Sunday, November 25, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Pinocchio and the Old Goat
This is a pic of the postcard i'm about to post home... and it captures my week rather well... namely, Pinocchio [as seen swimming away from the shark], and the little goat [as seen peering down from the rock]. Yes... Our storytelling adventures continue. The week started out with Pinocchio, which sadly did not work... When telling a classic epic tale [or any story for that matter] it becomes very important that you know what you want to say and that you develop a common language to say it... both of which we did not manage this time around. We have promised a glass of wine and a dinner in honour of our wooden friend whose soul we did not capture... this time. Perhaps there will be a next time... with more time. We shall make it up to you Pinocchio.The week ended on Saturday with a public performance of a selection of stories from the previous two weeks... for me it was the Grimms Tale... 'Wolf and the Seven Goats.' I know. Who's heard of that one!? I hadn't. After the horror of doing another solo wore off it was rather fun playing an old goat and her 7 kids who get eaten by the wolf.
So, this week has been a major reminder of... Crescendo. What doesn't go up necessarily goes down. Momentum. Pace. Rhythm. The driving force... the push and pull of story. Know what you want to say. Ahhh. And then say it. Once upon a time... Preferably in Italian... C'era una volta...
(see full image)
Through the streets of Florence
We have started running. No. I'm not even kidding. Through the streets of Florence. Once a week. Besides the stitches and the faint taste of blood ... and the majority of the group who find it easy! ... it is actually fun. Yes. It's true. Ready steady go.(see full image)
Monday, November 5, 2012
Knock knock.
As winter slowly begins to stretch her arms and pull us in close... and low cloud hangs heavy over Florence threatening rain. I ventured out for a Saturday afternoon walk to clear my head, and two artists ventured out to paint two lions head door knockers... It made me think of the mime walk argument... that goes something like 'Its all very well to have brilliant walking technique, but where are you going?' ...Its all very well to accurately paint identical door kockers but where do they lead? As Barbara says... Knock knock. Who's there? ...we'll see.(see full image)
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Once upon a time...
A week of story telling. I cannot help being reminded of the work of oh-so-brilliant Ellis Pearson in this week... The 'neutral' storyteller holding a piece together as it flows from action and character back to the storyteller. Ahh. I miss Ellis.
We started the week with Grimms fairy tales. Little Red Ridinghood... Hansel and Gretel... Snow White... the stuff of childhood. The studio was filled with talking donkey's, and wolves, and dwarfs and mirror's and goats and and and... shape shifting between characters... creating different imagined spaces... changing rhythm all the time... looking for the crescendo... vocal resonance gymnastics... I think my favourite moment was when Justin telling the story of 'The Brementown Musicians' did the chain reaction of each animal as they jumped one on top of the other to look into the window of the house... a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster... A stunning little explosion of technique and play. It was fantastic. Suddenly right there before us was a totem pole of creatures... what one person can do.
The process has also been fascinating... many times we have returned to the mimodynamic movement of the first year... materials, elements, animals... to find the dynamic of the story or to find the voice of a character. Totally brilliant. For example. Finding the abstract movement of a herd of goats [in the tale 'Wolf and the Seven Goats']. Then adding the sound, any sound. Then letting go of the abstract physical movement and rather finding the same 'movement' in breath... from there adding sound... and from there shifting it to the voice of the goats. The result was totally surprising and completely right. So clever. Liz... our voice teacher... so clever.
Because story is beneath everything we do always, the story has to be important... and 'who will tell it, if not you?' To quote Giovanni Fusetti. So the creation for this week was a solo performance of a story from your country, your culture... a legend, or a fairytale, or an historic story. After much 'what to do, I don't actually have any culture' panic I settled on the story of Saartjie Baartman. Scary. For me. For obvious reasons. But there you go... after breaking down with Freya and Vika thinking how can I actually do this. I could not 'change groups' - being the only person in my group - and I had no other story. So I forged ahead... trying to apply some of the schools pedagogy... if it makes you cry you should go further into it. This story is not only a wound for South Africa and England and France but for humanity. Actually. Vika and I have had many a cup of tea discussing culture and when it is yours and who can tell what stories and the human condition generally... and one of her many interesting conclusions is that reality TV shows are modern day circus freak shows. I agree. It's interesting. Yip. It's been pretty full on. There were several moments this week where I - and I think all of us - felt so challenged I didn't think I'd get through it. But you do. Of course. Aaaah. And I'm glad I didn't change stories... and the pedagogy I believe works. What a luck I'm here.
The solo's rocked... it was so fantastic to see all the different voices in the room... from the Danish Snow Queen and her swarm of white bees for snow flakes... to the Norwegian Polar Bear who is in fact a bewitched handsome prince... to the German man Brandner Kaspar and his brilliant death dodging... and so many many more.
Moving on. We are getting a bigger studio! Very exciting... so today we went to help get it ready for a couple of hours...
We started the week with Grimms fairy tales. Little Red Ridinghood... Hansel and Gretel... Snow White... the stuff of childhood. The studio was filled with talking donkey's, and wolves, and dwarfs and mirror's and goats and and and... shape shifting between characters... creating different imagined spaces... changing rhythm all the time... looking for the crescendo... vocal resonance gymnastics... I think my favourite moment was when Justin telling the story of 'The Brementown Musicians' did the chain reaction of each animal as they jumped one on top of the other to look into the window of the house... a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster... A stunning little explosion of technique and play. It was fantastic. Suddenly right there before us was a totem pole of creatures... what one person can do.
The process has also been fascinating... many times we have returned to the mimodynamic movement of the first year... materials, elements, animals... to find the dynamic of the story or to find the voice of a character. Totally brilliant. For example. Finding the abstract movement of a herd of goats [in the tale 'Wolf and the Seven Goats']. Then adding the sound, any sound. Then letting go of the abstract physical movement and rather finding the same 'movement' in breath... from there adding sound... and from there shifting it to the voice of the goats. The result was totally surprising and completely right. So clever. Liz... our voice teacher... so clever.
Because story is beneath everything we do always, the story has to be important... and 'who will tell it, if not you?' To quote Giovanni Fusetti. So the creation for this week was a solo performance of a story from your country, your culture... a legend, or a fairytale, or an historic story. After much 'what to do, I don't actually have any culture' panic I settled on the story of Saartjie Baartman. Scary. For me. For obvious reasons. But there you go... after breaking down with Freya and Vika thinking how can I actually do this. I could not 'change groups' - being the only person in my group - and I had no other story. So I forged ahead... trying to apply some of the schools pedagogy... if it makes you cry you should go further into it. This story is not only a wound for South Africa and England and France but for humanity. Actually. Vika and I have had many a cup of tea discussing culture and when it is yours and who can tell what stories and the human condition generally... and one of her many interesting conclusions is that reality TV shows are modern day circus freak shows. I agree. It's interesting. Yip. It's been pretty full on. There were several moments this week where I - and I think all of us - felt so challenged I didn't think I'd get through it. But you do. Of course. Aaaah. And I'm glad I didn't change stories... and the pedagogy I believe works. What a luck I'm here.
The solo's rocked... it was so fantastic to see all the different voices in the room... from the Danish Snow Queen and her swarm of white bees for snow flakes... to the Norwegian Polar Bear who is in fact a bewitched handsome prince... to the German man Brandner Kaspar and his brilliant death dodging... and so many many more.
Moving on. We are getting a bigger studio! Very exciting... so today we went to help get it ready for a couple of hours...
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| Vika warming her hands by the gentle flicker of a working light |
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| Vika, Giovanni and Barbara being demented workers |
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| Me sweeping with a dust mask... to try and preserve my disappearing voice |
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Ciao Newspaper Man
Last night our movement studio was turned into a little puppet theatre. Visiting Australian puppeteer Jenny Ellis took us through her wonderful work and then we made our own newspaper puppets... Trying as best we could to apply a few puppetry principals - giving the figure weight, breath and articulation. It was such fun... It was a short workshop so the work we did for each other was totally improvised and totally funny. These crazy little figures coming suddenly to life. This is Vika, me and Barbara and our little dude... Ciao Newspaper Man.(see full image)
Sunday, October 28, 2012
A loud gesture
Two weeks. Bang. Gone. Already... And we are one performance down. Aaaah. Amazing. Third year Helikos in full swing. We have began this year with Pantomime as our first theatrical territory... when I first heard that I had images of men wearing stax of stage make up dressing up as girls and so on... I am pleased to say that the whole thing is kind of over the top but it is not quite what I expected. It never is. Luckily.
A very quick background blurb >>> Pantomime started back in the day when performers were forbidden to publicly criticize or poke fun at the authorities... it started with not allowing actors to speak on stage... And boink enter the beginnings of pantomime with an off-stage translator... that was quickly abolished... now you may not speak at all! And ta-daaa enter full-on pantomime. Never underestimate the artists need to say something. Pantomime... Speaking through gesture >>>
So we returned to the silence... How to turn sound into gesture so that it is in fact not silent at all. If the margin for misunderstandings when you can speak is big - it is way bigger when you can't. It's like everything we have learnt till now coming together to as simply and clearly as possible tell a story, with all the theatre ingredients you need... like a crescendo and a dynamic use of theatrical space - to name but two...
Theatrical space. Yes. I never spoke about our 'Trateau' project at the end of first year as I ran out of time and when I came back to it, somehow too much time had passed. So - a trateau is a trestle sized stage that is raised on which five actors performed. The physical space is squeezed so that theatrical space becomes infinite... "When you have no space you have all the space in the world." Ahh. And that is what theatre should do shouldn't it... create imagined space. Duh. Obvious. But not really. We did a piece about a girl stolen from her village by a three headed dragon... Suddenly everything is possible. Creating images. Chorus work. Changing perspectives. Zooming in. Miniaturisation. Soundscapes... How theatre takes on cinema.
...So yes. In these past two weeks we had to choose a popular film and transpose it for theatre using everything we have learnt. Although we were not a trateau the principals are the same. We did Pirates of the Caribbean and the others did Ghost Busters. Hey? Remember Ghost Busters!?
In our first performance our silence was too silent. As we have learnt through the journey full masks and so on... the silence can be (and should be) very very loud. So yes. Only after being in the silence of gesture did we begin to add voice... which is actually tricky rather than instantly helpful as one might think. The voice too needs to be transposed. Of course. Hectic. So whilst it was a ton of fun it was confusing for the audience in parts - better play of space and cleaning up the use of voice will take it to the next level. Hopefully. We'll see. Next time. For now we're moving on.
In celebration of the journey of theatrical territories... and because i'm missing home... Here are a few recent pics of Nick and I 'in the state' of different movie genres. Photography by a friend of mine Bronwyn Stewart... oh how we laugh. Ha ha.
A very quick background blurb >>> Pantomime started back in the day when performers were forbidden to publicly criticize or poke fun at the authorities... it started with not allowing actors to speak on stage... And boink enter the beginnings of pantomime with an off-stage translator... that was quickly abolished... now you may not speak at all! And ta-daaa enter full-on pantomime. Never underestimate the artists need to say something. Pantomime... Speaking through gesture >>>
So we returned to the silence... How to turn sound into gesture so that it is in fact not silent at all. If the margin for misunderstandings when you can speak is big - it is way bigger when you can't. It's like everything we have learnt till now coming together to as simply and clearly as possible tell a story, with all the theatre ingredients you need... like a crescendo and a dynamic use of theatrical space - to name but two...
Theatrical space. Yes. I never spoke about our 'Trateau' project at the end of first year as I ran out of time and when I came back to it, somehow too much time had passed. So - a trateau is a trestle sized stage that is raised on which five actors performed. The physical space is squeezed so that theatrical space becomes infinite... "When you have no space you have all the space in the world." Ahh. And that is what theatre should do shouldn't it... create imagined space. Duh. Obvious. But not really. We did a piece about a girl stolen from her village by a three headed dragon... Suddenly everything is possible. Creating images. Chorus work. Changing perspectives. Zooming in. Miniaturisation. Soundscapes... How theatre takes on cinema.
...So yes. In these past two weeks we had to choose a popular film and transpose it for theatre using everything we have learnt. Although we were not a trateau the principals are the same. We did Pirates of the Caribbean and the others did Ghost Busters. Hey? Remember Ghost Busters!?
In our first performance our silence was too silent. As we have learnt through the journey full masks and so on... the silence can be (and should be) very very loud. So yes. Only after being in the silence of gesture did we begin to add voice... which is actually tricky rather than instantly helpful as one might think. The voice too needs to be transposed. Of course. Hectic. So whilst it was a ton of fun it was confusing for the audience in parts - better play of space and cleaning up the use of voice will take it to the next level. Hopefully. We'll see. Next time. For now we're moving on.
In celebration of the journey of theatrical territories... and because i'm missing home... Here are a few recent pics of Nick and I 'in the state' of different movie genres. Photography by a friend of mine Bronwyn Stewart... oh how we laugh. Ha ha.
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| Melodrama |
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| Romantic comedy |
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| Comedy |
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| Horror... eeeeeee. |
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