week 3
In this module we are currently working on a live performance that would be taking place during Rope Festival which will consist of one or more roles within the production team. Individually people will be asked to do an independent research and study for this upcoming project. As part of this, we will be looking at Ota Shogo’s ‘The water station’. Unfortunately because of the pandemic, it has been very difficult for everyone to come together for this project to take place. As I have missed the first 2 weeks of class I did some research on the water station play which is really interesting as this play only uses our body movements.
We started simple warm ups to help with our breathing and balance which I think would be very useful for our play which includes a lot of slow movements with our feet and body as it also helps you to have control of your own body if you are doing slow movements.. We also did a few techniques where we interact with each other using eye contact and slowly changing body gestures. At first it was quite difficult for me to have eye contact with other members of the class as I tend to laugh a lot or stay out of character quickly but it fit well with the task because it draws attention with other people and it gives them an opportunity to observe the interaction that is taking place and it also enables us to generate ideas for the project. In reference to this exercise I have linked a warm up video from National theatre which demonstrates the exercise we’ve done in preparation for our project. It was very hard for me to balance my body at first but a trick I also use to help to control my balance is imagining being pulled by a string and closing my eyes. Another thing I have discovered when moving in slow speed is that being able to maintain stability isn’t easy without wobbling or falling to the ground.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6anj5T_I5k.
After doing research on the water station I had to think about Roles that I can participate in as part of my grade. One of them was being in charge of lighting and technical work for the production. As I am responsible for lighting and tech work, lighting brings emotions within the scenes and the characters. It also creates atmosphere giving the audience a good quality to make it more pleasurable for them to view what is happening on stage. Because there isn’t enough people in the class we had to remove a few casts to make things easier and run smoother. There were a few people who wanted to take on the role of lighting and sound as well as stage management, directing and of course acting. It is important that everyone contributes because this goes towards our grade and also the fact that this is a big project that we were all looking forward to. As part of our task we had to make sure that we are familiar with the script so that when we next have our lesson with Ioanna, we can discuss implications of the play, meaning behind the scenes and roles we are looking to participate in.
In the beginning of the play the scene start of pitch black and as the girl walks on we can then focus the light on her because the girl starts off the scene walking on stage. As I was reading the script something that I discovered may not be accurate but in the first scene the girl comes on stage it says:
The girl expectedly stops
The back of the walking girl
The neck twists around
Towards the way she came
Towards the far expanse
Her face turns
A white light could be focusing on her only as she’s walking in as the stage directions state and it could convey that she might’ve remembered something or spotted something from a far distance. That may be another reason why she could’ve turned her head. It also states that water music plays in the background as she is walking to get water. The rehearsal process wasn’t easy as not many people attended rehearsal but we managed to move on without those that didn’t attend and set the stage how it would’ve looked. A task we each of us set is to look at the script, think about what is happening in the scene then we can come back next lesson to go over it and think about staging it.