Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
WOHIN WILLST DU, ZSA ZSA GABOR?
(NB: to be read as Dame Maggie Smith)
We started out the day with a good old Toi Whakaari style discussion for two hours about our individual purpose for the showing, before delving straight into some explorations of the '10 Energies' adapted from John Wright's work by John Abbot.
Moving from 'Catatonic' (no energy, immovable) to 'Hysterical' (frenzied energy) and layering it against our text. We found that in order to keep a strong relationship to the storytelling, as actors we must maintain a certain 'maturity', focus or dedication to the story without becoming indulgent or hysterical.
Then after lunch we played some 'Animal Bang' to warm us up to a very serious afternoon of very serious work. I was a worm, confused as to which end was up, a frozen crocodile lost in the antarctic and a gay lion about to come out to his father at his coronation.
So then Andrew/Konstantin and Jaci/Nina showed their piece that they have been working using us as their props, pulling Runa and Florian up to perform scenes in a beautifully hap-hazzard rehearsal type style. And then Ben took all his clothes off and did some post-dramatic acting. Tom worked on the language of body isolations and poetry within the text.
And Runa and I played with some toy soldiers (and also learned how to speak German Wohin willst du?). Ooooh! How productive we all are!
And to wrap up, in the famous lines of Zsa Zsa Gabor
We started out the day with a good old Toi Whakaari style discussion for two hours about our individual purpose for the showing, before delving straight into some explorations of the '10 Energies' adapted from John Wright's work by John Abbot.
Moving from 'Catatonic' (no energy, immovable) to 'Hysterical' (frenzied energy) and layering it against our text. We found that in order to keep a strong relationship to the storytelling, as actors we must maintain a certain 'maturity', focus or dedication to the story without becoming indulgent or hysterical.
Then after lunch we played some 'Animal Bang' to warm us up to a very serious afternoon of very serious work. I was a worm, confused as to which end was up, a frozen crocodile lost in the antarctic and a gay lion about to come out to his father at his coronation.
So then Andrew/Konstantin and Jaci/Nina showed their piece that they have been working using us as their props, pulling Runa and Florian up to perform scenes in a beautifully hap-hazzard rehearsal type style. And then Ben took all his clothes off and did some post-dramatic acting. Tom worked on the language of body isolations and poetry within the text.
And Runa and I played with some toy soldiers (and also learned how to speak German Wohin willst du?). Ooooh! How productive we all are!
And to wrap up, in the famous lines of Zsa Zsa Gabor
I'm a great housekeeper. I get divorced. I keep the house.
(Don't worry, its post-dramatic)
Love Piggy
(Don't worry, its post-dramatic)
Love Piggy
Monday, December 26, 2011
Day Five cont.
Hi blog,
Sorry I've been so neglectful. To continue from where I left off...
So after a Dood Paard video we began to do some MORE awesome postdramatic creation. We split up and each created our own abstract solo piece drawing from our characters and everything else that we've been experiencing so far in Berlin. The results were juicy indeed.
We each used the basic structure of telling our characters journey as a story in simple enough terms that a child could understand it. Then each of us injected our own style of abstraction in to the work. These abstractions ranged from repetition of words and gesture to using lights to create shadow imagery on the walls and one little piggy even got a bit carried away and consumed a hotchocolate with her fingers, which was beautiful if I may say so myself.
After a very satisfying hard days work we all put some less sweaty clothes on and headed out to see the enchanting Runa Schaefer play Lena in the Ernst Busch performance of "Leonce and Lena". I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it tickled my pickle, blew my skirt up, and impressed the proverbial out of me. Granted I understood quite a bit more of the German text than the others but the piece was also very absurd and had a lot of colour and comedy in movement and voice. These guys have discipline, I'm telling you. The precision of their craft allowed them to do things with their voices and bodies that were more akin to what you might see on Bugs-bunny rather than in a theatre.
Here's a basic plot summary as I understood it: Leonce is a prince whose father wishes to marry him to the princess of another kingdom who he has never met (Lena). Leonce doesn't like this so he decides to run away into nature. Little does he know that Lena has also decided to run away to nature. They then meet by chance in nature and fall in love not knowing each others' true identities. Leonce decides he wants to marry this girl and takes her home to his kingdom. But he cannot allow his father to know that it is him marrying a "different girl than Lena" SOOOOO.......THEY DECIDE TO PRETEND TO BE ROBOTS!!!!!! His father is delighted to have robots marrying in his kingdom. He then removes their disguises and all is revealed to all and they have a dance party.....what an awesome plot line.
I hope all you bloggees had great festive times over the last few days- We certainly did.
xx Much love, Ben
Friday, December 23, 2011
OFF TO A BREAK
Ich Bloggy,
We are on break over Christmas for five days. We've been working together as a company for seven straight days. Phew. Yesterday was another solid day. The Mime Centrum classes were on holiday so we had the entire day in the studio to make. We began with a mash up of all the hardest Toi muscle based warmups we knew, plus some from the Dance School.
We are trying an exercise which I think is unexpectedly subtle and demanding. As we try it more and more I get the feeling it holds the work we are pursuing here in Berlin. The idea is to create tableaus in reaction to the audio recorded from the Berlin public. It is easy to do the task of image making, but I realise now we are not just chasing the completion of an image, we are trying to find a quality. It is so easy to become "epic". By this I mean we present the images like golden objects, like pretentious works of art-wank. We are researching Gob Squad and Dood Paard's medEia for this project and I think this is fantastic. These companies speak to the line between epic and casual. We will continue to chase this quality I hope.
We moved on to the development of our storytelling exercises. We'd each been given the task to tell the story of the play from our character's perspective, involving five direct quotes from lines or stage directions. From there each actor has found their own set of languages and abstractions: Andrew and Jaci with turtle lights, Runa with toy-soldiers and human puppetry. Yesterday afternoon was spent developing the scenes, with focus on precision and purpose. What exactly are you doing with your body and voice in the space? Why are you doing it / what does it show about the story?
Now the job is to find three scenes that the company can drop into within these storytelling chapters. The scripts were due at five today.
Finishing the weeks work yesterday with Toi Whakaari E and Ngoi to mihi Runa's performance in Leonce and Lena. She is excited to learn the songs.
Tom.
We are on break over Christmas for five days. We've been working together as a company for seven straight days. Phew. Yesterday was another solid day. The Mime Centrum classes were on holiday so we had the entire day in the studio to make. We began with a mash up of all the hardest Toi muscle based warmups we knew, plus some from the Dance School.
We are trying an exercise which I think is unexpectedly subtle and demanding. As we try it more and more I get the feeling it holds the work we are pursuing here in Berlin. The idea is to create tableaus in reaction to the audio recorded from the Berlin public. It is easy to do the task of image making, but I realise now we are not just chasing the completion of an image, we are trying to find a quality. It is so easy to become "epic". By this I mean we present the images like golden objects, like pretentious works of art-wank. We are researching Gob Squad and Dood Paard's medEia for this project and I think this is fantastic. These companies speak to the line between epic and casual. We will continue to chase this quality I hope.
We moved on to the development of our storytelling exercises. We'd each been given the task to tell the story of the play from our character's perspective, involving five direct quotes from lines or stage directions. From there each actor has found their own set of languages and abstractions: Andrew and Jaci with turtle lights, Runa with toy-soldiers and human puppetry. Yesterday afternoon was spent developing the scenes, with focus on precision and purpose. What exactly are you doing with your body and voice in the space? Why are you doing it / what does it show about the story?
Now the job is to find three scenes that the company can drop into within these storytelling chapters. The scripts were due at five today.
Finishing the weeks work yesterday with Toi Whakaari E and Ngoi to mihi Runa's performance in Leonce and Lena. She is excited to learn the songs.
Tom.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Day Five: Come all ye postdramatic
Day five began like any normal day in Berlin: Slightly hung over (from organic merlot), sore everywhere (from movement classes and Toi style hardcore warmups) and running to get to the mime centrum on time (and cursing the enigmatic Metrobus system as a double-decker speeds past you in the exact direction you want to go). But what is most consistent is the excitement on my face. I know that today will be beautiful, challenging, and massively productive. I know that when I arrive I will see the faces of my new young, talented, intelligent, postdramatic Berlin family. We will smile at each other and indicate particularly pained muscles. And then we'll jump on the "Ich Warte" rollercoaster.
Once again we began the day with a movement class. It hurt much less than the other classes, which was simultaneously a reprieve and a disappointment.
After our session we gathered around and listened to the fruits of yesterday's labour. The recordings were nothing short of perfection (the sound quality of a few was a bit too poor to understand but even so) it was like finding a fifty dollar bill in the gutter. More than one of us were nearly moved to tears listening to these people repeat these profound words which they have never heard before.
We then moved on to our creating! As everyday there is a rhythm of observing or listening followed by instant creation. We explored the space around us with the sounds we were hearing. We simply played and found some beautiful contrasts and counter rhythms. We moved from tableaus to carrying Tai and "painting" the wall with her body, always with Willem and Holly's clear and trustworthy guidance.
We then gathered around and watched an extract from Dood Paard(dead horse)'s version of Medea! The Dutch group had rewritten the entire script using very simple language and spoken lyrics from pop songs. Dood Paard works very well with chorus work, pace and rhythm of voice, and the charm of performing in English as a second language. The piece was very static and there was no distinction of which actor was playing which character. Apparently they never work on the floor before a performance, meaning that their rehearsal period revolves around the language, rhythm, and very clear body language and gestures which seem to come just a few seconds before the relevant words. This creates a very interesting effect which drew me in to their performance. I did find myself questioning the relevance of their work at a certain point however. "This is so interesting but where is it going?" It's like someone you meet showing you photos of their kids and you think to yourself "Unless i'm going to meet these little people in the near future, I just don't care, and you're so boring and arrogant to expect me to."
Oh no! Sorry bloggy I need to run off to todays work.....oooh postdramatic. I'm telling you that I need to go but im clearly taking time to write these very words and you don't even know if I do in fact need to go! oooooh so postdramatic..... but seriously yeah.
-Ben
TAG VIER: Out and about
Day Four.
In the morning the actors were again in a class at the mime centre, while Holly and Willem and I figured out our plan of attack for the afternoon.
The actors came out of the class buzzing, apparently it was a really awesome class. Not sure what it was, but at one point it might have involved lying on the ground and pedalling with their legs? (perhaps someone can elaborate...)
Our plan for the afternoon was to go out into the streets of Berlin and engage with members of the public using Chekhov text. We figured that a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) would be the best place to try this, as people at markets generally aren't in a big rush to get anywhere. We also hoped that some people might have had a mulled wine or two and be more open to strange New Zealanders chatting to them!
We split the actors up into two groups.
Group 1: Tai and Andrew had an ipod with 5 tracks on it. The 5 tracks were a combination of recordings of the Chekhov monologues the actors have been working with, and text from the Anne Bogart play "Small Lives, Big Dreams"- which is a play that uses text from several Chekhov plays to smash together Chekhov characters. The monologues were recorded with gaps between each line of text, so that someone listening to the track could repeat each line back after hearing it. With a dictaphone and an ipod Andrew and Tai would approach people, have a bit of a chat with them then ask if they would be interested in listening to the ipod and repeating back each sentence as they heard it. Using the dictaphone they recorded the text as the member of the public spoke it.
Our thinking (inspired by Gob Squad's use of 'filters') behind recording members of the public speaking Chekhov text was that non-actors wouldn't try to 'perform' the text, that the reading would be more honest in this way. Feeding the lines to the person one by one meant that the reader had no idea of where the text was going, so couldn't try to express what they might have thought it was "about". A couple of the recordings start off with the reader laughing as they repeat the text, enjoying the novelty of the situation, and then a beautiful thing happens where they start listening to what the words are saying and discovering the text, at which point they drop right into the meaning of what they are saying - but without 'acting' it!
We are interested in exploring how Chekhov exists in our current space and time so Group 2: Jackie, Tom and Ben were armed with a list of questions that Willem had sourced from Chekov plays, questions such as "Do you believe in love at first sight?", "Are you talented?", "Do you love nature more than you love people?". They would approach people and ask them the questions and record the responses. They also had great success with approaching pairs and getting them to ask each other the questions.
After a few cold starts both groups figured out ways to successfully identify promising 'targets' and how to approach them.
After about an hour and a half the groups came back with 5 recordings each.
Jackie, Ben and Tom met a fantastic German woman who was quite pissed, and very happy to chat away and sing!. I will post the audio file soon, but the basic summary of the conversation was that she was there with her friend that she'd known for years and years who hated his wife and she hated her husband. She had just left (been fired from?) a job recently and was drowning her sorrows I think! She liked singing a lot, and visited rest homes to sing to people there, "For the love!". She sang a lot....
Here is a picture of Jackie, Tom and Ben and their new friends
Some really exciting recordings and I am interesting to see how we integrate this outside material into a studio space.
TP
In the morning the actors were again in a class at the mime centre, while Holly and Willem and I figured out our plan of attack for the afternoon.
The actors came out of the class buzzing, apparently it was a really awesome class. Not sure what it was, but at one point it might have involved lying on the ground and pedalling with their legs? (perhaps someone can elaborate...)
Our plan for the afternoon was to go out into the streets of Berlin and engage with members of the public using Chekhov text. We figured that a Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) would be the best place to try this, as people at markets generally aren't in a big rush to get anywhere. We also hoped that some people might have had a mulled wine or two and be more open to strange New Zealanders chatting to them!
We split the actors up into two groups.
Group 1: Tai and Andrew had an ipod with 5 tracks on it. The 5 tracks were a combination of recordings of the Chekhov monologues the actors have been working with, and text from the Anne Bogart play "Small Lives, Big Dreams"- which is a play that uses text from several Chekhov plays to smash together Chekhov characters. The monologues were recorded with gaps between each line of text, so that someone listening to the track could repeat each line back after hearing it. With a dictaphone and an ipod Andrew and Tai would approach people, have a bit of a chat with them then ask if they would be interested in listening to the ipod and repeating back each sentence as they heard it. Using the dictaphone they recorded the text as the member of the public spoke it.
Our thinking (inspired by Gob Squad's use of 'filters') behind recording members of the public speaking Chekhov text was that non-actors wouldn't try to 'perform' the text, that the reading would be more honest in this way. Feeding the lines to the person one by one meant that the reader had no idea of where the text was going, so couldn't try to express what they might have thought it was "about". A couple of the recordings start off with the reader laughing as they repeat the text, enjoying the novelty of the situation, and then a beautiful thing happens where they start listening to what the words are saying and discovering the text, at which point they drop right into the meaning of what they are saying - but without 'acting' it!
We are interested in exploring how Chekhov exists in our current space and time so Group 2: Jackie, Tom and Ben were armed with a list of questions that Willem had sourced from Chekov plays, questions such as "Do you believe in love at first sight?", "Are you talented?", "Do you love nature more than you love people?". They would approach people and ask them the questions and record the responses. They also had great success with approaching pairs and getting them to ask each other the questions.
After a few cold starts both groups figured out ways to successfully identify promising 'targets' and how to approach them.
After about an hour and a half the groups came back with 5 recordings each.
Jackie, Ben and Tom met a fantastic German woman who was quite pissed, and very happy to chat away and sing!. I will post the audio file soon, but the basic summary of the conversation was that she was there with her friend that she'd known for years and years who hated his wife and she hated her husband. She had just left (been fired from?) a job recently and was drowning her sorrows I think! She liked singing a lot, and visited rest homes to sing to people there, "For the love!". She sang a lot....
Here is a picture of Jackie, Tom and Ben and their new friends
Some really exciting recordings and I am interesting to see how we integrate this outside material into a studio space.
TP
Monday, December 19, 2011
DAY THREE: observing, observing, observing
Our third day of rehearsals.
This morning the actors joined in on a class at the mime centre, todays class was in viewpoints and suzuki technique. Luckily the class was taught in both German and English! While they did the class, Willem, Thomas and I planned the events for the rest of the day, an exploration extravaganza!
Also we had a new rehearsal venue...Willem and James' living room with the furniture taken out! PERFECT!
The mission for the next two days: to find Chekhov in Berlin!
This afternoon consisted of venturing out onto the U-Bahn while listening to a soundscape made by the ever talented sound guru Thomas Press. While listening to the soundscape they recorded their sensory journey, everything that happened around them and at what time in the soundscape they happened.
This work bought out some really exciting things; some beautifully real characters, idiosyncrasies, ways of waiting, smells, moments...things to dream around.
This was all too exciting to move on to the next planned piece of work, so the actors chose 8 of their favourite moments, and Willem and I worked them on the floor into a short piece of work: reading the moments aloud, morphing into the moment, building and layering, to add in some chekhov monologue. Andrew came forward and started his monologue, one by one the others stated their moment and morphed into it while Andrew picked up on their movement, again to build until Andrew was trying to pick up on every movement that passed him, he then says 'A lady picks her fingernails' and everyone stills and morphs into that moment. This was a very exciting small piece of work, and showed the massive potential in translating the exploration into work on the floor.
We then started to work on the idea of transitioning from the mundane/everyday to the abstract. In two groups; Tom, Ben, Jaci and Tai, Andrew, Runa. They made a five minute piece using some of their moments where they went from mundane to abstract. These pieces went from hilarious, to terrifying to intriguing all in five minutes.
We finished the day with reflection, and handing out our huge piles of reading and tasks for the evening (that's what happens when Willem, Thomas and I are able to spend two hours planning!!!)
Tomorrow, we head out to the great Berlin public to find the Chekhov in the people!
Aufregen!
xx
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Day Two
Hello blog
Hitting day two head on, starting with a very intense warm up lead by the tom jaci and me, which will probably make moving tomorrow problematic, and then our vocal warm up lead by Florien and Runa, it was great to be learning different ways of warming the voice that what I am used to.
After we got our breath back we reflected on yesterday as a company, what really stuck with me from this was a conversation around contract of space, so what is the contract we enter in to when we watch an actor on YouTube vs an actor in theatre, a preacher in a train vs a church, a performance in the street vs a paid performance.
Willem then showed us some videos which to him held a part of what postdramatic theatre is, a style of theatre in which we are going to be playing with. So what I have come to understand of this at the moment, is something around making the performer as visible as the character like giving the performer real things to meet in the space that will affect the performer, aka getting sprayed with water. Also this idea of separation of referent and reference, so taking something out of context, so when you take a pen and say it’s a toilet brush. But the most interesting part for me was the idea of where is the link for the audience in all of this post dramatic theatre? So needing that grounding in reality to allow the audience in and then to allow the rest of the abstract ideas to fly. “you cant go crazy if you don’t know what normal is” Ben had a beautiful quote around this idea or post dramatic theatre “tell the audience it’s a lie, but then wanting to believe in it, so we don’t trick them, but they trick themselves”
Then we moved on to some Laban work. This was a new way of meeting this work for me, after having only touched on this work briefly; it was great to be re visiting it, and more in depth. So in this version of Laban there is weight= light or strong, Space=direct or indirect and time= sustained or broken. Once we went through each of these we assembled them in to the parings to make the 8 Laban states, Flick, dab, thrust, press, glide, float, wring and slash.
Around these we did some very exciting improvisations from an AA meeting with wring, to naughty actors with flick. Then we took our Chekhov character monologues and went thru each state again and coloured the text in that way, which proved to have some beautiful moments, including Nina working so innocently in flick, to Sonya working very practically in press, to Andrej getting frustrated in slash.
My favourite part of the day was in Willems words, “gorilla theatre” where we had 10 minutes to explore the idea of flicking in and out of character vs performer. Where Ben and Tai had a great scene where they did a scene from Uncle Vanya where Tai was feeding Ben the lines and Ben was performing them, but had an attitude to Tai “the author”. Where Jaci and I used Tom and Tai as puppets to work thru a scene in The Seagull, and Tom, Runa and Florien improvised a scene from the Cherry Orchard and were constantly popping in and out to inform the audience of what the characters are doing, with a lovely tone of warmth.
All and all this was a very exciting and full day and the promise of an exciting day of train riding and making ahead of us tomorrow.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
DAY ONE: ON THE FLOOR
So here we are. Six New Zealanders (one being actually from the Solomon Islands), two Germans, one Candadian and one Dutchman. All in one city. Ready to go. Our first day in our beautiful rehearsal room in a renovated hospital that was saved from demolishion (thank god) and looks like a castle. Bethanien in Kreuzberg is a space filled with a diversity of art organizations, graffiti all over the interiour and one could say is the punk version of Hogwarts.
One and a half year of preparation has gone before with initially Tai and me dreaming about doing something together in Berlin. This has now ended up as a exhillirating collaboration given the task to research performance styles of Chekhov in a contemporary, postdramatic context.
I felt a wonderful mixture of excitement, anticipation and being also a bit nervous. But reflecting back on a day's work in which we met, played games, exchanged, learned from each other, showed our individual preparations, set out a working culture and contract, challenged ourselves with ideas around content, form, performance and process with specific attention to the working models of companies Gob Squad and Dood Paard, has given me a real feeling of potential what we are able to do together.
Three schools of learning and trainging (Toi Whakaari, Ernst Busch and 'the school of life') in one room and exchanging those was a fascinating experience. Because the differences are huge.
Germany with its many stadtheaters and year contracts for actors, is requiring a very refined skill set of techniques in body and voice when performing for the bigger companies here. Ernst Busch being one of the most prominent acting schools in the country, teaches its students in a four year degree through a rigourous, demanding schedule what that entails. Having witnessed classes and performances of the school, I celebrate the precision and stemina these students are showcasing in their work. You come to class and there is no small talk, you go into the work straight away. And not in your own time, from the very first minute. And then you do it again, and again. When Harry Furhmann (teacher of the school) told me that in the first years each student has one and a half hours of private voice tutoring per week, I understood how these young actors could hold their own in enourmous performance venues and a competitive environment. Having Runa and Florian in the room representing this background is a gift for us all in the project.
As I have now worked for a few years in the industry in New Zealand and recently travelled back to Europe, the actual learning that I gained from the directing course at Toi Whakaari and Victoria University is now slowly getting meaning in my practice. What I more and more appreciate from my Masters is the language of questioning, research/investigation and provocations we learned to use, that I see as absolutely essential to make and create your own work. The actors trained at Toi are able to speak to and work in that language, giving them the tools to grow as artists and performers also after they finished the course.
In this group configuration, one can see and experience how people trained at Toi are operating as organic leaders and collaborators and are extremely equipped in talking and reflecting upon their work and process. They have the means to analyze and unpack their work in sophisticated articulations, and are able to push the work further with a strong sense of purpose in a community context.
And what I as an Nordic European appreciate from the culture of New Zealand as a whole (which is an central element of the learning at the school) is the meaning of ritual, journey and community. I applaud the development of the Maori frameworks that Toi Whakaari is more and more developing that I see as being unique and artists are able to share with the rest of the world. There is a need for that here. Harry Fuhrmann has invited us to share the school's vision with the second year actors of Ernst Busch at the start of 2012. More about that later.
Back to this first day of our Chekhov project. After learning interesting (personal) things from each other and just play on the floor (good 'old' space jump and the hat game), the actors shared their images and individual compositions on the theme of waiting, sometimes in relationship to their chosen characters of Chekhov and/or plays. We saw Verhinin (Florian Steffens) waiting for his car to pick him up (being very much on display and working from the notion that he never has to wait for anything in life), Sonya (Tai Berdinner Blades) eating her morning breakfast whilst listening to music, Andrej (Thom Eason) emodying the central actions that he does during the entire play (playing the violin, reading, gambling and taking care of the baby), Jaci Gwaliasi working with the form of seperation and distortions in her body (and creating the magic of clipping wings in different parts of her body), Konstantin (Andrew Paterson) running a marathon over and over again and at the same time occupying himself with what he has to do during the day (and yes theatre is sports) and Ben Crawford sharing a story linked to his work on the character of Astrov in Uncle Vanya.
Holly, Thomas and me have been doing extensive research on the concept of postdramatic theatre (see the previous blog posting); what is exciting is how the collective is instinctively interested in the core elements of this way of looking at performance. The work is visceral, visual (images rather than text), present and immediate. A strong sense of ownership. The performer rather than 'the character' is put to the foreground, and the audience's perception in relationship to time and place is being challenged. The collective expressed the wish to investigate audience and performer relationships and also how to work with the space between actor and character in order for us to understand the power of communication in performance contexts. Finding a new balance between character, actor and dramatic situation.
The last part of the day was called LAB PLAYGROUND. Holly, Thomas and myself had layed out texts, theatre programmes, videos, soundscapes, power point presentations and images, for us all to move through, as a labarynth and a treasure hunt. It was like being in a candy shop, provoking us with we liked and did not like, what we personally agreed with or what angered us. Maybe also what unsettles us and what we do not understand. But that is ok and maybe even better. Audition monologues of young American aspiring actresses doing the famous Nina monologue from their home environment and recording it for YouTube, TED Talks on Success in relationship to Trigorin's conversation with Nina in the Seagull, and questions that Chekhov is asking the audience to think about (do you love nature more than people, are you experiencing unrequired love, are you part of the masses). Jaci had a great time in a little corner watching the shadow play of the collective's bodies on the wall whilst listening to Thomas Press' soundscape (a combination of the Berlin public transport sound and monologue recordings of all the actors in the company). She was able to create her own story and the people in it were not aware of the fact they were performing/acting/being part of that. Ben did not agree with the notion of a very famous Dutch actress that ACTING IS USING THE TEARS OF YESTERDAY, he still needs to explain why because then we got kicked out by the dance group that was using the space after us. Good lesson, in Germany you do have to keep yourself to your rehearsal times. We debriefed quickly on the stairs, and then walked home filled with a lot of impressions and questions after a first day of eight hours work. Today is day 2 and we research THE ACTOR AS PERFORMER, train in Laban and exploring a mixture of techniques from Stanislavski and Brecht. Keep you posted, also photos here tomorrow.
Some final thoughts to ponder (from our research):
One and a half year of preparation has gone before with initially Tai and me dreaming about doing something together in Berlin. This has now ended up as a exhillirating collaboration given the task to research performance styles of Chekhov in a contemporary, postdramatic context.
I felt a wonderful mixture of excitement, anticipation and being also a bit nervous. But reflecting back on a day's work in which we met, played games, exchanged, learned from each other, showed our individual preparations, set out a working culture and contract, challenged ourselves with ideas around content, form, performance and process with specific attention to the working models of companies Gob Squad and Dood Paard, has given me a real feeling of potential what we are able to do together.
Three schools of learning and trainging (Toi Whakaari, Ernst Busch and 'the school of life') in one room and exchanging those was a fascinating experience. Because the differences are huge.
Germany with its many stadtheaters and year contracts for actors, is requiring a very refined skill set of techniques in body and voice when performing for the bigger companies here. Ernst Busch being one of the most prominent acting schools in the country, teaches its students in a four year degree through a rigourous, demanding schedule what that entails. Having witnessed classes and performances of the school, I celebrate the precision and stemina these students are showcasing in their work. You come to class and there is no small talk, you go into the work straight away. And not in your own time, from the very first minute. And then you do it again, and again. When Harry Furhmann (teacher of the school) told me that in the first years each student has one and a half hours of private voice tutoring per week, I understood how these young actors could hold their own in enourmous performance venues and a competitive environment. Having Runa and Florian in the room representing this background is a gift for us all in the project.
As I have now worked for a few years in the industry in New Zealand and recently travelled back to Europe, the actual learning that I gained from the directing course at Toi Whakaari and Victoria University is now slowly getting meaning in my practice. What I more and more appreciate from my Masters is the language of questioning, research/investigation and provocations we learned to use, that I see as absolutely essential to make and create your own work. The actors trained at Toi are able to speak to and work in that language, giving them the tools to grow as artists and performers also after they finished the course.
In this group configuration, one can see and experience how people trained at Toi are operating as organic leaders and collaborators and are extremely equipped in talking and reflecting upon their work and process. They have the means to analyze and unpack their work in sophisticated articulations, and are able to push the work further with a strong sense of purpose in a community context.
And what I as an Nordic European appreciate from the culture of New Zealand as a whole (which is an central element of the learning at the school) is the meaning of ritual, journey and community. I applaud the development of the Maori frameworks that Toi Whakaari is more and more developing that I see as being unique and artists are able to share with the rest of the world. There is a need for that here. Harry Fuhrmann has invited us to share the school's vision with the second year actors of Ernst Busch at the start of 2012. More about that later.
Back to this first day of our Chekhov project. After learning interesting (personal) things from each other and just play on the floor (good 'old' space jump and the hat game), the actors shared their images and individual compositions on the theme of waiting, sometimes in relationship to their chosen characters of Chekhov and/or plays. We saw Verhinin (Florian Steffens) waiting for his car to pick him up (being very much on display and working from the notion that he never has to wait for anything in life), Sonya (Tai Berdinner Blades) eating her morning breakfast whilst listening to music, Andrej (Thom Eason) emodying the central actions that he does during the entire play (playing the violin, reading, gambling and taking care of the baby), Jaci Gwaliasi working with the form of seperation and distortions in her body (and creating the magic of clipping wings in different parts of her body), Konstantin (Andrew Paterson) running a marathon over and over again and at the same time occupying himself with what he has to do during the day (and yes theatre is sports) and Ben Crawford sharing a story linked to his work on the character of Astrov in Uncle Vanya.
Holly, Thomas and me have been doing extensive research on the concept of postdramatic theatre (see the previous blog posting); what is exciting is how the collective is instinctively interested in the core elements of this way of looking at performance. The work is visceral, visual (images rather than text), present and immediate. A strong sense of ownership. The performer rather than 'the character' is put to the foreground, and the audience's perception in relationship to time and place is being challenged. The collective expressed the wish to investigate audience and performer relationships and also how to work with the space between actor and character in order for us to understand the power of communication in performance contexts. Finding a new balance between character, actor and dramatic situation.
The last part of the day was called LAB PLAYGROUND. Holly, Thomas and myself had layed out texts, theatre programmes, videos, soundscapes, power point presentations and images, for us all to move through, as a labarynth and a treasure hunt. It was like being in a candy shop, provoking us with we liked and did not like, what we personally agreed with or what angered us. Maybe also what unsettles us and what we do not understand. But that is ok and maybe even better. Audition monologues of young American aspiring actresses doing the famous Nina monologue from their home environment and recording it for YouTube, TED Talks on Success in relationship to Trigorin's conversation with Nina in the Seagull, and questions that Chekhov is asking the audience to think about (do you love nature more than people, are you experiencing unrequired love, are you part of the masses). Jaci had a great time in a little corner watching the shadow play of the collective's bodies on the wall whilst listening to Thomas Press' soundscape (a combination of the Berlin public transport sound and monologue recordings of all the actors in the company). She was able to create her own story and the people in it were not aware of the fact they were performing/acting/being part of that. Ben did not agree with the notion of a very famous Dutch actress that ACTING IS USING THE TEARS OF YESTERDAY, he still needs to explain why because then we got kicked out by the dance group that was using the space after us. Good lesson, in Germany you do have to keep yourself to your rehearsal times. We debriefed quickly on the stairs, and then walked home filled with a lot of impressions and questions after a first day of eight hours work. Today is day 2 and we research THE ACTOR AS PERFORMER, train in Laban and exploring a mixture of techniques from Stanislavski and Brecht. Keep you posted, also photos here tomorrow.
Some final thoughts to ponder (from our research):
* AN EMANCIPATED COMMUNITY IS A COMMUNITY OF STORYTELLERS AND TRANSLATORS.
* AN ACTOR IS NEVER ALLOWED TO HIDE BEHIND THE FOURTH WALL.
* LET THE AUDIENCE BE A SCIENTIST OR A DETECTIVE. PRESENT THEM WITH SOMETHING STRANGE AND LET THEM SEEK FOR THE CAUSE AND CREATE THEIR OWN DRAMATURGY.
* PRESENCE VERSUS REPRESENTATION
* PEOPLE WANT TWO THINGS IN LIFE. TO FUCK AND TO KILL.
* EXPERIENCING/BEING VERSUS POSING/BEHAVING
* WHAT HAPPENS IN A THEATRE BETWEEN AUDIENCE AND PERFORMERS THAT YOU CANNOT FIND ANYWHERE ELSE, NOT IN CINEMA AND NOT IN TELEVISION?
* POSTDRAMATIC AND THE CLASSICS/THE BIG NARRATIVES. A PARADOX?
* I CAN NOT ACT, BECAUSE I AM NOT AN ACTOR.
* BOTH THE INTELLECT AND THE SENSES NEED STIMULATION FOR THE IMAGINATION TO FIRE.
* CAN YOU PLEASE SHOW ME EVERYTHING AND NOT JUST THE ILLUSION?
* PSYCHOLOGICALLY CREATED CHARACTERS ARE DEAD OR DYING.
* WHAT IS THE POINT OF JUST PRETENDING?
* WHY WOULD ONE SPEAK A TEXT WHICH IS NOT CREATED BY THE SPEAKER, BUT MEMORIZED BY HIM?
* IT IS PERHAPS A STUPID CLICHE, BUT I ALWAYS FALL FOR IT, THAT THE REAL PERSON HAS SOMETHING THAT CONNECTS US ALL. SOMETHING WEIRDLY INNOCENT.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
POSTDRAMATIC QUESTIONING
One week to go.
As we are gearing up for our research project, I have become more and more fascinated by the concept of theatre as a place for telling stories, and especially how to do that in a postdramatic context. Postdramatic in a radical sense means to throw away the story, let go of a character and dramatic situation in order for a genuine, immediate communication to exist between the art work and its recipients. In an age where more and more people have access to share and distribute their own stories, why would we bother with performing the classics, like Chekhov?
Almost performance art in itself, I was looking at YouTube clips of audition monologues of Chekhov characters. I came across this one:
Whether the actor is doing a good or bad job at this monologue of Konstantin in The Seagull is irrelevant, more interesting is that a classic monologue of Chekhov finds its way on the electronic highway of the Internet and a distribution channel like YouTube, very much a feature of our time. And other questions that pop in my mind: Why would one speak a text which is not created by the speaker, but merely memorized by him? And how is it a convention which insists that a written text can contain a hidden character, and that the speaking of the text can create dramatic situations? From the perspective of postdramatic theatre, this convention is considered an embarrassing pretence, and an obvious manipulation of the audience.
To invite audiences into a an arena where we create other worlds at the best of our abilities whilst 'hiding' behind the mask and facade of a character and story, keeps circling in my mind. Theatre should be a place where both performers and spectators are activated, and where the audience has a place to create their own dramaturgy, to work as co-authors of the work and where a collective community is figuring something out in the here and now. But how to do that? And with a canonical play like Three Sisters?
The companies Dood Paard and Gob Squad are researching these territories in their own ways.
Dood Paard, from Holland and operating as an actors collective, is adapting and restaging classics in a way I find utterly engaging and challenging. They tear these stories up, deconstruct them, clash them with pop culture and perform them in a simplicity and purity that has an intelligent audience hooked. The actors do not act, they perform. Their shows and especially MedEia are stripped away from every cliche of performance or melodrama, yet are wonderfully theatrical. According to Dood Paard, an audience should always feel the presence of the actor rather than the character; by which I mean the WORKING actor, the professional. I find this notion so much more helpful than thinking that we need to be ourselves on stage. What does that mean? Be ourselves? A company has a job to do in the theatre, whether is as an operator, designer, director, stage manager or an actor. Why should the actor ignore this context in order to be truthful?
Therefore Dood Paard is constantly relating to the actual presence of an audience, constantly navigating and fuelling the space between. Always trying to have eye contact and create a relationship. An audience of Dood Paard never stays anonymous. Text might be a limited way of expressing things in our visual world, but this company loves language and knows how to perform this in a way where you feel their responsibility and purpose on stage.
Gob Squad is a collective from Berlin that have created performance experiences rather than 'plays' for their audiences. Gob Squad performers always try to work from their own material. Seeking their own relationship to phenomena in an urban landscape, they have created work in a hotel, on the street, trainstations, the theatre, etc. They use their own names on stage and make themselves visible within a structure of tasks, restrictions and games, in which they are finding ways of interacting with an audience. The first time I met Gob Squad was in the Volksbuehne of Berlin with their mindblowing performance of KITCHEN, in which they collaborated with the audience to relive and recreate the 1960s arts scene of Any Warhol in New York.
Yesterday I went to their show ARE YOU WITH US at Hau Theatre in Berlin. After 15 years of working together, the collective wanted to stage a live therapy session with themselves on stage. This provocation could be done in a very indulgent way, even more considering the four hours length of the show. Billed as a duration performance however, the audience witnessed the performers dress up for different sections whithin their therapy extravaganza. Dressed up as stewards, hippies, bogans, drag queens, young urban professionals, they searched within these staged compositions for individual truth around topics as dreams, relationships, hopes and integrity. I especially appreciated how though being overly theatrical in their costuming and performance set, they were able to contrast this with very personal, honest expressions and opinions. And as they questioned themselves and challenged their own sensibilities as artists, collaborators and human beings, we did the same in the audience. Using this clever playground, I was part of a whole young audience who engaged themselves with something that I would call reality theatre. As an audience member, you were given permission and allowance to lie down on pillows and watch, get out of the theatre to have a smoke, get some drinks and go to the toilet. This theatre or better an event could not been found on television or cinema, and operated as an open structure which did not imprison but liberate.
Back to Chekhov. I am convinced of the universal power of his plays and the relevance to be found in our current, contemporary world. But there is an interesting paradox here. Chekhov was born in 1860 and wrote his masterpieces around 1900 and situated them in provincial Russia. We are a collective consisting out of Dutch, German and New Zealand practicioners, born in the 1980s and 1990s and are investigating the urban landscape of Berlin through a Chekhovian lense. How to expose our world and our questions with a text that was written more than 100 years ago? How to turn that into an event and an experience for the company AND the audience to work something out in the present moment? How to care for and respect a text, but at the same time rework it for its potential to shine in a postdramatic context?
Director Robert Wilson seems to have found his answer in a combination of silent film and radio play. I leave you with his quote and one of the German performers Runa Schaefer speaking texts of Three Sisters at a Berlin trainstation. Keep you posted.
As we are gearing up for our research project, I have become more and more fascinated by the concept of theatre as a place for telling stories, and especially how to do that in a postdramatic context. Postdramatic in a radical sense means to throw away the story, let go of a character and dramatic situation in order for a genuine, immediate communication to exist between the art work and its recipients. In an age where more and more people have access to share and distribute their own stories, why would we bother with performing the classics, like Chekhov?
Almost performance art in itself, I was looking at YouTube clips of audition monologues of Chekhov characters. I came across this one:
Whether the actor is doing a good or bad job at this monologue of Konstantin in The Seagull is irrelevant, more interesting is that a classic monologue of Chekhov finds its way on the electronic highway of the Internet and a distribution channel like YouTube, very much a feature of our time. And other questions that pop in my mind: Why would one speak a text which is not created by the speaker, but merely memorized by him? And how is it a convention which insists that a written text can contain a hidden character, and that the speaking of the text can create dramatic situations? From the perspective of postdramatic theatre, this convention is considered an embarrassing pretence, and an obvious manipulation of the audience.
To invite audiences into a an arena where we create other worlds at the best of our abilities whilst 'hiding' behind the mask and facade of a character and story, keeps circling in my mind. Theatre should be a place where both performers and spectators are activated, and where the audience has a place to create their own dramaturgy, to work as co-authors of the work and where a collective community is figuring something out in the here and now. But how to do that? And with a canonical play like Three Sisters?
The companies Dood Paard and Gob Squad are researching these territories in their own ways.
Dood Paard, from Holland and operating as an actors collective, is adapting and restaging classics in a way I find utterly engaging and challenging. They tear these stories up, deconstruct them, clash them with pop culture and perform them in a simplicity and purity that has an intelligent audience hooked. The actors do not act, they perform. Their shows and especially MedEia are stripped away from every cliche of performance or melodrama, yet are wonderfully theatrical. According to Dood Paard, an audience should always feel the presence of the actor rather than the character; by which I mean the WORKING actor, the professional. I find this notion so much more helpful than thinking that we need to be ourselves on stage. What does that mean? Be ourselves? A company has a job to do in the theatre, whether is as an operator, designer, director, stage manager or an actor. Why should the actor ignore this context in order to be truthful?
Therefore Dood Paard is constantly relating to the actual presence of an audience, constantly navigating and fuelling the space between. Always trying to have eye contact and create a relationship. An audience of Dood Paard never stays anonymous. Text might be a limited way of expressing things in our visual world, but this company loves language and knows how to perform this in a way where you feel their responsibility and purpose on stage.
Gob Squad is a collective from Berlin that have created performance experiences rather than 'plays' for their audiences. Gob Squad performers always try to work from their own material. Seeking their own relationship to phenomena in an urban landscape, they have created work in a hotel, on the street, trainstations, the theatre, etc. They use their own names on stage and make themselves visible within a structure of tasks, restrictions and games, in which they are finding ways of interacting with an audience. The first time I met Gob Squad was in the Volksbuehne of Berlin with their mindblowing performance of KITCHEN, in which they collaborated with the audience to relive and recreate the 1960s arts scene of Any Warhol in New York.
Yesterday I went to their show ARE YOU WITH US at Hau Theatre in Berlin. After 15 years of working together, the collective wanted to stage a live therapy session with themselves on stage. This provocation could be done in a very indulgent way, even more considering the four hours length of the show. Billed as a duration performance however, the audience witnessed the performers dress up for different sections whithin their therapy extravaganza. Dressed up as stewards, hippies, bogans, drag queens, young urban professionals, they searched within these staged compositions for individual truth around topics as dreams, relationships, hopes and integrity. I especially appreciated how though being overly theatrical in their costuming and performance set, they were able to contrast this with very personal, honest expressions and opinions. And as they questioned themselves and challenged their own sensibilities as artists, collaborators and human beings, we did the same in the audience. Using this clever playground, I was part of a whole young audience who engaged themselves with something that I would call reality theatre. As an audience member, you were given permission and allowance to lie down on pillows and watch, get out of the theatre to have a smoke, get some drinks and go to the toilet. This theatre or better an event could not been found on television or cinema, and operated as an open structure which did not imprison but liberate.
Back to Chekhov. I am convinced of the universal power of his plays and the relevance to be found in our current, contemporary world. But there is an interesting paradox here. Chekhov was born in 1860 and wrote his masterpieces around 1900 and situated them in provincial Russia. We are a collective consisting out of Dutch, German and New Zealand practicioners, born in the 1980s and 1990s and are investigating the urban landscape of Berlin through a Chekhovian lense. How to expose our world and our questions with a text that was written more than 100 years ago? How to turn that into an event and an experience for the company AND the audience to work something out in the present moment? How to care for and respect a text, but at the same time rework it for its potential to shine in a postdramatic context?
Director Robert Wilson seems to have found his answer in a combination of silent film and radio play. I leave you with his quote and one of the German performers Runa Schaefer speaking texts of Three Sisters at a Berlin trainstation. Keep you posted.
“If you take a silent movie, you can only see the text, but you can still think about how it sounds. There is much space for the listener because we can hear the sound of text in our imagination. If we take a radio play, the boundaries of the images are limitless because we can imagine whatever we want. There’s a voice in both and there’s an image in both: one is external, one is internal. In a sense what I am doing is like trying to take the radio drama and the silent film, and place the radio’s voice over the visual image.”
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
THE SHOOT
Photos taken by photographer Michelle Ny at the Wellington trainstation. Michelle's email: michelle.nyny@gmail.com, her portfolio online: http://cargocollective.com/momography.
In photo: Jaci Gwaliasi, Andrew Paterson, Thomas Eason, Tai Berdinner Blades.
THE PROJECT
ICH WARTE
Chekhov, Berlin and Waiting
With this blog we want to keep you informed about our findings and keep you updated about the latest news concerning our project. Watch this space.
Students of Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School (Wellington, New Zealand) and Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch (Berlin, Germany) work for a month together with Berlin based theatre makers Willem Wassenaar and Thomas Press on the project WARTEN. As a collective, TRANSISTOR THEATRE investigates in this project architecture, the plays of Anton Chekhov and the theme of waiting. Working with visceral sound elements, TRANSISTOR THEATRE puts Chekhov's characters, contexts and situations in the urban landscape of Berlin and amongst its citizens.
ICH WARTE is in English and part of a series of presentations. Presentations of the performance research take place in a studio environment of the Mime Centrum in Kreuzberg, site specific in a house in Spandau and the public transport system of Berlin, and in a black box theatre of the Brotfabrik, Prenzlauerberg.
Chekhov's characters yearn for a better life. They express their inner hopes and dreams, but are crippled by their relationship to the past, present and future. In a territory of isolation and suspense, they seem incapable to move forward. They wait. The collective explores this space before the action and is particularly interested how this evolves in surreal experiences of time and place.
In this performance lab, the collective commits itself to perform Chekhov in a postdramatic, contemporary context. We ask ourselves the following questions:
* How can we as a collective test audience and performer relationships so the audience becomes invested, involved and responsible?
* How to create theatre as an event, rather than a conventional, rigid form that dictates the journey from beginning to end?
* How to work with the spectrum between the actor as a private person and the role he/she is playing? How to work from the idea of a performer rather than an actor and how to do this with classic texts by Chekhov? How to work with different techniques of storytelling for this to happen?
* How to work site specific and with the idea of dissapearing in an environment; letting the audience discover and find us?
* How can we achieve a more long term orientated focus in our work, rather than the instant hit, the instant satisfaction? How can we stretch an experience in order for the pay off to be extremely rewarding? How to go against our personal and cultural tendencies to consume and to please within a short amount of time?
TRANSISTOR COLLECTIVE - ICH WARTE IS Tai Berdinner Blades, Andrew Paterson, Florian Steffens, Runa Schaefer, Ben Crawford, Thomas Eason, Thomas Press, Holly Chappell, Jaci Gwaliasi, Willem Wassenaar
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)