Stages type two and what matters: Saba's standup

Description:
This week we had an encounter with a rather unusual type of theater, Santiago, a member of our IB theater group, invited us to watch his stand up comedy performance at La estacion in Barranco. We were in for a very good surprise when we arrived because there were more than 30 friends there waiting to see this impressive performance.
The idea of this presentation was to close an intensive course o stand up comedy and santiago was basically the best of the presentation with a lot of sound in the form of claps and whistling.

Analysis:
What i enjoyed the most in the performance was the dynamic and highly rhythmical performance which made me think in what i really want to see and get when i go to watch theater. I enjoy very much when i get engaged and what better than having a comic presentation to get this characteristic of theater. I loved the way in which the audience including me was very patient and had a lot of positive energy about what was going on. I think that if we can portray all of this characteristics that make a performance of that type into our own theatrical presentations, we will be able to get the audience the entertainment they want.

Connections:
I got the same feeling as when i go to watch usual One act plays and i am already prepared to laugh and that is precisely what i do, this is what i want in a school performance, the predetermination to like it and the mind prepared to understand it whatever it is.

Reflection:
It is very difficult to transmit the feelings from a regular comic presentation to a more dramatic performance when the audience has to use more imagination and engage in a deeper type of thinking to get the idea, game and special characteristics of a Play.

The importance of the unexpected

Description:

The unexpected is what might give a play a different appeal than others usually do. People like surprises and sometimes we enjoy being ready for them but without really knowing what is going to happen. The idea is that a play has to have something to engage you with and if it is not a comedy then it cannot be only the text and so usually the plays that lack in text use a lot of characterization or other characteristics to get your attention. In this case we went to watch "Desarraigos" from a Colombian theater group that had a very clear characteristic it was very monotonous, very much like "lo mas resistente", i felt almost the same feeling of knowing what is going to happen next because as it was a very repetitive play then you almost got the idea of what was coming.

Analysis

 This of course created a feeling of charged atmosphere that made me feel as if i was watching something over and over again and it was obviously tedious.

The idea of a play in terms of a business is to entertain the audience so that the money they payed is well paid and then they tell other people to go and basically this is the cycle. In this case it had a very important degree of scenery and 2 very good actresses in terms of voice and stage presence but they seemed more of singers than actual actors. I can say that this play is created to make the people that produce it and act it to have a good time but the simple fact is that this is too complicated to understand and therefore dull at its most.

Connections

The week gave us the opportunity to read a play done 100 years ago in the German expressionism time which treated themes from this century and that has to mean something. I think that  Expresionists had a very open mind and that they understood the liberal way of thinking at its most. The themes presented in the play made me thought of current daily life were that story of a girl dying from a bad abortion practice is almost the story of every day and that the idea of sex and the fact that older ideals of conservatives protected youngsters from knowing about this made it more difficult for them to take care.

Reflection:

I could understand the importance of engaging the audience in what you want to present and that without it the audience will feel that it is not worth it.

The ideas might be the same although the times have changed, Spring awakening, portrayed this ideas but with the frame of thinking from people in that time, the question would be was it better that way or is ti okay the way it is now?

Presentation 3 days

Description:
This week we finally had the Andean theater presentation with the help of our director Roberto and a group of musicians that also went in that amazing trip to the Peruvian highlands.We presented even though we were almost about to let that opportunity go and give up. The presentation was very colorful with a lot of participation of the audience and specially the third day, El Bosque, was the best one because of the interaction and the reaction of the people who really made it feel as if we were very nearly in Paucartambo.

Analysis:
This presentation made me think of a lot but mostly the difficulty of actually performing with this type of clothes and masks. The heat was tremendous in the third day and with the more than 5 items of clothing, we werent able even to breath deeply and so we couldnt shout as we were supposed to. In the first 2 days i think our performance was in decadent success, in the first day we were able to create a bit of the atmosphere we wanted but still we could achieve every thing we wanted to while in the 2nd day we did a much shorter performance than we were expecting to and i personsally felt a bit disappointed with that day. Finallly the 3rd one was the best, we created the atmosphere and kept it until the end which was a great final with the students satisfied with what we gave them.
It is very important to note how the people from the school still cant see this relation between what we do and the culture that is around them, meaning that even though it is something purely peruvian, they still cant feel it as their own and they alienate themselves from the reality of their history and people.

Connections:
I felt a very powerful link to paucartambo in case of the audience response to the party and i felt free to move around the space following the conventions we are used to.
I was able to see that people are more used to the festivity and still don't get a full attachment towards the music and dance thus, they actually do it in the part of the gifts because they are less used to be given food for free, creating a sort of anomaly situation and therefore making them go nuts for them, just as the Christmas celebration were even though it has a religious meaning, the part you enjoy the most is the presents you are given because it is something unusual and once every year.

Reflection
I felt a strong attraction from the people of the school towards the presentation, following from the idea of chaos that made the people feel reliefed and from the atmosphere of party that is what rounds up the whole performance.

Report PPP Andean

Description:

This week we worked towards the ppp for andean theater presentation, we had to create a piece of report to sum up all of our ideas for the PPP and visions for the performance. After doing the part of the PPP corresponding to each, we had to send a report. Mine was for the change in routine that the people from the school, our audience, experience through the presentation. I said that we are used to have a calm and respectful, much like a prison for our minds in our daily life, but with the presentation, the audience was able to experience chaos i n a place were chaos is scarce, exploding moments in a calm place and picaresque characters in a place were people have to dress up as integer citizens in all time.

Analysis:

I was able to understand how the people from paucartambo not only enjoy the performance and celebration for the obvious reasons we know, such as the importance to the town or the religious/cultural meaning as well as clearly the show that it makes. I was able to see that people enjoy celebrations along this lines because of the "wild" feeling it creates, it sets you free, all the alcohol, the music, the spectacle and the joy from the performers gets you into a different environment and a different mood (change in the routine) that can be understand as another state of mind in which the audience gets involved so much that it is actively participating and enrolling in action. We could say that the people from Paucartambo and us, the school audience, are not that different because we both can engage in that same activity of the mind set.

Connections:

It is like when you go to party, you have another mind set, such as a sports car when it goes to a track, you can engage to be ready to enjoy even if you are not in the mood just because you feel released from that prison that society creates through educational system and then when you are released, you can activate your most deep analitical sense and just simply enjoy without knowing why. This exact thing happens with the celebration, the music, the chaos, the environment, the people make it feel as if it is a real pary, which in a sense it is, and you can just relax and flow with the current.

Reflection:

It is clear for me now that first of all you have to think deeply in the audience you are presenting the performance to but more important to know you performance well enough to realize that you can actually present it to almost anyone because this is a mind setter performance that actually suits any like and any idea of theater due to its different interpretation and effect in people.

Play review comparison

This thursday the 25th we had a three way unipersonales presentation in the school theater. We had first Hayde Caceres, a very renounced actress in Peru, then, a cuer2 presentation with Chiara and "lo mas resistente" and finally the third and last, a 1 hour presentation by xxxx Grosso, an invited argentinian actress.
Hypothesis: what is the most important part for the creation of a uni-personal.
I would like to start with the one I enjoyed the most, Hayde Caceres 's "la madre" which showed a very lomg production and training process to achieve such a wonderful connection between the actress and the audience and to create a link and a relationnin which the audience was totally inmersed in what was happening. The elements she used were just a briefcase and some clothing, acompanied by a dash of rum used to enhance the atmosphere of  relief and distress throughout the play. She presented a play in which a cabaret or entertainer, who has reached a certain age in which she cant get a contract, is send to do a presentation saying she was a transsexual and talks about her life and issues.
Th main instrument for this performance was the excellent use of the voice which Hayde has mastered to perfection and then the ability to mantain a certain connection with the audience that allowes her to express a  story of deception and  harshmoments followed by a life revelation and a scream of forgiveness. Another key feature fir this presentation was the high rythmical interaction and the fast response created by e reactions in the fake audience and through the actress proyected to us.
After this we saw the first propor unipersonal, cuer2 presented "lo mas resistente" which to me was the most incoherent and non related play of them all. It not only lacked precision and relation with the audience but was also very difficult to understand without giving into account the fact that it was very monotonus. Chiara showed a lot of energy and a very intense process in which she worked towards the use of the body and together with the simbolism of e ropes and book she used to performe, she was aboe to loose the connection with the audience, the only parts in which I felt somewhat intrigued by the performace was when she threw e only 3 phrases of the play, which seemed very profound, but still very difficult to process and to get a grasp of the whole idea of the play, you had to inmerse yourself in a lot of analysis because once agaij it was not a self explanatory idea of performance. The basic idea was of a women that has a certain connection with her old house and she gets into a kind of  frenesi in which she feels trapped by the memories of the past and the people, because she seems to represent more than one person, that dont allow her to loose free of all perjudicm and link.
Finally xxxxx Grosso presented a very unusual type of play which showed the great difference between the Peruian conventions and those from the Argentinians. She was a woman that explained her life through a series of situations that involved 3 different stages of life, first the one in which she feels love for the first time, then a imaginary son situation followed with the ending of her first marriage, then she falls again, this time for a me kind of guy that was able to comply with all what she needed, in terms of desires i mean, and finally there is a trip to Greece which i really couldnt understand very well.
She presented herself with 5 portions of clothing or elements that were related to each of the stages of life. And in a performance separated in 5 scenes she was able to atract our attention, even after we had seen the first 2 plays and we very mentally tired, she was able to produce mixed opinions and apreciation in between us whcih some appreciated more than others.
Overall i think that there were very clear preferences towards the most conventionsl and word spoken one of the plays which was the one called "La madre" and then the other fall by there own into certain position to which in my opinion was followed by the one by the argentinian actress and finally came "Lo mas resistente" , that even if showed a very good level of energy and body expression through intense preparation, was the most difficult to understand and process and for those reasons, together with the monotonus issue, was the one i enjoyed the most.
As we can see from the presentations, it is not only the process that takes in place for this kind of presentations to be good but also, it is in some ways, the actor or actress, the story and the direction that takes place for it to occur.

PPP Andean Theater

Description:
The PPP for the Andean theater presentation is a fundamental part of the course in the IB because at the end of the 2 year course, we will have to present a final PPP from a stimuli given by the IBO and so we have to develop all sorts of analysis and interpretation skills as well as the necessary ability to develop this piece of art which has to have all the investigation and development process of the stimuli.

Analysis:
The whole idea of the PPP seems a little bit to much because well we are used to be judged by our results, but in this opportunity what the IB wants is to see the process of our work and how we develop our ideas other than just looking at our results which means that we have to take into account all the mistakes and all the different ideas we have into the PPP. We have to discuss over and over again so that we can go deep inside the best ideas. Ideas only develop well if you work on them, you have to spin them around your head so that you can see through the vague but shiny ideas to those which are really possible but maybe no that well looking.
It is a process that you have to pass through if you want to actually create a play because not all good ideas can really be done, most of the people think that their ideas can be achieved but experience and actual practice performance can tell you the real difference between a probable and a possible idea.

Connections:
When someone tries to get concrete ideas, those that can be used, he has first to try them as much as he can. It is only through mistakes that you get to the final answer and that's why i compare this PPP with a recipe. As you can see, recipes arent always there to work, there are some that dont or just some that you cant understand and so you cant complete them as they should, that's how ideas work, you just have to try until you get somewhere.

Evaluation:
In the beginning i thought that PPP had no real meaning because it was based on judging the process which is nonsense but now i can see that it prepares us to have a much deeper view on the analysis measures that we can work on.

Idem 2

Description:

This week we continued with the Andean performance and we discussed certain in-conformities that we had with respect to the central idea that was, to some extend, copied from another performance from years before. As I said last week, some members were missing the other week and so they, who came with fresh ideas, decided to help us with the performance and the new idea developed was the Kiosk and the rise in prices from year to year, which again suited the desired type of topics and the audience would easily relate to that.

Analysis:

The New analysis for the stimuli based in the idea of the prices in the Kiosk and how they rise each year in food and drinks like Coke which is 2.5 soles or like chicken which is 4.5 soles which to all is too much. We thought of this idea because people in the past years, or students at least have always discussed this rises in prices that to us have no sense. The idea of the whole performance is to present something that relates directly to the issues that the school students, our audience, are aware of.

We want to include in our performance the conventions of the Entrada, the syncretism and the Guerrila ( rapto de la Imilla -> Salim) that to us were the most important and impressive to see and to perform.

In terms of the places we are going to use I think that the Entrada should be through the main rock path in the football courts and then directly to a dance and protest in front of the Kiosk. Then we should continue with the kidnap of Salim and run towards the Churchill patio because of the space (big spaces more actions) and then the Bosque should be as we wanted in the top of the main door to the theater. We chose this locations because we want to give the dynamics that the actual performance has and then we need space so that the whole school can approach and see. We need some fabrics to put in the patio so that the space is reduced to a more intimate diameter so that we wont be lost in the crowd.

Connections: 

The prices in the Kiosk -> Syncretism

The school problems -> Audience

Big spaces and fast pace -> The Kiosk, the Patio and the dancing

Evaluation:

In my opinion our main problem is to see if the people are going to attend to the celebration and how to get their attention. We have proposed many options like warakasos in the corridors and live music which seems the best option to me because as well as it is a convention, it is a good way to make the people notice us.

The Andean performance

Once every year, the 1st year IB students present a Andean theater performance using all the information and conventions studied during the course in the year. This often means the final performance in the school for all of us and we have to present in 3 days during the first break.
For this presentation we received, during the week, the visit of our own Felipe Ayulo who discussed with us the importance of that performance and how they did them in their time. The idea of this weeks classes was to get the idea of what we wanted to portray at the presentation and to discuss a possible PPP proposal.
We got into the mood of creating and started thinking in possible ways of dividing the performance, the theme, the concept, the vision and the characters we wanted to represent, all taking into account the conventions from Andean theater and the studied information that allow us to create something from that environment.

The discussion was all about first finding a suitable theme that would not only represent the studied convention but also something that students, our audience, could relate to. We discussed the current affairs and the news that were affecting the world now until we reached the idea of "the one and the other" which summed up a bunch of good ideas with connection with discrimination and social injustice.
The idea was to say that people always think in the one and the other is despised by the whole society and so we used this idea to criticize how discrimination occurs not only between races but also inside each of them and how the lack of respect to the other people might create confrontation that harms us all. Then we decided on the theme to be presented which developed from the idea that teachers, in the past, used to represent a more authoritarian power than now and so they were like the "ONE" while students represented very well the "OTHER" and so we decided to base the whole play upon the idea of the "Entrada" and to develop a plot in which the first action would be a take over of the Churchill patio in the school and then represent the changes that occurred in time to this idea of the confrontation between teachers and students that resulted in more equality and respect from each side.
We wanted to represent a evolving situation in which first:

ONE = Teacher
OTHER = Students

The after the take over....

ONE = Students
OTHER = Teachers

and finally.....

Teachers + Students = AYLLU

These all seemed like very good ideas in the paper which would give the play a lot of dynamics in terms of the space and the actions and therefore a lot of rhythm but we also needed a guideline and so the concept was decided to be: PACHAKUTI which means the world upside down. And it is really a world upside down because the take over and the fight would then be a representation of arts and as it was defined in the past week to us: A way to express our selves that can create a change in great masses.

Purposes and goals

This week we had a great discussion in terms of purposes and goals we wanted to achieve with the One Act play and all started because Roberto was upset that we all put in our blogs and reviews how great our play was without thinking on if we achieved what we wanted with it. To this was and what do you think we wanted to achieve? Its very simple, to me, everybody has a different perception of things and in this case achievements, goals and purposes. The fact is that even if you want to decide on a general achievement, still, people have different approaches to it and everybody has a different way of saying, yes i did it.
In my case for example and as i discussed in the class it was a matter of entertaining. What i like to see in a play is a fast response, stunning rhythm and a dash of dynamics and with this i think its all i need to have a great time in the theatre because with these 3 factors then the play has a faster pace and it stops being to dense even with a text based play as La falsa Criada is. Its simple when a play is fast and has a good response then you can stand any mistake, any problem with music or lighting and any problem that not working towards a character makes. In this years One Act Play that has the simple purpose of entertainement, we need then a dynamic play so that people can engage in a serious of jokes and situations that are comic to all. We had a intense argumentation in the way of explaining why is this the only way of theatre that entertains and is joyful to watch and what is more true than that. We cant take for granted that they all like theatre, im talking about the people that as me went to watch play that dont necesarilly suit their preferences but still they go because its aobligation and what a better surprise than to show a play that they  really liked.
The general comment from the play were that it was fantastic and it was a great show and everybody enjoyed the jokes, the situations but more than that they all said that we showed a lot of commitment and respnsable relation with the play and performance.
The discussion saterted because Roberto said that we didn't achieved what we wanted in the start and then the question in our mind was, and what did we wanted? Again in my opinion and i think this is what most of us thought, the idea was to let the school name high as always and reassure that the level our theater course has is better than the other schools but more than that to give the audience what the other One Act plays that my school has presented which is a great 20 minutes that i can really enjoy and then use as inspiration for a lot of reasoning and critical thinking.
What could be a goal and purpose then of a play such as La falsa Criada in which their director said that he didn't improve the stage and couldn't really care about the characterization of El Baron in the play because "it was too much work" as he said in an interview. Does he really care about theater and that people that pay 45-60 soles to watch a performance that couldn't frankly reach any of my expectations in what i look for in a professional play, I mean how can you possibly say it is too much work if for this "work" you are earning money, i mean what is the purpose of making a play in which you don't put the whole of your attention, its just a matter of passion and purpose that your play gives as much as you can give and how can someone like that be so called the "best director in Peru" come one who with that idea of achievement can possibly have such an acknowledgement.

La Falsa Criada

La Falsa Criada was presented at Theater La Plaza and had a great cast of actors that resembled what to me was an entertaining and dynamic play which  had most of what i look like in a professional play but still was lacking in much other thing this allowing me to review it better.

Acting wise the play lacked in the details that make a women be a man. As simple as that. The voice that tried to disguise the difference between the Baron and the girl behind the clothes were not more than pathetic, if you have any kind of culture you have to know how a man speaks and the only time in which she tried to use a real man voice was when she used the stereotypical posture of the handsome man that wants to conquer a broken hard. In the fast dialogue parts she was so not used to a man voice that it was hardly recognizable if the character was still being used or if she had just forgotten about the performance. The voice presented by Lelio was a repetitive sequence from the same actor which in La Cocina by Gisella Cardenas had the same voice range and then made as well as a stereotypical kind of "Don Juan" a very dense dialogue. The only character that improve the performance in terms of acting techniques and also presented a varied way to interpret and deliver the information were the Harlequin and the servant, they both had a diverse way to entertain, not only through the dialogue that was more of a colloquial with slang type but also through the characterization that was more profound and the body expressions. These helped the play to be lets say dynamic because if it was based upon only text then it would have been very dense.

The scenery which is mostly what you can see concretely was another failure, i have tried to make up in my mind reasons to think why are those walls ther and why do they use the outside of the house as their private space. It has no meaning at all to me, the panels at the sides resemble 2 walls that seem to be endless and then you see the frontis of the house that again has a very detailed design, that respects some of the architecture of the time and then you see this open window from which someone could appear and then no one does. Then the door, why to have a door if you wont use it, and when you do is to show that there is a countryside landsacpe painted and the back? It has no coherence with a normal plain play in which the scenery is turned to show the difference with the outside and the inside of the house. The play was divided in 3 settings and the first gave the impression that we were looking at the entrance of a house with a little fountain in the middle, perfect, but then suddenly in the second setting the same place is shown but no there is a chair, an oleo and a resting chair in the side, i was expecting for a little more of common sense or at least a way to understand what is is that they are trying to show with that. 

Then the Costumes and again the cliche with the kind of clothing a countess would use and the typical prince clothes but then you see a Baron that has the hips of Shakira and the boobs of Shaquille because it was obvious that she had forgotten the bra o the fitting clothes in her house. There was also something that i couldn't really get the grasp of and it was that since the moment the Baron would unbutton the first of his buttons then he became a women to the eyes of everyone

 In terms of the lighting and the sound, i was told that my performance, the one i went to watch was the worst in those aspects because first the lights never went off at the part in which the countess leaves the stage through the door and then the music was very hardly heard and of course because it was a very bad piece of recording, it cracked every 10 seconds and entered when ever it liked.

In my opinion as i have stated before i like dynamic plays that have response and have a coherent setting. As you may understand then the only reason for me to watch a play like this is for pure educational purposes, these means that yes it had certain parts such as the games with the hats and the the drunk singing that satisfied what i look for in a performance of this caliber but it had such a dense dialogue and such a confusing scenery that the play seemed just a little to strong for me. I would have like more attitude of a better body expressions in those parts in which the characters said their hyper loaded and precious lines that had made them work hard to learn and they said them with such grace and so slow that i was about to leave but then the funny characters came in, the cheese parts of the Baron and countess falling in love in the most absurd but true way possible. So in fact yes the acing was not what i expected but still it passed satisfactorily my tests.

This is not the case of the scenery which in the other hand cause my the worst headache. It was like ancient language, virtually impossible to decode. IF they were trying to make us think and imagine the boundaries of our stage they should have at least prepared some directions in some where there because it was very difficult to situate yourself in that space. At first it was to big, to broad and then it seemed so small, so over exploited that it became clumsy and almost as if they had no more money to put more scenery in the stage. They used a space in so many different ways that it lost total coherence to the audience, it just seemed never ending and then when i finally thought i had it, a landscape is painted behind the door, door that was only used once by the harlequin to interrupt the discussion and when he opens you are able if you want to already look behind his back into what seemed A never ending Narnia n closet. And i don't thinks that's what they had i mind do you?

After watching this joke of a scenery the light problems occurred, the light that was supposed to turn off didn't and the actress that seemed to have an urgent meeting with the toilet or something couldn't just have a better idea than to flick her fingers to signal the already stressed light mechanic that it was a time for a black out, finally the light went off and that was almost the end. I know that this could have not been their fault but that how theater works, you just have to do what it takes and if you are so called professional you just cant do that at all that was to me the worst mistake and the bottom of the iceberg in terms of respect to an audience, an audience that is not stupid enough to not notice that kind of signals more if the lights are all over you.

The question i developed for this review was, what makes the difference between pros and rookies and i think as you can see the only thing i can find is that they are allowed to flick fingers as if it was some kind of High School Musical. Regarding the other aspects of the performance you can clearly point out that there was some but not much work done in terms of the characters and the characterization, it focused more in the text and in the people you could see on stage. A recommendation would be that if you are trying to entertain a audience that is paying 60 soles, you at least make sure that the play can be understand by everyone and not only by those who go to watch their friends acting.

PPP costumes / Voice

If there is any one there that thinks that doing their PPP is easy they are dead. This is a job that requires a lot of concentration and more if you are working with other people that can decide as well as you what to do because then the coordination needed for the final product is essential. For the past 3 classes i have been trying, really trying my best to present a good PPP for the costumes of our one act play performance and i am no where there.
Its incredible how can a simple PPT presentation be so difficult, first if you have no drawing skills like me and if there is more than one idea to do the basic designs. How can you think on what someone else wants to wear? its very difficult and complex preparation because you need to take into account that you have to talk to you partners on the design then follow the color scheme and finally let Roberto to decide.
The thing with costumes is that you have not just to imagine them but to feel them, you have to try and visualize the character and the respective actor wearing that costume and then focus on the actions these characters have to do and how the costume affects the entrances of these actors because if the character leaves the stage and come back as another character like in our play, it has to be using a easy costume to put on, maybe a simple jumper or some kind of cloth so that the entrance can be done fast enough and very clear without having awkward silence moment or having to force some extra lines to give the actor more time.
Finally the other aspect of my post today is the voice which as all actors would agree on, one of the most important factors affecting a play and the final product. The voice is for the actor what the feet is for the dancers, or at least when it is a spoken play because it is not only changing the voice to suit a different character but also projecting the voice to make the whole audience clearly listen and understand what you say but mostly to help you develop you character to its maximum extent because a character that uses your own voice is never as good and as real as a character with a new voice, something different and something that helps you connect with him or her better
I could saee how different people can work with ranges of voices that come from very high pitch and low pitch, we can see this even in my theater group were we all have different ranges and some can represent a women while to others its very much more difficult, luckily for me i have a very big range which allows me to play with different types of voices and sometimes using some added effects that give the final touches to the voice.
The question i would like to leave for today is: Is it true that anyone can reach all basic ranges of voice with training?
I can tell you that is would be true if you see it by the idea that singers train their voices to reach clearly certain ranges but this does not mean that they can break their range and reach other ranges that they weren't born with. I dont really think that i could break my range because i dont practise enough but i think that i can play enough with that range so that i can play different type of characters easily.


“Try and fail, but don't fail to try.”
Stephen Kaggwa

Spoiled kids

I would like to start this post with some advance in the progress of our One act play which for the moment is what i would call a work in progress. It has developed in terms of plot and characterization but is still not what we need to satisfy our expectations. This week we started with 2 different paths, first the presentations of our PPP's and then the rehearsals of the One act Play which were very good looking until Saturday's which was more of a relaxing one. In terms of the PPP we had a bit of a problem to understand the what was really needed.
It was a bit of a mess to understand because at first i thought it was something for us to understand and for us to see but then It seemed it was really like the real PPP and we actually had to do it in a formal way but due to the fact i cant draw at all i had the idea to do my part (costumes) from internet images but they were still wrong because we were also supposed to make slides with action images in scenes to see how it looked like.
Even though i felt a bit disappointed with my work, I felt it was well done and really felt like we shouldn't had been yelled at because it was a hard try and a part from us no one had already showed theirs. I think thats the problem when you want to be the first, all the pressure comes to you and the class focuses on your work but still it is better for us so that we can understand better and work towards a better mark.

In this weekends rehearsal the tag that was mostly used was very spoiled kids because we werent doing as Roberto wanted but still i think that we did a great job. I was clear that we could have worked harder in the preparation before bu the progress done was great and im looking forward to continue with that kind of job. It was impressive to see how the work is actually improving every day and the energy is getting higher each time and im sure that we will get a better position while we are on the go and not only when we think how to do it.

2 face and 1AP

It is impressive to see how things that on paper work well sometimes flunk in the practice. To compare with, some plays in the basketball tactical book are written to be shown only as theoretical because once they are tried, you see they really dont work as well as you thought they did.
This week we had our first real rehearsal for this years one act play and we had a bit of a discussion in the way we were going to focus the play. It was a moment of concern when we saw that the whole work we had done was for nothing because it was not working in the performance. We had to re do and recycle some of the work to catch up with the lost time and finally have a new idea for the presentation.
To be totally honest i still dont have a clue on how it is going to develop because for the moment it is very dull at least for me. I just feel as if the flow and the swag is not really happening. it is like a very cut and paste like play.

I feel like we have to work a whole lot more to actually understand what robersto whats for us, it is just a matter of dissecting the information and work really hard towards the creation of the play because for now its not the acting skills but the creativity that is lacking. the problem with the actual performance was not the game itself but the texts were too dense and the play didnt develop as we needed for the use of that game. the game that we presented was a mixture between gender bender and 2 face from batman, the idea was to portray 2 characters deviding the body in half and showing by this a counter point between these characters not only in the way of being but i the selection of sides as part of their limitations they cannot turn so they can only appear and disappear from certain places. Because the action were very slow the actual game seemed compromised and we thought of instead of the 2 character we could just do 2 but with a magic door in the back for them to change accordingly and finally we could develop this with more facility because now the entrances were mor fluent and with more energy due to the less focus we needed in mantaining one of the sides and not the other.

Final touches

Its hard to think that people have this easy concept of theatre and in the other hand the teacher thinks that were are being spoiled towards him bu the real fact is that non of those is true. We have a lot of pressure on us because all the people used to see the Newton play as the best and when they do frankly i dont know what to do apart from laugh and look around or change from topic because really in this moment i dont think it is that good.
The comedy is what we use as glue for all of the plays we have produced for the one act play and we use this as the basis of all the work because it makes us enjoy the play and the rehearsals best. Its important for us to like what we are doing because of course it depends on how we take it to do it better or worst.
 We are giving the final touches to the One act play because it needs 2 things rythm and fast entrances. It is easy to see how if these work well instead of having a dull and slow play, we have a dynamic performance easy to understand and enjoy.
The fact is that as th classes come and go we are trying to put a faster atmosphere to the play in terms of direction in which we want it to go. We need to get to a benchmark that is set for all the the newton plays which is just to have a play that is easy to understand  and fast breaking so that the audience keeps hooked to it.
The dinamism is what separate us from the other plays because well they aren't always bad or horrible to watch but they are lacking the sparkle that is this dynamism that allows the audience to engage in our play and to make it entertained for the people.

People pay for the plays to get 2 things first the actual entertainment and then the comfort that their play is the best they could possibly see but also for us the actors the fact that we are producing this play for a paying audience makes us work more towards this and not just allow them to go and have a crapy play.

Other Proffesional plays such as the ones we go to see have a different benchmark sometimes tell something or at least make us understand a point but it is not an entertainment or a reason for us to have a laugh, it depends on the type of play you are producing, the ideas that you will use and how this will relate to the audience you are expecting
One act plays cant be dense comparing it to lets say Yerma because the audience is not ready for something like that, they are not prepared for watching a play that will teach them or will talk about a social criticism but for something that will entertain and a performance that would be suitable for school audience which might not even have knowledge on theatre and are just there to have some fun. It is understandable then the difference between the topics of the One act play and lets say the School play.
Why do we always use comedy?
Well easy. It is for the sake of entertainment and simplicity, and then why are all the School plays so magical well it is the same concept, because the audience is all school pupils and so the play has to be easy to get even for the small kids. Which actually was a big mistake in this years because we had a plot that was intresting but complex and most of the feedback were that students couldnt understand the play.

As you can see it is easy to note the difference between plays that are for different audiences and how the audience you receive affects the themes and the wording and the spectacle effect that we the actors give. If you watch the one act play this wednesday the 5th then you will realize how dynamics and entrances are needed to make a play last less in the mind of the people due to it being easy to diggest.

Yerma and Andian

Yerma does it mean something? Does it create any effect? Any response?

It is supposed to be that humans can reproduce and the men who cant have or are supposed to be badly looked around the traditions in the world. Yerma is a play performed to express the feelings of the oppressed sterile women of the andian world. Why? Well it gives the context of a place were the main economical action comes from the agriculture and farming. It tells the story of a couple that cant procreate and have to live with the bad looks of the people in the town.
I think the idea of the effect it has on them is very well presented but the way in ehich they do it makes a very  lain and very slow play.
Still it had a great plot which not only developed well but was simple, concise and very easy to understand. In terms of acting the display they made was fantastic, they had good voice, response, i specially loved the technique of the conscience and the off voice that intensified the feelings and enhanced the tension in the atmosphere.
One thing i could relate to our play is that we used as well as them the idea of people representing more than one character and so it was easier for me to see this changes without loosing track of what happened.
The use of the space felt i bit much to me, the stage was big enough to use the audience corridor though it did help the dynamics but it was very difficult to see what was happening there.

We could also study a little bit more of the Andean theatre in our class lessons, we had the second test on the readings we made and we are starting to understand better how the celebration of the virgin works, not only the conventions but the concepts and what you can find inside such as the cultural background that come back with the "Taki" and the idea of uncovering their own celebration with that of the virgin.
The origins of the virgin and what the myths say about how did she appeared in the town of paucartambo.
It was impressive to know about the logistics and the preparations that people have to do to create this from practically scratch.
It is an awesome celebration and what i enjoy the most is the way in which the people involve in the performance. It is like they do it mechanically but with such energy and such convictions that it seems like it was more than 200 years ago when it was created.

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its   people."

This resumes it all. Just think about it.

The oral tradition

It is hard to believe that there is people  that think that oral language is a variation of written language while the truth is that oral language is the basis of all knowledge that we have. It is through oral language, through the use of your voice that peole have expressed during the last 2 or more centuries and the need of written language is only due to those who are trying, without a reason, to "understand what is beneath the spoken words", what do they mean and what do people want to say with what they are saying. Without knowing that what people want to say is plain, there is no more to it than what you con understand and there is no need to explain, just to feel and understand it yourself. That is the beauty of oral language, that you just understand what you can and if you cant then it is because you don't want to do it.

For this long week we got the readings for our culture test on Tuesday and i certainly thought it was a bit too much, even if we have a lot of time, we don't like to do this kind of stuff. However i started reading this manuscripts and i manage to like it just a bit but i did so i mean they are good nd they teach you interesting things and i liked them. Their depth in terms on knowledge of topics that people don't usually relate to is impressive and how they manage to distinguish between pure crap and useful information is great but above all it is the way in which they portray it that makes it so easy to understand (Oral literature was awful and i didn't understood a word of it).


The one that talked about oral tradition in cultures is the one that i related too the most and it is because it showed i part of me in it. The fact is that i really think that written literature sucks and i much prefer to listen than to read but even a book that explains the lack of importance that oral language has is also to be read and so increases the lack of importance or shall we say the super high importance that written literature has acquired over the past years. It is highly impressive and even impacting how the written literature is far more important than the oral part of language and how the disciple has overtaken the master to a point this master has almost extinguished at its pure level because we still talk through the phone or skype, video calls and even face to face but even this blog is written, Facebook is written and basically every record of life that appears to be stored is written so then what happens to the orals, they have been shrank to the idea of personal communication and mental development, no more. Words are remembered, and words are forgotten at the same time you just have to choose between writing them of saying them and then look what lasts longer in heart and in time.

Stress and evolving situations

We had a great time doing this year’s play, not just because of the hard work we put on the creation but also because it represented a challenge that for my point of view the team had never faced. This year the making become harder as it went. We had to face the workshop of Martin and Maria Laura who helped us not only to build the confidence we needed in ourselves but also the actual skill to make the puppets and more importantly to animate them. We had to overcome the lack of commitment and the faulty time schedules which couldn’t help at all, but after all, we finished fairly well with good ideas being portrayed.

After a big discussion with the people who came to watch the play, i ended up thinking that not only we know about what we are doing but also some other people. This is the most impacting comments I’ve heard from the people who spoke to me and gave me some feedback.

·         Vocalise because it was difficult to understand

·         I could see that the idea of magic was major but it came out of nowhere, suddenly a magician appears.

·         The dynamic was impressive, the stilts and the shadow puppets had a lot of potential and you developed them well.

In some way i thought that these ideas were all very clearly thought and in some parts they were actually developing some more than basic understanding, which makes me think that it was clear and concise, apart from the part of magic. Still I think we could have managed to make it lighter for the audience to actually have some empathy with the theme, because some people did told me it was very poor and they thought it was boring.

Now why my tittle? Well it come back to the last performance, no, it actually comes before of that. I am not someone who feels something before the play, i normally are very calm and never nervous about what could happen..... BUT this last presentation the nerves attacked me when i was told to redo the last battle in scene 10 and above all Nicole was given the responsibility to direct and so in a Nicole way of doing thing i almost died with stress and finally I couldn’t manage to do all the proposed scene during the play. It was not only my fault because the fact is that all of us were in the same situation and both I and Katy weren’t able to succeed over the expectations Roberto had.

The other major fault that I had was that the evolving situations were not portrayed as i wanted them to be. We couldn’t relate to each other in terms that the audience wasn’t there feeling what we felt of thinking as we did but only listening because it seemed there was no real fast response and the linking in between the scenes was agonising.

People say that if theatre has no clear connection as if it was a true conversation then there is nothing to watch and basically believing that some words and phrases i say had no meaning at all doesn’t help me in the immersion in my character.

How can you create something new in the last second?

Well i think it needs lots of concentration and a lot of willingness to be able to actually conserve calm and remember the learned part. It was very difficult for me to concentrate with that much people running around while was trying the new bit and also the use of 3 directors was stupid because it only created confusion and misunderstanding in between the actors.

Did some ideas appear from nowhere?

Well it is true that some ideas did came of nowhere but in some way there was the intended trial to portray a magical world just from having a giant queen which i thought was enough to introduce magic and in such a way i thought it was something people were able to expect but in terms of actually were it came from well it was no clearly presented and Santhagar did appear from nowhere.


"Stress is not what happens to us. It's our response TO what happens. And RESPONSE is something we can choose"


A little quote to make you think about stress!
have a great weekend LONG LIVE QUEEN MATHILDA!

3 days to play

We are 3 days away from this years play which i think is the most challenging and hard in the production of them all. This 2 months have been very difficult from time schedules to actual work and even though im not from the ones who worked the most i can say that it has even for me been a very difficult 2 months. But i would like to focus on the actual organization, 1 week ago one teachear who's name i wont mention (Katty) told me that if she was in charge of the play it would be only matter of 3 days to get it done. 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!
What???? are you kidding me do you really think that. That was my reaction and when i got back to my rehearsal, after telling Roberto what miss Katty said, i was thinking that was completely impossible, i mean it is impossible to work like that with children and me(im worst than children), there is no way to get Mathias botteri to shut up of do what you say or get all the water faries to do as you say and act with pasion and enthusiasm. Then i realised the cruel truth..... Miss Katty is feared by all the children in the school.

Im guesing if roberto was too maybe he would be able to do it also in 3 days..... no what im thinking about it is impossible to do this play in such a short time, the play has a lot of working to be done, we first do some games to get the people in the mood and let the people to show their ability in certain activities, then we get them all together to see what each of them should get as a role in the play, and finally we start acting. BUT asthe play is created by the students we always let the people to sort of invent their own script in order to get the best from them all in terms of participation and imagination which always leads to more enthusiasm in the play. It is a very difficult schedule that we make them do and with 80 people following it it is very difficult to have order and have people doing as you want, this means always working and willing to work and of course always attending to the rehearsals to which we always have the problems of people who travel or whao have detentions and other excuses to skip them and so we CANT work like that.

It is a almost impossible siyuation to have the attention that you want and because of that it is not possible to have a play done in 3 days.

Returning to our last weeks the suits were already for us and we had a great time working with them, i have almos dominated my characters of the first act and im ready to work double hard on those of the second act and finally i am waiting for all faborable response to what is going to be expected from us.

Should we give detentions to people during the rehearsals?
how can we get every one's attention?
How can we do a play in a shorter time?

This are the questions i do myself from my discussion and i will answer them in a futher Blog. or at least after i have presented the play and seen if the people there are capable to cope with the expectancy.

Hard work and dedication, 2 of the thing you need for the IB and the play, this is the biggest and strongest connection i can find. It is not only working hard and putting your all into every days work, it is also not wasting your time and never stop producing.
It is just giving your total focus to what you want to achieve and also changing the way you see the world.

This is my goal for trimester 2, changing my attitude towards my teachers and the courses im taking it is just taking it easy with them and putting my all just as im doing in my performance times in the Play.
Even though it is always possible to give more.

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do".
Leonardo da vinci

Tribe life nothing else than what you need

What came first the need or the material things?
Are needs wishes or wants for more?
what is the actual essential for our life?
Can we live with just the essential?

Classes have relaxed a bit with the play almost on our inmediate future because we have been focusing more in the paucartambo trip and talking about that the only idea i can think of is in the discussion with Nicole. We came tothink about the idea of the author being recognised by his work and ended up on a preety important discussion.
Did computer came because of a need or a want. I personally think computers are needs from were you see them, it is imposible to life without one in this times, it is just the idea of living without them what makes me think of complete chaos. People need them to actually organize, i wouldnt be able to write this if i had no computers in my house and many of the gratest stuff in the world are computer generated.
Still people before used other entertainments before such as theatre which makes me think
What are the importances of Theatre now i mean in different places it has different importances. In Peru to give an example it is purely distraction and entertainement for the people who can afford it while in Japan the kabuki theatre is traditional and is a important part of their culture so the importance for them is enourmous, just as the importance for the andian people for the representations and parades of the ancient inka history.
It is very different in other places always depending on their history.
We also talked about culture and how it affects the way you think, I mean if i come from a middle east culture my thoughts towards certain ideas are different to those in the western world.

Connections:

1. the first connection i can do is the relationship between the culture we have and the type of plays we present. we always have a battle, some dancing and it is for all the family to watch.
2. We have always the importance and relation to our world, we would never do it for the sake of presenting a political or religious view we just give some entertainement to the people who watch the performance.
3. Actually needs come before anything because we have this idea of going forward making things simpler and they might not be something completely necessary but still it is needed to then have the actual relevance for its creation.

Shadow Queendom

This week we did a great advance at the play matters and we were able to finish some scenes that we were working on.

I felt for the first time what it was to actually see people concerned because the play was delayed and how acting was improving significantly during the time performed, the focus and the skills such as pronunciation and intonation was also getting better.

In class we worked on 2 things at the same time, we first rested a bit on the PPP but instead we focused on the play work such as in the final touches to the double pirates and some presentation for the promotion of the play in the Assembly.

We presented a original piece of scene that we created specifically for the promotion and we worked on the skills of enouncing and puppets (Saba, Mateo, Me). We discussed how we were going to organize the tasks but finally Mateo and I ended up controlling the big puppet and Saba the hand ones who at the end were the most difficult to use due to their “smallness”.

Continuing with the task given we worked on the PPP as in the Concept and the Vision in how to describe the play and how we saw the actions working.

I was able to see thet without a good movement of the puppet it doesn’t work at all. It is completely necessary to focus directly in the movements and the expression but not only when you talk but also when we are offstage or even walking, which really is the most challenging part of the whole acting.

My question for this Blog is:

How to connect with the other person to be able to work in perfect harmony?

The only answer i can think of is working hard but there is also some knowledge in between and also getting to know the person a little better so that you are completely able to predict his reaction.

2nd part of the PPP

In the second part of the PPP we are supposed to show the concept and vision of the Play we were developing.
In the vision of my play i see a revolving stage, divided by half, and a 2 staired type place for the audience to be seated. the play is watched and the stage turns so that the audience can see whats going on in the other side.
This change happens at least 5 times leaving the play were you left it when it rotates once again.
finally the stage is moved into a position were everyone can see and the dividing part is taken off so that the conclusion happens.

Concept:

10 actors
roles:
1) the Judge(2)
2)the condemned people(2)
4) the atestiguants(6) three for each side
but as in relays 1 is in one side ad the second to appear in the other and like that

Last normal rehearsals

In the last week of clases we discussed 2 things, first we were using the stimuli that we created to then developed it into a plot and concept later on.
We started a first view into our stinuli of the music into which we described it into the instruments there were and the different melodies and variety of tones.

After this we each make a basic idea of what we wanted as a vision andwe ended up with the idea of people waiting in the restroom of  the place wereyoyu get your DNI and there is a conexion between the characters because each of them resembles a feature of the protagonist but he isnt able to recognice it
It is funny because in the end when they ask the name for him to approach the front desk all stand up and go

Another idea i had was to use one of the techniques we are using in the play so that when they call the name every one sort of gets into the protagonist to show that they are parts of him

We also had a grat rehearsal time in which not every body came but at least i was able to continue the creation of my scenes and so i was able to put all my ideas into material stuff
We also had some time with puppets and putting the final touches into the other scenes which helped to the development if the play in all means

In therms of the class work we were working towards the ppp and in terms of ideas i bleliuve that saba and stefano
were the best
but still I think we were able to develop our ideas better and we are getting to do it right

The question i leave for today is How to actually create a concept from musical variations and instruments?

really what are masks?

Masks clearly a world of fantastic atmospheres and indescriptible sensations but really what are masks. Are they just tools, elements even "things" or are they just something you use.

Re small masks also masks?
Is anything that cover your face a mask?
or that is just what we say it is.

Masks are a great theme to describe and i really enjoy talking about them because they are so brad that giving an answer to these questions is almost mposible.
One would say it only depends on what the person thinks they are and then if we are all different then masks could be anything, there is the beauty of arts, it has a lot of meanings which might contradict each other but still work.

Masks to me are elements which have organic features and you can use in your face as a covering to give you a new character. It also hides your real you and by the same means help you to show who you really are.

Masks are not always fisical either, there are also psicologycal masks such as the reputation you create to yourself and how others look at you also is a masks.

In conclusion masks are so big or so small and have so many different aspects that even if you want to cover with one it aenables you to be some one else but at the same time being who you really are. Come on i mean how am i suppose to descibe one if there is no real meaning just a lot of them.

Then i relsaized that the only way of explaining yourself is by doing and if noone understands is just that they have a diferent view of thing.

Why Puppets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Puppets in the play are the basis of the idea that we were developing for this years play. Puppets are not an easy thing to do and even if people say the contrary, not every one can actually do them, it is needed a lot of hard work and also high concentration levels (precisely not my strengths) which means im not the perfect person to do thembut still i have to help because if not the play would be a disaster. In our first weeks we were completely sure that we were doing the right thing, now we are saying, why roberto why? puppets!!! NO!!!

It is simply because we are not having enough help and when we had it we did a lot of mess because many people weren't taking it as serious as it really is. It is a peace of fine art what we are trying to create and this is what makes it difficult. If we are to finish and not just for the sake of finishing but doing it well we will need a lot of hard non stop work as we have been doing during these past week in not only the doing but the making of all the parts that conform puppet making.

And then after this we have to animate them which is a copmpletely different work and for now we havent even seen a single scene so we are in the 80% puppets make.

20% masks
30% scenes

We are to belive that this is a tough job but if we all work together we will make it.

Mercado Central

Have you ever felt that you work very hard and then when you are about to accomplish what you are seeking this simply dissapears.
This saturday i left the school at 1130 in the morning and finally understanded that doing a play or better producing a play which is even harder. The real thing is that it is not only the aspect of writting, creative things or even chasing your exact specifications but alsoworking so hard (walk for 3 hours) for then not even buying one thing but only doing this to get prices.
It is not something bad because this is something you have to do for not getting ripped of by the pressure of time.

The simple reason is that the harder you work it is more difficult to think that you are finished because there is something else to do every day at every time.
Some people would say that if you go somewhere for nothing is time lost of your life. It is like when you go to the pool but you dont swim because you might get a cold or other complications.

Simply if you want good results you need to work hard no matter if you think it is for nothing or for a useless thing but just for the sake of having the best experience to then apply it to the best possibl results abaliable.

Short week

This week we had a very spected short week which gave us lots of reflection and peace time to get back to the usual hard work.
Still on monday we had the last day of our puppets work shop which ended with the most important part of the whole thing.......... HOW TO ANIMATE, yes as you read it. they showed us how to do the actual thing that for me at the star was, at least in my head a very easy thing to do, but as the afternoon went on it seemed much more difficult than what i thought and i really mean it much much more difficult.
SO....I liked it, it was very intresting, good and a very important thing to do.

Still we went into the part i liked the most which i thought was the most interestin part and what simbolizes the whole idea of this blog the EYES......

Yes, if you are to control or as they call it animate the puppet we have to focus in the eyes the fhrase is, "Yo are to look through the puppet to animate it well".

All the concentration comes from the focus and the focus in animation is in the eyes, when you are to master the  art of animating you are going to seem to be one with your puppet, the puppet wont only look as a toll but as an extension of your body, something that feels like you feel and is connected to your brain were you canalyse what you want and shows what you want to show. It is like when you work with your pencil, it thinks what you think but also does the action, though it is not something else that works for itself.

In the same way when you look throught the puppet you are connecting with it and it is only broken when you stop looking.

Just do it

How to do a pupprt?
Can any one do it?

This were some of the questions i did myself in this week theatre course were we learned that any one (even me) can do a puppet.
Im not kiding we were actually tought to do puppets. From the making and from the bare start.

Time for another recipe:

Step 1:

          To start with what every recipe must have is the best ingredients so first we need to have the best materials. in this time we used foam which to Martin (the master of puppets) is the best way to start modelling.
We used this a a basic material, first drawing a normal shape to give your puppet a face shape and then we were to cut with leads to my second step.

Step 2:

          You need to have the right tools to have a great dish, so then the best tools or the ones needed at least are to be used. This are cutter, x cissors and a piquetera which is used to give the details and final touches to the master piece.

Step 3:

          Then, after doing the first part of the recipe we get to the actual making. We are supposed to give this shape that we have done a more human screen which means we need to deform the shape to give it a more round way and finally after all this we are to give it some movement and some trails.

Step 4:

          External parts of the puppet which are the ears and nose are to be done in a special way, they can be done as in a human way or as unrealistic as it can be. This is basically how to make a nose and ear that also helps to create the personalitie of the puppet.


     

this is how its done

This week we had lots of amazing adventures we started with a great play which was performed by a group of pros in Peruano Britanico theatre. This play resembled a kitchen in which actually food was cooked though professional chefs weren’t required. All the actions were done in this kitchen were social offense, fights, discussion and of course love problems were issues of every day. This play transports us into a world in which orders are taken at every minute but the product is send in half an hour or were the chaotic action work to create an atmosphere of tension which is released through a character that seems gay or through the discussion of certain characters over the region of the world they’re from.

We also had a very busy week in terms of The Play which basically takes the whole of our strength, physical and mental, and which you might think is useless but i really love it. This week we continued with the games and usual impros which are design to see the ability of each of the actor which then helps as feedback for the people in charge of the characters to place each actor into their best suited character. Other games that we used were those in which you may develop your skills such as controlled scenes that are basically done because of the need to know if you are able to follow instructions and develop from basic ideas.

In terms of in class jobs we are now doing a new research project. In this time we were able to pic any theatre practice and for this i picked Celts tradition which originates from the irish and gives origin to the Halloween celebration that in that time was more of a celebration to dismiss bad spirits in that day. As the theatre tradition of the Celts is very old i actually had to base my research in myths, legends present in the history that we know about the Celts and using books such as Ancient cultures are the ones that i need to make a deeper research.

Finally this week ended in a 3 hour derby in schools theatre to decide production tasks and outline of the play In this time i will be in charge of the props to be used and my compromise is to do a cost schedule to have an organised play at my possibilities.

We were able to discuss the vision Kenzo had  for the various scenes and we were able to discuss what are we suppose to look for in each scene. I will be opening this idea very soon but for now I’ll live you with the suspense. 

ARE WE DONE YET? HELL NO THIS IS JUST THE BEGINING

How are plays made? Are they supposed to just appear by themselves? or are they supposed to be meticulously sketched?

I do believe plays are to be made and not just to appear but i don’t think the best way to create them is to have a real perfect sketch. This year in IB theatre course i am learning how a play is produced and made.

The perfect play recipe:

Step 1: Have stimuli and develop from that point and on (brain storm)

Step 2: The vision of the play which basically tells you, how you want the play to look like.

Step 3: You’ve got to create a concept which is now the sum of all the ideas that you have collected in between the vision and the stimuli.

Step 4: For everything you do in live you have to be able to control such thing so then the rules are essential for this thing to work. The game is that, is works as the rules that you’ve got to work on.

This is how, step by step, a play is created. After this steps have been completed, and after you have developed at its maximum potential this ideas then, and only then, you can proceed with the creation of your outline (It is a kind of book which tells you what will happen in each scene.

All these will lead you to the perfect play, the only thing you need, to complete the perfect play recipe, is a lot of hard work, some drops of sweat, a spoon full of optimism and finally you have to invest most, if not all of your Saturday mornings to slowly stir our mix.

Of course this is not a recipe that you can do alone, this is a group work and so that would be, to me, the basis of the work.

Have you ever been to a play that has made you be so furious that you were about to just stand up and leave? Well that happened to me on Tuesday the 13^th when a school theatre trip took me all the way to the centre of Lima to watch......... Vedova in Lumine. Seriously it was so horrible that I was in my nerves the whole of the play, and it was not because of the slow music or for the fact that it seemed to be a dance more than a performance but indeed, it was the style of that play that was really what i didn’t liked.

In terms of acting and the actual performer, I do think she made a good job because it was a heel of a difficult acting piece but the fact for which i really respect her the most is because even when she knew that the play was a piece of crap, because believe me i am 100% sure she knew it was crap, she continued with the herculean task of performing THAT in front of and audience which might then could have given her their opinions about how stupid she was to appear in that play.

I want to emphasise that it was not the scenes in which she danced with a black puppet or the part in which she was raped by a recyclable puppet but it was the whole idea that i despised.

This is basically how, to me, a bad play is made.

First week of Theatre

This Year Im starting my first year Theatre IB course, and since im not dead yet I believe im doing rather well by now.
It has been just 2 clases and although it seems not muh, we already have started working on the school play and on the Project for "How to pitch well infront of a class.
I guess i cant take into an account all thge work that is just nearby(2 Play reviews next week) to say that thats certainly too much work for this little time but I guess thats how it is done so........

I am really looking forward to this experience and I hope this experience is looking forward on me.