Week 4

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150507987479622&set=vb.540614621&type=2&theater  --check out this link to see my shadow puppet stuff!!
We presented our shandow presentations and filmed them today (although this was really monday and now its friday but I am writing it like its monday).  Dr.Liz, Kaley, and myself did all the puppetering while Fiona watched and filmed for us.  Hopefully Kaley will put up the video's on youtube soon so I can post them on this blog and show them.  Anywho what we did then was divide into pairs, myself and Fiona, and Dr.Liz and Kaley.  We each talked for a minute about an issue which is really important or we feel very strongly about.  I talked about the bullying of LGBT youth and that bullying eventually leading to sucide of those who are bullied.  Fiona talked about violence in the world.  Dr. Liz talked about the unfair hiarchy between the rich and poor.  Kaley talked about teen pregnancy.  We then took our partners issue and talked about it like it was our own.  From our topics we then talked about how if we added characters to these topics; who would be a character that would be caught in the middle.  We chose the topic of teen pregnancy.  We created a story about a prochoice woman named Patti.  She has a twin sister named Angela who is prolife and has a teenage daughter, Sophie.  Sophie comes to Patti with whom she is very close, and confesses that she is pregnant and wants an abortion.  She asks for Patti's help and promises her not to say anything about it to her mother.  Then we have a scene where Patti is talking to Angela.  Angela knows that something is going on with her daughter and asks Patti if she knows whats going on.  Patti then has her own monologue about her conflicting emotions between her niece, her sister, and her principles.  I will be playing Sophie in our workshop on monday and I wrote up a scene for us to play with.  Dr.Liz is playing Patti and Kaley is playing Angela.  Here is the scene that I typed up:

Patti and Sophie

(Scene opens on Patti alone in her kitchen.  She looks expectant, maybe a little nervous.  As if she knows something is coming.  Enter Sophie)

Sophie:  Hey…

Patti(Startled): Oh!  Hello darling!  I didn’t hear you come in.

Sophie:  I came in through the back door, if it’s a bad time I can come…

Patti:  No no dear, please sit down. Would you like a cup of tea?

Sophie: That would be great.

(Patti goes and fixes Sophie a cup.  Sophie sits down)

Patti:  You take sugar right?

Sophie: Yes

(Patti brings Sophie her cup and sits down across from her).

Patti: So, on the phone you said you wanted to talk about something.

Sophie:  Yes, (sighs) I guess I don’t really know how to begin

Patti:  It’s alright dear, you know I’m here for you.

Sophie:  Ok, well before I..you have to promise me that you won’t tell mom about this.  That you won’t tell anyone about this.

Patti: (Sighs) Darling, I’m not so sue if I feel entirely comfortable making that promise.  Your mother and I..

Sophie:  Please aunt Patti.  I don’t know who else I can talk to.  Mom would…she would never understand.

Patti: (a little reluctantly) Alright, I promise.

Sophie:  I’m pregnant

Patti: Ok, what happened?

Sophie:  I don’t even really want to talk about that part right now.  I just want it to go away.  Please, please help me make it go away.  I want it to be like it never happened.

Patti:  You want to get an abortion?

Sophie: Can you help me?

Week 3

So this week we worked on Shadow Puppets.  We took the story that we had told in class (Mine being about my first time Whale Watching and my love for all things cetacean) and we worked into creating it into a shadow puppet piece.  We spent the entire time constructing our puppets and playing around with our pieces lit by an overhead projector.  I must say that I am pretty happy with my blue whale that I created.  I'm going to have to keep it afterwards.  I am going into the studio today with Kaley and Dr. Liz to continue construction on our pieces and figure out how to present them/ who will be puppeteering what.  The background music I will be using is Joe Hisaishi's "Ashitaka and San" from the Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke.  Here, have a listen:
Next week we will present our puppets and film the pieces.  Hopefully I can upload them to this blog.  Well, thats all for now.  Cheerio!

Week 2

Today we presented our Pecha Kucha Presentations.  It went a lot faster than I even anticipated.  Trying to sum up my journey here with a 20 pictures that last 20 seconds each was hard.  From Fiona's perspective she said that two themes popped up in mine.  Performance and places.  That these might be the most important things to me.  Its definitely true that performance holds a huge importance in my life.  Performing has always been the thing that I was best at.  It was what made me feel good about myself.  Its my drive.  Performance is what drives me forward and is what I am passionate about.  She also noticed my attachment to places.  That I might gain energy from places and from going out.  With those two things in mind asked me to think about how I could introduce myself while encapsulating those things.  I said that I am acting all the time, we all are.  Depending on our situation and the people in it we alter our behavior so that we may have the most enjoyable, comfortable, or rewarding experience.  I use theater as a channeling device.  I can channel a character.  We then did a few more exercises.  In one we introduced ourselves but used a detailed story.  I told the story about the first time I ever went whale watching and the unfathomable joy it made me feel.  We are to take these stories for next time and construct them into a shadow puppetry piece.  Next we did an exercise where we were asked to describe in one minute what we were doing at the exact same moment in time yesterday.   We then combined our stories into a series of psychical movements.  It was fun and funny and we made the point that you don't have to worry about good ideas and having them.  Just to do will create something that is sincere and beautiful in its own way.

Week 1

Applied Theater Blog: October 7th 2011

Today was our first meeting with Fiona.  It is strange having such a small class.  The only students are Kaley and myself.  We worked in a studio on the ground floor of the white building.  Fiona first went through a warm up with us which I did not expect.  We used a Thai Chi movement which served as what I believe is a metaphor for the work we will be doing in class.  We were in dragon stance.  That is one foot in front, the other behind and turned out with the front knee bent.  She asked us to imagine that we had a bag of sand resting in our stomach with two holes in it.  When we shifted our weight to either leg (Into dragon or duck stance) we were to imagine the sand flowing into that leg.  We then added and arm movement where we used our right arm to create a circle.  Fiona asked us to imagine that our elbow and our knee was connected by a string.  With our eyes on our finger tips we circled our arm around and around.  The energy was supposed to be about give and take.  Since we will be working with other people in this module it is important for us to understand give and take and to keep them in balance.  We then did several exercises.  A few of these I have done in school as a way of breaking the ice with new people.  The first we did was two truths and a lie.  You say two pieces of information about yourself that are true and one that is a lie.  Then the others in the group have to guess which one is the lie.  Then next exercise we did was one where we stood in a line and each of us would say a statement about ourselves.  For example I would step out of the line and say, “I like scary movies”  If anyone else liked scary movies they would step out of line with me and then we would both move back.  This exercise was meant to find common ground with others and build foundations of familiarity.  However if the topics turned more serious, for example, “I don’t know who my father is.” and you were the only one standing out of line, it could make one feel more isolated and alone.  The third exercise we did was a movement exercise.  We came up with individual physical images of the words closed and open.  Once we came up with our images we would pair up and work these movements at the same time.  Thus a silent narrative came out of our movements.  We also had to encounter each others movements as well as focusing on the way our own bodies were moving.  I think Fiona shared these exercises with us to give us examples of things we could do in our volunteer work to start build a foundation of trust and familiarity with the people whom we will be working and interacting with.  We then talked about what we are planning to do for the term.  We will be working in a prison for one or two days, and we will be doing workshops in med theater.  For our final term project our presentation will be about who we are as an artist.  In thinking about that right now I don’t fully know who I am as an artist and in a way I don’t think that is a bad thing.  I would liken myself to something like a seed pod or something in a youthful growth stage that is adaptable, limited, and hopeful.  I want to be able to do something interactive with my presentation as I think that would be much more engaging that just a powerpoint.  We ended the class by making a little book out of construction paper that will just be something for us to doodle, write, and create in if we wish.  Fiona also suggested that we record what happens in these classes and our excursions as it will be beneficial to us in the long run.  It will be something to reflect upon later.  So this blog is the beginning of that.