Meeting with George, getting the scene ready, more to follow…
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Out of luck for the third time this term, with another statutory holiday this Monday, but an ideal time to promote the latest play I saw: Medea by the local Noh theatre company Yoyoi Theatre Movement company. It was enthralling to see the combination of Noh chants in Japanese, along with English narration and dialogue. Puppetry, masks and costumes added to the international blend as a far-eastern Medea plot her revenge on her wayward husband. And to top it all, I got to visit another new theatre space, the Orpheum Annex, which is not only connected to my Dad’s place of work, the historic Orpheum Theatre, but occupies the space that was my favourite movie theatre, the Capitol Six. Feels like I am coming home.
Sinclair writes about the challenges of presenting performance-based research in various locations, from outdoor patios and courthouses to the conference rooms. Flexibility is the key element here, and as artists one would expect creative solutions to the problems encountered. Yet the practical realities really hit home, projectors that don’t work, chairs that aren’t available, unrelated events (like a raffle contest) happening at the same time as the performance. It takes a dedicated performer to make the magic of theatre work in these conditions, and the audience must have a willingness to overlook the shortcomings and allow themselves to be entertained. The research parts are a given, the raison d’être for putting on the this performance instead of that production of Les Mis or Disney On Ice.
Attached to this post is the one-page reflection of the world premier of Inside the Seed which was on stage earlier this month at the East Vancouver Cultural Centre’s Cultch Lab. Inside the Seed reflection. For a look at how the event was reported on the Cultch’s website, click on this link: Playwright Predicts Future?
Presenting Chapter Six – But Is It Art?
Kind of a weird week to place, with Thanksgiving cutting off one of the classes (Labour Day and Remembrance Day also taking their toll on the Monday-night classes), but in this lull I was able to read more of Saldaña and Chekhov, preparing for the presentation at the end of the month. I also presented a Trailer Making workshop in the Digital Literacy Centre (same classroom as where the Drama and Literacies course happens. For my example, I selected the excellent 2006 Christopher Nolan movie, The Prestige, and demonstrated the steps for making a trailer based on David Bowie’s performance of Nikola Tesla. Will try to upload the presentation on this post.
Click on this link to upload my reflection on Upintheair Theatre’s Inside the Seed
Part of the actors’ talkback sesssion last night revealed something interesting I noticed in Tara Goldstein’s 2001 Hong Kong, Canada ethnodrama. In both cases, the characters in the play need to respond to what other people on stage want from them. Wendy wants a second family to substitute for the “astronaut family” that live in Hong Kong – that one-child policy of the recently (as of 2001) reunited special administrative region of mainland China already taking its toll on what members of the family get to stay together. She needs Joshua to step up and be more of her man, rather than the mensch he is for his own family. Joshua wants controversial content for the flailing school newspaper, and pushes others into risky situations so that he can add another achievement to his resume, but he is not the villain, just a guy, Wendy claims, who starts asking questions. Sarah, the Veronica to Wendy’s Betty, wants things seemingly out of reach, and a telling cutaway scene where she refuses to ask Carol for help with calculus says a lot more about her than her snooty written responses, angry petitioning or unsubtle seduction of Joshua. And most tellingly of these characters is Carol’s silent gestures as Ms Diamond takes charge of the English only policy inquiry.
Lastly, an update on the progress of Et Tu… which could easily become a three-part dialogue based on interviews I intend to conduct, asking other people to share the first time they saw Julius Caesar. The two participants I have in mind will hopefully shed some cultural light on the “old” English play, especially as one of them studied it first in another language. While I haven’t yet started to compile my data, there are already scenes emerging in my mind, starting with Cassius’ line “How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over…” with actors taking the role of research participants, bathing their hands in Caesar’s blood. There are no coincidences in my program of study anymore, and this week I am reading about Bourdieu’s field theory, and the violence implied between habitus and doxa. I have already gathered accounts of the innate fascination with blood and death in young children, and while my personal experience with the “Et tu, Brute” scene in an intermediate classroom sparked my interest in this autoethnodrama, I see this episode now as a small scene, a touchstone really, for a much more engaging investigation of how people react to a play not often performed. Much of these thought are spurred on by reading Chapter 4 of Saldaña’s Ethnotheatre coursework, and I now cannot wait to get back in the classroom, see what shape the research project will take. If I can work in current research into the Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET) project, my three-hander play will grow into a cast of dozens of players, both actual and virtual!
Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET) stages the murder of Julius Caesar
Class discussion on the play Hong Kong Canada was not as playful as I had hoped. Even in Ethnotheatre textbook, whenever the author includes scenes, or even entire dialogues, it just feels like we should be getting up on our feet, performing. Our resident monologuist has plenty to say on any topic, but why is it always only her that gets to be in the spotlight? Reading ahead to prepare for my presentation later this month, I am excited that Anton Chekhov gets mentioned. Hmmm… wonder how we are going to embody his text?
Ethnotheatre: Research from Page to Stage by Johnny Saldana
Here is the first draft of an autoethnodrama based upon recent teaching experiences.
Et Tu…
Started work on the tentatively titled ethnodrama Et tu… and will find out soon what stage it has to be in for each of the classes. Also discovered another interesting play that will happen at the East Van Cultural Centre (the playhouse of my youth) called Inside the Seed, looks like a modern-day spin on Oedipus Rex, but more to do with argi-business than wireless communication. Hope that the class can decide on this one (although I still want to see the concurrent play Penelope. Perhaps a double bill?