Chinese Theatre

 In the Song Dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the Yuan Dynasty into a more sophisticated form known as zaju, with a four or five act structure. Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, the best known of which is Beijing Opera, which is still popular today. It generally involves very elaborated wardrobe and the acting is quite exaggerated and evident.

 Several forms of shadow and puppet theatre have flourished in China during the centuries. The history of shadow theatre in China may indeed be very long. A legend from the 1st century BC tells about an emperor who has lost his beloved and how a shaman brings her back to the emperor in the form of a shadow. On the other hand, it may be possible that shadow theatre in China was born during the Tang Dynasty (618–907), when the Buddhist monks and missionaries visualized their didactic storytelling with shadow puppets. Textual evidence of the shadow theatre is available from the Song Dynasty (960–1279). During that time, it is known that the shadow puppeteers formed their own guild.

 The execution of the puppet’s faces (which are usually shown in profile) is normally most delicate. They follow the conventions of opera make-up. Thus the faces of beautiful ladies and handsome scholars are usually cut so that only a narrow outline of the face is left from the leather to reflect the shape of their faces on the screen. The faces of the painted-face characters and the clowns are done so that their reflections carefully imitate the colourful facial make-up of the opera actors. The heads of the puppets are usually movable so that the costuming of the characters can be changed according to the needs of the play.

 The puppets also include many fantasy figures and animals. Just as on the opera stage, so also in the shadow theatre there are props, also cut of leather, such as chairs, tables, bushes, pens, mirrors, pipes etc. Special effects were created by pieces of coloured glass or mirrors. With a piece of red glass the spurting blood of a brave warrior can be projected while the cool moon with its rays can be projected onto the screen through a metal cylinder. 

Theatre of Cruelty and Theatre of the Absurd

 The events of the Second World War were held as the main trigger to originate Theatre of the Absurd and Theatre of Cruelty. The disregard for human life and dignity witnessed in times of war made the appearance of a new type of theatre almost inevitable. The disappearance of religion in contemporary life might have also influenced the birth of the Theatre of the Absurd, since it attempted to restore the importance of myth and ritual to everyday life and heart, focusing on the sense of cosmic wonder and supernatural anguish. The Absurd Theatre hopes to achieve this by shocking man out of an existence that has become trite, mechanical and complacent. It is felt that there is a mystical experience in confronting the limits of human condition. Some of the characteristics of this Theatre form include the parody of language, no dramatic conflict, no logic and strange scenic effects. 

 French surrealism acknowledged the subconscious mind as a great, positive healing force as well. However, its contribution to the sphere of drama was meager: indeed it can be said that the Absurd Theatre of the 1950s and 1960s was a belated practical realization of the principles formulated by the Surrealists as early as the 1930s. In this connection, of particular importance were the theoretical writings of Antonin Artaud. Artaud fully rejected realism in the theatre, cherishing a vision of a stage of magical beauty and mythical power. Antonin Artauds’s Surrealism and Theatre of Cruelty was probably the use of theatre that took me most off my comfort zone. With this type of theatre, Artaud hoped to unleash unconscious responses in audiences and performers that were normally inaccessible, plus he wanted audiences to find in the theatre not an area for escape from the world, but the realization of their worst nightmares and deepest fears. In the exercise we did on this, we had to lie down with our eyes closed and make surreal noises, and that was exactly what happened and I kept fearing that I would eventually get attacked at any moment. Although this quite a terrifying experience for me, it helped see the darker side of the theatre that I wasn’t aware of. 

How has studying theatre and performance change my way of perceiving theatre and its impacts on every day life considering the different uses and types of theatre learned so far?

 Before entering the course, I considered myself to have a fairly good understanding and perception of theatre. At the time, to read the classic plays (such as Death of a Salesman, The Threepenny Opera, Oedipus etc…) was to me, a considerably solid knowledge of performance and play. Back then, performance was to me the simple displays of entertainment with the stereotypical Hollywood’s purpose of “make ‘em laugh” or “make ‘em cry” that I was exposed to. I honestly (and naively) expected that in these two years, we were merely going to learn the basics of acting and performing, like voice-projection and elementary body language for example. In terms of texts, western pieces were my prediction and thought that I had a pretty solid basis to start the year with. However, I was in for a shock. 

 The very first play we watched as a theatre company was called “Cadavre Exquis” and was my very first contact with experimental theatre which deviated a lot from the conventional form that I was accustomed to. In this theatrical experiment, there were four actors and four directors and each director assembled a 10-minute piece with one rule: they were only allowed to see the last 60 seconds of what the previous person contributed. Though I was familiar with the concept of Cadavre Exquis on paper and with words, this theatrical version was completely new to me and some of the scenes were quite surrealist. The part that I liked most, not only because of its visual impact but mostly due to the fact that I never saw anything like it, was a scene were the stage represented the sea and all four actors were standing on a small floating piece of wood and acted for 10 minutes in that minimal amount of space. The plays that I saw up to that day always followed the conventional and ordinary stage use, by this I mean that the actors were able to use almost the entire stage at all times. I believe that that scene worked very well, because their common goal and cooperation was greatly enhanced by their extreme physical closeness (which could have symbolized their psychological similarities and purposes) and was palpable to the audience.

 We spent quite some time researching and learning about different rituals in different cultures and the impacts they had on the lives of indigenous people. Regarding this topic, I found defining performance, ritual and play very helpful. I found out that ritual, play and performance have a similar history, and often are mistaken for being the same thing. However, each of them has a different set of characteristics that makes them unique. Performance is probably the hardest one to define, since it is included both in play and ritual. It can be stylized/congruent to everyday behavior/ improvised... According to the Performance Studies Textbook, performance is "ritualized behavior conditioned and/or permeated by play". Play and ritual are similar in purposes, however it’s the duration that varies. In both cases, the objective is to change the audiences and/or the actors either permanently (in the case of rituals) or temporarily (in the case of play). Play also gives the audience a change to experience something out of the ordinary and that they wouldn't normally experience in their lives. Rituals can be secular or sacred (non-religious and religious) and date back to 20 000-30 000 years ago.  This changed slightly my perception of performance because I never knew how similar ritual and play really were in terms of concept and impacts. My knowledge on indigenous rituals was quite shallow, and this topic gave me a chance to research in depth a specific ritual (which was the Aboriginal initiation ritual).

 An element that I found was more important than I thought to a performance and/or play is the unity of the ensemble. I confess that I didn’t expect the unity of our theatre group to be a big issue, but it turned to be one of the most important components of these last few months. On most performing projects I’ve been in, there was always a need to unite as a group and do some trusting exercises before the rehearsals actually began. But most of the time, the actors would usually forget that and ignore the remaining ensemble group, and would care about their time on the spotlight. I was quite pessimistic and expected the same with our theatre group, but I was wrong once again. In order for our (and any) ensemble to work, there is a need to work on our unity on a continuous basis. I honestly never thought that we would get along so well, and that definitely had an impact on stage (which I will discuss further on). The composition of the ritual was a big stepping-stone to out unity as a theatre group because that was the first time we ever stressed together and needed to actually cooperate to get something done. And even there were some missing elements on the actual performance of the ritual, it was the journey that counted. And that journey ultimately did what a ritual was supposed to do, which is to change someone or something permanently and we experienced that first hand. Not in the way that we expected it to be, but in a different way, that shaped our unity as an ensemble nonetheless.

 Suzuki and View-pointing were the first topics we focused on. I had never heard of them before, and I was surprised that we didn’t start off with a western classic and instead we began with an alternative oriental method. The method of Tadashi Suzuki was designed to centre de body through the use of the feet, through a series of exercises to through the body off centre.  The exercises used in this method are made to recalibrate the way the actor moves, and my first impression of these exercises was that they were very physically demanding. I initially thought that being an avid sportsman would help endure the cardio that Suzuki training requires, but I then discovered that it was the walking and stomping that was the most demanding. Having a good sense of stillness was another big part of the Suzuki method and I believe we all struggled with keeping our body position strong and perfectly still at the same time. This was quite in showing that a still image could have a big impact on the audience, even more so if the actor is actually physically struggling and being still at the same time. Controlling breath, enhancing focus and reflecting struggles into movements are the basis of Suzuki’s training. In class we often used these three elements at the same time, which was very difficult at first. One of the exercises with those three was reciting text while on a strong position. We were already quite exhausted and we had to maintain a still position while reciting a passage from the Divine Comedy, which was arduous due to our trouble breathing.

  

 Along with Suzuki, the SITI Company’s View-pointing training was another method we focused on in the beginning of the year. The very basic definition of the Viewpoints is to help the actor deal with time and space. We have mainly focused on topography, spatial relationship, tempo, duration, kinesthetic response and repetition. This was the topic that really showed the evolution of our ensemble. Whenever we trained view pointing, we spread across the hall and try to create interesting stories without any dialogues. Individually, we could only work with stillness and extreme fast (sometimes extreme slow) in terms of tempo, and we were free to choose our floor pattern and repetition to make have an interesting spatial relationship. What really showed our development as a group was the Kinesthetic Response. If the exercise involved music, then we needed to react as a group to the different musical changes (using mostly our hearing to control our movements). But after being told that the music was for the audience, we did the same exercise without the music and then we needed to communicate as an ensemble to know when to stop and when to move. In beginning, we were completely disorganized and uncoordinated but as we began to know each other on and off-stage, our group reaction to Kinesthetic Response was much better and it seemed like we could almost telepathically talk to each other.

 Recently, we’ve looked at the different uses of theatre in different times. I focused on Greek Theatre, and I found it very interesting to learn more about the origins of modern theatre and the actual structures of Greek tragedies and comedies for religious purposes. Another use of theatre we learned about was one based on the work of Augusto Boal that went from town to town using theatre to help people get through social problems (like alcoholism for example). By using the whole community in a series of role-playing exercises, a person or group would be confronted with their problems and everyone would try to find a solution to the issue that affected him/them using theatre. We did a similar exercise in class focusing on the inferiority complex that a member had towards her siblings, and I then realized the impact that reliving those episodes really had and how theatre was indeed a powerful weapon that can both hurt and help. Antonin Artauds’s Surrealism and Theatre of Cruelty was probably the use of theatre that took me most of my comfort zone. With this type of theatre, Artaud hoped to unleash unconscious responses in audiences and performers that were normally inaccessible, plus he wanted audiences to find in the theatre not an area for escape from the world, but the realization of their worst nightmares and deepest fears. In the exercise we did on this, we had to lie down with our eyes closed and make surreal noises, and that was exactly what happened and I kept fearing that I would eventually get attacked at any moment. Although this quite a terrifying experience for me, it helped see the darker side of the theatre that I wasn’t aware of. 

 Lastly, we are currently working on a piece of Documentary Theatre written by Lola Arias that focuses on the deaths and lives of 5 teenagers that committed suicide. I was completely unaware that this type of performance existed and I quickly became excited about this project. Being an enthusiastic of biographies and documentaries, the thought of making a piece of theatre with a similar form was a breath of fresh air regarding a concept that I thought could not evolve more.

 I believe it is needless to say that my perception of theatre has changed a lot during these last few months. I had a very narrow and shallow understanding of performance, and now it seems that the more I learn, the more I see how big and different the world of theatre really is. Even though I became more open-minded and more considerate of the different uses of theatre, I know see performance everywhere and how theatre is all around us, without us really noticing it. As a theatre student, learning about documentary theatre and theatre of the absurd has made me become more attentive to different sounds and possibly news that could inspire a play or even a scene. As an individual, learning about the work of Augusto Boal made me aware of how theatre could possibly help me and others get through hard times, and my ensemble experience has made me realize how unity and cooperation can really make a difference when working with a group of people. What amazes me is that all this information was gathered from (not even) a term of Theatre classes. What other uses and types of performing arts future holds for me to learn, only time will tell. 

As Aventuras e Desventuras do Capitão Ventura e do seu Criado Gijon- Review

  The play we saw, roughly translated to “The Adventures and Misadventures of Captain Venture and his Servant Girón”, is a good example of Educational Theatre. This type of theatre is more commonly performed to young people, and tends to have a message of morals and basic civic principles as the play develops. Like this play, it has a very simple storyline (usually with a twist) and uses stereotypical characters. This comedy is set on the house of Captain Venture, who is going to propose to his loved one that day. Along with his servant and companion Girón, they set out to the princess’s castle only to find out that an evil prince has kidnapped her. They then set out on a quest to find her, coming across many danger situations like facing a bear and an evil witch. After rescuing her, we find out that the princess wasn’t really kidnapped and that it was her uncle that set this test to see if the captain really loved her. The main messages of this play were to be courageous and to help the innocent and weak; that there is no problem in being afraid sometimes; the importance of friendship and intelligence; and the classic “love conquers all”. The setting was quite minimalistic, and there were very few props as well. The horse riding effect was produced only by sound (the actors mimicked the hooves) and a small plastic swimming pool constituted a river. There were four actors that played various characters, and the acting style was very over-the-top and exaggerated (common in Portuguese children’s plays). The forth wall was broken repeatedly, and there were some parts were the character would come off stage and start addressing and asking questions to the audience right beside them. This plus the introduction of familiar characters (such as the little red ridding hood and the bad wolf), managed to achieve a great level of audience interaction. In the end, even though the play lacked in visual beauty and actual theatrical value, it managed to achieve what it wanted: the play arose the audience and there were moments of a good audience-actor interaction that made it fun to watch.

Documentary Theatre and Lola Arias

Documentary theatre is a form of theatre that uses pre-existing documents and factual material (such as newspapers, government reports, interviews, etc.) as a source of material for the script. It can be used to give different sides to a specific story or event, and its impartial tone is also used not to enforce any bias against one character or element. The use of official documents has a more powerful impact on the audience since they realize that the events spoken about or performed on stage did actually happen. Documentary theatre has existed as a genre for as long as theatre itself has existed. The first dramatic documentary impulse dates back to 492 BC when the ancient Greek playwright Phrynicus produced his play The Capture of Miletus about the Persian War. The genre can be traced back to the European medieval mystery plays, Elizabethan England and Shakespeare's historical tragedies, French revolutionary patriotic dramas, British and American 1930s Living Newspapers and German plays about the Holocaust.

 Lola Arias (born in 1976) is a playwright, songwriter, and director and her plays are based on documentary theatre. Most of her theatre work has some elements in common. One of them is the frenetic action moments and interesting use of space and setting. The restless action can be seen in “Mi vida después” were the use of rock music, pattern movements and intensive energy (more specifically, when they’re tearing clothes apart). In “Revolver”, the setting consists of only one bed, and the only lighting we can see is a strip of light that can only illuminate a small segment of what is happening. The two characters talk in a pre and post sex manner in a poetic way and they are in their underwear, creating a higher level of intimacy. In “Striptease” the setting consists of a crib on the center of the stage with a baby in it, while there are two characters on opposite sides of the stage. Her plays are usually not very clear in form, however they usually consist on moments and intense acting (like in “Striptease). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx-psE4RFVM&feature=player_embedded

We are now working on a play written by her called “The Suicides” which focuses on the lives and deaths of 5 teenagers from a village in Argentina called Rosario de la Frontera. Following the standards of documentary theatre and Lola Arias’ work, the play is driven narrated by the teenagers telling their story in the after life, reading newspaper articles about themselves. We’re are still in a primary stage of this project and I will be updating as the story develops.

Stratford upon Avon- detailed

 Devising and structuring playable actions was one of the main components we focused on. We were told there were three elements a person must consider before acting/directing/writing a scene: what’s happening, what should happen and what’s going to happen.  We divided into different groups and we had to create a scene. Our scene consisted of a pregnant woman about to go into labor and trying to catch a taxi to get to the hospital. Another woman that turned out to be her wife joins her, and a dilemma arises because the old fashioned cab driver doesn’t want to let them in. A businessman (me) then enters the scene and argues with the women to get the cab. He fails to do so, and the women finally get in the cab only to find out that the cab driver is died of a heart attack. We were told that the way we devised the play (the normal form) was linear, and we were then challenged to devise it in a non-linear way. We split the scene into four different actions and randomly juggled them around to have a different effect. Then, we did it in reverse, which turned out to look very strange, and difficult to understand (though fun).  Parallel was the next structure we had to follow, and we achieved that by having two discussions happening at the same time: the pregnant woman with the old-fashioned taxi driver and the wife with the homophobic businessman. Finally, we learned that a cyclical plot consisted on the final scene being almost exactly like the first one, in order to make the audience feel like the story loops for eternity. We applied that to our piece, we achieved this by making the taxi driver simply passing out and not remembering who the two women were. Then another businessman appeared and scene would just go on and on.

 Voice for me was one of the most interesting components we covered there.  I think I really liked this area because the exercises we did were amusing and the tips were very helpful for some one like me who struggles in speech. To begin with, we were given the famous line from The Tempest: “Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises/ sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not”. We played with tone and volume for a while using this quote and we were taught a way to facilitate finding new ways to say a line. This consisted one a person being between two people, and they both have the same text. Someone begins by whispering one line two the middle person’s ear, and then the other one whispers the second line, and so and on. Every time they whispered a line, they had to change the way they said it. We also spoke about duration, basically the time we had to say a line. We played with extremes (extreme fast and slow) and discussed how it affected the impact of the line. In order to say a line very quickly without interruption, we were taught how to breathe deeply and store our oxygen in our ribs (known as rib reserve). Finally, we spoke about projection and how to direct our voice to different sections of the audience. We placed four people one the corners of the room and the objective was to direct our voice to a single person. If the person thinks the line was directed to him, he turns around. It didn’t always turn out so well but it was fun nonetheless. 

 To my happy surprise, we were taught the basics of miming. These basics (based on the work of Etienne Decroux) consisted on understanding that the human body movement can be divided into three parts: rotation, inclination and translation. We performed the classics of miming such as walking on the spot and exploring an invisible wall. Afterwards, we were taught how to act as a robot and the techniques were to isolate and re organize the three movements. With a balloon, with had two perform in duos a final performance based on any of the things we learned on the course. My partner and I decided to make our performance with the robot and miming techniques, which was a 2 minute scene of a robot couple celebrating their dating anniversary. The male-robot offers the balloon to the lady-robot who forgot to bring a present. She makes a failed attempt to quickly fill up a balloon, and when she gives up, the scene ends with them hugging.

A Tender Thing- review

 A Tender Thing is a play written by Ben Power, based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.  In this adaptation, the two characters (Kathryn Hunter as Juliet and Richard McCabe as Romeo) are an old couple in their golden years. Juliet then is faced with a serious disease that tests their love and climaxes with the death of both. The stage was relatively small in this theatre compared to The Tempest, however it succeeded to create a more intimate relationship with the audience.  There was also a cyclorama in the middle of the stage, used to project images of their youth and of their deceased child. It also facilitated the mood swings of the play, since its color and intensity changed accordingly. The set and props were minimalistic and all the elements of the play were contemporary to our time, except for the language. The lighting was cleverly used to suggest the passing of time and the dramatic intensity of the scenes. Since there were only two characters, the lighting focused (in dramatically heavy moments) in a specific place on stage where the two characters were close together, not letting the audience look away from what was actually happening. This was much more stressful for the audience because it presented no possible escape form the harsh reality that many people could relate to, and this was what essentially captivated most member of the audience. The sound also had a strong influence in the audience. The minor scales and melodies used in intensively dramatic moments helped to bring the general mood down and were sometimes responsible for many tears of the audience. In lighter moments, the music was joyful and this generally happened whenever Romeo was addressing the audience pre-disease. Both performances were highly believable and successfully went from extreme happiness to extreme despair in a “natural” way. Kathryn Hunter’s physical performance was very effective on transmitting the psychological condition of Juliet to the audience, which was challenging since most of her performance occurred either on a wheel chair, or lying down on a hospital bed. Richard McCabe's performance was also very well achieved, and I do believe his portrait of a joyful and likable old man was very convincing, even in heavily dramatic moments. Overall, it ended up being very much above expectations and proved that great tragic moments can be achieved with very few props and characters (but good luck finding actors of this caliber). 

The Tempest- review

 The Tempest by William Shakespeare is the story of an over thrown Duke of Milan (Prospero), who isolates himself on an island and crashes a ship in order to make his daughter (Miranda) noble again. The stage was thrusting and that created a better connection with the audience. It provided effectively a world for the play to exist, since the setting was a deserted island and the props were minimal. It was contemporary to the play however there was an element of the setting, which was basically a large cube at the back of the stage, which was sometimes visible (transparent) and other times not. This was used in some cases, as I kind of gateway between reality and imagination (for example, the spirit that only Prospero saw always entered through the cube), but it was also used to enact a situation that was happening at the same time as the main action. The lighting was used very effectively, I could not see the source of illumination and they played a very important role in the play. It was used to represent time passing and created very dark moments every time there were soliloquies and when Prospero was talking to Ariel. When the mood was more relaxed and there were comic moments, the lighting was brighter and not as intense as in dramatic scenes. Most sound is recorded (the thunder in the storm, for example) and is mainly used for the dramatic moments, to accumulate tension. It is mainly naturalistic, but in abstract moments, such as when Ariel appears with wings and falls from the ceiling to scare the nobles (my acid-test scene), weird and heavy noises are heard. The costumes are contemporary to our time and Shakespearian time, and they do tell some things about the social order of the people that crashed on the island. Prospero and his daughter have obviously ripped but at the same time, quite formal clothes from living in the island for so long; the noblemen that crashed have suits on; the slaves have barely any clothes besides pieces of cloth torn apart. Being this play by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the performances were all quite good. Each actor portrayed effectively each character and was able to make a believable performance. However, the ensemble as a whole seemed to be not working fully and as part of the audience I felt that it could have been better if only the ensemble would have had more chemistry.

Stratford upon Avon trip

It was 1:15 on our school patio and we, the IB Theatre and Performance students, were all packed up and heading for the airport. Along with Ms. Mór and Ms Weiner, up in the air we went towards Stratford upon Avon to a three-day theatre course. On Wednesday we arrived quite late, so we only had time to check-in and have dinner at an Italian restaurant (the best meal I had on our stay). We headed back to the hotel and tried to get some sleep, a near impossible mission due to our over-excited/nervous state of mind. There was one question we couldn’t stop thinking about: what if they are much better than us? We were aware that thirteen other schools were going to be involved in the workshops and we were quite afraid of our “competition’s” quality.

In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel and we were able to make visual contact with a few colleagues that were going to work with us. We left the hotel and walked to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, were we were expected. We all gathered in the Queen Elizabeth Room and were split into different ensembles. I was lucky enough to have a fellow classmate from back home in my group, but other people weren’t so lucky. We were assigned to different teachers, and I was surprised to see that Mr. Johnston, a former St. Julian’s Drama teacher, was going to be my ensemble leader. We started out by doing a series of games and activities to get better acquainted with the people we didn’t know. We also spoke about different ways of journaling, memorizing text and how to act as an ensemble. On our lunch break, even though I was aware that England isn’t a gastronomical hot spot, I decided to have myself a pasty and was quite surprised it actually tasted good. We worked some more on using silences and pauses (this time with a different teacher) and acted out a brief scene in duos. After dinner, we went to see “The Tempest” at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The play had great moments and a few good comic reliefs, but overall it was a bit bellow expectation.

 On Friday, we had a very busy workday. We worked on our voice and were taught how to control our projection and volume on stage. We later worked on silhouettes and shadows, focusing mainly on how a still image can tell a story. We also had a workshop that focused on script writing (with screenwriter Ian Pike) where we learned to avoid clichés, have a strong beginning and theme, and cutting dialogue in scenes. After a dinner of fish and chips, we went to see “A Tender Thing” at the Swan Theatre. This play, unlike The Tempest, had really amazing performances and a compelling story that made 50% of the audience shed a couple of tears by the end. Saturday arrived and we still had quite a few things to get through. We were taught how to do a convincing robot and were given a few tips on miming. We did one last exercise on dividing and structuring a scene, but the farewell eventually came. We all had a terrific time, made new friends from around the globe, and were given fantastic advice on theatre and performing arts. We all waved goodbye from our respective buses, and we were off to the airport. As to whether or not we want to go back next year, I’ll answer with another question: Is the Bard from Avon? 

Ritual-performance and criticism

 Performance day was upon us, and we were nowhere close to being ready. Well, we were, but a few key elements were missing. We decided to change the location of the ritual in the last minute (from a classic stage to a nearby garden) which didn't leave us time to even rehearse the whole piece. The ritual went exactly as planed but there were some slight changes of plans. We all went on our school uniforms and in the final Suzuki part, I played a short blues riff followed by 30 seconds of "Misirlou" by Dick Dale and the Del-tones. The criticisms of our final project were in my opinion, all caused by our attention to our individual scenes instead of looking at the whole picture. This is shown in the passage from part 2 to part 3 where we all stand up and go off-stage, only to return to the exact point where we were sitting. We also didn't take the space in consideration and it was only by the end of the performance that we realized that I could've used the whole school as stage. I didn't pay much attention to the audience interaction and I could've made an effort to make the audience feel more apart of the ritual. Other minor things didn't mostly because we didn't rehearse in the actual place where we were going to perform, for example the making of the tea. The story telling part could've had more context in our ritual, but overall it was a good piece with some nice elements. The Suzuki part was well performed and when we sang "With a little help from my friends" it created exactly the mood we wanted. In terms of the four perspectives of a ritual, all try to describe what the audience saw and not what we were trying to achieve:
Structures- Very peaceful environment, with the sound of a fountain in the background and a gentle breeze throughout the ritual; limited space in a small piece of the garden; individuals in school uniform carry out the ritual always in a understanding and peaceful mood.
 Functions- Integration ritual, two new elements being accepted into a tribe, creation of bonds and exchange of both physical and sentimental gifts.
 Processes- The aesthetics of the individuals, painting of the face and body, the sharing of the tea, the song about friendship, the collective dances and the overall collapse (to create the feeling "you fall I fall").
 Experiences- Sense of community, feeling of acceptance, alternative state while doing the final dance.

Ritual- creative process

After each student presented a project about an Indigenous ritual and culture, we were assigned to make our own ritual. The only requirement we had was that the ritual had to include elements concerning our relationship as a group. We split the ritual into six parts so that each person would contribute with something different to the ritual. When we discussed again how our ritual would look, we already had our general ideas set. Since there was two people in our class who didn't take Theatre before (being me one of those people), I suggested that the purpose of the ritual was to integrate and welcome two new elements to a community, with an indigenous tweak. They all agreed and then each person explained what they wanted to do with their part of the ritual:
 1st part- The two new elements arrive baring two gifts: tea and a guitar (which was later included). The new-comers are then painted by the others to physically symbolize their equality.
 2nd part- The tea is prepared and they all drink it.
 3rd part- A dance is performed.
 4th part- All gather around the fire and a story about friendship is told.
 5th part- The new-comer picks up the guitar and plays "With a little help from my friends" by The Beatles with the others.
 6th part (my part)- Short Suzuki performance around the tea and ritual ends with all the elements collapsing.

Ritual- brief intro and Aboriginal presentation

 Ritual, play and performance have a similar history, and often are mistaken for being the same thing. However, each of them has a different set of characteristics that makes them unique. Performance is probably the hardest one to define, since it is included both in play and performance. It can stylized/congruent to everyday behavior/ improvised... According to the Performance Studies Textbook, performance is "ritualized behavior conditioned and/or permeated by play". Play and ritual are similar in purposes, however its the duration that varies. In both cases, the objective is to change the audiences and/or the actors either permanently (in the case of rituals) or temporarily (in the case of play). Play also gives the audience a change to experience something out of the ordinary and that they wouldn't normally experience in their lives. Rituals can either be secular or sacred (non-religious and religious) and date back to 20 000-30 000 years ago. We were assigned to present a project about an indigenous culture and explain a ritual performed by them. I chose to talk about the Indigenous Australians and here are some key points of my presentation:

 The Indigenous Australians (commonly know as "Aboriginals") were the first inhabitants of the Australian continent, and migrated from India 50 000 years ago. The term "aboriginal" comes from latin, derived from ab (from) and origino (origin, beginning) meaning "the earliest known". There are more than 250 aboriginal dialects, but only 15 are officially recognized. The Aboriginals are the fathers of the didgeridoo, a wind instrument developed 1500 years. It has a very wide range of notes and it is used in the communication with the Gods and in festivities. One of the most important rituals of the aboriginal culture is the initiation of boys into manhood. The boys, usually aged around 12-16 years old, are taken from their mothers by the men and painted in red ochre. The mothers then perform a mourning dance since their children will be lost and returning as men. The men teach and perform dances and songs to the boys concerning the passage to adulthood from childhood and these may not be observed by women and children. The boys are taken into a sacred bush were they are kept in seclusion for a number of days and then return to the general camp were they can only be visited my men. There, they jump over small fires and are sometimes tossed in the air to make them strong. When the men decide the boys are ready for the ultimate passage, they are painted in white ochre and have to show their mothers they are now men by performing a series of kangaroo hoops. They are shown the "witi" dances (which can be seen by women and children) and are then circumcised to physically mark their manhood.

Suzuki Intro

 Tadashi Suzuki was born June 20 1939 in Shizuoka, Japan. He is the founder and director of the Suzuki Company of Toga (based in Toga Village, located in the mountains of Toyama prefecture) and the creator of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training. The method’s primary concerns include: the structure of a theatre group, the creation and use of theatrical space, and the overcoming of cultural and national barriers in the interest of creating work that is truly universal. The Suzuki method was designed to centre de body through the use of the feet, through a series of exercises to through the body off centre.  The exercises used in this method are made to recalibrate the way the actor moves. It involves a greater thought about how to use the body, not only in a physical way but also in an emotional way.

“There are two impulses in theatre: to be frivolous or to make rules.”-Suzuki

Tadashi Suzuki’s production of CLYTEMNESTRA, 1991.

 Controlling breath, enhancing focus and reflecting struggles into movements are the basis of Suzuki’s training.  It also helps to focus the energy when perfectly still. The practice of this method is known to be very physically demanding, since must of the body must be contracted. Actors can benefit from this method in many ways. Showing emotion in movements and not only in language, for example, is very useful to increase the character’s credibility and the interest of the public. Plus, being able to channel energy and emphasis by standing still can be very helpful in dialogues and in making fidgety acting students understand that one can make a stance not moving the body at all. Controlling breathing and focusing on specific

The SITI Company is an ensemble-based theatre company whose three ongoing components are the creation of new work, the training of young theater artists, and a commitment to international collaboration.

Originally the "Saratoga International Theater Institute," SITI was founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki redefine and revitalize contemporary theatre in the United States through an emphasis on international cultural exchange and collaboration.

Anne Mnouchkine is a French stage director (born 19309) and founded the Théâtre du Soleil in 1964. She is the active Chair of Artistic Creation at the college de France and has her most famous works include “Molière” and “La Nuit Miraculeuse”. Mnouchkine is regularly ranked as one of the world's most influential directors and the only female winner of the international Ibsen award. 

Why Theatre?

 Ever since I was a little boy, I was quite certain of what I wanted to do in the future: make films. However, I only became a fanatic of the 7^th art when I turned thirteen. Even though by that time it was a habit of mine to go to the movies every week, I was still uncertain about what made a great movie. It was at that time that my father, realizing my interest on this subject, opened the doors for me that would later lead me to take Theatre HL in the IB (introducing me the great directors, writers and books). I spent a rather long time watching the classics (Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca…) but it was only until I watched Pulp Fiction that I started to pay a closer attention to the script and performances of a film (which meant I had to watch the classics all over again). Tarantino was also responsible for my fascination for dialogues, which lead me to start reading plays and start analyzing the meaning of words. A couple of years later, after reading as many books, plays and watching as many movies I could, I started to become jealous of the people on stage and on screen. Even though I knew I wanted to make films, I had this urge to know if I too could perform in a credible way. I started memorizing poems and book lines by heart and performing them to my family to get some feedback.  They obviously couldn’t criticize me in a negative way in order not to offend me, so I didn’t really have a reliable “judge”. However I decided to figure that out when I had a conversation with someone, and that conversation was the second main event that made take Theatre HL. I was in a café with my father, when all of a sudden Nicolau Breyner (one of the greatest Portuguese actors alive) walked in. I had just seen the best Portuguese movie in the last 50 years (“Os Imortais”) and since he starred in that movie, my anxiety was evident. What I didn’t know was that my father knew him and he pushed me to chat with him. I started by saying that I loved his work and wanted to be a film director when I grew up. Hearing this, he said “But are you a good or a bad actor?” I became speechless. How could I know? I went with my honest opinion at that time and said no. “You need to figure that out, because you’re either a good actor or a bad actor”. Therefore, in a quest to find the answer to that question, here I am taking Theatre HL.