schmidtdude

The Cycle

Many people are calling it the Lockdown or the Experiment, but we ended up calling the show “The Cycle” so I am going to stick with that. I had been keeping track of everything on my laptop and will regurgitate information as I go. First off the updates during the process...

Developing Ideas (5:23pm)

Right now everyone is talking about what we have so far, and there is a lot of debating going on actually. I can hear Sarah, Alex, Catlina, Maren and Eddie at the same time, and this is starting to get confusing! Haha. I have typed down everything we have so far and will update it when we have a good draft. Ms Keefe is right now also giving us some tips and now all I hear is Alex's drumming...ok we have to all go divide into smaller groups from the draft. Will update later...actually a little tired plus hungry =]

Why am I the only one working? (7:47pm)

I know this is not true, but it sure feels that way. From what I see, the only people who are really working are Alex and I. I'm busying trying to put the script together, when the groups are just doing what they want. I expected this...the people in the Core #2 Group, which would be the clowning group, has just gone off and already gathered costumes and are jumping around...I HAVEN'T EVEN GOT THEIR SCRIPT YET. I've already had to write the script for the Core #4 but at least they had their ideas down. I don’t understand how the "Clown Group" can even work when the script has not been down, and all I see is that they are "clowning around". I basically have just become the script writer, and without the Core #2 and #3 group I can't do anything...
It seems like we are going to be doing a run-through, but how am I supposed to get the script down  without the groups' scripts!?!?!
*sigh* stressed.

Early in the Morning. (6:34am)

I have just woken up... still half asleep. A little worried about our progress, to me it seems like we are only around 60-70% done. And I think it might not be long enough, we will figure something out hopefully. wow I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve done, I originally thought that maybe I would just stand around inputting an idea here and there. I'm going to wash my face now so I'll update later.

It's only 8, but we are hard at work. (8:12am)

Ok, well everyone is now settling back into the Drama Studio and I am already on my laptop slaving away trying to get this script finished off. We basically have the main script down, but there are still tweaks and lines to be fixed up. I think we might have to spend around 30 minutes just revamping the script we have now, as I am pretty sure this is not enough for us to fill 25 minutes. I feel maybe the first scene needs some more lines, so I will start thinking right now. This might be the last update I will have time for, considering how much we have to do.

After the performance...

 First off I must say, I am very impressed with the whole class, and that we managed to pull it off. The show went pretty well, the only problem would be lines. We could easily fix that up with an extra hour or two. The whole class worked very hard, and although at times it might not have seemed like it, I believe we all gave it our best shot and came out with great results. I would’ve liked to have more people come and watch us, but there was more audience than I originally expected so I was already pretty impressed with that. I’d thought maybe the audience might have some suggestions for us concerning the show itself, maybe things to do with preparation, but to my surprise, they loved it and were really proud of us. In the morning I was not as confident, as it looked as if we were never going to have enough time, in the end it all worked out and the only problem was Roy’s line; “Either you do it my way or … do the highway!”. The audience really enjoyed watching us, and I enjoyed working on it. Overall we all did an amazing job for the short limited amount of time we had. Good job guys. So here is how the overall show went…

Savage / Love

 I was most worried about this part of the show, because I knew that we had only about 15 minutes to work on it just before the show. Our group had to edit our performance a little bit, as our original idea was that we circle the audience and obviously this was not possible. So we just changed it to create a semi-circle and the effect was still there. Then instead of one by one we would fall, we all would form a line with Lemmy and Angie on both ends and everyone in the middle would fall into a “depressing” pose with Lemmy and Angie to repeat the last two lines. This really helped the audience show the love and the struggle in the piece, especially when Lemmy would reach out to Angie repeating the line “Forever in love?”, and Angie would turn away repeating the same line. I really enjoyed doing Savage/Love as it was a little different from everything else we were working on, and really helped me develop my focus.

 The Leader

 From what I have seen, not many people have reflected on “The Leader” by the Grade 12’s, but I feel that we could really learn something from the seniors. I won’t talk too much about it, a brief explanation will do. Although short, their performance was really able to send out a message to the audience. I did not see much from the wings, but from what I heard of the lines, the performance seemed very deep to me. It is the idea that everyone must follow someone else, everyone has a leader. They are not able to think for themselves, and when the “Leader” they follow isn’t what they expected, do they stop following? Or continue to follow? This gives me many ideas about future shows and themes we could use, and hopefully create something as good as they did. Back to the Cycle.

The Cycle

 So…the big show. As I was waiting in the wings for “The Leader” to finish, so many things we racing through my mind. Are we ready yet? Do people have their lines down? Is the audience going to like our show? In the end all those questions were answered, yes. First up was the Flock Dance and Jack’s detachment from the group, this scene was most important as the audience must get the message straight away otherwise the rest of the show will be too confusing. So here we go, it is pitch black, and through the curtains I see Evan get into place, which is my cue, so I go out with Nelson following close behind. We all get into position under the cover of darkness…the show begins. The Cyc is lit up in a rose red colour, and we hear the music. We finish the dance in perfection and now come the difficult part, the monologue. I was pretty anxious about Lemmy and remember his lines, but he surprised everyone and remembered his lines, Roy too. Although Roy did have the one mishap, but at least it was comical. This whole dance was an influence through all the Physical Theatre we had seen, with groups like DV8 and PUSH. And also Augusto Boal’s technique of the Flock Dance but instead of moving around, we stationed ourselves and created a dance. We wanted to mainly show that Jack, played by Lemmy, was not pleased with having to follow the group all the time, so he decides to do his own thing. We delivered that message very well and after asking some of the audience they understood it very clearly. Job well done on the first scene.

 Now onto the second scene, I had the most problems with this scene. It involved 3 pairs of us walking around Jack, this time played by Hugo, and repeating the same lines together as if we were one person. I was a pair with Alex and at first we just could not get the synchronized walking part down, Lemmy and Jordan were very good at it, so Alex and I watched them a few times and rehearsed it quite a bit. All 3 pairs had to repeat a line over and over again and the line Alex and I had was a Chinese saying, it was “We are so late…”. We had to walk fast and imagine staring at our watch pretending to be late for an appointment. Everyone also had to be loud too, because we wanted to create a very “rushed” type of atmosphere amongst Hugo. This scene was influenced by the Greek Chorus elements, although we were not like a Greek Chorus were it is a big group of people, we took that aspect and used it in this scene with the pairs. What bothered me the most was the walking part of this scene, during rehearsals Alex and I were not able to stick together and whenever we turned we just could not stay together and we drifting apart. To add insult to injury, Alex was not too comfortable speaking Chinese so it was a challenged for him to project his voice. We also did not have a designated route and in rehearsals ending up walking in a big circle around the stage, so we had to be able to let the other person know to turn without showing it on stage. After some practicing back stage and long hard thinking we came up with a good plan. We pushed against each others shoulders so that we would stay at each other’s side and I was put in charge of choosing the direction to turn during the walk. In order to prevent the audience from noticing, I would be repeating my line in Chinese then suddenly slip in a faint “right” or “left” into it. Alex would then pick up and if he felt the slightest movement in my shoulder he would know when to turn. This plan worked out perfectly and we were able to finish the scene without any problems at all. I am proud of both Alex and myself.

 The third scene was the comical and energetic part of the show, it involved 4 clowns, Nelson, Evan, Roy and Angie harassing Jack. Hugo continued to play Jack for reasons I don’t know, otherwise I would have liked to be Jack in this scene. I didn’t really have much involvement in this scene, so I was basically apart of the audience whilst this scene was going on. I could see the clowns from in between the curtains in the wing and it seemed all was going well. I heard the audience laughing here and there so that had to be a good sign, if this weren’t a clown scene I would have been worried. They broke the 4^th wall and entered the scene by running down the aisles of the theatre and jumping onto the stage, I really liked this technique as it involved the audience and involved a little bit of Bertolt Brecht Theatre where the audience is reminded it’s only a show. The clowns also had jokes and tricks all directed to the audience which I liked. Overall this scene was very successful and many people in the audience said it was their favourite scene.

 The fourth scene I was not apart of either, this scene all revolved around Augusto Boal’s form of theatre, Forum Theatre. Originally the idea of this scene was just for Jack to reflect on his decision for leaving the Flock, but as we progressed in the planning process we developed it further and included our director, Catlina. Ms Keefe had coached Catlina a bit in how to interact with the audience and what to do if they did not follow as planned. We had only really learned about Forum Theatre this year, so it was interesting to see how it might all turn out. Like many others, I was afraid that the audience would be shy and would not want to answer any questions, leaving Catlina just standing there, but she had been coached well by Ms. Keefe and kept the scene going strong.  This was all new to us and I am pretty confident we will be using it again in another piece at a later date. I enjoy doing Forum Theatre, as it keeps the audience interested in the show and really makes them feel that they are apart of the whole process, which is also a little bit of Brecht, making sure they realise it is just a show.

 The fifth scene was the scene where Jack, played by Nelson, finds two musicians and he listens in on them, and eventually finds his own beat. I think this scene really helps build up Jack’s confidence and really helps the next scene. In this scene, Jack stumbles in on 2 guitarists trying to find the right beat for their song. They seek his help; Jack himself has no confidence to music as he has never come in contact with it before, in trying to help the two guitarists find the right beat for their song, he finds his own inner beat within himself. This really helps tie into the next scene, where as he creates his own beat. I had no direct involvement in this scene, so I just sat back and watched the scene. I enjoyed this scene, because it toned down the atmosphere after the previous scenes, and the guitars were very relaxing. I was starting to get very excited, as I had goose bumps thinking about the next scene.

The final scene, this was the best part of the whole show. This, I believe, was the climax of Jack’s story. This is were he develops his own beat with drumming, and then Lemmy joins in, then gradually more and more people start to join in and Jack, without knowing it, has created his own “Flock”. Then Raveena joins in, but she decides to draw instead of drum, Alex does not like this, and tries to keep her back in line, just like his instructor did, but eventually fails. And just like Roy did in the very first scene, he confronts Raveena and tells her that it is unacceptable. Raveena, defending herself, repeats the exact same lines as Jack in the first scene. Then all blacks out, and that is how the show ends. We wanted it to end like this, so that the audience can leave the theatre thinking about the ending, and the message we sent them. I really enjoyed this scene because, for one, I got to bang loudly while on the top of a ladder, and who wouldn’t enjoy that, but also because I liked how we gradually made the atmosphere on stage rise from one drummer, to the whole class making noise following the beat. It was very powerful, and I’m sure the whole audience got the message.           

Promotions

 I felt that this was the ugly side of our process; we had tried to sell the show through the form of Street Theatre. Nelson, pretending to be a character just like the Joker from Batman, would interrupt the lunch hour of students in the cafeteria and kidnap me, then he would make sure everyone knew about the show. Problem was, all of it was mainly improvisation and many people did not care and went right back to eating their lunch. Another factor was Nelson’s voice, many people could not hear him even with a mic, and there was just too much noise in the cafeteria. It was a good idea initially, that we would create some sort of commotion to capture everyone’s attention. However, we did not prepare enough and in the end many people did not know what was going on, and all they said was “Oh, that’s cool…” and that would be all. Hence the small number of audience we had, but it was also understandable it was during weekend and people have things to do. I still enjoyed the overall process, and maybe if we made the show during the week, or even better during school time there will be a lot more people who would show up to watch.

 Final Reflection

 Wow, it’s finally all over. It wasn't actually 30 hours, in fact it was 27 hours exactly. It was truly an amazing experience for both the class and me, and I hope to do it again another time. I’m sure Ms Keefe and the rest of us realise that maybe if we had an extra few hours it would definitely help boost our performance. One great thing about this whole process was the Livefeed we set-up, it was a risk in doing so but it all worked out great. We set up a camera in the room through one of the computers and anyone who wanted to check up on us would just have to type in the address we provided and they would be able to see and hear everything in the room. It was just as if the audience was there with us during the process, and we have broken the 4^th wall, but in a different way. When an audience goes to watch a show, they only see what has been rehearsed and all of it onstage. But with our performance, the audience could actually keep track of what we were doing, how our planning was coming along, and even possibly get a sneak peek as to what the show might be about. I am confident we are going to be using this feature again in future performances. The only negative thing in the whole show I felt was the promotions and the time limit, other than that, I felt the whole show was a blast and such a success we will most definitely try it again sometime.

              While working in the library, listening to Ms. Farberman talk to her class behind me, many of the things talked about today are still racing through my mind. From Stanislavski’s students to the Sense Memory presentation we have to prepare. Today's class was different from the previous classes we had before, today it was mainly reading and taking notes. Usually we would have some exercises or "warm-ups" but today we jumped right into the text, well after Mrs. Keefe handed out Experience Week and Medical forms. First off, Mrs. Keefe had us try and remember what we had learned from last year about Stanislavski. My group consisted of Maren, Michael and Catlina. So we got thinking straight away, we came up with several things; objective, superobjective, Magic If, sense and emotional memory, circle of focus/concentration and others. The first thing I remembered was that Stanislavski was not a very good actor, and because of this he developed new techniques to help people and himself become a better actor. So after all these discussions we got to work and took some notes on his students.

              Vakhtangov was one of his students, and as the name suggests he is Russian. He took Stanislavski’s technique and developed it further, he combined realism with theatricality. He also developed something called "Justification"; these are like the actors little secrets that help them play out the scene better. They are motivations unrelated to the play usually, and are highly imaginative. For example, a King has troubles and is pacing around his throne, but the actor might not be able to make it realistic enough, so they think. Then they come up with the idea of trying to look for a loose piece of floorboard to fall through to sue the company. They are not really trying to do so; they just do so to make it look that much more realistic.

              Michael Cheknov was another student, but he developed something different, called "Atmospheres & Quality". This was the idea that surroundings are imbued with our emotions, instead of Emotional Memory where you think back to an emotion, you use the surroundings and atmosphere of the room or place you are in and develop your emotions from there. Your character could be in a dark and lonely room, then very easily you will be able to portray sadness and loneliness, or if you were in a theme park situation it would not be hard to show excitement and joy because of the environment around you. I really like this technique as the emotions come naturally to a person, and not much thinking is needed to act well. Psychological Gesture was another technique; you use bizarre and weird movements to express a deeper meaning. For example, a prince was eager to become king in a play and in the end when he finally got his way and was crowned king, when he went to take his crown he crawled over, like an infant. This really shows that the king was acting just like a child and only thinking of himself. The audience might not get it, but as Mrs. Keefe said, the audience does not always have to get what’s going on. That is where the greatness lies in theatre. Stanislavski, Strasberg, Vakhtangov and Cheknov all have made major impacts to the theatre we see today, to me, they are known as the Fantastic Four.

Once again it is Day 1 and I am thrilled because not only do I get my spare but because Drama is up first. We talked about a different style of theatre today its called Forum Theatre, or "The Theatre of the Oppressed". I enjoyed today's class as it was full of fun and exciting activities, like always. =] The exercises included the Imitation, Influence and Inspiration Scene, “President’s Men”, “AEIOU – Voice Control” and “Space”. Of all of them I liked “Space”, because not only did it require great amounts of teamwork, it also required quick thinking and constant motion. It was very hard indeed, because when Mrs. Keefe or the “Joker” called out a number and a shape we had to quickly get into those groups of people, and always being in motion and filling up the space. We weren’t allowed to communicate with each other either, which added onto the difficulty. I believe this exercise really helped the group focus and ‘be on their toes’ ready for commands, it also requires a great deal of teamwork. It was hard trying to get together as sometimes you were with one group, then you would have to separate, and then find a new group. I think the hardest was when Mrs. Keefe called out 4, then something like 7, so it was hard deciding who should leave the group to create the required group of 7. I really enjoyed it and I believe this sort of quick teamwork skills will come in handy for the classes to come.

The first game we played was “President’s Men”, the aim of the game was that the president would have bodyguards around him and as he moved around the room doing actions the bodyguards would mimic him. By god was this tough, I was unlucky enough to be the bodyguard facing the president up in front, not only did I have to walk backwards but I also got confused with which way should I be doing the actions, as I was reversed. I also walked into people and tripped a few times here and there, but I managed to pull it off in the end. I’m not quite sure what this exercise actually achieved, maybe it was to train us to be aware of our surroundings whilst focused on doing a certain thing.

The game after that was a fun game; it was called “AEIOU – Voice Control”, we had to act like an equalizer and the rest of the people would stand in a line facing us. They would have to call out the vowels one by one, and as the “equalizers” got close the line of people would have to make their voices go lower. As the “equalizers” got further and further away the line of people would have to go higher and higher, also resulting in a louder group. This exercise, no doubt, was designed to train the voice, and I found it a very fun activity. I was part of the first “equalizers” and we were moving up and down as told, then I had an idea and told the rest of the guys to go as far back and stay there, trying to see how high and how long the line of people could hold. I was impressed, but to my disappointment after a while Mrs. Keefe stopped them. This was a very creative exercise and I hope we do it again sometime.

            Other than playing games we also learnt and took notes on Augusto Boal and “The Theatre of the Oppressed”. It was called the Theatre of the Oppressed for a reason, and that was because it was invented during the 1960’s in Brazil. And at the time Brazil was going through a time known as the “Anos de Chumbo”, a.k.a. the “Lead Years”. This was due to the military dictatorship, and the people of Brazil had no voice in the government, so Boal developed a way for the people of Brazil to voice their opinions and thus, “The Theatre of the Oppressed” was born. This type of theatre is also called, Forum Theatre, it is a form of participatory theatre; this means it involves the audience. Usually one of the characters has a problem, and is trying unsuccessfully to overcome it. The play is played over once, then a second time where the audience is asked to make suggestions and/or go on stage to become a spec-actor to change the ending hoping to resolve the problem. Sometimes the scene is replayed several times until a unanimous decision is made by the audience to help solve the problem. This type of theatre involves a great deal amount of improvisation and I would love to try it out sometime.