Due to lack of resources to find Kurt Perry's profile (and I personally feel that his situation is not desperate enough to allow the audience to understand and emphatize), I've decided to adapt my piece from the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby.
Jean-Dominique Bauby (April 23 1952 – March 9, 1997) was a well-known French journalist and author and editor of the French fashion magazine ELLE.
On December 8, 1995 at the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless; he could only blink his left eyelid. This rare condition is called Locked-in Syndrome, a condition wherein the mental facilities remain intact but most of the body is paralyzed. These body parts included his mouth, arms, and legs in his case. Bauby lost 60 pounds (27 kg) in the first 20 weeks after his stroke.
After seeing the movie "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly", I've decided to use the similar intention of wanting the audience to understand his situation by seeing things from his POV.
Working on CC and Script now!
Also, I thought of recording the voices of the other people around Clara, my character.
But I realised that in Butoh, Hijikata often dance to silence or to simple percussion scores, because felt that music should not dictate or control the movement of the dancers, but should support the dancer's movements.
Hence, in order not to force the involvement of vocals into my piece, I decided to scrap the idea of recording voices. Instead I'll use Butoh as the main skill following how Hijikata uses sound whereby sound supports my movement and sets the mood.
Sound will not involve complicated conversations.
My sound will continue to follow Robert Rich - Abstract music, Ambient-dark, without adding the vocals.
My worry is that the audience will not understand Clara's how desperate her situation is because theres no narrative, but thats just an assumption.
I will try to show the 1st scene on thursday and see if the audience can get the intended effect.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Blog Entry 5
CONFIRMED
Skill #1: Movement - Butoh
Skill #2: Sound
I decided to change my 1st skill from acting to butoh because I felt that Butoh's traditions were able to fit the mood and concept of my piece because it is more extreme in terms of expressions, distortions and gestures. Through Butoh, I can show the inner pain that my character is going through more obviously and in a more grotesque manner.
About Butoh:
- avant garde performance art
- has its origins in Japan in the 1960's
- After the second world war, Japan was a country in transition. It was a country still holding onto its old world traditional values while being forced into western democratic values by America's conquest. During this time there was much student unrest and protest.
- Butoh was born out of this chaos.
- founders were a young rebellious modern dancer named Tatsumi Hijikata (1928 -1986), and his partner Kazuo Ohno (b. 1906)
- Hijikata was dissatisfied with the Japanese modern dance scene, feeling that it was merely a copy of the work being done in the West. He wanted to find a form of expression that was purely Japanese, and one that allowed the body to "speak" for itself, thru unconscious improvised movement. His first experiments were called Ankoku Butoh, or the Dance of Darkness. This darkness referred to the area of what was unknown to man, either within himself or in his surroundings. His butoh sought to tap the long dormant genetic forces that lay hidden in the shrinking consciousness of modern man.
His first public performances were wild, primal and sexually explicit. They quite naturally shocked the conservative Japanese dance community, and he was banned from appearing at future organized events. This was the spark that gave birth to butoh. Many of Japan's dancers, poets, visual artists and theatre performers rallied around this exciting and dangerous new art form. Underground performances became increasingly popular, and soon there were numerous groups being formed in the Tokyo area. Musicians, photographers and writers including Japan's leading novelist, Yukio Mishima joined Hijikata to collaborate on spectacular underground performances.
Butoh loosely translated means stomp dance, or earth dance. Hijikata believed that by distorting the body, and by moving slowly on bent legs he could get away from the traditional idea of the beautiful body, and return to a more organic natural beauty. The beauty of an old woman bent against a sharp wind, as she struggles home with a basket of rice on her back. Or the beauty of a lone child splashing about in a mud puddle - this was the natural movement Hijikata wanted to explore. Hijikata grew up in the harsh climate of Northern Japan in an area known as Tohoku. The grown-ups he watched worked long hours in the rice fields, and as a result, their bodies were often bent and twisted from the ravages of the physical labor. These were the bodies that resonated with Hijikata. Not the "perfect" upright bodies of western dance, or the consciously controlled movements of Noh and Kabuki. He sought a truthful, ritualistic and primal earthdance. One that allowed the performer to make discoveries as she/he created/was created by the dance.
Butoh has tremendous value as a training method for artists of other disciplines as well. In a year-long experiment at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood, I worked with 2nd year acting students using butoh training methods to help unveil their natural expressiveness. We stripped away the socially acceptable movements and gestures, and encouraged the students to find and embrace hidden movements that lie buried beneath years of conditioned behavior. We bent the legs to view the world from a lower level, as might be considered by plants, animals and children. We purposely distorted the face, to keep out the natural desire to make the right expressions, or to give a calculated appearance. When the body is freed of its social constraints ...... amazing things begin to happen. Hijikata often trained his dancers thru the use of images. He would use give the students surreal images and have them react to them, thus stimulating the body and the subconscious to respond. Examples would be: Butterflies are landing on your right arm, your left arm is covered with cockroaches. Or you are walking in mud and your eyes are on the back of your head. We (Flesh + Blood Mystery Theatre FBMT) used music or more specifically sound design creations by artists like Robert Rich, Tuu and Lustmord, to provide an other-worldly vista of auditory inspiration. The results we sudden and dramatic. Almost every student found within themselves a way of moving truthfully, and created many dramatic, original and emotionally charged improvisations. Hidden elements of ones personality also tended to surface during these experiments. These awakenings to the true nature of self proved extremely beneficial to their development as consciously aware human beings, and to the craft of acting as well.
Another aspect of butoh, that I find especially appealing is that every "body" is a perfect body. Meaning we are not so concerned as to whether or not the student has a perfectly fit and lithe body of a trained dancer, but rather that s/he finds organic expression through the body they have now. Most ballet and jazz dancers are sadly sent to pasture in their mid-thirties, and are soon passed over for younger more physically capable models. With butoh the mature body brings as much or more to the performance as does the youthful body. A prime example is the afore-mentioned Kazuo Ohno, who is now 96 and still performing with a vibrant inner intensity. His withered, aged body is his canvas and he paints with great beauty upon it. Least it sound like butoh is less an art form, than a therapeutic exercise, one must consider that butoh does have its techniques; strength, flexibility and balance are vital components. We learn to become one with the "other". Butoh is a hybrid form of art, incorporating elements of theatre, dance, mime, Noh, Kabuki and at times the Chinese arts of Chi kung and Tai chi. It is up to the individual artist to find their own dance. But it should be a "dance" of discovery, rather than a calculated series of movements meant to manipulate the audience into a desired response.
1. Hijikata's first dances were often grotesque, twisted, dark and perverse.
2. Ohno's butoh is more ethereal and floating, ever reaching to the light.
3. Sankai juku are highly refined and tightly choreographed with their polished, other worldly movements of cat-like aliens.
4. Or the masters of pure spectacle ... Dairakudakan with their sensual, imagistic and highly theatrical happenings.
Butoh is ever-changing, and is here to stay. Because it gives us a halted, reverberating picture of our muted struggle to be human in this technological age of the disenfranchised body.
Butoh was formed by an amalgamation of influences. The German expressionistic dances of Mary Wigman and Harald Krautzberg gave butoh its creative freedom. Western writers such as Genet, Artaud and de Sade were read by butoh groups. Surrealism and Dada were another source of inspiration. Ohno was influenced by Marcel Marceau and especially by the passion of a Flamenco dancer named La Argentina, who he first saw in 1923 when he was a young boy. Some modern butoh performers have come from the dance world, others such as myself from theatre, or more specifically from mime. One the greatest butoh performers, and protege of Hijikata was Yoko Ashikawa, who had no previous theatrical or dance experience. Today a great variety of styles and aesthetics can be found in butoh. It has ceased being an exclusively Japanese art-form and is developing all over the world.
Okay that is one whole load of info.
Yes from there, I will be taking Hijikata's dark and grotesque style into my own butoh. Sudden, dramatic, distortions, moving slowly, legs bent at a lower level.
I'm coming out with the structure/plot by this week and am going to watch "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". Will research on Robert Rich as well, the recommended sound designer ^
Gotta always refer back to my DV!!! ugh ugh ugh
Skill #1: Movement - Butoh
Skill #2: Sound
I decided to change my 1st skill from acting to butoh because I felt that Butoh's traditions were able to fit the mood and concept of my piece because it is more extreme in terms of expressions, distortions and gestures. Through Butoh, I can show the inner pain that my character is going through more obviously and in a more grotesque manner.
About Butoh:
- avant garde performance art
- has its origins in Japan in the 1960's
- After the second world war, Japan was a country in transition. It was a country still holding onto its old world traditional values while being forced into western democratic values by America's conquest. During this time there was much student unrest and protest.
- Butoh was born out of this chaos.
- founders were a young rebellious modern dancer named Tatsumi Hijikata (1928 -1986), and his partner Kazuo Ohno (b. 1906)
- Hijikata was dissatisfied with the Japanese modern dance scene, feeling that it was merely a copy of the work being done in the West. He wanted to find a form of expression that was purely Japanese, and one that allowed the body to "speak" for itself, thru unconscious improvised movement. His first experiments were called Ankoku Butoh, or the Dance of Darkness. This darkness referred to the area of what was unknown to man, either within himself or in his surroundings. His butoh sought to tap the long dormant genetic forces that lay hidden in the shrinking consciousness of modern man.
His first public performances were wild, primal and sexually explicit. They quite naturally shocked the conservative Japanese dance community, and he was banned from appearing at future organized events. This was the spark that gave birth to butoh. Many of Japan's dancers, poets, visual artists and theatre performers rallied around this exciting and dangerous new art form. Underground performances became increasingly popular, and soon there were numerous groups being formed in the Tokyo area. Musicians, photographers and writers including Japan's leading novelist, Yukio Mishima joined Hijikata to collaborate on spectacular underground performances.
Butoh loosely translated means stomp dance, or earth dance. Hijikata believed that by distorting the body, and by moving slowly on bent legs he could get away from the traditional idea of the beautiful body, and return to a more organic natural beauty. The beauty of an old woman bent against a sharp wind, as she struggles home with a basket of rice on her back. Or the beauty of a lone child splashing about in a mud puddle - this was the natural movement Hijikata wanted to explore. Hijikata grew up in the harsh climate of Northern Japan in an area known as Tohoku. The grown-ups he watched worked long hours in the rice fields, and as a result, their bodies were often bent and twisted from the ravages of the physical labor. These were the bodies that resonated with Hijikata. Not the "perfect" upright bodies of western dance, or the consciously controlled movements of Noh and Kabuki. He sought a truthful, ritualistic and primal earthdance. One that allowed the performer to make discoveries as she/he created/was created by the dance.
Butoh has tremendous value as a training method for artists of other disciplines as well. In a year-long experiment at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Hollywood, I worked with 2nd year acting students using butoh training methods to help unveil their natural expressiveness. We stripped away the socially acceptable movements and gestures, and encouraged the students to find and embrace hidden movements that lie buried beneath years of conditioned behavior. We bent the legs to view the world from a lower level, as might be considered by plants, animals and children. We purposely distorted the face, to keep out the natural desire to make the right expressions, or to give a calculated appearance. When the body is freed of its social constraints ...... amazing things begin to happen. Hijikata often trained his dancers thru the use of images. He would use give the students surreal images and have them react to them, thus stimulating the body and the subconscious to respond. Examples would be: Butterflies are landing on your right arm, your left arm is covered with cockroaches. Or you are walking in mud and your eyes are on the back of your head. We (Flesh + Blood Mystery Theatre FBMT) used music or more specifically sound design creations by artists like Robert Rich, Tuu and Lustmord, to provide an other-worldly vista of auditory inspiration. The results we sudden and dramatic. Almost every student found within themselves a way of moving truthfully, and created many dramatic, original and emotionally charged improvisations. Hidden elements of ones personality also tended to surface during these experiments. These awakenings to the true nature of self proved extremely beneficial to their development as consciously aware human beings, and to the craft of acting as well.
Another aspect of butoh, that I find especially appealing is that every "body" is a perfect body. Meaning we are not so concerned as to whether or not the student has a perfectly fit and lithe body of a trained dancer, but rather that s/he finds organic expression through the body they have now. Most ballet and jazz dancers are sadly sent to pasture in their mid-thirties, and are soon passed over for younger more physically capable models. With butoh the mature body brings as much or more to the performance as does the youthful body. A prime example is the afore-mentioned Kazuo Ohno, who is now 96 and still performing with a vibrant inner intensity. His withered, aged body is his canvas and he paints with great beauty upon it. Least it sound like butoh is less an art form, than a therapeutic exercise, one must consider that butoh does have its techniques; strength, flexibility and balance are vital components. We learn to become one with the "other". Butoh is a hybrid form of art, incorporating elements of theatre, dance, mime, Noh, Kabuki and at times the Chinese arts of Chi kung and Tai chi. It is up to the individual artist to find their own dance. But it should be a "dance" of discovery, rather than a calculated series of movements meant to manipulate the audience into a desired response.
1. Hijikata's first dances were often grotesque, twisted, dark and perverse.
2. Ohno's butoh is more ethereal and floating, ever reaching to the light.
3. Sankai juku are highly refined and tightly choreographed with their polished, other worldly movements of cat-like aliens.
4. Or the masters of pure spectacle ... Dairakudakan with their sensual, imagistic and highly theatrical happenings.
Butoh is ever-changing, and is here to stay. Because it gives us a halted, reverberating picture of our muted struggle to be human in this technological age of the disenfranchised body.
Butoh was formed by an amalgamation of influences. The German expressionistic dances of Mary Wigman and Harald Krautzberg gave butoh its creative freedom. Western writers such as Genet, Artaud and de Sade were read by butoh groups. Surrealism and Dada were another source of inspiration. Ohno was influenced by Marcel Marceau and especially by the passion of a Flamenco dancer named La Argentina, who he first saw in 1923 when he was a young boy. Some modern butoh performers have come from the dance world, others such as myself from theatre, or more specifically from mime. One the greatest butoh performers, and protege of Hijikata was Yoko Ashikawa, who had no previous theatrical or dance experience. Today a great variety of styles and aesthetics can be found in butoh. It has ceased being an exclusively Japanese art-form and is developing all over the world.
Okay that is one whole load of info.
Yes from there, I will be taking Hijikata's dark and grotesque style into my own butoh. Sudden, dramatic, distortions, moving slowly, legs bent at a lower level.
I'm coming out with the structure/plot by this week and am going to watch "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". Will research on Robert Rich as well, the recommended sound designer ^
Gotta always refer back to my DV!!! ugh ugh ugh
Monday, August 17, 2009
Blog Entry 4
MY NEW IDEA IS APPROVED!
Skill #1: Acting - Stanislavski
Skill #2: Sound - Conceptual Sound Design - Talks about theme and messages that the producer (me) wants to convey and that sound is contributing to the construction of the piece
Directorial Vision: Sometimes death frees people; Dying for euthanasia
Definition of Euthanasia: Intentionally killing by act of omission of a dependant human being for his/her alleged benefit
True story of "Right to die is my reason to live" by Kurt Perry
About Kurt Perry:
- 26 year old disabled suburban Chicago man
- "Right to die" supporter
- Suffers from a Neuropathic Disorder - Charcot Marie Tooth: Loss of stimulation by the affected nerves, weakness in the limbs, loss of nerve function, sensory loss-extremely sensitive to cold, hips disjointment, muscle cramps, deformities of the feet, not a life-threatening illness
- But the fact that this imbalance causes him to fall down oftenly, it weakens his diaphragm and affects his body system of being able to pump oxygen properly
- sudden shut downs of respiratory system: life-threatening
View points of Kurt: For euthanasia
- He lives to fight for his right to die
- Wants to be free of this painful disorder
- "My personal hope is that the people charged will be vindicated, set free, cleared of all charges, and the Final Exit Network can begin attending exits once again," Perry said. "I want to do everything I can to support the right-to-die movement."I'm going to wait."
- stiffly crimped fingers can hardly grasp a book, terrifying lapses in breathing eventually became too much, pushing him to pick the day (26 feb 09) he'd kill himself with an assisted suicide network's help
- dropped out of high school at age 16 after school officials failed to accommodate his condition, and he's been unable to work
- "But there are many, many people who are doomed to suffer interminably for years. And why should they not receive our support as well?"
- If doctors can play god by inventing life support machines to give life to keep ppl alive artificially, then why can't they use euthanasia to take away life? Is it wrong to take away life?
View points of Authorities:
- "That's the way you get rid of someone you don't like,"
- Devalues human life
- Poeple make take advantage of euthanasia to kill
View points of Doctors:
- "There's no pill out there now to recover. But on the other hand, it's my opinion he's not going to progress,"
- Dr. Jack Kevorkian, "only doctors should assist terminally ill people in ending their lives."
View points of Family/Friend:
- "I see that you're still a vital person and you still have vital ideas and you can still have some moments -- pleasant, pleasurable moments. In spite of everything, there are some,"
- "But he, and everyone, has to consider the window of opportunity."
Other characters' voices will be recorded.
Script/Plot will be done asap!!!
Skills are still being explored..
For sound, I'm trying incoporate live piano playing in the piece.
Acting of course, stanislavski..
Consider:
Art of Noises
What viewpoint is my character taking that I want the audience to understand?
etc
Skill #1: Acting - Stanislavski
Skill #2: Sound - Conceptual Sound Design - Talks about theme and messages that the producer (me) wants to convey and that sound is contributing to the construction of the piece
Directorial Vision: Sometimes death frees people; Dying for euthanasia
Definition of Euthanasia: Intentionally killing by act of omission of a dependant human being for his/her alleged benefit
True story of "Right to die is my reason to live" by Kurt Perry
About Kurt Perry:
- 26 year old disabled suburban Chicago man
- "Right to die" supporter
- Suffers from a Neuropathic Disorder - Charcot Marie Tooth: Loss of stimulation by the affected nerves, weakness in the limbs, loss of nerve function, sensory loss-extremely sensitive to cold, hips disjointment, muscle cramps, deformities of the feet, not a life-threatening illness
- But the fact that this imbalance causes him to fall down oftenly, it weakens his diaphragm and affects his body system of being able to pump oxygen properly
- sudden shut downs of respiratory system: life-threatening
View points of Kurt: For euthanasia
- He lives to fight for his right to die
- Wants to be free of this painful disorder
- "My personal hope is that the people charged will be vindicated, set free, cleared of all charges, and the Final Exit Network can begin attending exits once again," Perry said. "I want to do everything I can to support the right-to-die movement."I'm going to wait."
- stiffly crimped fingers can hardly grasp a book, terrifying lapses in breathing eventually became too much, pushing him to pick the day (26 feb 09) he'd kill himself with an assisted suicide network's help
- dropped out of high school at age 16 after school officials failed to accommodate his condition, and he's been unable to work
- "But there are many, many people who are doomed to suffer interminably for years. And why should they not receive our support as well?"
- If doctors can play god by inventing life support machines to give life to keep ppl alive artificially, then why can't they use euthanasia to take away life? Is it wrong to take away life?
View points of Authorities:
- "That's the way you get rid of someone you don't like,"
- Devalues human life
- Poeple make take advantage of euthanasia to kill
View points of Doctors:
- "There's no pill out there now to recover. But on the other hand, it's my opinion he's not going to progress,"
- Dr. Jack Kevorkian, "only doctors should assist terminally ill people in ending their lives."
View points of Family/Friend:
- "I see that you're still a vital person and you still have vital ideas and you can still have some moments -- pleasant, pleasurable moments. In spite of everything, there are some,"
- "But he, and everyone, has to consider the window of opportunity."
Other characters' voices will be recorded.
Script/Plot will be done asap!!!
Skills are still being explored..
For sound, I'm trying incoporate live piano playing in the piece.
Acting of course, stanislavski..
Consider:
Art of Noises
What viewpoint is my character taking that I want the audience to understand?
etc
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Blog Entry 3
Comments from Miss Norzian
Actually you have a lot, too much going on here.
If you are doing movement, then find someone specific as your 'case study'/ tradition / influence. If you say you like the Push 'style' you must be able to pin it down to a specific philosophy, set of movements, etc that you can copy. Otherwise it is a no-go. You will run the risk of doing another seemingly dance piece but cannot say how you have evolved the steps/choreo. You must always transfer and APPLY the theory to the practice.
Simultaneously, your story need only come from 1 source. Is it going to be the poem or the Chinese Cinderella? It doesn't mean that for every creative choice you have to hunt down the 'tradition'. Read my infosheet carefully! It's only for the 2 skills you have chosen.
Related to the story: why are you doing this story? How is it personal to you? When I say personal it doesn't mean that you have to personally have a disabled character in your life right now, but what about this story compels you to create a 10-minute piece about it? Most importantly, what new insights do you have about disability that you wish to share with your target audience?
Regarding the 2nd skill - you may still choose monologue as one skill, and add movement as the 2nd. It is easier to work with one new skill than trying out two new skills at one go. The challenge is then how you want to make your mono more dramatic with the infusion of movement.
However if you still want to choose a new 2nd skill, this is something that you have to figure out for yourself based on what you have researched and looked into thus far.
------------------------------
I am going to change my whole idea - Original story
K.I.S.S
Now I'm thinking if I should even do movement.
Actually you have a lot, too much going on here.
If you are doing movement, then find someone specific as your 'case study'/ tradition / influence. If you say you like the Push 'style' you must be able to pin it down to a specific philosophy, set of movements, etc that you can copy. Otherwise it is a no-go. You will run the risk of doing another seemingly dance piece but cannot say how you have evolved the steps/choreo. You must always transfer and APPLY the theory to the practice.
Simultaneously, your story need only come from 1 source. Is it going to be the poem or the Chinese Cinderella? It doesn't mean that for every creative choice you have to hunt down the 'tradition'. Read my infosheet carefully! It's only for the 2 skills you have chosen.
Related to the story: why are you doing this story? How is it personal to you? When I say personal it doesn't mean that you have to personally have a disabled character in your life right now, but what about this story compels you to create a 10-minute piece about it? Most importantly, what new insights do you have about disability that you wish to share with your target audience?
Regarding the 2nd skill - you may still choose monologue as one skill, and add movement as the 2nd. It is easier to work with one new skill than trying out two new skills at one go. The challenge is then how you want to make your mono more dramatic with the infusion of movement.
However if you still want to choose a new 2nd skill, this is something that you have to figure out for yourself based on what you have researched and looked into thus far.
------------------------------
I am going to change my whole idea - Original story
K.I.S.S
Now I'm thinking if I should even do movement.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Blog Entry 2
Skills: Movement and ... (am very worried for the second skill)
I decided to not use multimedia because I am really not good at linking multimedia to the movement. It's so difficult!!! I'm not a mask/set/costume person... so I dont know if I should choose sounds/lighting/acting?
DV is inspired by a poem "Petals" by Amy Lowell
Petals
Life is a stream
On which we strew
Petal by petal the flower of our heart;
The end lost in dream,
They float past our view,
We only watch their glad,
early start.
Freighted with hope,
Crimsoned with joy,
We scatter the leaves of our opening rose;
Their widening scope,
Their distant employ,
We never shall know.
And the stream as it flows
Sweeps them away,
Each one is gone
Ever beyond into infinite ways.
We alone stay
While years hurry on,
The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays.
DV: Although dreams may be lost, the memories remain and you have grown and learnt from the experience.
This poem talks about the wide scope of possibilities that life provides and takes an optimistic approach to show how one should take risks in life to reach for our dreams, even though the outcome is something we cannot control. As long as we work towards our dreams and not allow our fears of risking hinder our path to success, it is the process that matters where we learn and grow from the obstables we face.
Okay so here my story is inspired by a book "Chinese Cinderlla" by Adeline Yen Mah. The storyline in the book fits my DV and the poem "Petals" as well. So I decided to adapt some parts of the storyline to my piece to make it more realistic because "Chinese cinderella" is based on a true story of the author. Because I feel that if I were to create a piece entirely based on original work, I will be straying very far from real life situations and it'll make the piece look very unreal. This story is something very personal to her and I think it closely relates to me because it talks about how one girl is discriminated by her family and is always neglected by her families because she caused the death of her mother. She finds it difficult to pursue her dreams but she did not give up and in the end, she still succeeded.
(STORY)
Similarly, my piece is about a girl who is born disabled (no left leg) and her mother died while giving birth to her. I wanted to challenge myself to move with only one leg throughout the piece so I made her disabled. Her family sees her as bad luck as so always didnt like the sight of her because she reminds them of their mother. She is always being mocked at her family for being useless because she is disabled and not only is she useless herself, she caused the death of her mother. She constantly blames herself for existing and hates herself for being physically dependant on others. However, she is determined to be independant and work towards her dreams of becoming a dancer.
In order to stick to my DV and contrast with "Chinese Cinderella",
I decided to change the ending of "success" to "acceptance" because realistically, disabled people can't really have the physicality to dance. So instead of succeeding, my character did not reach her dreams but she is satisfied with who she is and she knows that she has ventured out in life and she has experienced the journey of life.
Since I'm doing movement, I'll be doing Expressionist Theatre, the physical style of acting. It'll be episodic with no clear narrative and want to jar the audience emotionally. I use my own personal experience of my secondary school life where I struggled between having to sacrifice my passion for dance for symphonic band. Although I did not like band, it is because of band that I've gained the experience of teamwork and knowing to priortise, showing the angst and then a transition to acceptance and optimism. It's basically more of a life experience, where I want to make point that we should work towards our dreams despite the obstables because it's the process that matters. Because in today's world, everyone is so particular about results and not the process, whereby results in little character development and social responsibility in all of us. Oh yes and I'll be tying up my left leg so that I really look disabled and will be moving around with clutches.
Staging will be focusing on colours to state clearly the mood and tone of the play at each scene. Techniques of distortion may be used in the beginning (angsty part). I'm not too sure on costume and make up yet, probably simple costume to be able to move around comfortably but maybe faces and bared body parts will be painted? Not decided yet hahaha
For movement, I want to use the PUSH physical theatre philosophy http://pushtheatre.org/philosophy.htm but the thing is the founder of PUSH (Darren and Heather Stevenson) didnt state where they got their inspirations and traditions from, I'm very clueless here!!! http://www.yawny.org/members/pushphysicaltheater/pushphysicaltheatre.pdf
they just listed the other directors as "further study"!!!
Or do I just research on them? Or should I research on other theatre directors? But I really like PUSH's style!
Alright plot of the story I've yet to decide because I dont know if my story is okay.
The story has not much "meat" to it yet but will fill it up with more obstacles in her life and how she overcomes them. Will update with plot the next entry.
I decided to not use multimedia because I am really not good at linking multimedia to the movement. It's so difficult!!! I'm not a mask/set/costume person... so I dont know if I should choose sounds/lighting/acting?
DV is inspired by a poem "Petals" by Amy Lowell
Petals
Life is a stream
On which we strew
Petal by petal the flower of our heart;
The end lost in dream,
They float past our view,
We only watch their glad,
early start.
Freighted with hope,
Crimsoned with joy,
We scatter the leaves of our opening rose;
Their widening scope,
Their distant employ,
We never shall know.
And the stream as it flows
Sweeps them away,
Each one is gone
Ever beyond into infinite ways.
We alone stay
While years hurry on,
The flower fared forth, though its fragrance still stays.
DV: Although dreams may be lost, the memories remain and you have grown and learnt from the experience.
This poem talks about the wide scope of possibilities that life provides and takes an optimistic approach to show how one should take risks in life to reach for our dreams, even though the outcome is something we cannot control. As long as we work towards our dreams and not allow our fears of risking hinder our path to success, it is the process that matters where we learn and grow from the obstables we face.
Okay so here my story is inspired by a book "Chinese Cinderlla" by Adeline Yen Mah. The storyline in the book fits my DV and the poem "Petals" as well. So I decided to adapt some parts of the storyline to my piece to make it more realistic because "Chinese cinderella" is based on a true story of the author. Because I feel that if I were to create a piece entirely based on original work, I will be straying very far from real life situations and it'll make the piece look very unreal. This story is something very personal to her and I think it closely relates to me because it talks about how one girl is discriminated by her family and is always neglected by her families because she caused the death of her mother. She finds it difficult to pursue her dreams but she did not give up and in the end, she still succeeded.
(STORY)
Similarly, my piece is about a girl who is born disabled (no left leg) and her mother died while giving birth to her. I wanted to challenge myself to move with only one leg throughout the piece so I made her disabled. Her family sees her as bad luck as so always didnt like the sight of her because she reminds them of their mother. She is always being mocked at her family for being useless because she is disabled and not only is she useless herself, she caused the death of her mother. She constantly blames herself for existing and hates herself for being physically dependant on others. However, she is determined to be independant and work towards her dreams of becoming a dancer.
In order to stick to my DV and contrast with "Chinese Cinderella",
I decided to change the ending of "success" to "acceptance" because realistically, disabled people can't really have the physicality to dance. So instead of succeeding, my character did not reach her dreams but she is satisfied with who she is and she knows that she has ventured out in life and she has experienced the journey of life.
Since I'm doing movement, I'll be doing Expressionist Theatre, the physical style of acting. It'll be episodic with no clear narrative and want to jar the audience emotionally. I use my own personal experience of my secondary school life where I struggled between having to sacrifice my passion for dance for symphonic band. Although I did not like band, it is because of band that I've gained the experience of teamwork and knowing to priortise, showing the angst and then a transition to acceptance and optimism. It's basically more of a life experience, where I want to make point that we should work towards our dreams despite the obstables because it's the process that matters. Because in today's world, everyone is so particular about results and not the process, whereby results in little character development and social responsibility in all of us. Oh yes and I'll be tying up my left leg so that I really look disabled and will be moving around with clutches.
Staging will be focusing on colours to state clearly the mood and tone of the play at each scene. Techniques of distortion may be used in the beginning (angsty part). I'm not too sure on costume and make up yet, probably simple costume to be able to move around comfortably but maybe faces and bared body parts will be painted? Not decided yet hahaha
For movement, I want to use the PUSH physical theatre philosophy http://pushtheatre.org/philosophy.htm but the thing is the founder of PUSH (Darren and Heather Stevenson) didnt state where they got their inspirations and traditions from, I'm very clueless here!!! http://www.yawny.org/members/pushphysicaltheater/pushphysicaltheatre.pdf
they just listed the other directors as "further study"!!!
Or do I just research on them? Or should I research on other theatre directors? But I really like PUSH's style!
Alright plot of the story I've yet to decide because I dont know if my story is okay.
The story has not much "meat" to it yet but will fill it up with more obstacles in her life and how she overcomes them. Will update with plot the next entry.
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