More on development of ideas.

So, having decided that I'm going to transform into a puppy, I analysed my dog when he is hyper. Murphy is a Labrador puppy, therefore when hyper he tends to:
- Bark excessively
- Go to me or my parents and go onto our laps and put his paws out
- Jump up on people (this would be a little bit more difficult as we have decided to have the audience sitting on chairs) however, going onto their knees would be an idea.
- The paws then tend to scratch us repeatedly to show the need of wanting something.

By copying these things, it will enable my character to almost become a dog. Murphy only tends to do this when he wants something which as we are trying to show the need of wanting drugs this would come across..

Artaud

Background
Artaud is similar to Butoh in that the moves you make are very unrealistic. However, it is different because you can use reality and storylines to create an Artaud piece. Antonin Artaud was born in Marseille, September 4 1896. in regards to physical theatre, he was a Frenchplaywright, theatre director and actor, but he was also a poet. He's best known for his theories, which created a lot of controversy at the time.

However, Artuad is more about what the audience feels, how the audience is supposed to feel during the performance, and therefore gain a sense of Catharsis. A way of doing this was for actors to become animals. This then helped the audience understand the supernatural element and therefore feel the emotions more powerfully. We could use this into our performance by becoming animals and in doing helping the audience feel the need for the drugs that the characters are doing so.

What did we do during the Artaud lessons?
Well, I wasn't here for a few of the lessons. But one of the lessons we understood how to incorporate the audience into feelings the emotions we were trying to get across. The emotion our group used was 'Happy' and we were using breathing techniques as we were not allowed to speak by sighing a lot in happiness and using facial expressions. By using facial expressions we are able to get the audience to feel a lot more what the actors are feeling. We decided to act within the audience, and sit next to some of the audience and get some of the selective ones to stand up and join in almost. However, most of the audience felt freaked out rather than happy by the performance which has helped us understand that negative emotions come across better during performances in Artaud.

Also, we had a lesson where we were in groups and we had to portray a fairytale scene and use Artaud's techniques. We decided to go for the Lion King where Scar kills Mufasa. We then had a person play 'the tree' which was also dying like Mufasa was killed slowly. This incorporated some of Butoh's ideas of nature being played by actors. We also had Simba coming from the audience when he finds out that Mufasa is killed.

What is Artaud like?
- Jacque Le Coq - As we are going into the subconscious mind, however, a lot of what you do is improvised in movements. However, you don't need to use masks to go into the subconscious as you do it yourself.
- Butoh - as said previously, however, you don't use breathing techniques in Butoh but you do in Artaud to explain theories.
- Mime, in that you are improvising a lot in performances.

+ here we have.. more research!

Someone asked on Wiki what the subplot of the play metamophisis is, and someone provided these answers

1) Gregor's isolation from his family [talk about how his relations are severed. use all examples of him and his dad, then him and his mum, then him n greta.]

2) family values [their basic moral values towards their own flesh and blood not to mention the sole provider for their 'luxe' life]

3) priorities [how money and luxuries are imp. for mr.samsa then how basic necessities are imp. to the mother and then how gregor is imp. for greta]

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_subplot_of_the_play_metamorphosis

In the sense of number one, we have developed a new idea to go along with, whilst incorporating the idea of the beetle. This idea is having characters that are in the desperation for drugs, and being able to do anything for them. When one is high, one thinks that he/she is able to do anything, as portrayed in recent adverts by the NHS. We could then use Artaud's ideas by then becoming an animal who the character is high thinks he/she is, therefore showing the vulnerability of the character. We learn an animal characteristic, but as everyone reacts differently when being high, different people can become different characters, whilst showing the desperation to the audience.

Their isolation could happen through their suffering for how much they need the drugs. We could show this to the audience by actually asking them whether they had anything on them to give to us, how much we are alone, and therefore not working in unison with the other people acting, but working on our own to the audience, almost like selling something.

research on our ideas

We decided that we wanted to go into the Beetle idea, given to us by the stimuli of Metamorphisis.. A play in which the main character 'Gregor' becomes a beetle.
We want to create the beetle crawl and make the audience feel it, perhaps getting the idea of a beetle crawling up the audiences legs or hands or palms.. such as this photo. Hopefully we will be able to achieve this by making the audience feel it, by closing their eyes (losing one of the 5 senses, making the others stronger which is what Artaud liked using. Artaud liked using the five senses, and also getting the audience involved in the performance, therefore the fourth wall is removed). By doing this, we hope to get across to the audience that is it creepy, beetles are creepy.

Meyerhold

Background

Vsevolod Meyerhold is considered one of the most 20th Century's greatest theatres innovators. He was born in Russia and studied law for two terms at Moscow Uni. He had a wife and three daughters. He became an actor at Moscow Art School Theatre between 1898 and 1902, and was in a few of their performances.

He then became a stage director and was very successful as he was a stage director for 37 years. He earliest work was a lot to do with the realism that had started to become successful. In 1905 he changed completely from realism and had a completely unique style of performing. He was the first Russian to develop a symbolist style of theatre representation. Many of his plays went completely in the opposite direction of realism.

Meyerhold started to use Commedia Dell'Lartes work, and then adapt it into the symbolistic approach therefore it is similar to Commedia Dell'Larte. He also started combining art with theatre, having artists such as Alexander Golovin and Leon Bakst create striking sets for his productions. Meyerhold also started to direct opera's, he developed new nd distinctive ideas for masterpieces such as Wagner and Gluck.

In 1912 he also produced in Paris, therefore going outside Russia. 

He was arrested in Russia because of his so called 'anti-government political activities' and was executed.

Meyhold believed in, 'every reaction had a reaction'.

What is Meyerhold like?

Meyerhold is like commedia because of the big gestures, there is also hardly any props... Like mime..
Meyhold is also like mutuality as it is like reaction and action... You have to know your partner really well for this to work. 

Meyerhold is also similar to Mime as you are basically creating a mime except you are reacting to each other, rather than props, and yourself. Therefore lots of facial expressions is used in Meyerhold, again similar to Mime.

What did we do during the lessons?
- 

we worked with sticks, one of meyerholds techniques, so that we could understand the concept of reacting to every action. For the lesson I was in, we used a story given to us by. Andy, with four characters, and we had to react to the actor who was acting in an exaggerated way.. I found the first lesson really difficult because the concept of acting to every action was very difficult for me to get my head around.

- in another lesson of meyerhold we learnt some of his techniques including the shake, the slap and the tap dance. In these excersizes we worked in partners and I worked with Hayley. By learning these techniques we got to understand meyerholds ideas and get to grasp with them... I found that they were very choreographic and so the people who had natural rhythm understood it more... 

- in another lesson we got given our meyerhold stimuli, and andy told us we had to act using meyerholds techniques scene 2... This scene was about the main character being given money, we focused on the different money rather than the types of reaction to the main character reacting, again. I found this lesson really tough to get my head around the concept of meyerholds ideas.

- the final lesson of meyerhold we again went through the different techniques of Meyerhold, then went into groups and this time we got to choose which scene we were going to perform and choose how we were going to do it. We decided to do the scene were the main character gets drunk, and we included lots if reacting with the acting of the main character. This was the first lesson I felt that I understood meyerholds techniques and why he used them. However, in some circumstances, I felt that this could be used in other dramas, but this type of drama wasn't for me. 

Bibliography

http://www.meyerhold.org/

Mirrors developing

We decided to use the idea of the angel and devil.
The idea of the good against evil inside yourself and then the main person deciding to be good.
We felt that we should do this because it would work effectively as there are three people.

We decided to make this a mime piece. We decided to make the piece a more literal mime than a slapstick style mime, as originated from the Bohemian acrobatic family member Jean Gaspard Batiste Deburau. We decided that it would be easier and more effective to tell the story of the character having to do what is good for her, and being tempted by the devil.

We decided that the angel will want the character to do a dance piece, this was influenced by the idea that some teenagers want to dance, and the video we watched to 'Man in the Mirror' Mime. We want to make this related as much as we can to teenagers, as this is who we are performing it to.

The devil is also going to be influenced by mime, using movements that are very sharp to show this. also, we have decided to use the technique of the character being pulled by string to the devil. We decided to do this because we felt that it would look really affective on the audience. Also, the devil was going to tempt (adam and eve being tempted by the snake) into drinking and smoking, as we wanted to get across that it is wrong to drink and smoke. We made this look very literal as well inspired by the change of mime into the modern century.

We then decided to use the track 'Disturbia' by Rhianna, as well it it being a song that the audience will be able to relate to, it is also able to get across the craziness of the character when drunk.

By mixing 'man in the mirror' with 'disturbia' it has got across to the audience that many different people can still unite and be one.

Throughout the piece, contact improvisation was used, this was to incorporate different aspects of what we have learnt so far throughout this module. We decided to have the character picking up the angel, to make the character look against the world, so that when the main character is tempted, it is a shock to the audience. We also decided that the devil should climb over the character, to show that the devil was in control of the situation, although he was appearing like he wasn't.

We used actions for the main 'chorus' mime as you would do getting ready to go out. This is because the audience we were aiming this at would do these actions, and therefore be able to relate to this. Such as the 'brushing the hair' movement, every person does this usually.

Butoh

Background
Butoh originated in 1959 in Japan. This is post WW2. Influences are from the Japanese living after WW2, they wanted to get out of the stereotypical view of Japan. Also there are influences from Western countries.  It is contemporary and avant-garde. It is not meant to be taken apart, as its about the gut instinct, therefore not about the thinking behind it and the reason why. Lots of improvisation is used, the main sole of it is improvisation and what you act at the time. This means that we do not repeat the same performance, as every performance should be slightly different. Dance is also incorporated, especially German Expressionist Dance (Neue Tanz) and it created a controversial yet universal expression. It is highly unique to itself. It is now an international art form and groups around the world perform and teach it. New Zealand, East and South Asia, Europe, North and South America and Hawii are the main continents/countries that perform/teach this. Butoh has survived mainly due to Western Practitioners.


Butoh is designed to express the shadow within ourselves; the repressed side of ones self. Also, it uses Stock characters (like Commedia) to improvise from. However, these stock characters include, the wise old man, trickster, the devil and the great mother. These characters have influenced many things today, 'mother nature' could be the great mother. The Devil is a character that has always been around, but the wise old man could have been influenced by such characters like 'Winnie the Pooh''s Wise old Owl possibly. That is down to interpretation.


What did we do during the lessons?
Japanese believe in 'Out of death comes new light' showing the the cycle of life is important to the Japanese and therefore Butoh. Often in Butoh performances, the circle of life is the storyline, becoming nature and animals also help express this storyline that continues throughout most performances.
To start with the process of Butoh was quite difficult to grasp as you were out of control yourself, you go into a different mind set which was a mind set that I had never been into before (except during Le Coq)


In the lesson we used Hiroshima imagery to show the violent imagery that was first used and still used today in Butoh. I find the imagery used in Butoh possibly quite scary in some circumstances.


In the lesson I took part in, we were forces of nature. Andy put on some music to get ourselves into the mind set. I really love the music because its so different compared to the mainstream music I listen to and its all very dramatic. We were told to imagine that we were flowers who wilted  and died, then came back to life. I found it a very surreal experience because you were on your own in your head, there was no-one to act with and be supported by. In the end I really loved it although it was very surreal.


Is it like any other topics we have studied?
I believe it is like Jacque Le Coq because you go into the subconscious when you perform. You also perform on instinct, which is like Jacque Le Coq. However, Jacque Le Coq is improvised a lot of the time like Kazuo Ohno techniques. Tatsumi Hijikata used movement vocab which differs from Jacque Le Coq but this praticsioner decided to do this so that although none of the performances where the same, some where similar.
It also uses stock characters like Commedia Dell'Larte. Commedia Dell'Larte although did use a storyline, was also often improvised as to when to include a Lazzi sketch. This is like Tatsumi Hijikata style as he also used stock movements.


Bibliography
http://www.butohuk.com/
http://www.butoh.net/butoh/Home.html
http://artsbymalia.com/j15/images/yootheme/yoogallery/portfolio/In%202002-2003%20I%20Lived%20In%20Osaka%20For%20A%20Year%20Teaching%20English%20And%20Studying%20Butoh%20Dance.%20Photo%20By%20Kanae%20Terachi.jpg