Kabuki acting

We have started rehearsing the acting aspect for our kabuki play.

Its been hard.

We have separated the actors in males and females and subdivided them into two more groups and are using as basis the DVD´s of acting in kabuki by Leonard Pronko which shows the different basic movements for male and female performers. The DVD´s have been split into male and female categories, and they last 30 minutes each, however, as we started practicing we soon took notice of how long this process would last.

In the first rehearsal i had with my group, we only covered the first 6 or 7 minutes of the dvd of male acting. At first I thought it was my bad and that I had not spent the time well, however as I met with the rest of the IB´ers we took notice of our slow progress during the rehearsal.

In the next rehearsals we have progressed furthermore, but we encounter people who put almost no effort when performing, and those who are simply trouble some and who slow even more the process. We realize we have to prioritize our objectives, we cannot tolerate a kid who is not willing to put the effort when rehearsing, we try to help him but in the end he will not play a huge roll if he does not control himself and show responsibility with the project.

Simple movements, such as walking, are difficult for many as they are completely different and exaggerated, I have realized how difficult a change can be for a performer, as you take him out of his/her comfort zone training and breaking out of the mold. This has been proven by the training for kabuki acting, the exaggerated way of acting is something all the actors are not familiar with.

Therefore a reach a conclusion which consists (as usual) of a question, would it be necessary for an actor to try out a different style of acting, as in this case kabuki, so that he/she would expand the knowledge he/she possesses or is it sufficient for him/her to specialize in a certain way of acting and/or portraying of a similar character (such as in comedia de´ll arte or spanish golden age)? Which of them makes them a much more complete and/or perfect performer, one which is an expert in one field or another one who has a much more broader knowledge?

SIN TITULO

The first play we have watched this school year as part of the IB Program is called "sin titulo" created and performed by the theatrical group Yuyachkani. As part of their 40th anniversary they have started a season full of their most memorable plays and "Sin titulo" is the first one in this year long celebration.

Peru has always been a country were politics have played a huge part in popular culture, however it is due to the wrong reasons. For many of us the word politics is a synonym for corruption and it has led us to distrust politicians and those who intend to become politic figures.

This distrust has been portrayed in different forms of art, and Yuyachkani is well known for their criticism against the "dark ages" of peruvian history decades ago, where human rights were violated daily due to terrorism.

The only word which i find suitable to describe this play is "experimental", it has a strong political and social context and has an amazing sense of documentation. Going through different stages of Peruvian history such as the Pacific war and the horrific violence in the eighties and early nineties to the corrupt dictatorship and abuse of power until the new millenium.

The audience is part of the play, it acts as an important component in the performance, the stage had been convrted into a living museum where thes tatues and cartoons of polititians or of ihstorical figures come to life. FOr instance, in some cases where actors wore masks of politicians theya cted as if they were playing, otying around iwth us, the people form the republic which is what happened during those times, many of us had no idea of what was really happening until it was too late.

The play takes diferent tones, at first it seems dramatic,, as the actions take place in four platform which circled around and us the audience either followed them or stayed static to watch a larger picture of the performance. This gave the play a new level, the performers now where able to communicate with us on a deeper level, we were part of the play by being on the stage but they still were recognizable because they were on a higher level on the platforms at moments acting,

This play is something unique, personally it was an amazing experience to go and watch this performance, the main attraction for me was the social and political content but once i was part of the performance i realized there was more than that, there was an entire experimentation from scenery, to the actual stage, costumes, props and even to acting, the play started tragically with the horrors of the war with Chile and at the moments of modern history we were laughing and enjoying the show as the actors performed wearing masks depicting corrupt politicians.

Even though Ido think i understood the play and the thematics, i still have yet to fully comprehend the idea of the concepts in this play. The direction, design and acting concepts must have been truly explored when arming the production. The acting style changed completely, the environment changed with lightning and scenery changes.

Therefore my question is,

What concept would have been employed to produce a performance as complex as this one and how far were the concepts (design, direction, acting) explored?

Foreign theatrical tradition.

When producing a play based on a well-known and highly acclaimed theatrical tradition, following its conventions and trying to make the performance as close as possible to the selected tradition, as a group we must first understand what the tradition is about and then realize and always have present that we are not professional actors and that in our case it is, after all, a school play. When producing the kabuki play and consulting Mr. Leonard Pronko, a kabuki expert, we understood the complex process in which we were involved, even though we had it present,we finally understood we wouldn´t achieve the level of a kabuki play form Japan, tis impossible, kabuki performers train since they are 3 or 4 years old to become actors and become professionals at the age of thirty or forty.

Mr. Pronko adviced us to keep the essence of kabuki showing a lot of restrained energy which was about to burst full of passion. We were reminded of the main objective behind the whole school play is to learn about the tradition and how is it like to take a play from that tradition and perform it following the conventions , in this case, from Kabuki.

After the advice we received from Mr. Pronko i have come to ask myself a question thats always been in my mind. If we were to present another performance from Andean Theatre were we performed following every convention, using the same costumes and dancing exactly, would that be considered Andean theatre? I doubt it will, since its not performed in or from the Andes, however if someone cooks spaghetti and he/she is from Peru, that would still be considered Spaghetti.

There´s this problem with the performing arts, you can call yourself a surrealist painter and come form Peru having no contact with European teachers but still you can´t call yourself a Kabuki or Andean performer if you haven´t been trained there, or if the performance wasnt created in Japan or the Andes.

To answer this question, I must ask myself a question thats been asked million of times, What is theatre? what is the exact definition of this art form, answering this question would lead me to finding an answer to my previous doubt, however since this definition has yet to be precised my previous inquiry will remain a topic of discussion with different points of view.

Division of tasks in theatre.

When doing a play the usual for us in the school is to divide the tasks either in the beginning of the present school year or in the end of the previous one so we can advance them during summer vacation. Through the different performances we have presented we have split the different tasks of production, for instance in "The other side", last year´s One act play, i was in charge of the costumes and make-up while others were responsible for the scenery and props.

However a conflict of interests appears once an individual desires to approach more than one task, and the responsible for that specific task is opposed to the inclusion of someone else. Because of this we must understand what is best for the play itself, if someone wants to enter the designing aspect and be in charge of the costumes then we must understand what it means, if he´s/she´s inclusion into that aspect will increase the possible outcome of the play and the results will be better or if the inclusion of someone else in the specific aspect will diminish the possible quality of the play, then most likely that individual must understand the position where he is.

Even, though there is no "I" in theatre there is the chance an undeniable conflict of interests between members of production happens which can worsen the production aspect, and even though those conflicts are finally settled it is most likely that either one of the individuals involved will not be satisfied with the outcome of the situation.

Therefore I reach my final question, How important are individual interests of performers or people involved in a play to overcome the play itself which is the sole reason for many of us to be involved?