November 30th 2010

November 30, 2010
Today I started to work with my one hander. I started out just reading out the script aloud and trying to come up with a way to act it out. First, I decided that in the beginning I would not move around too much and focus more on my voice, and I am considering using a fast pace. Then when I get to the section towards the end with text that can easily be acted out, I am planning on simply acting it out. However, I am going to exaggerate everything, and go from have a lot of energy to being completely relaxed, the better to display the frustration of the woman. Also, facial expressions, and extremely strong ones are important, since they suite the piece well and Grotowski did experiment a lot with what is called “masks”, so strong facial expressions. I cut out some parts of the script in consideration of this direction. All in all it was quite succesful- I now know what direction the piece is taking.

Revised script for One Hnader

I'm up every day at five. Every day. Up at five, go for a jog, take a shower, wake Sally, cook breakfast down with Dave and Sally for breakfast. Eat a tiny portion. Be sure to leave some on the plate. Always.

Get dressed.
Check on Sally. Comb her hair. Pack her lunch. Wait with her for the bus. Hug her goodbye. Make sure that hug lasts all day long...that she feels your arms around her even at recess when the mean kids pick on her because their moms don't hug them enough. Then let go. Watch her walk away, board the bus.

Choke back your tears. Taste the salt slide down the back of your throat. Go back inside. Check yourself in the mirror. Ugh. Turn around. Cross through the kitchen. Feel the quiet of the empty house. No one watching. What can you eat? Open the pantry, look inside. Grab the jar of peanut butter. Unscrew the lid. Take a whiff. Stick your finger in the jar of peanut butter. Lick it off. Feel someone watching you. Turn around to face them. No one's there. Put the peanut butter away. Wash your hands, careful to remove any trace of peanut butter. Reapply lipstick. Head out the door. To work.

This isn't fun anymore. There's something wrong with me.

Comment:

I chose to make these adjustments in light of what I am planning on doing with the script. The beginning will be slow, but perhabs spoken with a fast pace, which is why I took out a lot in the beginning. Then I tried to make the ending shorter, since I am planning on acting it out, and taking my time to go through the action proberly, so I need to have time to do this in my performance.

Script for One Hander

I can't take it anymore!!

I'm up every day at five. Every day. Up at five, go for a jog, take a shower, wake Sally, cook breakfast—something healthy—egg whites, flax, kale, organic coffee, sprouted wheat. Sit down with Dave and Sally for breakfast. Eat a tiny portion. Be sure to leave some on the plate. Always leave some on the plate.

Get dressed. Something feminine, flattering. Kiss Dave goodbye. Make sure to give him a little something worth coming back home to.

Check on Sally. Comb her hair. Pack her lunch. Wait with her for the bus. Hug her goodbye. Make sure that hug lasts all day long...that she feels your arms around her even at recess when the mean kids pick on her because their moms don't hug them enough. Then let go. Watch her walk away, board the bus.

Choke back your tears. Taste the salt slide down the back of your throat. Go back inside. Check yourself in the mirror. Ugh. Turn around. Turn back hoping to see someone else. Cross through the kitchen. Pause. Feel the quiet of the empty house. No one watching. What can you eat? Open the pantry, look inside. Grab the jar of peanut butter. Unscrew the lid. Take a whiff. Stick your finger in the jar of peanut butter. Lick it off. Feel someone watching you. Shit. Turn around to face them. No one's there. Put the peanut butter away. Wash your hands, careful to remove any trace of peanut butter. Reapply lipstick. Head out the door. To work. Again.

This isn't fun anymore. There's something wrong with me.

http://www.monologuearchive.com/w/walker_001.html

Research for Dramaturgical paper part 2

Grotowski stressed that theatre was to be confrontational, and for that reason he only had a very limited number of audience members and actors at his performances with the Laboratory Theatre
"Jerzy Grotowski (Polish Theatrical Director)." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010. Web. 21 Nov. 2010. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/246836/Jerzy-Grotowski>.
Grotowski’s work combined different cultures from the places he had traveled to, Asia, near East and Russia for example.
He tried to simplify theatre and make it into what it used to be: a message of culture, religion, and legends.
Grotowski believed that theatre should make the person-watching rethink their values and morals. Therefore, he believed in “shocking” the audience.
Grotowski tried to bring life into theatre with several of his projects, like  “Paratheatre”, where he worked with a small select audience, and “Mountain Theatre”.
Grotowski believed that theatre comes from the actor and for theatre to go forward the actor must improve.
“Rich theatre”, according to Grotowksi was including all of the elements such as costumes, props, lighting, literature, architecture and such. He believed that this was the Theatre trying to be like the movies, and failing all of the time. There for, he calls his theatre “poor theatre”, also the title of his book, Towards a Poor Theatre.
He believed that theatre could be performed in many ways to include the audience. The actors could move around next to and around the audience, taking notice of them or not or the audience could be physically stopped from getting close to the actor, with a bar. The audience could also be seated in the middle of the action, where the actors acted everyewhere.
Grotowski handout.

Dramaturgical research

Grotowski believed in the actor being the most influencing part of theatre, and it was the actions of the actor and the use of their voice that made up a performance. He believed in “poor” theatre, with no props, make-up, costumes and such that was a hug part of other European theatre at the time. However, he did not just leave out these effects, but these were not the biggest concern. 
Grotowski also established a sort of “sacredness” of the actor and the audience and the connection they had during a performance. He thought that the purpose of theatre was to confront and make the audience reflect on the message. Theatre, according to Grotowski was not about the image but about the message it conveyed through the actor. In Grotowski’s mind there was clear difference between theatre and cinema, and he did not believe in making theatre more cinema like.
"Biography of Jerzy Grotowski." The Jason Bennett Actor's Workshop. JBActors, 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. <http://www.jbactors.com/actingreading/actingteacherbiographies/jerzygrotowski.html>.
Grotowski stressed that theatre was to be confrontational, and for that reason he only had a very limited number of audience members and actors at his performances with the Laboratory Theatre
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/246836/Jerzy-Grotowski

Monday, November 8, 2010

Today we worked in groups to devise a physical theatre performance influenced by DV8. Helen, Bea and I started off with coming up with a general theme, or event. Helen suggested that we do a performance where one of the characters was mad, and the others were trying to comfort her or figure out what was wrong. So then we got to the part where Beatrice is crouched on the floor, her face bowed down, upset. To show her anger, we decided that she should push us aside. Then, because there was perfect part in the music for this, we needed to come up with a scene before that. We tried having a scene where two girls are playing, but decided to do a more abstract visual of us being calm and happy. Then we decided that one of us falling back into another’s arm was best as a lift, because we couldn’t lift each other. So, it made sense for the person angry to push the person. The twirls and the grabbing onto the arms came as we decided that Bea should run away but we didn’t want her to go. Then the final scene with Helen and Bea was Helen begging Bea to tell her what was wrong, or not to go. I went out because we decided that it was too much to have two people begging. Overall, the actually performance was good in my opinion. We had thought out what we did and when reasonably well in terms of the time we had. We knew what to do and when. However, there was definitely room for improvement. I’m not sure if I was corpsing, I didn’t notice it at least, but still we could have worked more with expressions and gestures, there were very little gestures in the performance. I also noticed myself loosing balance a once in the beginning when I went after Bea, something that should be improved. However, when Helen and I were creeping up, but trying to get in front of Bea, I believe that was a well devised scene because it used different aspects to set a certain mood, and our movements were planned out and sent a message.

Dv8 Physical Theatre clip analysis

To see the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAGGoh7F_bw&feature=related
In this scene, it would seem that Nigel and Wendy, the people in the clip, are stuck in a house where there is some danger. In the beginning, Nigel is running extremely fast, tension in his muscles. Wendy follows at an equally fast pace, and she throws herself on Nigel, who is standing at the end of the corridor, trapped. From the aggression of her approach and Nigel’s position, it can be presumed that Nigel does not want Wendy there. However, he hugs her, his muscles tightening, so he hugged her very hard, as if looking for some comfort. The hug is abrupt, as his hands had been laying limb, floppy looking, and then suddenly lift a little and are very tense. The action had no smoothness. This is when the idea comes that maybe he was hugging her out of relief. A howling noise is heard in the background, and suddenly, extremely fast, Wendy puts her hands on Nigel’s sides and pushes herself off him. The speed and the apparent alarm of her actions seem to indicate that they are in some kind of danger. She then extends a hand out to Nigel, but when he extends out a hand and takes a slow step towards her, she pulls it back, and this repeats several times, like she wanted to taunt him. It could be that it is Nigel’s fault that they are in danger and that she is angry with him.  He gets upset, as he slowly turns his back on her, his shoulder dragging. She rushes into a tight corner between him and a wall, a dark corner. Her pace and the tension of her body indicate her hurry. She quotes him, flowing him as he tries to distance himself from her, backing away, obviously scared or suspicious of her. Still, she extends her hand and when he tries to touch her, she pulls it back fast. She then reaches up near his face, around his throat. She moves her hands in unintelligible movements, at a fast pace, and you can her a sort of hitting or rushing sound, so it would seem that she slapped him several times. He is simply standing there, slouched, so it seems that Nigel does not know what is going on. However, Wendy is mad at him. She rushes behind him, and as she does so, Nigel’s posture changes, and he straightens up, his neck straightening. She probably grasped his neck. She then moves next to him, and pats him on the back, and sort of half hugs him tensing her arm around his side. It would seem that she believes that she punished him a little. She then runs away from him when he tries to touch her, as he moves his hand out from between the two.  She then runs of, touching all of the sides of the wall, so apparently, trying to escape. He moves his body around, slowly, following her movements, seemingly worried or curious about what she is doing. She then rushes at him from a dark corner, all tense and at a quite a speed, and he puts out his hands on her side as if to offer her support. She soon stops and turns, fast and hostile seeming, at him. She offers her hands, and this time accepts him, because she lets him touch her. Maybe she is less angry with him, or him touching her as she ran had been him saying sorry. She grasps his hands, and uses them to swing to the other side of the area. He then copies her as she throws herself with astonishing pace on the floor. She leaves him on the floor, by sort of rolling over him. He shoots up fast, seeming anxious. She the leans towards him, relaxed, and seems to fall towards him, but then as he offers her support by extending his arms, she falls onto the ground. On the ground, she does some spins in a crouched position. Then she lifts herself and leans towards him. Maybe she is trying to say that he can’t protect her. Or maybe he didn’t help her when she needed help and let her fall. She turns hostile towards him, twisting his hands, grapping at his hair, and pushing him down. As she gets up, her body loosens and she pushes his head onto his stomach, and eventually she falls back on the floor. He tries to offer her his hand, but she rolls on the floor. She then lunges at him, hugging him tightly, with her muscles tense. This seems to indicate her telling him that she needs him. She starts to slide away from him, but he has her wrist and does not let her go. She moves towards him and wrenches, her body moving up and down, muscles tense. He lets go, and bows his head, turning towards the wall. He seems upset and defeated again. She rushes in front of him again, and he moves away from her, slowly again, as if he does not care. She does some lunges, like swimming, and then some kicks. Maybe she is trying to say that something, but it’s unclear, Could she be saying something about swimming? She then twists away, and moves restlessly, as if she was expecting something bad to happen. For a moment she lies on the floor, not moving, like she was dead. She seemed to be indicating her or their fate. Then she moves around, spinning on the floor, aimlessly, as if looking for an escape tat is impossible to find. She freezes as some floorboards with rocks begin to shake, some of the boards coming up. The danger seems to have arrived. 

Jerzy Grotowski

 Jerzy Grotowski was born in 1933 in Rzeszow, in Poland. He grew up in Poland and graduated from the State higher School of Theatre in Krakow in 1955. He then studied directing in Moscow. He started directing in the Thirteen Row Theatre in Opole in 1959. He started to create performances, which were quite different.
Jerzy Grotowski experimented with different practices and techniques. He tried a technique in his performances of engaging the audience. The audience was the crowd, the mass of people at a ward. He also worked a lot with the actors on developing in their body and voice to be true to himself.
Grotowski also liked to focus on the actor in his performances. He believed that lighting, costume, sets and other components of theatre were not needed. To but is crudely, he like “simple” theatre. He thought that theatre was not cinema, and that it should not try to be.
Towards the end of his work with theatre, Grotowski began to investigate different and new ways to convey a message to the audience. He did not really succeed though.
"Jerzy Grotowski and Expressionist Theatre." BBC - H2g2. BBC, 7 Feb. 2006. Web. 04 Nov. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A7614902>.
Jerzy Grotowski worked on investigating the relationship between the actor and the audience, which is what his book “Poor Theatre” is all about. In his book he claims that everything, make-up, sets, costumes, sound effects, lighting, were not needed. He was also against having clearly marked area where the acting happened.
"Jerzy Grotowski." Columbia Encyclopedia 6th Edition. Columbia Encyclopedia, 2008. Web. 4 Nov. 2010. <http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Jerzy_Grotowski.aspx>.

DV8 Physical Theatre

The film, over all, was quite strange; this perhaps because the characters in the movie are portrayed as weird, and not normal. The way the characters are built and the way the whole story is told is extremely effective and powerful. The use of movement in reaction to the movement of some one, the way a character moves, gestures and their facial expressions, build up the relationship of the people, and also, in the case of the party scene, you could see that it was party by the way people were standing close to each other, leaning slightly towards each other, the way that people stand in groups at parties. The whole idea, as this example demonstrates is to imitate or create movements, gestures, expressions, and relationships that people attach a specific significance to. This is done in hundreds of different body movements, touch, foot movement, movement of head, position of head, body, arms, eyes, expressions, hand gestures, movement of mouth`, position of limbs. These movements then signify a reaction to something, a relationship, and position compared to the other characters. Another tool that is used is timing; the time and location of the movement develop the meaning of the movement. If someone does something while someone else is doing it next to them, or after they have done it far away from them affects the way that the audience feels and thinks about the movement. Also, if a character runs away at a time another character is approaching, and then it shows that the first character is running away from the one coming towards them. Of course, the tempo and flow of the movement help give it more meaning; They also used props and costumes quite cleverly to indicate the character’s personality (in the case of cloths, Nigel is not dressed the same as the others) or the setting (in the case of props). Props were also used to help out the physical movements. Often there weren’t a lot of props, may be to allow for movement, but maybe to create an atmosphere or to recreate a place that people can relate to.