Apac Dance - Sorry..

Apac Theatre
I haven't put this up on the main google docs because I hadn't attended it.
On the first day (Thursday?) , I wasn't able to attend because I felt really sick from the swimming meet I had before. On the second day of apac theatre, I had to practice swimming and then went home because the performances were scheduled to start later and I didn't want to go home and back because I live 40 mins away...
However, what I can write about on this blogpost, is my amazement with Kathakhali dance. When somebody in the class had brought up the fact that kathakhali dancers had put peppers in their eyes (pepper seeds?) to make the red-eye effect, I was amazed. The level of dedication that a performer has to have, to pull something like this off is breathtaking. If I'm correct, it's a part of method acting, right? And that's something I love about theatre and film, method acting. It shows how much effort and sacrifice a performer has to offer in an acting/dance.

I had also read somewhere that kathakali had to undergo classes that focused on khatakali eye-coordination techniques and practice. Something that Mrs. Moon had reiterated in class from a reading was that you could spot out an amateur performer by looking at their eyes. The more calm, collected, and smooth their eyes pace around the stage and into the audience, the better control they have as an actor. The more fast and frantic the performer's eyes are, the less skilled they seem to be. This is another reason why I'm fascinated about the Khatakali performers.
Again, I love method acting. In the movie "The Machinist" in 2004, Christian Bale had eaten nothing but a can of tuna a day with some coffee. This had carried on for about two months. In the end, he had looked like a Jewish prisoner from a concentration camp. It's breathtaking, method acting :) I'm also really sorry for not attending the apac festival.

T'alchum

Notes on Korean T'alchum

• When talking about T'aclhum, think about something that was fought for.
• 13-15 different types of masked dance
• 'Sim Yeong Pur Ri' and 'Hahn'
• 2 important elements of korean theatre
• Spiritual base of respect for nature/freedom of expression
• many beliefs and theories are based on the earth
• lost of spiritism and animism (worship of nature)
• belief in the spirit world
• shamanism
• Embodiment of feelings of Han.
• deep inner-feeling of sadness/grief
• it's not a necessarily a bad grief
• another kind of grief
• Sinmyeong
• it's like ecstasy/euphoria
• occurs at the final dramatic moment when tears turn to laughter, when darkness turns into light
• important part of korean music/drama/dance
• Self-expression
• interpretation of what you do
• a manifestation of yourself
• improvisational
• MADANG
• area of performance
• 'garden' or 'yard'
• Audience participation is a huge part
• Role of the audience is a big piece
• Audience can interact
• Characters can go and sit with the audience members as well
• People were being beaten down
• want to make fun of this
• sick of all the negatives
• Most of the districts had their masks burned
• only place where masks were not burned was in Andong
• Andong is a place where masks were made out of wood
• in other places, masks were burnt after being used, unlike Andong
• Shapes of the eyes and mouth can indicated how much the character of the mask has gone through
• Movable jaws indicate speech and movement
• mask must fit nicely on the performer's face
• Very few masks were made for women
• one eye was looking up while the right eye was looking down.
• shows how you turn to the blind side of things sometimes
• shows how you can look down towards life and about life
• Bar maid
• happier
• more freedom
• sketchy

Extra Notes

• Through Pathos, you are able to feel for somebody
• you feel for the hero in a story
• eg, crying in a movie
• The slower you can dance, the more respect you get
• Communal
• unity with performers and viewers
• viewers may intervene if they wish to
• Instead of making a fantasy world for the audience, the performance is usually really grounded
• Freedom of time and space
• allows for dramatic conflict
• don't need stage decorations
• time periods are
• To show age, masks were given wrinkles
• Exaggerated nose
• sexuality
• Fur masks
• deprivation
• more animal than human
• Gord mask
• mischievous
• interacts with the audience a lot
• 
  

Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud

He is a practitioner who is known for his methods in the Theatre of Cruelty. Artaud is known to be a theatrical director and a playwright. There is a famous book by Artaud called 'Theatre and it's double.' He was born in Marseille in 1896. At the age of four, he had been diagnosed with meningitis that had ultimately affected his emotions while growing up. Artaud also had neuralgia, which had given him depression throughout his years growing up. In the year of 1920, Artaud had wanted to go and become a writer yet had a sudden change-in-mind and went towards avant-garde theatrical works.

Artaud had a general interest in humans and their idealisations on what art made from truth is. He had an interest in masks of morality. This was Artaud's more spiritual aspect on what masks were, but he had believed in using huge irregular objects to be used as masks as well, and to use verbal stimuli to invoke an idea into the audience's minds. Artaud’s vision on masks, identifies one part of the different factors that make up what is the  “Theatre of Cruelty.” These types of theatrical plays focus on the ideas of surrealism. Artaud had a broad vision on the theoretical perspective on of the ways of knowing, perceptions of people.

Going back to the point of Artaud and his vision on truth, his visions on what truth really is, and the only way to see truth is to see beyond the mask of lies that are always suffocating us. This is what the “Theatre of Cruelty” tries to break, so that people can see past all the lies that are constantly being thrown at us, blinding us. Artaud’s theory on breaking this blindness, was to use cruelty. This, doesn't necessarily mean that violence is, in this context, the answer. His theory was that cruelty was in fact needed in theatre, as he says “Without an element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle," he writes, "the theatre is not possible.” I personally believe that Artaud is saying that, there really isn’t a perfect, happy place, even in the imaginative world of theatre. By showing people about how cruel the ‘fake’ theatrical world even has it’s problems. Nobody’s really safe from the harshness of the world, so why bother running? And maybe this was Artaud’s reason for using huge masks, to show the audience that the proportion of the mask size compared to our actual faces are huge. These masks being the lies that we are burdened to wear that we cannot see are right in front of our faces, and we can’t see them. The reason for the masks being made up of irregular things is to point towards the theory that all the things that have surrounded our minds are all different.

Masks

Masks and Theatre

I think I was sick for this first period for masks, but from what I've seen/read, masks seem to be a way in-which one has the excuse to change into someone who they aren't. The way I see it, masks are keys into where people are allowed to escape into a different world. There can be two ways that a person can look at a mask. They can look at it as an excuse to change, or an excuse to die. Change, you think of change that you think of things evolving, ultimately making the finished product different from what it had been originally. But, with masks, I think that nothing really changes apart from how the wearer perceives the mask to be. Through the perception of the mask, the wearer is allowed to use that same vision, and show it through their bodies. In other words, the only the change that takes place is the change of understanding of the mask. It's the ultimate sacrifice, I think. The mask(s) don't have the ability to speak and show what they are like, yet we can. So let the mask see you for what you are, and when you finally wear it, use those images of you imbedded into the masks eyes help you feel out what the mask's 'spirit' (shall I say?) really is.
Now, for the excuse for one to die with a mask on is my other point. For the more shy people, masks could be looked upon as shelter away from the eyes. What they might not realize is the fact that if the wearer finds shelter under the mask, the mask's 'spirit' die away. The person isn't using the mask for what it really is and what it might actually be feeling. It's sadistic really, as the mask has no say in the whole act, and it's just you. The mask takes the attention of the audience true, but in the end it's the wearer that eventually dies away. Who knows, the mask could be looking at you as well. The way in-which the perspective of what the mask sees can change in an instant. It's you that the mask is on, therefore it also knows what you are feeling, seeing, everything... When you wear the mask, it's not you anymore, it shouldn't be you, or the mask won't have a lifeline. You take that lifeline away, the mask dies, and when a part of a whole dies away, the whole isn't a whole anymore, yet it crumbles down.

BTB March 13th

I personally think that being colourblind in theatre is essential, especially when theatre is something that has the ability to bring people together. To use theatre as a way to create a world with 'perfect white people' is disgusting. A director directing these 'white' plays could probably just say that they were a Nazi, or whatever... tbc.

Worst Feeling

The worst type of worry
                 is when you're the only one
                                                       worrying...

6th Sense of an Actor (BtB)

The 6th Sense of an Actor

One of the things that had stood out for me when reading this article about "The Action of Seeing" was when it had talked about Zeami, and his thoughts about an actor's sixth sense. The article talks about how performers can see the environment around themselves and how this implies that something is always happening behind them. By doing this, the performers activate some sort of impulse in the spinal column that's ready to be triggered for use by the performer. Through this, performers are ready to act, and react.

Masks

African Tribal Mask

Korean Mask 

Fake faces