LONG LIVE MATHILDA - school play: check ✔

A very important entry, a VERY important week:


This was the final week of a LONG and exhausting process: creating the school play "Shadow Queendom".


The process started the first week of school, when we began to explore the ideas of puppets and masks, and gave different words for our vision of the play.
Then, an innovative GAME for the play appeared, and the ideas for the puppets, masks and different scenes began to flourish.
However... the process wasn't at all as easy as it sounds.

one of the first steps: a workshop about
puppets, which gave us our first ideas
for the "puppet making".

We spent MONTHS thinking about the types of puppets that we could use, and then, spent even moooore time MAKING all of them.

I learnt that PLANNING is always the best way to achieve a goal.

* So, what did I learn from this? *
the creation of a play is never an easy process. It takes a lot of TIME, deep THINKING, and cooperation (which many times we lacked).
We need to create and follow our PLANS, and stop just giving ideas without 'doing something' about them.
I also need to make more use of my IMAGINATION, and 'take more chances' without being afraid of making mistakes (for example, when I had to make the masks - I think I could have explored more, and give better results)
However, I also learnt that theatre is 'collective' (team work), as I ended up organizing and deciding many aspects from the costumes with Mr. Cajas, and making (doing what I could with my lack of ability in plastic arts) puppets.




After almost four months working on the play, it turned out much better than all of us expected.


*What made the play work + made the audience like it? *


This was a play that surprised the audience VISUALLY, by the use of techniques that had never been seen in a school play.
It was a completely new and interesting EXPERIENCE for the "Newton college audience".


When we hear the word "puppet" we often think about a hand puppet or a marionette, but the use of puppets such as the tax collectors and the 'big royals' created a great impact on the audience.


*The play worked due to the application of the "ACTIVATION THEORY":
-variation
each scene was different from the other, and there were many different techniques used, from slow motion to the use of puppets, masks, shadows and stilts.
-uncertainty 
The audience didn't expect a twist in the ending of the play, and there was always an uncertainty in the plot.
-novelty  
The use of completely NEW and innovative things for the audience: giant puppets, hand puppets moving on stage, shadow puppets, masks in a school play, etc.
-complexity
A game that made the play harder to understand + different actors representing the same character = a more interesting and complex play.






Creating this play widened incredibly my point of view and ideas about puppets and masks. As Martin once told us "There is a whole universe of puppets"; and presenting these new theatrical techniques to the school's audience ended up creating a successful performance.
It wasn't easy at all, but after all the "ups and downs" we feel proud of the final results.
However (I don't want to be negative but..) many things could still be improved, such as the acting (vocalization, characterization, etc), the masks (exploring more possibilities), the way of telling the story (maybe including a narrator as Roberto mentioned), maybe improving some things from the scenery or puppets... and this takes me to the question:


Does the process of creating a play never really end?  


other questions...
Is the Activation Theory always helpful and successful when creating a play?
I think it is, and that we should follow these "steps" when creating the One Act Play.


Would the play have been as successful without such a creative GAME?


Does the audience pay more attention (concentrates) when the actors talk directly to the public?


Is it 'easier' for actors to act when they are wearing a mask? / Do they feel more confident?
-Artaud said that theatre reveals, and lets you put on a mask to bring the "real you".
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."Oscar Wilde