Director's Vision -- a Resource

https://www.theatrefolk.com/blog/drama-teachers-creating-directors-vision/

Sample /Adapted Director's Notebook Project -- Julie Taymor

Choose one of the Julie Taymor productions, and analyze it as if you were the Director. What choices did the director make and why?

Think about Taymor's themes that she highlights and her use (or not) or a controlling image like the Circle from The Lion King.

Think about the world of the play and how she creates mood, uses color or other design elements, costuming, etc.

She is very much a visually-oriented director, so look at the use (or not) of music, light, sound, of high and low tech elements.

Look also at the use (or not) of puppets since this is important to her.

Think about character and how she creates, reshapes, manipulates character.

Think about social context and messages -- how does the piece of theater "nourish" the audience like bread?

Finally, trace her influences -- what was she inspired by?

You can use some source material to help you construct the content of this project, but it must be correctly cited and you must have a bibliography. However, much of the work should be your own observations as well.

Format: This is not an essay! It is a collection of ideas and observations and connections. You can structure it in any way that you want. Please include photos or videos (or links to those) to supplement your writing. It will eventually be turned into a long blog post.

Length: The writing portion should be about 1000 words, not including the Bibliography. However, we will devote much class time to working on this!

Mask Work

Some guidelines for using masks in performance:

·         Once you are wearing the mask please do not touch it... it breaks the illusion,

·         Do not speak once you are wearing the mask... your actions and gestures will tell the story,

·         Never stand facing sideways to the audience the string can be seen... once again it breaks the illusion,

·         Never place the mask on the floor face down... it can get spoilt

·         Using a tissue/wipe give the inside of the mask a quick wipe before passing to the next person... it gets warm with a mask on.


Here is the video we watched in class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VrFgahL4KI

“Caucasian Chalk Circle” Excerpt (Scene 3) (Bertolt Brecht)

An Interesting Resource explaining some Brechtian Techniques

http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/brecht.pdf

In-class writing on Stanislavski wrap-up

In-class writing on Stanislavski:

1. What have you learned about him and how can you apply that to your own acting/performance practice? 

2. Why is he useful in terms of studying theater? 

3. What do you think are the pros and cons to using his method?

Some Brecht resources

Here is a short video we will watch in class:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-828KqtTkA


And here are two videos in a series of videos looking at different theories about theater practice. These two compare the same scene as done using Stanislavski's method vs. Brecht's theories. (See the rest in the series for other types of theater theory/practice.)

Stanislavski:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OD7phopWWk

Brecht:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62-gYcO6jrY

Short short play

Click on the title to read: A Lonely Impulse of Delight by John Patrick Shanley.

Some Background Info on Stanislavski

This first one explains where theater comes from and what Stanislavski was reacting to in creating his realistic method of acting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPz1c07IsQ

Stanislavski promoted the idea of acting truthfully within a set of given circumstances. He worked with the idea of exploring actors' motivation or goal and objectives in certain scenes and in the play as a whole. After "loading the space" with a realistic setting and understanding the character's situation, an actor can react naturally to the stimuli provided.

Devising Workshop in class

Here is the link to the video of our devising workshop, led by Helen:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z82Dz9Ym7gQ

In it, we are working on movement without much language, but movement in the bodies of our specific characters. The intent is to be able to feel those characters in our bodies and not just in our heads or in the words delivered in the performance. This was a successful activity and one that all the actors can draw from in making their final performance stronger.

Devising Theatre

If you saw or participated in the Spring 2017 production of "Sent from my iPhone" at CA, you know a little bit about devising theater and the devising process -- when actors in a company make up the show from scratch, usually starting with a theme or idea and building stories around that.

Here are some resources you should check out to learn more about devising:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devised_theatre

https://thetheatretimes.com/what-is-devised-theatre/

Also, research a devising company like Frantic Assembly or Complicite (or any other one) and watch a video of their work -- learning some of their methods will help you in your own devising process.

Play Review

Play Review Guidelines and Rubric

A review is more formal than a blog post but is still posted on your blog. It needs to have a title, multiple paragraphs, an introduction, body, and conclusion, and be 650-900 words in length.

Be sure to include the title of the play, the author, the date on which you viewed it, and the location. If you have a program, please also include the director and names of the major actors.

The review should begin with a short summary of the plot of the play and discussion of the major themes. Sometimes, one theme is more prominent than others because the director/actors decided to highlight that, so pay attention to the overall plot points that seem most important. Sometimes, in the program, there is a director’s note that explains the particular approach taken – be sure to read this and look for the examples in the play.

The bulk of the play should discuss the staging. For example, consider the following questions: What choices did the production make regarding staging/set, color schemes, costumes, sound, lighting, etc.? What characters were highlighted as most important and how was this done? What characters were positioned as being similar to one another or opposite to one another and how was that effect achieved?

Next, choose one actor who was the best on your opinion or your favorite and explain why. Who was the character created and how did the actor work to make this character so successful? Be specific and use examples from the play to back up your points.

Finally, discuss your opinion of the play. Did you like it or not and why? What did you learn about theater from watching this?

Grading Criteria (see descriptions above for more details)

Structure of Essay (including title, paragraphs, etc.)

Clarity of Writing and Accurate Proofreading

Word Count

Short Summary of Plot and Major Themes

Review of Staging Choices

Review of One Actor

Overall Opinion

Specific Examples and Lots of Details

Monologues

This week have been working on creating stories, and we came up with a bunch of funny group stories. Now we will turn our attention to individual stories in the form of monologues.

A monologue is a solo performance (like a speech) given on stage. Unlike a speech, it is not simply recited but acted out. In class, we reviewed how to project and enunciate -- both important for monologues -- but we also discussed movement through the various part of the stage and through "levels" of acting.

It will be important to think about how to add deliberate movement and deliberate voice to your monologue performance.

Here is an example of a monologue that tells a story. This one is directed to an unseen listener (probably a parent?), so she speaks out to the audience as if speaking to the parent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WIiFWTBsK4

Here is one that is not directed toward a speaker. It doesn't tell a single story but is more of an exploration of a theme or an aspect of her personality: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFU3ac9fysk

And one final one tells a story and incorporates a little movement (because you don't have to just stand there when delivering a monologue -- remember that it is still acting although it feels like a speech: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHnkZUAJfW8

First Blog Post Assignment

Blog Post 1: Who are you and why are you taking this course?

In this post, simply introduce yourself, but be sure to follow the following guidelines.

Split the post into 5 sections or paragraphs:

1) General introduction

2) One important or interesting thing about you (be specific and include a photo or image that represents this thing)

3)One important or interesting thing about you (be specific and include a photo or image that represents this thing)

4)One important or interesting thing about you (be specific and include a photo or image that represents this thing)

5) Why are you taking this course? what do you hope to get out of it?

This post must be 500-600 words and must include 3 photos or images.