Movie-thon, Pt. 2

Continuing with our video regime, we began where we left off in the one about Setting the Stage or some other title regarding Restoration theater. Personally, I would have been much more interested in learning about the background and context of Restoration theater as opposed to the structure of its theaters at the time. Revolving around the first tennis courts transformed into theaters in London, following theaters in France and around Europe were all about intimate spaces and columns, or as the video liked to call them, "puh-lasters". Actual stages were quite small and rectangular as audience seating filled a pit area in addition to boxes on the surrounding walls. The entire point of theater at the time was to see theater and be seen by the other theater-goers of society. I felt that during this time period, the entire purpose of theater was lost to the innovations in architecture that were at times out of plain extravagance. What with amphitheater staging and "puh-lasters", simply viewing the performance was hard enough. The video then went on to explore certain architects that tried to stay true to the pure form of circles in theater. Though often unsuccessful, these circular theaters were by far the first of their kind in London at the time. Overall, though, the video was highly disinteresting, especially towards the end once the same ideas had been reiterated to death. Still, you learn something new everyday. Oh, and Restoration theater followed the time of Cromwell. Research, please?

Movie-thon, Pt. I

Since our teacher is currently out conducting Practical Performance Proposals for the senior IB students, our class has been given the rare opportunity to simply watch videos for the next two days. Today we started off with The Art of Mime, as we are to perform on inspired by music next Tuesday. Well, the video was quite interesting as the host discussed various aspects of mime. There's definitely a lot more to mime than the common laymen would think. The host constantly spoke about movement and how it must be based from the center, the trunk of the body, the center of your appendages, and the center of your hands. He and his assistant performed a number of skits exemplifying the various aspects of a mime performance. In discussing the different types of mime, the host mentioned illusionist mime, I believe, which is probably what mime is best known as. With references to Marcel Marceau, illusionary mime creates the illusion as if objects are there, such as being stuck in a box. The information provided by the video was novel and interesting, but I'm not sure how much of it we, as students, can incorporate it into our performances. Besides the use of music in their skits, the skill in miming comes secondary in the task we have been assigned.

For the Judges

In the moments before going onstage to perform the British Arts judges, it was quite nerve wracking. It wasn't so much nervousness resulting from forgotten lines or unknown blocking, but the feeling that I couldn't portray the monologue as best as it was intended. What with my teacher's multiple reminders that I wasn't quite connecting with my character, I just kept dwelling upon the fact that it would never be good enough. So I rehearsed once or twice before going on, and well...I just performed and that was it. Since we won't be getting feedback about it until probably Thursday, I'll just have to wait and see. I have a feeling though that it won't be especially good considering that I myself realized I wasn't connecting with my character during the monologue. Three minutes isn't very much time to build up your emotions and character. There might also be a small comment about shuffling my feet, what can I say, I felt that my character would be a feet-shuffler. After finishing up the scenes from our class, we stayed in the theater to watch the other pieces. We felt like our own judges as we would confer after each piece to see who we thought would move up into the next round, and who wouldn't. I felt that a lot could be learned just from watching other people's scenes and that there really is no reason to be nervous at all.

Before & After

Went through our monologues one last time before British Arts tomorrow. My teacher said it was a lot better than what she saw on Friday, but she's still not able to see my connection to the character. I have a feeling I'm going to need to shed a few tears!

Afterwards, we went back to the backstory of The Crucible that we had started last Friday. We've been doing a cold reading of a script my teacher had written about 15 years ago when she was taking a playwriting workshop. Though interesting as it is, this script functioned to show us one possibility of devising as it is one of our later IB tasks. We will also be using the novel we have been reading in our English class, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, as a stimulus for something that we will eventually devise. This is actually quite convenient since I will be using this novel as part of my basis for my World Literature I essay. We probably don't want to go down the road of backstory, but it will always be an option. I feel as though exploring the minor characters or creating another crime within the protagonist's community would be even more interesting!

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds

Quite the quirky play, if you ask me. I personally consider this a milestone in the works of theater as Paul Zindel, the author, explores the more malevolent and destructive natures of man with Beatrice, the mother figure, and Ruth, the protagonist's sister. In this play, there really is not happy ending as Ruth is left going into convulsions and Beatrice basically going insane with her hate for the world. Poor Matilda, the protagonist is also left quite alone with her bunny murdered by her mother and chloroform. What I felt was really bizarre were the ending moments of the play when the lights suddenly zero in on Matilda as she is going up the stairs. All the while random spotlights are coming up on the various characters involved in Matilda's life as she explains in this soliloquy about how this was the greatest moment of her life. Despite all the horrid changes going on around her, Matilda can't help but feel proud of herself for the achievement she has just made because know she knows she is an important person. I guess this could be considered a happy ending, but definitely not in the conventional way.

To realize this play, I feel that the general setting would be the hardest aspect to handle. Reading the stage directions alone, there seems to be a lot of locations from which entrances and exits occur. Therefore, if one were not to go by the stage directions and groundplans provided, blocking would need to be quite creative to get everyone where they're suppose to be. Tech for this show would also be another issue as lights are always changing focus from one character to another. There's not much need for sound effects besides the occasional character that likes to shout from offstage. On set, there is suppose to be a flight of stairs in the back that supposedly lead to a second level. I believe the only problem with that is to conceal the location at which actors enter and exit. Simply going by the printed text, I feel as though the physicality of the show is quite limited. It seems as though all these characters are just living in this dreary and poorly decorated box. Though I do realize this could be part of Zindel's intention, I would want to free up some of the space. Considering the family does somewhat live in poverty, it would probably be best to underfournish the set.

The Backstory

Performed our British Arts monologue for the class today. Considering there were a good deal of no-shows what with two sick classmates, it ended up just me and Kim performing. Though her monologue may have seemed greatly limited by its character, Joan of Arc, she brought it to life with her clear diction and understanding. I thought it was an excellent portrayal of Joan of Arc. Then it was my turn, oh the horror. It's the same monologue that I have previously performed for the class. It the one about the Catholic school girl, Elizabeth, whose grandmother has recently passed away and now she is confronting God for the sin he has caused against her. The words alone are very moving, but I just can't seem to connect the two together. My teacher keeps emphasizing that I need to explore a closer affection with the grandmother character while showing more separation between the affection and anger for God. I'm trying to channel my own grandmother's passing and all the tears my family shed for her, but my nervousness seems to be taking over. What to do?

In a Box, Again.

With Heads & Tales complete and not very much time before we are separated from our teacher, we just decided to watch a video today. And today's choice? None other than Marcel Marceau. Who's he? Only the greatest mine this world has ever seen. Mr. Marceau recently passed away last September. Though we didn't watch the video for very long, we were able to see two of Marceau's mimes. The first, called "The Sculptor", was rather ordinary with a sculptor pondering what to make and having a hard time building it. What really set Marceau's miming from the usual pantomimes we do in class was that his movements were especially staged and set in the sense that he would be striking poses for the first few minutes, almost as if they were prescribed. I really liked how Marceau would provide sound effects in addition to the background music by subtly stomping his feet to give the effect of chiseling the clay and so on. The second mime was related to youth, maturity, and old age, all subjects quite abstract. I got the basic gist of what he was performing as he evolved from a fetus to a walking man and eventually frozen in death, but it was quite boring. For our own pantomimes that we're scheduled to perform in 2 weeks or so with background music, I believe I'll be straying away from any of those kinds of topics.

Well anyways, back to Marceau. Originally names Marcel Mangel, Marceau and his brother adopted the last names "Marceau" in order to hide their Jewish origins as they lived near Germany during World War II. In 1947, Marceau created "Bip" the clown, who in his striped pullover and battered silk opera hat had become his alter ego, somewhat like Chaplin's own "Little Tramp". This clown supposedly symbolized the fragility of life. Marceau's silent exercises included classic works like The Cage, Walking Against the Wind, The Mask Maker, and The Park were described as works of genius. After recieving the renowned Deburau Prize, Marceau formed his Compagnie de Mime Marcel Marceau, the only company of mimes at the time. The ensemble played in theatres around Paris. After seeing Marceau's work, I can understand the acclaim that surrounds his name, but I don't think pantomime is really for me. The physicality just isn't there for me. But isn't he something?

Second Time's a Charm?

So today was our second time performing Heads & Tales for the youngings. Ironically, though, instead of doing amazingly better than our previous performance, I felt as though today's performance may have suffered a bit. This may have simply resulted from the general mood the entire cast was in, one of doom and depression as we were all about to fail an impending test. In addition to such woes, one of our cast members was caught with the sniffles. So all in all, enthusiasm somewhat suffered as we weren't as anxious for performing as we were the last time. That could just be because it was our first for many things. But still, I've learned that no matter what may be going on backstage, we must all leave our worries and burdens behind and completely embrace our characters on stage. I guess that's just the simple beauty in theatre, that you can leave everything behind and become someone completely not yourself, even if it's only for a few minutes in front of those lights. What's even more ironic is that our teacher thought we performed much better than last week. Who knows? The children at Westhoff, the elementary school we performed for, were much more well-behaved, meaning quiet and polite children the entire performance. For that reason, there wasn't much audience participatio and sort of dragged the performance on, but what can you do. So here's to our second and final performance of Heads & Tales! It was a charm, wasn't it...

Just About There

Earlier this week, I borrowed Paul Zindel's The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. Quite a title isn't it? Well before I actually begin the reading process, I thought I'd do a little research into Zindel's background. Now, I've had some previous experience with Zindel prior to freshman year when we were forced, yes forced, to read The Pigman. As you can probably tell, it wasn't exactly my favorite novel. So yes, not a very good experience with Zindel, but hopefully through a friend's recommendation, Gamma Rays will be infintely better. Well on with the background, Zindel wrote plays throughout his teenage years. Gamma Rays published in 1964 was Zindel's first and amazingly most successful play. The play ran off-Broadway in 1970 and on Broadway in 1971. Stay tuned, because there's more to come...

We Have Arrived

And the day has finally come for us to perform our piece, Heads & Tales, for the children of Collegewood. Upon arriving at the elementary school, we were quite startled by the size and general structure of the stage in the multi-purpose room. Considering that it is a "multi-purpose" room, it's no big wonder why the stage was so awkwardly set. With a small apron and no wings backstage, the performance area was restricted, forcing us to squeeze closer towards each other. I felt that with such a limited space, we often ended up stuck behind the curtains. Donning our costumes, we went through the show one more time to work out any conflictions with the size of the stage and what not. Considering that the run through went very weel, we were anxious for the real performance to begin. Once we reset the stage for the top of the show and closed the curtains, we could hear the little 1st and 2nd graders filing in. Backstage I was becoming an incredible wreck, but I think it was more out of anxiousness than anything else. But once the curtains parted and I saw the kids' faces, I knew everything was going to be all right. I was definitely a little shaky in the beginning as I was very conscious of the gestures and movements I was making. After a certain point, though, everything just began to flow. Laughs wer erolling off the kids' tongues and we kicked up our physicality to get a few more laughs. Though there were a few forgotten lines here and there, I thought we did very well. Now with one performance under our belt, I feel like we've finally accomplished something, almost like saying "Hello Theatre, we have arrived..."

Cold Feet, Perhaps?

Oh my, it is now the day before our opening performance! What is there left to say besides "break a leg"? It seems at this point that there is nothing really left to do but to go all out when we perform at Collegewood. Going through a semi-dress rehearsal today, lines and actions flowed for the most part quite smoothly except for minor mistakes here and there. Tomorrow, I just pray that nobody forgets their lines or just blanks out on stage. I have faith in my classmates and I believe they'll be just fine though. I think today we were just a bit sloppy in our run through, thinking as though we had already won the battle. The three major comments our director had for us were lines, projection, and mistakes. Once on stage and in front of those bunches of little faces, I think a sense of self will disappear as we all come to embody and embrace our characters fully to evoke reactions from the audience. At this moment, I don't especially find our script particularly interesting, but perhaps the children might though I do believe the vernacular to be a bit above their level of thinking. Who knows what will happen? Only time will tell, and for me that means tomorrow! Yikes!

Almost There Yet?

Began class today quite unconventionally. Basically people were all over the place attempting to get their costumes together and put on while my teacher and I messed around with a caterpillar head to be used later on in the performance by Sophia. The task of completing this head was outsourced to the art kids, but unfortunately it was not quite as functional as we hoped it to be. Though it was constructed of paper mache, the entire interior of the caterpillar head was lace with chicken wire that prevented Sophia from even putting the head on. Eventually we had to trim away one laer of chicken wire, after which we slapped on a layer of masking tape to close up and sharp ends. There are still some things that must be tinkered with before the head can be used.

Upon finishing up the various odds and ends to our costumes and props, we finally began our dress rehearsal. The costuming and props were probably the last essense of the performance we needed to truly give us a sense of performing for a real, live audience. I'm sure with some of their silly outfits and hairdos, my classmates weren't afraid to let it all out. The main thing about this dress rehearsal wasn't so much about perfecting our performance so much as keeping the pace quick and interesting. No matter what we were prompted by our teacher that we were not allowed to stop. Once again, one particular classmate had a harder time recalling lines and at times even skipping over entire sections. Despite this minor annoyance, I was quite proud of my other classmates in the way we were able to recover from stumbles in lines. Covering for the one classmate, we eventually got through the entire show in character and all. It felt marvelous to have that achievement under our belt. Now we have the makings of a real performance, but everything just needs to be sharpers. The focus for rehearsals now are lines, movements, and characters...sharper, bigger, and better.

Cold Turkey

Calling out for lines seems to almost be like an addiction for many of us in the cast. Though most of us have been able to make the transition to being off-book, there's one person in particular who has been having trouble with diction and characterization. Like our teacher said, there's no way possible for one to give off any sense of a character while trying to remember his/her lines at the same time. I've found my character immensely more interesting ever since we've gone off book. Especially in the case of Heads & Tales, accuracy is extremely important as the entire show is a play on words. Substitute one word for another or even attempt to skip a line at the whole show goes awry. Isn't that just nice for some of our first-time performers? We'll be performing in about less than two weeks, so we're pretty down to the wire at this point. Though I feel as though I've let go of myself so much more in my performance, sometimes I still feel as though I'm holding back, too afraid to completly commit myself to the character. I think I just have to keep reminding myself that we're performing for first and second graders. With that sense of the audience in my mind, I immediately kick up my performance otherwise the enitre thing my turn out to be a flop. Wish me luck!