out of the house. I envision a row of trees along the right side of the stage. The last tree would be blown over by the storm. There would be two old chairs near front stage right, near the broken down tree. In back stage right there would be a grey path resembling a driveway, very minuscule though. In terms of the yard, I would love to get turf that is very neatly trimmed, with bushes planted in front of the house. The house itself would be two or three stories, painted white, with candles in some of the windows. It would be of significant cost, as they were quite well off.
As some of the scenes are during night-time, I'd have a yellow-ish light to depict moonlight. I envision the land being on the edge of a river, but the end of the stage, going to the audience would be where the river started so I wouldn't need to show it. At the end of the play, Joe Keller goes into the house (2nd or 3rd story) and shoots himself, so backstage I would have a ladder and the sound and sight of a gun going off. Hello all,
My name is Muriel Kruize and this is my first year doing theatre at AISL. Although I haven't had much experience in acting, I have been on stage my whole life. In my hometown of Alexandria, Virginia, I was performing in dance recitals since I could walk. When moving to Kigali, I took a beginner theatre class, but we didn't do any large scale productions. The first official production I've been in was Seussical the Musical, where I played a Who from Whoville. I know I'm not the best singer, but this musical brought up my confidence on stage and was an amazing acting experience. Thank you all for coming tonight and I hope you enjoy yourself. Boal, Stanislavsky, Brecht
Intro: Humpty Dumpty monologue (angela narrating) Dramatic keynote Childish questions from M,C,N STANISLAVSKI humpty Boal interpretation of humpty answering questions More mature questions Deep/mature questions Brecht performance (finale, end with dance) (Need keynote and descriptions of each practitioner) Childish questions: was is he an egg? Why was he on a wall? Was he broken forever? More mature questions: Why did the king want him out back together? What made him get on the wall in the first place? What was Humpty? Deep/mature questions: What was the purpose of his death? What was his relationship with the kings men? What was on the other side of the wall? Bow Boal Performance: -Spec-Actors -Humpty Dumpty is the oppressor. Kings men oppressed Stanislavski Performance: -Very plot based -Character Development Today in class we did a few practice rehearsals of our skit of Humpty Dumpty. We changed a few small things overall and one destructive finale. We altered things like Natasha going up on the stairs and injecting the audience members, and then shooting me (whilst I'm on the top of the wall) from the audience. We finish it with me dying, and then Natasha shooting Chisanga (saying this was all her fault), and then finally, the narrator (Angela) was finishing off the story and asking the audience a question: "Is it worth it to live safely in a monotonous grey life, or to live with risk and be creative?" but the government shoots her as well: she is telling a story and storytelling is not allowed. At the end Natasha comes to front center stage and sits down on the steps, reciting the nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty. We were thinking of finishing the skit with all of us dancing and singing to a happy song, which is one of Brecht's devices: breaking the tension. For these practices we rehearsed with costumes! This was the most fun part of the whole process, we kind of got to fool around in the dressing room and pick out crazy outfits. For me, I start off with a green jacket, and then once I get injected with medicine, I take off the jacket and underneath I will be wearing grey. This represents the creativity literally come out of me. Natasha was wearing all black, with some fur, Angela wore glasses and a hat, and Chisanga wore very hippy-like clothes (with flowers and colors). I also picked up a prop that I will use for the play, it's a flower on a stick and one side it is red and the other it is grey. I will transition from red to grey when the mood is right, and when I have turned from creative to dull back to creative again. I think this is going to be a very good little performance overall!
Our DP Theatre class has taken the main idea of Humpty Dumpty and turned it into more of a real life scenario, containing metaphors, Theatre of the Oppressed, and most importantly, Brechtian Devices, which include:
We use many of these devices and more, in our reincarnation of the lullaby, Humpty Dumpty. In our scene, there is a physical barrier between two places: the 'oppressed' side (grey and monotone), and the 'free' side (colorful and happy). Humpty (me) is on the oppressed side and Rain Flower (Chisanga) is on the free side. At the beginning, we make use of a flashback, where Humpty was a creative child, whilst the narrator (Angela) told the story. Humpty is playing and drawing and discovers that there is a girl (Rain Flower) on the other side, and he wants to go over, but doesn't know how. We showed a government agent (Natasha) taking note of Humpty's creativeness and puts an end to it, therefore he carries out most of his life in a monotonous, grey, melancholy work atmosphere, where everyone moves and looks the same. On his daily walk to work, Humpty's eye is caught by a writing on the wall, and recognizes his name on it, along with the girls'. He starts to slightly remember what had happened there- the incident. He repeats the name on the wall to himself and Rain Flower (still on the other side) calls back to him. He doesn't understand at first, but slowly RF persuades Humpty to come to her side, where it's happy and everyone is free. We use the Brechtian device of song, where RF sings a song while Humpty tries to come over the wall- this song has quite a happy tune but a very sad meaning, which Bertolt Brecht frequently did. Quickly, the government agent sees Humpty climbing and injects him with the anti-creativeness drug, but Humpty is hardly affected and starts to climb again. He is not spotted again by the government until he is at the top, where they shoot him and he falls to the bottom- but on the other side- the free, happy, peaceful side. RF sings her song again whilst holding Humpty in her lap. Humpty is free now, but he can't see what it's like to be free. He lives his whole life in monotonous agony, without even knowing it, and when he does find out that there is another better side, he cannot experience it the way one should. Middle Ages TheatreReflection:
To begin with, I think I should have started off my presentation with more of a cultural context, rather than what Middle Ages Theatre actually was. There was a bit of a problem with my presentation slides, as I had the slides and notes on two different devices. I could have had a lot more images/videos of Middle Ages Theatre, rather than just 4 or 5. I was a bit rushed when doing this, as I had forgotten we were presenting on that day, which I take full responsibility for, and I should have been more prepared for my presentation. My voice in this video is quite clear and understandable, however, I do say "and, but, uh, etc." a lot more than necessary, that is due to my lack of preparation. Rather than just reading off of my notes, I should have made more contact with my audience; although I do a little bit, it could be improved. A HUGE problem I had was incorrect information. Some of the info I got was from sites that could have been unreliable, so I had wrong cultural context. I stated that it started at the fall of Rome, and brought back again by the Greeks. My sentences didn't make much sense, and I myself didn't even know what I was saying! One can hear kind of a tremble in my voice, out of nervousness I suppose, but I need to improve on that a bit. Some things I think I did well were state some of the playwrites and important people of that time period so the audience/listeners could get a better feel for when the time was and who was involved, as well as ideas/inventions that were brought up in that period. I spoke about the reign of Augustus with no background knowledge on him or his reign, and I didn't explain anything about him in my presentation, so that point was pretty irrelevant. In my opinion, the way I am speaking in this is quite monotone and if I were to listen to it, I would be extremely bored and probably not pay attention at all. This video is almost 11 minutes long, however my actual presentation is only about 6:30 minutes, with the rest of the time being for questions. I hardly had a conclusion to my presentation and ended it quite roughly with facts that probably aren't even true. As for the questions, I can't really comment on them because they are not part of my presentation, but I do think I answered questions relatively well and with a bit of understanding. Overall, I could have done MUCH better on this presentation, but I didn't due to lack of practice and uninformed research. Today in class we did an exercise in which the four of us all sat in a square and went around imitating people in the group. We had to think about their actions and small details about them that we could incorporate into our characterization. At first Angela did an impersonation of me using a distinct way that I walk and flipping her hair, kind of like I do. We all did each other and then moved to people outside of that class which we could impersonate, which was very funny. We used small but prominent physical attributes and movements each person does to try to make the rest of our group guess who we were. I can incorporate this into my acting in ways where I don't need to overthink what the characters complexities are, rather I just focus on their little personal quirks and small actions.
November 28, 2014
Recently the American International School of Lusaka put on a performance called the Seussical. I was casted as a 'Who' from Whoville. When we tried out, we didn't know at all which parts we were going to get, so we were basically auditioning for any role in the play. I knew I wasn't going to get a lead role since my singing capabilities are not on par, to say the least. I had never been in a play or musical before, but I had some acting experiences in the past, so I knew I wanted to be on stage rather than backstage. To be quite honest, I like getting praise and approval for what I've done, and people backstage are much more humble than I. I enjoy being onstage for as much time as I can. I learned many new things over the course of this production from both others and myself. I learned about the technical aspect of theatre, about the commitment and rehearsal time you have to put in, and I learned how to be much more confident when I walk on stage whether I am holding up a fish or I'm singing a solo. The rehearsal process was very fun and rewarding. I'm glad I had my friends with me at every rehearsal as well! We had vocal and physical warm-ups every time, which helped a lot, even though we couldn't directly feel it. As I said earlier, this play taught me a lot about commitment, because I had never been in a group of people as committed as the ones in the Seussical. I was surprised by the maturity and discipline of some of the younger kids, and I tried my best to make a good impression on them, so that they could look up on the older kids, like myself. In my opinion, I usually had a very good attitude that I hoped could bring up the spirits of people in the theatre. It was especially important to be cheery on the last few rehearsals before the performance, because that's when everybody's the most stressed, and they need a little humor. There are many things I wish I could have done better in the rehearsal process. I definitely know next time that I need to inform the director ahead of time if I'm going to miss a practice, so that they can plan accordingly to an absence. I do also wish I had been more serious with the show, although I was having fun, I think my fellow actors could have benefitted more from my help or support, rather than my jokes. But when it came down to it, I could be serious if I needed to be. There is where I found my balance during this rehearsal process. The week leading up to the performance was, yes, quite stressful, but it also showed us the reality of a proper production. There is no time for silliness or people not paying attention, because if you don't get it right in rehearsal, you will not get it right on stage. I'm definitely more of a mellow person and I knew all of my lines, so I wasn't very stressed, but I could see others were. By the end of the show, some of the younger children really got on my nerves, but it wasn't that hard to handle my anger. Before opening night, Johanna and I both went to a friends house and ate as much food as possible without having to throw up on stage and then we came to get our makeup and costumes ready. The makeup part of the rehearsal was probably the most fun part. We all got to look as tacky as possible, and still be socially accepted for it. Some of the mothers did an amazing job, so props to them! I think we could have planned and met up with the mothers before the actual performance, because it caused some confusion about what the makeup was meant to look like. I think the makeup for the bird-girls was absolutely fabulous though! In this performance, I didn't learn any rituals, at least none that I can think of. But I did learn many things about the actors and stage crew around me, and about theatre itself. Many people see theatre as very difficult and boring, but with this production of the Seussical, I think it brought more life to the PAC than we've seen in a long time. Overall, I think it was an amazing experience to be able to work with such great people and produce a show that was off the wall! I got so many compliments to the show, and I think we pulled it off wonderfully. I can't wait to do it again next year! |