Blog #9: El pan para mayo se agotó...

Description:

The last week of May just passed and the school play rehearsals managed to maintain the same focus as last week's work; however, this time rather than focusing on building the first scenes of the second act, we managed to finish (at least what appears to be a first draft) the second act of the play. In my case, i continued to contribute to the process in a practical way, working on the third scene of the play by ameliorating the character that I previously built. I worked with the "Estación 5" (a.k.a. scene 8) on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, order wise.

Analysis:

In my case, I had to continue working on the characterisation of my character for the "Estación 4" as the audience has to be able to understand what is the role of my character in the play and what effect it causes on "El Hombre". Roberto suggested that I should try implementing a voice in which it appeared that my character had nasal congestion although he didn't. In my opinion this would intensify the creepiness and weirdness of the character since his voice would be contrasted with his body characterisation and thus generate both humor and weirdness in the scene. The powerful and menacing body characterisation would still be mantained; having the chest slightly pronounced outwards, the shoulders now slightly raised, the legs close together when standing up, and separated when playing with levels, the fingers and hands reassembling a spider and my face expression consisting of the wide opened eyes, the mouth remaining neutral and smiling by showing just the teeth when saying something cruel or listening to something, and the sudden thrusts and movements of the head which I consider that reassembles the wriggle of the worms or snakes. All of these manages to make the character of "El Jefe" special as his body, face and voice depict the idea of him being weird and creepy, as if he had been molded to be like that. The sudden contrasts and changes between having the legs close together when standing up and bending them and separating them when playing with levels and when using the border of the tower to talk to "El Hombre" creates a feeling of imprisonment and constrain, as it gives a visual impression of "El Hombre" being covered by "El Jefe's" body which appears to be more prominent due to the fact that it is raised and since many shadows are created in the backdrop on stage. The sudden smiling by "El Jefe" is mostly used after he has said something that makes "El Hombre" feel miserable, for example after he says "Si has llegado hasta acá es solo porque tu curriculum no fue tan malo como el de los demás,¿lo sabes no?". "El Jefe" is trying to highlight the fact that "El Hombre" is useless, and the only reason that he is bestowing him the interview is because there are other candidates out there with even worse qualities. He makes this clear, and then smiles as if he gained pleasure from making other people feel miserable. This makes more clear his wicked mind and the fact that he has full control and domain over what is done in the company. This also works with the eyes that remain at all times wide open and without actually blinking, which gives the idea of monotony as if "El Jefe" was saying and doing everything monotonically without processing what he is saying or doing. It also gives the impression of him having lost his sense of perception and no longer feeling any emotions, he has been robotized and fully molded to the demands of the society in those times. This increases the weirdness of the character and makes it even creepier as the audience feels threatened by both, his stare and unconventionally awkward movements. Moreover, when Waldo and Bonzo, "El Psicólogo" or "El Doctor" are doing the tests to "El Hombre", "El Jefe" is in his tower looking at everything that is going on without saying anything; therefore the use of actions in these moments is really important. Roberto told me that the movements had to depict and show the craziness and madness of the character. Therefore, I consider it interesting for the character to kneel down, and just show to the audience his head and part of his shoulders. He would be grabbing the borders of the tower and wriggling his head from side to side maintaining his face expression; with sudden smiling which made it more creepy and dramatic.

Connections:

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:

I have realized that the creative process of making expressionist scenes in the play continues to be developing well. The implementation of dialogue to the scene gave it a completely different mood and pace. For example, in scene 6 the questions posed by El Psicólogo to El Hombre really help to encourage his moral decay as they make the audience understand El Hombre's past; we get to know that he was never valued for what he did, we was never congratulated for his accomplishments, he was just diminished by the greatness of his cousins and relatives who were more successful than him. We also understand that since El Hombre never found love, he has never been truly happy in his life. The audience understand El Hombre, because we know that love is one of the things that make people happier and since he has not experienced that yet, his life has continued to be a constant pit from which he cannot escape. Referring back to German Expressionism conventions, we know 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. This is clearly being shown in the scenes of the play; taking as an example scene 6, both Bonzo and Waldo use their bodies clearly to depict the idea of weirdness and craftiness by using the face, especially the ideas which constantly move from side to side. 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.

To what extent is character personality determined by voice pitch and pace?