Acting: Antonin Artaud/Universal language of Theatre Lesson 2

Tuesday 10^th February 2015

This week lesson we carried on looking at antonin artaud we came up with our own work ups for the class in groups using the techniques we learnt last week. We follow on with coming up with a short piece from nursery rhymes where we couldn’t use words. Next we talked about theatre of cruelty.

We came up with our own warm ups in groups to use in a class warm up, using Artaud’s techniques. We did basic movements but pushed ourselves to keep going to the point where we couldn’t do anymore. My group had two circles of people and one person started with showing an emotion and the next person in the circle would build on that and it would grow and grow round the circle. Another group had the idea of being a frozen strawberry in a blender, so we had to spin round and get faster and faster and make noises, not using words. Another exercise was one person was a fish and the other was a fisherman and the fish had to resist the fisherman and the fisherman had to keep trying to catch the fish. The fish had to be pulled by one part of their body.

These warm ups were fun to create because we could do anything that would bring our animal side out, which follows what we learnt about Artaud last week. He wanted to bring out people’s raw emotions and go against what society thinks is normal behaviour. So these exercises needed to engage with that raw emotion, ready for the main task.

For the second task we had to pick a nursery rhyme and come up with a piece without using words and using audience involvement, to depict the nursery rhyme. We chose Humpty Dumpty because we thought we could use the idea of the actors being the horses and the audience could be the kings men, so when Humpty Dumpty fell over, the ‘horses’ could push the audience around Humpty Dumpty and then move through the legs of the audience members and lay over Humpty Dumpty to show he is no more. This task was another exciting exercise to do because we could think of crazy things to do to depict this nursery rhyme. One of our feedback comments to help us improve on it, was that we could be more forceful with the audience to push them onto Humpty Dumpty and we could have been more grotesque to show the Humpty Dumpty story.

Next we talked about Theatre of Cruelty, and the 5 main elements that are incorporated into it. The first element is to push extremes and make the audience feel uncomfortable and the actors need to push their extremes and be beyond normal, but not melodramatic. The second element is a universal language that everyone can understand and engage with , so if a play is taken to any country, the audience can feel the same raw emotions and understand what is happening. The third element is the physicalisation, going to the extreme, physical gesture takes priority over verbal language. The fourth element is concrete language of symbols, for example using breathing as a symbol for an emotion that can be easily recognised. The fifth element is the audience/performance relationship, breaking the fourth wall. The idea Artaud had was to have the audience in spinning chairs so the audience could watch a show all around them. But this never happened because he was considered to be mad, and most of his ideas that he wanted to implement did not happen.

In conclusion, I found that I understood a great deal of his ideas and why he had his ideas. I found it quite exciting to know we are devising a short piece about nightmares, because everyone can relate to having nightmares and it’ll be a good way to show the grotesqueness of Artaud’s ideas and push ourselves to the extreme. Even though Artaud was considered mad and his ideas ignored back then, nowadays it is possible to try out his ideas and push theatre to the limits.    

Acting: Antonin Artaud/Universal language of Theatre Lesson 1

Tuesday 3th February 2015

This week in acting, we started looking at the French practitioner Antonin Artaud. Artaud did not feel that the naturalistic staging and acting style of the time (early 1900s) reflected life. Stanislavsky style of naturalism was supposed to be a reflection of life on stage, in a natural way, but Artaud disagreed and felt that the pain he felt in his life was not reflected on stage. He felt that theatre should reflect the pain and emotions that real people feel in a surrealist way so he came up with a “Theatre of Cruelty”. He wanted his Theatre of cruelty to show the violent and physical determination to destroy the false reality.

In class we looked at the Universal Language of Theatre and how to create an emotion that everyone can understand without text. This is because Artaud wanted to get rid of theatre’s reliance on text and instead used movement and gesture to show emotions and ideas on stage. In class we did a breathing exercise where we had to breathe in and out using different emotions such as happy or anxious or angry. When one person breathed with an emotion, the rest of the class had to watch and then feel the same emotion and do the breathing style themselves.

We also did an exercise where we showed happiness, love and then adoration towards each other but without sound. We also stood in pairs and we could make sound but not words to express anger. This was about Artaud’s work on emphasizing movement and gestures and sounds, rather than following text or script.

Another exercise we did was to line up 7 people and start with one person at the end showing a low sense of anxious emotion and then as it went up the line the emotion got bigger and bigger until the last person was showing the highest level of anxious. We had to build on the level of the person before and increase the level as it went from 1-7.

Our work in class on expressing emotion through movement and sound and gesture was part of Antonin Artaud’s theatre of cruelty where he wanted to get rid of naturalism style of acting and instead show not everyday life on stage but over exaggerated life and emotions on stage.

I felt it was really interesting learning about Artaud. It was quite overwhelming to hear about the work he did and how one lady even gave birth during a show. I can see why he created theatre of cruelty because naturalism is quite a safe version of life on stage but Artaud wanted to show danger because there’s danger in real life. In terms of universal language I found it really interesting how as a company we could all show one emotion once we got over the fact that we looked ridiculous. I found it amazing and quite an emotional release.

I think my strengths were that I went for it and didn’t hold back but my weakness was that I didn’t understand the difference between symbolic imagery and literal imagery.

So in conclusion from this lesson I found it was a completely different style from Brecht which was interesting to compare in my head. It was good to learn about different practitioners and their work. 

Acting: Evaluation

Tuesday 20th January

This week in acting we were carrying on with our group working on our scene. This week we work better as a group because we work outside which mean we weren’t distracted by the other class members. We go through the scene and came up with some great ideas which includes when Adzio and Stephanie’s kiss and when they dance together we have made it so that they dance to Macarena this takes the emotions from the play. This play is a upsetting piece of theatre so making some parts humorous will remind the audience that they are in a theatre and won’t get draw way from the real life. We came up with using music in the last monologue that called "bang bang" which will work well with the monologue we are using because it relates to  the words that are said to build on this idea we are going to look really happy and dance in the background.

We had a rehearsal on Thursday which work well an till other people started to come in the room, the group members became distributed. I feel that the group has a hard time focusing. I think next time we work in a grouping felt i want  go with people who work and not get distracted easily.

My strengths from this lesson is that I was ready to work and didn't get distracted with other members class an d come up with some good ideas.  My weaknesses from the lesson was that I couldn't get the group to work.

Acting:Twelfth lesson

Tuesday 20th January

This week in acting we were carrying on with our group working on our scene. This week we
work better as a group because we work outside which mean we weren’t distracted by the
other class members. We go through the scene and came up with some great ideas which
includes when Adzio and Stephanie’s kiss and when they dance together we have made it so
that they dance to Macarena this takes the emotions from the play. This play is a upsetting
piece of theatre so making some parts humorous will remind the audience that they are in a
theatre and won’t get draw way from the real life. We came up with using music in the last
monologue that called "bang bang" which will work well with the monologue we are using
because it relates to the words that are said to build on this idea we are going to look really
happy and dance in the background.

We had a rehearsal on Thursday which work well an till other people started to come in the
room, the group members became distributed. I feel that the group has a hard time
focusing. I think next time we work in a grouping felt i want go with people who work and
not get distracted easily.

My strengths from this lesson is that I was ready to work and didn't get distracted with
other members class an d come up with some good ideas. My weaknesses from the lesson
was that I couldn't get the group to work. 

Acting: Lesson eleven

Tuesday 13^th January

This week we carried on with working on our scene for berth’s Dr Korczak’s Example. The group I’m working with are hard to get working they keep going off topic and it’s getting annoying as we only have two weeks to finish our scene.

 I thought we can use the songs I need a dollar for when the musician comes in, thinking that if we have an upbeat version of this song. Using this juxtaposition distances them from the play. We were going to have signs on the musician saying I sing for my supper and have one Adzio saying something an along the lines of being unable to trust or I’m going to fight as long as I can to show the rebel that he is growing up in to. Stephanie could have a sign on her that is reliving her thoughts or personality to remind the audience that they are in the theatre.

When Adzio and Stephanie are slow dancing someone could put the dolls in the front of the stage and the dancers can slow more backwards they speak they lines but it only the dolls on the stage it help create less feeling for the audience. We haven’t thought a song to dance to yet but we are going to use dramatic music when we are change characters with revolves around the apple.

Our first scene we are going to use our bodies to make a table to set the scene for Stephanie and Dr Korczak so then we will going to the front of the stage and talk to the audience so we can break down the fourth wall.

My strength for this week’s lesson are the ideas I had but my weakness what that I could get my group to work so I feel we did get much done.

Next week I think we need to plan out our scene and put in to action the new ideas we have come up with and then keep going over it and then have an extra rehearsal. 

Acting: Lesson Ten

Tuesday 9^th December

This week in acting we start coming up with ideas for our 3 scene we have to do. We also made dolls to use in our scenes. We made the dolls look really unrealistic so the audience know that it a doll. We are did this to keep the audience so focus on what’s happening in the play and not wind up in the feelings about what happening in the play.

The ideas with came up with of our scene was we would use the dolls for the kissing scene between Adzio and steff as we want to distance the audience for the play. We also decide to swap characters at different sections of the scene and find we change when characters handed over an apple so we thought we could do a movement piece to change out characters and use the apple to move around. We are going to have different objects to show the different characters like a flower for steff and a cap for Adzio and a white coat or a something that a doctor would wear for Dr Korczak. We would all so talk to the audience instead of looking at the other actor to bring the audience back to know they are in a theatre. 

My strengths for the lesson were that i came up we some good ideas to help distance the audience but my weakness for the lesson was that I couldn't really remeber the technique he uses. I am going to bring in a lit of all his techniques that we could use in the play which well help me feel more confident in getting my idea.

Acting: Lesson Nine

Tuesday 2nd December

We read though the rest of Dr Korczak’s examples. Here are some of the techniques we find and the notes we made in class about the play.

As the story goes on Steff begins to turn against the resents the restriction lace on her by the government but she’s still attached to the orphanage where she lives and understand Dr Korczak’s points he makes. Steff is more practical minded, which prove that she’s the selfless and understanding young lady she  was  before Adzio come long, thinking about providing for the community whereas for Adzio is materialistic and selfish even though he has change Steff, she hasn't seem to change him to become more selfless.

Information is given out to the audience in scene21 by the actors not the characters, they talk about the orders given and it is also setting the scene of Cerniakov and his plan to help the orphans, how it fails which leads to his suicide. The dolls are used consistently as a distancing device e.g. the doll is broken before the character takes cyanide and dies, the benefit of doing this, is that the audience knows it about to help so they have no reason to feel sad and shocked. Playwright points out the humanity of the soldiers even though they are dolls. This shows how solider are as human as any of us. They are just following orders and know in their heart or head that they are doing wrong. The actors come out of the story to remind you it isn't real, it takes you out of the emotion, but somehow it is more emotion as it’s happened in real life and it just a remind of what happen to the children in times and how the right for children can about with the sacrifice and selfless of one man and his dreams. Korczak talks about being equal to children but can’t be honest with them about death at the end, which goes against one of the his right for the children which is “the right to desire, and claim, and ask” but he is being kind to the children and letting them have hope and dreams till the very end. Summary of political message at the end, a reminder to be thankful for Korczak, it’s relevant to a modern audience. Audience given the manifesto at the end as Brecht wanted the audience to actively think about messages of the play. This is a good idea as it keeps reminding the people in the audience of what happen and how they felt about this play.

The techniques that Brecht uses are Stereotypes, multiroling acting, distancing with dolls, direct address, montages. These will be use in our scene in which we were put ourselves in groups of three with one boy in each group. My group got the scene 15-17. We have the scene where Steff and Adzio kiss, to distance and take feeling out of the kiss I thought we could use the dolls which we help us remind the audience that we are in a play. 


My weakness from this lesson, are not commenting as much as I should but I feel like I did comment of important parts which I think I am glad of. 
My strength for this lesson would  be that I have a couple of good ideas of when it comes to thinking of the techniques to use in our scene.