1. During the transition stage from ‘validating’ to ‘performing’ Porto, it became visible that each individual character had a specific issue or problem they had to deal with throughout their journey through the liminal space. Each character had luggage, personal items as well as emotional baggage, with the common theme being whether or not characters wished to share them with others. Other themes such as loneliness, jealousy and wanting to belong became more apparent with particular reference to Sarah, Gavin and Amy’s characters, as they seemed to have been continuously struggling to fight for each other’s attention throughout the performance.
The opening ensemble section in which we all repeated a series of gestures were all based on ‘waiting’ and how we all had something in common with each other, being stuck in this unknown place.
A theme I noticed during the process was the curiosity of many of the characters. My character was adamant to find out what the contents of Nicole and Sarah Pierpoint’s bags were, as well as the community as a whole constantly wondering who Nicola’s character was and why she behaved in the way she did.
A minority of the group dealt with memories and life before Porto with great imagery of Sandy’s character tearing apart her photo album. This was followed by each character in the photo group walking over those photos and also reminiscing on the past with their individual photo’s and memories.
The idea of loneliness and not being able to fit in occured with some characters such as Waqar, Natalie and Sandy. These characters seemed to go on their own individual journeys but didn't seem to be able to mould in and interact with others.
The main common ground which all the characters related to was the importance of their items and as Porto progressed each individual's connections to their belongings changed. Personally I became more erractic and possessive over my camera nearer to the end of the performance.
2. Moving from the drama studio’s into the Arena Theatre was fairly challenging, mainly due to the fact that we were all used to the routine of performing within a smaller space. Being able to have 2 days in which we were able to perform and rehearse before performing to the public enabled us to explore and block the space in relation to where each character was placed onstage during moments in the periphery. We also made sure we knew how far downstage we were able to go in relation to the audience’s perspectives. It was evident that the Arena space was much more suited to Porto as with so many cast members it meant that sections such as the 2nd ensemble piece were much more precise. The depth to the Arena space meant each character had more space to move their bodies around freely without worrying about injuring anybody else.
From a scenographical view, the performance only required our chairs and lighting so we had more time to rehearse and get used to having more space to explore. A weakness of the transition was staging the chairs in the correct places for each particular section that was taking place centre-stage. Transitions from one section to another were difficult because at times chairs were not in the specific places they should have been, making it look untidy when characters had to move chairs quickly so that the following section could be performed. Even during the final peformance characters were having to travel across the whole of the stage to get chairs for the ensemble reprise.
When exploring the technical side of Porto and sorting out all the cue’s, it meant that some characters had to leave from centre-stage into different areas of the periphery implicating that they may have had to sacrifice smaller interactions.
Dymphna Callery states 'When everything comes from the actors, what happens in performance is determined by what happens in rehearsal, and accidental discoveries are part of that’ (D, Callery, 2001, p168)
For me although I lost some minor interactions, I was also able to discover completely new interactions with Zara and Emilia’s characters during the initial rehearsals within the Arena space. This gave me the oppoutunity to explore my character in much more depth and experiment with my characters persistent picture taking within the periphery with these characters who actually wanted to be photographed.
3. It was evident to me that over the 3 shows the ensemble had grown dramatically and performers had become more confident in their characters. There was a stronger sense of ensemble during the final performance because we had all gained a better understanding of the community and the rountines we were performing.
Personally I was still learning new things about my character during the final show for example why my character was so interested in photographing intimate moments? I came to the conclusion that my character had no real concept of reality and was living her life through these photo’s which also lead me to believe she was a very lonely individual with her only real comfort being her camera.
Characteristics and nervous idiosyncrasies that I had employed on my character, such as scratching and playing with my glasses began to get more erratic and I really began to embrace and explore different physical behaviours of my character. My character was never a highly physical character, I don’t think it was ever in my characters nature to be particularly close to anyone and I felt like my character was somewhat more expressive with her eyes and facial expressions. Through the journey my character has evolved from someone who was quite hard to understand into someone who's intentions became more clearer and her dependancy on her camera being the focal part of her existence. My character was obsessed with prying into the relationships of others and whilst in the periphery kept a firm watch over the sections happening centre stage that she would later on photograph. As I was taking pictures throughout the performance on my digital camera within the periphery, I was still forming new relationships with people based on whether they were happy or not with me taking their photos and it was interesting and exciting for me as a performer to be constantly challenged by other characters reactions.
At times I felt a high ammount of pressure on my shoulders as a performer because the flash of my camera was a cue and a catalyst for some transitions from one scene to another. During each peformance there were some camera flash malfunctions which were worrying and off-putting at times but these were put aside and I carried on with the performance trying not to let these problems affect me too much.
Overall I believe Porto was a wonderful physical theatre production and the process was one of the most rewarding journey’s I’ve ever been on. The Vincent Dance Theatre Company state that 'Using their imaginations, bodies, voices and their developed sense of ‘play’ they aim to create work that will draw you in, move you, engage you, entertain you, make you feel something and make you want to know more about who we are, where we are and why we are here, taking up your time’ (http://www.vincentdt.com/faq.html#twentyone) I felt like we were able to fulfil the aims of Vincent Dance Theatre company as the feedback from audience members and their individual interpretation and opinions of Porto made me realise that the themes we portrayed were well received and as an ensemble we gave the spectators plenty to contemplate.
Bibliography
Callery, D (2001). Through The Body - A Practical Guide To Physical Theatre. Great Britain: Nick Hern Books Limited.
Other Sources
Anon. (2008). Vincent Dance Theatre Company. Available: http://www.vincentdt.com/faq.html#twentyone. Last accessed 14 May 2009.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment