After doing an extensive resaerch on the Paucartambo celebration it was now time to perform and put in practice our PPP. Our proposal consisted of bending traditions as we bend the conventions in the original celebration to fit our stage and content(useless authorities). We had everything planned and were excited to act i t out, however we realize all the issues that our presentation had once we started rehearsing. As the rehearsals started we soon took notice of the amount of effort that went every time we rehearsed a scene, it was extremely exhausting to wear the masks, the ones made of wool(waqollos) were tightened to our faces and due to the shape of it we were not able to breath through our noses well enough and had to breathe through our mouths. As we did so it ended up tiring us even more and due to the heat , not only because of the mask but because of the costume itself. That scene came out nicely and enjoyable for the public as we highly interacted with it however it was a performance were we had to put a lot of effort and time in order for it to be successful. The next day we presented another sene were two of us were Saqras, demons, who were the bodyguards of a corrupt politician. We had previously wore the masks and wigs necessary to play the characters but everytime it became much more exhausting and furstrating as we failed to tie a string to the wig for it to stop falling. Not only the wig, but the masks weight pulled them down making it impossible for us to see. The last day one of the Sqras brought his costume for the first time, he had previously broguht the mas k and wig but never rehearsed fully dressed. At the moment of chnigng to the costumes he had other pants and not those which went according to the scheme. Th upper part of his body was colour blue and te pants green, the long socks were colour plae white and they were supposed to be transluscent.
This not only caused us to alarm as the right costume was not present, but also it caused distrubacnes int he gorup as a whole, we became more stressed, we started acting more impulsively and agressively. Afterwards we calmed down and performed however, this showed how a rehearsal turly helps us to prepare for the actual perforamnce, but most importantly, this experiencce showed how a play consists of every single person whos involved and if someone fails in one way or another the play itself, or the erformance, might also fail or suffer.
Is rehearsing as relevant in other theatre traditions as it is in Occidental theater?
lunes, 29 de noviembre de 2010
domingo, 21 de noviembre de 2010
PAUCARTAMBO
When creating a play following established conventions seen in a theatre tradition around the world, we are not able to adapt every single convention into the performance succesfully, therefore we have to leave aside some of them.
We are now creating aperformance by following conventions seen in the Andean celebration of La Mamacha del Carmen, we are using masks, costumes, adapting characters to fit our story and several of these conventions also include the use of an open environment as a stage, and no use of words as we only express our ideas through mannerisms and body movements.
The presentation is soon and the performance has changed drastically since the starting idea. We first planned this to last 3 days and there would be a performance each day, each lasting 5- to 10 minutes and we would touch upon the idea of useless authorities, a concept cosntantly seen not only in the Peruvian society but inthe world in genral and also inside of oru school.
Now we have had to cut the presentation to last only two days long, we have had to adapt the story into two days. We decided this as we noticed we had to focus more on the structure on the play, and on the content rather than simply presenting a mediocre play.
This experience leads to me a question i find rather important when adding theatre conventions from a different tradition into a play. To what point can we alter and bend conventions when adapting a theatrical tradition while maintaining it as true as possible to the original?
We are now creating aperformance by following conventions seen in the Andean celebration of La Mamacha del Carmen, we are using masks, costumes, adapting characters to fit our story and several of these conventions also include the use of an open environment as a stage, and no use of words as we only express our ideas through mannerisms and body movements.
The presentation is soon and the performance has changed drastically since the starting idea. We first planned this to last 3 days and there would be a performance each day, each lasting 5- to 10 minutes and we would touch upon the idea of useless authorities, a concept cosntantly seen not only in the Peruvian society but inthe world in genral and also inside of oru school.
Now we have had to cut the presentation to last only two days long, we have had to adapt the story into two days. We decided this as we noticed we had to focus more on the structure on the play, and on the content rather than simply presenting a mediocre play.
This experience leads to me a question i find rather important when adding theatre conventions from a different tradition into a play. To what point can we alter and bend conventions when adapting a theatrical tradition while maintaining it as true as possible to the original?
domingo, 14 de noviembre de 2010
HEBRAS
HEBRAS
During this school year we have seen a variety of school plays, including those which experiment on the medium and defy conventions seen on western theater such as Yuyachkani´s “Con-cierto olvido” or “Qorihuaman” presented also on the Yuyachkani Theater. In this occasion we watched a play called “HEBRAS” created by our theater arts teacher Roberto. I mentioned the previous plays because I find something similar in all of them, they all explore furthermore the possibilities of theatre as an art and go against the common ideas many have about theater in general. In this case, HEBRAS was a play where the actions performed had to give the audience the clear idea of the motivations behind each movement and had to express the character´s feelings since we couldn’t see the actors face due to a mask. This mask was plain white and the only visible aspect where the eyes. Again this element also contributed to create a special effect on the audience, we were able to “fill in the blank” with the feeling we thought the character expressed at each moment.
From the moment we entered the stage we took notice of those unconventional aspects, the first one being the stage itself,the seats had been arranged in the form of a circle around the characters (only two for this play) which were already posing in the center of the stage. This second aspect was immediately striking, the way in which the two actors posed intrigued me as they were both joined and contorted (contorsionados, sorry Robbie no conozco la palabra) as two single strands. They were both weaved together and the play started the moment they started separating and the moment they split apart different a wide variety of images appear. The story told is not straight forward; I noticed mainly a wide amount of images, such as greed or a conflict of interests and how badly they treated each other at moments. I soon realized the symbolism behind the play, after each “conflict” they reconciled and hug each other until there are moments in which the conflicts are way too tragic so the “couple” keep fighting until at last, the characters join together in the weaving pose, the exact same one from the beginning of the play.
After watching the play we were explained the stimulus behind it was “love”. By definition love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person but it´s not necessary for those individuals to be a couple. This is why the symbolism in this play is so important, The characters presented wear the white mask for us to fill in the blank and put ourselves in the middle of that relationship, we can imagine a couple as we can imagine a relation between siblings or a father and son relation. It is entirely up to us to decide what we want to “see” and feel as we watch this performance.
In conclusion I can surely affirm, HEBRAS, goes beyond what many of us expected from the initial title, this play explores human relations and compares their weaknesses and strengths through a singular experience; from the dramatic and superb live music performance to the subtle smells from candles behind the stage. The most important aspect to highlight form the play is its message, how it portrays human relations as simple strands which start as firmly tied together, soon conflicts appear and the strands separate, they later on join again and this process repeats however each time the strands appear more and more damaged until a point where they no longer join until the last image, where they wove back which we interpret it as either a final reconciliation or as the final destination of the two individuals.
As a final question i must ask myself what was the meaning behind the circle formed around the stage, did it have the purpose of highlighting that this is in fact a neverending cycle, that we all experience this at one stage or another during our lifes (we shared the same level as the characters) or was it both?
During this school year we have seen a variety of school plays, including those which experiment on the medium and defy conventions seen on western theater such as Yuyachkani´s “Con-cierto olvido” or “Qorihuaman” presented also on the Yuyachkani Theater. In this occasion we watched a play called “HEBRAS” created by our theater arts teacher Roberto. I mentioned the previous plays because I find something similar in all of them, they all explore furthermore the possibilities of theatre as an art and go against the common ideas many have about theater in general. In this case, HEBRAS was a play where the actions performed had to give the audience the clear idea of the motivations behind each movement and had to express the character´s feelings since we couldn’t see the actors face due to a mask. This mask was plain white and the only visible aspect where the eyes. Again this element also contributed to create a special effect on the audience, we were able to “fill in the blank” with the feeling we thought the character expressed at each moment.
From the moment we entered the stage we took notice of those unconventional aspects, the first one being the stage itself,the seats had been arranged in the form of a circle around the characters (only two for this play) which were already posing in the center of the stage. This second aspect was immediately striking, the way in which the two actors posed intrigued me as they were both joined and contorted (contorsionados, sorry Robbie no conozco la palabra) as two single strands. They were both weaved together and the play started the moment they started separating and the moment they split apart different a wide variety of images appear. The story told is not straight forward; I noticed mainly a wide amount of images, such as greed or a conflict of interests and how badly they treated each other at moments. I soon realized the symbolism behind the play, after each “conflict” they reconciled and hug each other until there are moments in which the conflicts are way too tragic so the “couple” keep fighting until at last, the characters join together in the weaving pose, the exact same one from the beginning of the play.
After watching the play we were explained the stimulus behind it was “love”. By definition love is a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person but it´s not necessary for those individuals to be a couple. This is why the symbolism in this play is so important, The characters presented wear the white mask for us to fill in the blank and put ourselves in the middle of that relationship, we can imagine a couple as we can imagine a relation between siblings or a father and son relation. It is entirely up to us to decide what we want to “see” and feel as we watch this performance.
In conclusion I can surely affirm, HEBRAS, goes beyond what many of us expected from the initial title, this play explores human relations and compares their weaknesses and strengths through a singular experience; from the dramatic and superb live music performance to the subtle smells from candles behind the stage. The most important aspect to highlight form the play is its message, how it portrays human relations as simple strands which start as firmly tied together, soon conflicts appear and the strands separate, they later on join again and this process repeats however each time the strands appear more and more damaged until a point where they no longer join until the last image, where they wove back which we interpret it as either a final reconciliation or as the final destination of the two individuals.
As a final question i must ask myself what was the meaning behind the circle formed around the stage, did it have the purpose of highlighting that this is in fact a neverending cycle, that we all experience this at one stage or another during our lifes (we shared the same level as the characters) or was it both?
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