1. The ‘R’ (research/resource) in Porto is the stage of discovering your character within the piece.
In means of discovering your character in Porto you need to look back at the ways which help the individual find it, discovering the character development is done through their personal memories, and also building the characters heightened emotions by engaging with other people in the devised work. A majority of Porto’s research is mainly from everyday life experience.
‘To value theatre is to value life, not to escape from it. The everyday is at once the most habitual and demanding dimension of life which theatre has most responsibility to.’ (Read A, Theatre & Everyday Life, pg 103)
The ‘S’ (score) in Porto is using the research in the development stage for the character. The people in Porto have o make the stage they are on their world, a sense that the outside world does not matter anymore, but what is going on inside the space that is being used.
‘Each person must become an ingredient in the mixing of a piece…Social conventions, routine habits of polite or impolite daily life; suppress the sensory and imaginative world from which this begins. Normal social selves must be shed and attention re-directed to the work as a whole’.
(Tufnell, Crickmay.C, Body Space Image, pg 73).
2. As Porto is starting to be scored, there is a narrative emerging from the work. The original idea of people engaging with other peoples stimuli is because of the similarities between them which creates a relationship. There are two ensembles within the work which give examples of these, the first which is the Train scene.
The train scene involves people who can only show a relationship with each other, this is done through body language and eye contact. Although the particular scene it may be based on a train, it may also relate to other things such as relationships and arguments being in a house, on the street. These everyday movements (pedestrian) are used vastly.
The second ensemble is of the Photo group. A character only seems to communicate with another, if they share the same type of relationship between the photo and themselves. All the characters in the Photo group have the same similarities between themselves and the photo they hold, but only communicate through an emotional awareness.
‘For the phenomenologist, the human body is not in space but of space , a crucial perception from which it follows that an individual’s relationship with the world is manifested not as a series of linguistic signs, but as sensory, somatic and mental phenomena.’ (Murray.S, Keefe.J, Physical Theatres, A Critical Introduction, pg 25).
The work seems to offer a rather productive way of beginning to grasp a deep structure within the work of Porto.
3. With my own character in Porto, I have learnt to release my emotion. Whilst I was in the ‘R’ phase of the work, I was able to grasp ideas of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to communicate but I was not able to do neither because of my thoughts being so exterior and not making my characters relationship in the space I was given.
The result of my ‘R’ stage in Porto has affected my ‘S’ stage in Porto drastically, ruling out a majority of my emotional development to nothingness and starting all over again, which has made it harder for me to catch up with in the devised piece.
My change in character within the work is due to the stimuli I have, this is because my character is destined to be alone as I am already uncomfortable with being in my characters skin, because of the contents in my bag.
The work which I am now developing is not what I am able to do physically but how the character can function emotionally, this will be a much bigger challenge for me, as I am already uncomfortable in front of everyone with my Prayer Mat and Book, it is a very private part of my life which is already within its emotional context.
Bibliography
Murray Simon, Keefe John (2007), Physical Theatres - A Critical Introduction: Routledge, USA.
Oddey Alison, (1994), Devising Theatre – A practical and theoretical handbook: Routledge, London.
Read Alan, (1993) Theatre & Everyday Life, An Ethics of Performance:
USA, Routledge.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Assessment Blog Task 3 - Sandy Pooni
During the devising process of Porto, we’ve implemented the RSVP framework, with the ‘R’ standing for research/resource, which for me was initiated through the making of our palette where we had learnt our techniques and forms, from this I gradually started to mould myself into my character, through acting on our impulse ‘The first step in exploring your physicality should be awareness.’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg 11) , and the smallest things such as slouching my back, or a gesture that represented something about my character and what it is that motivated her ‘…sense how you actually move, what your patterns are, where the automatic responses are’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg 11) . This was part of my research to help me develop my understanding of where my character had come from, what her intentions were, and how she was aiming to reach them within Porto, and whether or not this could be achieved, however I could only enable and certify that once we’d moved into the ‘S’ phase of our RSVP formation, which is scoring, whereby its beginning to allow a narrative of some sort to start to appear and is more structured and less to do with having elbowroom to do just anything, the intensity and meaning is now the focus. It’s the developing and refining of what you have, and yet still allowing for fundamentals to be added in, or taken out. The objective of this is for the growth of the character and allows for them to continue their journey to their destination is and also to add intensity and give it depth and help to develop the emotional aspect of that character, ‘There is simply no place for physical muttering or meandering; no room for haphazard movement, made in hopes that the audience will be able to second guess the meaning of the moment’ (Dennis, A, 1995…pg 18). Although this isn’t completely set in stone, but as an overview for the character allows you to understand where your character is coming from, and wanting to go to.
I think that now through the scoring process of Porto, a structure is evidently shown, but in many different ways, the community within Porto all have a common ground in the sense they’re all on a journey, but however they aren’t much of an entity in other sense however, as individually each character is overcoming a different barrier but yet are all striving for a similar resolution. This is evident in the switching in and out of the ensemble and the breaking into sub-sections and then the explorations of the relationships within those sub-groups. And through the costume, there is nothing as of yet that each member of the community are wearing that represents anything about us as a community, i.e:- all wearing black, all wearing a bracelet, instead the costume is another form of visual representation of their identity.
At the ‘R’ stage my character wasn’t one to express any sort of emotion whatsoever, and would consciously be submissive to other members within the community during the improvised ‘play’ sessions, and I think that was down to her own state of mind, because she herself didn’t know whether she served a purpose in life, whether at home, work or anywhere and so its almost that she felt she couldn’t connect with others because she didn’t know how to convey this. In terms of the physicality of my character during the ‘R’ phase, she was very rigid and everything was pushed forward, downward to the ground, and she very rarely looked up, and this is just what my body sort of told me to do, ‘In any situation, you will begin to ‘hear ’subtle physical reactions, and become aware of half-formed urges within your body.’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg 31).
But now through the scoring phase, she’s breaking free from her past, and by disposing of the photo’s ‘…a stimulus that will provoke an impulse for us to follow.’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg34), to her it symbolises starting a fresh and enabling her to re-discover who she is again and connecting emotionally with others, now she’s open to engaging with others within the community, and in terms of her physical stance its less taut, she’s more relaxed, the shoulders are now soft and light and more freely moveable, and the pelvis is pushed slightly more backward. Also through the scoring, the ability to add that emotional content has amplified what she is about and I think that is evidently projected now. ‘If your body does not truly reflect the world of the world of the performance and the complexity of the people and ideas in that world, the audience cannot experience it’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg 9)
Bibliography
Alberts, D (1997) The Expressive Body: Physical Characterization for the Actor
Dennis, A, (1995) The Articulate Body: The Physical Training of the Actor
Keefe, J & Murray, S, (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader
Marshall, L, (2001) The Body Speaks: Performance and Expression
Zarrilli, P (2002) Acting (Re-Considered) – A Theoretical and Practical Guide
I think that now through the scoring process of Porto, a structure is evidently shown, but in many different ways, the community within Porto all have a common ground in the sense they’re all on a journey, but however they aren’t much of an entity in other sense however, as individually each character is overcoming a different barrier but yet are all striving for a similar resolution. This is evident in the switching in and out of the ensemble and the breaking into sub-sections and then the explorations of the relationships within those sub-groups. And through the costume, there is nothing as of yet that each member of the community are wearing that represents anything about us as a community, i.e:- all wearing black, all wearing a bracelet, instead the costume is another form of visual representation of their identity.
At the ‘R’ stage my character wasn’t one to express any sort of emotion whatsoever, and would consciously be submissive to other members within the community during the improvised ‘play’ sessions, and I think that was down to her own state of mind, because she herself didn’t know whether she served a purpose in life, whether at home, work or anywhere and so its almost that she felt she couldn’t connect with others because she didn’t know how to convey this. In terms of the physicality of my character during the ‘R’ phase, she was very rigid and everything was pushed forward, downward to the ground, and she very rarely looked up, and this is just what my body sort of told me to do, ‘In any situation, you will begin to ‘hear ’subtle physical reactions, and become aware of half-formed urges within your body.’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg 31).
But now through the scoring phase, she’s breaking free from her past, and by disposing of the photo’s ‘…a stimulus that will provoke an impulse for us to follow.’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg34), to her it symbolises starting a fresh and enabling her to re-discover who she is again and connecting emotionally with others, now she’s open to engaging with others within the community, and in terms of her physical stance its less taut, she’s more relaxed, the shoulders are now soft and light and more freely moveable, and the pelvis is pushed slightly more backward. Also through the scoring, the ability to add that emotional content has amplified what she is about and I think that is evidently projected now. ‘If your body does not truly reflect the world of the world of the performance and the complexity of the people and ideas in that world, the audience cannot experience it’ (Marshall, L, 2001…pg 9)
Bibliography
Alberts, D (1997) The Expressive Body: Physical Characterization for the Actor
Dennis, A, (1995) The Articulate Body: The Physical Training of the Actor
Keefe, J & Murray, S, (2007) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader
Marshall, L, (2001) The Body Speaks: Performance and Expression
Zarrilli, P (2002) Acting (Re-Considered) – A Theoretical and Practical Guide
task 3- David Jackson
1) Porto is about a journey and the first stage of our journey was the research the group’s main focus within this research period is really just playing getting to know our individual characters how we interact with one another and mainly to test our physical abilities with in an open space. The research part is very important as it is about increasing the identity further and getting us to the same level and understanding and finding out naturalistic interactions and making the Porto community grow. This is the time within a piece to not be safe in what we produce “physical training is the process leading to creative freedom rather than perspective set of techniques. Its purpose is to enable actors to become more transformable and more expressive”. Callery D2001 page 1: practical Guide to Physical Theatre (Theatre Arts (Rutledge Paperback). So it is our chance to be creative whilst in the process and research phase
Then once the research/resource stage is completed we move onto the score stage when outside eyes and the ensemble begin to develop the interactions also reassessing individual parts and group collaborations. Effectively the piece begins to take form and Porto has a stronger identity
2) The structure of the piece seems to be about different characters, personalities and relationships confined within one space, being brought into somewhere but somehow not being able to get out. The main narrative within Porto I feel is between Jai and Nicolas character and Blake and Amy here there situation seems a lot more complex and their relationship throughout is quite fast paced loud which brings a different element to Porto and seem more surreal. The use of repetition within the sections also shows unity within the ensemble and that new characters are falling into a way of life losing personal identities. Further more this helps make the narrative clearer that we are all the same we all came in here with a problem and are looking for a way out; even though some of us try to break out we get bought back in. The main focus is around relationships at the moment s like mine, Gina and Antoinette’s love triangle and Gavin and Amy’s which are quite similar which again shows we are all the same. We need to be clever when doing this as with physical theatre “The key distinguishing factor is a focus on narrative, character and storytelling”.
3) From the research stage I thought that I had a strong character. However through the ensemble work and group work my character has changed a lot. On the contrary I was not thinking about my emotional side very much I was stuck in the trap of thinking if I walked a certain way or interacted with another person then I would be conveying what was on my mind but I was not being true to myself so I went back to the research stage
and questioned myself and literally asked myself what is my character feeling within Porto if I felt distant from everyone else maybe its my character that feels separate so I when we went back to the ensemble pieces I knew to show I alone within a mass and it related to Paul's voice over when he said “Have you ever felt alone in a crowd?”. Which is what my character truly believes? Because no one relates to his message I am trying to share. So for now on I will ask myself would my character do this. Who would he talk to within the ensemble? And then through interactions with others my questioned will be answered. I feel that I need to get into my character more take risk and let go.
Bibliography:
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body, A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London, Routledge
http://www.blackfishacademy.com/physical.htm
Then once the research/resource stage is completed we move onto the score stage when outside eyes and the ensemble begin to develop the interactions also reassessing individual parts and group collaborations. Effectively the piece begins to take form and Porto has a stronger identity
2) The structure of the piece seems to be about different characters, personalities and relationships confined within one space, being brought into somewhere but somehow not being able to get out. The main narrative within Porto I feel is between Jai and Nicolas character and Blake and Amy here there situation seems a lot more complex and their relationship throughout is quite fast paced loud which brings a different element to Porto and seem more surreal. The use of repetition within the sections also shows unity within the ensemble and that new characters are falling into a way of life losing personal identities. Further more this helps make the narrative clearer that we are all the same we all came in here with a problem and are looking for a way out; even though some of us try to break out we get bought back in. The main focus is around relationships at the moment s like mine, Gina and Antoinette’s love triangle and Gavin and Amy’s which are quite similar which again shows we are all the same. We need to be clever when doing this as with physical theatre “The key distinguishing factor is a focus on narrative, character and storytelling”.
3) From the research stage I thought that I had a strong character. However through the ensemble work and group work my character has changed a lot. On the contrary I was not thinking about my emotional side very much I was stuck in the trap of thinking if I walked a certain way or interacted with another person then I would be conveying what was on my mind but I was not being true to myself so I went back to the research stage
and questioned myself and literally asked myself what is my character feeling within Porto if I felt distant from everyone else maybe its my character that feels separate so I when we went back to the ensemble pieces I knew to show I alone within a mass and it related to Paul's voice over when he said “Have you ever felt alone in a crowd?”. Which is what my character truly believes? Because no one relates to his message I am trying to share. So for now on I will ask myself would my character do this. Who would he talk to within the ensemble? And then through interactions with others my questioned will be answered. I feel that I need to get into my character more take risk and let go.
Bibliography:
Callery, D. (2001) Through the Body, A Practical Guide to Physical Theatre. London, Routledge
http://www.blackfishacademy.com/physical.htm
Task 3: Posted on behalf of Natalie McCalla
During the devising of Porto we have been working through a process. This process consists of different stages of the RSVP model. Porto has developed from a series of images that were introduced to us at the beginning of our journeys. Currently we have been working on the ‘R’ stage of the model. The ‘R’ represents the research phase of the devising process; so far a lot the research has been individual and has consisted the development of our own personal journey of our character through out Porto. Also within this journey we have been asked to work in small groups, the group that I am in has been formed because we are linked together by the item in our bags. As oddey states:
Devised theatre can start from anything. It was determined and defined by a group of people who set initial framework or structure to explore and experiment with ideas, images, concepts, themes, or specific stimuli. (Oddey, 1996, p.1).
This quote helps to define our journey of Porto from the begging, where we started by using different images as a stimulus to now where we are experimenting with different ideas. Now that we have grasped the `R` phase we can move onto `S` phase of the model. The transaction from `R` to `S` seems to be not to be done chronologically, but this direction of work as seemed to work out in our favour.
As a whole I would say that there is not yet a structure to what we are doing. As I am in the photo group we are beginning to form stories and relationships together. Currently at the moment we are having a few problems as a group with trying to create a structured narrative. Once we have a concrete structure, it will be easier for our characters to develop to a much higher level than it is at the moment. Within Porto there is a substantial amount of ensemble work. The ensemble work at the moment seems to be one of the strongest sections at this point. This may be because we have spent a bit more time rehearsing and developing this, and because we are doing certain sections together it is looking very affective. Characters within the ensemble work are looking much clearer. In the individual sections we just need to rehearse a lot more for us to become more familiar with what we are doing. As we do this our characters and relations with others will become far more in-depth than it is at present.
My character has taken long to get to where it is now, and there is still a lot of room for my character to grow. The growth of my character will come with more rehearsal and as I take time to think about the journey of my character. My transaction from the `R`to `S` phase has happened gradually. This didn’t happen as quickly as I would have liked it to. I began to notice the transaction from one phase to another after I had a tutorial. After this it made me a wear that I had to think about where I was going with my character, what was my purpose, and I began to think about If I interacted with others, and if I did interact with them why and how was this done. As I took time to focus on these points my character began to develop much faster. I could now see physically that my character was changing and the more I was in character the easier this became; I am also beginning to feel an emotional connection to my character.
Bibliography
Oddey, A (1996).Devising theatre practical and theoretical hand book/
Devised theatre can start from anything. It was determined and defined by a group of people who set initial framework or structure to explore and experiment with ideas, images, concepts, themes, or specific stimuli. (Oddey, 1996, p.1).
This quote helps to define our journey of Porto from the begging, where we started by using different images as a stimulus to now where we are experimenting with different ideas. Now that we have grasped the `R` phase we can move onto `S` phase of the model. The transaction from `R` to `S` seems to be not to be done chronologically, but this direction of work as seemed to work out in our favour.
As a whole I would say that there is not yet a structure to what we are doing. As I am in the photo group we are beginning to form stories and relationships together. Currently at the moment we are having a few problems as a group with trying to create a structured narrative. Once we have a concrete structure, it will be easier for our characters to develop to a much higher level than it is at the moment. Within Porto there is a substantial amount of ensemble work. The ensemble work at the moment seems to be one of the strongest sections at this point. This may be because we have spent a bit more time rehearsing and developing this, and because we are doing certain sections together it is looking very affective. Characters within the ensemble work are looking much clearer. In the individual sections we just need to rehearse a lot more for us to become more familiar with what we are doing. As we do this our characters and relations with others will become far more in-depth than it is at present.
My character has taken long to get to where it is now, and there is still a lot of room for my character to grow. The growth of my character will come with more rehearsal and as I take time to think about the journey of my character. My transaction from the `R`to `S` phase has happened gradually. This didn’t happen as quickly as I would have liked it to. I began to notice the transaction from one phase to another after I had a tutorial. After this it made me a wear that I had to think about where I was going with my character, what was my purpose, and I began to think about If I interacted with others, and if I did interact with them why and how was this done. As I took time to focus on these points my character began to develop much faster. I could now see physically that my character was changing and the more I was in character the easier this became; I am also beginning to feel an emotional connection to my character.
Bibliography
Oddey, A (1996).Devising theatre practical and theoretical hand book/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)