It is I, Cleopatra

While in our mask unit, our teacher assigned us the task of choosing one of the multiple masks displayed in her classrooms to create a monologue for ourselves around. After a thorough search, I finally settled upon one that seemed almost of Egyptian descent. For that reason, I set my monologue in an Egyptian court where my character, Rafe, served as a handmaiden to the great Cleopatra herself. Tired of her subservient station in life, Rafe steals Cleopatra's face, or more specifically her mask, to see how the other half lives. As the monologue begins, Rafe runs into an alley in her attempt to elude the police who are searching for an impostor. Through comedy and personal conflict, Rafe reveals to audience members her history and personality. By the end of the scene, Rafe realizes that the life of the great Cleopatra does not suit her at all and instead prefers her own meager existence. Her plans to secretly return everything to its place, however, are foiled when Cleopatra's husband mistakenly takes her for Cleopatra and drags her back to the palace for a "surprise". After receiving feedback from the rest of the class, I now realize that I need to not only de-modernize my monologue a bit while transforming the Cleopatra character to someone more believable, perhaps simply a wealthy woman. Not bad I would say for a bit of impromptu work.

Happily Ever After?

Prior to class, each of my classmates and I found various folk tales or fairy tales from a non-Western culture to be later presented. Mine told the story of a beautiful, Indonesian princess named Roro Anteng. In her beauty, Roro asserted that she did not want to be married. Consequently, when a giant came for her hand in marriage, Roro sent him on a seemingly impossible task to guarantee her single status. The giant, bent on building the one thousand houses demanded by Roro, he and his men worked quickly throughout the night. Since there was still plenty of time left for the giants to finish that last one hundred houses, Roro devised a plan to convince the giants it was already sunrise, an event that giants feared. Along with her servants, Roro was able to deceive the giants into believing the day had already begun before they had finished the rest of the giant's task. For that reason, it is said that the Roro Anteng palaces/houses still exist, though not fully completed, just as the giant had left it. With our own folk tales, each of us were then prompted to create a mask for one of our characters following the mask cultures we had discussed last week. I'm planning on creating a mask for the giant character utilizing Korean masks because I felt they best embodied the mythical nature of the giant whereas a Commedia mask would almost make the situation seem anachronistic.

So Many Dresses, So Little Time

Today was the time collectively decided upon for final organization of the costume storage. Technically, we only had a glimpse of the process a few weeks back. It was pretty defeating staring out there at the sea of clothes upon six or seven racks. As we began to sort through the various items, it only seemed as though the situation was becoming more and more complicated. Of course, I had to go and get myself started in the dress section of the entire fiasco. Bad idea! Not only were some of the dresses ridiculously heavy to move and sift through, they were also so thick at some points it was a workout to simply shift them from one side of the rack to the other. Once again we continued on with the process of weeding out the older and somewhat disgusting costumes for donations, keeping only what was necessary. By the end of the block period, I could definitely say that I never wanted to look at another costume ever again!

Page After Page

Class was pretty much one-dimensional today in the sense that we spent essentially the entire class period searching for possible children's theater pieces we could put into action later this year. A large number of the plays provided were impossible due to complications with either cast size or content. Considering that there are only five girls in our theater class, it isn't exactly a walk in the park finding a workable scene, let alone an entire play. The whole process seemed menial and exasperating, but it is a necessary evil of all theater classes. It was practically impossible to slack off at any point during the activity because simply perusing through a script required all your attention. Constantly, my classmates and I were faced with questions typical of a director such as "Which characters could be played by a female?" or "What is truly necessary and what can be cut?" After five plays or so, the concentration begins to take a toll on you. It is definitely not a fun business, this play choosing thing. By the end of the period, I came up with only three possible children's theater plays. All three were relatively short and published together with an interconnecting theme of the non-western folk tale.

Who Would've Known

Since I was already absent from class on Monday, I found out about this assignment almost haphazardly. I'm not exactly quite sure what I was suppose to research in regards to the inspiration behind Fiddler on the Roof, but here goes my attempt:

Inspiration
Fiddler on the Roof, originally entitled Tevye, is based on Sholem Aleichem's fictional memoir Tevye and his Daughters (also known as Tevye the Milkman or Tevye the Dairyman). The storyline follows a pious Jewish milkman in Tsarist Russia as he encounters trouble with his six daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze, Bielke, and Teibel. In the first short story there is mention of a seventh daughter, yet there are only five daughters in Fiddler, only three of which have major roles. As he attempts to maintain his family and religious traditions while outside influences encroach upon their lives, he must cope with both the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters in their marital choices and the edict of the Tsar that evicting Jews from their village. Though not based solely on Tevye and his Daughters, Fiddler also drew inspiration from Aleichem's other tales originally in Yiddish and published in 1894.

Content
Set in the small Jewish village of Anatevka, Russia, Fiddler is concerned primarily with the efforts of Tevye, a dairyman, his wife, Golde, and their five daughters as they cope with their harsh existence in 1905. Attempting to live a normal life filled with Jewish traditions in early 20th century Russia, Tevye is searching for appropriate husbands for his three eldest daughters—Tzeital, Hodel, and Chava. In a break of tradition, his daughters refuse to accept the wishes of the matchmaker, Yente, and their father. Instead, each daughter marries the men that they love, each on straying further and further from established customs. Meanwhile, Russians are instigating terrible progroms against the Jewish people in Russia. In the end, the Jews of Anatevka are forced to leave their homes and Tevye is determined to start a better life in a new land.

Marc Chagall & How He Can Be Used
The musical's title stems from a wall panel Marc Chagall created for Moscow State Yiddish Theater in 1920. After he left Russia in 1922, Chagall made a copy for himself called The Green Violinist. The surreal paintings typical of Chagall depict Eastern European Jewish life, often including a fiddler. This fiddler is a metaphor of survival, through tradition and joyfulness, in a life of uncertainty and imbalance. The Hasidism of Chagall's childhood believe it possible to achieve communion with God through music and dance, and the fiddler was a vital presence in ceremonies and festivals. His cultural and religious legacy is illuminated by the figure of the violinist dancing in a rustic village. The rural environment depicted in the picture with its low tin roofs emphasizes the poverty of the time. As the church is the only prominent building, the importance of religion is evident.

It was kind of peculiar, but while I was researching this assignment, my uncle happened to walk by and glance at my work. Low and behold, my uncle actually had previous knowledge of Marc Chagall and was actually able to show me a Chagall piece that he owned. Unlike anything that I had read about Chagall, the painting, well actually more of a sketch, seemed to depict one of Aesop's fables. What with a greedy fox attempting to get at a chicken in a tree, the picture could possibly be interpreted to convey some underlying message about the Jewish community in relationship to the violence of society. Anyways, the entire chance happening was interesting in that it made it feel as though what we're learning in class really does relate to our own lives. What's even more is that my aunt used to represent Chagall at her previous jobs. Who would've known?

In the Closet

Class today took quite another interesting turn as we digressed into the costuming aspect of theater. Thinking to kill a few birds with one stone, our teacher found it advantageous for us to learn about costumes while doing a littler organization of our own. Since storage for costumes is limited at our school, there really isn't very much that we can keep. If you've ever stepped into the closet, you'll understand what I mean. What with the droning of the air conditioning to keep all the electrical outlets from burning out, you become distracted by the racks upon racks of clothing practically suffocating you. So today we took it upon ourselves to organize two or three of the racks into "costumes", menswear, womens' wear, and various sundry categories. Simultaneously, we were also prompted to keep an eye out for items that we could do without. Anything that was easily replaceable actually fell under this category, which made logical sense to me later. Besides organizing, there was also an avid search for any items that could possibly be used in our spring musical, Fiddler on the Roof. Peasanty items made up the majority of this category. Though we were able to get through all our racks today, there is still more to be left until the next Block Day. Until then, hats off to you.

Noises Off

Attended the 3rd performance of Noises Off last night with friends. It was absolutely amazing! Now keep in mind that I've already seen the set, seen a preview, and practically have known the cast for a while now, but I still felt surprised throughout the show. From the preview you never would have guessed the belly laughs that come out of you practically every second. My personal favorite was the 2nd act during which the show within the show, Nothing On, was being performed to the back of the stage while the audience saw everything happening behind stage. Though there was no actual speaking behind-the-scenes, the physical comedy, pantomiming, and general chaos just made everything so hilarious. The pace slowed down a bit during the 3rd act, but was still just as funny. I talked with a few of the ushers during intermission, and though they've seen the show three times they still can't help but laugh. During every intermission the set was also flipped around as my teacher had previously told us in class, but never had we actually seen it happen. It was like a symphony with all the stage hands choreographed into moving that monolithic set. By far it was the best fall production ever!

I Never Knew

Finished the rest of the mask presentation that we weren't able to get to yesterday. This included Commedia dell'Arte, Balinese masks, and Korean masks. The information on Commedia wasn't overwhelmingly new, considering that I did study an entire unit of it during freshman year. It was distinctly set apart from the rest the theaters involving masks simply because it was the only one to use primarily half masks, I guess you could say. Many of the other theaters involving masks used full-faced masks. Balinese masks was actually my own topic. They were basically used for dance-dramas and even tribal purposes. We then moved on to Korean masks, which was quite interesting considering that in a way it intertwined with my topic, at least in relation to our teacher. It turns out that our theater teacher worked for the US military at one point and in all places, Korea. While in charge of the recreational services provided to the army through a theater, my teacher was also able to travel and experience Asian theater. It was in this way that my teacher was able to amass the collection of masks that she now displays in our classroom, along with the invaluable knowledge of basically everything. Though the specific topics of masks may not have interested us all, it was just really neat to learn about all this international credit our teacher had that we never really knew about. It just really goes to show that you never know...

Going to be heading out later to see my high school's fall production of Noises Off. So far the responses have been largely positive and enthusiastic. Can't wait. I'll write again once I'm back.

Setting the Stage

Most of today's class was dedicated to Setting the Stage. Although its suppose to be quite new (crica 2004), some of the musicals shown seemed quite out of date. Within the video we got to see a bit of The Starlight Express, Cats, Chess, Einstein on the Beach, and Civil Wars. The Starlight Express truly generated some interest, but as for Robert Wilsons's works (Einstein on the Beach) I'm not too sure about. Now I know he's an internationally acclaimed American avant-garde stage director and playwright, but the snippet that we saw about his lighting impetus didn't interest me at all. If anything, he sounded duller in person than when we actually saw his work. Though the motive of the video was to impart some more technical information about stagecraft and everything else, I felt as though the directors often spent more time discussing their own theories and ideas about theater. It did, however, link back to everything we've been discussing this past week about how theater has not really changed. Though all these directors were attempting to be innovative and pioneers in their own way, the technological explosion in theater just seemed to become normal. After the video we began discussion over various theaters involving masks. We covered African masks and Noh theater today. From Noh theater we branched off into Kabuki theater and Bunraku. I wonder if we'd every be able to see any Kabuki today, specifically in America.

Discussion, Discussion

Wrapped up our Peter Brook's discussion from last Thursday. Felt quite exhausted by the end of it, especially brain-wise. It wasn't so much that Brook's theories or concepts were hard to comprehend so much as there was an inordinate amount of information provided in such a small book. Biggest message, though, is that although Brook offers very modern and innovative ideas from 40 years ago, he isn't really what we should be focusing on as of now because he is still quite new. It is the directors and practitioners who exemplify Brook's concepts that we should be looking towards. Afterwards, we proceeded in our "tech mode" and finished out the vocabulary. We had quite an interesting discussion about theater slang that though is largely accepted and utilized, it is not always appropriate what with the he-he's and the he-she's. Then we actually started looking at the tools and materials that go into making a flat. I'm glad that we'll never actually have to make one, though it's always fun to learn something new. All this tech information sort of encourages me to help out a bit more with the next mainstage production. My next goal is to be pro-active in a different aspect of theater, wish me luck!

I Serve God As Best I Can

Finally I've been able to get out to actually seem some theater outside that of my own little microcosm of a community. Though this theater really only took place in a neighboring community, it was definitely interesting to see a production put on by another high school. Throughout Diamond Bar's production of Neil Simon's God's Favorite, I felt...a bit ambivalent. Although it is usually the major characters who are the most memorable, this time I felt as though the supporting characters like Rose Benjamin and Sidney Lipton truly outshined that of their counterparts. Overall, the show felt incredibly informal what with an actor seemingly always within the line of sight of audience members when supposedly hidden by the wings. I truly felt as though Neil Simon's writing and wit truly saved the show. The actor portraying the major character, Joe Benjamin, I felt to be quite blah. A majority of the time it seemed as though he was just repeating the lines back to the audience with no real emotion. Although the performance may not have been a hit in all aspects, it was definitely something worthwhile to see.

The Empty Space

Though we've been trying to put it off, it was inevitable that we would have to start some time. Last week we were assigned Peter Brook's The Empty Space for some light reading. As a theorist, Brook is pretty interesting though at times I found him to be a bit redundant in his explanations. It almost felt as though I needed to say aloud, "Doesn't everybody already know this?" Still, I guess it's necessary in the greater scheme of things. As a classmate and I were assigned the chapter titled "The Immediate Theater", it was a bit cumbersome to read in the sense that I was the one who had to start halfway through the chapter. In a way, though, the last half of the chapter was probably the most perfect to read considering that Brook was essentially ending the entire book within that chapter. The most thought provoking thing about Brook was that he constantly emphasized this cathartic experience that audience members should always be experiencing in an immediate theater. As we began discussion in class today about Brook, our teacher really challenged us to think about what was going on in theater today. It only dawned to me at that moment that everything has basically reached a stop in theater in the sense that everyone just repeats what has been tried and true. Though society today prides itself for always being on the cutting edge, have we reached a point were cutting edge is just average?

A Little to the Left

The past two days have been particularly fun because we've finally had the opportunity to get out of the classroom to put what we've been learning into action. Well we haven't actually done anything too technical, mostly stage decorating with one of our stage moms. Since our fall production of Noises Off will be coming along shortly, the crew needed some help in putting the final touches on the set. It's Mostly it's just been minor stage props, like hanging picture frames and decorating tables with knick knacks. The only major prop that has taken us the past two days to complete is this trellis that needs to be covered with leaves so as to give the allusion that there's some sort of garden behind this window. Overall, though, it was a really neat experience ot get to be a part of the behind-the-stage scene since most of us are usually used to being in front of it. It's also kind of fun to sit and the audience and be able to point to something and say, "I did that."

Inspire Me

Well, perhaps not completely put to rest, Everyman still lives (at least for today). In class we continued with the Practical Performance Proposal, proceeding to the next step which involves a gathering of sources. At first I thought it would be impossible to find anything modern that could possibly be used for our vision of Everyman, but low and behold it was there. As we presented to our classmates our inspirational collages, we each provided a little description of what we found so inspiring. My first picture wasn't so much inspirational for the anti-smoking message as it was for the concept of something around that we don't notice. Since the God figure in our performance sort of epitomized this concept, I thought it would be helpful in realizing how we would portray God onto the cyclorama. The second image I have represents the superfluous characters in the performance who will have that lighted silhouette around them but audience members will never really be able to see who they are. The last picture just basically sums up all the emotions that are conflicting within our main character. After we presented our images, we then submitted groundplans that we had each sketched up of a room in our house. Mine was basically approved, except for the minor exception of adding knobs or cabinets onto a larger piece of furniture in order to denote which direction it is facing.

It's Back!

Now that we've put Everyman to rest, our class has moved on to a more technical aspect of theater. Since I've never really been able to focus on this part of theater in my drama classes, I'm definitely interested to see what goes into the making of everything that our acting builds upon. Unfortunately, however, as all learning goes, we must start at the very bottom with vocabulary. Today involved an inordinate amount of it, seven pages worth...