Bertolt Brecht - The Baden-Baden Lesson on Consent (Lehrstrucke)

This play makes up part of Brecht's experimentation with making the audience part of the performance, to move them from spectator to auditor in a way we believe audiences of Greek Tragedy behaved. There were several texts/performances on this idea, all of which have open interpretation on repetition, removing pieces, etc.

This one in particular is rather interesting. It is structured like a Greek Tragedy, with the chorus talking to the "Tragic Hero" which here is a fallen pilot (or multiple fallen pilots...one of the available interpretations). Here, though, the "crowd" is a character, who would have people placed throughout who know what is going on and lead the participation. The Crowd has conversations with characters, or repeats words almost in the style of a voice exercise to get at the meaning of the text.

Placed right in the centre of this is an almost slapstick comedy act with two clowns and Mr Smith, which feels like it is a mix of Shakespeare and Charlie Chaplin. But unlike those, the tale of Mr Smith is quite clearly an allegory for man asking others to take care of his problems.

While parts of the text feel heavy handed in their style, I could see creative ways of bringing this to the stage.

image: Leonard Braskin - Bertolt Brecht

Luigi Pirandello - Henry IV

I am beginning to feel like Pirandello really could see the future. The more of his plays I read, the more I feel like he took the naturalism of Ibsen and Chekov, diced it up, added some spice, and made it into something completely new, but still containing the same parts.

Henry IV focuses on a man who is believed to be insane, and has lived the last 20 years thinking he is Henry IV of France, forcing those around him to live in such a way as well. The web of truths, half truths, and questioning what truth really is winds so seamlessly in this play. It would be enormously fun to produce. I really like the smaller side-characters who act as accomplices to the madness, and also to his subjugation by those that keep the fantasy going.

Tim Crouch - The Audience

Funny to have this assigned as reading, just as I was considering how one can make the audience not just intellectually complicit in the theatre act, but physically so. I have been thinking about what happens if scenes are staged entirely in the dark? Or entirely lit, audience too? Or with mirrors behind the actors so the audience see not only the fronts, but the backs of the actor, and themselves?

Crouch's play takes my musings to an amazing level of actualization; the 4 characters sit among the audience, with no real stage space, talking sometimes in full dark or full light, or bathing the audience in "stage" light. This is a meditation on the active role that audience/actor/writer play each and every time the play is performed, and the impact this can have. The play discussed here is extreme, clearly for effect...but one can extrapolate the implication that any play does (and should!) have this effect to some degree.

I couldn't help but consider that producing this play would not be possible in traditional theatre spaces. Or could it? An empty stage, while the house is lit and the lines come from the house? The presence of that empty space would create a 5th character, which I think might change the implications of Crouch's play.

Anton Chekov - The Three Sisters

I have always felt an affinity to Masha in this play in previous readings; her struggle, stuck with the old, wanting the new, but unable to really know what she wants, always made me feel that this was the depth of Chekov's argument. Reading it again (double whammy...prep for Acting Space and also reading for Theorizing in a few weeks) I really felt that Andrei's position in the play rang out to me. This man of words and knowledge is forced to give that up for the more menial, in order to survive. His horrible, social-climbing wife Natasha has subjugated not only his body, but his soul.

The images of cutting down trees, people trampling through the garden, everyone leaving this grand old home, brought the sense of former grandeur, lost to the pursuit of the future.

What a lovely, sad, play.

My Little Girl Wants To Be a Platypus

Went to see the installation FeMUSEum presented as part of Trashing Performance by the group Split Britches. They are well known theatre artists here in London, for their gender-bending questions and performances. Like a good mom, I brought my 7 year old with me; it is never too early to learn to question feminine identity as society presents it to us. The installation had several stations related to women. The one she was most fascinated with was a table with many items for "putting oneself together" - false eyelashes, powder, deoderant, jewelry, etc. Sarah said to me "it feels like we are in the bathroom". A keen observation from the young mind.

We left shortly after, and as we walked talked about why those things were in the room, why the women were wearing what they were, etc.

Later on in the day's adventures, we were trying to sort out a last minute halloween costume for her. She really wants to be Perry the Platypus from the TV show Phineas and Ferb; Perry is a crime fighting Platypus who fights the evil bad guy. After an hour or so of unsuccessful searching for a teal sweat suit, I asked if she just wanted to wear her fancy dress and some wings and be a fairy. She looked me right in the eye and said "Mom, No Way. Platypuses are way cooler." So i've been told. And I guess we're doing a pretty good job with balancing gender identity in her young life.

Review - Top Girls by Caryl Churchill - Trafalgar Studios

I love seeing a play that I love presented well. With the exception of one actor, whose voice I found hard to listen to, these ladies presented Churchill's gutsy play with every ounce of real, juicy, funny, harsh activity that it deserves. It is remarkable that a play which premiered in the year I was born still has such loud resonance for the condition of women in society. Churchill's argument, that women through time have had these struggles, and despite our "successes" continue to, was loud and clear in this production. Suranne Jones is outstanding as Marlene, the power-hungry emblem of the Thatcherite quest for power; every ounce of her being was poured into the shifts from Marlene at dinner, to work, to home. Her vulnerability whilst defending her choices hit me in the gut, and made me angry at her choices, but also angry at a world which causes women to feel they must make those choices to achieve success.

Even today, 2011, I get amazed looks when people learn that I've managed to "do it all"; Management job, child, extra curricular work in the theatre, and now going for the MA. If a man chose to go for the MA "later" would he be "amazing" or anything of the sort?? (I say "later" in quotations because I truly believe 29 isn't at all old to be completing an MA and expounding my thoughts about the theatre on the world..I've only just begun!)

The other thing that really struck me was the reverence to Churchill's text and the originally intended production style. Part of me was happy (and amazed) that this didn't feel dated, but felt to resonate more as a result. But part of me wanted Churchill's text to be played with, to consider the role that heightened sexuality of women in the media and its resultant affect on young girls. To consider that we are still in a place (arguably further back than in 1982) where women are cruel and difficult to other women, where they judge one another and put them down to pull themselves up.

In any case, I think this was a fabulous production. And it made me think.

The Blue Danube

Today's movement class was led by Darren Royston, a choreographer and dance teacher who works at RADA. He along with Darryl lead the Language of the Body portion of our course. This was a fun, silly, and awakening sort of class. We began by moving around the room, dancing and imagining we were young Laban exploring the ways in which our body can move. From here we extrapolated into following him through some Laban scales and various movement qualities. Put in small groups, we had to create a scene showing the extremes of movement, putting a story to it. It was fascinating to watch as each group went through their scenes with various degrees of extremism, and the characters and feelings that were evoked throughout. Finally we looked at the planes of movement; door, table and wheel. Interacting with one another in these planes was quite interesting.

Overall the class was fun and informative; we spent 3 hours seemingly goofing about, but by the end felt as though we had learned about how we physically interact with one another, and how this can be dramatized. This work, unlike some of the more theoretical Laban work, felt like it echoed the outside-in style of work I had done with Brenda and Theatre Incarnate. Simply allowing the body to go to a position, and then explore that position physically and intellectually, was quite lovely. I feel like we get caught up in how a character should move based on time period and status, that we lose a little of the authenticity in the movement....this kind of work can bring us back to it.

We're sill friends...

Today's dramaturgy class was great. We were learning about the side of the dramaturg's job that focuses on understanding classical texts, either to defend a decision to portray them in a way (EG as a tragedy) and in terms of managing the length, making informed cuts to the script to meet a production's length requirements.

This was lots of fun. Each group had to construct an argument either to show the play as closer to tragedy as Aristotlte describes it, or to another form; for Malfi it was a Melodrama, and for Measure it was comedy. It was really informative to have to craft an argument to support a side, even when you may not necessarily agree with that position as it pertains to the play. We got a bit snippy with one another in the spirit of debate as well.

Prior to that we rehearsed Duchess. My group has been assigned act 3 scenes 1 and 2, so one of the most juicy scenes in the play, where the duchess is found out by ferdinand. Once again I have been cast as the duchess, which makes me quite happy, as I find her to be a completely fascinating character. We have crafted a very still, frightening scene which clearly illustrates her movement from trying to cover up what is perceived to be her indiscretion, and "coming clean" so to speak. I am really excited about this scene, and hope we can bring something that really surprises and moves the class and Tom.

And you know we are really down to business when I'm reading Nietzsche on the train at 11:30pm. Preparing for my Theorizing assignment which involves writing a questionnaire to engage theoretically with one of the performances we have seen. We don't need to answer the questions yet, but rather do need to provide a bibliography that will support answering the questions....and then for our final assessment in this class will be a questionnaire engaging with two of the performances, which we then need to answer. It is an intereting mix of essay writing, and preparation for the idea that we'll likely one day be in a position to be creating exam or essay questions ourselves. That class has a lot that is structured to position us as tutors and educators, which is exciting. And terrifying.

An Over Active Mind

This evening's Scene Study class was really useful in getting my mind going. We were discussing Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, and positioning it in the cannon of tragedy, specifically in comparison to The Oresteia as an example of Greek Tragedy and Hamlet as an example of Renaissance Tragedy. Ibsen's play is situated at another time of change, written in 1882, and seems to be re-emerging the idea of tragedy in this new world where the rational, thinking individual is at centre, and science (proof) is emerging as the new god.

I couldn't help but find the parallels between Stockman and Nietzsche's ubermensch in Thus Spake Zarathustra. He comes from the north (on high...a hill) down to the city as an outsider, with a mask to tell the people of the scientific truth of the poison...then once he has their trust, removes the mask to try to help them get beyond good and evil....and is ostracized because they are scared of this. The parallels are fascinating. I consulted with Aiofe (tutor) on thinkers who may have explored this and she pointed me to one....i may have just stumbled upon my "tragedy" essay topic.

image: Nietzsche portait - Basil Baroda

Sophocles - Antigone

This has been a favourite play of mine for a very long time. The clash of forces between the ruler (master) and citizen (slave), father figure and daughter, law and reason is very vivid, and ignites my imagination. Antigone does what she thinks is right, and sticks by this choice...then cannot live in a world where she is condemned to death for this. Her suicide seems initially like she is cheating, however she has no other choice; this way she dies at her own hand and not that of her oppressor.

Interestingly, this play, unlike many Greek Tragedies, has a single action, but many side-actions. I hesitate to call them sub-plots, for they are still along the initial line of Antigone's plight, but the love story, suicide, etc almost tend toward our more modern understanding of plot.

image: Woman Struggling to Break Free of Contentment - Naznin Virji-Babul

Henrik Ibsen - Ghosts

What a beautifully twisted story. The lives of these 5 people (and one deceased, but ever-present Captain) are intermingled far beyond their knowledge at the start of the play, with the exception of Mrs Alving. This woman's deception, to achieve control and maintain status, tears apart those around her intellectually and physically, until they have all reached a point of despair. Osvald is physically and mentally ill, but for reasons he does not understand. This echoed strongly of the curses on a family we see in Greek tragedy....however Ibsen's searing criticism is that these curses originate in someone who lies with all their power to maintain a veneer of propriety.

This would be a really interesting play to tear apart and re-imagine. The matriarch Mrs Alving, although we initially feel for her situation, eventually becomes villainous as the information unfolds. These characters cannot be fulfilled; they are devoid of all hope and joy of life.

This also called to memory Kierkegaard's night of infinte reservation....the orphanage burning through the night is a test of faith, which these characters ultimately fail.

image: Edvard Munch - Two Women On The Shore

Choice

It has now been nearly 4 weeks of the MA. The time has just flown by, I can't even conceive of what I've managed to do already. Directed a scene from Duchess, performed in a scene, created a presentation, read a mountain of plays (some required, some chosen). Agreed, disagreed, viewed 3 performances (two for school), had to turn down 2 amazing experiences (Marat/Sade, and Ralph Fiennes masterclass). Been amazed by the skill and talent around me, both in tutors and fellow students.

What is really resonating with me is the theme of choice. In the characters, in myself, in those around me. We were debating a bit yesterday about who the main character is in the Duchess of Malfi, and the role of the duchesss in the story. Are we meant to feel sorry for her? I don't necessarily thing we are to feel sorry for her, but I do think that the play as a whole hinges on her making a choice. Another student debated with me that she is selfish and doesn't think of the impact her choice to marry/have kids will have on others.....I'm not sure I agree on that being the case. She chooses not the specific act of marriage/kids against her brothers' will; she chooses power. Power over her own life, and those directly related. And what we see is the consequence of someone choosing power; ultimately her downfall. I don't see the Duchess' situation as necessarily female - even a man, choosing power (Macbeth anyone?) will suffer a downfall. For me, this is the tragedy in the play. Of course there are hundreds of other perspectives, social norms, etc, that play in to the situation, why her choice causes these events...but again it all comes back to choosing power.

The other major topic of choice for me is selecting the play on which I will write my dissertation. Somehow this feels like the most significant choice of my academic life; what if I choose poorly? What if the play I select doesn't align with my ideas about theatre any longer by January or February...what then?? Realistically I don't see this changing too much, but the idea of making such a significant choice, standing up for this....is rather frightening.

Overall, I am feeling good in the course; there are always moments that bother me, but surprisingly they have been on the academic side more so than on the practical side of the course. This is surprising, as generally one thinks that the subjective artistic side will be where disagreements form. Instead, I feel like each day, each tutor seems to re-affirm a thought or inclination I have had about creating work, approaching the work. Conversely the academic side sometimes bristles against my sensibilities; I keep wanting to yell out to challenge the reduction of theatre to a series of symbols, influenced and informed only by what the audience brings to the theatre. Shouldn't good work allow audience members to interact on all levels? Whether "well-read" or not at all....whether they come with a lot of theatrical viewing experience or not. This was really getting to me, so I have been reading in full the argument for phenomenology in the theatre in the States text. I am hoping that positioning the idea in the full argument will help me better understand, for right now it is feeling reductionist, and making me angry.

I should clarify the image as well - for me, this close up looks like someone reflecting on choice, how to proceed, what comes next. There is a mixture of despair and hope.

image: Edvard Munch - The Sick Child

So...much...information...

Wow. What a day. Began with a meeting about Ludus Danielis at King's College to learn some details about the production, budget, expectations, etc.

Then to rehearsal, and quickly after to scene study where we did our presentations. I was feeling anxious heading into today, as although I felt our group had a good idea and concept, I was nervous that we were under-rehearsed. We managed to pull it off though, with some nice comedy and a great pulling in of the facts. Our Current Affairs in 1613 discussion was framed as Question Time, including the epic long intro music, and fiery debate. This was well received by the class and by Tom which was great. I was also really rather impressed by the quality of research and creativity in presentation from my classmates. It was amazing to see creative individuals engage with historical research in a theatrical way to produce a product that would be informative and entertaining. I did leave the class feeling overwhelmed with information. Because of the performance based nature of the presentations, I almost felt like I had sat through 6 fringe plays in 3 hours, my mind agreeing to one reality after the next, which is mentally exhausting!

We've now divided Malfi Act 3, and begin rehearsals Thursday. As we continue to progress, I am increasingly interested in the techniques to dig into the text and find the best way to crystallize the message and images of the play in the performance.

Then on to Theorizing. This was an interesting class, focused on discussing the impact of architecture and structures in the theatrical performance. We discussed a lot of immersive theatre techniques, and site specific techniques, in many cases specifically related to Decade. What I really continue to come back on with this production is a feeling that they set me up, but then failed to deliver. The security entrance mirroring US Customs set the stage for post 9/11, then the restaurant positioned the audience in the building pre 9/11....and then the majority of the show was reflective, from a position once again post 9/11. Rather than having the impact that immersive theatre should, it just made me more aware of the artifice of the thing.

Have our first assignment in Theorizing due Nov 4 that I can get started on too; we are to write a questionnaire to engage with one of the plays we have seen for the course, to tease out specific questions on a theme. I find this assignment rather interesting, as it is preparing us for the practicality of essay preparation, but also in a way preparing us for the potentiality of teaching, and eliciting intellectual scholarship from others.I am rather excited to begin this.

Henrik Ibsen - An Enemy of the People

As with seemingly all Ibsen plays, this one begins with a fairly pedestrian, middle-class problem and situation. It then delves into a land of opposing ideologies, tearing away at that middle-class comfort and challenging the ideas that drove society in Ibsen's time. Reading this play, with its argument for doing the right thing, regardless of the personal impact, to ensure the greater good, really highlighted to me how unfortunately little has changed with respect to political and business dealings. People in power continue to be influenced by people with money, and vice versa...and Ibsen's greatest argument; that the "liberal majority" are comfortable and stuck in their ways, so will never actually give up their comforts for that which they state they feel is important....is still as resonant today as it was more than 100 years ago.

Ibsen's characters here are a colourful embodiment of the types they symbolize, and come across with full three-dimensional life despite coming across on paper as a mere archetype; the crooked self-interested politician, the liberal journalist, the gutsy young student.

The only thing that I don't feel was fully in line was the ending (a problem I have with many other of Ibsen's plays). I often feel like he rallies against society, but stops just shy of full refusal to comply. Clearly this was a sign of the times; as they stand, Ibsen's plays caused riots when they were first produced, so perhaps he didn't have much choice. Although certainly Ibsen's famous Hedda does take the final step to leave her captivity.

image: Ian McKellen and Charlotte Cornwell

Anonymous - Mundus Et Infans

To round out our Morality-Play Sunday, I read Mundus Et Infans. Imagine the speech from As You Like it on the 7 ages of man, as a play...with conscience and various vices re-naming man as he moves through each stage from childhood to old age. It has quite a few locational references which the others do not have, and again here the vices are quite explicit in their words (though not in their actions as in Mankind).

Again, I feel like reading Everyman in school (repeatedly) is a cheat of some more fun Morality Plays.

Anonymous - Everyman

This is a Sunday Morality free for all. Read Everyman, which I had read a version of previously in undergrad (I want to say for Theatre history?). I feel like we get the short end of the stick in school with morality play selection, given how fun Mankind was. If I design a course in future (when i design....) I am going to select another play. Or maybe two plays.

Anyway, on to Everyman. This is very clearly delineated, as all Morality Plays are; Man is expected to be good, but is tempted by vice, which in this case is embodied by 5 wits, beauty, discretion, etc. Man fails, and is given another chance by God to not sway from good behaviour. Maybe it is just positioning, but Everyman comes across as far more didactic in comparison to other morality plays...i realize this is the point...but the vices and temptations are also less "bad".

Inspiration in Surprising Places

Yesterday my daughter and I ended up at the Science museum, after seeing the enormous Saturday afternoon lineup at the Natural History Museum. The science museum might be one of the coolest places I have ever been. The exhibits are really interactive, including showcases of objects and information, and then computer/objects to interact with to actually try out the idea displayed in the section. In addition, the design of the building's display made for a fabulous setting for learning; high ceilings, objects on the ceiling, lights, and actual spacecraft were all contributing to the atmosphere.

One of the coolest exhibitions was on the science behind the development of electronic music, starting with Daphne Oram's experiments at the BBC in the 1950s. It was amazing to see her original work with film strips to create a sequencer, the precursor to programs like abelton, reason, cubase, etc.

The best part of the experience for me, and the location of the surprising inspiration, was an installation called "listening post". This was a large, dark room, with around 100 small LED reader boards mounted on the wall along one side. The reader boards displayed text from online chat conversations of over 100,000 people, which had been filtered for certain words. These were then read out one by one in a computerized voice, accompanied by a chilled synth. The series we saw were all "I am" sentences....I am pretty, I am 17, I am sad today.... Listening and watching this, I couldn't help but feel the absurdity of our modern communication. These expressions of a need to connect, sent over a series of 1s and 0s, cold, empty...and utterly meaningless. It was exactly what the absurdist playwrights have been writing about of 50+ years...but somehow our modernity has only escalated this, not solved the problem. We still can't connect, depsite all the devices that are supposed to solve this problem for us.

Anonymous - Mankind

Everyman was on our reading for Theorizing, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to read a couple more morality plays (why not, right?). I grabbed an anthology with three; Everyman, Mankind, and Mundus Et Infans.

Mankind was up first. Despite being attributed to somewhere 1400-1600 England, I was struck by just how modern the evil characters come across. Nought, Newguise and Nowadays, along with Mischeif, are not at all unlike the "bad" characters we still see in movies today. I was also surprised, given the religious attachments of Moral Plays, at the vulgarity of their actions. They were no less crude than some of Shakespeare's base characters, with no lack of penis jokes. The other thing that sort of stood out was the shock factor of these characters; almost like pre-Artaud shock. I don't know a lot about his influence, but for some reason reading this I thought of him.

Judith Thompson - Palace of the End

I was searching the RADA Library, and was pleasantly surprised to see two Canadian Playwrights in good supply; Judith Thompson, and Michel Tremblay. I always love Thompson's work, and was feeling the need for her words...so picked up Palace Of The End, one of her newer plays.

It consists of 3 monologues, adding up characters on stage, so that even once they are "gone" they remain in view. It builds from images of a young female American Soldier, to a British Scientist, to an older Iraqui woman. We are taken through each of their stories; beginning in the typical poetic, disjointed style Thompson is known for with the American Soldier. The language solidifies more, with bursts of frenzy, but mainly rational sounding debate with the British Scientist. Ths sound is still poetic, broken, but has moved beyond the Thompson one might expect. Finally, the Iraqui woman, whose heartbreaking tale of defiance in the face of tyranny wrenched my gut, is written in beautiful prose. Calm, collected, smooth. The injustice of each person's acts is directly related to the disjunction in their speech.

Thompson always puts her audience in a place of discomfort; not from graphic things happening necessarily, but from the people she creates, and the things they do to one another and those around them. These characters are frighteningly close to people we know and see every day.

This is not an easy play to read, and would be an even harder play to watch. For good reason.

Don't Be Too Well Behaved

Our regular voice coach, Adrienne, was away to attend a funeral, so had Katya Benjamin for our class. Although Katya is primarily on RADA staff as a movement teacher, she (as she told us) has a fascination with voice. She teaches in Alexander technique, and uses it (as Alexander did) to free the natural speaking and singing voice.

All our exercises began with looking for ways to align our bodies not through telling them what to do, but asking what they need to do to free the voice. So we did the stand/sit from a chair exercise, imagining pusing down to get up, and forward and up to sit down, in varying degrees of exaggeration. Adding text to this was quite surprising; I used a Goneril soliloquy I have known for ages, and managed to surprise myself a couple times through this simple physical action. We then went on to look at aligning; we went around the class and looked at each person's body, then Katya made adjustments to us and had us speak. We did this one by one, watching the change in others; it was remarkable to see and hear the difference a couple simple physical adjustments could make in a voice. For me, pressing into the floor while allowing the body to float up really works; I can make more space in my rib cage, and even more between my shoulders than I have built up in the past. This centered my voice to my body quite significantly.

We then did a great exercise for the spine; with a partner, one lying face down, the other first holds a hand with light pressure on the sacrum, feeling the hips and pelvic bone relax. As we did this, I felt almost a separation of my legs from my body, so it felt like they were attached only by tendons. Then the partner takes their fingers and goes up the back, feeling one vertebrae at a time, until they reach the top. Then the one lying down gets up and walks about the room. I felt an immense lightness but confidence in my movement after this, and my voice was placed at that nice centered location. I want to do this exercise every day.

Finally, we did the "octopus" where you lie on the floor, fully feeling the floor support the body, then begin to move limbs and body about as if you are under water. Throughout, feeling that everything is relaxing, driving into the floor.

The final, most important piece of advice Katya had was for us to not to be "too well behaved" - we talked a bit about how an actor needs to be a little naughty, willing to laugh, cry, yell, scream, and be calm at once...and that our bodies need to be poised and ready for this. Mischevious, perhaps.

Tonight's excitement includes finishing dramaturgy homework, Laban homework, and more reading...while the hubby goes out to enjoy Ministry of Sound. Looking forward to his pictures of the night!