Say something... Say something. Anything.

Bye-bye silence and hello voice!  We have taken the - rather large - step from full masks to half masks... from 'silent' masks to speaking ones. Exciting yes - but it is interesting how long it took to let - or get - the voice out - we kept forgetting.  Literally.  Oh god - I can speak.  Say something... say something... anything!  Right.  What should I say?  Eee.

There is something tremendously intimate about ones voice - it can be quite exposing if it is not masked so that it no longer feel like your own voice.  In other words if you are not using a resonance with enough distance from your own speaking voice, it is very difficult to get into the state of the character you are looking for.  Because it is in this distance that one finds 'play' - where you start to say things that you wouldn't normally say... but rather things the character would say... and in the rhythm that the character would say it...

Then, naturally, you need a body which is also masked with a specific shape and given a specific vibration or frequency.  We did a lot of this with full mask.  Full mask is all about physical state (among other things of course) - like how you stand, which part of the body leads and so on...  Frequency is often inspired by materials... glass, rubber, wood, metal, oil and so on...  Where, if you imagine that you are made of that material it effects how you do things.  I, for example, have a better time playing characters with a high frequency, with lots of little fast erratic movements... I feel quite challenged by characters that are more grounded or more liquid.  But materials really help you understand what you need to do physically without getting all psychological about the character.  Where feedback can be - more wood - less rubber!  And everyone understands what is required practically.  How simple?  Mmm.

So, put these together - a masked voice with a masked body with a specific vibration and you find yourself in an altered state... in the state of the character you are playing.  Hopefully.

Sometimes you're lucky and you hit all three rather quickly - but more often it takes some time.  Giovanni keeps telling us... once you are in 'the state' and if you fall into the creative flow and you are listening, it is the state that tells you what to do next.  This is the endless endeavor of improvised work...  What happens?  What happens next?  And then what happens?

It's not easy.  Or simple.  Because things that look easy and simple are actually very hard to find.  And especially in mask.  If you don't listen, often you panic,  do too much, saturate your performance and ruin the scene.  Which is not great.  Obviously.  And everyone is swimming around in soup.  Wondering what went wrong.

But when it does happen, you have the opportunity to open the door to a whole other world... where firemen fall in love in a crazy piece of sketch comedy... where birthday wishes are lost in a moving piece of tragic comedy... or where typical human behaviour is revealed at the day on the beach.  Dramatic depth can be found in the action of simple every day things.  And it is in the action that the sentiment is revealed.  And the action is seen through very strict action and reaction with your co-players.  A delicate dance of technique and sentiment - and without one you don't have the other.  Although more often than not we'll forgive lack of technique over sentiment.  As Matteo says without sentiment your mask is nothing more than paper mache and elastic.  Theatre.  Poetry.  Life perhaps.

Me in Matteo's mask playing Anne the fireman who falls in love guy whose house is on fire...
Mario, her fireman partner, reminds her that her life is fighting fire with Mario!  Sketch comedy.  Rocking.

And the thing is with mask, it demands such a high level of play - such a specific and clear state - in order to work.  And either it works or it doesn't.  That's it.  It's completely unforgiving.  Luke warm is not really an option.  So the training is how to be so specific that the state does the work for you in a sense.

The first half masks we played were simple mono-directional expressive masks that Matteo made... with the most fantastically expressive eyes.  Yay.  They are wonderful!  What fun.  But because they are so simple and have such a specific dynamic - they are really not easy to play.  You have to be so... specific!  Yes.  Ahhhh.

So yes... on this journey of mask work I think the thing that is becoming clearer, is in theatre ultimately everything is masked - even if you are not physically wearing a mask.  Deep.  In the end even the story is masked through theatrical transposition.  If not - you might as well watch TV.  Exactly.

All eight expressive masks... Matteo said that he has used these masks with very dramatic themes -
like war and exodus - how brilliant.  Poetic.  Clever.  We're very lucky.   Have I said that before.  I believe I have.

Close up.  Art.

Barbara who sang 'Happy Birthday' and moved everyone to laughter and near tears...
with Helikos director Giovanni Fusetti

in full swing... Happy Birthday!

Beyond and Before words

I have returned to Firenze from a wonderful Christmas summer break in South Africa with a bit of tan...  slightly sun bleached hair... my toe nails still painted... and the odd grain of beach sand held hostage in my bag.  Relaxed.  And ready steady go.

So, last term (and last year now!) we had the privilege of playing Matteo's own masks.  The magic they capture when played on stage... their changing expressions that move you to laughter and tears in tragic scenes that walk the thin line between comedy and drama... like the day a woman leaves her husband for ever... or the day a mother is taken to an old age home not by her choice.  The idea with full mask it to always remain before and to move beyond words.  Well yes - because you mouth is covered.  But, you have to earn the silence.  That place where there is nothing more to say - because everything has been said.  A moment in one of the scenes where a young soldier is leaving home for war... his mother places an apple in the pocket of his jacket, a random act of motherly kindness that makes you laugh and cry at the same time... as if he were going to boarding school and not war.  But to do this is harder than one thinks... and terribly exciting if achieved.  It is quite easy to fall into pantomime... which is... well... dreadful.  So yes, whole pieces without a single word... where, with some - if not most - of the pieces, in the days that followed you really felt like you heard the dialogue, the sound effects, the music.  The silence can be very very loud.

Vika, me and Barbara - the two daughters who force their mother to leave her house for ever.  Oh the drama!

We also visited the Tuscan town Lucca...  our dear friend Lucy's last Italian day trip... possibly not for ever... but certainly for the next little while...  I wish you well with your next adventure Lucy... you shall be truly and deeply missed.  Your bright smile even when things are going wrong... Your positivity that things will work out... and they do!  Your inoffensive bum pinching... Your openness to constantly tell people you love them... But mostly - your brilliant comic timing.  Yes, you shall be missed... Beyond Words! x

Where we walked on the old city wall of Lucca... Lucy, Me and Nicole

Vika on the old city wall

Nicole and Vika pointing to the famous tower, Torre Guinigi, in the distance which boasts real trees... like a hat.

From the tree'd tower...

Sarah on top of the Torre Guinigi...

Puccini's birth home

This one is especially for Lucy... Happiness Street!
Vika, Nicole, Lucy, Sarah and Freya

Make a wish... and send it up

We welcomed 2012 in with a wish and a sky lantern... and watched them rise and float over the bay in Plett... It rocked.  Happy 2012.  May all the wishes come true.

Ella making her wish

Ella watching her wish rise up

Hugo preparing to make his wish

The moment when Annies balloon began to pull up...

Melie looking like an angel makes her wish

Jack watches his wish [in capital letters!] take off

Mask Making for Professionals

All of our own home made masks... yes its true... can you tell?!  To begin the epic journey of mask making and mask play we were tasked to make our own masks... to call on our own creative intuition and make a proposal, or a statement.  And we did...  It was such fun...

our creations!  

My wonderfully bizarre mask which I had enormous fun playing.

So yes, we all made the usual and expected mistakes with our first masks, and from there we went into depth on understanding the face - form, plains, volume, colour.  A nose is the consequence of two side volumes meeting... a mouth is the consequence of the top volume meeting the bottom... features are not added or stuck on at all... they emerge for the form that ultimately is the face... the whole face is  the consequence of volumes meeting.  Obvious.  Possibly.  But try do it.

Initially it is perhaps a practically confusing way to work, but poetically and artistically it is totally true.  It is therefore very difficult - and ill advised - to decide beforehand the kind of mask you are going to make... Like deciding that you want to have a big nose or broad cheeks and so on.  Rather, you 'simply' make the mask you are going to make... the form emerges, and it is - for the most part - out of your control.  And then... of course... you have to hope that it works on stage and not as a decorative wall hanging!

Below are some pictures of the process of mask making.  What an absolute privilege - Matteo, our mask making teacher, is an absolute genius.

From this... to this in a week!  Weirdly there is something similar about them.  How odd.

Vika and her two masks... isn't it amazingly wonderful!

Really!  I am very excited to see what our third masks are going to look like.

Where I walked #3

Sunlight bouncing off the windows and dancing across the Ponte Vecchio and the Arno.  Saturday morning walk through Florence... Firenze Sogna gently playing in my head as I Christmas shop in preparation to go home in only a few sleeps time for a two week holiday... so excited!  Family, friends and sunshine!  

  

The cry of the gesture

We had the wonderful Norman Taylor again for two morning workshops.  Of course it was unutterably brilliant... Movement analysis... of course... mime.  Articulation of the space.  The space.  Always with 'the space!'  So we did the Le Coq articulation phrase - Make a cocktail.  

1... see the cocktail shaker on the counter

2... open the hand out wide ready to take the shaker... the cry of the gesture...

...Norman calls this wide spread hand the cry of the gesture...  I love that.  It made me want to do it.  That my hand spoke of a cry for movement.  Ja.  But when it comes to the technical side of this work... poetry really can see one through!  And its funny with mime, things you normally know without having to think - like which way to twist open the cocktail shaker - simply goes out the window and everyone is asking... which way is open?!  Something one never considers... or gets wrong... when opening a tap!  As Norman with a wide smile and fixing his hair continues to say... You have to be a manic for the detail... don't miss a beat... be ridiculously big, in order to become small... in the same way that children learn to write big in order to write small... 

AHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... ringing through the streets of Florence!

Because when you break it down the amount of detail in a simple movement phrase is staggering.  I'm going to leave it at step 2 - The cry of the gesture. 

That afternoon we did our Larval mask performance...  With scrambled brains from articulation articulation articulation... we decided that when in doubt... articulate... and breathe!  Our feedback was next time try to articulate the play rather than play the articulation... Of course...  Which we did.  

Go big to go small.  Articulation.

me, Nicole, Vika and Lucy in larval masks

My alien!

We finished our home made masks!  The amazing thing is they all seem to have soul. Yay.  Even my alien!  I know.  You wouldn't really say it by looking at it.  But it's true.  So exciting.  Of course Matteo helped everyone with reconstructive surgery and some much needed paint make-overs... in most cases to calm the masks and help them to come to life on stage.  The mask proposes a physical form and a state which proposes specific play and brings the mask to life.  Like magic.  But if the mask is stuck... what Giovanni calls an expression mask rather than an expressive mask... then it is better to hang the mask on the wall and start again.  The mask depending on how you play it physically has to have more than one emotion... and hopefully even several.  The mask and the counter mask.

My sleeping profile

Following our personal creations... or our artistic statements... We have began the process of learning how to make masks properly... professionally!  Starting with the profile of the face.  After observing and drawing each other profiles, from a small lump of clay we had to create a three dimensional profile...  As I was working on one side of the profile from the top down... Surprisingly she ended up looking like she was sleeping... with the weight of slumber.  Let the form emerge.  And it did.  Art.

A pinprick for the light...

Some of the basic principals of the stage are simply... action, reaction, listening, high level of energy, listening, breathing, listening, crescendo, listening, articulation of space, listening... simple.  Sure.  In theory.  But everything we do here is improvised.  Gets a bit trickier.  And of course the wonderful repartee... 'The theme is the theme!'  Meaning as soon as a character walks on stage a 'theme' is established... A movement theme like a simple example is, they can't sit down... or they are waiting... or they are impatient or what ever.  As soon as a second character enters - at exactly the right moment - of course (because you were listening!) -  that established theme must be developed from the dynamic between the two characters...  Yes of course.  Development.  Obviously.  But really, even spotting the theme, so that you can actually develop it, takes super duper skills in.... listening!  Mmm.  Giovanni continually tells us that we are 'doomed to play the theme!'  So, if you don't feel what you do on stage and suddenly you change it... it stops working and the scene dies.  You've killed the play.  Basta.  Over.  Start again.  Listening.  So this is very fine and complex work.  Art.  Grr.

So there's that...

Now imagine placing brown bag over your face with a few pinprick holes punched into it and do all of the above... listen... act... react... clock the audience... articulate... breathe... develop the theme... technique... sentiment... listen!  Ahhhhhh!  And you can't actually see... never mind listen.  Swan dive off the Duomo...

Enter... daa daaa... Masks!

The other wonderful repartee... 'of course it's impossible... now go do it.'  And amazingly once you get over basically being blind... and have spent enough time looking at the mask and finding a shape with your body... and you breathe... play arrives.  Essential play.  Because most of the time you are pausing to 'listen' to what your on stage partner is doing so that you can react accordingly... hopefully.  And you have no idea what you are actually doing.  Because really you are blind.  But you have to trust the form and the mask.  Commit to the sense of play.  And only then can the mask live.  The mask really comes alive... seemingly changes facial expression with the actors changing sentiment.  A grumpy face suddenly smiles.  An arrogant face crumbles with sadness.  An aggressive face is suddenly overwhelmed.  And it is wonderful to watch.  Every tiny thing is amplified.  The smallest hand movement.  A look.  A breath.  The everyday becomes epic.  Matteo (movement teacher and mask maker extraordinaire!) keeps reminding us... inside a drop of rain is the whole universe.

And through the tiniest pinprick... light by which to play.

So... we have started this journey with larval masks, these are non-expressive masks, that force simple amplified essential play... non speaking masks that are very loud.

Photo courtesy of Helikos ... Larval Masks, the eyes of the mask are not the eyes of the actor... if you look closely you will see the pinpricks which let in the light!

At the same time as we burst open the door to this fantastic world we were also tasked to make our own mask without any help from each other or google... or whoever.  I tried to imagine if I had never made a mask before... what would I do... and this is what I came up with...

one - a balloon

two - paper mache

three - an alien! yay.
 four, the actual mask, will be in the next post.

Mmm... We get to play our home made masks next week in front of the public.  Lucky public! Art... and crafts.  What fun.