Update: Collaborative Project 2018-19 Journal!
I am now a Senior! That means no more Practice, but on the bright side, much knowledge and experience from this Junior Practice have been gained, and confidence for a much better project is merging.
The journal for this project have been launched in September. Check it out here!
The journal for this project have been launched in September. Check it out here!
Incorporating Elements and Teacher's Feedback
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
This week on Monday the group stayed after school to practice a few run-throughs and testing technical elements during the performance. The overall rehearsal went well although the presentation videos need to be combined and edited to have blackouts at the beginning, between, and the end so we can pause and play them more easily without having to freeze the projector every time. Some other sound effects still need to be finalized, such as phone ringing and applause at the end. Our timed practices were at around 11-12 minutes suggesting that we still need to add a few more blockings or dialogues to lengthen the piece. Our teacher also took note on this and advised us to find an 'arch' for the story. The plot had potential but are not fully explored and executed by us, obscuring the rising actions and the climax of the play. The figure of Anxiety also needed to be reconsidered and made a little more 'mischievous/malicious' as it is the origin of Maggie's discomfort and turmoil. After receiving the note, the group decided to sit down and looked through the entire script to adjust and add more lines for Anxiety. We also decided to split the psychiatrist's appointment into two as the climax will be the end of the first appointment, in which there would be an explosion of emotions and confusion from Maggie. Our lesson this week was that it is never unnecessary to take time and observe our characters more closely both in the script and in rehearsals, so that we can fully discover their hidden potentials and insightful moments that could possibly be exploited for the betterment of the plot.
Finalizing Technical Elements
Friday, March 23, 2018
Today we decided to re-videotape the first presentation again to lengthen it with a couple more lines and actions since we want it to be more detailed and apparent to the audience that some kind of invisible force was irritating the main character. This concluded our process of recording visual and audio elements. On Wednesday this week, two members of the group focused on recording the telephone call (of the brother) while the rest ran through the script several times for the purpose of memorization. As we timed a few tryout of the script, which was 10-11 minutes, our intentions are now focused on more acting and blocking elements to the play, which we did by adding details and dynamic between the anxiety and Maggie. Our goal to the next week is to picking costumes for the character, especially the anxiety, and try to do run-throughs because we didn't have the chance this week due to the limited availability of the stage. We are also going to take a look at props and furniture, and their positions on the actual stage.
Presentation Recording and First Tryout
Thursday, March 15, 2018
We start the process of working and putting what we had planned into practice. We first began with recording the presentations, the bad one at the opening and the good one at the end of the play. They are rather brief and straightforward, so they only took two or three takes to complete. The goal is to make them realistic and genuine as we want the audience to feel the character's emotions and confusion in the videos, as well as in the play itself. After that we took a look at the Common's stage, on which we will perform, to see if the lights shine on the right spots where the actors will sit. Our light designer did a few experiments to ensure we have lights with appropriate color temperatures that would go well with specific scenes when one character is focused. After recording the good presentation in the Common, we printed out the script and ran through it on stage for the first time. The goal of this is to check and eliminate mistakes and parts that seem awkward or not suitable that we might have missed while constructing the original script. This was also an excellent opportunity to try out the lights. The line run-through was relatively successful although we forgot to time it. The plan for next week sessions is to record to phone call conversation and see how long the play would take if we incorporated more actions onstage. My job is to edit sound effects into the presentation videos and the call. We also plan to check what elements and props we want to be present on the set, which I assume would not be too complicated since the production is simple.
Here are some of the photos I took during the line run-through.
Here are some of the photos I took during the line run-through.
Constructing the Script
Friday, March 9, 2018
This week we mainly worked on writing the complete script of our production. Drew from the preliminary writing last week, the group expanded and made changes to the ideas, developing good moments and eliminating occasions which would potentially confuse the audience. Our goal of this play is to create a light-hearted work conveying a relatively deep layer of meaning without over-complicating with too many abstract/cofounding details. We want to tell the audience a realistic story that happens regularly around us, so we want to portray the characters as relatable and can be found in everyday life. As we decided to incorporate the 'Senior Presentation' and the 'Phone Call' scenes into the play, the group also script them. At the end of the session, we run through the script to check for mistakes and loopholes, read through it and recorded how long it takes to read the lines. It took about 10 minutes, which we think is fantastic because the play will fit the IB requirements with blocking and technical elements added. We also talked about 'containers': the production only has 3 actors (3 seniors), confined in a room (the therapist's office), and limited in 12-15 minutes. Our goal for the next week is to record the video of the presentation and the phone call between Maggie and her brother.
Preliminary Plot and Production Roles
Thursday, March 1, 2018
We created a Google Drive folder that contains all of our works and ideas so that everyone can have access to them in and out of school. I think that it would be super helpful, especially when the deadline comes near, and additional after-school sessions are required. The first thing that we did is writing out the preliminary plot for our story to strengthening the idea of what we are going to do, as well as discussing what potential moments can be added and what technical elements can be incorporated into the scenes. I considered mostly about the exposition, rising action, and the climax as those are the ones that we were unsure of. The group drew out notes and ideas from previous sessions such as the presentation, the parents, and developed and applied them to the plot line. My idea of the exposition and closing scene could be the senior presentation, one is when the main character (we named her Maggie) was stricken with fear, and the other one is when she recovered due to the support of her brother. We had the chance to exploit and advance our characters more, as well as when can the technical elements can be added (recording the presentation, the phone call with Maggie's brother, etc.), and I think we used it very well. The group also mentioned potential rehearsals on the weekends and after school. We then specified the everyone's role in the production. We only considered tasks that are essential such as directors, documenter, and technical designers, since there are only five of us. Our goal for the next week is to keep strengthening and possibly trying out the plot and build the script accordingly.
Reflection on other members' blog journal
Similarities:
Differences:
- We all summarized what we discussed and came up with in our sessions
- We all have our own point of view on how productive the session was
- We all kind of shared our plan and the goal for the next session
Differences:
- Members have different opinions on the practice of expressing emotions and fears in the production
- I was absent on the day the group discussed the use of lights and technical elements in the production, so I need to catch up with that
- Differences between where the group stand at the end of the day, what went well, what was challenge.
Themes, Ideas, and Practice #3
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
We continued to discuss and explore potential plotlines that were inspired by the scene of a psychiatrist appointment. The group dug deeper into the possible causes of depression, fear, anxiety such as childhood imagination, parents’ neglect of care, loneliness, isolation, emotional loss. We also decided on the portrayal of the character’s fear as an invisible figure who follows, dictates, shaping the character’s feelings, behaviors, reactions toward his/her surrounding. We later set out to experiment some improvisations. Three seniors took turns to try three characters: the psychiatrist, the teenager, and the fear. Due to the shortage of actors that prevents us from entirely telling the complete story surrounding the fear, we decided to depict those moments through the conversation between the psychiatrist and the main character, slowly revealing their personal life and the past that affected them. I think the fear figure can also contribute a significant part, given that it is ultimately a product of the main character. The exercise went well, as we noticed the dynamic between the individual and the fear improved each time. There are problems that the group still need considering, like the climax of the scene, which can potentially an explosion of emotions, confusion, screaming, despair, etc. Additionally, we need to decide which approach to express it, whether through using body movements or triggering past experiences that remind us of the emotion.
Themes, Ideas, and Practice #2
Thursday, February 8, 2018
The group began to further develop the ideas and themes into more specific plots and find exercises that are good for improvisation. We referenced to theatre improv. books from our teacher and also the course's textbook such as Theatre in Practice, Games for Actors and Non-actors, and Improvisation Starters. Few members of the groups had experience working with some of the exercises before and thought it would be helpful to deploy them into this theme of fear. Practices like Columbian Hypnosis or The President's Bodyguard would enhance the interaction and synchronization between the characters and their fears. I also think we could generate some creative alternations to the exercises in order to make them more challenging and better fit into our themes. There is also a book of activities that used the theme of everyday-life conflicts which I found interesting, especially the struggles between teens and parents because the scenarios could be solid starters of story lines and sources of fears and depression in teenager lives. These exercises supply us with many ideas that we can choose to use or play with and improve them.
Themes, Ideas, and Practice #1
Tuesday, February 6, 2018
We continued discussing potential themes and plots for our production, and although we haven't gotten to a certain destination, I think some creative and promising stories were shared with the group. Some of them are a narrative diary of a person growing up dealing with their fear, spiders, imaginary friends, childhood monsters in the closet, and horrors interacting with the characters. My idea of portraying fear is a silhouette of a person from the light of the projector on the wall, with a weird mask or hat, speaking distorted sounds to the character. My intention is to the audience that fear is a personal and unknown to the world, and only the person who is experiencing them can understand what depression feels like. I also like the idea of depicting the symbiotic relationship between the individual and anxiety, in which fear is present no matter what the character does, where they go, and they simultaneously continuously refer to the invisible fear for their behaviors. Ultimately, due to the inability to conclude, we decided to try improvisation to see if any new ideas pop up. During the process of playing "Freeze", a game in which there are two actors and the plot and one person can be substituted out with another member of the group, we realized that our typical reactions to fear and threats are running away, standing frozen, mumbling, crying falling on the ground begging or call the police. We also tended to create a lot of drama and a sense of responsibility to make the plot more thrilling and interesting. Our first day of practice was a good time.
Theme and Impact on Audience
Friday, February 2, 2018
The big group was split into two smaller teams to fit the IB Theatre requirements. I and another junior joined with three seniors who we will assist in the progress of the project. We started the discussion by bringing out the theme of fears and monsters that emerged in the last inspiration session. There were emotional fears, real and imaginary fears from childhood, real-world monsters. The group discussed all kinds of fear and apprehension, varying from anxiety, pressure, the unknown, lack of closure to mirrors, drowning, being lost, being forgotten to terrorists, dictators, bullies, and murderers. I personally do not think about my fears on a usual basis, and cannot really remember unless someone mentions them or until I suddenly encounter my fears. For example, I didn't realize that I was terrified by the surrounding darkness until I had to walk through the woods at night to get back to the dorm and became aware that someone or something could be hiding behind the trees and preparing to jump at me. To me, each individual has a unique sense of fear dependent on their engagement in the social environment or their aptitude for an overactive imagination, for someone could be more afraid of public speaking more than aliens or death. We also discuss different aspects of fear, such as where fears come from and how to deal with fear and fight insecurities. I realized that the issues of fear are related to our relationships with other people, and apart from imagination, most of our insecurities come from stress, pressure and gossips from our surroundings. The potential settings for the presentation of fear (like classroom, therapy session, bedroom, hospital room, planes etc.) were also talked about. We haven't yet concluded the target audience, but I'm thinking that it could be potentially for teenagers and adults because most of us experienced fear. The question is that whether we want to the audience to experience the fear on stage or for them to observe other people experience that fear, whether we want the production to have a definite closure or an open ending.
CPT #5 - Inspiration Session - Fear and Monster
February 1, 2018
The group did an exercise that requires each member to bring three objects that are personal, meaningful and/or interesting to them. We would sit in a circle and tell the others what each object means to them. Some of us brought our personal items and objects that they got from past events, memories of a vacation that remind us of that experience. Many, including myself, brought things that are amusing and fascinating to us, such as a book, a journal, a song, a video, cool objects that we love. The objects are culturally diverse and reflect the personality, passion, and the emotional connection that each member has in their life. I brought a book of a blog called Humans of New York, an illustration book called "Sticky Monster", and a song I randomly found on Spotify, all of which deeply interest me.
The goal of this session that we will be able to draw some similarities from each story and then combine them into a common and thoughtful theme of our devised piece. When everybody has finished presenting their three objects, we realized that the majority of us share a sense of privateness, monsters, and fears. We moved on to discussing our fears. Childhood fears. Animal fears. Common fears. Lingering fears. Fear of the darkness. Fear of monsters. Fear of spiders. Then, we were suggested to think about what our fears and concerns are now. Since we are no longer children, what terrifies us every day just to think about it. Social fear. Political fear. Fear of oblivion. Fear of failure. I think fears and monsters in modern life would be an interesting theme for this project.
The goal of this session that we will be able to draw some similarities from each story and then combine them into a common and thoughtful theme of our devised piece. When everybody has finished presenting their three objects, we realized that the majority of us share a sense of privateness, monsters, and fears. We moved on to discussing our fears. Childhood fears. Animal fears. Common fears. Lingering fears. Fear of the darkness. Fear of monsters. Fear of spiders. Then, we were suggested to think about what our fears and concerns are now. Since we are no longer children, what terrifies us every day just to think about it. Social fear. Political fear. Fear of oblivion. Fear of failure. I think fears and monsters in modern life would be an interesting theme for this project.
CPT #4 - Agreement Discussion
February 1, 2018
Our discussion on the project Agreements went pretty well. We mainly created ours based on the rules from excerpts from "Devised Theatre: No Guts, No Glory" by Joan Schirle and “The Four Agreements” by don Miguel Ruiz. The group went through the each section of the agreements and discussed whether to keep it or rephrase and combine it to another rule that has a similar context. As we together are a large group, there are some rules that we think are unnecessary in this particular situation, such as agreements regarding leadership and means of communication, since we think we can manage to do a good job in those areas.The group ended up with five agreements for this collaborative project:
- We agree that we respect ourselves and each other, as artists and as people, and to support the work and creativity of one another.
- We agree to give and receive criticisms professionally and impersonally, discuss changes in a way that is respectful and encourages critical thinking.
- We agree not to say "No" for five minutes, meaning we agree to consider anything for five minutes.
- We agree that we cannot do it alone. We agree that we need each other. We agree to keep a balanced and equal work and effort.
- We agree to advocate for ourselves and each other whenever possible.
CPT #3 - Personal Creative Approaches
January 29, 2018
My personal approach to creating a devised theatre piece is drawing inspiration from own experiences and stories of human individuals, as most theatre companies usually do during their planning staging of the production. The motivation can also be a published book, a painting, or a song. I like to draw ideas and insights from songs whose lyrics are meaningful and appealing to me, as they often leave me with my own interpretation and let me create my vision of what's happening. I think the best way to come up with a plot for a devised piece is to collect a theme or an experience from each member of the group and consider which is the most exciting and practical. After that, we'll have to think whether we want to interact with the audience or not, do we need heavy makeup, which genre the production will be, and what demographic of audience we want to deliver our message.
CPT #2 - HowlRound Review
January 28, 2018
Article link: http://howlround.com/more-love-affair-than-assembly-line-casting-practices-in-devised-theatre
In the article, the author Julie Rada talks about her process of casting for a devised theatre piece. She explained her perspective of devising as "an ensemble coming together to create an entirely new collaborative work, emerging from the bodies and voices of the people in the room." In Rada's process of auditions, she focused on the chemistry between the actor and the director, the actor's passion, creativity and responsibility with the group. I like how during the procedure, Rada requested the actor to improvise many variations of their monologues, such as doing it slowly or reversing the emotion of the original performance. I think it's important to understand the strengths of each individual in the group because everyone is different, and we don't have to be exceptionally talented to create a theatre piece. I agree with the author that everyone should be given a chance to express their uniqueness and what they're comfortable with, then challenge their creativity to improvise and improve that uniqueness.
In the article, the author Julie Rada talks about her process of casting for a devised theatre piece. She explained her perspective of devising as "an ensemble coming together to create an entirely new collaborative work, emerging from the bodies and voices of the people in the room." In Rada's process of auditions, she focused on the chemistry between the actor and the director, the actor's passion, creativity and responsibility with the group. I like how during the procedure, Rada requested the actor to improvise many variations of their monologues, such as doing it slowly or reversing the emotion of the original performance. I think it's important to understand the strengths of each individual in the group because everyone is different, and we don't have to be exceptionally talented to create a theatre piece. I agree with the author that everyone should be given a chance to express their uniqueness and what they're comfortable with, then challenge their creativity to improvise and improve that uniqueness.
Personal Context - CTP #1
January 18, 2018
From a young age, my parents have taught me not to speak excessively. They tried hard to show me politeness and reservedness in front of other people. I grew up in a rural area of Vietnam where there wasn't ever anything particularly exciting to do, and each of my friends' houses was located too far away from one another. So there were just us, nature, and indigenous old neighbors.
I discovered, when I was in the middle of elementary school, that I like to observe. How farmers worked on rice paddies, how my grandma swept the house, how my grandpa ran his restaurant, how trees moved and made sounds like they were dancing, how my father ate his dinner alone because of his night shift, how my classmates argued over a penny someone dropped on the hallway, how sometimes old people just sat there, how their eyes fixated on the air in front of them while smoking a cigarette. The more I observed, the more I wondered. I started to take an interest in the stories behind those looks. Was someone taking care of that tree? Was he feeling alone? Did someone she loved left her when she was young? Was he satisfied with his life? Was someone in her family having a bad time dealing with money? I became fascinated with stories my grandparents and parents told me about the time when they were young. I began to notice songs' lyrics, trying to find meaning behind them.
Later on when I get older, I started to question myself: Am I overthinking? Am I dramatizing it? Do people dramatize their stories when they feel the need to be loved, to be noticed, to be unique, to force themselves to remember how they got here? I decided that I don't have enough knowledge and tried to avoid looking for anybody's backgrounds and instead treat them with respect and keep reminding myself that I don't know anyone's life unless I get a chance to live it. But I still preserve that interest now.
Reading books is also one of my hobbies. Gaining knowledge of someone's experience in a particular historical context captivates me. And then there is theatre, and there are play scripts. Master Harold and the Boys, 'Night Mother and some other contemporary works are my favorite plays because of their sense of intimacy, the atmosphere of indigenous lives of ordinary people. They show reflections of their personal experience, the pressure of society, which seem so fascinating but at the same time so..."normal". The intimacy of those plays reminds me of those times when I was young and obsession for stories and the context behind them, why one moves the way they move, why one says the thing they say. If I were to produce a play, I would be inclined to choose a play in which there are not many interactions between many characters, but instead, just a few characters sharing their love, their fear, their excitement, their tiredness, their purpose, and their stories.
I discovered, when I was in the middle of elementary school, that I like to observe. How farmers worked on rice paddies, how my grandma swept the house, how my grandpa ran his restaurant, how trees moved and made sounds like they were dancing, how my father ate his dinner alone because of his night shift, how my classmates argued over a penny someone dropped on the hallway, how sometimes old people just sat there, how their eyes fixated on the air in front of them while smoking a cigarette. The more I observed, the more I wondered. I started to take an interest in the stories behind those looks. Was someone taking care of that tree? Was he feeling alone? Did someone she loved left her when she was young? Was he satisfied with his life? Was someone in her family having a bad time dealing with money? I became fascinated with stories my grandparents and parents told me about the time when they were young. I began to notice songs' lyrics, trying to find meaning behind them.
Later on when I get older, I started to question myself: Am I overthinking? Am I dramatizing it? Do people dramatize their stories when they feel the need to be loved, to be noticed, to be unique, to force themselves to remember how they got here? I decided that I don't have enough knowledge and tried to avoid looking for anybody's backgrounds and instead treat them with respect and keep reminding myself that I don't know anyone's life unless I get a chance to live it. But I still preserve that interest now.
Reading books is also one of my hobbies. Gaining knowledge of someone's experience in a particular historical context captivates me. And then there is theatre, and there are play scripts. Master Harold and the Boys, 'Night Mother and some other contemporary works are my favorite plays because of their sense of intimacy, the atmosphere of indigenous lives of ordinary people. They show reflections of their personal experience, the pressure of society, which seem so fascinating but at the same time so..."normal". The intimacy of those plays reminds me of those times when I was young and obsession for stories and the context behind them, why one moves the way they move, why one says the thing they say. If I were to produce a play, I would be inclined to choose a play in which there are not many interactions between many characters, but instead, just a few characters sharing their love, their fear, their excitement, their tiredness, their purpose, and their stories.