SHADOW QUEENDOM

Description: this week has been the week we performed the school play, call "Shadow Queendom", all the week we've been  rehearsing and it has been very tough we had a lot of work to do. We have been acting and improving the scenery, costumes, actions, props and also making sure that everything is ready and perfect.

Analysis: First of all we started the week by finishing all the play (as it was not actually all finished). This was easy to do, because we had all the story planned and we just had to modify some things. On tuesday we did all the play, but still there were some things that were not right and somethings that didn't work so we had to change those, in my opinion there was a lack of acting skills (including me) not everybody of course because some did a very good job on their acting, but i think we needed to explore more our characters, and as we didn't have time to do this, they were not completely developed, I am not saying they were horrible, but they were alright. Apart from the acting on wednesday we rehearse for the last time as on thursday we were going to perform, we had some problems, such as that Stefano fall from the stilts and the head of a puppet was broken but in the end we solve this problems, first we fixed the puppet and about Stefano, he was alright, also that day we had public which were Maria Laura and Martin, and they gave us some feedback regarding the way we were using the puppets and that helped a lot to improve the play. The first day of the performance, I think it went very good, I had very low expectations, so in my opinion the first day everyone got really concentrated and they put all of their effort and the play was very good until the last part were Mateo didn't know his lines, apart from this everyone put a lot of effort and as always there were little things to improve for the next day, which we did. The second day everyone was more relaxed but somehow we did good, and the third day too, we added and improve some things during these days and in conclusion I think the play was good. This play showed me how to solve problems and how important is to always have a second plan, I was freaked when stefano fall but everyone came with different ideas of how could we replace him and we had a "plan b". Regarding my acting in the play I think it was poor, I really think I could have explore more my characters through the different exercises we once did in class, I was focus on my character but I guess that wasn't enough, and as I played different characters I needed to differentiate them. But we didn't have time to explore characters on the Theatre, we were too busy doing the puppets, the masks, and the scenery and the homework and works for other classes as well, because of course, Theatre arts is not the only subject, so I clearly didn't have too much time to explore my characters. I found really difficult to work with the big royals as I had problems with my bag and it hurt a lot to use those puppets,  also my puppet moved a lot and so it looked really bad, so I had to work more on my body in order to make the puppet look better. Regarding the before-acting things I did, was mostly putting make up on the girls and brushing them, which is easy to do and I think they looked very good. There were lots of problems, in this play, and it was very challenging because we had to make all the puppets but also we had to teach the kids how to use them, and as they are kids, they would usually play with them, or not use them correctly, so for the next time I would say to first think clear of what we are about to do and all the complication that this may imply and then see if it would work, in this case it did work but as we focus a lot on the puppets, we missed some things such as the lack of the scenery and maybe some of the acting. One of the scenes I loved was the shadow puppet scene, this was because it was something new and also it was very interesting to see, and you could do things that normal actors cant in front of an audience, for example when ramon's arms fall or when they took out manuela's guts, this little episodes, made the scene very interesting and innovative. In conclusion I would say that the play was very good, as we all put a lot of effort. 

Connections: In order to improve the acting, as I said in previously, I would have done more physical characterization, and this would have helped me on finding my character more, also when i said my lines i didn't know what actions to do, so in order to improve this too, I would have patiently sit and read my script and then find actions for each sentence I said, so the scene doesn't turn boring. Also, to improve the way the little kids were using the puppets, maybe we could have took a whole lesson just to teach them how to use them, and so maybe this would make the play look better. Also, if we would have more time we could have find a way of making the "big royal puppet" look better, as it moved a lot, I could have used a strip to hold it.

Reflection: what most worried me in the whole play was the way the actors were acting with a puppeteer, they all thought that they were the ones who were acting when the truth was that they were just a tool for the puppet to come alive, what I mean is that when using a puppet, the important thing, is the puppet and how you find different ways of making the puppet come to live, which we did in a way, but we needed to explore and rehearse a little bit more, so, which could have been other ways of making the puppet come alive, and how could we have teach the actors to be puppeteers, in order to improve the play and to make it even more interesting?

School play is near!

Description:  this week we’ve been focusing on the school play, as it is due next week!, we’ve been working on the scenery, the acting, and the change of scenes.

Analysis: The scenery is ready and it was easy to do, we just had to fold the big screen that is on the back and that was quite it. On the other hand, the acting was the difficult part to do. Even though we are IB theatre students, we need to focus and spend time on searching for our characters. And this is what we didn’t do as our priority was finishing the puppets, which by the way are finished.  So because of the no exploration time on stage, the characters are not fully developed. And this is a problem because the play is next week!. Acting for me it’s even more difficult with the big royal puppets, as I have to focus on the movements, keep checking if the puppet is looking at the right direction on remembering the text that I have learn 4 days ago, and to put an intention on the lines. The change of scenes are one of the most “challenging” thing to do, as the little kids sometimes confuses or take really long time to change the scenes, even though we are improving there is one scene that takes longer than the rest one (and we haven’t made act 2 yet).

Connections:  What I can do to improve the characterization and the way my character say things, could be working on the text and writing the intention of each line, and the important word in a sentence. As we used to do in form IV.

Reflection: even though there are techniques we’ve learnt what other ways are useful to improve the acting?

Acting, shadow theatre and Paucartambo

Description: As the real performance day of the play is coming soon, we’ve been working a lot in our scenes. We kind of finished our shadow scene even though there is a lot to improve as always. I have also been working in scene 10, in which I am Mathilda. We have also introduced our new theatre tradition topic: “Paucartambo”, as we are going there on July. We’ve been looking at the different characters and we’ve been discussing a lot about some of the basic concepts.

Analysis: This week we spent a whole day doing just the shadow scene; we were organizing the entire scene and changing some bits so that it makes sense. I’ve been working more on the shapes that I do with my hands and I’ve try to explore a little bit more to see if it makes the character: Deborah, more interesting. Finishing this scene was very difficult and I highly doubt that it is ready, so we will have to find our own time to make it better, starting of course with me learning my lines, because I just keep forgetting them, and of course I do!, as I was not THAT focus!. I have also been working in my character in scene 10, which is Mathilda. I’ve been told to “enjoy” my character and I’ve been trying different ways of saying my lines. But this character needs more development, and we cannot loose time doing this during rehearsals so I will have to find a way of doing it on my own, and as this is one of my favourite scenes I am sure I will improve.  

Finally this week we’ve been looking at “Paucartambo”, starting of course with some basic concepts: the form, culture, ritual, and author. Starting with the form of theatre we finally come into a conclusion that the form of theatre is: action BUT if we understand ‘action’ in a more broad way.  Culture, has to do with life and it is the connection between people to show who we are and how do we do things, no how we want to do things or how we want people to think but how we actually do it. (this definition I didn’t have it clear up to this lesson). A ritual is just a representation of a myth and has a symbolic meaning. This involves the participation of people and MUST create a change. Finally the author, which is the authority, the one who decides, and the one who knows more, “the owner”.  This has been the definition we came up to this week. Apart from this we’ve been looking at the different characters in Paucartambo which are: “Maqt’a”, “Qhapac Qolla”, Qhapac Ch’uncho” and“Saqra”, and one thing they have in common is that they are really ironic, for example the Maqt’a are the ones who create order but they actually create the disorder. Or the Qhapac Ch’uncho that are from the jungle and people from the jungle tend to be happy but they have very sad masks.

Connections: Regarding shadow theatre  I have been searching more about the Chinese shadow theatre as I really liked this kind of theatre, and apart from the shadows done with the body; they also have their “shadow puppet one” which is as interest as the other one. An example of this is in the video above.  Also as I really need to explore more my character in scene 10: Mathilda, I’ve been thinking in body characterisation which I will probably do during the week. I have also between searching for videos and i found a very connective one with our play that i can maybe use as a guide, which is the previous link (because for some reason i couldnt put the video) . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMpigAUQt_4&feature=related. .
Also Paucartambo remind me of Mexican theatre as that is also a traditional theatre which doesn’t have a play, but has a festival, in Mexico: Day of the deaths and in here Paucartambo. I just hope it is not as difficult to research as Mexican tradition.

Reflexion: Regarding Paucartambo, lots of question appeared during the discussion in class. All of them regarding the author, because we do know the author of a play or the author of a book, but who wrote the tradition?, the festival?, who is the owner  of this?. Because this was created by different people so who is the author?, the people that lives there? Maybe Peruvian people?. And anyways, does it have to have a author?, does it have to belong to someone? And if it does have to belong to someone why? Because of credits?

Shadow and big puppets

Description: This week we’ve been focusing on acting with the puppets and making our “shadow puppets” scene. I’ve been doing scene 5, with the big royal puppets, with the big head and all the body we made for Deborah, Damian and the archbishop. Also we’ve been doing the shadow puppets starting with exploring the different source of lights and making the puppets for this scene, as well as making very nice shadows, with Debora’s character.

Analysis: This week, I might say it’s been the most challenging week for me, as I had to explore lots of different things. First of all this week was the first week I’ve ever worked with the entire big royal puppet structure. We never had the body so we never worked with it, but this time I had to make it work somehow and explore it at its maximum. I must say that working with this puppets isn’t easy as it looks like or as I thought it would be like. First of all the head of my puppet moves a lot and I have to stay at a specific position, for it to work. Also I have to move the “hands and arms” of the puppet as it is what gives it life and what makes it interesting to see, but it is not any movement, it has to be big, precise and of course it has to link with the words that I am saying. I had to try different ways of moving for different lines, and to see which one looks better. What I do not like in this it’s that I can ONLY move the arms and nothing else, so it has to be big in order to drag the audience attention. On the other hand we have the shadow puppets scene, which we had to explore a lot this week. We spent like 3 hours just to see which source of light would work. Also we spent a lot of time doing the shapes of the citizens that are going to appear in this scene. In this scene I am doing Deborah with Nicole, and we are both her, and the shadow of this creates a great illusion. We had to work a lot on the movements of the hands, as it is the only thing that moves a lot. We create a movement for a sentence and even for some words that for us seemed important. This last was very challenging as it is not easy to create movements as each movement has to be perfect and precise, in order to look organized.

Connections: Working with the big puppets, reminded me of some big puppets I saw once near the beach, they seemed very easy to manage and very easy to make the movements, but what I saw wasn’t people talking and making movements, but just people making random movements, which in the play, I can’t do. Also just making the movements aren’t easy as you have to maintain the arm high and try not to get exhausted. Working with the shadow puppets was completely different for what I thought it would be like, I imagined something like, shadows with the hands, but this goes beyond that. Making Deborah reminded me of black light theatre as I thought that shadow puppets were with hand shapes and drawing images and not with people. The shadow puppets scene made me more interest in this kind of theatre which linked me to my video bellow: “Chinese shadow theatre”, which I found very impressive, as they did different shapes and different figures with their body. I just found it very spectacular and awe-inspiring.

Reflexion: I wonder how much it takes for someone to be able to do this kind of shadows. What skills do we need apart from been flexible, how much would it take to do that? – As I found this very interesting I think I will be searching about this kind of theatre in order to answer my questions. Also regarding the school play, how can I make the big royal puppet scene more interesting?, what other movements can I find apart from moving the arms?, are there other movements I can make to make it more interesting? How can I explore deeply?