My understanding of Buffoon currently is very distorted, I think it is used to mock or poke fun of a act in society such as politics, religion, racism, gender and many more, In order to show how stupid something actually is because the viewers will see it as a foolish act because of the way it is played off. I really like this style because it handles real issues by making them look stupid maybe to persuade the view point of the people watching the performance. This style also helps with expression because you can speak your mind with no shame, and no need to hold back.
In class on Thursday we explored different movement techniques that helped us work as a chorus, the various activities all complimented each other meaning you had to understand one to be able to complete another. The first exercise we did was March Sur Place the exercise made us shift as a chorus, so we could rotate together, I liked this because we were able to have a soft focus but all move at the same rate and shift our balance at the same time. My individual focus was straight ahead and I couldn't see people around me, as a group we created a pulse that made us feel united and once one person made a mistake it harmed the ensemble as a whole.
The second exercise we did was the Greek Chorus, which was to understand the use of Berkoffs idea of working in a group. In the Greek chorus we all had time to control the group. The last exercise we did was the base pulse where we have to follows leaders movement in order to create a groupe pulse. I have had a lot of trouble in researching Victorian melodrama, because they is very limed resources in the library along with on the Ebsco data base, very thing I found was little and not extensive enough for me to speak about for 15minuets. Regardless of my interest in the archetypes of melodrama and how they express themselves.
, I don't think I will be able to further explore it. I'm looking into commedia dell'arte but I'm not sure if it is something that I would like to spend my time deadly researching on, I'm looking into commedia dell'arte or comedy manners or restoration comedy. Victorian Melodrama
I would like to look into Victorian melodrama because I really enjoy the way stereotypes are played with in order to create a good performance, I really have interest in this style of theatre. Melodrama began in about 1800 as a reaction to theatre of restoration period in the late 1600, it developed during the industrial revolution during a time of shift from rural to urban living, during this time they was only two social rankings the extremely rich and the extremely poor, it was a time with really bad living conditions such as over crowding, disease and alcoholism. Some of the main features in melodrama are exaggerated movement and extended vocal technique, stereotypical characters (such as a Hero, Heroine, Villain, Villains accomplice, Faithful servant and a Damsel in distress). Moral between good and bad, Audience interaction (breaking the 4th wall), and spectacular events, audience response and a exotic location. So far I'm unable to grasp the concept of theatre of the absurd, I don't really like the way the concepts are so mixed up and unable to understand simple because of the nature of the scripts. In The Bold Soprano by Eugene Ionesco it starts off by making sense but the when we're introduces to the Martin family and their conversation regarding not knowing each other but having so much in common, but then not being married but traveling by the same train and cart and having the bedrooms arranged the same, practically described living together, but in reality they aren't married because each of their Alice's has different eyes of different colors. The story just gets so confusing when we have the maid Mary claim to be Sherlock homes and have the door ring and it not be the firefighter although he had being waiting outside. At the end they just have a over blow by just saying random phrases and not creating a conversation, it's a very different type of theatre that I still fail to appreciate.
We did a exercise where we write one line after the other, and it made me believe that is how theatre of the absurd Is created because we had different perspectives of "love hate relationship" forcing us to create a script that has barely any plot. The other performance we have viewed is "Come and Go" where they're 3 characters Flo, Vi and Ru that have a friendship that has them all gossip about one another to the other, but in the end they all hold hands, they have a friendship that I'm still unable to understand. Our piece using this style of theatre makes some sense although it still jumps points, the use of common phrases, stereotypes and clichés made a very absurd piece, we're still developing how we are going to stage it. I really enjoyed learning about and practicing the theatre style of Bunraku, I really learnt to appreciate the style of theatre that might appear so simple and basic, but in reality is very difficult and complicated. I learnt to appreciate the technique used to craft the puppet, because we got to make our own out of news paper and lots of tape, I worked with Angela and our puppet wasn't the best looking but that was okay because it gave us a new respect for the people who create the phenomenal structures. Moving the structures is such a art and it has to be very specific and to operate it you need to be well trained, I was shocked because people study for up to seven years just to be able to move the feet and that is the least experienced of the three people that operate the puppet, I believe that to be worthy enough to be the master they have to train for around fifteen years. Overall great experience even though I didn't get to operate the puppet simply by choice but instead I got to narrate the story.
Overall I think our performances turned out great, despite how small the group that came to watch gave enough response to keep us going. I think we spoke loud enough and clear enough to get our points across, and leave everyone understanding and not have a single audience member distracted. The way we had little briefings in-between about the practitioner going to be shown next kept the audience aware of why we made the choices that we did. Overall I'm very happy with what we achieved as a group of only four people.
Since I composed and developed the performance on Boal I think it's relevant for me to express my ideas and inspiration. I chose to do this on race discrimination because it's something that shows oppression, because race is a difficult topic and can't be described as one or the other. Race is a touchy subject because everyone has their own view on what's correct because of this we could be able to make the spect actors all have different views. I think the performance showed theatre of the oppressed very well, because Boals style usually was to do with the government oppressing the people and that is exactly what we did because the government was the judge, and you could see she had her mind made up and it wasn't going to change like in the governments today. Overall I thing our Boal performance did justice to the style of theatre of the oppressed.
What I am going to remember from the realism time period is they wanted to bring out in the performances, they wanted you to see everything that was going on, and they wanted to make everything you see be something you know to be true, like having scenic design to show a car, and let's you know it's a car rather than having people sit on seats and leaving your imagination to create the image. Realism showed the truth about the world after the war.
What I'm going to remember about romanticism is that it's the exaggerated truth and it make you see more than they actually is. Important points about realism: States the truth. Shows real depictions. Shows what the world is like. Important points about romanticism: It's exaggerated. Brings out heroic qualities. I believe my speaking skills have plenty of room for improvement, because I use the world like a lot and I cut off my thread of thought. I feel I covered basic understanding for the two different styles of theater but I think I could add more to make it more useful to the viewer. My performance would have been clearer and more refined if I had slowed down my speaking a not start saying something then change my mind about what I was about to say. For future performances I think I need to practice more and ensure that my ideas are very refined. |