Blog #3: Proceed with the report

Description:

The second 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. On Tuesday we divided actors according to the scenes we wanted them to be a part of in order to start building the actual scenes; incorporating dialogue and actions. In my case, I directed the second scene of the play, the one of the High Governor and the Ministers, taking into consideration some of the conventions from Grotowski's Poor Theatre. Throughout this entry I would like to discuss some of the issues and good ideas which arose from this week's work.

Analysis:

On Tuesday, I was in charge of starting to pose a proposal for the second scene of the play which includes the moment in which the ministers discuss with the High Governor what is it that makes Redwood deserve a promotion in his military rank. According to Grotowski's conventions; everything is intended to be minimalist with the intention of focusing the audience's attention in the acting of the performers. I had a vision of the scene having 2 main beats; one being the moment in which the Ministers, Secretary and High Governor discuss about the current affairs regarding the nation, and the second one being the moment in which the Captains interrupt the meeting bringing news about Mayor Redwood's latest achievement. Regarding the first beat of the scene, I had in mind using only two chairs as they could be used in different ways, not just for sitting. The vision which this scene intends to show is how contrasting personalities can be complementary and eventually serve as a whole. For example, from the beginning of the scene, the audience can get a clear idea of the High Governor's peace and tranquility being contrasted with the Secretary's nervousness and fear. In order to make this contrast clear; the physicality and body expression of each of the two had to be worked on; as it was their sole medium of expressing the idea clearly. Juan Pablo at first had struggles finding a way of expressing the anxiety which characterizes the Secretary, nonetheless in the end he managed to define some interesting proposals. His body characterization was based on the idea of having his hands covering his mouth when he wasn't speaking and constantly shaking his body, looking in all directions. This gave the impression of him being dazzled, nervous and confused; which at the same time hinted that there was going to be a moment in which he was going to burst. When he spoke, he lowered his arms and grabbed his shirt whilst saying his text in a fast pace. Although this was effective when creating a contrast in relationship to Kim; it also needed work as it made his pronunciation unclear at times. On the contrary, the idea of Kim being a passive and reluctant character was our goal. This had to be worked on, as Kim's proposal at first depicted a moody and aggressive Governor who appeared to dislike his own country. Therefore, the stimuli given to him had to be changed in order to help him get there easily. We gave him the idea to be like Mr. Mitchell or Dumbledore, as both of them are really serene and tranquil. This intended to help Kim show in a more clear way his love and concern regarding the state of the country. He used legato moves which contrasted with Juan Pablo's staccato mannerisms; standing up slowly and using his arms while speaking. Since he remains seated for the first part of the scene, his reactions had to be made clear by the use of his face expression. For example, when he realizes that the Secretary is nervous and anxious, he gives a look of tenderness. However, when he sees that this is not changing, he begins to become impatient and eventually gives a look of concern and stress. 

Moreover, the two Ministers also had to be antithetical. Minister 1, represented by Patricio, had a more harsh and solid attitude in comparison to the clumsy and lost attitude from the Minister 2, represented by Joaquin. This attitudes had to be clearly shown by the interaction between the actor with the space; and how he moved along it. For example, Patricio used a chair which served to determine who were his movements going to be; he might stand on it, sit on it, lie on it and move it around. Visually, this gave an impression of roughness and savageness, ass the audience saw an unnatural physicality being portrayed on stage. This savageness was made clearly by the contrasting characterization by Joaquin's character, who's body did not used as many big movements as Patricio's, however, his presence was totally different. For example, Joaquin had a more upright posture and used his hands to indicate his different states of mind; hands on mouth, pulling his shirt, when talking, etc. Patricio's character broke away from the stillness of Joaquin's character and used a lower level. This would give the audience an effect of duality; both characters are different but at the same time complementary as they show two totally different attitudes which can be normally found in a regular human being.

Finally, I consider important to state the difference between the characterization of the characters already mentioned and the captains, messenger and Colonel Donahue; all of which enter on stage during the second beat of the scene. Carlos' and Jorge Ignacio's characterization was influenced in a way by martial arts as we had to find something which was totally opposite to what the ministers had been doing. Within the captains, both characters were also different and opposite; an idea which has been portrayed all throughout this scene. However, this time the differences weren't solely shown through the use of the body, on the contrary, they were made clear through the use of text. Whilst Carlos' character was the captain who appeared to be the most respectful and loyal of the two; Jorge Ignacio's appeared to be the most careless yet aggressive of the two. This was made clear through the way each one of them addressed the High Governor. Carlos' character played with a lower level once he entered the stage and saluted the Governor; bending his head down in a sign of respect. On the contrary, Jorge Ignacio's remained stiff and did not show any signs of respect. Therefore, we can see that in that sense they differed from the Ministers as both of these wanted to show respect towards the Governor; they wanted to appear noble to him. However, there is a sort of change in the attitude of the captains once they realize that the High Governor is capable of giving Redwood a better rank. They both begin to use more their body in order to transmit to the Governor the idea that they both deserve the rise in rank; especially when they visually represent a short moment from a war in which they supposedly came out victoriously. This transmits one of the main themes in our play, the idea of the thirst for power and control; something which later will be shown by Redwood.

Connections:

One clear connection that I can make with this week's process, is with last year's initial steps for building a character in a personal and outsider level. When exploring the different ways in which my character could be represented, I had to set my self some visual stimuli as that helped me to get a stereotypical and more clear image of the character that I should represent. For example, myself as the boss of the office had to look creepy and menacing, yet I did not wanted it to be the typical boss with a low pitched voice as that to me seemed too cliche. Therefore, I found myself some stimuli like the cat from "Alice in Wonderland" for the face expression and the "Slenderman" for the body characterization as it had long  extremities; an idea that I wanted to explore. 

In a more outsider point of view, I can conclude by saying that external stimuli is always very useful when building a character. Last year, I was in charge of helping Alejandro define or start building his character. His way of walking was the first thing that arose from the idea of his body controlling him rather than him controlling his body. Having ideas or stimuli to guide him managed to help him go from having nothing, to building a character which had a comical effect on the audience. This idea has been repeated once again this year as the actors on my scene all had a certain stimulus in order for them to define their characterization. In the case of the High Governor it was Mr. Mitchell and Dumbledore; for the Ministers and Secretary it were rodents and similar animals and for the Captains it was at first a gorilla.

Reflections:

I have realized that the creative process of making Grotowskian scenes in the play is going so far so good, however there is always room for improvement. The implementation of dialogue to the scenes really adds a completely different mood and pace. For example, during the scene I've been working on when the contrasting ways in which the actors say their text adds different rhythms to the scene; it all depends in the way the actors say it. One might say it a bit slower or faster and it all makes the scene fluctuate between different paces. This goes in hand with what Grotowski intended; that the actor's acting is the most important and central core of theatre, and it is meant to be used as a medium to establish a connection with the audience as the performances are likely to be charged with energy. However, I think that our actors still are lacking the part of using solely the body as some have poor characterization still. This has to be worked on in order to maintain the same level of achievement as it will not be cool to have actors on stage with different levels of accomplishment (one with a more solid characterization than the other).

I also believe that the idea that this play tries to transmit is really universal and can make the audience easily relate to it. Each one of us can become infected and blinded by greed and thirst for power, and this idea is going to be shown clearly by our game in which the actors do not enter from the off stage, and rather approach the stage from the audience; each one of them therefore working as an archetype for our society.

What might be an effective method to help the actors achieve a better characterization? Is it always useful to have contrasting characters on stage? Can monotony be equally as effective as opposites?