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areshimbo · 2 years
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Discussion points:
Began with the Odysseus/ Calypso story
Moved onto the gods themselves watching the journey
Removed Odysseus from the piece
Introduced the reality show concept
Moved away from naturalism
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areshimbo · 2 years
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This is a photo from the earliest draft of our piece where we were performing a tableau. Where we would more accurately follow the story of Odysseus and his encounter with the Goddess Calypso in The Odyssey books 5 to 6.
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areshimbo · 2 years
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Over the course of the devising process there were many opportunities to learn new skills and improve on existing ones. In my case in particular, my key learning point was definitely how to edit a script and alter a story for the sake of time, and in addition to push to piece away from naturalism.
For example, to have a dance sequence instead of a love scene to act as a metaphor. Especially since I had to rewrite the script for our performance multiple times. When creating the script I had to learn to follow the brief exactly when it came to the style of the performance, as I wanted to initially have the piece go down the route of being more naturalistic to suit my idea for the narrative. However I did have to recognise the fact that the assignment brief is there for a reason, to help me learn to create things under certain constraints. I also learned that I can still maintain the same intended story and theme for my piece, even with changing certain language in the script.
The process of learning to alter my performance can be difficult especially when I had put a lot of thought and effort into crafting, however despite some initial hesitation I learned that the changes would benefit the script and also myself as a script writer as it was a challenge that I rise to overcome and a great learning curve to help me in the future.
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areshimbo · 2 years
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In a later session after we had decided to leave the Calypso idea behind, the group consensus was that we should focus less on Odysseus and more on the Greek gods themselves, and follow what they’re reactions to his journey would be. We casted ourselves as select god that would have interesting dynamics together.
Alex as Zeus
Kyle as Hephaestus
Jim as Aphrodite
Basha as Poseidon
Lew (myself) as Ares
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areshimbo · 2 years
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Some sketches that were drawn to give us an idea for costumes.
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areshimbo · 2 years
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Our final draft of the piece it was decided that we would put our own individual spin on the gods of Olympus and have them be seen not as the mighty beings they are in the stories, instead as grounded materialistic people with first world problems. All this stemmed from an idea we had to perform our piece as if it were an episode on ‘The Real Housewives’ and have the lives of the gods be filled with drama and pettiness, which admittedly isn’t too different from how they actually were.
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Here in the first picture we were in full costume for the first time and in the second it was our last day of rehearsals before we performed to the audience, with our light and sound technicians.
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areshimbo · 2 years
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During the devising process, I would say the only key learning block that I myself encountered was that when I was creating the script I struggled to stay away from naturalism. Personally I find naturalism to be the easiest style of acting and not only that but it’s the style that I enjoy creating stories with the most. With our initial idea for the piece being based off of a realist show I wanted to give the characters a more grounded in reality and approach them as real people.
My first draft of the script became an issue as I wasn’t able to break away from the style of naturalism. After some further thought and input from my tutor and the rest of my group, I managed to come up with a new way of telling the story without using naturalism but still maintaining the directing for the piece that I wanted. This new change involved me writing the characters as caricatures of themselves and having the performance be much more theatrical and dramatic than before. I did however struggle in the beginning with this idea too, as I was unsure about how I could make the characters theatrical, without them all being seen as individual characters being lost.
However I did discover the Commedia dell’arte to be extremely in helping me give the characters of the gods their own distinctive personalities and also have them be dramatic in a way that didn’t make the piece into a farce.
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areshimbo · 2 years
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And finally here are some photos taken during our final performance. Our performance came across how we intended it to, the audience found it very humorous and entertaining which we were very proud of.
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areshimbo · 2 years
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In the future when I get involved with devised storytelling the biggest thing that I need to focus on is to focus more on the style of the piece and how the audience will react to it. I will aim to make my performances more stylistic to break the boundaries of real life and distance myself from naturalism.
If I were to engage in this type of project again I would look into a variety of acting styles within the rehearsal process to put to use all of the different types of acting that I have studied and learned in the module on the course.
I did look at various types of acting techniques when rewriting my script which assisted me greatly in deciding the best direction to take things. I know this mixed with looking more into the Commedia Dell’arte definitely made our devised work more theatrical and less reliant on the limits of naturalism. For example my portrayal of Ares was inspired by ‘Il Capitano’ and also, when he was with Aphrodite, the ‘Lovers’ pairing.
When it comes to recreating or reinterpreting classic stories there are so many opportunities for a writer to embellish the original works in new and unique ways. As well as for performers to add to the classic characters and remake them in their own ways. I believe that my focus on getting the right performance style for the piece benefitted the rest of my group also. As it encouraged them to act in a way that they hadn’t had the opportunity to do before, and got a chance to rest their limits. Finally, in response to these developments, in future projects I want to expand my view on acting styles and make use of more of them in my pieces.
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areshimbo · 2 years
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My Inspirations
Quotes:
“Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.” - Konstantin Stanislavsky
“I am really not of the school of naturalism. I like style, and you can use style more in theatre than in film.” - Marisa Tomei
“Realism, whether it be socialist or not, falls short of reality. It shrinks it, attenuates it, falsifies it; it does not take into account our basic truths and our fundamental obsessions: love, death, astonishment. It presents man in a reduced and estranged perspective. Truth is in our dreams, in the imagination.” - Eugene lonesco
“And your very flesh shall be a great poem.” - Walt Whitman
“In naturalism, man is actually very insignificant, but arrogates to himself stupendous power. In Christianity, man is actually the apex of created significance, but is called to see it in abject humility.” - Ravi Zacharias
“We must overcome the notion that we must be regular... it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.” - Uta Hagen
“The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.” - Stella Adler
“Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasise about a world we aspire to.” - Willem Dafoe
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areshimbo · 2 years
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Bibliography
Goodreads.com. (2019). Konstantin Stanislavski Quotes (Author of An Actor Prepares). [online] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/54455.Konstantin_Stanislavski.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica (2018). commedia dell’arte | History, Characters, & Facts. In: Encyclopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/commedia-dellarte. ‌
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/odyssey/
Tim-shane.com. (2019). Commedia Stock Characters Innamorati. [online] Available at: https://www.tim-shane.com/Commedia-Innamorati.htm. ‌
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