Hark... who goes there?

Yes so it has been a while since I've said something... and it's not that i've had nothing to say... quite the opposite actually.  Our second term ended and as I was taking off my costume from playing Polonius in our Commedia dell'Arte version of Hamlet the taxi whisked me away to the airport for a two-week break back home in Joburg.  Two weeks of family, our pets, the swimming pool and... I know I keep banging on about it...  SUNSHINE!  This is my fifth winter in a row!  So I feel quite excited about summer clothes and sandals.

Rewind.  So now...  Hamlet.  In 22 minutes.  Mmm the full play in 22 minutes.  Well not the full play... But our version of the full play.  What a riot.  And of course it was wonderfully mad... with only the odd Shakespeare line thrown in here and there.  Something is rotten in the state of Denmark!  Frailty thy name is women!  To be or not to be... you know, all the big hitters.  Naturally.

In short... we worked out an event narrative structure (called a canovaccio in the world of Commedia) and then the idea is to improvise within this... but you have the structure to lean on and support you.  And herein lies one of the differences between acting and playing... the actor will execute the structure as it is - moving from one beat to the next.  The player allows whatever new happens to happen and if the audience responds then they go deeper into that until it is over and only then do they return to the structure and move on.  For the most part we only found a few moments of raw play... but when they happened it was so exhilarating.  It requires a whole new level of listening... because it is not pure improvisation.  You know what is going to happen... but how it happens can change and develop and grow.  And if something new is planted in an earlier scene it can come back in a later scene.  It is definitely not boring.  Of course we also played in mask - so the performance is immediately heightened to a whole other level of madness.  And the thing is... as our teaches keep telling us... if the canovaccio works and the performances are good then the piece will work... but if you play... really play... its on a whole other level.  You have to have fun.  It's a rule.  Have fun!  It's not that easy.

This is one of the most exciting things I have learnt.  I know there are lots of exciting things.  But this one rocked.  It somehow incorporated aspects of everything we have learnt up till now.   Changing the space.  Character.  Images.  Technique.  Rhythm.  Madness.

Helena as the Queen (in the mask I made)... back stage getting ready just before our last performance

Slowly getting into the state of the Queen... 'Oh Dear!'  ....Vampish.  Over the top.  Fickle.  Confused.
And very very funny.

Vika as Ophelia (in the mask Helena made) peeking out from the paraventi...  Hamlet gave me a love letter.  It says...
Dear Ophelia, I love you love.  Love, Hamlet

Me playing Polonius (in the mask Barbara made), Ophelia's father... You must remember this a kiss is still a kiss.

So now... returned for the final term and slap bang into clown...  The red nose.  The smallest mask of all.  Aaaah.  And it is so terrifying.  Because your clown is not a character.  Your clown is somehow and aspect of you that wants to come out and play.  And as Giovanni said the other day... sometimes other people love your clown more than you do... you cannot control what comes out... allow yourself to fall... aaaaaah.

So it's the very beginning of this journey and we kicked off with solo performances for the first years... who of course hadn't seen our clowns yet.  It wasn't a performance as such... it was more the reason for the clown...  Sad.  Mean.  Bizarre.  Needy.  Pompous.  Bossy.  Chaotic.  Militant.  But all of them naive.  Mostly funny.  And sometimes poignant.   We were allowed to use objects but no real skills like musical instruments, singing, dancing or too much talking.  An object.  And three minutes.  Go.  Make us laugh.

I was in such a state that I actually walked on stage without my red nose on!  I couldn't believe it.  Of course I was told immediately and had to start again... Apparently this happens often... actors in mask shows step out with their masks on top of their heads having forgotten to pull them down.  So funny.  And a bit of gift... the more energy you have the better.  It seams.  I'll post some pics in the next one.  

So yes.  Welcome to the wonderful world of clown.  We'll see.  Eee.  

Where I walked #4

The birds march around on the frozen river Arno, their own private museum, with their feathers puffed out as slowly winter begins to melt beneath them.  It has been a very cold two months in Florence.  But the sun is steadily gaining momentum and soon we will be done with our heavy coats, our woolen lined boots, our scarves and gloves... Music will fill the piazza's and gelato our belly's... sunshine will warm our hearts.  And I can't wait.  So long winter. 

Lessons in Articulation

We have started the deep dive into Commedia dell'arte for real now... and it demands pieces of everything we have learned from the very beginning of this unbelievable journey!  A cauldron of theatrical potential.  It is terrifying.  And exciting.  At the same time.  We are doing Shakespeare plays in the style of Commedia dell'arte... Hamlet, King Lear and Macbeth.  What a thing.  We have just started exploring the masks and the character types... and the level of style and articulation and vocal resonance they require is staggering.  Eee.

We can learn a lot from children and animals! For Christmas I got a new lens for my camera from Nick... aah... and these are among the first photo's I took... Rupert and Coroline.  Children and animals...  Articulation naturals.  Action reaction geniuses.  Levels of tension perfectionists.  And masters of 'play'.  You can watch them for hours.  And hours.  Sigh.  Missing home.    

My nephew Rupert at bath time!  Hey?!  How cute!

Coroline... our mad black cat x

We break for out next holiday in two weeks and I am going home... to all my family... our pets... the sunshine.  Can't wait!  16 sleeps.  x

The human tragicomedy, Tragicomedia Umana...

I have started writing this several different times... where to start.  There is so much to say.  About acting.  About playing.  About structure.  About dramaturgy.  About rhythm.  But mostly about having fun.  Seriously.  So i'll start at the beginning of the process. The clay.  

We ventured into making our own masks once again... but this time they were to be half masks or speaking masks...  and this time we were to try go further with the form.  Take more of a risk.  But still without imposing your idea.  And I think perhaps we have started to understand something of volume and form and amplification.  Compared to the full mask we made these have stronger decisions in them... both in terms of form and dynamic.  At least I think that is true.  And so, it was with these masks that we began our exploration of Commedia dell'arte type theatre style...  which, for our purposes of exploring human tragicomedy, means improvisation within a structure...

My mask mould...

Justin's mask.  In clay he looked like Robocop - but in the end he was much slower and more stupid than that...
and very very funny!  Boom!

Commedia dell'arte (Comedy of Craft) is considered to be the childhood of theatre... it was half-mask theatre that was developed in Italy in the 16th century... A series of improvised scenes or sketches built around a pre-existing structure or story out line.  Meaning there are fixed points in the play that the actors know they are working within and towards.  And their themes had to be accessible human comedy / drama.  Because the most important thing was that these actors had to keep their audiences entertained or they didn't eat.  We have a lot to thank Commedia dell'arte for... like the first women on stage... to name but one.

So... where best to start the exploration of human drama... where can one easily find comedy and tragedy?  Family.  Ah.  Of course.  What a riot.  We developed scenes that contained some kind of familial relationship and therefore conflict.

In the commedia style of performance the safety net is that you have a prescribed structure, but then within this structure there is the freedom to improvise...  trick your partners on stage by throwing in new lines... new movements... new reactions and so on... build... build... build... crescendo... until the next turning point in the structure.  And you absolutely have to earn the turning points... or you have nothing.  A series of turning points and crescendos...  Because the play must go up... if it doesn't go up... it goes down.  Obvious.  It is.  But do it.  Ahhh.  The freedom.  The constraint.

Of course it took some days... weeks... to get there... but by and large we did.  Even if, we could have gone further... we were starting to knock at the right door.  At least.  And a very important key to success in this style is... you have to have fun... but really and truly have fun.  It is not enough just to act.  Because there is no cleaverly written script with brilliantly thought-out lines and carefully constructed character arcs to fall back on.  So you cannot act without playing.  How exciting.  It is.  Because 'playing' somehow goes further than acting... because, as we are learning, it incorporates the audience and on-the-spot invention.  If you only act it presupposes a fourth wall, but this work directly incorporates the audience response.  If they like something, do it again.  Develop it.  You are in complicite with your co-actors and the audience.  But, because you have the structure upon which to lean, everyone is relatively safe on stage... because not just anything can happen... but a lot can happen... because there are rules...

- Structure

- Listening 

- Action and Reaction

- Rhythm

- Audience Response

- Crescendo

After a dreary nose dive of just about all of our performances Giovanni reminded us, that with this work particularly (but probably in all forms of theatre) having fun is firstly the right and ultimately the obligation of the actor.  And this in no way detracts from the drama in the scene.  Quite the opposite.  It enables the drama to reach the audience.  And that really is the point.  Reaching the audience.  And a fabulous insight from Matteo... Always end up!  Even if you have a dramatic ending.  Punch out.  Boom. 

So the point is that once you have a solid structure, it only works if you really are having fun... then you can play.  And the work can really live.  What an obligation.  A light in the dark goes on.  Structure.  Freedom. 

We ended up with crazy scenes that were really funny in some moments and terribly disturbing in others and moving and mad and tragic...  These two weeks were Family and the next three weeks is Shakespeare.  How brilliant.  Seriously.

Andrea and I in our scene of woman in love with a hyperchondriac man who cannot and will not leave his house...
Helen: Ubaldo, you're so sick because you never go outside.
Ubaldo: I never go outside because I am so sick, Helen.

Helen:  Perhaps luck will be on your side.  After all it is a game of chance... and strategy...

The chicken made by Freya from the Farm House scene... Masks and puppetry.  Cluck cluck!

So after our final public performance... and a grueling few weeks filled with battle and discovery we gathered in a warm bar for a glass of wine.  And for some a game of uno.  I can't play cards now.  What are you crazy.  This is theatre.  And it really was fun... And it really was a struggle.  All of it.  Finding the body of the mask, the vibration... how to be light and fluid and grounded at the same time.  The voice, but particularly the way of speaking which was much more legato than staccato, and Liz (our voice teacher) so cleverly pointed out my rhythm to me... which changed everything...  the rhythm always has to be there - or purposefully broken - regardless of the characters sentiment.  And then how to play the different sentiments through the body of the mask and not falling back onto your own body.  It is so fragile.  The state.  The play.  Whether it works or not.  How can you play cards now!

Uno in the bar.

Walking home with Vika, the snow gently falling on Florence.  Sadly not enough to throw a white blanket over the city.  But enough to make the tip of my nose turn red.  My breath visible in front of me.  A glass of wine warming my belly.  A spring in my step.  Because this week, I feel more than learning something,  I have somehow just began to understand something.  Something important.  I think.  A rare and exciting thing.

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