I'm Plastered

Not the typical introduction, eh? Well, plastered today will not be used in the colloquial sense of the word. In preparation for the day we would finally realize the masks we had sketched up last week, Ashley, a fellow IBer and senior joined our class today to show us how to make a mask. Using a plain, plastic mask as a mask base, we began to build upon it with layer by layer of this plaster material. Essentially, it was sheets of this gauze material that was previously covered with this powdery white substance. Once dipped into water, these pieces of plaster became malleable yet soggy. After we squeezed the excess water from the plaster we were then able to layer them onto our mask. In order to produce more prominent features (unibrow, cleft chin, a mole, bulbous nose, and luscious lips), we scrunches up the plaster and basically just stuck it onto the mask. Once we were satisfied with the way it looked, we would cover the 3D feature with an overall sheet of plaster to give it a more unifying look. All in all, the lesson was a success, though I don't think anyone will be wearing our mask anytime soon. Minor glitches were apparent in that our mask was a tad heavy considering that everything was constructed out of plaster (alternatives would be newspaper, styrofoam, poster board) and there were essentially no holes for the nostrils or the lips.

Afterwards, we watched twenty minutes or so of a video on Augusto Boal who specializes in the Theater of the Absurd. We already had a little intro to the Absurd when we read Happy Days and The Sandbox. What set Boal apart was the fact that his theater in Rio de Janiero was simply in the center of the audience. There was no actual theater where people would pay and come to watch a show. It seemed almost very impromptu in the middle of these large shopping centers. Though Boal does work with the Theater of the Absurd, I felt that his work was obviously politically geared considering his presidency of Rio de Janiero. That's some double like, president and theater practitioner, but I guess in a way it allowed his presidency to flourish in a different way.