Stimuli: conceiving a play

·It seems that every time I have to write on my blog my body 'rebels' and THAT day I feel sick...
after one morning of "puppet making" and an afternoon with fever and illness, here's a new entry·

Week #10

 1. Description
This week in class we continued discussing about working with an stimulus for the PPP.
We came up with new ideas (explained below) and on thursday we started thinking how to apply those ideas and use the stimulus (Mozart's 25th symphony)to 'conceive' a play.
On rehearsals, I had to practice a new scene (8) and continue making the puppets.

2. Analysis
Although I had to analyse the series of paintings "Ronda Nocturna", we've been analysing Mozart's 25th symphony in class. From that analysis, we came up with different ideas:
The song seems to show a 'struggle' to achieve something (as the tempo changes) and it is a single melody played by different instruments (homophonic).
And the question created was: How do we get to a possible play from the stimulus of the song?
"You have to look for details in the song that could justify your ideas and vision."
For example, homophony brought us the idea of a 'mirror', as the instruments seem to reflect each other when playing the same melody.
With this idea, the story of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" immediately came into my mind.
I started imagining a creepy vision, where mirrors everywhere on stage could represent the distorted personality that the potion creates, and how the character saw himself, which could be a false or wrong vision, or maybe an image showing that his decisions were always reflected on others or even himself.

"Its is a good idea to draw your vision and thoughts"

I think this was not a 'well-developed' idea, and I learnt that it is better if your idea isn't "too straight-forward", such as this one, and that plays can get boring if you have a lot of 'developments in time'.
To avoid having to talk a lot about these developments, the technique of the collage is used generally, which creates the effect of knowing different events in the character's life without using a lot of time.
It also creates dynamism, and not a boring experience for the audience.
3. Connections
Was this technique used in some of the plays we've seen?
How could we apply 'in a better way' the idea of the mirror, or the use of this stimuli in one of those plays? For example:
In 'Vedova in Lumine', we could have the distorted image/reflection of the woman, who may see herself as a normal person having a good time with friends or her loved ones, while the reflection shows that she has 'lost control of her mind' due to the pain.
In "La Cocina", the idea of the mirror could be used to show the inside thoughts of the characters, which suffered from different issues such as racism and 'broken hearts'.
In 'Más pequeños que el Guggenheim' each character had a psychological mask, which could be shown in a different way using the idea of the mirror.

*Connection between the ideas Mozart's 25th symphony and "Ronda Nocturna" gave me:
the clearest connection was the idea of a creepy mood, due to the dark colours and 'mysterious mood' that I imagined from the paintings.
Images of faces and human shapes can be seen in them, and that also gave me the idea of 'different personalities', or, distorted images.

“His works of art are deep essays about the essence and condition of things, of life, and of the human beings” 

One of the paintings from "Ronda Nocturna"- by Fernando de Szyszlo

It REALLY takes time to analyse a stimuli and come up with ideas to conceive a play, as most things in theatre..
connecting this with the creation of the school play, I want to mention that creating the game, and now the elements such as the costumes, scenery and puppets has been a LOOONG process, which takes a LOT of time.

Before (April 19th)                      -                     After (May 20th)

4. Reflections
Until now, I personally consider the process of conceiving a play through a stimulus very difficult.
It not only takes a lot of time, but a lot of imagination and concentration.

Do every single play start with a stimulus?
Without the director knowing, it could be ANYTHING.. even something saw on the street, etc.

How could I improve my analysis of stimuli.. and creation of visions or plays?
Roberto advised us to think about the form of theatre, get out of the "screens" and look at possibilities of the use of space (3D), for example, trying to break the fourth wall, which catches the audiences attention.

When creating ideas from the stimulus, we need to start thinking what would be on stage (Exactly), and should not "generalize" ideas.. or say things such as "always".. "everytime he is mad he...":
you need to start knowing how many times actions will take place, how many "main events" there are going to be, justify the use of the stimuli in your conceived play.. etc.

I also learnt that in theatre ACTIONS demonstrate things, and we should not only "say" them, for example: try to show in different ways that a person is sad, instead of he/se saying "I feel sad".


If the game appears first than the stimulus, can it be the stimulus of a play?

How could we improve analysing skills to 'extract' ideas from stimuli?



Is it 'better' when the stimulus is not directly used IN the play?


What other ideas could come out from this stimulus, apart from the aspects we noticed?

experiences & FORM

"The post-prom trip entry"

This week we discussed about the Stimulus & PPP, and the FORM of theatre:

The first thing I learnt was that for the PPP, we should start thinking as directors, and not playwrights, and ask ourselves...

What kind of experiences could we give to our audience?
Each play gives different experiences.
For example, "Más pequeños que el Guggenheim" gives the audience a completely relaxing, comic and amusing experience. It is simple, but contains very well planned 'jokes', that make it very enjoyable for the audience.
In my opinion, the experience that "Mades Medus" gave was completely different. It gives the audience an experience of 'deep thinking', makes people question themselves, and more concentration (therefore less relaxation) is needed.

On the other hand, personally, I love the experience that "Los musicos ambulantes" gave me both times I watched it (2009 and 2012).
As a foreigner, it shows me the culture of the country where I'm living, and for me it is completely relaxing, comic, well structured, and contains 'intelligent jokes' too.
Not only the jokes, but techniques such as the "creation of different means of transport" (used in "Más pequeños que el Guggenheim" too), enhance the audience's imagination, appart from creating comic moments, which make an enjoyable and fun experience for the audience.

Is "making the audience think or imagine things that should be on stage" a technique or game that creates enjoyable experiences?
Personally I think it is, if done with care, organization and 'intelligence'.


So, what changes the experience that a play gives the audience?
The vision and concept chose by the director can transform an experience in theatre.
For example, in the school play, the use of puppets and masks will give the audience an experience totally different from the ones before. It will be very eye-catching, and the elements will create a 'visual spectacle' too.

There can be many ways of conceiving a play, and the experience is about how the director creates the whole performance.

How do you create a play from a stimulus?
- to start thinking about a plot may not be the best way to start
- start with visions, little ideas, images, (for example: lots of colour, ballet, fun, explosions)
-Look for patterns, and for something to explore (for example, in our play, what is going to be said comes from the exploration & work with the masks and puppets)
*you need to invent a possible way of staging a play

*art is about EXPLORING
If music explores sound, sculpture volume, and painting colours.. WHAT DOES THEATRE EXPLORE?
This is one of the hardest questions formulated in the course until now..
What do you NEED to say that you are doing theatre?
Humans?
But humans are also "used" in the other arts...
we could say theatre is the exploration of mankind or human behaviour, but then questions such as this one appear:
Is representing an animal still exploring human behaviour?
I think that theatre could be considered the exploration of human life and its traditions or cultures.. or maybe the exploration of the events in the lives of humans..

Maybe Theatre is not a concrete art (such as literature)... or maybe dance could be considered part of theatre (for example.. dances in 'fiestas patronales'?) and then theatre could be considered the exploration of movement..

BUT.. you don't really need movement to create theatre.. so..

*WHAT IS THE FORM OF THEATRE?? what do we NEED to say that we're "making" THEATRE?