A Visit to Easter Island

Since being young, one of the ultimate places I’d always wanted to visit was Easter Island. The enigmatic and remote speck of land in the vast south Pacific Ocean was a draw for so many reasons… culture, adventure, curiosity. I finally booked my trip, and I travelled there in April 2019. To stare back at the world famous moai, face to face, was more special than I had ever predicted. I will share one or two thoughts of my trip there, as I relied heavily on the blogs of previous travellers.

My first thought is that anyone considering to travel to Easter Island should go! One thing worth noting is that Easter Island is very remote, one of THE most remote islands on Earth. For me personally, the island’s remoteness was part of it’s appeal, though travelling there should be well planned. The only realistic flight route into Easter Island is via Santiago, Chile. The island is regarded as an interior territory of Chile (despite being thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean), and Chile is also the closest continental landmass to the island. I flew there with LATAM Airlines, I had to, this is the only commercial airline that serves Easter Island, and for this reason flights can be very expensive, as they have the monopoly. I found return flights (Santiago-Easter Island) for around £280, which after being eagle-eyed on LATAM’s website for a few months, I concluded was the definition of cheap flights to Easter Island. My advice to anyone looking to find cheap flights to Easter Island would be to purchase flights directly through LATAM’s own website, try to buy as far in advance as possible, and travel at an off-peak time. I travelled in early April, this was ideal…  the overall weather was very good, sights were not crowded, and flight prices were cheaper than the previous months of Jan, Feb, and March (which are the peak season).

Another piece of advice I have is in regards to how to travel around the island. Before going, I did a lot of research into the option of cycling around the island, and a number of blogs seemed to promote this form of travel. Therefore, I decided I would cycle. Easter Island is a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean right?… so cycling around it will be no challenge at all?… WRONG! On the first day, me and my friend decided we would cycle across the island to Ahu Tongariki from the main settlement of Hanga Roa, this was a mistake! It took us HOURS to make the journey one way, it was utterly EXHUSTING, and we had no protection from both the intense sun and then the pouring rain, as the entire route has no shade or shelter. The terrain is hilly, so on a number of occasions we also had to walk our bikes up the inclines. Cars would frequently whiz past us, and I have never been so jealous. There were two other cyclists that we encountered along the route, and both felt the same way as me and my friend. I would certainly encourage cycling to some of the sights closer to the accommodation you are staying at, but for travel to sights across the length of the island I wouldn’t recommend cycling unless you are very experienced and have the time for a slower travel method. One thing the cycling did make me appreciate is that the island isn’t as tiny as I’d anticipated. Also, upon finally reaching Ahu Tongariki after hours of arduous cycling, I would argue that the euphoria of FINALLY witnessing this stunning sight was heightened, as opposed to simply travelling there by car. It’s safe to say, after day one I opted to travel by car instead, or by foot to the nearby sights. To conclude this point, my overbearing advice and lesson from experience is DO NOT CYCLE ACROSS THE LENGTHS OF EASTER ISLAND!

From Ahu Tongariki, to Anakena Beach, to the moai of Rano Raraku, to Orongo, to Ahu Akivi, to Ahu Tahai, to the many other sites across the island and the wonderful Rapa Nui people and culture… I had an incredible time, and I would recommend Easter Island to anyone.

 

 

 

It’s a Gender – An essay on the Performance

 

A performance that I have recently devised, was developed around the notions of the following question, and the essay which follows is the theory surrounding my performance –

An investigation into Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity in relation to heteronormativity, through isolating notions of failure as found within the construct and principles of the simple clown.

 

 

In considering Judith Butler’s notion of gender performativity, it is important to acknowledge that one is not dealing with an innate identity, but instead that one’s identity is corporeally constructed. As Butler suggests, “gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylized repetition of acts… in which bodily gestures, movements, and styles of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self”[1] In noting that gender is the result of a stylized repetition of acts in an exterior space, one can determine that performativity is a corporeal signification that formulates the construction of a given identity.

 

Moving to an understanding of a heteronormative ideology, one could deem it as “practices that maintain normative assumptions that there are two and only two genders, that gender reflects biological sex, and that only sexual attraction between these “opposite” genders is natural or acceptable”[2]. In the normalised correlation between sex, gender and sexual desire a series of rules imposed by a heteronormative ideology becomes suggested. To fall outside of these normative rules would imply that one becomes ‘othered’ in their failure to conform to the dominant mode of how one is expected to be. To be ‘othered’ within heteronormativity can be defined as “’Othering’ of the straight mind… not only oppressing lesbians and gay men, it oppresses many different/others, it oppresses all women and many categories of men, all of those who are in the position of the dominated”[3] Therefore, heteronormativity can relate to the placement of a hegemonic masculinity, in which power struggles come in to play. By introducing positions of dominance, one can come to fail within a hierarchical structure, as they struggle to assert themselves highly within the given ideology.  

 

It is important to note that gender and heteronormativity are inseparable, as it is within the normative framework of heteronormativity to which an obligatory gender is enforced, and therefore regulated. For example, the speech act of declaring gender at birth based upon physical sex will label the baby within a cultural ideology that pre-existed them, involuntarily determining the regulatory acts that the baby will be expected to follow. In determining one as a ‘boy’, a binary is created to which that child will begin to cite other men as their source of how it is to be a man, and this becomes the normalised way of being. However, to be outside of the notions of masculinity doesn’t insinuate that one is failing wholly at abiding to a heteronormative framework, as it is within heteronormativity that the construct of gender exists at all. Therefore, whether conforming to a binary category of male or female, or choosing not to, and therefore determining the dominant structure by taking an opposition, it becomes impossible to wholly fail at heteronormativity. However, heteronormativity is a constantly evolving ideology. In this sense, to fail at heteronormativity exposes the terms to which the ideology is established, and the definitions of failure within the ideology are bought in to question and become subject to change. 

 

To consider the simple clown, one can acknowledge that, “we divide just about any field of human activity into right and wrong, clowns being associated with the wrong side of that binary”[4]. In failing, the clown contradicts and challenges the world as we come to understand it, exposing an alternative to the realities that we come to perceive as the normal or correct way of being. Within a heteronormative ideology, ‘wrong’ could be perceived as a subversion of the correlation between expected sex, gender and sexual desire.

 

Working within a frame of normativity, the clown’s task may be to adhere to the regulations of a given ideology, but yet somehow a conflict is created as the clown struggles to reach the ideological standard. As mentioned, “clown work… exists in establishing a relationship between the exploit and the flop. Ask a clown to do a somersault; he fails.”[5] This can be applied to attaining a normative standard, to which the clown intends to exploit the traits of the heteronormative ideal, but fails to succeed in the process. The flop comes to exploit the construct of the ideology in the clown’s failure to reach it.

 

When translated in to a theatrical context, the performativity of both gender and the simple clown overlap, creating a possibility for failure to achieve notions of a cohesive gender, as evoked by heteronormativity. For example, the male sex of the clown may dress in female clothes or take on typically feminine corporeal significations in an act of ‘wrongness’.  By dressing in the ‘wrong’ way one comes to disrupt the heteronormative notion of unity between sex and gender. As suggested by Butler in regards to the performed failure of a cohesion between sex and gender, “in the place of the law of heterosexual coherence, we see sex and gender denaturalised by means of a performance which avows their distinctness and dramatizes the mechanism of their fabricated unity.”[6] In the clown’s failure to signify a correlation between biological sex and an abiding gender, one comes to break down the heteronormative presumptions of a sex/gender correlation as an absolute.

 

In applying the notions of the clown’s failure to the dramaturgy of a theatrical performance, one can come to set up a theatrical world in which heteronormativity becomes a site of failure. On a simple level, dramaturgy can be defined as “the architecture of the theatrical event, involved in the confluence of components in a work and how they are constructed to generate meaning for an audience”[7] By placing patterns of a heteronormative ideology within a dramaturgical construct, such as binary gender clothing, colours and gestures, one sets into play the patterns of the given ideology. However, by introducing the notions of failure, as found within clown, heteronormativity is exploited as the patterns of its construction become inverted and debunked. Not just the clown them self, but other theatrical elements can come to fail, as they also come to perform gender in their coded significations, a therefore demonstrate a possibility to also perform ‘wrong’.

 

To further consider the dramaturgy of clown practice, a connection can be drawn to Judith Butler’s notions of gender performativity. As suggested in regards to failure in clown, “everything he does goes wrong, but he persists, as if the repetition denotes constant success”.[8] A parallel here can be drawn to the reiterative notions of gender performativity in which an abiding gendered self seeks to be produced. Considering gender performativity to be a stylized repetition of acts, it is also worth noting “the possibilities of gender transformation are to be found precisely in the arbitrary relation between such acts, in the possibility of a failure to repeat“[9]. Within the consistent performative presentation of an abiding gender, the temporality of one moment to another allows for our corporeal signification to change and fluctuate, and our gender identity is always in question as one seeks to sustain it. The fluctuation of gender can be translated into the clown’s repeated acts of ‘wrongness’ and failure to achieve a given task, such as ‘to be a man’. In this act of ‘wrongness’ the ability to maintain an abiding gendered self is exploited.

 

Even though as a dominant social ideology, heteronormativity becomes impossible to fail at, the possibility to fail at components within its framework aid in exposing the lack of coherence throughout its structure. As mentioned, “as a practice, failure recognizes that alternatives are embedded already in the dominant and that power is never total or consistent; indeed failure can exploit the unpredictability of ideology, and its indeterminate qualities”[10] Taking from this, one can acknowledge that through our failures to comply, as is found within the clown, one can come to expose and question the dominant ideology of the heteronormative. Despite failure being unreachable, heteronormativity is consistently in a state of reiteration itself, it is not constant. As we continue to question its ideological limits, through our failures to comply, the role of heteronormativity may evolve and what was once our failures, may come to be normalised.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Buchbinder, David. Studying Men and Masculinities. Abingdon, Routledge, 2013.

 

Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter. Abingdon: Routledge, 1993.

 

Butler, Judith. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. Abingdon: Routledge, 1997.

 

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, 1999.

 

Connell, R. W. Masculinities. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing, 1995.

 

Davidson, Jon. Clown. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

 

Davidson, Jon. Clown Training: A Practical Guide. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

 

Evans, Mary and Carolyn H. Williams. Gender: The Key Concepts. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.

 

Fenstermaker, Sarah and Candice West, ed. Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power and Institutional Change. London: Routledge, 2002.

 

Gaulier, Philippe. My Thoughts on Theatre: ex Tormentor. Paris: Editions Filmiko, 2012.

 

Halberstam, Judith. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.

 

Jackson, Stevi and Sue Scott. Gender: A Sociological Reader. London: Routledge, 2002.

 

Jagger, Gill. Judith Butler: Sexual Politics, Social Change and the Power of the Performative. Abingdon: Routledge, 2008.

 

Lebank, Ezra and David Bridel. Clowns: In Conversation with Modern Masters. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015.

 

Lecoq, Jacques. The Moving Body. London: Methuen, 2000.

 

Loxley, James. Performativity. Abingdon, Routledge, 2007.

 

Mosse, George. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. New York City, Oxford University Press, 1996.

 

Salih, Sara and Judith Butler, ed. The Judith Butler Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

 

Schechner, Richard. Performance Studies: An Introduction. Third Edition, Oxon: Routledge, 2013.

 

Simon, Eli. The Art of Clowning: More Paths to Your Inner Clown. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

 

Torr, Diane and Stephen Bottoms. Sex, Drag, and Male Roles. Detroit: University of Michigan Press, 2010.

 

Turner, Cathy and Synne K. Behrndt. Dramaturgy and Performance. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

 

Wright, John. Why is that so Funny? London: Nick Hern Books, 2006.

 

 

 

Articles

 

Candice West and Don Zimmerman. “Doing Gender” Gender and Society, Vol 1, Issue 2, June 1987, pp. 125-151.

 

Funnell, Lisa. “’I know where you keep your gun’: Daniel Craig as the Bond-Bond Girl hybrid in Casino Royale.” Journal of Popular Culture. June 2011, Vol. 44, Issue 3, pp. 455-472.

 

Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook. “Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity” Gender and Society, Vol. 23 No. 4 (August 2009), pp. 440-464.

 

Eric Weitz. “Failure as Success: On clowns and laughing bodies” Performance Research, Vol. 17 Issue 1 (Feb 2012), pp. 79-87.

 

 

 

Websites

 

 “Identity and Performativity Study Day: Video Recordings” Tate Website, November 2007. (Last Accessed 23rd March 2016) Available at http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/identity-and-performativity-study-day-video-recordings

 

“Judith Butler: Your Behaviour Creates Your Gender” YouTube. 2011. (Last accessed Jan 31st 2016) Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo7o2LYATDc

---

 

[1] Judith Butler. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, 1999, p.179.

[2] Kristen Schilt and Laurel Westbrook. “Doing Gender, Doing Heteronormativity” Gender and Society, Vol. 23 No. 4 (August 2009), p. 441.

[3] Mary Evans and Carolyn H. Williams. Gender: The Key Concepts. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013, p. 118.

[4] Jon Davidson. Clown Training: A Practical Guide. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, p. 99.

[5] Jacques Lecoq. The Moving Body. London: Methuen, 2000, p. 156.

[6] Sara Salih and Judith Butler, ed. The Judith Butler Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004, p. 112.

[7] Cathy Turner and Synne K. Behrndt. Dramaturgy and Performance. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, p. 18.

[8] Eric Weitz. “Failure as Success: On clowns and laughing bodies” Performance Research, Vol. 17 Issue 1 (Feb 2012), p. 80.

[9] Judith Butler. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, 1999, p.179.

[10] Judith Halberstam. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011, p. 88.

 

The Dog Show!

In devising a performance, we were given a theme based around that of a dog show. Our aim, of combining Lecoq’s technique (in mask) and puppetry, was put to the test. The duration of the performance was set within a camping site, with the main event of the dog show taking place off stage, following a simular style to that of Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Absurd Person Singular’. The play focused on the relationships of a range of different age groups of people, within the 1970’s.

To create a show with such a strong choice in terms of form and asthetic, was an exciting, but tricky challenge. While in many rehearsals people would ‘cheat’ and look where they were going, breaking the visual appeal of the mask, in a real performance environment it became clear that this couldn’t be done. As the performer we were allowed to look where we were going to an extent, however we are to rarely look any further away than 45 degrees from the audience’s vision. Peripheral vision was also blocked by the mask, and with other performers moving onstage at the same time, moving on stage became a risk. However, it was essential to minimise this through the use of continuous practice, listening for a que, being aware of the space, and knowing what was going on onstage at a particular time. It was also relevent to know that while this rule was one to actively stick to, it was also okay to break on occations, if the risk of not looking would have compromised the performance.

In terms of characterisation, our characters were based upon the facial expressions that our masks provided us with. With me for example, I was given a grumpy face, and the character of an old married man, this leading to my characterisation of an old grumpy man. With my characterisation it became clear to emphasis my character’s grumpy feeling through tension states, performing regularly at high levels of tension to communicate his anger at most things. I would then contrast this with levels of low tension in moments where he got what he wanted, to create a more defined and noticable distinction between his moments of anger and peace.

With my characterisation also, it soon became clear that my original chacterisation which involved me being consistently slow paced (as an old man) made my performance become flat. It became obvious that I needed to present age through a differnt form other than pace, which lead me to realise that this must be communicated through my physicality instead. Looking at posture, and my centre of gravity in particular I tried to give my character age through having a bent spine, and giving my character a low centre of gravity. This allowed my pace to become something that I was therefore able to play with more in terms of dynamics, making my performance less mono-paced.

As puppeteers, we decided to break the asthetic of featuring everyone in masks onstage, as focus was not on us, but on the puppet. The use of wearing blacks, and creating a distinction between the poeple with and without masks, allowed the audience to realise who and what to focus on. Our puppets, which were the dogs, reamined speechless, as did our masked characters, giving us a chance to communicate only through physicality. Other lip sync puppets did speak, and provided a number of moments in which they provided narrative for the audience.

Looking at existing theatre texts…

In devising and creating work, much of our idea is based on existing work that we have witnessed, read, or heard about. One may see this as cheating, or being void of originality, however if we had no point of reference, we wouldn’t know where to begin. Almost every company takes influence from other people within the industry, such as Tim Etchells (Forced Entertainment) and Elizabeth LeCompte (The Wooster Group). Yet, while we have these influences, it is useful to remember that many people like to see originallity, so it is essential to find your own level of creativity to use within your work too.

Looking at four different play texts wrote between 1960 and 1978, clarity occured in realising theatrical devices that were used, and how the social politics of the time effected the work produced. In ‘Saved’ by Edward Bond (1965), we noticed that through the use of devices such as phonetic spelling and specific character description that the writer can have a say in how the work is produced later on. By using phonetic language, the director and actors are forced to use this phonetic language too. In ‘Saved’ the phonetic language provided a vivid picture of the character’s class and locality, as Bond would have intended, in order to make a statement. Through presentation of characters in North London, in a state of culteral poverty, Bond made a specific remark towards a particular issue of his time, which he perhas didn’t want to become more generalised.

The use of shock tactic is also highly noticable in ‘Saved’. In his work a baby is stoned by a group of men for amusement, this perhaps making a comment on how high levels of unemployment, lead people to bordom, finding amusement in the most drastic way. While this may be a hightened portrayal that one may consider ‘exteme’, through artistic choice of portraying the problem at an emphisised level, we make the problem one in which an audience are forced to conciously consider, instead of allowing them to remain passive to it. I noticed this myself in the work of another current playwright, Philip Ridley, also known for controvertial work, in a play called ‘Shivered’ (2012), in which a story is told of a baby burning itself, as if it were a comedy. This level of controversy forces one to consider what is right and wrong, and what their opinion is. If the theatre wasn’t at this level, and audience may remain more passive to the ideas which are being communicated.

Again, in the play ‘Cloud 9’ by Caryl Churchill a noticable number of bold features were used to make a certain point. Set between colonial Africa in the Victorian times (Act 1), and London in 1979 (Act 2) we see a significant contrast in how society is stuctured. Using the same characters, as only 25 years passes for the characters, while 100 years passes in time, we see that the women and homosexual characters become more open and voiced in act 2, as opposed to a firmly male dominated society in act 1. Personally, as a spectator from the current time, I also found act 1 to seem almost absurd, with cross relationships and certain phrases to describe characters, while act 2 appeared to be more at a level of normallity, perhaps suggesting that in a society more devoted to equality, we would find an increased level of truth. This idea is futher hightened by the use of cross gender performers in act 1, which visualises through it’s juxtaposistion how different identities (male, female, homosexual) are seen in a time where, with a firm and defined structer, come firm and defined steriotypes.

In a third play, ‘The Caretaker’ by Harold Pinter (1960), we notice how much can be seen through the use of playing with elements such as Grice’s maxims, in particular the maxim of quantity. Throughout the play the contrast in volume of speech that occurs between the charactures Davies and Aston is highly noticable, and can tell a lot about the characters. With a character that might speak at a high quantity (Davies) we may find in the case of ‘The Caretaker’ a level of mis-trust with the character as opposed to Aston who speaks less, but we feel more trust towards, which might go against general ideas, that people would think vice-versa. This use of the maxim of quantity also suggests how, without directly communicating something in the language itself, an audience may come to conclusions towards a character through more subtle means, such as the amount that they express themself.

Furthermore with ‘The Caretaker’ we realise how import stage action is, as this is a way in which Pinter strongly expresses his characters and the situations they are in. For example, in a moment in which all 3 characters try to take a bag from one another, we lean about the status between them in terms of feeling towards one another and dominance. This use of precise stage action shows how many playwrights are not only involved with the langauge of a piece, but other defining qualities of the performance too.

The final play we looked at, ‘Absurd Person Singular’ (1972), by Alan Ayckbourn, takes place over three consecutive days of Christmas. Looking at the relationships between three couples, this farcicle comedy explores class, success and happieness in a way that can be relatable to a modern audience. The use of off-stage action is a key element used within the play, as the audience watch the action within the kitchen, yet the main action taks place within the living room next door. The use of this allows the audience to use their imagination as to what occurs as the ‘main’ action. Yet, the main action is what we see taking place in the kitchen, this questioning what the ‘main’ action in a performance is. In the kitchen, it can be argued that we see characters that are more genuine, as they are away from the pressures of ‘making an impression’ at the party within the next room, allowing us to see a more truthful dynamic.

Popular Theatre

Popular theatre, is a saying that originated from the French ‘theatre populaire’ (Schechter, 2003:3) in 1758, by Jacques Rousseau. Popular theatre meaning, theatre for the people, has been addressed through time in many theatrical forms such as Commedia, Music Hall, Mime and Lecoq. Taking on devises which intend to move theatre from the being only accessible to the middle-class and above, popular theatre aims to make theatre approachable, understandable, and useful to the significant working-class population too.

As Peter Brook states, ‘Every attempt to revitalize the theatre has gone back to the popular source.’ (Schechter: 2003:3) Devices found in popular theatre such as music, mask, puppetry, circus, communication with the audience, and parody, maintain a highly aesthetic element to them, which has remained, but altered with the changing trend of popular theatre, as society changes. Popular theatre uses these techniques in order to create a theatrical language which is easier to interpret by differing classes of the population with a varying level of cultural capital.

John McGrath believes that almost every creator of theatre, creates theatre with the intended response of a specific ‘normal’ demographic of audience, that is the a ‘well fed, white, middle class, sensitive but sophisticated literary critic’ (McGrath, 1981:2). He believes we do this because it is impossible to create a type of theatre that will be reacted to in the same way by every different country, group, or class, therefore we aim to appeal to what is ‘normal’, and where the mass audience potential is contained. The techniques of popular theatre described, such as with the use of circus and parody, while not necessarily universal, will be approachable to a wider range of people. Directors such as Piscator and Brecht (with the ideas of Epic Theatre) aimed to combat the bourgeois being the primary audience in theatre. Piscator for example aimed to ‘smash the bourgeois dramaturgy and set up his dramaturgical collective’ (McGrath, 1981:38), doing this by using ‘more elements of the language of the theatre than most of the writers could produce on a piece of paper.’ (McGrath, 1981:38) This idea of Piscator’s, in looking at a language beyond the text, parallels the idea of the devises of popular theatre (which are also beyond just the words of the text), to help to make theatre more accessible for a more working class demographic.

It is important however not to confuse popular theatre with populist theatre. Populist theatre is a creation of theatre that is intended to be produced for the highest rate of commercial consumption. Many west end musicals, and shows at the more local Bristol Hippodrome, are where populist theatre can be found, and are purposefully created in order to gain popularity and income. While these shows may contain a moral value, and feature many similar devices to popular theatre, they are also characterised by dazzling set designs, and well known performers, but consequently higher ticketing prices, to draw spectators and make money (as their main function). In the case of popular theatre, work is often created in order to have an impact, or provoke change. Agitational propaganda, an element of popular theatre can be used to drive this impact forward. For example, in a devised piece that I was involved in, we produced a piece about McDonald’s. Through our piece we used many conventions of popular theatre such as parody and music, yet our piece intended to agitate an intended reaction within the audience, to affect their lives after the performance.

In another piece that was devised, our work focused around a dog show. Taking many devices from popular theatre such as puppetry, music, parody and agit prop, we set out to create a piece that focused on the conventions of popular theatre, in relation to class. Taking an event such as a Dog Show, which has many associations with class, we set about setting strong character types to parody, such as a differentiation between rich and poor. We also aimed to present a negative view, of the affects of Dog Shows. Using agit prop we demonstrated through puppetry how puppy farming, is an issue that surrounded the overall theme, to develop a response from the audience that might continue once the performance had finished. I found that the effect of using these devices found in popular theatre helped us in creating a show that was easier to translate to an audience, as the audience were able to recognise and understand the forms that were being performed.

References:

– Schechter, Joel (2003). Popular Theatre. London: Routledge
– McGrath, John (1981). A Good Night Out. London: Methuen

Lecoq’s Technique and Mask

Whilst working on the techniques of practitioner Jacques Lecoq, paying particular focus to working with mask, it is clear that something can come from almost nothing. With a wide variety of ingredients such as tension states, rhythm, de-construction, major and minor, le jeu/the game, and clocking/sharing with the audience, even the simplest and mundane of scenarios can become interesting to watch.

When working with mask, as with puppetry and most other forms of theatre, there are a number of key rules to consider. Firstly, as Lecoq himself stated, ‘when no words have been spoken, one is in a state of modesty which allows words to be born out of silence.’ (Lecoq, 1997:29) It is vital to remember not to speak when wearing a mask. This is the case because mask is intended to be a visual form of theatre, communication is made through the physicality of the body, over that of spoken words. Also, mask is intended to be a universal form of communication, with the use of words, language barriers break down understanding between one culture and the next. Next, by speaking we are doing something that a mask cannot do. It is the same with touching the mask, or eating and drinking, the ability for a mask to eat and drink doesn’t exist. An illusion is intended to be created within the audience’s mind, that the mask becomes part of the actor, when the audience are reminded of the limits and existence of the mask, this illusion is broken.

When creating/devising work, influence was taken from Lecoq’s ideas of play and re-play. In mask work, it is important to keep work clean and simple. With mask, it is key to keep just one motor/situation/objective, such as ‘a prisoner trying to gain the keys from the police officer’ and ‘push the situation beyond the limits of reality.’ (Lecoq: 1997:34) When the performer moves too quickly through a situation, or pushes away potential opportunities, the idea of Lecoq’s to ‘demonstrate how theatre prolongs life by transposing it.’ is broken. Through exploring every possibility of a situation a level of play can be reached, which can engage the audience. In devising work, nothing was allowed to be too complex, as the more complex the situation the less able we are to play, and communicate with clarity. ‘Reduced to this motor, psychological themes lose their anecdotal elements and reach a state of hightened play. They enable us to observe with great precision a particular detail which then becomes the major theme.’ (Lecoq, 1997:34) As the performer wearing a mask, we should limit ourselves to a minimal number of ‘games’. One game may be a foot tap, another may be an exhale of a breath. We must then play with different variations of these two ‘games’, using the likes of rhythm, tempo, tension and clocking, and a performance will emerge, which may engage the audience’s interest more than the sitution itself. With play, comes a level of surprise and unpredictability, which is a key source in keeping audience engagement.

In working with mask it also became very clear that everything is to be expressed externally, rather than internally. To share your actions with the audience, brings and invites them on the journey with you. The audience are the reason you are performing in the first place, to exclude them would take away the purpose of everything that is being done. When we look at the technique of de-construction, sharing actions with the audience becomes a lot simpler, and it becomes much easier to realise the moments in which to share this action. De-construction simply means to break down your actions, from one single movement to the next. This use of de-construction is essential and very useful, as for the performer, the use of tempo and rhythm will then become simplified, as you could alter/play from one action to the next. The use of de-construction also enables us to stop at specific points within the action, to share/clock what is being done with the audience. Finally, the use of de-constructing the action makes the visual communication to the audience a lot more simplified, and easier to read, allowing our audience to follow what is taking place on stage.

Tension states, are an important device to express the emotion and character of the performer. Working with character masks, different tension states may suit different faces, for example a high state of tension for an angry person, or a low state of tension for a tired or bored person. This use of tension demonstrates the feeling of the character. Throughout a performance, tension states can change, and one can play with the dynamics and transitions from one state to the next.

In order to avoid a flat and mono-paced performance, one must address rhythm and tempo. Like with de-construction, ryhthm helps to break the performance down, with one beat to next. However, rhythm also builds a performance as we play with the dynamics of the tempo, between fast and slow. Tempo and rhythm can allow us to play with unpredictability in performance, to keep an audience engaged to see how the performance progresses. One may travel around the stage in beats of four counts, and then stop, once this rule becomes established with an audience, it is possible to then surprise them, by travelling on a beat of five counts perhaps.

When performing, a good actor will work with the overall performance and move in and out of major and minor, rather than remaining in just one or the other (unless you are performing in a solo show). Major and minor, simply means to be or not be the focus of the audience’s attention. One way in which a performer can move between major and minor would be their positioning on the stage, in composition to the other performers. If an ensemble of people were stage left, and one performer was stage right, the performer at stage right would most likely have focus. However, the ensemble may at times require to be in major, and there are other ways to achieve this. As with puppetry, where the focus (specifically eye contact) of all of the performers is placed onstage will determine where the audience consequently place their attention. Focus can be passed around through eye contact, if the one performer at stage right focused on the ensemble and the ensemble focused their attention outward, then the ensemble would take focus. Next, another way to play with major and minor, is via the use of movement and stillness. If everyone onstage is moving, but one person is still, the still person would most likely take focus. Alternatively, if one person is moving and everyone else was still, the person moving would most likely take focus. Major and minor is very much about the level of complicite an ensemble has with one another onstage, and how the dynamics of the space and focus are played with between them.

References:

– Lecoq, Jacques (1997). The Moving Body. London: Methuen

Working with Puppets

In working on puppetry, it has become apparent that there are many rules and techniques to follow in order to present a well crafted performance. Puppetry can be a theatrical device, or a theatrical form within itself. Many contemporary theatre companies such as Blind Summit, Wakka Wakka, and Kneehigh present full length work wholly within the field of puppetry and can keep an audience from an array of demographic engadged, for the duration.

Looking at technique, in order to get the best out of puppetry there are a number of compulsary rules that are key. Focus is something to stongly consider when working with puppets. As the puppeteer, where the focus is has a huge impact upon where the audience will focus their attention. A puppeteer must engage the audience through their focus on the puppet they are working with. To focus attension elsewhere from the puppet, would put the pupeteer in major, over the puppet. I have found it is also helpful to enable the other rules of puppetry, if you give compleat attension to the puppet, and what you are doing.

Another rule to consider would be to make the actions of the puppet as realistic as possible. Looking primarily at lip syncing and breath, it is important when using a puppet to activate a transition between the puppet being a lifeless object, to being a living character. It can be easy to forget or slip from the rules of lip sync and breath, however to keep this rule consistent will help ensure a better performance. In the case of lip syncing it has been noticed that the puppet must open and close its mouth on every syllable (as a real human would), and sometimes on the more stressed syllables there must be emphasis on the way the puppet opens it’s mouth. Breath, is a lot more simple, in that the puppet must move as if inhaling and exhaling (again, like a real human being) the trick with breath is to keep it constant, and to make it dynamic.

One thing I have found is that while puppets must take on a life of their own, they can also use their ‘non-living’ ability to their advantage. Puppets do not neccisarily need to walk on a hard surface. In the likes of popular west end show ‘Avenue Q’ puppets walk in mid-air. This is because, as with the fact that the audience are suspending their dis-belief in believing that a puppet is alive, they can also suspend their dis-belief in beleiveing that a puppet is walking on a surface, when it is infact not. In puppetry this can be used as a device within the show, for example in ‘The Table’ by Blind Summit, the puppet stops mid air. This use of puppets doing, what a human cannot do allows for the form of puppetry to have an ability over real life actors, and it’s a good opportunity to be taken advantage of.

While working on puppetry, I worked with an array of different types of puppets; Newspaper puppets, puppets made from inanimate objects, and lip sync puppets, which all took on different ways in which they required to be handled, by the puppeteer. While this was the case, all of the puppets despite the form they took, needed to follow the rules stated above. More so, all puppets have a face, while this is more clear with lip sync puppets (such as those found on the ‘Muppet Show’) it is also evident in inanimate objects too. How often have we put a face on a car, or a door handle? We need this face in order to have a point of reference to make communication with the audience. In the case of all puppets, especially with the inanimate objects, rhythm and the way of movement is key too. While working on puppetry, we also worked on mask, and with both forms, it became clear that for work to be clear and defined, it needed to be punctuated, via the use of breath and rythm.

On a final note, while on many occations only one puppeteer may handle a puppet, in types of puppetry such as Bunraku puppetry, up to five puppeteers can handle one puppet at a given time (This was the case in ‘The Table’). Puppeteers can handle different parts of a puppet, for example one pupeteer on the legs, one on the head, one for the arms, ect. A level of complicite and communication between the puppeters is required in order to travel the puppet around the stage and for all of the parts of the puppet to still act as one puppet within itself. This must be done while giving the puppet compleat focus, so techniques such as rhythm and tention are good ways to communicate with each puppeteer. It is always essential to rememeber, the puppet is the performer, not the puppeteer.

Creating a new rendition of Blood Wedding by Federico Lorca

Richard Schechner once stated, ‘Tragedy is not pity and fear, not catharsis, it’s a problem that will not be solved, because the problem is existence.’ (Schechner, 27/12/11) This idea forming much a part of Blood Wedding as the protagonists struggle to find a way of living, amongst the great quantity of inner and social conflict within the play.

Written by Federico Lorca, a Spanish poet and playwright in 1932, the play is set in rural Andalusia, a place where Lorca spent much of his time growing up. Lead by a female protagonist, the ‘Bride’, many believe that through Lorca’s own homosexuality (and the feelings that surrounded it), he was able to empathise to a greater extent with the struggles women faced, in terms of how their role in society had an impact upon them.

Set in the traditional 5 act structure, from exposition to denouement, the play is structured to develop a level of catharsis with the audience. Through Blood Wedding Lorca perhaps wanted to comment on the social structure of Spain at the time, looking at how a predominantly catholic and patriarchal society had an affect upon the characters.

In staging our own adaption of Blood Wedding a few things became significant ingredients to tie into the piece. Firstly, we aimed to create a Spanish atmosphere, looking to do this through ways such as the use of flamenco inspired dance and Spanish music. Looking at existing works such as ‘Bodas de Sangre’ by Carlos Saura, we used ideas to relate to within our own piece. In ‘Bodas de Sangre’ (a flamenco adaption of Blood Wedding) we noticed a great sense of sensual movement between the protagonists of the Bride and Leonardo. While we aimed for a perhaps naturalistic acting style which the audience could relate to, the piece that we intended to construct overall did not aim to follow that of a naturalistic form. This allowing for sensual, physically expressed moments between Leonardo and the Bride as inspired by Carlos Saura’s work. To present a naturalistic acting style, to then suddenly juxtapose with physical expression had good effect as it added another visual layer to communicate the relationship of the two characters involved.

More so, ‘Bodas de Sangre’ featured a great sense of ensemble/communal dance which was an idea we incorporated into that of the Wedding celebration scene within the play. Using specific actions/moves from Saura’s work, the relatively simple yet effective dance that was created added an energy to the scene and allowed it to become a lot less static. Our dance within piece divided male and female, by placing each at opposite ends of the stage as they carried out their dances. Both sexes danced harmoniously with one another, in same time, creating a sense of equality between gender. On the other hand, set in a style perhaps relatable to a dance off, ideas were created which may have been metaphorical of the fight for equality as male and female tried to (in a sense) outperform each other. Throughout the wedding scene seven sequences of dance were performed, each sequence building upon the last to parallel the unfolding drama that occures throughout the scene, until a crescendo is reached at the end.

Next, the use of traditional Spanish inspired music was played and performed live throughout the piece. The music acting as a motif which tied the piece together, making it much more rounded from beginning to end, instead of being a lot less disjointed. Featuring the intertextual singing of a range of lines from the piece, in their original Spanish language the music aimed to further heighten a feeling of Spanish setting within the show. Performed by the ensemble of the entire cast, it were as if what was being said was from that of Spanish society upon reflection of the specific events within the piece. Alongside the use of voice, rhythmic clapping created a feeling of flare within the performance. Three contrasting clapping rhythms and vocal lyrics further demonstrating the conflict within the piece, and how a community doesn’t all think under one thought (as a generalisation), but will have a range of different thoughts.

With the use of guitar, which did not only feature between transitions from one scene to the next, but also subtly as scenes progressed a further undertone of Spanish culture was expressed. Featured in scenes such as a rather impacting, but slow paced lullaby scene, the guitar added a melancholy atmosphere, which worked alongside the performers and their lines to develop a sense of catharsis and sympathy within the spectator. The guitar also significantly aided in keeping the moving and ever-changing tempo of the piece, as the play moved along the 5 act tragic structure.

Performed on a traverse stage, it was essential to consider blocking with paramount importance within the piece. With audience members on two sides of the stage, balance needed to be created in order for all audience members to see action consistently throughout the duration of the performance. While one character faced one direction for example, another character would face the other, in order for action to be visually expressed to both sides simultaneously. Diagonals were another great technique to use as lines of vision would also not be blocked by one actor and generally more than one thing would be capable of being viewed on stage at any given time. Body language, through tension and posture was also key in physically communicating the character. This because, if a character had their back to one side of audience, through only posture and physically expressed tension, they could still perhaps communicate a generalised feeling of their emotion at that specific time within the piece.

References:

– Schechner, Richard. (2009). Richard Schechner Talks about DIONYSUS IN ’69 . Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMnqV9Q0BLg. Last accessed: 27th Dec 2011.

The Animals and Children took to the Street – 1927

A mixture of live performance, animation and music, theatre company 1927 tell of life in the less attractive part of the city. Set in the Bayou Mansions, a beaten up block of flats on a street called Red Herring Street, we follow the lives of a range of characters in their journeys of escape, revolution and getting by in life.

The piece features a significant interaction between animation and live performance. The two forms working hand in hand to drive the piece forward. Characters performed by real life actors, perform and communicate with characters that are animated. However, we get to know only the live characters in great depth. The animated characters, such as Evie Eve are significant characters that drive the piece forward but, what we find out about them, we hear from the live performers (through speech or music) or through the detail of illustration. Also, on occasion through speech bubble, in a way relatable to graphic novel, as the animated characters have no verbal communication.

Music is also a key element within the piece and is used consistently throughout, with that of a piano being played live, with assisting vocals from the performers. Musical motifs were used such as every time the gang of children would cause havoc within the city. Much of the characters context and feeling being expressed lyrically through song. Even when characters spoke out of song, underlying music was played, to carry the piece through. The use of music allowed for a strong feel of pace within the piece as the piano would slow and increase in pace when needed to. The music also punctuated many moments within the piece, for example when a thought or ‘Eureka moment’ was reached, one might hit a high note on the piano as the actor clocked the audience.

A great moment within the piece where live and animated interact is through that of the caretaker, in which himself and Evie have an innocent moment of winding each other up through gestures. This moment builds to a climax in which animated Evie, pulls off her arm and flings it in the air and then puts it back. This idea of taking advantage of the capabilities a non-human character can have had great effect, and was nicely unexpected as it was lead to with gestures that one would find typically normal.

The piece as a whole was heavily stylised, clearly taking inspiration from silent film, modern comics/graphic novels and perhaps from French animated films such as ‘Les Triplettes de Belleville’. The illustration featured in ‘The Animals and Children took to the Streets’ mixes old styles of illustration and animation with new technological ideas allowing it to interact with what is happening live on stage. Live performance had to be very precise in terms of hitting the mark, as animation would frequently take place around the performer. The live performers dressed in a somewhat animated fashion, with face makeup and wacky hair styles allowed for the Worlds of both live and animated to visually work subtly with each other, instead of completely contrasting. The idea of good and bad characters being expressed through small but significant elements and accents, such as an eye patch and more eastern European accent for the more villainous and quaint and jolly mannerisms and delicate English accent for the good.

Furthermore, the mechanics of the piece were hinted at. Props used by the real life actors, such as insect killer, a bath scrubber and the bath itself were 2 dimensional, again subtly connecting the world of the animated and the real world together. As the audience, we could see props be bought on stage and placed where they needed to go, and this worked as the piece intended and established that the piece was artistic, and not an attempt to portray reality, and be naturalistically believable. While the show did display the mechanics however, the mechanics of the piece were not so overbearingly visible that it de-constructed the piece too far.

Within the piece, there was always a moment to watch as the backdrop screens were split into three panels, with ‘window’ squares cut in to each. When one piece of action took place on the left of the stage for example, darkness would be on the right, and then light would arise on the right as the left went into darkness. This resembling the editing notion of television with a cut from one piece of action to the next idea.

Also, characters seemed to have a defined location, while the caretaker character would generally be stage right (unless venturing away from the Bayou), Agnes Eve and similar characters portrayed by the same actress would be typically centre stage. This created a bold sense of location upon the stage, and as we looked onto a neighbourhood this was key in determining houses. If caretaker were suddenly to be stage left, one might assume he was visiting someone, as the piece initially establishes that his home is always stage right.

This piece featured an array of great characters with different motives. Agnes Eve wanted to fix the world with ‘Dried pasta and PVA glue’, while the caretaker tried to save £777.77 to escape his miserable life of the Bayou forever. Yet, the end, offering the audience to choose the caretakers fate of an idealistic or realistic life, presented how some people are trapped within certain roles of life. ‘Animals and Children took to the Streets’ presents a realistic approach to the World within its story, from a perhaps not so realistic (but certainly satisfying) artistic angle, creating a nice juxtaposition that most audiences could hopefully find a relation to. Maybe even paralleling the idea of the visual capabilities of a dream, to the truth of real life.