Status

Aim of Task: To learn about the status handled on stage to further apply it to Comedia performances.

Description of Task: Our teacher, Steve, asked us to group ourselves in couples. Each one of us had a pair, mine was Jason. He told us that one of us would be the master and one would be the servant. The master would first tell his servant what he had to do and all the servant had to do was follow orders. I tried to make the exercise interesting and tell Jason to do funny things, like flirt with other people in the classroom. Then Steve told us that the servant should reply "yes master" to everything the master said. So for every command that I gave to Jason, Jason would have to reply "yes master." It was nice to feel that your orders were received in such a pleasant way, and obeyed without complaints. After that, the servants not only had to reply "yes master" to everything but also had to give a suggestion to the order that the master gave to them. For example, if I asked Jason to draw a dog in the board he would say "yes master, but, wouldn't it be better if I drew a cat instead?" As a master, this started to become a little bit annoying because it didn't feel like my orders were always followed unconditionally. Then I had to become the servant to Jason. Jason started asking me to do lots of stuff, and after a while, I also started replying yes master and then yes master and offer a suggestion as he had done with me. I felt that perhaps I wasn't saying "yes master" as eagerly as I should have said it considering that he was my master. Then, I tried to suggest things but it didn't feel good when he would deny my suggestions and I always had to do what he said. I felt inferior to him, he was in charge of my actions, I wasn't. After the master and servant exercise, we did something similar to what we had done in a previous workshop. In pairs, and in different exercises, each one of us had to:

• Raise our status and lower the other person's status.
• Raise the other person's status.

We did this in conversations. To raise the other person's status the most effective thing was to give them compliments and show amazement for everything they said about themselves. However, to raise your own status, and lower the other person status, you had to say why everything you did was better than what the other person did. It was a fun exercise, in my opinion.

The last exercise that we had to do was a script that was given to us. We had to try it with different combinations between low and high status between the two characters. I noticed that when both people hold low status, the acting turns less interesting and boring. When both people had high status, it wasn't too boring but it also wasn't as entertaining as seeing somebody with high status and somebody with low status.

I really liked the way Prodhi and Adam presented the extract. Prodhi showed high status while Adam showed low status. To show high status, Prodhi put one of her legs on the chair and started talking to Adam, who was seated. Prodhi's voice was a lot more eloquent and loud than Adam's voice. Also, Adam almost fled from stage at the end of the extract.

Reflection: Status is show by the tone of voice, body expressions, posture, attitude towards other characters in stage... I think status is how concerned is the character of what other actors do. A high status character will not care about other characters on stage while a low status character will be so worried about his actions that he will always be aware of how his actions can affect other people on stage.

Conclusion: Status will be very useful for comedia: some combinations of status can turn out to be really funny like both characters with low status or both characters with high status. Since I first heard about status, I have been interested on its applications to our daily social life. Status is something that can be seen everyday in social situations, which is why I find it so interesting. I hope to learn more about it through the theatre course although I've already been reading something about it. It is probably one of the theatre techniques I'm mostly interested in.

Commedia dell' Arte: Presentation and Wax Museum

Aim of Task: To share our knowledge about Commedia dell' Arte characters with our partners and with the whole class.

Description of Task: Following the previous research we did on our partner's Commedia dell' arte chosen character, we did a presentation for them where we told them personally all the facts that we found about their character. I told my partner, Shari, all I found out about Isabella: the gestures she normally uses, the custome, her relationship with other characters and with the audience... I tried to put more detail and emphasis more the things I thought she would be more interested in and could have got her attention when talking to her.

After this, she made her presentation about Flavio to me: she also talked to me mostly about his characteristics and his performance on stage.

After we were done with presenting our characters to each other, our teacher, Steve, asked us what were some of the good techniques in presenting. One of my classmates said that when her partner did her presentation, she compared La Ruffiana to Snowhite's old lady. I thought that was a pretty good way of giving an example people can relate to and are familiar with. It is definitely something I can include in my next research.

After we were done with feedback, we started doing what we called the "wax museum." Half of the class left the classroom and the other half stayed with their pairs. The half that stayed in the room, one person in each couple molded the other person into a position that was characterstical of their character. Then, that person had to stay still in that position while the other half of the classroom came in and the partner who was not standing still from the couple would give an oral presentation of who this character was and what was his personality/characteristics. After that, each couple would switch partners, give the presentation in the same manner, and after that the second half of the class would do the same thing.

It was quite an interesting exercise to imagine being in a museum where there was several people greeting you and telling you random information about that person who was standing still. I liked it a lot!

Reflection: What we did today in class was a very effective way of sharing information. It was an excellent class teamwork to research different things and the present that to our other classmates. This is how we can learn by sharing with other people. This is actually related to TOK and one of the forms of knowing: by other people.

Conclusion: I am very convinced Pantalone is the character I want to play now. Flavio was not really the character for me, I don't think I will really enjoy playing him. However, Pantalone seems to fit a lot of characteristics that I find funny and interesting to include while acting. Pantalone will be the primary choice for my Commedia dell' Arte performance.

Commedia dell' Arte: Isabella Investigation

Name of character (and its origins): Isabella. This character is immediately associated with Isabella Andreini (1562-1604). She was admired through France and Italy by all classes. She was a very well educated poet and a songwriter too.

Status (class of character): Prima donna, innamorata (lover). Daughter of Pantalone. Flirtatious and stubborn, men often fall in love with her.

Physicality:

• Stance: she is rarely standing in both feet: normally making ballet positions. Chest full of breath.

• Animal characteristics: pink flaming, love bird.

• Walk: swishing and swinging around, wobbling.

• Gestures: often holding flowers or handkerchiefs.

• Other: exaggerated movements of the hands.

Voice (vocal characteristics): refined and unpretentious.

Costume: uses a long dress, often holding a handkerchief, a fan or a book (see attached images).

Mask: no physical mask but often uses a lot of makeup.

Props: handkerchief, fan or book.

Relationships (to other characters and audience): lovers are more in love with the idea of being in love than with themselves. She is extremely aware of being watched by the audience and often flirts with spectators.

Plot/stage function: a lover, although she initiates solutions to her own account most of the time.

Characteristics/persona/other: A little bit proud, extremely dramatic. Has independent will and she is highly cultivated. As the other lovers, she is self-obsessed and selfish. They are more interested in what they are saying and how it sounds than what their beloved is saying.

Think of(anything that will help the actor to access the character): As a lover, Isabella should be very playful, flirtatious. She should be the woman desired by plenty of man: playful but at the same time confident.

Source Page

"Commedia Stock Characters Isabella." Shane Arts Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. .

Delpiano, Roberto. "Isabella." Roberto Delpiano's website . N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. .

Rudlin, John. Commedia dell'arte an actor's handbook. London: Routledge, 1994. Print.

Commedia dell' Arte: Characters

Commedia dell' Arte Characters

When reading the information sheet, there are some characters that immediately capture my attention:

• Pantalone:

He is a short character. He is a character whose orders have to be obeyed because he has money. Uses tight trousers, sleepers and a tight fitting jacket. I don't think I would meet the physical appearance of Pantalone. And I wouldn't enjoy to play a high status character as comical.

• IL Capitano:

This character often pretends high status. A coward. Stops everywhere to show the audience that he should be admired. I don't think I will be able to relate very well to this character and it doens't seem as comical to me to perform it.

• Arlecchino:

He is usually a servant to Pantalone. He is a character that can be, by his costume, considered funny by ridiculization. He is normally physically quick but mentally slow. He constantly speaks. I think that would be something I would enjoy to do considering that I have seen myself in that situation!

I think Arlecchino is the character that appeals to me the most and I would like to play it on our Commedia dell' Arte performance next term.

Facial Masks

Aim of Task:

Learning about facial expressions and representing emotions with the body. Combining different emotions in the body and in the face.

Description of Task:

We all arranged into a circle. Steve started making a facial expression and maintained it. He called it a mask. Then he mimicked to have taken it off and throw it to another person. The next person had to imitate the same facial expression the previous person had made and then create a new facial expression for the next person to imitate. The proper mimicking to put the mask, take the mask off and throw it to another person had to be done always.

Our teacher showed us the characteristics of an angry, sad and happy facial expression. He showed us the main characteristics at four levels of each of these emotions:

• When being angry, it is important to curve the lips and frown the eyebrows.
• When being sad, it is important to frown the eyebrows and show a curved down mouth.
• When happy, mouth and eyes should be widely open.

He told us to make each one of this faces in increasing or decreasing degree of intensity: he would say either angry 1, 2 or 3 which would mean angry face at intensity 1, 2 or 3 or he would say happy 1, 2 or three which would mean happy face at intensity 1, 2 or 3.

It was weird to change from completely different emotions from one to another second: we would change from angry 3 to happy 1 in one instant.

Our teacher then asked us to break the circle and start moving around. He told us to make specific faces but combine these faces with their respective body expressions: for example, he would tell us to do a happy 3 face with a happy 3 body. I could notice that the corporal expressions almost came by themselves as I made the facial expression our teacher told us.

We kept on doing this exercise until our teacher asked us to do something rather radical: to combine different emotion faces with different emotion bodies. In that manner, we would have angry faces with happy bodies, sad faces with angry bodies and happy faces with sad bodies, etc. Before, as I did the facial expression that our teacher asked us to do, my body started to move in the corresponding emotion. However, now that I had to combine different emotions in faces and bodies, it became more and more difficult since my body was not "synchronised." I would try to make a sad face and a happy body but the movements of my body would not be as cheerful as before. It was quite a strange experience.

Reflection:

Our body is used to act according to different emotions. When we are happy, we are more likely to smile and move ourselves around than when we are sad, where we tend to have a very relaxed face and a slow body movement. This is part of ourselves. however, as actors, we need to be able to fake this emotions and be able to make different emotions with different parts of the body. Is part of being a good actor. Sometimes combining different emotions can be used in a very comical way, for example, seeing somebody oscillating between crying of sadness or shouting of anger when a catastrophical event happens can be funny.

Conclusion:

As an actor, we have to be able to fake emotions. As actors, we have to be able to make unrealistic as well as realistic expressions. An angry face with a happy body is very uncommon on a daily situation, but since this can be comical on theatre it is something that an actor should be able to do.

First Commedy Exercise - Skit

Aim of Task: To work in a group and make our first comedy performance in class. To start applying the comic techniques that we learned in class.

Description of Task: The whole class was separated into groups with different comic scenes. My group was Vincent, Undine, Daniel and I. However, since Vincent did not attend class the day of the performance, Jason participated with us. Our scene was in a hospital. It was about a doctor and his nurse who had been operating two people at once but had performed the wrong operation to both patients. We started brainstorming to think about what operation had been performed wrong. We decided that we would make it sexual, since from previous experience we know that it can be comical. We decided that the operation the doctor had done wrong was that he had changed a man's genitalia for the nose of a woman and the woman's genitalia for the mouth of a man. The doctor and his nurse would make the scene funny by using unusual objects when operating the patients like cones, drums and sticks. All of the comedy would be without any dialogue, so we could make body expressions even funnier: something Jason, who performed as doctor, is good at. I performed as one of the patients and Undine played as the female patient. We had to figure out a way to show which parts of us had been changed. We found out that we could do the shape with our hands, like we did in the previous mimicking exercises. When the doctor ended with the operation, we would stand up and start touching all of our body, and showing that we noticed something wrong in our faces and legs. Then, we would suddenly turn towards each other and notice that what was wrong in our bodies is now on each other bodies; showing sounds and expressions of surprise. We had to exaggerate each of this expressions as much as possible so we could making very comical.

Reflection: For some reason, when jokes are sexual they become funnier. We used it in our scene, but other groups also played with sexual jokes and all the class laughed a lot. Perhaps the fact that the topic can be taboo, and it is mentioned publicly, is one of the reasons why it is funnier. It is something that we discussed on the brainstorming, that it gets out of the seriousness and routine. Sexual jokes can also be something unexpected, which is another thing that makes people laugh. Showing these parts without dialogue was kind of difficult, but it made it even funnier in the end. I think that mute scenes make people more focused and curious about what is going to stage. It grabs their attention, therefore, they are more prone to expect something funny and laugh even more when they get it.

Conclusion: Sexual jokes can appeal to a wide audience because it is something unexpected and not serious. Comedy scenes without dialogue are also funny because it leaves the audience wondering about what is going to be funny. Comedy is a lot about what the audience expects and what the audience gets. It is difficult to have an specific pattern for comedy though.

What is comedy? - Basics of Miming

Aim of Task:

To discuss what is comedy, as an introduction to Unit 2, comedian dell' Arte. Explore comedy in performance, apply mime and movement skills.

Description of Task:

We first did a brainstorm on the board where Steve wrote down everything that can be considered a Comedy. Around the "What is a comedy" oval we had:

• Funny
• Making fun of ... it's not real

Satire - makes fun of people/politics

• Situations - funny events, absurdity
• Characters (Mr. Bean), stereotypes, movement/expressions.
• Exaggerate - slap stick, low comedy.
• Timing
• Witty dialogue - language, stand up.
• Dark comedy, focuses on taboos.
• Ritualised relief.
• Happy ending.
• Repetition.
  

Afterwards, we did some exercises to practice miming. First Steve arranged us in a circle and told us he was holding a putty which could be moulded to any object. He started making a toothbrush and then miming how he brushed his teeth. He made sounds to simulate what brushing your teeth sounds like and to represent the shape of the toothbrush he put his hands around the toothbrush. Then, he turned the putty into a sphere shaped object and passed it to somebody else. Many people did different, creative objects with the putty. I noticed that, to represent the shape they were making with the putty, people put their hands around the object, emphasising the edges and special characteristics of the object. Some other people also made sounds with their mouth to complement what they were doing with their hands. At some point, Steve received the putty and started moulding a bomb. He made a sound with his mouth like if he lit the bomb and it was going to explode. He pass it around to the students until we simulated like the bomb exploded and Daniel laid in the floor, "dead." Everybody gathered around for a while, "trying to help him" but then he stood up as a "zombie." All this pretending went on and on with different actions but it was extremely funny. I found it very silly to do all that stuff but it was really really funny to follow because it made no sense.

After playing with the putty, Steve started shaping a box with his hands. He mimed holding the box and then passed to the person next to him. He told everybody that he would pass the box around and we would choose the size and weight of each box. To communicate the size and weight of the box, most people put their hands around the whole box, emphasising the corners, and bent their knees to represent objects that weighted a lot. I tried to make a very small but heavy box, that could fit in one hand. Jose did a very creative thing with his box, he moved into the middle of the circle and put it on the floor. He then showed a very big box with his hands and started pushing that box instead of just holding it with his hands, like if it was very, very heavy.

At last, we did some other exercises of miming in pairs. Daniel was my partner. We had to pretend there was a pole somewhere between us where we had to hold onto. We held the pole and moved around, trying to keep our hand in the same place as if we were still holding the pole. Next, we did some miming pretending there was a wall and we had to keep our hands very stiff against the wall.

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an elevator shaft and die." - Mel Brooks, Actor.

Reflection:

There is a lot of technique in miming. To do miming correctly you have to consider every attribute of the objects around you. Miming requires a lot of concentration and creativity to think all the possible ways you can represent the objects around you and what would happen if they were actually there. This is why miming can be funny, because you can represent silly or unexpected objects.

Conclusion:

The understanding of comedy and miming will be indispensable for Commedia dell' Arte. Comedy is about making fun of seriousness, making fun of routines; receiving the unexpected. Comedy makes a lot of use in miming for unexpected body language. I feel I am really interested in this theatre topic, since comedy and what makes people laugh is something that has put me into a lot of thinking, and I'm sure I will really enjoy it :)

ISTA TaPS

During this weekend, we had ISTA workshops. The International School Theatre Workshop (ISTA) is a network of schools that are involved in Theatre. Li Po Chun proudly hosted this year's Theatre Arts programme symposium (TaPS). All the participants were divided into different assembles, and each ensemble had a leader who was leading workshops the whole weekend. My ensemble was about 10 people from different International schools in Asia and our leader was Jo Riley.

Complicité

She started warming up with games that would let us know a little bit more about ourselves. She asked us to do a circle and introduce ourselves with our names. Then, she asked us to all put our hands in the top of our head. Then, she went to somebody in the circle pointed at them and told them "you." Then, that person had to put his hand down, walk to another person and tell them you in the same manner. This other person had to go to another person, who had not already been chosen by somebody else, and told them "you." That way, a whole circle would complete by pointing at each person. It was quite an interesting exercise. Then, she modified it a bit and instead of saying "you" we had to say the name of a city. Most people said the name of cities they liked, the cities they came from.

Jo Riley talked to us a lot about Complicité. Complicité is the feeling a group has of working together and achieving something as a group, completely improvised, but at the same time in a very coordinated way that the audience cannot notice that the scene is being improvised. Complicité is a french word, and is also a cognate for the spanish word "complicidad." To demonstrate and exercise what complicité is, she asked us to make a straight line, all facing the same side. She told us to raise our right hand, all at the same time, but without talking to each other. It was very difficult, we had to use our peripheral vision as much as we could to look to the people in our sides and be aware of when they were raising their hands so we could all raise them at the same time. She also asked us to take a step forward at the same time. We also tried to achieve that by using our peripheral vision and trying to look at each other but it was extremely difficult. I think it was too much to ask when we were just introduced to the concept and we knew our ensemble by one day only. After those exercises, we kept on working on Complicité. We were divided in two groups. She asked each group separately to make a certain letter, a Z for example. We had to make a Z, but we couldn't talk to each other and we all had to participate in making the figure. It was complicated, because many people would try to take the lead and it was hard to figure out the "best" design when we could not communicate with each other using words. We had to feel our environment and go with the crowd, that is a characteristic of Complicité.

"... a rehearsal room where THERE IS SUCH A SENSE OF INFINITE POSSIBILITY."
"The complicité rehearsal is utterly collaborative, shaped by the energies of the individuals present and from this delicate balance of hearts + minds springs the work, unique, beautiful, precious."

IB learner characteristics

Jo Riley asked us to examine the IB learner profile characteristics and asked us to write one of those characteristics that we already are and one that we would like to acquire. A characteristic of the IB learner profile I already am is risk taker. One of the reasons I came all the way to Hong Kong is that I wanted to try something new, regardless of the risks. I am the kind of person who likes to risk stuff to gain experience and that is something that has helped my in my development as a person. A characteristic I should acquire from the IB learner profile, though, is balanced. To some point "balanced" is subjective but I think I am not well balanced enough. I feel like I could do other things like sports which would make me a more balanced student. There is still many areas where I can improve as a student.

The Iceberg

We drew an iceberg on our journals. She told us to draw a very big iceberg, with only a small tip above the water. She told us to write what people saw in us as the first impression in the tip of the iceberg. I wrote things like tall, brown and loud! Then, she asked us to write the essence of who we are in the bottom of the iceberg.

She told us to pick one of the things we wrote in the bottom of the iceberg and write it with our hands in the middle of the air. She told us that if we wanted, we could move around and make all kind of movements to draw the word in the air. She told us to feel the movement, to have our body feel the way we moved and get used to it. She wanted to make the word a body expression. Then, she told us to close our eyes and keep doing the same gestures, so this word would be something we "feel in our bodies." Then, she played some music and she asked us to do the respective gestures in the rhythm of the music. We did it all at the same time. Some students closed their eyes while other students opened them so we could observe the gestures from others.

The Grid

Jo showed us a 3x3 grid, with numbers on each unit, like the one below:



The interesting thing about this grid is that the sum of rows, either vertical, horizontal or inclined, is 15. This shows a balanced square and, according to Jo, 15 is a special number in Chinese culture. The previous exercise that we did writing words in the air had to do with us expressing our bodies. She wanted us to use this concept of a well balanced grid and our body movements in one exercise. She told us to imagine the grid as something in our lives: friends, family, school... something of relevance. Different areas in the grid would represent something different for each one of us. She wanted us to show who we occupied the space in the grid by showing emotions with our bodies. She drew a grid on the floor. After everybody practised how he or she was going to express the meaning of his/her grid, we all performed inside the grid in front of the class. This exercise was mostly made to exercise our creativity and ability to use body language to express meaning. This is indeed what we were doing in the exercise.

Laban 8 efforts

After watching the play, Desh, we analysed how the actor occupied his space and used his body to make different movements and convey meaning. Laban 8 efforts are:

• Float
• Thrust
• Glide
• Slash
• Dab
• Wring
• Flick
• Press

We noticed that in the desh play, the dancer used a lot of wringing, slashing and pressing to occupy the space around him. He used a lot of slashing to show movement, determination. He used pressing as a form of expressing his body. All of these Laban 8 efforts could be seen to some extent in the play. Some of them were more notorious though. This is something that you can apply when showing action when performing on stage.

Victorian Melodrama

We had a "Master Class" which was not led by Jo Riley but by Mike, with my same ensemble group. He taught us about Victorian Melodrama: the theatre about exaggerated expressions. The world melodrama comes from:

• melo: music
• drama: acting

Victorian melodrama is a very defined drama. The audience knows what to expect for certain actions. For example, to show bravery, an specific defined set of body language expressions should be used. In Victorian melodrama, the audience knows the exact body movement to expect for many actions: the audience expects the exact same way of dying for everybody, for example. We can say that Victorian melodrama is about giving the audience what they expect.

We exercised what we learned about Victorian Melodrama with some scripts that Mike gave us. In this scripts, you had to show specific, determined body language expressions to show determined emotions. For example, to show bravery, one has to put his chest up and look to the front. There is a set of specific body expressions that the audience will expect from the author so one must them very well to do a good performance.

Kowzan's sign system

• Spoken text:

1. Words
2. Tone

• Expression of the Body

1. Facial Expression
2. Gesture
3. Movement

• Actor's External Appereance

1. Make up/Mask
2. Hair
3. Costume
   

• Appearance of the Stage

1. Props
2. Set design
3. Lightning

• Sound

1. Music
2. Sound effects

Relating to Kowzan's sign system, Jo divided us in groups. She told us that we had to come up titled "The returning soldier." We had no more information. Our group started brainstorming about which kind of scene could we arrange and we agreed that we would do a scene were a son leaves his family to go to war. This son has a smaller brother and his two parents. However, this son would be returning wounded, without one of his legs, a situation that would be difficult to understand for the little child.

We started rehearsing it, and as we rehearsed it more and more, Jo asked us to add this to it that incorporated Kowzan's sign language. For example, she told us to have a brief time in the scene were one of the characters would be thinking. We added this on the thoughts of the child and the thoughts of the son. The would be thinking about the uncertainty of the soldier's future: going to war might represent a very large risk. Then she told us to add more things like music into the scene. We added the song "friday" in order to add some comedy to the performance. We would sign this song when the little child was asking when was his brother going to come.

All of this add-ons to the play added an attractive part to the play. It helped maintain the person's attention. They served as attention getters for the audience. All this add-ons made the play more interesting and joyful to watch. They also conveyed meaning but I think the primary reason to include them was to re-gain the attention of every person who is watching the play.