Making a mask

We spent our last several lessons in making masks and bring it to life.
First Steve asked us to draw a design of our mask so we can make a clay design out of it. I first researched in the internet and in the commedia dell‘ arte book for picturs of Arlecchino, but more important for his character. I did it so I can decide what is necessary for Arlecchino to have and the best way I can introduce his character by the mask. I asked Steve about it, and he said that Arlecchino usually has a diamond on his chick. I tried to followe the picture shown above because I preferd the old style of the mask, and not the modern one.

After we made a clay design out of the mask, we had to cream wax on it and stick 3 layers of paper stripes. We did it so we can than draw and design our own design on the paper mask. That was the hardest part, because as I put more layers, the structure of the mask and its highlightings has been changed. After this stage, we had to wait for a couple of lessons, and than we started painting and designing the real mask.

I decided that I want a white mask because it is natural and clean, but it showed the wrinkles that have been created after sticking the stripes, so I decided to paint it in black. I paintes the chicks in a very strong red color and made highlightning at the eyebrows, so Arlecchino will look happy and safisticated in the same time. In the end, I added a diamond.

I hope that the way which I have designed the mask will help me to get into the character and get attached to it better.

ISTA Festival HK 2008

--- My ensemble, working on "hugging"

How does technology inflect on a spiritual journey?

Fog - Messy
Karma - Society
Faith - Nature
Religion - Feet
Love - Music
Clear - Tower
Scary - Democracy

ISTA’s festival topic was exploring ourselves in the movement of theatre.
It was a 3 day festival with people from all around Asia. It was an amazing adventure to work with a lot of professional actors and from different students and teacher than I’m used to at school. At the first day we were divided into ensembles and we went to see the Big Buddha, which is on a top of a very high mountain. The point of that was to give us an idea for a theme, so we can create a show in the end of these 3 days of the festival.

Special moments:

- One of the workshops which I take was ‘Dancing in Theatre’. Jessie, the teacher is a very successful choreographer which worked for musicals in Broadway and others. It was very special for me because I’ve never danced before and it gave me a new perspective about my body and how can we use music and dancing in our production in LPC.
- My favorite exercise was “hugging-scooping”. In my ensemble we explored two parts of the spiritual journey- “hugging” (holding on; faith, yourself, etc) and “falling” (letting go of; fears, thoughts, etc). The scooping-hugging excersise was all about contacting another person and trust him, and on the same time being depended on him. It looked like some kind of language that you talk by hugging each other, and it gave me a new point of view about contacting your partners.

In conclusion, ISTA festival was an amazing adventure. I learned a lot about myself and about my body, about the relationship between actors on stage and how is it being belt outside of it.

Roei Hillel, 16 years old, Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong
ISTA Festival HK 2008, 1-3/02/08

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, contacting.

Playback

Because we just started a new term, I decided to add another service for my CAS.
I decided that this time I'd like to work with people because my other service is not a direct work with humans. Than I've found out about 'Playback'. (Wikipedia's deffinition):

"...Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot. Playback Theatre is sometimes considered a modality of drama therapy..."

As mentioned, playback is a very unique form of theatre. It tries (and succeed) to make people share their feelings in a big group, get support and face with your reality when you actually see what you feel. You choose what to say, the actors choose what to show. It is very special to me because I love acting, and I think that the fact that theatre can use for this kind of use is amazing.

I was scared before of the first session, because improvization still scares me. Reacting on the spot is hard enough, and when you have to consider other people's feeling and understand what is your goal of your actions, it makes you shocked.

We were trained by Michele, a Playback specialist. Our second years showed us what they are doing and some different kinds of techniques and forms. Than they asked us to come and try to do it instead of them- and I did. It was wierd to be in this position, I felt that I have a control on the person's feeling that paralyzed me. You don't want to upset him, and you want to support him. It happend to me couple of times and I got confused, but than, I decided to let it go and just react. Don't think, just move, the first thing that comes to your hand is your most honest reaction to this person's feeling.

I'm very happy that I have the oppurtunity to make this style of theatre, a more active one, that can help others and develope your theatraticall skills on same time. Personally, I hope that I'll improvize my improvization skills and that I'll find it easier to open up in front of the audience.

Arlechinno

After winter break we came back to college and we started to learn even more deeply about Commedia Dell' Arte. Steve gave us a guide to help us searching for a character. Our task was to explore in pairs each other's character. My partner and me did it a little bit different though- we tried to act the character while the other person is reading the information on it.

My partner was Irene which chose Il Dottore.

The information was taken from the book which was given to our second years last year, and by some theatre websites, and this is what we've found out:

• Status: Arlecchino is a shape shifting servant to Pantalone, Il Capitano or Il Dottore. A crafty low status character, Arlecchino tries to trick his patrons out of money, but usually fails. Arlecchino is very quick, acrobatic and limber. He's not as intelligent as Brighella, but he is not as stupid as the Zannis.
  


• Origin: There are many hypotheses as to the origin of Arlecchino's name. The most probable one is that Arlecchino is based on the myth of the 'damned devils' -- Germanic knights that fought against the Normans and died. These warriors, it was believed, would rise from the dead to play tricks on the living.

• Costume: Arlecchino's costume is tight with multi-colored patches in either symmetrical or random patterns. He wears a black belt and a slapstick. A slapstick is made from two thin strips of wood that are seperated by a half inch piece of wood connected to the handle. A loud "snap" cracks out when these two slats are struck together. Great fun!
  


• Mask: Arlecchino's mask is reminiscent of a cat's face: neotonic features with a twist of evil. The forehead is low, and the eyes are small round holes. The nose is not very large because Arlecchino is relatively smart among the peasants (remember, the longer the nose, the stupider the character).
  


• Movement: Arlecchino is a very ethereal character. The actor who plays him should be very acrobatic and capable of a wide variety of movement. Arlecchino is always moving. His knees are bent giving him a low center of gravity. Despite his lowness, he should appear as though he could spring up into the air at a moments notice. The elbows are bent and his hands are placed on his belt. There is great lumbar curve and his chest is pushed out. This is different than the way Il Capitano thrusts his chest out. Arlecchino is not showy but sneaky. Arlecchino never walks in a straight line. He is too conniving to be that predictable. Instead, he walks in a zig-zag. To a steady beat of 3/4 (not swung as in Waltz, though), he steps to the left, then center, then right, then center, then left, etc. When Arlecchino sees something, his mask tracks it first. After he has taken in what it is, his body follows the movement of the mask and he's off. Arleccino's speech is like a faucet: either it is on and flowing ceaselessly or it is off. Arlecchino is a paradox in that his agile, quick body doesn't match up with his slow mental processing.
  


• Plot Function: Arlecchino hatches schemes incessantly, but for all his work, they rarely work out. Arlecchino complicates the plot by making a mistake in his orders and causes a communication breakdown. He is the worst messenger imaginable, getting distracted and changing plans during his delivery.

After this lesson we had to match people to their characters. It wasn't easy and I almost played Zanni or Flavio, but in the end I did get Arlecchino.

In the next lesson we will start on working about planning the mask, which is another tool of acting. The point of the mask as I mentioned before in the journal is to help us expressing emotions, give us a curtain feeling or atmosphere and let the actor be more concentrated within his movements. In my research for the mask I will try to make it as comfortable as possible so I will feel that it is a part of me, and that it represents Arlecchino.

Dance in Lughnasa

During the holidays, when I came back to Israel, I went to a show in my old school.

It was their final production, just like the second years production. I decided to go to support my friends, and also to see some shows during the break.

I think that altough this experience wasn't a part of the course, it infelcted on my experience as an acter and a theatre student. I understood how language and movement can actually change the whole play and the audience's reaction.

Summary of the play Dance in Lughnasa, out of wikipedia:

The five Mundy sisters (Kate, Maggie, Agnes, Rosie, and Christine), all unmarried, live in a big cottage outside of town. Kate, the oldest, is a school teacher and the only sister with a job. Agnes and Rose knit gloves to be sold in town and help keep the house with Maggie and Christine (Michael's mother) who have no income at all. Recently returned home is their brother Jack, a priest who has lived as a missionary in a leper colony in Uganda for 25 years. He is suffering from malaria and has trouble remembering many things, including the sisters' names and his English vocabulary. Gerry, Michael's father, is charming and completely unreliable. A clown and a vagabond he visits rarely and always unannounced. He has another family back in Wales, although that doesn't stop him from proposing to Christine. He has returned this time to tell her he is joining the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

I saw the show in a different prespective than I usually do. I tried to use "analyse" some things, in a really basic way, but just do understand how did the director work.

The strongest thing for me were the dances. The dances inflected on passion, the passion of the sisters to come back and dance again.

I noticed that the lightning was contrast, most of the time. It was very cosy and worm (red, orange) in one side and very dark and cold on the other side (blue, black). It helped me to understand the character's feelings.

The stage was set in a very special way. It was divided to two: one side was the house, and one side was the garden. The garden was the place were the main character told the story. The story in the house was the past, and the character in the garden was in the present, presenting the story to the audience. It was very interesting, to see the contrast between the two parts, in the same stage.

I think that even if it's hard to explain what you take with you after a show, it is still very necessary to include it as a part of your proccess. After studying theatre for couple of months I try to see what I learned in "real"- lightning, improvization, directing etc.

Mime

Today we learned another neccesary skill in Commedia Dell' Arte - Mime.
Mime is a theatrical medium or performance art, involving the acting out of a story by a mime artist through body motions, without use of speech.

First we played a game using an "unreal" object, that can change itself to anything through miming. First each one of us had to create an image and than use it in a proper way, and we talked about things that we have in the bathroom. I was a toilet seat, someone else was a mirror and so on.

The second excersise was "grip-click-grab" which is a known technique to make an illusion for grabing a plate, a drink or any other object. The technique is to imagine that you have for exampe a glass in front of you, and produce the same gestures we do every day when we drink in this action. Your hand has to be stative because it should look real.

After this excersise, we had a "pulling a rope" game. We divided into two groups and each group had to pull the rope to it's side. The winning group is the group that "pulls" the other group into its territory. The main point was to make the movements at the same time, togethere so it would look as real as possible.

In the end of the class Steve teached us how to "pretned" that you're in a box or moving across a wall, and than we tried all the new teachniques that we've learned togethere in a circle. I hope I would use those new mime skills in our Commedia Dell' Arte production and that it'll let me ides and perspectives for my Individual Performance in the end of year 2- mime looks like an amazing area to explore and I will be happy to use it.

Commedia Dell' Arte?

(Notes taking and Research Questions)

6/12/07

Last lesson Steve asked us to divide into group and search for information about Commedia Dell' Arte, so later we can share it with the class. The research assigment is a good practice for our research investigation in the end of this two years course, which is 25% of our final grade in theatre arts. My group was responsible for the Imporvisation in Commedia Dell' Arte.

The research wasn't easy. First we divided the topic to several sub-units, and each one of us brought something out of it, and we made a presentation. I used the Commedia Dell' Arte book as a helper but It didn't really dsecribed what I was looking for, so I went and asked second year theatre arts students about their experiences last year, and it helped me more.

Steve explained why do we take notes and how do we take them:

1. Listen carefuly while taking notes
2. Understand your language better than texts written by others
3. You can memorize and understand it better
4. You select the imoportant information and include it

While taking notes, I tried to follow the 4th reason- selecing the important information. When the notes are to the point and short, you can understand the main idea better.

Notes taken during this class:

Staging:

• wooden platform
• feeling of being in a street
• curtains
• street theatre
• what shown in the back gives an idea of the play
• different zones of the stage

Carnavachi:

• description of stage movement
• feel characters
• different scenarios, like loose, funny (comedy), growse
• dialouge - react to other characters
• think on the spot
• short place
• put the sex in an important position during the play

Improvisation in Commedia Dell' Arte (My group's research):

• actors know their character well
• different companies have different improvisation trainnings
• actors have the plot/basic storyline (scenario)
• good relationship between audience and actors is neccesary
• trust your partner
• actors can do whatever they want, but it has to stick to the story
• bring the scene back to objective (help partners)
• audience affects energy on stage (applause, laughing)

Performing in a mask

• body is a language, we use it with the mask
• masks are characters that we bring alive
• focus on the emotion
• express your mask with your body language
• it can't lie- the body tells the truth and the mask emphesisyes it (not always!)
• you can concentrate on bigger movements and not think on your expression

Lazzi in Commedia Dell' Arte:

• improvisation to fill the play
• it is impro, but because of the experience of the actors, they know the basis outline and ques
• accepting the offer
• person who starts has to end- helps to organize the actions and dialogoues
• comical routine / slapstick moves
• makes the audience laugh

Later on, Steve showed us a general presentation which summarizes all the researches. It helped me to organize my notes better, and made me understand the unclear points which I didn't get. Also, it gave me another prespective to my notes.

After everyone gave their presentations, we all gave feedbacks. I felt that my presentation had a good structure and information though it wasn't creative and interesting enough. I'll try to make my next presentation more active.

I've learned a lot from this lesson, and it made me feel more ready towards our production. Next time we will start searching information for our characters and those skills which I earned will help me to understand my character better.

Form you face into a mask

5/12/07

Today we had a very special lesson. For the first time I learned how essential are body movements and expressions. Steve taught 3 face expressions that we should form as a mask: happy, sad and anger.

Until than I didn't know that doing these expressions correctly is so hard. Every single twist in your face make the audience understand something else and interpert it differently. Steve ask us to stand in a circle, and he showed us the different expressions. So far it was fine, but than each face had 4 different forms, or levels- from 1 to 4, which 4 is the "extreme" expression. This is how it works:

Happy - 1, 2, 3, 4
Sad - 1, 2, 3, 4
Anger - 1, 2, 3, 4

While Steve taught us these faces I tried to look at the most important parts of the face which change. For example, I noticed that the mouth is being used a lot as a tool for expressing emotions, so I tried to look at the difference in the mouth in each face. I found out that as "larger" you mouth is, as bigger your expression. In happy number 1 for example the mouth was closed and showed only a small smile, though in level 4 it was a happy-big-teeth-showing smile. The eyes and the eyebrows also play a big rule in showing expressions. In my opinion, the eyes play an important part because when the actross really feel like his face, his eyes will testify that.
After Steve showed us these techniques we started doing them alone, and than it just got harder. Our mission was to make one expression, but make a whole other body movement. For example, to make a happy 4 expression but angry 2 movement. I found it really hard. You need to actually stick your face in one position and than think about your movement- and than match them togethere. My body got completly mixed. I decided to lock the face, and try to concentrate on my body, and it did work better. Than we sang a happy song while we had an angry expression, or laughed when we were sad, and that was confusing because it was really unatural.

The point of the lesson in my opinion is to understand how much we can show by using our faces, and so we can take that and use it for our coming Commedia De'll Arte production. I learned that it is very hard to control your emotions when your body acts in a different way, and that the face has a lot of power. I'll try to think about it in my performances, and try to make my character's emotions as understandable as possible even though the limit, which is the face that sticks on your face by the mask and doesn't chasnge.

Impro Exercises

21.11.2007

Today I had a really challenging lesson. The thing which I'm afraid the most of theatre is getting up on the stage with no preperation, in front of couple of eyes and talk. Or move. Or communicate... today was the first real time that I tried to get over this fear by improvization.

We did couple of exercises this lesson, such as:

• Freeze impro (space jump-hyper space)
• Freeze impro - Total of 4 actors enter, change topic
• Statues - mold a person / 3rd person improvises
• My 3 things (running around with a partner and introduce him to your world)
• Threes impro - enter in the same impro
• Tilt (solo)
• Word association
• Playing another person's hands
• Clap, clap - one person enter, do something spontaneous
• Finish my line
• Alphabet impro

The whole point was to learn how to let yourself go and just go on with what you feel without planning at all, or as Steve said, "accept the offer". I found it really hard and in the few first excersies all I did was planning exactlly what am I going to say or do, because I was afraid it won't be good enough. The hardest excersise for me was "Finish my line"-it wasn't only about accepting the offer, it was also about trying to "read the sub-text" that your partner is trying to tell you so you can respond in a way that will make sense. After couple of exercises I got the idea, just let yourself go, don't be shy, there's no right or wrong, and I felt that I improved.

The main skill I've got from this lesson is to stop getting stressed. No one will criticize you, when a group of actors play, they are all in the same position. I've got the support from my classmates and it made my comfortable.