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?
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?
It is easy to stablish many similarities betweeen German Expressionism and Poor Theatre and you have done it well, but it would be more interesting to start trying to identify the differences between them, if they both have the physicality of the actor as a key element of expression and representation, when and how is it they start to go their separate ways?
ResponderEliminarBEWARE: Poor Theatre does not focus on the beauty of the movements, but on the TRUTH of every single thing the actor does... revise Grotowski's ideas of what is it that the actor should and should not do during training and performances, what is it that he should become? and how does he get there?
Finally, I would like to see some of your final wonderings being answered during the process of this year's play!
A.