TPPP Images

This shows how confused I was about the actual material within the Theatre class and also my misinterpretation of what I was going to learn when I first started IB Theatre. Disorganized thoughts.

Simile: Every person's contributions is like a different color in a knitted winter hat.

The various aspects of theatre to make a good production: costuming, directing, acting, set, lighting etc.

 Set in Love's Labor's Lost; Acting in The Conference of the Birds; Stage Management, Stage Crew and Assistant Directing in Pippin

Performance is the slide; each lens is a different way of looking at it.

Theatre is not a textbook class. It's more like a giant pile of papers. You need to dive in to the pile and find the right papers for you and work with them.

Theatre in the World (DIFFERENT CULTURE): Japanese Bunraku puppetry. 3 puppeteers: 1)right arm and head  2)left arm  3)legs

Viewing productions outside of school.

Animal Observation (LE COQ) for The Conference of the Birds

Hard work

Theatre in performance:

• Julius Caesar
• Sweeney Todd
• Le Songe d'Une Nuit d'Été
• Vietnamese water puppet performance
• Fake is Real (I was abused as a child)
• Three Penny Opera (read)
• Marat-Sade (read)
• The Children (read)
• Spring Awakening (read)

Theatre in the making:

• Elline Lipkin performance
• Green team performance 
• Pulp Fiction
• Disney Myths & Brecht
• Little Airplanes of the Heart
• Medieval Day: Pardoner's tale - space
• Love's Labor's Lost
• Conference of the Birds
• Pippin

Theatre in the world:

• Bunraku
• Commedia dell'Arte
• musée du quai Branly
• Sanford Meisner (Method Acting)
• Bertolt Brecht (Epic Theatre)
• Peter Brook
• Jacques LeCoq

TPPP notes

Analysis - what did you apply and what did you learn?

Was there an impact on the audience?

What did you explore?

• Acting?
• Directing?

Theatre in Practice

Theatre in Performance

Theatre in the World

Reflect critically as a practitioner and observer

Two years ago - quiet, unwilling to participate

Now -  immense growth 

Devising Exercise: Devising

Performance Space: stairwell

Themes we are keeping:
wedding gone wrong
time
there is light at the end of the tunnel

what makes the wedding special is the commitment people place in them
leave before marriage

It's not what's written on paper or what a huge ceremony show, but more what is put into practice and shown every day. 

Devising Exercise: Stimuli

Stimulus 1: umbrella, dress, purse
The dress has long sleeves of lace and is white. It reminds me of a simple wedding dress or even an afternoon dress that one would wear for tea. The umbrella is green, but has colorful paint and drawings which makes me think of child's crayon drawings. The purse is a light brown and snake-skin looking.
The combination of these objects as one stimulus makes me think of a single mother who is going on a date to meet a man she's been flirting with all summer, but only realizes that her young children have painted and drawn all over the umbrella by the time she opens it.

Stimulus 2: Robert Hass
This line from Robert Hass' poetry makes me think of a person who very carefully arranges and organizes events for another person, paying great detail to the amount of time they have and how precious it is. It almost makes me think of an obsessive planner, someone who needs to have a schedule for everything (Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory if you watch the show).

Stimulus 3: The rainbow
This makes me think of a funny song from Barney. However, it also makes me think of the weather that occurs before a rainbow forms which may also correspond to a person's feelings: first it rains (someone is sad or depressed or dreary) and then the sun shines brightly (something has happened to dramatically change the way a person is feeling)


EVERYONE
Stimulus 1

• Lady walking down the street in NYC in the 70's, it's raining, she is talking and meeting other people on the street.
• memory of a wedding; old woman walking in the rain and remembering her wedding
• purse - evil; woman dressed nicely, drops purse, meets man --> looks can be deceiving 
• imaginary world, no head - imagination and being able to accept eccentric things; child playing dress-up
• Mrs. Potter book
• little girl visiting grandma, loner, playing with her grandma's old things, creating own world
• open umbrellas inside is bad luck --> wedding going wrong

Stimulus 2

• going into world of books
• stripping away time from objects
• intelligent guy surrounded by idiots
• TIME - can't stop it, destroying something of great value, doing something hurtful
• someone who restores paintings, assistant to world renowned paint restorer
• beauty goes away over time, things are more appreciated

Stimulus 3

• leprechaun - story of his life
• beautiful
• alternate universe
• childhood, gay rights, freedom, joy, happiness, spring, light at the end of the tunnel, movement, good coming from bad
• ROYGBV
• segregation

P.P.P

DUE IN 4 WEEKS!


Choose 1 stimulus for a live theatrical performance

DIRECTORIAL VISION

• What are we going to see?
• Why are we watching?
• What am I, the director, saying?
• What do I want the audience to walk away with?
• What are the themes?
• What are the political, historical, social contexts?
• How am I going to do it?
• What are you trying to say to make it essential to be a live performance?

What I need to get together:

1. Idea - 250 wrds max
2. Visual/Audio supporting material (not written)
3. Political/Historical/Sociocultural contexts (RESEARCH) to support the idea

Language and Theatre

Can language be a barrier or can it give some sort of understanding?

In two instances this year, I went to performances that were not in my native language. The first was in French, which I have a good understanding of with limited vocabulary, but still acted as a barrier. Something I did notice while I watched the performance was that I could understand what was happening on stage, but I didn't quite understand all of the words. At first, I tried my very best to listen to the words and decipher the dialogue. I soon began focusing on the aesthetics of the performance such as lighting, set (and set changes) and costumes. After the performance, I found that I lost a lot of what was happening on stage which was a shame for me. The other performance I watched in a different language was  Vietnamese water puppetry at the quai Branly theatre. It this performance, I focused much less on the language and more on what was happening on stage, or rather in the pool of water, and found it quite fascinating. The performance made me feel incredibly calm and relaxed although I could not understand the poetry the narrator chanted. For me, it was very normal to hear this kind of language because I have lived in Asia all my life.
I feel that language really can be a barrier, but it depends on the kind of performance.