Edward Gordon Craig

The illegitimate son of the architect Edward Godwin and actress Ellen Terry, Craig was born Edward Godwin on 16 January 1872 in Hertfordshire, England, and baptised at age 16 as Edward Henry Gordon. He took the surname Craig by deed poll at age 21.  Craig spent much of his childhood (from the age of 8 in 1889 to 1897) backstage at the Lyceum Theatre, where his mother was the leading lady to actor Sir Henry Irving. This close contact to Theatre was what led Craig to the world of theatre since he was surrounded by it most of his childhood.

 

Lighting

Edward Gordon Craig inspiration for lighting came from Hubert von Kerkomer. In on of his plays he witnessed the use of light gauzes and electric lighting, which was quite inovative since most people used sort of oil lamps for ilumination. Craig commented saying “the absence of footlights made the actors look less artificial. Side-lit gauzes placed in front of backcloths amazed audiences used to painted gauzes used in pantomine scenes”. He then decided that he would use gauzes and side-lights with different colours in his shows, and the rest of the lighting would come only from above the proscenium. Rejected footlights. concealed lights and movable spots were some other characteristics of his lighting legacy, the lighting needed to provide more than just ilumination. He was a visionary in this field because he believed that lighting needed to be a gateway to the imagination and a metaphorical symbolism to the play and not just a way to iluminate the actors and stage. 

He used these new lighting methods in the 1900’s production of Dido and Aeneas, especially the use of different colored lighting. He also used light to transform stage space, liberating the audience’s imagination. In transitions, he successfully achieved subtle shifts of light and vibrant sudden color combinations, which were used for deliberate clashes. The use of colored lighting was most successfully used in the final scene, in which a yellow light from above created a beautiful tragic ending to the play.

Stage

Slidding pannels was his most famous invention. According to W. B. Yeats, Craig told him that “That we shall have a means of staging everything that is not naturalistic, and that out of his invention may grow a completely new method for even our naturalistic plays.” These pannels stand on stage as they truly are. Opposing to naturalism, these pannels do not attempt to imitate natrure, nor are they painted with realistic or decorative designs to be taken in an evident and literal way. Once a friend of his told him that they were “a nice place” and since then he always used that expression in reference to his pannels. Rejecting realism, he disliked the expression “scene” because it looked artisticly false, while a place was real and could adapt to the actor’s movements. This invention of his consisted on a group of screens which stood up by themselves. The effects and different settings would be created by the actor’s position in relation to the pannel, and the different lighting that would incide on it.

He had a great passion for pupets, stating once that "There is only one actor – nay one man who has the soul of the dramatic poet, and who has ever served as the true and loyal interpreter of the poet," he proclaimed, and "this is the marionette.

In short, he wanted to exploit the theatreness of theatre. Using every single theatrical element ( space, scenery, lighting, costume) to better express the message of the text.

Realism and Naturalism in Theatre

Realism

Starting in the early 19th century, realism was an art movement that shifted from the unrealistic fairy-tale or fantastic situations and characters theater-goers normally found in romantic plays. The Theater Dictionary indicates that many people consider Henrik Ibsen the father of the modern realism for the three-dimensional characters he created and the situations in which he put them. People in the audience could relate to the activities occurring on stage and the individuals involved.

Naturalism

Charles Darwin's book "The Origin of Species" influenced the theatrical world through the naturalistic genre. Darwin theorized that the fittest of a species would survive and pass on its genetic material, which dramatists translated into a dramatic genre that focused on how genetics and social advancement affect individuals. The naturalistic focus in art and literature is to address subjects in a scientific manner, with the artist serving as a disinterested party who observes and studies it. Authors who attempted this daunting task include Emile Zola.

Similarities

Dramatists intend that naturalistic and realistic plays should depict events that could happen in real life, maybe even to members of the audience. Both genres focus on individuals and families, and generally relate to everyday situations. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, playwrights found ample subject matter for these genres as the sciences advanced and people struggled and fought against oppressive governing systems. These changes in society were frequently the subject of both naturalistic and realistic plays.

Differences

Naturalism approaches art in a more scientific, almost clinical, manner than realism. Both genres may have dealt with the emotional and family struggles of the characters; realistic plays often had characters to whom the audience could relate and sympathize. Naturalistic plays, which were difficult to create and rarely popular, approached every element with the detachment of a scientist, according to educators at Northern Virginia Community College. Realistic plays could show characters breaking free from difficult situations and allow the audience to empathize with their plight; Naturalistic works, on the other hand, sought only to study the situation, characters and other factors without interpretation.

Macbeth- Review

 Following the plot of the original Shakespearean story, Macbeth is a comedy interpreted by three actors using a ridiculously low amount of props and lighting. It was without a doubt, the best Portuguese play I have ever seen and I am still mesmerized by it. The performances were great, each one had to portray several characters, like Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, reporters, children… All of them done perfectly. Perhaps the most impressive characteristic of the play was the physicality. The actors used their bodies very precisely and skillfully, giving life and a lot of humor to the play. 

 The use of sound was great too, using almost always their voices to convey dark caves or cheerful dinners. One element they used quite a lot was a format that consisted on a journalist interviewing different characters of the classic play, so the story could be told more easily and creating humorous opportunities as well. Having almost no props, the creativity had to step up, and so it did. The battles for example, were reenacted using only two men fighting their microphone stands with knives and having full castle doors portrayed by two cables. The play had a very fast and intense energy throughout, and there was a single moment of boredom or stillness (unless it was used for comic effects), the transitions were perfectly smooth and synchronized, all of this making Macbeth one of the greatest plays these young eyes have ever witnessed. 

 Chapito was the company that made this play that was set up 30 years, and it works to integrate into the world young people through circus and theatre in a professional and formative way, giving them formation and the necessary skills to improve their creative ability and social formation. It was created to expand the value of social and cultural arts in Portugal, making it a national reference in terms of the performing arts.

The Woman in Black

 My experience in the production of “The Woman in Black” was quite rich and varied. Unable to help before, I could only be useful to the director the week before the play and during the actual performances. One a few technical rehearsals, I took a closer look at the lighting, helping out as much as I could. I realized straight away that it was trickier than I thought on many levels. First, the actual technology took me a while to get, having the control panel to actually be up and running with the necessary lights attached took away most of our time. Having done that, you only have to flip the switches and I found this later stage quite amazing even. On other part of this that I hadn’t seen before was the setting up of the lights, having someone on a scaffold adjusting so it had the right color and covers the right area of space. The actual play was quite tricky in terms of lighting, since there were quite a few blackouts and very particular parts of the stage had to illuminated at different times. On the days of the performance, I did front of house, where I was also able to help out on the details and last minute changes to the set and setting, stunned by all the stress. Doing front of house was quite amusing, talking to the audience both before and after the play was helpful on giving me some ideas of what worked and what didn’t and how I can fix that when I stage a play.

The play was about a man who saw the ghost of a woman (the woman in black) and the sight of said phantom resulted in the death of his son and wife. In order to fix his traumas, he asked an actor to act out his story so it could be told in an effective and slightly entertaining way so that he could live in peace. The stage was therefore very minimalistic, which is even mention on the script since the Arthur Kipps (the traumatized man) was afraid that simple objects could not portray real life structures and environments. Being a horror story, the lighting was very dim and never intense, giving a creepy feel to the story. On one of the scenes there was no electric lighting and the actor only used matches to light the stage, which I think worked really well. The performances were amazing, specially the actor playing Arthur Kipps, since he had to perform different characters with very specific personalities and accents. The pre-recorded sound was also very well used and perfectly timed, and was the prime contributor to some of the audience’s jumps and setting the space. The only thing I did not like in the play was the consistent blackouts that happened. I think that overusing that element made the pace very uneven and the play a bit less scary since the play completely stopped for a couple of seconds really often. Overall I was very impressed by the production, mainly because they managed to do a fantastic and scary performance with very little props, time and actors.

Just as a final note, I want to share a funny and slightly embarrassing incident that happened on the first night of the performance. It was a particularly cold night, and before the performance someone had forgotten to turn on the heaters on the hall, so it is needless to say the people were freezing. When people left during the break, a woman came up to me and said: “Can’t you turn on the heater? It’s freezing in there!” Attempting to make things better through a bit of humor, I stated that “it was all part of the play” making you shiver in every way. I waited for a sympathetic smile, but all I got was a serious face and a blunt: “Turn on the heaters, please”.

Elements of Great Composition and 7-minute play

 Using the Black Box as the stage, we were asked to pick up different elements from the space, be it a heater or a light, a turn it into something different. For example, having one plug hanging from the ceiling is a piñata. Having done that, we were told to a 7-minute performance with the elements we chose to modify. Each person had to direct and invent a one-minute performance and I chose to use the heater being a dog. In this scene, I was trying to save my dog from a dystopian future where humans had to eat dogs to survive. After each one of us did something different, we were told introduced to Zen Zen Zo’s elements of Great Composition that are:

-Extremity

-Contrast/Juxtaposition

-Broken Expectations

-Surprise Entrances and Exits

-Revelation/Transformation of - Space/Object/Character

-Moments of Simultaneous Action/Unison

-Moments of Stillness/Silence

-The Elements - Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Metal

-Sex, Death, Food

-Humour

-Interesting Relationships with the Audience

-A Journey

-The 'WHOOSH' Factor ('wow moments' that combine and roll on)

-Articulate Use of All the Viewpoints

-Metaphor/Moments that use Theatrical Poetry

 We had to use one of these elements into our part, and I choose to have a moment of stillness and silence. I believe it had the effect I want, which was to build tension right after the survivors of the post-apocalyptic world attacked me. This exercise was useful for us to get used to work in a very short amount of time, and feeling the stresses of a director and performer. It was also a good opportunity to use stillness from the Suzuki training and at the same time learn about these elements that will, without a doubt, come handy in the future.