Through the Looking Glass: Aishlinn Parrinello Theater Notes/Reflections

  Rewatch the Artaud and Grotowski videos from the Five Truths. Compare them and think about the ways that they are similar and different and how they create TEAM in each version. Use as many specific details as you can. 450 words. Due before class. When analyzing the Five Truths interpretations of Artaud and Grotowski, both interpretations aimed to jar the audience with several close up camera angles and indirect dialogue. In the Artaud scene, the scene starts off with the sight of Ophelia through a fishbowl. This makes her face appear slightly distorted and blurry because of the water. This also gives the effect that her movements are nearly in slow motion. Despite the distortion, Ophelia’s facial expressions are somewhat clear: She has a quizzical, nearly angry expression, as if she is scrutinizing the fish, possibly angry at them for existing. This suggests many things; Ophelia could be mad at the world, which is represented by the fish bowl and the fish, or she could see her...

  Jerry Grotowski  https://culture.pl/en/artist/jerzy-grotowski   Theater director and theoretician, educator, creator of acting methods  Considered one of the greatest reformers of 20th century theater https://fresques.ina.fr/europe-des-cultures-en/fiche-media/Europe00064/jerzy-grotowski-on-the-notion-of-poor-theatre.html   Polish  Defined his theory “poor theater” Theater that values the body of the actor and its relation wit the spectator Does away with costumes, decor and music  Style inherited from Stanislavski  Based method on body work that aims to rid the actor of their automatic reaction “in order to get to the character’s essence within themselves”  The relationship between player and spectator held an important role  https://thedramateacher.com/poor-theatre-conventions/   A performance style that rid itself of the excesses of theater such as lavish costumes and derailed sets  Poor theater pieces center on the skill o...

The Five Truths scenes using Brecht and Stanislavski were very different scenes. Starting off with the Stanislavsky scene, the first thing that I noticed from the very beginning of the video was the lighting. The main character Ophelia opens the scene by lighting a cigarette. The cigarette glows orange as the main source of light, though there are likely also dim stage lights so that the audience can see Ophelia. Ophelia uses her hand with her cigarette to turn on the lamp that sits on the desk. When the light turns on it too gives off a ‘warm’ yellowish orange glow that is nearly the same color as the light of the cigarette. Now that the set is a bit more illuminated, the audience can now see the desk, it’s contents, and Ophelia’s heartbroken expression. Ophelia’s movements in these first couple seconds seem natural and organic, as anyone who was not acting in a scene would do the same. Her movements after this are very slow and deliberate as she opens the bag containing her father’s ...

 Bertolt Brecht:     Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theater director. Brecht developed a groundbreaking directing style that influenced many directors and designers over the decades. Brecht was a Marxist and chose to make his theater highly political. Brecht wanted his theater to spark an interest in his audiences' perception of the world through a range of theatrical devices known as epic theater, which is a type of political theater that addresses contemporary issues. Some techniques that Brecht used achieve this were breaking the fourth wall, using montages, including song, music, and dance in his theater, using narration, creating a minimal set, costumes, props, and lighting, having actors come out of character, and more. Brecht's works were mischievous, provocative, and ironic and aimed to invite the audience to make rational judgements about the political aspects of the work, be critical of society, and to avoid any emotional attachment ...

    Constantin Stanislavsky was a famous Russian actor, director, and teacher. Stanislavsky had a major influence on theater of the 20th century and he developed techniques such as the "Stanislavsky system/method." He published several books such as My Life in Art, Building a Character, and Creating a Role . Stanislavsky's goal for his methods was to portray believable, natural people on stage. Prior to and during his lifetime, most actors spoke in a grandiose tone and gestured in an over-the-top manner. Stanislavsky fathered todays style of acting in which actors immerse themselves into their characters as much as possible. Stanislavsky believed that the best performances were the most natural and realistic ones. Parts of his method included the "magic if," re-education, observation, motivation, and emotional memory.  - The "magic if": "what would I do if I were in this situation?" natural reactions to events in the story  - Re-education: re...

  Midterm Self-Reflection Name: Aishlinn Parrinello Class: G  Overall, how would you describe your experience in this class? Overall, I have really enjoyed this class so far. I have liked all the activities that we have done and my experience has been overall a positive one. I have become comfortable with the other students in this class and I really enjoy getting to be creative during the school day through this class. I like that we have not focused on just one aspect of theater and have experimented with a lot of different things already that I have never tried before.  What aspects have been easy for you?  I think coming up with creative ideas has come pretty easily for me. I think that the environment of this class really helps me feel comfortable with sharing my ideas and working with others to think of new ones.  What aspects have been challenging? The movement work was overall a bit challenging for me because it was a little bit hard to become vulne...

  Genre 1: Tragedy Setting: a hospital room, a man hooked up to machines in a coma breathing through a ventilator, not conscious. In a chair next to the bed sits a man resting his arms and head on the bed.  Characters: The visitor (the man in the chair) and the patient (man in the bed). The man in the bed is unconscious, so this conversation is actually between the visitor and himself. The visitor is the unconscious man’s longtime friend who is visiting him after a serious accident before he is unplugged. The visitor speaks both parts as if he is having a conversation with his friend. Part A is the visitor's interpretation of his friends’ voice and part B is the visitor's own voice.  A: Well  B: How are you  A: I’m not all that well really  B: Why What’s the matter  A: The usual things  (man chuckles a little and grimaces at this… his friend was always a joker) How are you   B: I’m fine  A: Mmm It’s been a long time  B: Yes I ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq2oPGX5lOA&t=142s  Overall, I am really pleased with how our group movement piece turned out. We decided to title our piece, “You Are Not Okay.” This was an interesting experience for me because I was the centerpiece for the scene. I have acted in lead roles before but I have never been in a scene where all of the other people on stage are responding to my movements. I think that the decision to have me be the person in the middle of the circle made a really interesting dynamic for the scene. I’m wondering how the scene would look different had someone else been in the middle, but I am happy with my performance and I think it really worked for the scene, especially because I am shorter than almost everyone else that was walking around me (besides Millie) which I think made it look like they were towering over me. I think this effect worked really well paired with the decision to have the people circling be walking with their hands behi...