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dramawithinme · 7 years

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Director’s Notebook - Love and Information - Caryl Churchill

1. The play text, it’s content and the ideas presented in the entire play.

The playtext: “Love and Information”, written by Caryl Churchill and was first performed on September the 14th, 2012. And because it was not far back, this became and viewed as a modern written play that contains many short and sometimes long structural vignette and relatable moments, a different circumstantial situation and topics that are linked to the adjective aspect of the title, the “Love” and “Information”. Moreover, the present-like and relatable feeling that is given off by the play script had created a naturalism feeling.

The playtext is written vaguely and only containing minimal stage direction, non-detailed character’s personality aspect or featured looks; this shows that the playtext is completely open to interpretation so we are able to determine, take more control, design the stage, trying out different meaning to the scene and do so many kinds of research in our own ways. This playtext is making us think, question the reason and allow us, directors, to be able to play around and experiment with the different vignette of scenes, which will really give us more of a challenge since each scene are not written with many details. In my opinion, what I think Caryl Churchill is trying to achieve and she wrote this play, is for us to have fun with different ideas and experiments as she wrote only a bit of detail on a situational topic, giving us an idea which leads to the result.

Because of the playtext containing so little instruction, we would have to interpret the staging and the props. But what I think the most important thing in this playtext is the characters. The character that is written by Caryl was not given to them a specific role; not telling us how many characters there are and/or give detailed personality to them but only hints at what is currently going on in the scene. This is because there is no character development due to the short structure of each vignette and it is a positive yet negative thing since we are not held by the story development and are allowed to twist and turn the story. Likewise, the company and the directors are allowed to create and present the play however they wanted to or whatever they had thought about how this playtext is to be; it is all up to us!

2. My artistic response, creative ideas and explorations for the entire play prior to the forming of directorial intentions.

3. My own experiences of live theatre as a spectator and how directors use performance and production elements.

4. My directorial intentions for the entire play and the intended impact on an audience.

5. How I would stage two moments of the play. - WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY

I had chosen 2 moments in the play that I chose and they are both from Part 7, a scene called stone. The first moment is about the bullies discussing together for the mysterious rock. The second is about the aggression and when the bully happens.

Production Element

Sound

Lighting

Actors

Tension

Creation

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dramawithinme · 7 years

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Director Note - Directing

I’ve learnt a bit of what it is meant and what it takes to be a Theatre director. To be able to show that, I’d learnt and grasped a bit of knowledge of the term and meaning of what it is like to think and act as a TEAM:

Tension Emotion Atmosphere Moment/Meaning/Message

I've learnt how to use and look into the TEAM by picking out two scenes from the play script of the Accidental Death of an Anarchist and then explore its TEAM by questioning myself: What kind of tension/emotion/atmosphere is in this scene? What is the tension/emotion/atmosphere trying to make the audience feel? Why is the moment that we chose effective? Is it even effective? But anyways, as we think that, we will have to direct and find a way for our cast to perform; searching for the right staging, finding the right posture/symbol, thinking about the relationship, levels, distance and so on... To be honest, I must say that this is a very difficult task for me since I dislike forcing people to perform stuff out of their own will and I am also scared that I will be judged for my ideas... But I guess I just have to face my fear, ignore my anxiety and work as hard as I can.

First thing first, what I’ve learnt to do as a Theatre director is that I will need to get my cast to understand the play, each scene, why it happens and each character’s role, goals and personality so that they would get the glimpse of what is going on and know what to do and what to feel.

The first scene that I’d picked out is the Ending scene where the Constable, Pisani, Superintendent and Bertozzo were all cuffed up together and leaving Feletti to decide if she should pity them then risk her own life to uncuff them or just leave them to be bombed up. Exploring the TEAM of that scene, I then question myself with total confusion about the differences between the tension and atmosphere in TEAM. From a research, I found out that the tension and atmosphere are similar things since they link; they both will give off different feelings to the audiences. The tension of that scene is high; having the emotion of each character running all wild. Then there’s the emotion: fear, confusion, panic, sorrow, hope and so on... Now the atmosphere; everything feels extremely tense and emotional. Overall, what I discover about that scene is that everything is all messed up and is very overwhelming. Even though it feels like that, I want the audiences to laugh which adds to the dark humour.

Anyways, I imagined the staging type to be the 3-thrust-stage where the audiences are going to be close up to the stage and I am going to be sticking with it since I think that it’s the best way to interact with the audiences easier. And also I was imagining the staging design along with the props. I’ve decided to create the room so that there was a large window and stick at each corner to represent a giant window that is closer up to the audiences. In the ending scene, I would use a lot of colours and make it flash around: red, blue, yellow and so on... I want to show the audiences panic, making them feel the panic too!

After exploring, I was chosen to be the first one who had to direct so everything was extremely nerve-wracking since I was confused and nervous on what to do. But as I start instructing everything, I noticed that I was slowly getting the feeling of it. My staging style will include a lot of audiences interaction, making everything fun to watch and observe. What I did for the first scene that I chose is making more than three people stand and being all handcuffed in one spot. They all will have to struggle and be cramped up yet not face their back to the audiences. They will be handcuffed with the poll that is on the top right side of the stage that is close to the audiences. Feletti will be hesitating as she was screamed at by more than three humans that need help to escape death. But in the end, she got betrayed by them as she saved them, making her regret her decision for saving them. As she was cuffed, she would pause with confusion and start to panic.

Moreover, since I had already observed the other student’s choice in play, I finally got the idea for mine for the second scene. Exploring the scene as I think of TEAM, I thought of how the tension is high since the atmosphere was very intense yet somehow playful and soothing due to the Maniac’s playful personality. For the stage design, I’ve decided to use a desk and chair for Feletti to sit on since she was the interviewer and a guest for the police, they would have to then make her feel at ease and not suspect anything. Yet, if I am able to control the lighting, I would make this situation bright without any shades of colour to it. This can show that Feletti is an important person then due to her sitting. Yet also the Maniac is an important person too since he was walking around and circling Feletti as the others characters are focusing on him as if they were listening to some word of wisdom. I’ve decided to make the characters have a small rhythmic pattern to the Maniac except for Feletti who’s focusing and jotting down everything she hears. I want the Maniac to sound competitive and flirty to Feletti in a way so I’ve added a physical interaction for both of them, making him poke her on the neck as he tells the truth to Feletti. The reaction that I made Feletti do is a surprised and startled kind of reaction that she doesn’t expect the Maniac to poke her on the neck... But that's not supposed to be what the “Ah!” part is supposed to be. Since it was supposed to be a reaction of realisation. As I’ve noticed that I was surprised and disappointed. But I would not want to change what I’ve thought of since I really like the idea of the situation bein giddy and friendly.

Overall, in my opinion, being a theatre director for me is a very difficult, challenging yet a fun thing to do since you’ll get to learn more about a play and dig deeper as we gain knowledge. It is also fun to see the result of your idea. But from my own opinion, I prefer to be the actor since we’ll get to be someone else’s shoe.

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dramawithinme · 7 years

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Drama Staging Types

Things to ask yourself as you decide on the staging:

How intimidating is it?

How many of the audience feel involved?

Is it easy to create images?

What can the audience see?

What effect does the stage give?

How easy is it to fit a large audience?

End On

Proscenium Arch

Apron

Proscenium with Apron

Thrust

Transverse

In The Round

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dramawithinme · 7 years

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Director’s Notebook: A

Director’s Notebook A. Theatre in context: The play text, its context and the ideas presented

Write 2 pages

Paris in 1968

How does knowing the context make you think of the play...

What is the purpose of the play?

The play: Accidental death of the Anarchist by Dario Fo, basically, was a really confusing and complicated play to read. I did not understand the play at first since everything seems fast-paced and extremely complicated for me to comprehend. Questions exploded in my head: Who is the Anarchist? Who jumped off the building? What is this play trying to be about? What is the maniac trying to do in the play? The questions and confusion actually caused my brain that is trying to understand everything to ache in stressful pain. But after understanding what the play is trying to be based on and what Dario Fo is trying to make the form of the play be like, everything seems to click in places.

From research, the year 1968 was a difficult time for Dario Fo that I understand. There was a riot happening in Paris, France, spreading to Italy. Because of the political activism (an effort to promote political, economic and/or environmental ideas for improvement with the desire to make improvements with the society), the theatre was also affected and his dislike for the hypocrite governments increases. Not only was that on December 1969 there was a bomb in the centre of Milan. 16 people were killed and another 90 were injured. There was also a bomb nearby where the police blew it up rather than disarming it, causing the clue to also be blown away. This is where the Anarchist comes in and Giuseppe (Pino) Pinelli fell out of the 4th-floor window. But sadly, I only understand this through research. For improvement of the audience's understanding, I think that the there should be some introduction and explanation on the history so that the audiences would get the grasp of what had happened.

I can say clearly that Dario Fo is trying to deliver to the audiences to show them what the government truly is, while also understanding that the government that we trust so well is corrupted because of their negative manipulating ways of trying to fool the citizens... And all to that reason, Dario Fo is passionately furious with them. Thinking about this and finally understanding the meaning of the sarcastic “Accidental Death” of this anarchist and also adding from the research that I did, I can say that I can empathize with Dario Fo while I can also proudly say that I stand on his side for this since I can also relate to him from my own experience of the Thai’s government. I understand why he dislikes the government so much that he wrote a freestyle play based on it. Trying to get the grasp of everything, I understand that he might have pure hatred for the government since he used his love for physical art to clearly mock and negatively present them... So this may be what made him publish and perform the play in the first place… And publishing while performing it to the whole world shows that he does not fear the government’s power and that he will stand up for the right.

Also, not only that the historical context was the reason, after discovering that the play was supposed to have this sense of this old technique: Commedia Dell’Arte, I finally see and completely understood why the play was supposed to and was to be fast-paced, complicated and confusing… This play would be easier to understand if the actors perform it with large movements, mimicking some of the Commedia Dell’Arte’s character’s movements, body language, use of symbolism and body postures. The unnatural characteristic of each character will give the audience what the play is trying to do, and that is giving them the sense of comical relief, hiding all the harshness of reality with humour, which causes dark humour or/and dark irony.

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dramawithinme · 7 years

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Director’s Notebook: B

Director’s Notebook B. Theater processes: Artistic responses and live theatre experiences

The play: Accidental Death of an Anarchist, was written by Dario Fo. From doing the background research, I found out that this play was written in the year 1970. The play was inspired and based on a real-life occurrence that had taken place in Italy during the late 1960 and early 1970.

Dario Fo has written the context and the style of the play in a comical sense of relief and humour that covers up the dark and serious parts of the text that were supposed to be a dark and serious incident that happened in the past. Seeing that, a dark sense of humour and a dramatical irony was presented to the audiences. But even though there are Comical Reliefs in the play text, the play can be performed in a serious way which can cause the audiences to feel intimidated by the characters while also fully getting the idea of the play’s dark background.

Moreover, due to the use of Comical Relief and having a choice of intimidating the audiences, using the technique of breaking the fourth wall with them will be a good idea; this will grab the attention of the audiences and make them feel engaged, surprised, confused and many other sorts of feelings as they were being interacted with. Adding more, if the characters and the audiences interact with each other, the audience will feel a deeper connection with the character that they are interacting with. And because of the bond, this will allow the audiences to empathize with that character and it will help them to understand the character’s choice in action more. What’s more for the drama techniques and the medium is the use of mime, body language and improvisation, to extend the audience’s imagination. That will enable the audience to enjoy watching the play as they think and imagine what the character is trying to do. This will also allow the audience to take side easier since they would be able to understand what the character is trying to say and do as if they were actually a real human that is asking advice or interact with them.

In my opinion for the use of staging, a 3 Sided Thrust Stage that is closer up to the characters; similar to the one in the image down below… They would be best used for this play text, since to me, the staging position is quite similar to how people in a court room are positioned in as people watch the people being questioned down below as they were trying to prove their innocence like the characters in the play. Furthermore, to have the seats closer up to the stage will allow the characters to easily grab the attention of the audiences while also breaking the fourth wall…

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dramawithinme · 7 years

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Drama Journal

What we explore in year 12 Drama 2017 - Year 13 Drama 2019

8/29/2017 - 8/31/2017

We explored the introduction of the character: Bertozzo and thinking about how he is intending to show himself as a character to the audience, understanding that he has different goals such as trying to become friends with them, manipulate them, intimidate them, show them that he’s angry or trying to make them pity him…

I was the first one who performed, I used large and big movements. It was embarrassing for me since I was first... It was actually hard to perform since I have to focus on speaking/changing tone while acting out my body movements.

Here, we tried different body languages, pace, the tone of voice to change the intention of Bertozzi.

We also explored the spacing effect of the performance and we noticed how it affects the performance, the audience’s view and character relationship. It was an interesting process since we got to learn how to engage the audience.

But as we continued, we’d learnt how the use of space, levels and breaking the fourth wall works… It is all about staying in character as we interact with the audiences.

9/5/2017 -9/7/2017

Cailyn’s research is about Paris in 1968 and Vicky’s Anarchist research:

From research, the year 1968 was a difficult time for Dario Fo that I understand. There was a riot happening in Paris, France, spreading to Italy. Because of the political activism (an effort to promote political, economic and/or environmental ideas for improvement with the desire to make improvements with the society), the theatre was also affected and his dislike for the hypocrite governments increases. Not only was that in December 1969 there was a bomb in the centre of Milan. 16 people were killed and another 90 were injured. There was also a bomb nearby where the police blew it up rather than disarming it, causing the clue to also be blown away. This is where the Anarchist comes in and Giuseppe (Pino) Pinelli fell out of the 4th-floor window. But sadly, I only understand this through research. For improvement of the audience's understanding, I think that the there should be some introduction and explanation of the history so that the audiences would get the grasp of what had happened.

Ong did a presentation about the stage acting style of Dario Fo which linked with my topic and that is the Commedia Dell’Arte.

We talked about how we should add background information for the audiences that do not have any knowledge about the Anarchist so that they would understand what the story is about a lot better... We also talked about how we should put in little reference from the audience’s local area so that they can also relate to this play’s topic.

Continuing, we explored the style of Commedia Dell’Arte and we’d realized that each of the Accidental Death’s character can relate to some of the Commedia characters. We did a small workshop for Il Detore, Arlechino, El Capitano and Columbina so we merged the characters together, for example when Vicky and Ong tried to test out the movement of Columbina’s posture as Feletti. We understood that the play was supposed to be performed in a loud and large posture, movements, tone and actions that is extremely eye-catching.

The question of that day... As a director, how would you use Commedia Dell’Arte in the Accidental Death?

9/12/2017 - 9/14/2017

A monologue in chapter 10 to 14.

I would like the audiences to see him (the Maniac) as a mad, friendly, imaginative and an amazing person. If I was the director, I would use a lot of miming on the props; the telephone and the files, showing his imaginative side. I would make him break the fourth wall often; throwing the files out of the window but at the audiences as the maniac tell them sorry (breaking the fourth wall) as they were hit by the paper. It would be nice if the audiences feel the bond with the Maniac, either in a friendly or bittersweet way when he apologizes to them.

9/19/2017 - 9/21/2017

I’d learn this analytical technique of using TEAM:

Tension

Emotions

Atmosphere

Moment/Message

We’d explored the idea of what it is like to be a Theater director... And to do that we’ll have to pick out two scenes to explore its TEAM, we will have to direct and find a way for our cast to perform. I must say that this is a very difficult task for me since I dislike forcing people to do stuff and I am also scared that I will be judged for my idea... But I guess I just have to face my fear and work as hard as I can.

The first things I’ve learnt to do as a Director is that I will need to get my cast to understand the play, the scene and each character’s role, goals and personality so that they would know what to do and feel.

Me: Ending scene and the Interview scene

I’ve chosen the ending scene.

The 2nd scene that I’d chosen is the Interview scene.

10/03/2017 - 10/05/2017

We were exploring the idea of stage design. This will involve the use of stage props, decoration and lighting to give the right atmosphere for the audiences to understand. I also noticed how staging can impact the time and the atmosphere; having it play a big part in the play.

We were also exploring the Theatre Context, Presenting Theatre and the Theatre Process within the three days. I’ve learnt about the word vignette in a playscript; about the different chunk of parts in a play... For example, Love and Information contain a large amount of vignette instead of just one plot. But the vignette links!

10/10/2017 - 10/12/2017

Right now we’re looking at the Theme of the play text: Love and Information. On the 10th of October, we were discussing on how to plan and explore the play text. We were looking back at how we were exploring the stage design; how we use the sense of what’s going on within the stage while using questions like: What does the play smell like? What do you think it’ll taste like? What is around you? Just something out of this line...

The theme of Love: How have our attitude to love and changed/our behaviour in love and relationship changed in the last 2012.

Choose 2 vignettes and explore the scene - I’m doing scene 7.

I’ve found out about a French word: Vignette and how it means a chunk of stuff.

We learn about how titles can greatly impact what the scene is about. To let the audiences know about the title, we can use placards, use the narrator and maybe add powerpoints... Though, the title doesn’t always need to be told if the scenes are clearly performed. We were also talking about stage design and imagine the stage/place by using the 5-6 senses and question yourself why. We found out about how vague, unclear and versatile the play is; you can perform the scenes by using improvisation and perform in it many different kinds of ways.

To perform you’ll have to open to interpretation and think about...

The different performance styles: Comical, realism, unnaturalistic...

The theme of the play...

The relationship of the characters...

And to do this, we can do a workshop e.g. a character workshop, a scene workshop... As for a character workshop, we can work on devising and stay in character as we do so...We were also looking at a style called the Movement Sequence. We were exploring the style by having each character move in pattern as if it’s a Dance move. As we do so, we were doing it with music (it’s easier to do since there’s a beat to it), letting other say the part for you (easier to focus on the performance but it doesn’t fit the situation) and you saying the part for yourself (best option, it’s easier to reveal emotions, but harder to perform since you cannot focus on one thing. Though to speak, the attention will be taken off from the body language but to the expression and voice). The Movement Sequence let us explore body language and how movements and gesture can show feelings, emotions and tension. Movement Sequence is “fun to watch, but hard to understand.”Here’s the question of the day: When you’re exploring Love and Information in an unnaturalistic style, does it fit? Is it effective? Does it reveal new things? If yes, then what?

11/07/2017 - 11/09/2017

Within this week, we experiment on different scenes in the playtext of Love and Information.

What I’ve learnt from Ong’s directing:

The actors/actress should also know and understand the scene. We do this by reading and summarise everything. We explored Flashback; using this way of letting 2 people speak as the other 2 act and try to deliver the meaning through action (plus moving montage), acting to what the 2 speakers are saying. We want to make it seems like a dance.

Letting the audiences see the actors moving props makes the scene seems too clunky and distracting, leading to the atmosphere being destroyed.

We were also talking about how we want to use lighting to represent different places. E.g. Green light to show river...

The colour of light will change in different scenes.

Music was added in the play.

In Vicky’s directing:

Act as if something had happened before.

Rely on tone/voice and facial expressions.

Adding sub characters to build up the scene.

Trying out different situation...

In Caitlin’s directing:

Staging plays a big part as we perform.

We can use the projector which is similar to lighting; it changing the scene and giving out atmosphere.

Light focus on character to show state or focus. In the play, light shining on a character shows that she is fully awake. And another character’s light will be dim to show that his/her mind is asleep.

In my own directing:

Trying out immersive approach/theatre.I want to show a bond but the characters are too far apart from each other which destroyed my goal. Change staging to In-the-round. Walking around the audiences in the dark; feel what the autistic kid feels. Trying out: having the character to not move which doesn’t change anything.

Everything changed when we gather the bully up and it finally shows the bonds and increases the aggression.

The autistic kid will just sit on the ground which shows the level of who is in control and that is the bullies.

11/14/2017 - 11/16/2017

This week we explore the Director Journal's questions and how to write it.

11/21/2017 - 11/23/2017

In the future for IB research presentation, the goal of writing a good presentation, we will need to explore the different assessment criteria... Keep in note that the quality of the presentation does not matter. It only matters when you...

A = The theatre in context: The tradition and culture.

Show your good research and understanding of the theatre tradition. You will need to explain and describe the theatre tradition by adding appropriate sources and put the information into good context.

B = Theatre process: Practical research and approach to application.

This is the part where so many other IB students lost points on and it’s one of the easiest bit to do. So what we have to do here is to just describe “HOW AND WHY” you are doing or chose this.

C = Presenting theatre: This does not involve what I told you (future me) that the quality of the presentation doesn’t matter. This meant that you need to use your tone and body to demonstrate what is going on/

D = Theatre in context: The Learner

This, you will need to compare the chosen theatre tradition with a different one. You would also need to talk about the impact of this theatre tradition to yourself and what it made you think.

WORK HARD AND GO TO YOUR DREAM UNIVERSITY, PANCHIWA :) !!

Now, after looking at the research presentation, we were looking at how plays were performed, designed and presented back 400 years ago in old England.

I found out that when an actor receives a role, they will just be given a role of paper.

Back then there is no director in the old days and that they have very little time to do the stage and memorise everything.

Talking about staging and how you’re able to engage the audiences.

Endon stage = You can only engage the audience by looking at one direction.

Thrust stage = There are three directions that the actor can face. It’s easier to engage. More of a storytelling way.

Elizebethan theatre - looking at the camera does break the fourth wall but it does not break the emotion that is displayed.

11/29/2017 & 11/30/2017

Secondary sources about costumes:

To know the cultural background.

To show the social context; the status, ranking and etc...

Costumes is a conventional design not performance design.

Reconstruction of what they used to have.

To look at what they have then.

“Martin White” research on the reconstruction of an indoor theatre + lighting.

Costume define a class.

It affects the acting.

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