Blog #6: My Mistakes Were Made For You

Description:

The fourth week of April is now gone and once again the school play rehearsals involved the idea of practicing and polishing the first scenes of the play. Throughout this week, we continued with the idea of dividing actors into different groups which included the people from the same scenes. In my case, once again, I did not contributed to the process in a practical way, but rather helped with the direction, coaching and giving opinions on how to improve the scenes by applying any German Expressionism conventions that were not being explored or developed to their fullest. I helped with two scenes; including the "Estación 1" and the "Estación 3" on Tuesday/Thursday and Saturday respectively.

Analysis:

On Tuesday, I had the almost imponderable joy of helping on the direction of the "Estación 1" of the play. As I previously mentioned on my last blog entry, this scene depicted clearly the idea of monotony and suffering from the workers by setting a repetitive sequence in which the characters repeated simple yet boring jobs over and over again. For example, in the case of Bruno's and Jorge's characters, they just poured pigment or glue into the large container which Salvador's character and someone else are in charge of stirring. The audience somehow connects with these characters and is able to feel identified and understand them, they feel and know that those jobs are boring and even depressing. This idea of depression is even highlighted by the sounds generated within the set of movements from the characters. The most clear example is the sound of the paint tins made by Daniel's character; he lifts them from the floor and harshly puts them down on top of the metal table. The sound generated by the two metal surfaces hitting together, created an auditory effect of imprisonment; as the audience's imagination is stimulated and makes it relate the sound to the one created by the prisoners hitting the metal bars of their prison cells.

Anyways, this day we concentrated on polishing the transition between scene 1 and scene 2 (Estación 1 and El Sueño respectively) by using as a guide the musical piece made by Jennifer Kim for the play. At a certain moment in the song there were sudden changes in dynamics (dynamics refers to the volume of a sound, but also refers to every aspect of the execution such as pace, pitch, etc) which we used to mark the exits and entrances. What "El Jefe" finally says in scene 1 is used as a cue for the music to start; after he says "¡¿O tienen alguna queja?!" the music is started and once he leaves, the workers continue working in "D" the pace which meant that everybody had to do their actions really slowly. Afterwards, there is a sudden change in the pitch of the music and the workers slowly begin to lower their heads in three steps, marked by three beats. Finally, the music becomes more bizarre and distorted which is used as a cue for the actors to start making incoherent and strange actions; this part marks the beginning of "El Hombre's" dream as everything begins to be rare and unnatural. 

For example, the "Volantes" began to use their pencils to stab themselves slowly which creates tension and ambiguity in the scene; on the contrary the workers that moved paint tins or manipulated them did things such as liking them (Joaquin's character) or drinking the paint from the inside (Juan Pablo's character). In my opinion this actions really helped to build up this new level of reality which is the dream, in which the 6th graders acted. The workers slowly begin to disappear and the 6th graders' character appear from different parts, some come out from the inside of the barrels and some will come out from the trap door. These actions define the new level of reality and thus confuse the audience as it might be somehow difficult to understand what is happening; but that is another convention in German Expressionism, in which bizarre actions reign over coherency and comprehension.

On Thursday, we continued with the rehearsals of scene 1 and Roberto suggested that the "Sindicalistas" should have some animal/beastly characteristics in their physicality while speaking to the workers and trying to raise the masses. By now, Patricio Strube became the "Sindicalista 1" instead of Alejandro who became the counsellor in scene 5; and started to implement some sort of snake characteristics to this new character. The delicacy and subtlety of his character were contrasted with Jose Alex's new character who implemented characteristics of a gorilla, using a lot the  strength of this arms and legs to move across the stage. 

Again, the contrast between these two characters was visible and created this effect of empathy amongst the workers, why? Because, since one was more physically powerful and the other once was more psychologically powerful they could both relate with the workers as they covered a range of characteristics and aspects. Both of them began to use a stick which somehow gave the visual image of power and strength as it reassembled a king's sceptre and gave them somehow the same hierarchy as "El Jefe" however the fact that they use it in a different way make the audience realize that they are part of the workforce too. 

Moreover, on Saturday the intention was to begin working on scene 5 (a.k.a. Estación 3) and on scene 4 (a.k.a. Sueño Morado). However, many actors were absent, mainly for scene 4 which limited the quality and quantity of work that could be done on Saturday. The rehearsal started by the warming up of the actors, which intended to make them get into character step by step. First the breathing, then the body characterisation and finally the voice characterisation. Actors had to be aware of the fact that their movements had to be grotesque, strong and big with the purpose of showing a feeling in a bigger scale. The use of the face was pretty straightforward, big eyes accompanied with sudden trusts of the head. We then, made each actor say an emotion out loud, an emotion which they thought was being represented by their character; and afterwards made sure that their body and face reflected it. For example, Mora Endruhn said that her character represented hypocrisy...To what extent was this true and accurate? Well, starting with her body characterisation, I can say that the fact that she had her shoulders being raised gave the feeling of contraction and being constrained which could be linked to idea the that she was not expressing her opinions with total freedom and always hid something. Moreover, since her shoulders covered her neck and gave the impression as if she didn't had one, gave the audience a more physical image and feeling of she hiding something and always showing herself as someone who she really wasn't. She used short steps and walked using the tiptoes which gave the audience the idea of she been really cautious with her movements, so she could not be discovered. This idea of cautiousness helped to highlight the idea of hypocrisy as we perceived her as someone who was hiding something. Likewise, the face expression also highlighted this feeling since her eyes were wide open and she had a subtle and little smile which showed her teeth and gave this impression of creepiness and mischievousness; which reminded me of Cheshire, the cat in "Alice in Wonderland", the film by Tim Burton, the American film director know for his dark, gothic and macabre movies which depict an expressionist essence. So, I can therefore say that Mora's character effectively showed the feeling of hypocrisy through her body and face expressions. I would recommend her to use a high pitched voice which would add to her character a more unnatural quality and thus complement that feeling of mischievousness generated amongst us.

Afterwards, Roberto made the actors improvise with "El Hombre" which in this case was being played by Jorge Ignacio. However, the lack of energy and determination shown by some of these resulted in Roberto assigning me the task of working with Alejandro Goicochea, and helping him with the characterisation of his character, creating a scene and giving him confidence. Previously, Alejandro was "Sindicalista 1" in the "Estación 1" but due to his discomfort, Roberto gave him the opportunity to be a sort of counsellor/ work advisor for "El Hombre" in the "Estación 5". We started by defining the intentions and attitude of this new character. We reached the conclusions that this character will be a useless, incompetent and crappy advisor who's advice will be total nonsense and balderdash. We also had in mind this idea of him having a physical disability maybe cause by past trauma or experiences; this disability involved his left arm moving by itself at times (movements which he could not control). 

This disability gave Alejandro the possibility to explore with different actions that will give the scene a more humoristic and funny atmosphere. For example, the fact that his arm was always tense and moved in staccato (German Expressionism convention) when ripping the job application from his hand which was being handed to "El Hombre" gave the scene more energy and fluency. This humour was being intensified with the absurd dialogue that was used; what do I mean by this? This means that the things that were being said by the counsellor made the scene more fun and light. For example, when he said "Opción 2, ¿le gustaría trabajar en una fábrica haciendo escobas?" and then suddenly ripping the paper and throwing it to the ground intensified the nonsense. Moreover the fact that he hit her left arm with the right hand made the audience realize how inefficient he was. His voice characterisation resulted in him having a rusty and scratchy voice which gave the idea of him being really old; the fact of him being old made the audience realize that due to his old age he was not aware of the fact that his advice was really crappy and useless, on the contrary he felt as if it was good and helpful. 

The purpose of the "Estación 5" was to intensify the fact that "El Hombre" was useless and that he was always being overwhelmed by a bunch of different ideas and emotions. In the scene I created with Alejandro we are able to make the more stressed and chaotic side of "El Hombre" because in one moment he explodes and starts attacking the counsellor due to his bad advice. This outburst however, could have been a little bit more clear as it demands a lot of energy in the voice which needs to be supported by the face and body. I picture this scene to be a more sarcastic scene in which the advice that is given to "El Hombre" is sort of making fun of his capability as the audience already has the perception of him as being useless; a perception which was created in the "Estación 2" by the family which is attacking him by pointing out his negative qualities. Finally, it was also interesting to see how in this scene, first the counsellor/job advisor enters through downstage left and moves into downstage, then the two female counsellors (Pamela Flores and Micaela Olavarria) enter from downstage right and move into downstage, and finally the two other counsellors (Mora Endruhn and Natalie Braun) each enter from one side of the stage, downstage right and downstage left respectively, and move towards "El Hombre" at downstage. This idea of the counsellors entering each from different sides of the stage create a visual impression of imprisonment and being chained. This can also be connected to "El Hombre's" state of mind at that precise moment of the scene, since he is reflecting upon what to do with his future so his family somehow feels proud of him, rather than disgusted; he wants to be free of the tag he currently has, the tag of the outsider in the family.

Connections:
Time to start connecting...yay! The first connection I found was between scene 1 ("Estación 1) and "Proyección Privada". In "Proyección Privada" we are able to see a strong contraste between the woman and the husband, since they both have opposite personalities. As I mentioned in my play review, the woman is identified and represented by the rabbit, an animal which represents comfort and vulnerability whilst the husband is represented by the horse, an animal that represents power and freedom. These two attitudes help to intensify the idea of being totally different but at the same time manage to transmit one idea; the fact that love diminishes over time. Likewise, in scene 1 of the school play; the two contrasting attitudes being presented are the ones from the "Sindicalistas". For example, Jose Alex's character has this sort of aggressive momentum and presence which is clearly depicted by his voice and body characterisation. On the contrary, Patricio's character is more delicate and sagacious; which helps to intensify his mental power. Although both of these characteristics are not the same and somehow different (mental vs. physical) they are complementary at the same time. The fact that both of them are "Sindicalistas" gives the audience the impression that they can tackle problems from different points of view as they can easily relate with the workers in the factory. Therefore, I can say that the use of contrasting characters is really useful when trying to represent a somehow strong and complementary idea.

Moreover, I also find a connection with "El Ultimo Ensayo" and the first two scenes of the school play. In "El Ultimo Ensayo" there are no clear changes between the scenes; lights do not fade nor they turn off, therefore the use of of props and music is essential in order to make a clear contrast between scenes. Likewise, we are trying to implement this idea of connecting scenes with music and slight changes in the use of lighting and props. This intends to maintain the energy, pace and attention of the audience at its fullest. As I previously mentioned, the use of music accompanied by a series of actions is really effective in the transition between scenes 1 and 2. The progressive changes in pace is useful to create another level of reality from scene 1 onto scene 2, the grotesque and bizarre movements made by the workers give a sense of dreams and illusion. Therefore I can say that the use of music and lighting will in fact be helpful in order to help transitions between the scenes of the play. However, this continuity will demand a high level of concentration and energy from the actors who will be on stage most of the time unless they have to leave because they won't appear again. 

Reflections:
As I mentioned in last week's entry, the creative process of making an expressionist play is so far so good and the work we've done so far demonstrates how easy it can be to apply a theatre practice's conventions into our own play. However, there is always room for improvement in order to make the quality of these scenes to improve. Through the experimentation and practice in the school play I have been able to sort of back up my hypothesis and initial idea for my research, the fact that music is able to create dark and bizarre atmospheres. As I learnt from investigating for my production task, music in German Expressionism is characterized for having high level of dissonance, from having strong contrasts in dynamics, for implementing a chromatic scale, for having distorted melodies and harmonies, for not having a prevailing tonic and using polyphony.  Dissonance basically refers to a harsh and disagreeable combination of sounds; this helps to create a sense of confusion and uncertainty in the scene. The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches which allows for the generation of different sounds for different moments in the scene. A melody is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener/audience perceives as a single entity; the fact that expressionist music has several melodies being played simultaneously (polyphony) creates once again a sense of confusion and it makes the audience feel overwhelmed. Therefore I believe that the use of a piece with sudden changes in dynamics would be really effective in the part of "El Hombre's" monologue in the "Sueño Azul" as it will help to reflect the different emotions he is feeling. For example, in Jake's "Twilight" in the minute 1:20 the building up of tension begins to be noticeable until there is a sudden outburst around the minute 1:38 and the confusion depicted by the song is really evident. In the end, it is said that music is able to create it's own scenery and I believe that by linking music with actions in the play, the emotions and ideas will be transmitted in an easier way. 


I have been able to realize that music in fact helps to create a feeling of paranoia, in this case the paranoia felt by "El Hombre" since he will now feel that he is always being judged due to his quality of "inutil". The music therefore makes the listener/audience feel as if they were in a maze without a map,; lost and confused. Instruments such as violins and violoncellos will be useful to depict changing moods in the scene; the violins' high pitched notes are for a more happy, energetic and joyful scene although they can help generate tension by the use of "ligados" as the feeling of being chased is present. On the contrary the slow violoncello reduces the pace and therefore creates a more soothing and nice atmosphere by the use of its low pitched notes.

I can therefore say that the scenes are beginning to solidify and become more complete as the implementation of sound design is being really useful to make clearer the ideas that want to be transmitted. Music also helps to establish a better connection with the audience as it might help to bring them back memories of their past in which they remember situations that are similar to the ones being presented in the play. I also learnt that the use of more comical scenes in the play will help to somehow alleviate the tension generated by the already depressing actions taking place throughout the play. I also believe that on scene 2 the use of levels will be really effective to help generate this idea of oppression by the characters that talk using chorus and unison. If these characters are located higher than "El Hombre" the feeling of depression and fear felt by "El Hombre will be more clear and strong.

I will close this entry with the following questions
To what extent are costumes going to help define the characters' personalities? Will we be able to effectively highlight the physical exaggeration of the characters? Will the audience be able to empathize with "El Hombre" by using of grotesque scenery which gives the impression of oppression  Will the audience understand the context of the play?

PD: Last week there wasn't one "Just in case you were wondering" link... but this week there is one, enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23PkA3G6NL8

Blog #5: Todas las suplicas se escurren como arena en nuestras manos...

Description:

The third week of April is officially gone and this time the school play rehearsals revolved around a different idea, staging the first scenes of the play itself. Throughout this week, actors were divided into different groups, groups which included the people that are part of the same scene in order to start building the actual scenes for the play; incorporating dialogue and actions. In my case, I did not contributed to this process in a practical way, but rather helped to direct and give opinions on how to improve the scenes a bit more referring back to the general conventions of German Expressionism studied in class. I had the opportunity to help to develop two scenes; including the "Estación 1" and  the "Sueño Azul" on Saturday and Thursday respectively.

Analysis:

Since last Saturday I was not present during the rehearsal because I went to Magdalena del Mar with Katty with the sole purpose of attending a Commedia dell'Arte Workshop, I was not able to witness how scene 1 began to solidify. Therefore, on Tuesday I was really surprised with how this scene was being portrayed and staged as it was not similar to what I expected it to be in terms of scenery and stage directions. For example, the idea of the paint beaters being located in 3/4s at downstage right was really interesting as it gave the scene a sense of imprisonment, since it somehow reduced the space and gave a visual effect of roundness. It also broke away from the symmetry as it generated this feeling of repetitive cycle due to its roundedness; this idea was also supported by the repetitive sequence performed by the actors onstage.  The row generated by the tables placed together at left stage center reassembled clearly and assembly  line so Henry Ford-ish which gave the audience the idea of monotony and suffering from the workers' point of view. Moreover, I had to replace Bruno for a while on Tuesday as he was absent and this gave me the opportunity see the scene from a different point of view. 

I could noticed that most of the younger actors (Form 2) were starting to give their characters a more expressionistic essence; for example, Juan Pablo Tabja's characterisation really caught my attention. First, his body characterisation ws really unnatural and weird which fits with this theatre practice. The fact that he plays with levels, using mostly a low level, makes the audience understand how the character feels...that feeling of oppression and weakness. Since he walked bending his back and retracting one of his arms it highlighted his job in the factory and gave the idea that he does the same thing over and over again for so long that his body has molded and become a machine with the most efficient specs for it to fulfill his job efficiently. The bending of the back and one of the arms hanging lower than the other gave the idea that due to the weight of the paint cans he is always in that position. His eyes were also wide opened and his mouth remained in a horizontal position which depicted no clear emotion at all. In terms of his voice characterisation, I can say that the fact that he varied between medium and high pitch while playing with this eyes gave the character an image of being somehow grotesque and inhuman.  It was important for us, to ensure that the actors were being as expressionistic as they could be, therefore Roberto had the idea of making each actor walk along the stage individually one by one, to see how their characters moved. Although some did this without problems at all, there were some who struggled to give their character the expressionistic touch. For example, Jorge Arteta's way of walking seemed too natural and too similar to his. We had previously told the actors to find a deformity for their character, a physical characteristic that would be exaggerated and used even as a center of energy. However, Jorge's deformity was meant to be the arm and although he said it, it was not clearly shown by his way of walking. Roberto suggested that he exaggerated a little bit more his arm by raising it a bit more and by inflating a little the chest and bending it outwards a little bit. The purpose of this was to make his character look more unnatural and grotesque, and to highlight his deformity which once again was linked to his task in production... pouring pigment into the container.

Moreover, we also began implementing changes in the pace of the actions in the scene. Roberto gave letters to the different speeds at which the actions were meant to be done. "A" meant that everybody had to do their actions at a fast pace, "B" meant that some had to do them fast and some slow, "C" meant the same (the ones that did them fast one "B" had to do them slow and vice versa), and finally "D" meant that everybody had to do their actions at a slow pace. The purpose of these changes in pace was basically to create contrasts between different moments. It also intended to create tension, suspense or to drag the attention of the audience to different parts of the scene. On Saturday, I witnessed these changes in pace being implemented into the scene. For example, the scene started with everyone in D, doing their set of actions; then a still picture, and the audience witnesses a sort of transfer in energy starting from one side of the stage to the other and back. This for me, made the audience pay attention to each actor individually in a sequence. Afterwards there "El Jefe" entered and the pace become even slower which was contrasted with the high energy from "El Jefe". This contrast helped to generated a difference between workers and boss, establishing a hierarchy for the audience to see. It also created tension as the workers seemed to be unsure, hesitant and didn't know how to react to the situation (this is shown by the low energy and pace). Another clear example, is with Emilio's character's death. The scene was developing with a normal pace and the workers showed commitment and dedication to their work, which mostly was due to the fear they felt of being fired. Emilio's character suddenly starts choking and convulses until he lies dead on the stage. There is a sound of the falling cans...then silence; this major drop in the pace manages to reinforce the idea of tension and generate suspense. 

Moving on, it was also interesting for me to help Manu in the direction of the scene of "El Sueño Azul" in which the 6th graders acted. It was interesting to see how almost everyone was implementing conventions of German Expressionism body characterisation such as the face expression and the strong staccato movements which were made due to their muscles being tensed and moved. They played a lot with their heads, making subtle thrusts and changes in the direction of their glare which increased the tension and pressure being applied onto "El Hombre" who is meant to be surrounded by them in the scene. The fact that they use the chorus when saying phrases such as "A tu alrededor... ¡Mira!", generates an effect of masses, of greatness and plurality. This helps to generate tension and fear amongst the audience and "El Hombre" itself since it portrays him as the vulnerable victim who is not able of escaping his own thoughts. This is linked to German Expressionism's context, and the idea of people not having a clear identity; in this case "El Hombre" is unsure of what to do with his life and is overwhelmed by a series of emotions. 

Connections:
I can make connections between scene 1, "Estación 1" and "Proyección Privada" the part of the green scenes. Why? Because in these scenes we are able to see different actions taking place at different areas of the stage and sequences being repeated over and over again. In scene 1 we are able to witness sequences within the production and sealing of paint cans, whilst in "Proyección Privada" we witness what might be incoherent sequences at first but then can be analysed as the perception of reality from the woman's point of view. The fact that everyone does more or less the same actions in "Proyección Privada" gives this sense of uniformity and equality as it, in my opinion, gives the idea that we are all the same and that there is no one better than the rest. In "Estación 1" the same sense of equality and monotony are present, however in this case we are not dealing with a perception of reality, but rather with reality itself...crude reality for workers of the paint factory who suffer from the exploitation by "El Jefe".

Moreover, I also found a connection between the play itself and "El Lazarillo de Tormes", although it might look quiet strange and rare at first, the idea is basically pretty and simple and relates with ease. In what way? Well, in this novel we are exposed to the story of this young boy who does not have a established home as he constantly switches of attorney due to various reasons such as lack of appreciation, abuse or fear. In the play we basically see the same idea in a less extreme way, "El Hombre" changes from one job to another because he has not being appreciated, he has been abused and he fears the fact of being unemployed due to the rage of his family. Another way of connecting to this play is the idea of being influenced by society. "El Lazarillo de Tormes" has as a theme the idea of society changing and corrupting our minds. In the play we see how every worker has been affected and changed by his surroundings and the job they profess. For example, Tabja's character's physicality depicts the idea of transporting cans from one side to another. We see some sort of corruption of the body in this case as it has been changed due to what he had to do.

Reflections:
I have realized that the creative process of making expressionist scenes in the play is going so far so good. The implementation of dialogue to the scenes give it a completely different mood and pace. For example, in scene 1 the contrast between the part in which the workers talk to the audience in their normal voices and using a normal physicality when saying "the poem" is suddenly changed at the end when they completely transform their body into the one of their character and intend to use their voice characterisation which somehow breaks this bit of "unreal" (the part of the normal voices and body). In class we have learned that rather than focusing on the self discovery and relationship between the actor and his character, German Expressionism seeks to represent those emotions and use your body to transmit that idea without restrictions or constrains. Actors in those times did so because they wanted to relate to the German society of those times who suffered from many things such as lack of identity and economic crisis. Since this type of theatre was not intended for entertainment, everything was to be presented in the most crude and real way; therefore it not only tried to show something real, but something twisted about reality.

In the play, we are exactly seeing this and therefore I think that the main idea of German Expressionism is being accomplished and effectively applied. The fact that we see the story and life of a man that is not successful at all and who does not have a clear identity (this is why he is always questioned in his dreams) is really crude and sad, but it also represents the story of many of us...people who have not been able to accomplish what they wanted at first or their goals in general.

To what extent will music help to intensify suspense in the scenes?

Blog #4: Suck it and See... You never know

Description:

The second week of April is gone and for me the school rehearsals revolved around the same topic as last week, characterisation and interaction. Throughout this week we polished our characterisation during the school play's rehearsals, which involved establishing our final sequence of movements, defining a voice for our character, identifying mannerisms, giving the character a defined way of walking, etc. I had to continue exploring a new character which was different from the first one I created, however this time it was easier for me as I had found new stimuli and by applying what I had learnt in class about conventions of German Expressionism, the job seemed flawless. Once we had all of these clear, we were told our characters for the school play, in my case "El Jefe" of the second job of "El Hombre". We were then expected to make a scene from scratch with other people who's characters appeared in the same scene as ours. I was told that I had to work with Nathalie, Klara and Renzo. On Thursday we created and presented a scene using the writing machines that were in the theatre.

Analysis:

On Tuesday I felt motivated to finally find a way of portraying the type of character Roberto asked me to do. After balancing the space and getting into the mood of the character I decided to explore using a chair. I basically had in mind the idea of "El Jefe" entering the area of a factory in which production took place, looking carefully at the workers, pointing out their mistakes, sitting down and finally lamenting the fact that there was so much incompetence in the work place. I tested using as a center of energy my shoulders and chest in order to guide my way of walking which can be described as my legs making slow wide steps, my hands behind my back and my face looking at the audience as if they were the set of workers. I felt that this could give the impression of power and control as I took my time to make each step which lengthened the time and gave also the idea of a creepy and mysterious tranquility. The fact that I used as a center of energy my chest and shoulders gave this sense of someone obtrusive and reassembled a mole as they are always sniffing and getting into every possible place; they also have as a center of energy the nose and upper body. I also explored using a similar face expression to the one Roberto helped me to define, it involved my eyes being wide open, my  eyebrows being gently raised, my mouth being in a straight line and my whole face being somehow elongated to give this sense of thinness which I will later relate to my new stimuli.

I will now introduce my new stimuli which helped me to build this new character. I have three major stimuli which include: The Slenderman, Jack Skellington from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and Anton Ego from "Ratatouille". First I will refer to The Slenderman and explain why I think this character connects to "El Jefe". The Slenderman is a mythical creature often depicted as a tall, thin figure wearing a black suit and a blank face. According to the legend, he can stretch or shorten his arms at will and has tentacle-like appendages protruding from his back. Depending on the interpretations of the myth, the creature may cause memory loss, insomnia, paranoia, coughing fits, etc. I believe that this creature has both physical and psychological characteristics that can be put into practice and linked to "El Jefe". First, I'll refer to the physical aspects which basically involve the fact that he has no face, the thinness, the long limbs, the long arms and fingers and the suit/colors he wears. The facts  that this creature has no face (blank face) gives the sense of suspense, creepiness, seriousness and power; it also suggested that voice is not essential in order to make a character terrifying. I found this character to be really Expressionistic as it relies on his body and movements to generate all of the emotions and effects previously mentioned. The fact that he is really thin, generates a sort of ironic contrast between fragility and power. What do I mean by this? Well, it gives the spectator or in this case, the victim the idea that although he might appear to not be physically strong he can cause death. This feeling of uncertainty and  the unknown generates fear amongst people. 

The Slenderman

The long limbs are really Expressionistic too as they give this sense of deformity and unnatural entity, which can take advantage of his physical characteristics. The long fingers and arms work together to generate this feeling of always being chased and clustered. It gives the impression that the victims are not able to escape as the fingers and arms work as a gigantic blanket that traps them an do not let him/her escape. The use of a suit gives this human sense, and highlights the idea that the character is of some sort of importance. I believe that all of these characteristics can be applied to "El Jefe"; the use of make-up and costumes can help to give the impression of the elongated and exaggerated arms and fingers. The white make-up can also give this impression of thinness and fragility. The slow walking and cold expression I'm currently using connects with these characteristics as they together work to give the sense of "slender".

Since the three characters I chose as stimuli share some characteristic, I will now mention the uniqueness of the two remaining ones. First, Jack Skellington, who was really thin (thinner than the Slenderman) which helped to highlight the length of this fingers and legs. The fact that his eyes were all black gave this idea of profundity and  mystery. On the contrary, Anton Ego had this elongated face which differed from the rest of the stimuli. It gave this sense of thinness once again and the black circles he had surrounding his eyes give this sense of tiredness, paranoia and creepiness; which I believe are very useful in order to know the inner feelings of the character. 

Anton Ego from "Ratatouille", whose hands are really Expressionistic as they have long fingers which move and give an unnatural feeling 

I have noticed that each one of my stimuli used the colors black and white which can be connected and related to the Expressionist movie "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari". In what sense? Well, in this movie everything uses these two colors and the character of Cesare uses a particular make-up which highlights his eyes, eyebrow and lips. The purpose of this is to accentuate the face expressions which are essential and very important in German Expressionism.

Cesare from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"

I wanted to go further and understand the meaning of the color black. I found out that the color black means the secretive, the unknown, it creates an air of mystery, it gives the idea of power, control, it is intimidating, unfriendly and highlights rejection. It is said that black creates a barrier between itself and the outside world which I believe is interesting as I intend to make "El Jefe" show his inner feelings "caletamente". The excess of black can generate depression, create a negative environment and when it is combined with white it creates an argumentative atmosphere. This gives me ideas for the physical being of "El Jefe", can we create this sense of depression amongst the workers by saturating the stage and the clothing of "El Jefe" with black? Can we create an atmosphere of arguments and disputes by using whit also?

On Thursday; Nathalie, Klara, Renzo and me created a scene as we all are in the same scene in the play. "La Compañerita", "La Secretaria", "El amigo bueno" and "El Jefe" respectively, appeared in the scene of "el papeleo". Since we were not sure of what to do or how to make this scene work, we followed Miss Alicia's advice and started exploring, in character, the props and things around us. In the case of Nathalie, Renzo and Klara; their characters interacted and explored with the writing machines settled on the table in which they were seated. They had to respond and "learn" how to use the machines while remaining in character. On the contrary, I had to find ways of walking and approaching them; an advantage of working in the theatre were the stairs and levels we managed to get while rehearsing. This can be easily exlpained with the following diagram of the place we used to rehearse.

Diagram of the Theatre in which we can see the working place we used for rehearsal.

We settled the table with the three writing machines to the left of the theatre, near the stairs and I used the piece of the stage itself to represent the third level that will be used in the play itself. This contrast between levels helped to intensify the difference between characters and highlighted the power and hierarchy that "El Jefe" imposed. By using the way of walking I had previously determined and by walking slowly and taking my time down the stairs, an effect of patience, tranquility and mystery were created. I walked behind the table from side to side, looking with my face expression at the audience and at the same time at the other characters. This generated tension and uncertainty. Then I abruptly approached Renzo's character and looked at him with my eyes wide open and congratulated for his absurd work. Afterwards, I approached Nathalie's character and question what she was doing; after receiving a incoherent response y quickly crossed to the other side of the table and approached Klara's character...I took the paper and by transferring my energy towards my limbs I managed to give the sense of frustration and yelled at her telling her that her work was mediocre and useless. I immediately returned towards the stairs and went up the same way I came down, taking my time. This gave the idea of two different worlds, the world in which I was alone, in which I felt relaxed and without pressure and the world in which the rest were, the crude world in which I felt I had to be aggressive and mean. I discovered that by using my fingers and moving them in order to talk to other characters it gave it a more unnatural and Expressionistic sense and feeling. The fact that I occasionally smiled to the audience by gently showing my teeth, generated fear and creepiness too. My voice had a really low pitch and was slow, I took my time to say each word as if there was no track of time itself. However, Roberto told me to change my way of walking and make it less exaggerated and contract it a little bit, as well as too deepen my voice a bit. This, I believe, will create a more serious and weird character...perfect for German Expressionism.

Connections:
Many connections can be made, and I am now able to find connections between the character and myself, unlike one week ago. I now feel more comfortable as I feel more free to explore by using my body and exaggerated, grotesque and unnatural movements. I feel that this character has now a part of myself, I consider myself to be quite Expressionistic in a daily basis and the freedom I have to implement new movements and actions to this character helps me to feel more connected to it. Although there are still some parts of this character that need to be developed, parts that are sort of challenging for me, I believe that I will be able to create them if I keep on exploring. These parts include, the deeper voice, the contracted way of walking and preventing my character from slouching so much. I now feel that I have a defined personality for this character and would like to orientate his physical aspects towards this personality. I feel that he is cold, serious and uncertain which help to create this atmosphere of creepiness. By doing a way of walking that involves short footsteps that are still at a slow pace I believe that the weirdness is still going to be created. 

However, my favorite connection is between my character and Cesare from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" as I already mentioned. I picture my character to have the same face expression and by using eye shadow and accentuating the eyebrows and mouth the change in mood and expressions can be more clear. The use of black is also important as it will transmit the feelings and meanings that I mentioned in the analysis part too.

I can also link my character to the theatre practice we are currently studying...German Expressionism of course. The stimuli I used to create this character also can be linked as I previously mentioned, they all have grotesque and exaggerated body and postures. The long hands, limbs and weird way of walking help to express something. As I have previously mentioned on other entries, German Expressionism is just that, it consists on actors expressing their inner feelings and emotions trough the use of their body. In what way is my character expressing my feelings and emotions by using this creepy and weird way of moving along stage? Well, I could argue that this way of walking and slow pace he shows somehow gives the idea of him being constrained, of him being controlled and not allowed to show how he truly feels. That somehow happens to me, I feel that it is not okay to show my emotions and true feelings at times and I feel restrained from doing so. I believe that this happens to many of us, and therefore the audience, I hope, can feel identified with this character who in the end can be any "Jefe". I have also imagined a background for this character; maybe his parents were too strict and demanded him to concentrate on school rather than on feelings and emotions...they never actually let him express himself and now he feels that need to ruin the other's lives and make them feel like trash. We can also connect this to the context of German Expressionism. We have studied in class that German Expressionism originated in Germany just before World War 1 which meant... confusion, lack of identity and aggressiveness. Since the play takes place along that time, we could argue that this character never managed to define his true identity and therefore feels confused and unable to express how he truly feels. He is influenced by society and everything surrounding him.

Reflections:
I feel that I understood that the character and us are basically the same as both of us share characteristics and emotions. I also realized that it is sometimes difficult to come out of our comfort zones, as I previously mentioned it was really difficult for me to start building a character which is different to the characters I'm used to representing. However this week, through exploration I have managed to find more similarities between the character and myself.  This new link between the character's physicality and myself is really interesting. I find it useful to connect with my character in this way, in a way in which I feel I'm freer to express myself and ideas. 

I can also refer to German Expressionism and how it fitted with my new stimuli. The fact that I found and discovered new stimuli also helped me to determine and explore a new way of representing the character of "El Jefe". By taking looking closely and analyzing images and videos from my stimuli I discovered that representing a character you are not used to can be easier than what you think. I finally see this "Jefe" molding up and although it is not fully characterised, I believe that it will soon be.

I have also discovered that we can build different characters using part of our experiences and emotions without the character to necessarily be stereotypical and the type of character that you are used to representing. What do I mean by this? Well, this means that like the German Expressionism conventions say, actors should build characters relating to their past experiences and emotions like Ana Correa demonstrated to have done in her performance, "Confesiones"; the character should express and be based on that. In that way, you and the character have a stronger bond between you. Theatre, for me appears to be the idea of self exploration and discovery...you can always discover new things by building a character. You can either discover how to use a part of your body to express something (e.g. arms to express strength) or you can discover how to make the voice more suitable to your character's voice. 

I am going to be a risk-taker and will refer to a quote by another philosopher. Aristotle, the greek philosopher once said

"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom" -Aristotle

If we try to understand this quote we can assume that in order to be totally wise, you should first know yourself really well. You should know your strengths, weaknesses, fears, etc; in other words you be able to accept all of your defects in order to enrich and widen your qualities.  This can be also shown in Ana Correa's "Confesiones" in which she says that to grow as an actress is to grow as a person. Because by characterising you are digging into the deepest of your soul and feelings in order to identify qualities you share with the character you're representing.

I will close this entry with the following questions
Can voice characterisation be more effective than body characterisation in order to express a feeling or idea in German Expressionism? In what way is the context of Germany in the 1920s going to be reflected in the play? Is the music of the play going to help to intensify both tension and drama? Is using a stimuli limiting your mind from exploring other ideas? Are most of the conventions of German Expression going to be followed in the play? Will the little children still be Expressionistic in their own way? Will the use of excess black generate the desired effect of depression and negativity? 

PD: Another "Just in case you were wondering..." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlYJKfunfC0

Blog #3: Characterisation... Favourite Worst Nightmare?

Description: 

The first week of April is gone and the main topic for me was... characterisation. Throughout this week we continued with our character exploration during the school play's rehearsals, which involved defining a face expression, a centre of energy, a way of walking (pace, speed, etc.), mannerisms and a voice for our character. As we have already learnt by studying German Expressionism, actors manage to build characters based on their inner feelings, emotions and experiences rather than by trying to imitate someone or trying to fully base their characterisation on an stimulus. Therefore this process demanded concentration and self exploration,  in order to stick to German Expressionism's conventions. We were also expected to create a set of movements with gestures, sounds (which then turned into phrases) and intentions.

Analysis: 

We started with a breathing exercise which helped us to identify our centre of energy and to be able to move this energy from the centre to different parts of our body. In my case, I found my centre of energy to be located around my waist and belly button. I had in mind the idea of being sort of like a flamingo as they seem to have their centre of energy around their loin. They also  give the idea of fineness and languor which seem quite elegant and imposing. I then  managed to move the energy from my waist to my arms, shoulders and chest. This changed totally the attitude of my character which seemed to be more like a gorilla as the shoulder were raised and my hands were closed in a tight fist. I personally feel comfortable when using my face to express feelings, ideas or emotions therefore I consider that creating a face expression for a character is something I can do easily. I had in mind the idea of a character who is confused and overwhelmed by sudden changes in his life. I visualized Miss Alicia's as a sort of cave with different textures and smells. My eyes were really opened as it is a convention of German Expressionism and my mouth was opened to show the amazement of the character which is somehow exploring his environment and surrounding just with the stare. Finding a voice for this character was not an easy task as I didn't wanted it to be so stereotypical nor simplistic; it had to be a voice which was inhuman and unreal as that is a convention of German Expressionism however I did not manage to find the perfect pitch, volume or accent for this character. A characteristic of German Expressionism is also the use of archetypes, like in "The Son" or "Masses and Man", characters do not have definite names but they are rather called "the father" or "the woman" respectively. This intended to allow the audience to easily identify with the situations and problems the characters were going through. The audience could identify with different themes like "breaking with the past in order to look towards the future" in the case of "The Son". Therefore, I wanted to build a character that will allow the audience to feel identified. I felt that this character wanted to look rigid, strong and fearful on the outside but at the same time was emotionally breakable on the inside.  Once I defined the physicality of this character (raised chest, wide shoulders, hands in a fist, eyes wide open, mouth opened and horizontally extended-similar to the joker's) I was ready to work on a sequence of movements which would represent this character's personality. Roberto told us to do this work in pairs, and I worked with Nathalie. Rather than each one of us creating an individual sequence, we decided to make one together (which also helped us to identify how our characters responded with others) and ended up with a sequence in which my character felt threatened by Nathalie's character. 

At first, we received positive feedback from both Nicole and Roberto which made me feel confident and motivated me to keep exploring this character. I wanted to master the face expression, to show a clear difference in responses; a difference between when he was exploring the surroundings and when he was feeling threatened and menaced. Miss Alicia gave me the idea of using my breathing to show the intentions and feelings of my character; a more agitated breathing meant more tension, nervousness and fear; whilst a slower breathing shower a more relaxed attitude. However, when presenting Roberto told me that he thought that the character was not working. At first, I felt frustrated as that meant I had to start over and build a totally different character which did not look "tonto". Roberto told me that he wanted me to represent a more serious character which transmitted power, prepotency and contempt. He helped me to build a face expression similar to Lurch's, from "The Addams Family" which in my opinion would generated fear and suspense.

I had the eyes wide open, and an elongated face with a small lips and mouth... it looked creepy and unreal. However, it was really difficult for me to create a sequence and give this new character a voice as I'm not used to representing mean and prepotent characters. I also started thinking about German Expressionism's conventions and found a quote by Hermann Bahr which summarizes the idea

"Man screams from the depths of his soul; the whole era becomes a single piercing shriek. Art also screams, into deep darkness, screams for help, screams for the spirit. This is Expressionism"

As Hermann Bahr said, the purpose of Expressionism is to transmit the true emotions and feelings from the soul and it is not based on representing someone else. So... Am I doing right by building a character without using my personal experiences and feelings? Am I going against German Expressionism's conventions? Wouldn't it be better for me to build this "jefe"-like character from my point of view without being constrained by a face expression?

Connections:

Can I connect my character to myself? Well, honestly not quite as the character I'm building is serious, prepotent and somehow bitter. Although sometimes I might be a little explosive and grumpy I didn't feel that the character had all of my characteristics of emotions being explored. What do I mean by this? Well, if German Expressionism is based on capturing all of my feelings, this character should also show my other side...the more vulnerable side. I personally believe that it would be more interesting to play a character which is serious and powerful but at the same time who has a weaker and more vulnerable side. It would be interesting to play a character who is bad to other people in this case the employees as a way of retaliating what has been done to him previously. Maybe, he was punished as a child for unfair reasons and this has cause him to grow as a frustrated and aggressive individual.

If I compare this rehearsal to previous school play rehearsals I find similar characteristics. For example, with "Miyuki y los tres demonios" actors had to be properly trained to cope with the expectations and demands of this type of theatre. In this case, we had to explore our inner feelings to build a character that somehow represented us or which at least has some of our characteristics. Kabuki theatre also shares some characteristics with German Expressionism. Both theatre practices use exaggerated body characterisation and physicality; however in Kabuki theatre there isn't so much self exploration as there is in German Expressionism. If we want to connect the rehearsals to a performance which shows clearly the idea of self exploration, we could link these to "Confesiones" by Ana Correa as the actress herself tells the audience how she takes personal experiences and emotions in order to build characters for the Yuyachkani performances. As Max Beckmann said,

"Art is creative for the sake of realization, not for amusement: for transfiguration, not for the sake of play. It is the quest of our self that drives us along the eternal and never-ending journey we must all make" 

This means that art itself helps the artist explore and know himself or herself better, in the end we know thanks to Ana Correa that to grow as an actor is to grow as a person. Which means that every experience in our life will influence the complexity and mastery of the characters that we are going to build.

Reflections:

Rehearsals so far have helped to understand what Ana Correa meant when referring to theatre and acting. I understood that the character and us are basically the same as both of us share characteristics and emotions. I also realized that it is sometimes difficult to come out of our comfort zones, as I previously mentioned it was really difficult for me to start building a character which is different to the characters I'm used to representing. It was hard for me to start building a character which at first does not seem to have many similarities with me, but I believe that I can make the character have similar characteristics to myself. Rather than limiting my character to being a character serious, emotionless... I would like to explore the other side of him and take some personal experiences, so I can understand what made this character be how he is. Empathizing is the key in my opinion. 

I was also able to understand that building an expressionist character is a totally different experience than building a character from a different theatre practice...for example theatre for children. Although both theatre practices use the body and face expression to represent clearly the character; they have different approaches to this matter. Firstly, theatre for children aims to relate to children and does not need much self-exploration, whilst German Expressionism is based on self exploration and the identification of feelings and emotions. However they both have similarities too, they both connect with the audience. Theatre for children directly connects with the audience as actors aim to directly address and talk to the spectators, in this case children. On the contrary, German Expressionism relates to the audience by the use of archetypes and generalizations...by using characters that the audience can easily identify with, actors easily transmit the emotions they want to portray. For example, by using characters like "The Woman" from "Masses and Man", the idea of freedom, justice and liberation are transmitted to the audience.

I would therefore, like to close this third entry with the following questions

Can a character built without much analysis of the inner feelings still be effective within the characteristics and demands of German Expressionism? Are we meant to make the audience understand our emotions? Will it be effective for the play if my character is able to show the two sides to his personality? Will the audience be able to empathize with him and understand why he acts like that? Will anyone feel identified with my character?

PD: Just in case you were wondering http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kpyo5_ENQQ