Theatre Journals
Poor Theatre
Poor theatre intrigues me. Jerzy Grotowski, the theorist of poor theatre,
defined his own theory as: “the Theatre that values the body of the actor and its
relation with the spectator and does away with costumes, decor and music.”
(http://fresques.ina.fr/europe-des-cultures-en/fiche-media/Europe00064/jerzygrotowski-on-the-notion-of-poor-theatre.html)
Poor theatre is very much the original form of theatre where it was just an
actor and a stage. No fancy lighting, sets, or props that would distract the audience
from the actor. The theatre is largely based on the actor’s skill to convey the
message of the piece. We watched a piece on Grotowski trying to explain poor
theatre, and attempted to perform a short piece of quote. It was personally hard for
me because I find props very engaging and helpful when performing but now I have
to limit my use of them.
PPP: This is a very affordable and plausible type of theatre to utilize in a PPP. It
would be really cost efficient and simple in the sense that less costumes, decoration
and music/lighting work would be needed. Most of the research would be done on
the actors/characters to fully master their movements in order to convey the
purpose of the play effectively.
Image:
This image really stood out to
me because it really emphasizes on the poor aspect of the theatre. The set just strips
every aspect of wealth away; it looks like three families living in a living room.
TPPP: I guess I can use this as an “excuse” for a lack of setting in some of the plays,
but I don’t see how poor theatre might come in handy for my TPPP.
Physical Theatre
On a lot of levels, the poor theatre and the physical theatre seems like
brothers and sisters to me. They have the aspect that actors are the dominant
influence in both theatres. Physical theatre also prohibits the use of props; therefore
mime is a key element in this type of theatre.
I was arranged into a group, and was assigned the words negligence
(something really similar to this) and care. So I acted as the person who physically
pushes people down into despair as if I have immeasurable force in me. All of the
other actors that were walking by that witness the break down of the person do not
react, showing no care at all.
PPP: Miming is definitely one of the most used style of theatre when actors perform.
By purposefully ignoring potentially expensive props (cuts the expense) and
utilizing miming a lot, I can incorporate physical theatre into PPP easily.
Image:
This image
really reveals the true essence of physical theatre because as far as I can tell, a chair
is functioning as a bed, and the actors are using full body strength to perform and
mime the scene.
TPPP: I mentioned this in my TPPP already because media’s scream is definitely a
physical theatre play. Now I have more material to talk about during my TPPP
because I learned
Kabuki Theatre
As a class we watched a video clip explaining several aspects of Kabuki
Theatre. What caught me by surprise was the amount of physical needs from some
of the actors that jump of 3-meter high platforms without any proper cushioning at
the bottom. It also reminds me of Peking opera, because of the dressing and some
certain movements. The heightened voice also reminds me of the exaggerated sound
of Peking opera that I constantly hear from TV screens.
Peking Opera
I was introduced to the Peking Opera. It is the most famous theatre form in
China, and is dubbed the national theatre. The interesting thing is that it always has
fixed characters, Dan, Jing, Sheng and Chou.
It really reminds me of Commedia dell'arte because of the intense movements that
are required from these characters. Arlechino, the acrobat, constantly appears in my
head when I see Peking Opera actors, perhaps because of their similarity in
movements as well as masks. In the introduction clip, we found demanding vocal
projections from the characters, as well as vigorous movements that looked
extremely tough. Later we tried to perform what seems like a super slow motion of
Peking Opera because of our physical incapabilities compared to actual Peking
Opera actors. We utilized heightened voice in every sentence, however, which made
our piece extremely funny.
Peking Lianpu Day
Today we tried to learn the essence of Peking opera masks (officially called
Lianpu in Chinese) so therefore we attempted to create one with a character in
mind. I chose Sheldon, the comedy actor in Big Bang Theory. He has a really unique
personality trait in that he seems to be completely naïve when it comes to human
relationships. There are certainly many more characteristics and I portrayed them
through patterns and coloring with the help of chinaculture.org, specifically
http://www1.chinaculture.org/library/2008-01/24/content_46854_2.htm. Purple
represents solemnity, serenity and justice. Sheldon at times maybe puzzled by the
reactions of people when he says the wrong word, but he is always calm within
(unless someone talks about trains). His sense of justice can be evident in most of
the scenes despite being a bully himself (due to the requirements of a comedy). With
yellow representing intelligence and calculation, it must be one of the major colors
for the Lianpu due to Sheldon’s amazing IQ. However, due to his deceitful methods
at getting his goals at times, I have left much of his Lianpu blank with natural white
from the paper, indicating his deceitful nature.
Theatre of Absurd
Handout
We read through several examples of Theatre of Absurd and also watched several
clips from Waiting for Godot. The hat-exchanging scene was the most interesting of
them all. The actors’ facial expressions were marvelous when they were switching
hats, as if they didn’t realize they were doing something completely useless, and
they acted as if the thing never happened afterwards. Theatre of the Absurd is
ultimately trying to convey that “life is meaningless, and all humans are ultimately
going to die”. Purposeless movements would be a major element of Theatre of the
Absurd plays. We were later given several plays to look through, and choose one
scene to perform.
Play
We read through the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and found that
scene three seems like a plausible scene for us to do. We decided to read through
some synopsis as well as the original text. It was seemingly confusing with
Guildenstern and Rosencrantz being back stage character but physically on a ocean
at the same time, it was hard to determine whether they were pretending as if they
were on a boat or not. Regardless, we came up with music and ideas that would
intrigue the audience. We decided to use masking tape as the outline of the boat and
mime the action of being restricted inside the boat.
Peking Interview from Xiao Jian
Dear Xiao Jian spared some time during his PAC occupations to talk to us
about his pass experience doing Peking opera in his Xi Ban (a Peking Opera
performance group) as well as the fundamentals of Peking Opera. We learnt two
sets of moves from typical plays and the most important thing of Peking Opera as
well as any theatre style, the Liang Xiang (establish your figure towards the
audience). Xiao Jian also demonstrated a scene in the Monkey King where a
character is suppose to spin a sword with a wood stick connected at the handle of
the sword. This high difficulty move was a no brainer for Xiao Jian, which kind of
told us how much training Peking Opera actors had to undergo. In fact, at the start of
the class during “warm up” (it wasn’t warm up, it was tiring as heck), the whole
class had to hold their stance (left fist, right palm, arms straight and wide) and run
in circles for around 10 minutes. At the five-minute mark everybody’s stance was
falling apart, and I thought I dislocated my shoulder. Xiao Jian said what we went
through was a piece of cake for the actors, because it’s the most fundamental thing
they practice everyday, the most common stance used on stage as well (while
running). We also went through a vocal lesson, a high pitch rendition of singing
lessons. Actors have to consistently sing in such language, because it was believed
that the pitch would help project their voice to the audiences. It was touching to
learn what Peking Opera actors had to go through even under emergent
circumstances like permanent life injury. The hardship that they have to go through
is incomparable to us even at our age. In the end I learned a lot of Peking Opera
techniques and should be able to apply them to theatre work in near future.
Blocking for Theatre of Absurd play
Like I said before, Jason Yang (partner) and I chose our scene from the play
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. We decided that we would try to make the
play as funny as possible, because the conversation is very dead, in the sense that
there seems to be no plot. My partner came up with the idea that we should flip a
large box to make it a boat. I instantly came into love with the idea and I went into
the prop room to look for something that’s durable to put under the box so it can
oscillate like an actual boat. Then my eyes landed on some pillows. They were
perfect, durable, plush, and light. With all the given materials, we can set up the
scene within seconds. I included a mime-swimming scene, which I can imagine
being very funny and dramatic, as I tried it out, it required a lot of physical strength
from me. It was a successful blocking period except we didn’t memorize our lines
yet, and we are determined to do so next class.
Unfortunately, towards the end of the class, we changed out play to “Question
Tennis”. It is way more interesting and clear for the audience to understand;
therefore we decided to go with this one instead. All the awesome blocking and
ideas are now stored in memory.