Blog #2: Incendios: a play of war and family

Description:

Last week; Friday 21st March, I attended "Teatro La Plaza" in Larcomar, Miraflores in order to see "Incendios", a play written by Wajdi Mouawad and directed by Juan Carlos Fisher. This tragedy narrates the story of Nawal Marwan, a libanese woman who suffers the consequences of being womanized, by managing time and space, following Kunio Komparu's statement regarding drama which said that it "is not a pure time art like music, for acting takes place in time while it moves through space". Therefore, the play portrayed on stage different phases of the character's life. Likewise, we were able to emerge into the life of Nawal's children as they undertake the challenge of fulfilling their mother's last will. The richness of the plot and the unexpected ending are two of the main factors which helped the play establish a connection with the audience. 

Analysis:

One of the most inviting aspects which the audience is able to grasp as soon as they enter the theatre to find their seats, is the simplicity yet complexity of the scenery already shown onstage. The most interesting aspect for me were the different levels which were used throughout the performance. The stage floor, I considered to be the first level, and it was were most of the actions took place and developed; also being the level in which the play begins and ends. As this space was the one which was closest to the audience, it involved scenes with high level of emotion and energy in order to intensify what the characters felt; this in fact, helped the audience feel identified with the characters' personal issues and thus reach the so praised connection with the spectators. E.g. The play alternates between three different times; the present, Nawal's adolescence and her young adulthood. During the flashback showing her adolescent stage, after she has the encounter with her mother in which they discuss her fate as she is now pregnant; Nawal lies on her knees at downstage right facing the audience and mourns as she is feeling devastated, fearing that they are going to take her baby away from her. At the same time, her boyfriend appears and lies on downstage left on the same position and facing the audience. Both characters are on a lamenting position; really similar to the way of sitting in Kabuki, and rely heavily on their face expression, voice characterization and use of the body to transmit the feeling of despair. The use of lighting is also crucial on this moment; there are only two lekos, illuminating each one side of the stage where the two characters are lying on their knees. This type of light helps to focus the audience's attention on the characters and their actions. Moreover, the fact that they are looking to the audience, to give the impression of them talking face to face, breaks the fourth wall in a way as it makes the audience feel talked to. I was able to see how the acting, lighting and scenery blended together to intensify a desired feeling, in this case despair and lament.

Moreover, the use of the third level and fourth level was minimal in comparison to the other two, however it still created a significant effect on the audience. One of the moments in which it was clearly used, was during a flashback in which we saw Nawal and her boyfriend have a romantic encounter. There is a transition in space from both characters; as they move towards each other. Nawal's boyfriend appears at the fourth level and rapidly descends to the second level where he meets Nawal who was hurriedly ran up to this level. The rapid transition from one place on stage to the other (upstage right to center, and downstage left to center) has created the idea of passionate love. This gives the audience the impression of a loving couple who is going through its early stage where everything seems perfect. Therefore, I believe that the levels are key in order to highlight an specific emotion, according to the different situations of the performance.

Fig. 1.0 showing the different levels used throughout the performance

Other of the aspects of the play which caught my attention the most, and that I consider that worked really well was the use of lighting to create different ambivalent and supplementary spaces. As mentioned, Incendios treated the story of Nawal Marwan, and how her children try to discover the mystery behind her last will. Therefore, the play gives hints of Nawal's past by showing pieces of her as a youngster and young adult. In order to incorporate this, the plays has a game in which the lights divide the physical space on stage to have simultaneous scenes; one showing the young Nawal, and the other showing both Simone and Jeanine Marwan looking for clues about who their other brother is and whether their father is still alive or not; as Nawal left letters for them. In order to achieve this; lights of two different colours were used; one yellow and the other blue. When the blue light flashed, we were exposed to a young Nawal who is with her first love, the one responsible for making her become pregnant. The dimness of the light is complemented by the used of the different levels; as mentioned before, and together give an essence of mystery and intrigue. We see how they plan on escaping and being together forever; however, Nawal's boyfriends send him away and Nawal's mother forces her to give the baby away. This is a critical point in the play as it marks the beginning of the mystery which Simone and Jeanine will have to discover, as I will explain later. In order to give the dramatic air necessary for this moment, the use of face expression and voice from Nawal ought to contrast with the one of her mother. Young Nawal uses a high pitched and high volume voice, accompanied with the mourning; clearly giving a heartfelt suffering by the audience. On the contrary, her mother remains passive and barely rises her voice, showing her determination and cold heart; which surprises the audience as it looks like a robotic action. The audience is able to get into Nawal's shoes as we imagine the toughness of her situation. 


Likewise, the yellow light is used to show the actions that take place at the present; of both Simone and Jeanine as they travel in order to prove the truth behind their mother's will. It is going to be through this moment that the play will try to incorporate a few comic reliefs. Once again, these moments are going to be complemented by the scenery and the acting; which confirmed the idea of theatre being a creative whole which works together, blending all of its elements. The fourth level on stage was used when burring Nawal's corpse and the characters did this in a certain way that alleviated the tension of the story line. They had to pour water inside the whole; however, the way in which they did this, varied according to each character. For example, Simone Marwan did this in a careless way, pouring the water rapidly giving the impression that he just wanted to leave. On the contrary, the notary, took his time and looked at the corpse almost lamenting the loss of Nawal. Likewise, Jeanine took his time, however, she seemed indifferent whilst doing this. The audience, managed to get three different attitudes towards Nawal, which arose the curiosity as we wanted to know more about her and understand why are these characters feeling that way in respect to her. All of these attitudes were clearly shown by the use of the body and face expression; Simone looked away and didn't vary his face much, whilst letting his arms hang loose whilst spilling the water showing his reluctance. On the contrary, the notary looked directly towards the grave while taking as much time as possible to spill the water; showing his willingness to make that last moment of he and Nawal last longer. 

Connections:



The first connection I can make, is between "Incendios" and "Proyeccion Privada". Both plays have a similar game in which the use of lighting is key in order to generate the idea of different microcosms within the same space. Even so, both plays rely on the blue light to create an atmosphere which is not the present reality, but rather a previous moment or even an unreal situation. In the case of "Incendios" this type of light managed to set the play to a previous time in which the implicit protagonist is seen at a younger stage of her life. On the contrary, "Proyección Privada" used the blue light to create a sort of parallel universe in which the characters did a sequence in which apparently they did not related or talked to anyone; it wasas if each one of the characters was alone in his/her world. At the same time, I can connect both of these performances, to "Romper la Piel", last year's school play. Why? Because we also had this idea of using colored light in order to create a different world; the one of illusion. Even so, I can begin to think of how this play can be connected to our vision for this year's school play (spoiler alert!) as we should also include scenes which show illusion and unnaturalness during Mr. Redwood's madness and confusion.

Moreover, I can also connect "Incendios" with Ana Correa's "Confesiones" in terms of space and flexibility, as both plays worked with spaces which were given meaning and definition by their performers. In the case of "Confesiones", we were exposed to a series of characters which entered an undefined space which was flexible to adapting to the needs of the performer. Likewise, the space in "Incendios", although less fleixble, is also able to adapt to the meaning given by the characters. For example, at first it serves as the notary office; and then, with a sudden change in lighting, it either becomes Jeanine's teaching hall or Simone's training area; all depending on what the characters needed. This relates to Grotowski's theory of acting, in which he says that the elements surrounding the actors, if present, should serve as an aid which adapt to his/her needs, and not the other way around.

Reflections: 

To conclude, I discovered the importance of design elements in creating different atmospheres and settings; these being lighting and scenery. It was also interesting to see how lighting and color meaning can depict such a deep and profound message which can be interpreted in different ways. In this case, how lighting can serve as an aid in order to understand the background of the characters and to unwrap the mystery behind the plot of the play. Likewise, how the space can help to intensify the relationship between audience and performer, by making clear the emotions it ought to the create. The concept relates to how people have to learn to know fully someone's background in order to make critical judgement regarding that person. Furthermore, we can relate back to theatrical conventions. What does the audience expect to find when going to see a play? We expect to be entertained, we expect to laugh, we expect to understand the play, etc. Does this performance meet our expectations? Well, although it was not meant for entertainment whatsoever and it rather focus on making us reflect upon an important matter which is present nowadays, such as the search for identity and the many cases of abuse; it had parts which seemed endless. At times, the performance became monotonous as there were moments in which we were witnessing lack of actions and just long texts; for example, when the characters were reading the letters or thinking out loud. Personally, during those moments, I lost concentration and had to focus hard in order to get back to the hang of the play. 




According to the combination of design elements present in this play, can we be totally sure about Grotowski's statement about theatre being acting-centered? Can we provide a performance which transmits the ideas as clearly as this play without the use of fancy design elements, and lack of lighting which is not just for illuminating the whole space? If so, will it be effective?

Blog #1: Just take it or leave it

Description:

The second week of school passed and a series of activities have already taken place during our classes. We have been introduced to a new theatrical genre which is going to be the main driving force for the school play this year; Jerzy Grotowski's "Poor Theatre". In  order to get to know this genre in a little more detail, we underwent physical exercises on Monday and Wednesday of the former week. These exercises are going to be explain along this entry.

Analysis:

On Monday, we began our physical exercises during both periods of class. At first, we warmed up by performing different ways of walking as a group, since this is one of Grotowski's approaches to training as he states that "the elements of the exercises are the same for all" in order to create "the possibility of working 'in security'".  This process intended to make us aware of our physical and psychological limitations in regards to the training. What was difficult for me? What is stopping me from performing confidently? Is it a physical impediment? Is it something more superficial like laziness? What is it? These were the questions that we were meant to pose ourselves during the whole process. In my case, there were certain actions that were more difficult than others, such as walking in low levels by curling my back forwards and grabbing both of my ankles with my hands, trying to walk without bending much the knees. As it is an unusual way of walking and my body is not physically used to it, I began to felt both pain and even exhaustion.  In a sense, I was beginning to achieve what was it that Grotowski wanted me to do, "discover the cause which impeded" me from doing the actions without a fuss. Likewise, it was through this initial exploration process that I began to get some ideas which might be interesting to develop during the school play rehearsals in order to build interesting characters. For example, I consider interesting the idea of using different levels for different characters in order to visually create both the idea of power and hierarchy; therefore making characters such as the witches perform close to the floor and down levels giving the impression of the underworld and unnaturalness. However, assumptions should not be made yet as we have still to explore and study in greater detail this theatre. There is a certain connection between the exercises and the performing of German Expressionism which we studied last year: both caused exhaustion on the performer as they demand for great amounts of energy and concentration.

Afterwards, we began to do exercises on two big air mattresses. These intended to help us recognize are physical impediments and even so, try to overcome them by going beyond exhaustion. Grotowski says that "For every individual one must discover the cause which impedes him, hampers him, and then create the situation in which this cause can be eliminated...". As actors we all had different difficulties which could be tackled in different ways. We did exercises such as letting ourselves fall onto the mattress with nothing to stop us, or rolling along it, or even jumping over someone else and letting ourselves fall on the mattress. All of these, gave us the liberty to explore our bodies as actors and even so to get to know the difficulties of the others. In relationship to Grotowski's theory for the Laboratorium, I believe I managed to identify some of the factors which impeded me to follow the exercise with perfect ease. Due to the lack of practical and physical work I've not done in a long period of time, I have lost what Grotowski praises as "muscle memory" and therefore at moments the exercises were hard for me as some of my limbs began to hurt. Another factor which prevented me from performing to my fullest potential

Moreover, on the second day of training, following Grotowski's ideal of the essence of theatre being the "actor, his actions and what he can achieve" we created a sequence of movements using a different stimulus each. In my case, I used as a stimulus a constrictive plant which is meant to wrap around a tree with the intention of dominating it. During my sequence I used my body as a means of movement, I wanted to go beyond my physical impediments and make clear the idea of constriction and dominance over an imaginary branch which lied parallel to the floor. This sequence demanded for my limbs to bend and give the impression of roots or stalks that go towards something; my second self-given stimulus included the relationship between sun and plants: the search for the needy light. I used the root of the imaginary tree as my light source, I needed to get there although at first I was unsure. I wanted to present three different stages throughout the sequence; the rise, dominance and eventual fall: all of which are themes that ought to be portrayed on our school play. "By gradually eliminating whatever proved superfluous, we found that theatre can exist without make-up, without autonomic costume and scenery, without a separate performance area (stage), without lighting and sound effects, etc." The sequence of actions came from my imagination but from the starter exercise we did at the beginning of this session, in which we had to experiment with different ways of walking using a random musical piece as inspiration. Likewise, we intended to represent different feelings through the representation of different animals (e.g. crocodile represented for me subtle fierceness, and a flamingo represented delicacy). I took the animals which represented the most strong feelings to apply to my sequence; by varying the rhythm of my movements different effects were meant to be created. For example, the beginning of the sequence was performed at a very slow pace and used the down level (inspired on the crocodile) and gave the impression of "searching for a pray". Then, I varied my rhythm drastically once I approached the imaginary branch and used as an inspiration the movement of the spider when getting over an insect. This vivid image created a sense of an unavoidable imprisonment. In respect to Grotowski's principles, I believe that my exploitation of physique was appropriate, however, we are not training nearly as hard as the actors from the 20th century who trained daily for over 7 hours.

Connections:

The most salient connection in my opinion is with German Expressionism. Both theatre practices demand a high amount of physical energy and expression; which in fact, is meant to make the actors feel exhausted. During the performances of "Romper la Piel" last year, it was almost impossible for me not to feel tired afterwards, something which I noticed with the Grotowskian training. By the end of the session I was covered in sweat and felt really tired, therefore I believe that I have reached one of Grotowski's principles in regards to the training, reaching my fullest potential and once I reach that level, go beyond. This was achieved due to the variations in the physical movements and changes between tense-relaxed, fast-slow or strong-soft, as applied to last year's play. Likewise, both theatre practices intend to create close link with the audience; German Expressionism links with the audience through its social protest-like themes and Poor Theatre creates audience participation by "breaking the division" and creating a space in which both audience and performers are physically together.

Grotowski describes the training as a medium of self exploration in which the actor is free to explore different spontaneous movements and shall repeat those movements which he finds interesting various times in order for "muscle memory" to remember them. Japanese theatre, Kabuki, also demands previous and extensive training from the performers; something which was essential during 2011's school play, "Miyuki y los tres demonios". This theatre practice also exploited the physical movements of the actors, however they are accompanied of elaborate costumes, scenery and make-up. During the training for "Miyuki y los tres demonios" we were meant to put a lot of energy to each movement and step; sloppy steps were looked down. However, during our exploration, the strong movements came at some moments, just when it was required. Unlike, Kabuki, Poor theatre seems to center on the beauty of the movements, not the power or strength but the beauty of each stroke.

Reflections:

Through the exploration of this type of theatre practice I began to understand Grotowski's approach to the training. He disliked commercial theatre, the type of theatre which intended to compete against other media such as film or TV; he was sure that all of the unnecessary excesses should be removed in order to highlight the core of theatre: acting. I also realized that theatre should be a personal experience in which the actor dictates the movements he/she should portray onstage. The exploration of an actor should be individual, as it demand concentration and should not be influenced by other actors. One should take personal experiences and try to represent those feelings physically through movements which are somehow symbolic for his persona. 

Moreover, I also believe that the rapidness of the training which we underwent does not allow me to fully understand the Grotowski's training fully. There has been a lack of reflection from my part, at least to its fullest potential, as I have not left behind the idea of performing in order to get a certain response from the audience; something which Grotowski hates. He states that the actors should not worry about what the reaction would be, but center on exploring his inner self and true core from which all of the movements and expressions arise. I also found interesting the idea of the face expressions, although they are somehow similar to the expressionism's, they are intended to be fixed and create a "facial" mask following one of Noh theatre's principles, which dictates that masks are more expressionistic than the face of the actor itself. 

Can we truly rely on the actor's sole body in order to transmit clear ideas to the audience? To what extent will the lack of conventional design elements affect a performance of this character? How much more exploration time will I need in order to purify myself away from the conventional believes of modern theatre actors?