The Director.

"Ultimately, theatre needs three elements: actors, play, and audience. But for theatre to actualize its potential, a person would need to impose his or her point of view that would penetrate all aspects of the production. That person is the director. A director is needed for any situation, whether it's a staged reading to a congregation, a reader's theatre performance at reunion, or a full theatre production. A director is not only in charge of all aspects of production, as an artist he or she has a vision that ties all performance elements together." - Debra Bruch

Description
This week started with four performances from a group called "Lila, teatro y poesía". It made us reflect about the director's role and importance is theatre. On the other hand, the PPP [based on Paucartambo] also remarks this importance, and the process that a director has to go through in order to create a play.

Analysis

Theatre started being considered part of literature, but nowadays, it is not about the WHAT (e.g. script) but about HOW a script or theme is presented on a stage.
The Director's role is to develop a different way to perform a play, by establishing the concept (giving coherence to everything happening), and a game that relates the play to the audience: asking what will the spectators think, and  how will they feel connected to the play?

Although it was a new experience to see poems being performed, we concluded that the main problem was a lack of direction concept. You can put many actions on stage, and it may "look nice", but if everything on stage doesn't have coherence, the audience will probably feel something is missing.
Apart from the design and acting concepts, the director also needs to make sure that the play has a rythm, is dynamic, and the actors aren't being monotone (e.g. with their voices, actions, body and face expression).

At the same time, the PPP teaches us that the director's vision and process is essential to develop a play. As we've been learning the whole year, Theatre is made by processes. It hasn't been and cannot be created from one day to another, and it is the directors role to find an stimulus, carry all the research involved, create a vision, a concept, a game, and an innovative way to stage his own or an already written play on stage.
Connections

• A play can be performed in MANY different ways if they are directed by different people or styles. For example, Shakespeare's play Richard III was originally written to be performed in Elizabethan style, but later was chosen by many German directors to perform it with expressionist elements (stage, acting, costumes, etc)

1919-1920- German setting for Leopold Jessner's production of Richard III, Berlin State Theater.

• In German expressionism, directors often felt disillusioned with reality and the world around them, and their version of the plays portrayed this: One of the handouts we read for Paucartambo said that even though an artist doesn't want to include aspects of his/her life in his/her work, he/se will unconsciously do it.
  For this reason, every version of a play is different, as every director has different things to say.

Reflections

• Characters in a play always need to lack/be looking for something
• Experience teaches, and as in many aspects in life, is fundamental to create wise directors
• Is it recommendable for directors not to be actors at the same time? It isn't the same to watch a play being inside/ part of it (acting), and with the audience's eyes. On the other hand, the director's role is ESSENTIAL. Therefore, he/she needs to be focused on it (and not taking other roles)
• Let's say a play does not have a director: Is there always a director even if he/she is not 'credited"? Even if the actors are convinced that they are all equal in power and weight on a given stage is there always one person who if the show is being rehearsed is directing?
• Is the person who gives the main action in an improvisation the Director? (he/she gives a direction to the action by starting it) 

Directing Theatre

by Debra Bruch:  http://www.danillitphil.com/base.html

The short Holiday entry

Once you take Theatre IB, your perception of life will never be the same.


Although you may not believe it, I spent a great part of my holidays thinking about Theatre:


Thinking about the organization and rehearsals of our Paucartambo performance, about the Shadow Queendom scene for the Arts Evening , and researching about German expressionism and Meyerhold's biomechanics.


After researching about German Expressionism.. I keep asking which could be my research question about it. For my first research task, I found videos of most of the play, and the research topic was "easy to organize" and develop for me.
However, in this case, a play has been harder to find, and specially, an specific area to explore.

This areas may include: (amongst others)


Characterisation - where the characters make abrupt and hard movements, which break halfway. There is a strain of gestures, through intense movement.


Costumes- which are a dramatic factor in expressionism. For example, in German Expressionism, characters appear often with capes and hats. Regarding makeup, it is characterized by being very pale.


Scenery - landscapes are artificially created to make use of the lighting in order to build characters and objects. For example, "Lang" realized that you cannot 'remove' nature, but you can create abstractions.


However, how can I research a topic in a play I cannot watch? Is it possible to research costumes, or scenery from a script?

Maybe the stage directions can tell us information about how characterisation and scenery should be.


On the other hand, biomechanics reminded me to an extent of the chaotic scene in "La Cocina".
Although I haven't understand COMPLETELY Meyerhold's technique, it involves communication within a group and controlling disposition in space, and he argued that one could call up emotions in performance through the use of movement and gesture.

so.. is biomechanics a technique? and was it used in Miyuki y los tres demonios in the spies scene? (as it included acrobacies)


***

How do you know which research area and play are "the best" for your topic and sources available?

Expressionist characters often dramatize and struggle against their societies.. but Do all types of theatre criticize something in their societies to an extent?