These are some random moments I have witnessed before which could possibly be used in theatre.
1) LITTLE BOY SHOCKED
Once I was waiting in line with my mother, and this little japanese boy (around the age of 6) was running around and messing around. but upon hearing my mother and I speaking portuguese, he froze and stared at us, looking at us like were aliens or something. This created humor because of the contrast between his activeness and still reaction.
After thinking this awhile, I realised that we HAVE used this before. This technique was used in Tina! in the secretary scene where Zebub comes out for the first time. When the secretaries heard his voice, they start screaming and started to become agitated, but when he comes out dancing, they all freeze and let their mouths drop open.
This was what created humor in this scene.
However contrast also can enhance other things such as fear, or tension. it makes the scene more memorable.
I once watched a scene from a Brazilian soap opera, and one death scene that I thought was very powerful was when a lady was dying in a hospital. Both her husband and her lover (who she had an affair with) were there. She started to shout and beg for her husband to forgive her lover and kept shouting then suddenly there was a long beep. And she froze, then slowly laid her head down. She was dead.
I remember this scene clearly because of the use of the contrast between when she was dying and when she was dead.
Also, Mr Evans had told me this story of a couple he knew when the girl smiled and said to guy "you can rot in hell." This makes the situation scarier, again, because of the contrast. Looking nicely and saying something very unpleasant evokes a sense of fear in the audience, which again, makes the scene more memorable.
2) TENSION DURING HOCKEY TOURNAMENT
While I was in my Field Hockey Tournament, the other varsity team were in the semi-finals, and they had just drawn the game. So the referees had continued the dispute with penalties. Each member would go forth and try to get the ball into the goal. Even by just watching, this one-on-one situation had my heart racing and i was "on the edge of my seat."
Then on the way back, I wondered why I had felt so nervous just by watching the game.
Then I referred back to the lessons on the theatre elements.
Tension was one of them and I identified this moment as the Tension built by task.
The task was to get more goals in than the opponent. It was almost as if I was asking myself, "Will they get it in?" "Will the goalie miss?" "What if this goes wrong?"
3) LADY ON PHONE
While I was walking in Motomachi Street, I saw a lady of around 20 to 25 years of age and she was on her celphone. The first thing I noticed was that her voice was extremely loud. I then realized that she was fighting over the phone with someone. The most interesting part of this moment was the reactions of others. Anyone that passed didnt fail to glance at this lady.
Also, I referred this moment to my past productions. The reactions of others is what makes the situation realistic. For example, in Woyzeck, while the grandma was blabbing on about her little story the other three girls would be looking at each other and exchanging puzzled looks. They then would gather and then run after the grandma worried that she had gone crazy. If the girls had just stood there, then the scene would not have been realistic enough. The reactions of other characters develops the characters themselves and also the relationship between them. In this case, the audience could infer that the grandma was a bit crazy and also that the three girls were some kind of family to her.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Robin Hood: Elementary Production
When I heard that there was an elementary production, I thought I would volunteer for that and use it for IB.
In this production, I am taking the role of Assistant Director and Stage Manager. However, since I missed most of the play rehearsals and could not be as involved, I decided to be more of an Assistant Stage Manager, which is kind of between a stage manager and an assistant director.
Rehearsals started after the winter break and will be performed this Friday and Saturday. Since I had Field Hockey throughout January, I was only able to attend rehearsals on Sundays. During rehearsals, I would take notes on the script on entrances and exits, props etc.
Later on in early February, I started to organize the prop list and seeing which props go where.
Last Sunday (the 22nd of Feb), we (Sara and I) helped set-up the stage. Firstly, we put up the white curtain. Then we helped with other details such as the castle, the benches and the rock/forest.
Here are some pictures:
In this production, I am taking the role of Assistant Director and Stage Manager. However, since I missed most of the play rehearsals and could not be as involved, I decided to be more of an Assistant Stage Manager, which is kind of between a stage manager and an assistant director.
Rehearsals started after the winter break and will be performed this Friday and Saturday. Since I had Field Hockey throughout January, I was only able to attend rehearsals on Sundays. During rehearsals, I would take notes on the script on entrances and exits, props etc.
Later on in early February, I started to organize the prop list and seeing which props go where.
Last Sunday (the 22nd of Feb), we (Sara and I) helped set-up the stage. Firstly, we put up the white curtain. Then we helped with other details such as the castle, the benches and the rock/forest.
Here are some pictures:
Wayang Kulit Project
STIMULUS: Srikandhi Maguru Manah (story)
FIRST PITCH:
When I read this story, I didn't have any immediate ideas, mainly because of the somewhat complicated plot. But as we discussed briefly on what the pitch should include, I had an idea. The music we include in the performance could be done like the group "STOMP." I thought of this mainly because of the practicality. Since it might be a hassle and even expensive to get instruments, we could use pans, pots, spoons, sticks, boxes, bottles, cans etc. to make the music.
heres one of their performances:
Then I thought of the lighting. As we experimented with colors in lighting (as reported in my previous entries), i thought I could input those experiments into my pitch.
When there is a scene in the forest, we could use green light to show the reflection of the leaves.
When there is a battle, we could use red light to show hatred, violence and aggression.
But then I saw this video:
and i liked the flickering of the light from the fire because it added onto the sense of violence and aggression. But since a fire might be a hazard during the performance, i thought that during the battle scenes, the light used could be shaken constantly to attempt to give the same result.
Also, I liked the idea that the characters would constantly leave the screen and come back on. This makes the audience confused and also attentive. This builds tension.
Going back to the lighting, I thought that instead of just having red light, we could also add onto the tension by constantly flashing red light instead. And other colors could be flashed along with it.
LISTENING TO OTHER PITCHES:
As I listened to other pitches, I liked the ideas of each person.
SOFIA: The two narrators were a good idea. Especially considering that the audience are elementary kids.
SARA: The idea of the close-ups were nice. This would make the audience more interested in the story as they could see it almost like a movie.
MEI: The use of traditional instruments interested me. This would also keep another traditional aspect of Balinese theatre.
MARIA: The inclusion of multiple screens was what intrigued me the most. Then the kids would be excited because the action does not only happen on one screen. (However, the practicality of this idea is not too good. We only have one screen, and so the maximum number of screens we could have is two (we could build one), considering the time we have).
RE-PITCH:
With those ideas in mind, I kept the Narrators, the close-ups, the traditional music and the inclusion of multiple screens in my re-pitch along with my idea of STOMP music.
I thought that the close-ups could be on one screen and the action on another, but both screens are moving at the same time. So the audience has a magnified version of the scene on the other screen.
>>Then after hearing everyone else's re-pitches, I realized that the narrators don't have to be omniscient narrators. We could modify it so that they can be characters themselves. Such as grandma and grandchild, teacher and student, friends, writers etc.
NARRATORS
Since we had decided that Mei and I would be the narrators, we thought of other ideas. Then we decided to stick with the narrators being two writers. This way, we could also ask questions that are not related to the story, for example "what's another word for 'winning'?" etc.
NAMES
Majority of the group liked the fact of changing the character names into modern english (well-known) names. Here are the changes:
Srikandhi: Serena (derived from the word Serenity)
Arjuna: Lancelot (alluding to the story of Camelot)
Prabu Jungkungmardea: King Wrath (We wanted to make this one obvious. Wrath is a sin and it means violence and aggression)
Trusthajumena: Lyle (meaning Loyal)
LIGHTING
Mei and I were in charge of the lighting. I told her my initial ideas of the flashing colours, and she liked the idea so we decided to use it. Also, she reminded me of her idea of using gobos such as fire gobos or forest gobos, and i also agreed to this.
Our performance date is coming up (next Tuesday), and although we are not good with time, we are also not amazingly far behind, and I think we can make this successful.
FIRST PITCH:
When I read this story, I didn't have any immediate ideas, mainly because of the somewhat complicated plot. But as we discussed briefly on what the pitch should include, I had an idea. The music we include in the performance could be done like the group "STOMP." I thought of this mainly because of the practicality. Since it might be a hassle and even expensive to get instruments, we could use pans, pots, spoons, sticks, boxes, bottles, cans etc. to make the music.
heres one of their performances:
Then I thought of the lighting. As we experimented with colors in lighting (as reported in my previous entries), i thought I could input those experiments into my pitch.
When there is a scene in the forest, we could use green light to show the reflection of the leaves.
When there is a battle, we could use red light to show hatred, violence and aggression.
But then I saw this video:
and i liked the flickering of the light from the fire because it added onto the sense of violence and aggression. But since a fire might be a hazard during the performance, i thought that during the battle scenes, the light used could be shaken constantly to attempt to give the same result.
Also, I liked the idea that the characters would constantly leave the screen and come back on. This makes the audience confused and also attentive. This builds tension.
Going back to the lighting, I thought that instead of just having red light, we could also add onto the tension by constantly flashing red light instead. And other colors could be flashed along with it.
LISTENING TO OTHER PITCHES:
As I listened to other pitches, I liked the ideas of each person.
SOFIA: The two narrators were a good idea. Especially considering that the audience are elementary kids.
SARA: The idea of the close-ups were nice. This would make the audience more interested in the story as they could see it almost like a movie.
MEI: The use of traditional instruments interested me. This would also keep another traditional aspect of Balinese theatre.
MARIA: The inclusion of multiple screens was what intrigued me the most. Then the kids would be excited because the action does not only happen on one screen. (However, the practicality of this idea is not too good. We only have one screen, and so the maximum number of screens we could have is two (we could build one), considering the time we have).
RE-PITCH:
With those ideas in mind, I kept the Narrators, the close-ups, the traditional music and the inclusion of multiple screens in my re-pitch along with my idea of STOMP music.
I thought that the close-ups could be on one screen and the action on another, but both screens are moving at the same time. So the audience has a magnified version of the scene on the other screen.
>>Then after hearing everyone else's re-pitches, I realized that the narrators don't have to be omniscient narrators. We could modify it so that they can be characters themselves. Such as grandma and grandchild, teacher and student, friends, writers etc.
NARRATORS
Since we had decided that Mei and I would be the narrators, we thought of other ideas. Then we decided to stick with the narrators being two writers. This way, we could also ask questions that are not related to the story, for example "what's another word for 'winning'?" etc.
NAMES
Majority of the group liked the fact of changing the character names into modern english (well-known) names. Here are the changes:
Srikandhi: Serena (derived from the word Serenity)
Arjuna: Lancelot (alluding to the story of Camelot)
Prabu Jungkungmardea: King Wrath (We wanted to make this one obvious. Wrath is a sin and it means violence and aggression)
Trusthajumena: Lyle (meaning Loyal)
LIGHTING
Mei and I were in charge of the lighting. I told her my initial ideas of the flashing colours, and she liked the idea so we decided to use it. Also, she reminded me of her idea of using gobos such as fire gobos or forest gobos, and i also agreed to this.
Our performance date is coming up (next Tuesday), and although we are not good with time, we are also not amazingly far behind, and I think we can make this successful.
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