Theater Arts - Year 1

This year came to an end, and I have to summarize what I’ve don’t.
I’m not sure how. Theatre contains so many different aspects, whether you are talking about the class, as a group, as a family, or about yourself, as an actor, as a person, or on your understanding of theatre, as an actor, director or whatever you experienced.

Therefore, I will divide my evaluation into couple of categories.

What were my goals?
- When I joined theatre arts, I wanted to build my self esteem. I was very shy and couldn’t express myself properly, and it was important for me to overcome this fear and learn how to use my body and my voice to do so.
- I wanted to be able to improvise. This is different than the previous goal, because it is not only about my self esteem, it is also about me as a person- being able to be spontaneous and overcome my stage fright.
- As I came from the area of filming from my previous school, I wanted to be able to understand my actors’ feeling and learn another area of performing arts.

In this Post, I will try to summarize all the skills that I’ve earned during the year, and the finally I’ll try to see if I achieved my goals.





This graph shows the way my self confidence changed during this year. As a group we had a small ‘breakdown’ in the middle of the year, especially because some people didn’t show they’re commitment to this subject. It influenced everyone and especially the atmosphere. Generally, as the atmosphere at the work ‘increased’ (yes, in science terms) so did my self confidence, because I felt that I have someone to rely on.

Physical Theatre – when I just joined theatre I didn’t really know that you can do so much with your body. I thought that any kind of ‘physical’ theatre is immediately considered to be dancing, and I didn’t know that it is such as wide area. During this year I learned first of all ‘miming and movement’. I learned how to express my body without using words or object, which made me feel more comfortable with acting because I am aware of myself and my actions, and second, more confident of my body. Second, I learned in ISTA festival how to connect people through physical theatre, how to make a conversation and communicate. It helps it as well on my daily life within my conversations with people.

Improvising – I remember the day when I came to see all the subjects that are being suggested in LPC and I came to the theatre room. Everyone stood in a circle and people started improvising… that was the moment when I ran out. Than I decided that I need to face my fear, and I joined theatre class. In the first class of improvising I got extremely scared again, but I decided to try. Steve told us not to think, just get into the circle and do whatever we want. Steve and Jeffrey made a scene about fire in a building.. I felt like I want to see fire in the scene, so I just jumped in and I played the fire. It was extremely weird, because it was so random and instinctive.

Performing and Acting – (also includes improvising) – I’ll start with Commedia Dell’ Arte. I’ve learned how to improvise, how to accept the offer that my partner offers me and play with it, but most important, how to feel comfortable on stage. I think it is very important for actors to feel free on stage because only like that you can make the audience believe that you are the character.
Through the Stanislavski’s system unit, and especially the performance, I learned how to get to know your character well enough to understand what he would feel in every circumstance. When I was acting I felt different than Roei, I felt that I have a different life story and different reactions.

Researching Skills – Theatre is one of the subjects where you have to make the most research. Because the learning is individual- each one of us will eventually adopt the acting skills on his own, each one of us has to research alone. I’ve learned how to take notes, and especially how to learn about different style of theatre. That means that I feel more comfortable to look at new methods and new systems, or theatre styles, because I will know how to approach them. That will defiantly help me in the future, in my research investigation, EE and other missions.

Behind the Stage – I’ve learned a lot of the process of making Theatre. I’ve learned about directing, stage lightning, stage directing, characterization, casting and much more. I’ve learned how important it is to design the right atmosphere- as much as the actors will be talented and will give a very good show, the atmosphere and the props used on stage, and way it is designed, will always increased the impression. I became really interested in light, because in our daily life it is such a normal thing that we don’t give attention to, but in theatre and arts in general it changed the whole image and the understanding of the show.

Team Work – maybe the most important part of my experiences in theatre class. First, Steve is more than a teacher- you want to hear him criticizing you, and you feel free to feel free infront of him. Second, the class becomes your family: after all the trust exercises and others we became so aware of each other, that I seriously feel like I can do everything in front of them. I hope it will only improve within the next year.

In conclusion, I did achieve my goals. I acted, I learned about theatre from behind and from the front, I made new friends, I overcame my fears, I’m confident and I’ll keep on doing it. I hope that next year I will learn more about the ‘making part’ of theatre, and will improve my acting skills.

Moments with Arthur Miller - Year 1 Production

After we’ve learned about Stanislavski, it was time for us to prepare a production to show our understanding of Stanislavski’s system. We were divided into 4 groups:

"A view from the Bridge" - Part 1:
Director: Lynn
Eddie: Blair
Catherine: Katherine
Biatris: Osnat

"A view from the bridge" - Part 2:
Director: Junko
Eddie: Nicky
Catherine: Oda
Biatris: Irene

"The Crucible" - Part 1:
Director: Ramy
John Proctor: Jeffrey
Gabriella: Sara

"The Crucible" - Part 2:
Director: Anastysa
John Proctor: Roei (Me)
Elizabeth: Gabriella
Marry Warren: Marianna

All of the plays are written by Arthur Miller. Arthur Asher Miller was an American playist. He was a prominent figure in American figure and cinema for over 61 years, writing a wide variety of plays, including celebrated plays such as The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and Death of a Salesman, which are still studied and performed worldwide. Miller was often in the public eye, most famously for refusing to give evidence against others to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
I was selected to the part without me knowing it: I missed the casting class and after the lesson, Anastasya told me that I am John Proctor. I was happy, because I wanted to get a part that will really challenge me.

John proctor is one of the main characters in the play. Proctor is in his thirties and Abigail Williams is 17 and a half years old trials. In the play, they have an affair, as a result of which Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft.
Our scene was talking about the moment when Marry Warren came back home from Salem. Elizabeth and John are sitting in the dinning room after a fight.
Marry Warren comes gets in, and John Proctor shakes her and gets angry on her, for mocking him.
Marry Warren is asking for mercies and explains him about the problem with the witches and the Deputy Governor.

During the first rehearsal, we decided on super objectives that will help us to understand the topics and the feelings that we are suppose to perform with.

Suspicion
Mistrust
Loyalty
Confusion
Betrayal
Alienation
Innocence
Instability
Communication problem

We started the rehearsals. My biggest scare was, for some reason, from the lines. It was really important for me to remember the lines perfectly so I will experience the text as Arthur Miller wrote it.
When I came more familiar with the text I came to know certain things about John and his relationships with Marry Warren and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth – after they just had a fight, John feels like Elizabeth is picking on him. He feels guilty by the fact the he cheated on her but he doesn’t want to feel like that anymore. My director told me to visualize it as Elizabeth is someone I did something bad to him, and he is reminding me it all the time. It helped me to get into the character because I felt the same feeling and actually lived it.

Marry Warren – she is coming back home from Salem, John is angry at her because she mocked him but on the same time is terrified that she is going to tell his secret, and especially when she is reminding him the Deputy Governor and other important figures. John Proctor feels defeated in some way because his made is talking to him with this disrespectful tone, but also tries to show his masculinity.

I found some parts extremely hard but I enjoyed them. I had to show by face expressions different feelings all the time, but I felt like it doesn’t match Stanislavski’s system, which is ‘realism’. I didn’t feel concentrated and relaxed, and absolutely not realistic to show these expressions through my face.

Steve advised us to look for super-objectives, and more than that, look for our ‘magic if’. We had to think what where did our characters come from and what did they exactly do a minute before our scene begins. It helped me to imagine the fight between John and Elizabeth, because I could really get into the mood of anger.

The real performances came. I think that I did a better job on the rehearsals, because I found it hard to get into the character on the stage. On the first time, I was completely out and to concentrated, probably because of the stress and excitement- in the second time I felt more concentrated, but I tried to ‘treasure’ this moment on stage and I though about it a lot.

I felt that I gained couple of skills during the process on ‘The Crucible’:
1. Team work – how is it to work with a director and two other actors which each one of them interprets the text differently.
2. Getting into the character – especially during the rehearsals, I didn’t feel like myself anymore, I felt like John Proctor. This experience was amazing because I actually lived the story, which in my opinion; it is the whole point in theatre.
3. Interpretation – I’ve learned how to feel comfortable with text enough to change it so it will fit me and my character.

I felt that we collaborated in a very positive way in the group- we listened to each other and supported each other. These are things that I will take with my to my next productions.

What Influenced and Motivated Stanislavski? / Research

* We were asked to prepare a 5 minutes presentation about different topics about Stanislavski's life. I decided to do about 'what influenced and motivated stanislavski' because I wanted to see what made him to make this system. I also included the a brief description of his system, for us to understand better what it is talking about. The presentation was prepared by Blair and Me.

How did everything begin?

l In 1977, when Stanislavski was 14, he played in a performance of two plays directed by his tutor.

l In the first play, he was very relaxed and excited, and based his performance

on a famous actor.
l Stanislavski thought that he made a brilliant performance, but he was inaudible and

he acted badly.

l In the second play, which gave him troubles in rehearsals, he acted much better.
l Stanislavski couldn’t understand the contradiction between what he thought and what the audience experienced.

l As a response to that, Stanislavski decided to keep a notebook in which he recorded his impressions, analyzed difficulties and found solutions.

Background

l In 1885 Stanislavski studied in the Moscow Theatre School. Students were expected to follow the instructions and conventions of their tutors
l Stanislavski was dissapointed by this approach, and he went to study in the Maly Theatre, where he larned to appear fresh during performances, and extract energy from the stage players
This approach suited him better because he wanted to really understand how to behave on stage and not only to follow instructions. He knew that he should create rather than imitate.

Important figures in his life
He learned it from foreign artists, such as:
- Salvini
- Duse

Stanislavski believed that both Salvini and Duse are powerful, showed graceful movements and perfection.

Shchepkin and Gogol:

They both worked together in the Maly Theatre a generation before Stanislavski.
Stanislavski gained from them the approach that acting should be simple, real and natural

Fedotov;

In 1888 Stanislavski was in Fedotov’s production and he was very cliché and stereotypical in the rehearsal.
Fedotov took him apart and demonstrated every move of Stanislavski. In the end, Stanislavski gave a good, truthful performance.

Stanislavski’s System: “It is the result of Stanislavski's many years of
efforts to determine how a human being can
control in performance the most intangible and
uncontrollable aspects of human behavior:
such as emotions, and artistic inspiration.”

Psychology

Though his approach changed greatly throughout his life, he never lost sight of his ideals: truth in performance and love of art.

One of Stanislavski's methods for achieving the truthful pursuit of a character's objective was his 'magic if'. Actors were required to ask many questions of their characters and themselves. One of the first questions they had to ask was, "What if I were in the same situation as my character?" The "magic if" allowed actors to transcend the confines of realism by asking them what would occur "if" circumstances were different, or "if" the circumstances were to happen to them.
Stanislavski’s ‘System’ was influenced a lot because of psychology, because it was based on the way our mind works.

Stanislavski studied the work of Ribot, a prominent psychologist. Here he learned the notion of affected memory, which later developed into emotion memory. This is the concept that it is possible to recreate past events and relive past emotions vividly.

Social Context

Stanislavski viewed theatre as a medium with great social and educational significance.
Although always unintentional, Stanislavski’s theatre often reflected ‘real world’ current social issues. This was very apparent during the civil unrest leading up to the first Russian revolution in 1905. Lenin offered Stanislavski his personal protection during the violence of the revolution. After the Soviet union was established, his theatre began to produce plays containing Soviet propaganda.

Significant Students

Vsevolod Meyerhold - Russian theatrical producer,
director and actor whose dealing with physical being
and symbolism in an unconventional theatre.

one of the seminal forces in modern theatre.

Relaxation Exercises - March 17th, 2008

Today we started our 3rd unit, about Stanislavski. Today Steve introduced us to the importance of relaxation and self control in theatre, which eventually connected to Stanislavski’s system which we will learn about later on.

We did couple of different exercises today:
Relax, lie down – in the first exercise we were asked by Steve to lie down and ‘control’ our body. First we had to make different parts of the body stiff and heavy, so we will concentrate on what really matters. Steve asked us to think about an amazing place, that we truly think is beautiful. Another task was counting out loud until 50 when your are tensing your muscles, the challenge was staying focused.
Kitchen Visualization – Steve asked us to mime a scene in the kitchen of us, preparing a meal. Every time he changed the situation. First, we had to pretend like we are preparing a meal to our parents when we actually want to go out with our friends, later when our friend died in a car accident, later on a date and so on. We couldn’t change our action. It was very interesting to see myself changing within the consequences, and also the way other people behaved. Oda especially impressed me by her demonstration. I think that the fact that she used certain movements that can show different sub-texts were very powerful and convincing.
Burning Letters – The next exercise was to ‘burn letters’ the have been written because of different situations, for example, being cheated by a partner or throwing away secret letters.

Later on, Steve asked us to demonstrate a situation when we see a car accident, but because of personal reasons, I decided not to. I was disappointed that I didn’t try, but I just didn’t feel comfortable with it at the moment.
Mariana showed us her visualization. It was very strong, because she really felt what she was imagining and we could see it on her eyes. It wasn’t because of the fact that she was crying, it was her eyes and body movements that seemed so real to me that showed me what she felt.

On the next lesson we did Rhythm Base exercises. Their purpose was to concentrate and listen to the other group members. Steve divided us into 4 groups; each group had a different sound to make. We had to listen to the instructions, collaborate and make a piece. Later on we had to do it with walking! It was hard because we really had to concentrate on both our walking and clapping.
The exercises helped me a lot to understand, at least some of the way of thinking of Stanislavski – concentrate. Forget who you are for a second and get into the shoes of your character, and this is why it is so important for an actor. I loved it because I felt so relaxed and focused, and I think that if I will get to this level during our end of year performance, I can achieve a very good performance.

· Your awareness of how relaxed you really are in day-to-day life?
I felt that usually I’m not aware of how stressed I am. There are so many things that you can just pass on them, and try to relax, understand what you feel and move on, but we choose not to. In these exercises I felt that I have control on myself and that nothing else matters. Therefore, I realized that usually I’m not the relaxed, but I can easily change this situation.

· How easy or difficult you found it to consciously relax or tense different parts of the body?
In the beginning I didn’t feel like the description of the exercise suited me, because I couldn’t really relax. Therefore when Steve started describing to us what he suggests us to do to ‘relax’, I imagined that I’m drowning in the sea. It sounds weird, but it actually helped me- I felt like I’m falling, my body was heavy, part by part. I think that it all depends on the level of trust you give to yourself to make you feel ‘uncertain’.

· The advantages of an actor who is aware of and able to control his/her level of relaxation and tension in performance?
When we did these relaxation exercises, I also could control my thoughts. All the things that bothered me before kind of disappeared. I think that an actor can feel totally free to be his character on the stage only when he lets himself go completely and concentrate on being the ‘new’ person.

· How easy or difficult it was to be relaxed/touched/manipulated by other group members?
Because of the close relationship that we have with our class members now, I felt very comfortable to be touched by them. It’s amazing to see how differently you act next to people that you actually trust.

· What might make you tense both in day to day life and in performance and how you can lessen these tensions?
Most of the stress I get is because of people. Fights, and thoughts, or the fact that I live far away from home. On stage I think it’s important to ‘forget’ for a second and maybe just use the feeling that you feel for acting, but, try to forget about the real problem and story.

Article for ISTA

I was asked to write an article on my experience in ISTA Festival:

My experiences in ISTA Festival
In the beginning, our teacher told us about a theatre festival that will host international students from different countries, which will take place in Hong Kong. A lot of people showed their enthusiasm but I wasn’t sure what to think about it, and if I would like to take part in this festival or not, only because I was afraid and nervous. I was afraid about acting for 3 days in a foreign language, and I was especially afraid to perform in front of so many people. I thought about it for couple of days, and than I decided to come, just so I can say I faced my fears.

Even though I live in Hong Kong, the festival made me know Hong Kong better and appreciate the fact that I live here more. The experience of visiting the Big Buddha was amazing, and I couldn’t believe that I was never there. In the end of the first day I felt a relief, because I knew my group members, I knew what am I going towards to, I met some really nice people and I experienced a lot. The big Buddha, the workshop with all the members, the activity in our ensembles- they all gave me an idea of what is going to happen and the fact that I will have the best time there.

One of the people that impressed me the most was Ruth, my ensemble leader. Ruth comes from the dance area, which I never had any connection to. I was very excited to be guided by a dancer in a festival about movement theatre, because she has a lot of experience with this area. Ruth was very open, but in the same time she had a very clear vision. She new what she wanted to do, but on the same time she didn’t try to force us to go for directions that we don’t feel comfortable with, nor with the exercises nor in the final show. She let us explore our body, movements, the space, the group members and music. The most important thing that I took from Ruth is the ability to express yourself with movement, and her self confidence. I felt sometimes a little bit exposed, while doing a curtain action, but Ruth encouraged me to explore the space, “scoop” and let yourself loose. I’ll try to use it in the future, when I’ll have to exaggerate my movements on stages, develop a character or if I’ll want to involve special movement-dances sections in my shows.

The most special moment for me during the festival was in our final performance. Our group had to different scenes, one that shows the “falling” part of a spiritual journey, letting yourself go, and the other one about hanging on with yourself, a friend, faith and religion, which we showed by hugs. On our final performance, we decided to hug the audience- first, to make the show more interactive, second, to let them experience what we were experiencing in our spiritual journey. When I went to hug the audience, I felt “high” in a way- I felt concentrated but on the same time, I didn’t think about what I am going to do. I got connected to the music, looked to the audience in the eyes, showed them that my hug is real, searched for the “right” person, and hugged him. That was an amazing experience for me, and maybe, that was the spiritual journey in my experience in the festival.

My ensemble, rehearsing our “hugging” scene for the final performance

The thing that I found really hard was one of my master classes, the “musical dance” with Jessie. I never danced before in a professional way, though I was always very interested in musicals; therefore I was looking forward this master class. However, I couldn’t do it- as much as we rehearsed and tried again and again, it couldn’t manage to remember all the movements, listen to the music, looking at Jessie and act on the same time. It was a bit disappointing, especially because there wasn’t enough time to practice and try again, but I had an amazing time there- I understood how powerful dance is, and how act is necessary in this type of performance.
ISTA was an amazing experience. I got to know a lot of different people from all over the world and had the right to work with professionals from all different theatre areas. I faced my fears, and let myself to go, for once. I improvised, which usually I’m trying not to, and I didn’t let language to be a factor in this process. In the future I will defiantly try to involve body-work more, and look on how I can use my body as a tool, because it is natural and accessible. ISTA, challenging, exploring, contactin

Commedia Dell' Arte - Final Performancs

This week, we had our Commedia Dell’ Arte performance. It was our first production as a class and very important for us, for two reasons; first of all, it was the first time for most of us to perform with a character that you have researched on and learned, and was a great practice of our improvisation skills. The second reason is because of the situation in our class which I’ll write on later.

This week was very intense because we changed a lot of scenes before the play itself. Although Commedia Dell’ Arte is improvisation and based a lot on “accepting the offer” as Steve said, when you practice a play so many times, you have some gags that become constant and just go on with the play. Therefore, during the rehearsals period, we have found a lot of things that we wanted to changed within almost every rehearsal. It was very intense because some people felt like they don’t know what to do, there were so many changes and you have to change your character according to these changes.
I thought so as well in the beginning, but than I figured out that it is wrong.
Steve told us that when you ‘live’ your character, you know what to do, and I came to know that it is true. When you are doing a good research on your character you feel free to act like it, whenever you need to. In the beginning I also felt very nervous to improvise but than I learned two important skills that really helped me:
First, accept the offer, just move on. Before I improvised I always used to get scared, even in front of the class because of a lot of reasons, if it is a comedy- that it won’t be funny, or interesting, or I’ll mix up the English. But I learned that when you just relax, and come to the stage without any preparation or thoughts, and you let yourself to adopt yourself into the new situation, the improvisation is much better.
The second thing I’ve learned was not to be scared of reacting. When you accept the offer, you also need to know how to create new situations and ‘back up’ your partner.

After we came up with the final scenes, we made the scenario shown above.
Then we moved to the next part, which was making costumes. I looked at the research which I made on Arrlechino, my character, and I saw that he has colorful triangles on his outfit. I decided to change it a little bit to a form that I will like more. Instead of making a long outfit I decided to divide it into two. First, a black shirt with a lot of colorful triangles- that was on purpose to show the happy and un-even side of his personality. I wore white blank Thai pants because for me, they present freedom, and this is how I wanted to present my character- free, hyper, happy, and jumpy.

The production came and we were all very excited. We sat up the stage in a Proscenium Arch form and we covered the stage with red curtains.
The show began. It was very intense because I didn’t really feel like I am using the skills that I’ve learned during the classes because I was too nervous. I looked at the audience all the time, and didn’t really reply to my partners, but I did improve it on our second performance in Sha Tin International College. Than I felt more relaxed and free to talk and jump and act.

When I am looking at it now, I think that I might have done better work if I wouldn’t think about what I am doing all the time. Being aware of yourself on stage is good, but it gets to this point when you get so nervous that you forget about all the useful skills that you’ve learned and just get panicked. An example for that, is when in the scene when Flavio (man, played by a girl) and Arrlechino (me) I got confused and called Falvio as a she. It didn’t happen in the second time we played, because I did not concentrate on myself all the time- I did listen to my partners and I felt like we are actually making a conversation.

In conclusion, I think that Commedia Dell’ Arte was a very important part of our theatre experience because a lot of people are used to theatre which is done by ‘reciting lines’ and not by really acting like your character and reacting to situations like it. I think that it is necessary to start a theatre journey with this form of theatre, because it makes you to deal with the fear of improvising (which is always scary, at least for me) and more than that, being spontaneous! Accepting the offer, being a good partner and know when to back him up. These are skills that I will try to adopt with in my next productions.

Annunciation Exercises

Today we prepared ourselves more to our Commedia Dell’ Arte Performance. We did annunciation exercises, so we will be able to speak with more diction, and produce a loud, clear voice.

Steve asked us to stand in a circle. He said that there are curtain exercises that we should do to learn how to control our voice and annunciation, and especially how to pronounce specific sounds. Because we all have different accents and English is not everyone’s first language, it is important for us to practice the way we speak.
Steve demonstrated us couple of exercises:

1) “MMMMmmmm” – in this exercise, we all stand in a circle, breath very deeply through the mouth and make a loud ‘Mmmm’ sound. The sound has to come out through the stomach, for two reasons:
a) It makes a louder sound
b) If you won’t, it might hurt your throat and damage it

The exercise continues when you add different sounds to it. For example, you add “Maa”, “Muu” and “Mii”. In the same time you have to exaggerate the movement of your mouth and open in as much as possible, because on stage your movements have to be more exaggerated than usual.

2) "Pe-Tze-Ke" – in this exercise, Steve asked us to stand in a circle and make the sounds Pe-Tze-Ke in a much exaggerated way, until we even twist our faces. In the beginning, we said every sound once, alone, and in the end we said them all very fast.

Later on, when I talked to my classmate Lynn, she told me that she thought about me during the exercises because she doesn’t think that I speak clear enough. I asked Steve for more exercises, and I also talked to my friend from home who gave me an exercise.

Steve’s advice was to write my name with my tongue on the palate and that will make me more aware of the way I speak. My friend told me to put a cork between my teeth, speak slowly to someone and see if he can understand me. I decided to use these exercises before my performances and hopefully it will help me to improve my annunciation.

I found it very useful because I do have a problem with my annunciation and people frequently tell me that I do not speak clearly and too fast. These exercises made me be aware of myself speaking, and the way I explain things. I realize that sometimes I am getting nervous when I speak in English, as it is not my first language, and therefore I speak very fast and ‘choke on my words’.

I think it is very important for actors to be aware of it. First of all, because your performance is always improved when the audience doesn’t need to ‘concentrate’ to understand you, and can actually concentrate on the story and on your act. Second, when we speak clearly it shows the audience that we feel comfortable with our characters and we don’t only ‘recite the lines’ and try to finish our part as fast as we can.