reflection

Until now, our group has come up with a 7-minute long piece showing the basic idea of what we are doing. We have a plot of the evil and good inside the person battle for the control of the people, at last the people burst because she cannot stand the chaos in her head anymore. During the exploration process, we have encountered a lot of problems: we are not in the best casting, our idea is too vague to show, and the plot is not decided yet, but after performing our first draft, we find that we there are some process being made. We did a good job in presenting the relationship between our three characters, and the lighting helps us to create the atmosphere and show the rivalry dynamic between me and Ruth. Also, the lack of actual words actually accentuates the physical movements thus strengthening the dynamic between characters. 

Because we were struggling for a long time so actually there is still a lot of inclarities existed in our short piece. Firstly, we have to figure out a premise of the piece, or there is no context for the audience to relate. We are thinking about relating the piece to mental health in order to make it clear that the story is about a people’s internal struggle. Also, although our goal is to explore the power of abstraction, there has to be a balance between concreteness and abstraction so that the audience can follow and understand what we are trying to convey. Because our activities were all aim to create moments that show emotions, so what we have now are basically all expressive movements. So next we have to

step out of what we were doing and focus on put we had in a larger context without constricting ourselves to one idea and try different things.

collaborative project refelction

So far, our group has made some progress. Firstly, we have a more comprehensive understanding of our stimuli and incorporate the stimuli to our work better. Because we want to show the complexity of human nature presented in our stimuli, rhythm 0, we decided to show how the two sides of human nature can affect one person’s behavior. To achieve this, Ruth is playing the people and me and Joyce are acting as the two sides of human nature. Furthermore, we try to combine both expressive and behavioral gestures together to avoid complete abstraction and explore the balance between them. Also, in rhythm 0, the practice put different objects in front of her for others to choose, thus, we decided to put several props in front of “the people” as well in order to show the relation of human nature and how will she react with the props.

After we settle down our idea, we tried different ways to explore and create moments. We did the activity of writing different words related to our theme and creating moments based on those words. This activity helps us have a common idea of what our project is going to be about and inspires us to have some moments that can be incorporated in our work. Also, we tried some viewpoints activities to explore different elements based on our concept. For example, because we represent good and evil, we want to see how the spatial relationship, level, kinesthetic response can convey our relationship to each other.

But we have also encountered some struggles, because it’s hard to deliver clarity through complete abstract gestures and also some of our key words are similar so it’s not easy to create a lot of distinctive moments. In order to solve this problem, we decided to balance abstraction and concreteness by letting “the people” do some movements that are clear and can be found in daily life and the two sides help or interrupt her from doing that.

Now, we have come up with a moment chart to make the story more clear and in order. In this chart, we order and layer moments that we had or potentially will have together like the one in the Laramie Project. So what we have to do next is to practice those moments and try different ways to present those mome

the curious incident review

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

       During this fall season, I am honored to play a role in the amazing play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which is based on the book written by Mark Haddon and adapted into a play by Simon Stephens. This plays discussed a story happens around Christopher (acted by Amelia) who is a teenager boy with autism. One day, Christopher discovers that his neighbour’s, Mrs Shears, dog has been murdered, and during the process of finding who murdered the dog, he finds the truth that her mother has left he and his father has murdered the dog and has lied to him the whole time. The adventure of Christopher is tough and the conflict between he and his family are intense, but it also shows the deepest and most powerful connection between people which is love.

        The setting of the show in total is very simple, we used minimum amount of props and setting changes as we can in order to keep the flow of the play tight and thus encourage audiences’ engagement. At the beginning of play and throughout the play, we incorporated scenes that people walking around Christopher with different paces and gestures, and this directly represents how chaotic it is inside Christopher’s mind and how other people seems interruptive and confusing to him. Also, the blue lights that surround the stage and frame a rectangle contributes to the creation of Christopher’s world because in his mind, there are only right and wrong and everything are ordered and rational. The walking and confined stage remind me of the viewpoints that we did in class: the walking is about the tempo and high tempo shows more intense chaos while creating tension, and the rectangle stage is like the grids we did in class for exercise, and having gone viewpoints before really helps me to understand the meanings of the choices better. Another interesting director choice is that we put all the actors on both sides of the stage which firstly, reduce the time of scene change and furthermore creates a sense that Christopher is always “surrounded” by people because of his “abnormal” behaviors which represents his insecurity and uneasiness. But the choice has to be cautious as well because it’s easy for the audience to be distracted if the actors on the sides are changing clothes or fidgeting. 

        Because we were discussing moment work in the class before, I found that there are actually a lot of amazing moments that are incorporated in the show. One is when Christopher is recalling the beach moment with his mother while Ed discovering Christopher’s book. We divided the stage into three sections: Ed is on the stage right, reading the book, Judy is walking from upstage to downstage in the center, and Christopher and Shobian are having a conversation on the stage left. The division of the stage clearly shows that every moment is happening at different times and the change between each moment also involves the lighting change and sound change. When Judy is on the beach, the lighting is blue and there is beach music which creates a flowy and relaxing atmosphere and builds Judy’s character that she is dreamy and enjoy living in the fantasy, foreshadowing her choice of living her family to pursue a more carefree life. Also, we layered and ordered the moments at the same time, Judy came out when Christopher is describing her which is moment layering and they froze when Ed is reading the letter which is moment ordering. The combination of different approaches represents a contrast between reality and illusion which is emphasized a lot throughout the play. In Act 2, after Christopher left home, he always finds that Ed and Shobian talking to him. In order to distinguish his imagination to reality, we put dim wash spotlight on Ed and Shobian and bright full stage light when it is reality so that the audience can see the difference explicitly. 

       Acting as Judy, the most memorable moment I remembered is the interaction with Shobian when she is reading the letter. Judy and Shobian actually have an interesting dynamic between themselves because Shobian is the ideal mother figure for Christopher while Judy is the real mother. So when Shobian is reading the letter she is actually mad at Judy because she left Christopher, and Judy is trying to find excuses for herself and explain that she loves Christopher. We decided to let Christopher sit in the center stage, setting the train set and Judy and Shobian circling around him while speaking. The spatial relationship between Judy and Shobian really contributes to showing the dynamics, Judy is chasing Shobian because she wants to explain herself while Shobian wants to blame Judy so she goes after Judy which leads to the circling. Also, the level between Judy, Shobian and Christopher is also noticeable. Judy and Shobian are standing while Christopher is sitting which shows that they are posing their thoughts on Christopher because both of them have their own opinions towards the whole thing, but at the end, Judy sits next to Christopher which shows the reconciliation between them and explains the determination of Christopher of going to find his mother.

       The show is really intense in general, but I think it’s a great thing to present such an emotional and powerful play because it really strikes people and enables us to reflect and cherish the relationships we had. Also, all of my friends are impressed by the actors because they have deep understandings about the roles they played and are in character so well that allows the audience to be part of the story instead of just watching they performing. 

in class writing

in class writing

On monday, we did exercises about creating moments based on words from the     Laramie Project. Firstly, we created moments by ourselves, this process is interesting because we saw how different individuals interpret the same word differently which results in different elements incorporated in the moments we created. When Maddie was doing the word “indifference”, she used her facial expressions of disregarding and movements of turning around to show the narrative of giving no attention. And for me, I created a moment that I show absolutely no change in my gestures and facial expressions with a neutral stance to show that there is nothing affecting me. The different ways of interpreting “indifference” are both valid but have different dynamics, so when our group starts working on the project, we also hope to explore the different possibilities of expressing the solid idea with various theatrical elements to see what narratives can we create. 

Also, we incorporated one text into our moment. The text is powerful because it created the background and refined what is happening on stage. Because of the idea that every theatrical elements are equally important in telling the story, we want to explore how can text not dictate the narrative, instead, utilizing every element to express the story.

At the end of the class, we were trying to put every moment we created as small groups into a whole narrative. At first, we were confused because the connection between each moment is not explicit and there is not a clear storyline. But afterwards, we found the common theme in each moment that there is a symbol of power, so we decided to connect the stories through the sign of power, and we utilized the consecutive sequencing to put moments in order which is when one moment is happening, other moments freeze. This process helps me better understand how can we construct the narrative after creating moments. Also, it is vital to do it on our feet first instead of planning everything out because only through acting it out can we find what the natural instincts are and how can we improve that.

Different exercises

• the same thing we did in class, write words related to human nature and create small moments then connect them
• experimenting viewpoints with the lights, and see how the lighting affect what we interact with each other

collaborative project 1

For the collaborative project, our group decided to explore the narrative of movement: basically to what extent can the movement tell the story without the help of text which accords with the idea of Tectonic Theatre. Also, we want to focus on creating the story based on concrete text or idea and then express it with abstract elements including gestures, lighting etc. We have not ensured our stimuli yet, but we are really interested in a project called Rhythm 0 which is a performance art conducted by Marina Abramović. This social experiment involved Marina Abramović standing still  in the public and the audience were giving freedom to do whatever they want to do with Marina Abramović. At first people are pretty gentle, but gradually, people start doing brutal things like stabbing her. This experiment reveals how complex and disgusting human nature actually is. With the collaborative project, we want to explore the complexity of human nature by using expressive movements. And we are also going to apply the theories from Tectonic Theatre to help us create our project. For example, Tectonic Theatre emphasizes the equal importance of every theatrical elements so the play should not be dictated by the texts which is why we want to avoid using texts in our show. Also, we want to adopt the method of creating moments first then creating the narratives, so we are probably going to do exercise exploring some moments of movements or lighting or sound and then connect them, thus creating a piece.

During the class, we did the exercise with creating moments and building them together, thus creating a short story. This process really helps me understand the chapter I was presenting for the Moment Work. The book talks about three main techniques of constructing short narratives. First is consecutive sequencing which is putting the moments created before in order. This is what we did in class, when one moment is happening, other moments freeze and the story happens in chronological sequence. Then is moment layering which is basically layer one moment onto the other, so moments can happen at the same time. This creates a more complex narrative because moments have more relationships between each other. The last one is context which means creating another moment happening at first or at last. The context will frame what the audience perceive and sometimes even redefines the narratives. There are also other small techniques in creating narratives, and the two that stand out to me is keeping information from the audience and the Joe X test. Keeping information from audience means that producers don't have to over-explain everything that is happening on stage, and thus create suspense and invite audience’s engagement. So when we are sequencing the order of the moments, we have to think about when should we reveal the important knowledge to the audience. The Joe X test is also important because it emphasizes that audience are new to the story so we have to make the audience understand what is happening. It is also okay that audience doesn’t understand something, but we have to make sure that it’s only because we don’t want the audience to understand or we will reveal that later on in the scene. 

solo reflection

The solo performances of the three students are all very impressive and inspiring. Livi’s performance is the most striking and intense to me, because her incorporation of lighting and sound effects really creates the tension throughout the show which successfully express her idea of theatre of cruelty. In detail, the flicking of lighting shows how chaotic and uneasy Laura feels inside, and the different colors of light symbolizes the different emotions including anger, sorrow, regret etc that she is going through. And I really like how simple and focused her setting is which allows the audience to fully pay attention to her movement and emotion.

 Linda’s show is simple but it expresses the ideology of the alienation between the audience and the play clearly. Her choice of applying the narrator not only reminds the audience that we are watching a fake show, but also constantly distance herself from the story that she is telling. And I think she definitely chooses everything that appears on the stage with clear reasons. For example, the lovely puppet clearly makes contrast to the dark story which creates an interesting dynamic and each puppet, according to her, symbolizes some characteristics of the character which express Brecht’s idea of symbolism. 

Willjam’s performance is strongly emotional which accords with Stanislavski’s theory of realism. His beginning was so intense although we didn’t see his actual image, we can feel his anger through the sound and the red light which creates an atmosphere of tense. But when he walked out of the room he suddenly sat on the ground, and the light changed to blue. His level and the light show how sad and desperate he is clearly. Also, when he was explaining about the dog, he was very close to the audience and it seems like he is making eye contact with the audience which allows the audience to fully “join in” the moment and relate to what Ed is going through.

Those performances are all successful and the audience can really tell how devoted and talented they all. As a theatre student, I have learnt more about what solo performance is and how should I approach it, also, the techniques they used and the director choices they made are very beneficial to learn.

lamarie project notes

The Laramie Project

people in the town are not supportive and do not want to talk with the theatre company 

hate is not a Laramie value

farmer/faculty

- come out

- want to live in Laramie

- love the land 

Matthew 

- shy happy in the school can be important

- friendly smile want to go to university

media

- controversy

the action of the criminal is unexpected

people are not mad with Matthew 

religion / being gay

people don’t approve of homosexual 

people tried to distance themselves from the crime, but people have to acknowledge the fact

many people joined the parade 

media portrays Matthew as Saint, but some people think he actually had problems

dont understand why Matthew had been exemplified 

moment work notes

moment work notes

antecedents

1980/90s 

• what was possible on stage
• a laboratory setting was the place to conduct the theatrical experiment
• common history and common vocabulary are important

Deconstruction

• meticulously separate form and meaning
• how individual theatrical elements communicate 
• text as a tyrant
• pyramid - how different elements built up from text
• how other elements fulfill their narrative potential
• how to combine the elements 

approach

• moment work-create stories based on the elements
• playwright join the active practice
• form and content are indivisible
• How to tell the story on stage
• combine theatrical narrative and dramatic narrative
• one member make final decision 
• everyone is theater maker (actor,designer,director or writer)

Beetlejuice and the weird world

Beetlejuice and the wired world

This October 10th, I saw the amazing musical Beetlejuice, written by Scott Brown & Anthony King and directed by Alex Timbers in winter garden theatre. The adapted version of the film Beetlejuice is more magnificent considering the staging. The play is about the ghost Beetlejuice who wants to be seen by others, trying to let others say his name three times. And Lydia, who just lost her mother and had to live with her father and an annoying stepmother, can actually see Beetlejuice which makes her Beetlejuice’s first option. Because of Lydia’s capability of seeing ghosts, she also meets the dead former house owners, Barbara and Adam, and they decide to kick Lydia’s father and stepmother out by scaring them and get the house back. In Act 1, the plot focuses on explaining different characters’ backgrounds and their ultimate goals like Beetlejuice who endeavors to make himself be seen by others. And because of Lydia’s aim to scare her father, she helps Beetlejuice, and in return, Beetlejuice creates chaos. In Act 2, the director focuses on the struggle inside Lydia. She can not handle her mother's death very well, so she decided to go to the Netherlands to find her mother. At last, Lydia understands her father and they start their new life. One of the themes that go through the play is attention from others. Beetlejuice and Lydia, share a characteristic in common which is that they want attention from others. Beetlejuice, as a ghost, wants to be seen by others, while Lydia, who thinks she is ignored by her family, desire warmth from her father and mother. Also, they are all viewed as “abnormal” because Lydia can see ghosts and always acts creepy, and Beetlejuice is a ghost. So both of them are not acceptable by most people which symbolizes how minority trying to seek belongings and existence in the society.
The staging of the play really creates a sense of the play which is creepy, abnormal and chaotic. The main colors used for the set are black, white, purple and green which are also the colors that Beetlejuice wears. The setting of the house is also noticeable because it shows the whole interior of the house by distorting it. It not only presents the whole perspective but also provides a tone of this world that everything is not normal but distorted. The combination of colors and setting of the house together enables the audience to sense the weird but interesting world that the director creates. The tradition of the setting is also intriguing because the house can move forward and backward on stage, so when the house move backward, the audience will focus on the characters more because they outside the house and close to the audience, which also accentuates the inner feeling of the characters instead of the plot that is going on.
Speaking of characters, the play has created many memorable characters. Beetlejuice, the most distinctive character, uses a lot of props including the huge monster, hands, and feet which surprise the audience and contribute to his character which is unexpected and crazy at the same time. The costume of Beetlejuice also makes him a special character because of the striking colors which differ profoundly from what Barbara and Adam wear. Another character that really stands out to me is Lydia. Because of her mother's death, Lydia has been continuously depressed, and the fact that her father never mentions her mother lead to her disdain towards her father. The deep depression and obsession of death makes her a wired child that is not appreciated by her father and stepmother. Her all-black costume really expresses her identity and the way that she sings is so different because her pitch is high and her tone is a little wacky.
One moment that is most outstanding to me is when Lydia is in the Netherland and her father follows her. When Lydia is singing the song “Home”, the whole setting is so simple that only has spiral frames in the background and there are only black and white on the stage. As audiences, our focus is fully on Lydia and we can really relate to her loneliness and desire to find belonging. The second time that she sings the song, the feeling is entirely different because Lydia finds out that she has misunderstood her father and they finally break the barrier between them. So her gestures become more exaggerated which expresses her joy and her tone is no longer gloomy. We can easily feel the curve of the character with the change of lighting and voices.
Overall, I really enjoy the musical Beetlejuice because of the fresh perspective that the director took to create the story. And the incorporation of lighting and sound effects surely draws the attention of the audience to the weird but novel world that is created. The moment of Lydia teaches me that the atmosphere can be created without fancy settings, as long as the emotion of the character is expressed, the scene can be memorable.

ISTA reflection

During the ISTA workshop, despite the limited duration, I have experienced new things and  accumulated abundant knowledge that I can apply to my future study. Also, I am the only one from CA in my group which I was worried about at first, but it actually enables me to step out of my comfort zone and socialize with people I have not met before. This also contributes to my confidence which is significant to being a successful theatre student.

We’ve done various activities in three days, one of the activities that stands out to me the most is called the relation circle. To begin with, we divide ourselves into groups of two, and one of us starts a scene without initiating the conversation; then the rest of us join the scene with conversation, deciding a relationship with the partner in advance. This activity is really intriguing because the one who starts the scene have to clarify the activity clearly with only movements and the partner have to indicate the relationship between through only a few lines so that the scene can move on smoothly. When I was doing it, I did not get the activity that my partner was doing precisely so the relationship did not quite make sense in that scene; however, because the entry of the ridiculous relationship, the scene actually became more humorous. In addition to the fun, I also understood how essential the relationship is to the scene because it determines how the characters react with each other and how the dynamic between them works even though the situation is not changed because the intention of character will be differed. 

What’s more, during the Tectonics master class, we talked about how moments contribute to the success of a play. Moments that are memorable are not related to texts, instead, they are all associated different elements of stage including gesture, lighting or even pauses. We tried to create small moments with only gestures and it was amazing to see how powerful the physical state can be. The elements of the moment are essential to the message that is going to be delivered to the audience, and different elements can change the intentions and emotions of the text profoundly. So when I perform, I can try to utilize stage elements in different ways to explore which works the best. 

Another thing that I learned from this experience is that how to give effective feedback. Giving and receiving feedback is extremely important to theatre works because it not only helps others to improve, but also enables ourselves to analyze work pieces objectively which is beneficial. Feedback can be categorized as interpretative feedback and structural feedback. Interpretative feedback means opinions about what message we receive from the play which is vital to determine whether the way that director or actor delivers the message effectively or not. And structural feedback is about how the stage image is presented to the audience. 

Overall, it is really beneficial for me to attend such a workshop and I hope to corporate the experience to my future theatre journey.

viewpoints reflection

During this week, we did the viewpoints with different activities.Firstly, I remember, we were introduced soft focus which means paying attention to what others are doing even though you are not looking at them directly. To achieve soft focus, we have to open our senses including hearing, smell, touch, but barely sight to feel what’s happening around us. As a group, we have to jump, turn or stop spontaneously at the same time. At first, we always initiated the movement by someone leading it, but after several days’ effort, we can finish it without distinguishing who starts the movement. This activity really remind me of how important it is to use the soft focus on stage. Because as an actor, we can’t always see what’s going on stage every minute so we have to pay attention and try to cooperate with others in order to make the performance natural and fluent, or it will feel like actors are just reading their own line without interaction and consensus between characters. 

As we moved on, we were also introduced more vocabulary including tempo, duration, level, kinesthetic response, repetition, spatial relationships, topography and gestures etc. And we have to incorporate those elements when we are walking. The most interesting part to me is the kinesthetic response, which means how you react based on other people’s movements. As a performer, when I am walking, I have to really use my soft focus to grasp the existence of others around me. I remember once when I was face the wall, standing still, I sensed that someone is approaching me with a high tempo, so I decided to turn around and started to walk at a high speed as soon as that people stopped. It is also intriguing to see the kinesthetic response between others as an observer. Once when Caroline and Mao were walking together, maintaining a high tempo, then Caroline suddenly started following Maddie, and Mao chose to stop immediately. I can really feel the dynamics between people because the reaction is immediate and strong. This technique is useful on stage because it creates a natural relationship between characters which will enable the audience to believe what’s happening.  Another element that I am interested in is special relationship, meaning the space between people which can be really close or far away. The space between people can build the atmosphere right away. When I was watching another group performing, I remember that at last, there was a huge distance between four of them which creates a sense of conflict and alienation between them. Also, the direction where they were facing also builds on the tension: one person was facing the other while the other turns her back to that person, showing that one is explicitly aggressive and the other is trying to avoid the confrontation. 

During the viewpoints activities, as a performer, I not only challenge my physical limits by exploring different movements that require different parts of my body to be involved, but also understand how to incorporate various elements in actions, even if it's just walking. In addition, as a director, it is also essential to apply the elements to blocking because it can help to create atmosphere and build relationships effectively.

theatre reflection

I’ve been involved in theatre for one whole year, and I have learned and improved a lot during this on-year experience. In the beginning, I took Dramatic Arts during which I start my journey of studying theatre. I learned about many aspects of theatre including monologues, technical theatre, and directing etc. Also, I participated in our winter musical Footloose, although I was only in ensemble, the experience still means a lot to me because I understood how a musical was rehearsed and how satisfying it is see the result which everyone was devoted to. Then I did the spring show Fifteen Squared which was the first time I did playwriting. Because the that show was completely original, it requires more creativity and commitment, and I
Took more responsibilities this time. Because of the great experience in school, I decided to study more about theatre in the summer so I went to the theatre program at Columbia University which was fascinating. We spent six hours each day to learn about different aspects including acting, directing and playwriting. And for the final show we divided ourselves into different groups and each group needed to come up with their own original 10-minute play. This experience definitely helps me gain more knowledge and confidence in theatre, also, I become more passionate about theatre and desire to explore more about it.

There are so many great things about theatre, and one that appealing to me the most about theatre is that it is not a subject that only requires talents, but you have to be interested and devoted to it. In fact, if you shows great dedication, they will gain impressive improvements instantly. From my experience, during this summer, I was focused on honing my acting skills, so I attend different acting workshops. Before, I was nervous to present my selves on the stage, but I constantly challenge myself by seizing every opportunities to perform in front of my teachers and classmates even if it’s just a small monologue practice. Although my performance still needs to be improved a lot, I find myself not afraid to perform anymore which is truly rewarding for me.

In my opinion, the most challenging part of theatre as a performer is that you have to embrace mistakes which is not very easy. There is no single performance that is perfect, so everyone has to make mistakes in order to improve based on the experience from mistakes. But it can be frustrating at first. I remember that when I was rehearsing for the final performance for the summer program, I could not express my character completely, so my scene took a long time to rehearse because every time the director had to stop me and ask what my intention was or why did I say this at this time. I was afraid that it wasted too much time for my group, and because I have to worry if the director will stop me again or not so I was depressed. But my teaching assistant told me that it is not embarrassing to make mistakes, instead, it helps the performance to be better and no one will blame me for trying different things. So I decided to listen to him and started to analyze my character. Eventually, I finished my rehearsal and felt satisfied.

In this year, I want to improve my acting skills mainly and also want to work on directing which I haven’t learn a lot about.
- Participate in class more, be confident to share my perspectives
- Watch more plays and analyze
- try different characters
- try to playwright

Day 1 IB Theatre

1. When I was in the theatre summer camp at Columbia, our final project was to write a 10-minute play in one night and rehearse in one day then perform it immediately in front of students from different projects. The task was so challenging that nobody believed we can make it at first. And that’s when we had the great idea that everyone should write down the kind of role that they wanted to act the most and we will include all of the roles in a comedic short play. I was a hippie low-key girl who seems annoying but actually the wittiest. The whole process was so memorable because everyone was so devoted and we didin’t sleep that night in order to rehearse. The final performance was really amazing even though there were still a lot of things that we can improve.
2. This summer, I went to a small village in a mountain in Yunnan to teach kids in elementary school Theatre. The children there have limited educational resources so they have never learned anything related to Theatre before. We were trying to rehearse a Chinese play written by Laoshe called Teahouse, and it’s about the history of China so it’s really beneficial for them to study. Those kids were all nervous because the whole thing was new to them. But after a few small theatre games they became really into it and were willing to start to rehearse for the play. I was astonished by their talents because everyone finished their parts perfectly which I didn’t expect before. During our final performance, every audience was surprised, and I was so moved by their devotion. However, I also felt mournful because I can’t imagine how successful they will be if they have enough educational resources.