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.