PROYECCIÓN PRIVADA: the use of melodrama, and how it works within the audience

DESCRIPTION:

Last Friday we went to see proyección privada, by Gilbert Rouviere, the actors were:  Jimena Lindo, Norma Martinez and Miguel Iza.

This play was about the consumption of the TV in our society, and how this cuts the communication in the family (in this case between a wife and a husband). It focused in the idea of how TV consumes us, and it hypnotize us to the extent of watching TV all day long.

Norma Martinez (left) and Jimena Lindo (right) 

ANALYSIS:

Before starting analysing the melodrama part, I would like to point that the wife’s name is not mention and names in general of the three actors are not mention constantly. Also that sometimes the play may turn a little bit boring and fake, like in the part of Jimena Lindo were she bump into the wall “like she was falling”, she did this so many times, that it looked fake.

In order to focus more the idea of consumption of the TV, the director uses “melodrama” in one part of the play. Before starting this part of the play Norma Martinez (which we don’t know her character’s name in all the play) tells Jimena Lindo all about her “telenovela”, she mentions all the characters name, and all the plot and the problems within the telenovela.

After this long explanation is that the melodrama part starts. Just by the introduction of the story of the telenovela is that they catch the audience’s attention. We (as the audience) try to understand the story, and by the way the actress tells it is that it’s catchier, she looks so into the telenovela that we get into it too.

In the melodrama, the names are mention, with details, the actions are exaggerated, the voices change, the use of the space is wider, and the face expressions are even more exaggerated. All of this elements together catches the audience’s attention. Suddenly from a dull story we turn into the BIG interesting story, which make us wake up again.

Just by mentioning the names in the melodrama part and not that much in the real-life story, is that we see the difference between one and another, and how just the use of the names, change the story from real to the telenovela, it also suggests that real life is not that important and TV is, as the names are clearly mention in the TV and as said before not that much in the real life story. The actors do not have to tell us that they are “inside the tv” but we can clearly see this by the change of characters, and the totally different use of the elements previously mention.

Also we can see how the TV and the real life connects, as at the end of the telenovela we can see that the actress ends up coming to the real life story because of something that happened in the telenovela.

CONNECTIONS:

We’ve have never seen a theatre like this one before in terms of the melodrama part, but the use of exaggerated plot and exaggerated characters, reminded me of  theatre of the absurd, this theatre emphasizes the absurdity of human and exaggerates movement too as the text is absurd and we need to understand the plot, the actions need to be exaggerated, this kind of theatre is funny just like the melodrama part in this play.

REFLECTION:

We can see how melodrama works, and how it catch the audience’s attention in this play, but to what extend does melodrama work? I mean how much can we use it? It obviously does not apply to every plot, as the plot has to be exaggerated but how much can we use so that it doesn’t turns monotonous and boring? It obviously works in telenovela, but because there is always something to the story to be added, and still for me telenovelas are boring as we see the SAME story always: two lovers, one bad girl who wants to separate them, separates them and finally come together. It may change sometimes but it’s always that story, so to what extend can we use this melodrama effect, if I want to do a melodrama play? Melodrama implies “exaggeration of plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions” but to what extent can we use this? Here it worked in a part of the play, and it worked as a surprise element, but would’ve worked in all the play? If it would have been use in all the play, wouldn’t it turn boring? TO WHAT EXTEND SHOULD WE USE MELODRAMA?!

...Que pronto se rompe

Description:

This week I've had the opportunity to work with the "ich" group, which are the oldest group, I've helped them build their characters, and learned from them too. 

Analysis:

The ich group is very different in the working area, than my group which are the “shrei” (before they were call geist). I had to ask Nicole the things they’ve done in order to keep on working and not going back, in sense of behaviour they are almost the same than my group, they distract quickly and distract their mates too.

For that class I had plan just for them to act on scenes with the people that they have to act to, but they got so distracted that I had to bend this a little bit in order to have balance groups and the man who was working alone to explore more his inner character.

I’ve learned that some actors are easier to work with in the sense of imagination, they would do the scenes on their own and add different things to it. But others I had to sit with them and explore which was totally different from my group as they would just do the scene and I would tell them what do to. I think that music is the best way to explore your inner feelings so I put some background music to set the mood and to turn the actor’s imagination on.

Connections:

Music reminds me of Max Reinhardt which thinks that music it’s a very important tool. So maybe we should use it in every rehearsals, and more in an expressionist play, that one of the main target is to transmit/ take out the inner feelings of the actors.

Also for example in a Matter of dissection, we started the play with music, which of course set the mood within the audience, and It allowed me as an actress, to have a deeper mood and feeling of the scene, which made me belief what I was performing. And not only in that scene was that we used the music but we also used it for the “persecution part” which set the funny mood, and again it made you

Reflection:

I would say as a conclusion that music is very important, either to set the mood, or to give the actress a deeper feeling of the character, and of course as a tool to explore it. And this been an expressionist play, the importance of music is even higher, in my group we’ve worked with the music to explore different feelings and to portrayed them, I think most of us have done so, but I think that the only ones which has actually used it are the older ones: the “ich”, but to what extend is music important in our play? We don’t want a musical, so we may not use it all the time but we certainly want to use music, so how much should we use, how do we know what certain amount should we use? So that the audience don’t get bored?

School Play Rehearsals

DESCRIPTION

This year’s school play is going to be German expressionism, the IB power puff girls are in charge of this and this week we’ve been working in our groups, directing the kids. I’ve been doing two scenes from the play, the first and second scene, I divided the groups in two one of only boys and the other one of girls and two boys.

Also in class we’ve learn the different types of lanterns and how this will be applied in the play. In class we learned the different types of lanterns and the ones we will be using are: the PAR’s which are always used in the school plays, and the one we have a lot of, even though this doesn’t have lens and we cannot focus the light as the spotlights. Also we will be using Fresnel’s and finally spotlights which the school will be buying. Besides this we will use projectors to project some images we want as part of the scenery.

We looked at the scenery and Roberto came with the idea that we will have 4 levels in the ‘real-life’ story within the play and we have to come out with the ideas of the dreams.

ANALYSIS:

First of all, the school play rehearsals are very enjoyable, my group are call the “Geist”, I prepared two scenes and I tried directing as good as I could: I did an inner-performance before giving them the scenes, we explored different feelings, such as anger, sadness, scariness and others, this I think helped them understand a little bit more what we meant about the inner feelings coming out when you perform, in the final result I realised that the acting was not exaggerated at all, as I did not rehearse exaggerated movements, or I did very little of it. So this is why I will be doing exaggeration exercises next week, as German expressionism is all about body and face expressions. For the face expressions I will be using tension and relaxation gestures, so that they get used to have exaggerated expressions and to give the effect of a mask. I will also be using music as an external tool, and breathing as an internal tool, so that they can get more into the mood. The breathing helps a lot to transmit the feeling of the actor to the audience, it’s in my opinion one of the best ways of transmitting either anger, happiness, etc. As you do not only transmit it to the audience but you also feel what your character is feeling. Also the music helps a lot to take out the inner feelings of an actor, that’s why I’ve spent a whole rehearsal with different type of music to set different types of mood within my characters. Still as said I need to work on the exaggeration and breathing as well.

The four level idea was for me very inspiring, and I would love to be doing the one for the dreams, but I can’t as we don’t even have a storyline, I know that it’s my duty to do this, but we’ve never talked about it deeply as a group, but looking at the rehearsals, the ‘shrei’ have been working on short scenes and I liked the zombie scene they did, I thought it could be the blue dream. My vision for the kids in blue for this first dream is like this performance, not the acting but the make-up and the idea of the bald heads.

CONNECTIONS:

As I have some of the music that we may use in the play, next time I will use this music for the rehearsals. As in “El ultimo ensayo” the music in this year’s school play, in my opinion, needs to be very well done as it will be the music and the actions of the actor together that will set the mood within the audience. As in “El ultimo ensayo” where when there was a ‘funny part’ (the Calacas) the music changed completely, or there was slow music, meaning something else, that’s indeed the feeling I want the audience to feel in the performances.

REFLEXION:

As said before this week I’ve been working on two scenes, and this was very challenging for me as I had to split myself into two in order to see both of the scenes. When I did the music technique with my group, they were not motivated at all, so I wonder if they will be motivated with the exaggerated movements. Anyways they do not have an option, if they want to be in the play they have to do this movements, but how to motivate them?, what should I do?, and how to target what I want? Which is that everyone gets involved and excited, and therefore do a great job? Also are this exercises going to work?, I know I must try to know, but if they do not work what else should I do?, maybe try them again? But then it will turn REALLY boring. How do they know they work? Maybe in order to stop doing this exercise they encourage themselves to do it better just once and then what? How to know if the feeling from the actor comes from the inside?

Confesiones de Ana Correa

DESCRIPTION:

“Confesiones” by Ana Correa was an unipersonal in which the actress shared important parts of her life and how this was an influence to her characters.

In order to show this two different scenes (the one where she is telling her story and the one that her characters are acting on), she created an inner scenery: with a tape she formed a square in the stage and when she was in this square, she was a character acting, and when she was out she was herself.

In order to change her characters, she was wearing many costumes one on top of the other, and while she was talking, she would take the clothes off and put it in a big bag she had. The first costume she had was from a nurse, she was already on stage when the audience came in and we could feel a “Paucartambo” mood, as she was throwing things on to the audience and she was a wearing a mask, like the ones used in Paucartambo. The second costume was of a poor woman, the third was by Bernardina from Santiago, the fourth of a teacher, the fifth was from Yerma and the sixth from a character in “Sin titulo, tecnica mixta”.

ANALYSIS:

First of all what I found very interesting in this unipersonal, was the use of the space, we could clearly see too different spaces that represented two different things, one was of the real world, in which we could see Ana Correa sharing stories of how her characters were built up, and the other one, was the one in which she portrayed her characters. One was of description and the other one was of image.

This separation of the scenery was very catchy, as we could see how an actress changes into a character. It taught us that we can have two different spaces on stage, even though the scenery was very poor, as it was all black, this helped a lot in the changes of scenery. The scenery was completely changed just by the use of props, and how the actress filled this stage. In my opinion the resonance here was very controlled and measured. Because even though she was telling us her experience, she performed this in such a way that everything fit in, she even had a book, which sometimes may read, and then she knew where to change and where to enter the character-stage and everything was precise.

Also I learnt that the texture is very important, it creates different moods on stage and in the audience. In this play in particular, the use of different textures helped the audience understand the characters inner intentions. For example, in the fifth character which was from Yerma, she was a washerwoman that was hanging up the clothes, she used real wet clothes, which gave the scene a more realistic and deep meaning, we could see that the clothes were wet, as they looked heavier, and the actress got wet when she was surrounded by this clothes also the floor got wet by the clothes, this gave a meaning to the play, as it showed that she was not pretending to be a washerwoman but she was one.

Also the use of the plastic bag (we can see a picture bellow), gave this scene another perspective, with this and the use of her body she made a foetus, we could see what the intention of the character was, what she wanted and could not have, which was of course a baby. But what if she used cloth instead of this plastic bag, would it have been the same? Because the bag gave the exact meaning of this foetus, the texture as we can see is VERY important on stage as it creates a mood and a reaction in the audience.

CONNECTIONS:

We could clearly see here the effect of “divided image”, which is when we visualize two different things which finally joins. We can see this effect in this play, as the characters and the actress came together, they join and they are one, as every aspect of the actress life keeps on bringing the characters she built from her experiences. Also we can see this in “El ultimo ensayo”, when the old Yma Sumac and the young Yma Sumac come together at the end; we visualize in our minds  two different Yma Sumacs, but they are actually one.

Also the texture, as already said created different moods, for example, we want to use metals in this year’s play to create a cold’ish feeling within the audience.

Also regarding the different ways of changing characters, the actress wore one cloth on top of the other and while she was talking she took the clothes out. Another way of changing characters as already seen is having a black base costume and then add simple clothes on top which are easy to wear and take off: As in Shadow Queendom and Valle oscuro.

REFLEXION:

This week we’ve talk a lot about the magic of theatre, when theatre works, which is when the audience can see things on stage that are not there, such as in Yma Sumac, when we could see that the actors where singing to her, while there was only a chair there, or for example what mimes do such as Marcel Marceau (we can see a video bellow), which incredibly makes the audience see what is not there, this clearly requires a great body work, and as in this year’s school play we want to focus a lot on the body expression as it is one of German expressionism’s conventions, I was wondering how to achieve this, I’m not saying that this year’s play is going to be a mime play, but in my opinion doing exercises about this , of “mime” would help a lot in the characters development and it would turn on the imagination of the actors, but in order to do this the use of the body is very necessary, and we want exaggerated movements, but how do we achieve, in such a short time this kind of skills?, maybe doing articulation movements? Would this help? What exercises can help in order to achieve this? Or we should just give them the scenes and work, without any preparation?