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?