25.03.2014

Today we were able to show our progress to our director and get some constructive criticism on our scenes. With this, we also made some changes to the existing scenes, to bring in more of Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty and making it better over all.
   The main points for the first scene were about Mina and Lucy and how they were portrayed. The acting needs to be much more realistic, but this is probably the fault of scripts being used in the scenes, since we are not memorized yet. It was pointed out to us that we should already start learning our lines, since it is long when we need to be memorized. It will also help us with our acting, giving us more freedom in our movements and actions. The scene with Mina and Lucy needs to blocked to the end, because after tying Lucy's laces, the girls are not doing much with themselves. Other changes that Andy made for us, were about the chorus observing the two girls. We were already reacting to some off the things Lucy says, but our director told us to be more visible and bigger with our reactions. We also decided on certain parts to react even stronger, especially when Lucy starts teasing Mina by referring Mina sleeping with Jonathan. This really highlights Lucy's sexuality and the temptations she has, coming back to Artaud and how he talks about the society making us hide our true inner wants and his ideas on releasing the abscess.
   The biggest changes and modification were made on the second scene. One of the main changes were the words we were repeating and how we should do it. We were already repeating the words "Bedlam" and "Screw Lucy", but now it was pointed out that it should be a certain number of times we say it, three being the magic number this time, just to make the end of the repetition more prominent. We also react and repeat the word spider. Andy also added that when Renfield says the nursery rhyme "She-swallowed-the-cat-to-catch-the-bird-she-swallowed-the-bird-to-catch-the-spider-she-swallowed-the-spider-to-catch-the-fly-but-i-don't-know-why" we should all join in and sign in our own manic ways. These changes really allow all of us to be more involved with the scene and also highlight the message that Renfield is trying to tell, warning about Dracula's presence. It also shows how all of the patients and nurses are just as crazy as Renfield is, also referring that the other characters in the play may just be just as insane.
   Other big change in this scene is to do with the part when Renfield talks about 'the bad machines', referring to shock therapy. At this part all of the loonies should react, since it something they have probably gone trough and are afraid of. Even though shock therapy is still used today, and is shown to help with serious therapy, during the 19th century, it was used without the proper knowledge of the effects shock therapy might have on people, and so it was more like torture than treatment. During this part two of the nurses, Jenny and Sophia, will go up to Renfield and start to prop her into shock therapy against her will. As Renfield describe the treatment, Jenny, Sophia, Yunusa and Harry lift her from her legs to start the therapy. As she start comvulsing, so do all the other loonies in the chorus, again using Artaud's methods to disturb the audience and physically showing how Renfield is feeling.

24.03.2014

Starting To Work On The Scenes

1st Scene

   The first scene of the play shows Lucy and Mina discussing the arrival of Minas future husband, Jonathan, and gives the first impressions of these sisters and the differences between them. Lucy is very much the young and naive girl, being stuck in the role of a little girl since her mothers death, making Mina, on the other hand, take on the role of a mother. During the scene, Mina is obviously caring of Lucy, and treats her with silk gloves, even if Lucy's teasing would be considered improper. In the novel, Lucy and Mina were originally cousins, but in the discussion we had during class, we figured out that they were turned into sister to highlight the fact that taboos and desires were thicker and more hidden in the higher classes during the Victorian era. This very much connects with Artaud's ideas and how we suppress our desires. This is also a very big symbol within this scene, and it is shown with the relationship between the two women. Lucy is much more free with her thoughts and isn't afraid to express her desire to be married(maybe for love, perhaps for something else) and she teases her sister by saying that she would delay getting ready for Jonathan to surprise her in the undergarments. She also suggests that Mina give Jonathan something to remember Mina by, referring to sex, but Mina is quick to suppress these kind of thoughts. She is the image of a proper Victorian woman, holding on to the Victorian values.
    We started the blocking by having Lucy come on stage alone, skipping and humming a song. She picks up a flower to finish the song and then look at herself in the mirror, showing her vanity and self-love. We decided that instead of using an actual mirror, we could use Lucy W to work as Izzys mirror image, using the mirroring methods we have learned in movement. After this, Mina joins Lucy in their garden to do the rest of scene. Rest of the blocking was very much improvised, and I think we, especially Izzy and Sophia, should work on how they move on stage, so that there won't be any awkward standing, but that it would actually seem they are two sisters in their garden.
   Later, after working on the second scene in Bedlam, we decided to have everyone observing the scene with the sisters as their crazy personalities, only turned down a bit. This way, we all have something to do on stage, and it adds on to the scene, showing us snickering troughout the scene, reacting to the things the women say. It also shows the influence Dracula already has, the sisters are watched over and are not alone, even if they would think so.

2nd Scene
 
    The next scene consist of the introduction of two major characters as well, Renfield and Dr. Seward. Renfield is obviously the main focus here, since it is in Bedlam, the insane asylum. With this particular scene, we started working on it with an exercise. The class was divided into three groups of five, and our task was to create a symbol moving symbol, like we have done before, about insanity. But instead of trying to portray insaty and crazy of today, it was supposed to be something like craziness would have been in the Victorian era, to help us create an image of Bedlam. My group, which was Sophie, Liam, Yunusa, Jenny and I, started of with the idea that insanity was like music, there are different types of it, each person being an individual. But also, we felt that usually insanity is seen as something distorted and non-paced, but we felt that there is some rhythm in insanity and patterns in their actions. Our moving symbol showed the different kind of craziness, starting slowly with me creating the rhythm by doing  a sound with my finger flipping my lips, showing a childlike insanity. After this, Liam would join me with his laughing crazy, following with Harry and Sophie rocking on the ground and Jenny going to ask help frantically from each of us. This was an excellent exercise, since we would all be patient or nurses in Bedlam. After the first scene, we would all release our insanity and scatter around the stage, leaving Sophie as Renfield at the top being help down by Yunusa and Harry. Bella would position herself at the bottom steps as Dr. Goldman and Seward would be up the first stairs on the stage. The rest of us would be in groups of insane people and some nurses(probably just as crazy), working as amplifiers to Renfields message. We looked up on some words in Renfield lines that everyone is going to say, to bring more focus to them. Words like Bedlam, Screw Lucy, Master and Bad Machines will be repeated since they important for the play and the scene. When Renfield mentiones Bedlam, all the 'patients' will start repeating the word, going out of control, since Bedlam is where they are, but it is also hell to live in. Repeating the phrase screw Lucy shows the influence Dracula has on Renfield, but also on Lucy. Renfield has never met Lucy and doesn't know who she is, but he does have subconscious idea of this person, got from Dracula. The word master is also repeated, referring to Dracula, but as whispers, so it won't be so obvious and shows the fear the insane people of Bedlam have towards this menacing creature. Bad machines is not repeated by everyone, but rather reacted by, for shock therapy was not the most pleasant experience, showing the fright the insane have towards it. At the end of the scene, when Seward leaves to meet with Jonathan, we decided that all the insane would let loose, and start laughing manically, as the main doctor has left and there is no reason to hide the crazy.
   This scene works as a direct contrast to the previous one; Lucy and Mina are suppressing their tempations and dark thoughts, when Renfield and the other insane let it loose without any control. It also starts to show the control Dracula has on them and how he is already involved with the people in England, even if he himself has never actually been present.

3rd Scene
 
   During the scene in Bedlam, Seward spots Jonathan Harker, his old friend from school, in the yard taking pictures. This scene then is the discussion they have in Seward's office, catching up on their lives and Jonathan persuading  Seward to join him on his holiday in Whitby. We wanted the scene to be more closed of than the two before, because the discussion between these two men was held in privacy. What we did to do this effect, was to have everyone stand in three lines to form a wall, separating Harker and Seward from the rest of the stage. Everyone in the line would be facing away from the two men to create more of the sense of privacy. Everyone would be laughing, until Jonathan and Seward make contact by shaking hands and hugging.
   During this scene, my character Jonathan talks a lot about how great his life is and even mentioning the short comings of Seward, a man in his thirties who is not married and works in an asylum, is probably not what Jonathan would call an ideal life. This might be because during their school days, Seward was in control, making sure that Jonathan knew his place, as Sewards 'slave'. Even though there sin't any obvious hatred between the men, I do think there was always some rivalry, especially on Jonathan's part, since he seems so eager to tell about how wonderful his life is. There is also a class difference between Jonathan and Seward, which is shown in the play by calling Seward a "scholarship boy", which adds to their relationship. I believe that Seward used to have much higher status, but as time has gone by, Jonathan has taken the upper hand, realizing his position in class, having a good respectful career and soon to being married to heiress. Jonathan pities Seward, and so decides to help Seward by inviting him to Whitby.
   During the scene, we anted 'the walls' to have something to react to, and so again we chose some words where the chorus would turn their heads to show they are still watching. Words like Miss Westerman and Dracula are reacted like so, but also at the end of the when Jonathan mentiones temptaion, the walls would start to turn in cannon, and as I say "But Arthur, if all I've heard about, nurse is true, then..." the chorus would start slowly turning back to the insane at Bedlam, muffling out the end of the line and creating a smooth transition from Sewards office back to Bedlam.
   I still need to do more work on Jonathan and his character, using Stanislavki's methods to do so. I also feel that me and Liam need to block our scene together, since now it is a lot of awkward standing. Since it is Sewards office, I feel that Liam as Seward should be more relaxed, serving drinks and cigars to his guest. There could also be variation in sitting down and standing and more movement in the space.

Behavior in class

Q1. WHY IS IT YOU ALWAYS CHAT AND GIGGLE DURING EXERCISES?
   From day one, we have been told to focus during class and leave our lives, problems and gossip outside of class. Still, after a semester and a half, most of the class seem to be incapable to do so. We keep on interrupting the class, giggle from the smallest thing, not being able to do what they are asked for. The obvious reason for this is the fact that people are just not focused during class, peoples minds keep wondering and flying off to somewhere else than our current topics or exercises. I also feel that there is a over all lack of respect towards other student sand our teachers; lack of the respect to do your best so that everyone else can work as hard as they can as well. Giggling can also stem from inner low self-esteem, people are embarrassed to make a fool of themselves in front of everyone else, because they are afraid they will get bullied or ridiculed because of their actions. This group, although close, isn't very trusting leading to uncertainty and nervous giggles.

Q2. WHY DO YOU CONSTANTLY HAVE TO BE REMINDED TO STAN IN NEUTRAL, WEAR APPROPRIATE CLOTHING, TIE YOUR HAIR BACK, TAKE OFF HATS ETC?
   I think the reason for these mistakes, or rather this kind of behavior, comes from lack of commitment to the course and also from high levels of self awareness. I feel that, for some people, looking good and wearing fashionable clothing is more important than wearing something appropriate. People find it hard to break off of their old habits, which only direct to the fact that they are not entirely 110% committed to this course. Yes, it might feel funny or even ridiculous to stand in neutral, or always have your hair up or wear sweats, but it helps us to focus and create a well-balanced working environment, where we are not using our energy to look good, but rather work creatively without the constrictions of our insecurities.

Q3. WHY IS THIS ALL SO IMPORTANT REGARDING YOUR ACTING?
   Simply put, you cannot act if you are insecure about yourself. As an actor, you need to out all of you, raw and imperfect, up on the stage and show your talents, and all this distracts from becoming better at our jobs. In real life, when you giggle or are not wearing the right clothes to work, you won’t just be told off by someone, you will most likely be fired or at least your reputation will be ruined for the people you were working with. Actors need to have the discipline in yourself to be able to control your giggle attacks, even if you find something funny. Interrupting other talking and doing their hardest to work is extremely unrespectful, and if you cannot show respect to others, you do not deserve it yourself.

   A week or two backwards, during one of our group discussion between the students, there were some that tried to bring this issue up, hoping that next year things could be different. I think it was a good thing to discuss it between the the students, but at the same time, again, I just felt that not everyone was listening, or would have rather just got on with their day. This isn't okay. If we cannot even listen to each others, what we have to say and take a note of everyone’s opinions, how are we supposed to work together in class?  

Dracula - Research

Bram Stoker’s Dracula – What was he trying to say with this book? Any information about his life or the novel may help here.

The novel was written in the Victorian era, a time where decent values and pride in the power of Great Britain were important things in every day life. It wasn't a coincidence that Dracula was set in Transylvania, but it was to highlight the upper hand that Great Britain wanted to have and had against other countries. Dracula himself wasn't even portrayed as powerful character, but the other English characters often were at the upper hand, but many adaptations have strengthened Dracula to make him more of a scary character. Many other Victorian values were also shown off in the book, like the difference between men and women, men being the dominant genre, and women simply working as wife and barers of children. The book shows Lucy, a more modern young woman who isn't afraid to show her sexuality, as someone who gets manipulated by Dracula easier because of her 'misguided values' and so is trying to show the audience of the novel, that straying from the righteous road will lead them to the Devil and hell in their after life. The book deals with a lot of the christian values being put up on a pedestal. This probably comes from Bram Stoker's background, he was Irish, and most Irish during that time were catholic.

Vampire Myths: Researched information on any aspects of the historical mythological origins and related data.

Vampire folklore can be found in many parts of the world, dating back to biblical times with Lilith(supposedly the first wife of Adam who, after being banished from the Garden of Eden, became the Queen of Demons and would feast on the blood of babies and mothers) and ancient Egypt. Of course then these creatures were not called Vampires, that is a name created during the 17th century when Vampires became popular in England and Germany and it comes from the Slavonic Magyar words “VAM” meaning blood and “PIR” meaning monster, “VAMPIR”= “BLOOD MONSTER”. The vampire like creatures in many cultures were defined as demons and evil spirits who would attack people and drain their life energy or drink their blood. Examples of these kind of creatures are the Chinese Jianshi, Warthful Deitis that appears in the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' and several others from Mesopotamian, Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Many of these vampire like creatures were depicted as women or sexual predators taking on the shape of a female Most of the vampire myth comes from the Middle ages in Europe. People looked into religion or superstition to explain the world around them. When commentators have been trying to explain, where these myths might have started, they said a good possibility could have been simply premature burial, rabies or early ignorance of the body's decomposition. Vampire became popular in England and Germany in the 17th century from reports of vampires in Eastern Europe, which would later on form the basis to our modern vampire legends.

Antonin Artaud – What is the Theatre of Cruelty? Any ideas about how this could help us?

Antonin Artaud was the creator of 'Theatre of Cruelty'. He lived a short life of drug abuse and spent a lot of in and out of hospital. For a brief two years he was part of the Surrealist movement, but was then kicked due his views being different and even further absurd. Theatre of Cruelty especially, which demands the actor to get in touch with their 'double', or inner core and subconscious thoughts and taboos. Artaud believed that society and our cultural structures have shaped us to the way we are, hiding our most inner wants and needs, which is the 'double'. By driving themselves to their physical and emotional breaking points, the actors could "lance the abscess" and release the constrictions the society has set upon us human. Using Artaud's methods in our play is extremely fitting, since Dracula is surrounded by themes like temptation, fear, lust and suppression of desire, which are all somehow connected to Artaud. Starting from our own acting and creation of the different scenes, we should be pushing ourselves to do our utter most during rehearsals, being cruel to ourselves as Artaud would have wanted. We could also think about how our characters fit in with Theatre of Cruelty and the idea of a double. What are our characters deepest wants? What are they hiding? Whta would happen if they released it? These are the kind of questions that will get us a more Artaudian view on our characters, get more in touch with their temptations.

Your character(s) in the play: Describe your character using information given in the script/ storyline. How would you describe your character? Provide a personal view about what you feel and think about your character.

I was assigned the role of Jonathan Harker, a young and quite naive man whose firm sends him to Transylvania to conclude a real estate transaction with Dracula. He is very much the image of Victorian values and the ideal Victorian Man, and that's about it. When reading the novel, I never really saw Jonathan as the most interesting character, but rather the things that happened around or to him were things that made him interesting. In the book, he is described as “quiet, business-like gentleman”, “uncommonly clever” and “full of energy”, which definitely are things I should be using when creating this character. He is a lawyer, so most of his life Jonathan has used reading books and studying, not making him the most interesting character of the bunch. Liz Lochhead has tried to put some more into the character in the play, making Jonathan somewhat stray from the paths of an ideal Victorian man by thinking about other women(in discussion between Jonathan Harker and Dr. Seward they discuss Jonathan's secretary), even when being engaged to Mina. He is also somewhat cheeky, since he freely kisses Mina, touched her breasts and suggest that they should have premarital sex. In the play, Jonathan isn't as perfect, but it doesn't make him much more interesting in my eyes. It is when he has been captured by Dracula and you can see how scared Jonathan is of this vampire that he gets more fascinating, but also when he has met with the Vampire Brides. During this scene he pretty much gives into temptation, trading the key that could set him free for a kiss. He is easiy persuaded to temptation, which shows weakness in his spirit, but after this mishap, he rises from his fear to become braver and escaping. In the rest of the play Jonathan is more hands on in action, even if he doesn't have the same kind of experience with physical power than some of the other men. In the play, I think that Jonathan very much represents the suppression of feelings, since even after he escapes Dracula, he doesn't admit to giving into temptation, but they have to use hypnosis to get him tell about his experiences.

Style of Production Watch the 2 films - Dracula (1931) – Nosferatu (1922) What can we learn and use in terms of: Lighting Staging, Set and Props Costume and Make-Up Acting Style

Since both of the movies are black and white, there isn't obviously a lot of we could pull on the lighting or colors for our performance. I personally still think there is a lot we can use. The strong contrasts could be easily managed, using harsh white light, getting that kind of 'colorless' or black and white feel to the performance, then using brighter colours, like red, to high light certain moments and characters. I like how the 1931 Dracula used lights to highlight the eyes of Dracula, since they are pointed out in the story quite often, so that could be an interesting challenge to adapt to the play. Perhaps using a harsh spotlight or cut light, with Dracula slowly walking into it, first only revealing its eyes, then the grin of a monster. Also, using hard, fast blackouts and strong contrasts in the lights will create that expressionistic feel to the performance. The costumes in the two movies differ quite drastically, since they are set in different time periods. Nosferatus certainly has a more late 1800's feel to it, like the time the book was written in, where as Dracula follows more the fashion of the time the movie was made. I personally like the costuming of Nosferatu more, since it made the whole story feel more intimidating, but in the 1931's Dracula the vampire brides definitely win the prize for the costumes. It was simple white dresses from the years gone by, making them feel eerier. For the costumes, we could use more as inspirations for different tokens for characters, rather than guidelines, as I would personally prefer simpler costume choices, since even having only one 'main role', everyone works as a chorus throughout the play and spend the whole time on stage, so having a simple base for everyone gives more freedom during the chorus bits, and leaves more space for our emotions and actions to show trough. Different characters could have one defining piece of clothing that identifies them, that could be put on by the actor when their part comes on. To amp-up the creepy factor for everyone, the make-up could be used to make us look tired, half-dead or insane. Keeping the focus around the eyes, since especially Draculas eyes are a big focus in the story, showing the true nature of this particular creature. I think with the set, we should go with more stylistic decisions, since the locations change quite often and the places are different- from gardens to asylums and castles. We could take inspiration from Expressionistic paintings, with everything being quite abstract, with hard edges and cartoon-like features. This way, we wouldn't have to worry about changing the sets between scenes, but focus on the acting and creating the different places with the chorus. Props should be something easy to carry or get from the sides of the stage, and so there probably shouldn't be too many props used and only when necessary or to add something to the scene or characters.

21.03.2014

Brighton Shed Productions Workshop

   We had a very exciting guests in our class today, the Brighton Shed Productions. They held us a workshop using their ideas and methods to show a bit different kind of theatre, starting by showing us a video about their work. After this, we went to the dance studio to get started with the actual workshop, that was heavily to do with movement and dance. We explored with the ideas of travelling and journeys, which was actually very useful, since those are recurring themes in our play as well. We started warming up with a couple of dances and then moved on to create short travelling sequences in pairs, using lifts and other techniques as our advantage. The we got into groups of four and were given a task to tell a story about someones journey to Brighton in three tableaux, using the sequences to move from one tableaux to another. My group decided to look into my story of coming to Brighton, starting from Finland, then me travelling to USA and then ending up in Brighton at the end. At the end everyone showed their pieces to everyone.
   This workshop was very refreshing and it does tie in with Dracula as well. There is plenty of travelling in Dracula, from England to Trannsylvania and back, Belham to Whitby and so forth. We could use some of the things we learned in the workshop in our devising. There is also journeys within the characters, many of the characters go trough a huge change in themselves, Lucy turning from a naive playful girl to a seductive vampire and my character Jonathan struggles with temptation and fear.

Starting the Play

   Starting the class with discussion about symbolism and what kind of themes does the play have, we talked a lot about journeys, but also thought of other symbols within the play like animalistic, suppression, lust, temptation, manipulation the hunt and seduction, and then moved on to discussing the way we could start the play. We've had some ideas before, like that we wanted the whole experience of coming to see a play to be eerie. So, even when the audience is just coming in, we thought to use the front-of-house to our advantage and thought that they could be like the villagers are in Dracula - scared and warning the about the oncoming dangers. We decided then, that the actual start of the play should come as a surprise of sort, not as jumping on the audiences faces, but rather starting the play with the small things that make us scared, floor creaking, sound of wind or breathing. Breathing especially seemed like something we could use, since we have explored the different ways we can use breathing to show emotions. The ideas given from everyone from the group varied from having the breathing being muffled out by music or other sounds, or using the breathing to hide another sound, but after we came up with an idea using the wolves to start of the play, it became sure that breathing would be a way to start of the action and use it throughout the start. 

   The final idea came together surprisingly quickly. The group decided that after the audience has settled to their seats in the dark room, we will all start the scared breathing, first softly, but then strengthening it. Chloe will start by running on the stage, seeming to be escaping from someone or something. She moves across the stage and then up the steps on to the stage, scared and panicked. The rest of us, scattered around the stage start growling and howling, appearing from behind the audience and from the sides, surrounding Chloe as wolves. As she tries to find an escape from the sides of the stage, more of us reveal ourselves from the darkness, trapping Chloe in the middle. Blocked from escape, she sees Greta as Dracula appearing in the top of the steps, smiling as the wolves finally attack and devour Chloe, muffling her screams, and turning her as one of the wolves. Then slowly, we turn towards the audience, and as we run towards, the stage lights blackout and after it we start the play.
   This start will engage the audience in to the play immediately, but it will also contrast excellently with the starting scene with Mina and Lucy, a scene that is seemingly naturalistic and quite peaceful. This might confuse the audience at first, making them wonder, how the beginning with the wolves connect to the play, but they will soon discover the connection. I also think this start connect to the way the riginal novel told the story. Bram Stoker used diary entries and letters to tell the story of Dracula, making it so that the reader knew more about what was coming, than the characters, and our start for the play foreshadows some of the story, but in a more symbolic way. 

18.3.2014

Starter Ritual

   Today's class started very similar as one about a week ago. We came into the room with the curtains drawn and were asked to put our stuff down quietly, then join the circle of instruments. Yet, this time was different. Instead of our tutor leading us with the ritual, this time it our job to start and lead the ritual. The exercise started off somewhat uncomfortable, since it obvious no one knew exactly what to do, or who should start. Eventually, Yunusa took motion and started the ritual. It was obvious that at the beginning not many people were brave enough to lead, but rather only couple of people kept swapping being the place of the leader, trying on different beats and rhythms. I personally didn't lead at any point, which now I feel like I should have collect all my courage and just do it. This is something I need to work on, stepping out and just taking the lead. Still, as we went on with the exercise, more people felt comfortable to lead, which created interesting ways of doing the ritual. I preferred the starter ritual this time, since I felt a certain unity in our group, and I felt that it wasn't just us following someone, but rather all of us trying to work together to create a coherent ritual. 

Breathing circle

   Since Artaud is all about non-verbal communication, all of our exercises were centered within this theme. The breathing circle was our second exercise for today. As the name of it implies, we were all sitting in a circle, very close to each other. The idea of this exercise was to portray different emotions trough only using our breath. One would be given an emotions, and as they started breathing, others would join in as they felt the emotion was portrayed in a believable way. Some of the emotions were anger, sadness, fright, and lust. It was interesting to see how differently you could show these different stages of mind by only using breath, and even if I couldn't relate to all of the breathing ways, they were all clear and very believable. One of the things that I noticed, and was also pointed out, was how anger and lust seemed to be very similar, as both of them put focus on the out breath being very strong. I think breath is such a simple but strong way to show what is going on in your mind, and this exercise definitely proved that. 

Argument Scene

   Let's start this off by saying, that I did not enjoy this exercise, at all. The idea was to create an argument scene with a partner, without using any words, but showing the situation by breathing, grunts, screams and other sounds. Many of the scenes got extremely intense, which was the idea of the exercise, and it got very scary at times. Especially when Sav and Harry presented their scene, I felt unbelievably uncomfortable watching Harry seeming to abuse Sav. Even if the emotions in these different scenes were extreme, this will help us even in our naturalistic acting, since it enables us to get in touch with our emotions and cross our limits. I was paired with Max and we decided to make scene between a child and a mother. We could have definitely pushed ourselves with our scene, being more out there and forget about trying to show a realistic scene, which I think we ended up trying to do, but also ended up being quite comedic. It was hard for us to just do the scene, without starting to think trough what we were doing and why were exactly doing it, which came on the way of trying to portray raw animalistic emotions that most of the other groups were really good at showing. I thought that Greta and Yunusa especially stood out with their scene, because it showed the raw emotions so strongly, that it made most of us supremely uneasy, making some of us even laugh. The laughter wasn't because the scene was in any way funny, but rather, at least for me, there was no other way to react or we just didn't know how to react to it. 

Symbol

    The last exercise was about symbols and in a way a continuum to rituals. The class was divided into two group and each was given an emotion, anger(my group) and love, and the idea was to create a continuous moving symbol, basing it on a simile. We based our feeling, anger, on "anger is like the desert sun" which was said by Liam. We quickly thought of creating  a sort of a never ending circle, with each of the group member going trough the different faces of anger. From determined and powerful, to desperate and powerless. I really liked this, because I find anger quite self-destructive and desperate in a way - anger doesn't create good things, but rather whither's each participate and surrounding people around it, if not used in the right way.

Notes & Casting thoughts

    Artaud heavily believed that our social constructions restrict us, and so language also is very problematic. We discussed this in class, thinking the different ways language can be problematic. The main point was, that language isn't enough on its own, since it is the defined intellectual meaning, when actually the meaning is and should be much bigger. As someone who speaks fluently two languages, I do agree that language can have problems. In the modern world, it is highly unpractical to only be familiar with one language, since right now there is over 6,000 languages in the world, each one having their own cultural backgrounds. There is no universal language, and even within some of the biggest language groups in the world, there is generational differences in speaking and slang words created every day. We simply cannot keep up with language with the pace that it is growing. So, language is easily misunderstood and it cannot always portray the feelings you would want it to, since everyone has their own concept of certain words. For example, during class we briefly looked into the word 'cold'. When people started to describe it, they used words like chilly and winter, but I was thinking of someone being cold, as in distant and closed of. This is the sort of differences language creates, and it is a problem, which is why developing our non-verbal communication is important.
   After having to workshops of Artaud and studying a bit of his methods, I would like to make a post about my feelings towards it and how we can use it in creating the play. For this though, I need to do a bit more research on Artaud and preferably read 'Theatre and its Double', since now my feelings are incredibly mixed. At the same time, I am not enjoying the process as much as I did with Stanislavski, since most of his ideas and style of naturalism fit with my acting, but it doesn't necessarily mean, that I couldn't benefit from Artaud and Theatre of Cruelty. Actually, I think I kind of needed, since noticing how uncomfortable and restricted I have been feeling these past weeks shows, how much I still have to work on and push myself to be able to get in touch with my inner insecurities and doubts. 

    Today, we were also given the casting for the play. I have been terribly anxious about this, since I can't wait to start to dig into a character. I was cast as Jonathan. This came as an surprise to me, since I had never considered to be someone in line for this character, but I am content with this choice. I have been lucky to have been able to play a range of different kind of characters during my time in college, and Jonathan is certainly different from all of my other characters. He is very much the image of a traditional ideal Victorian man, poised, educated and charming, but the part I am excited to start working on is when he is around Dracula and I will be able to start and play with his fear and desperation to get out of Dracula's castle. 

14.3.2014

 

Mind Map about some of my thoughts

    Today we continued and were able to finish reading the play with the class. I felt reading trough the play once again made me notice some connections and themes, especially within the characters, much clearer. It was also very nice to get to hear what everyone else were thinking about the play and certainly share some of my own observations as well.

One remark that was given during one of our discussion, was that every character in the play seem to be either a sadist(someone who receives pleasure from conflicting pain on others) or a masochist(someone who enjoys receiving pain/inflicting pain on themselves). This is especially brought out by the nurses Grice and Nisbett, who are each describe as one or the other in the stage directions.
   Other characters as well seem to be representing the different themes and concepts within the story, e.g. Dracula represents the temptation of the Devil, Van Helsing priest or power of Christianity, Arthur Seward science and modernity, and Jonathan Harker the Victorian values. Yet, Lochhead has twisted some of these characters to rather show the problems with these themes and symbols in the book, showing that world is not as black&white as it seems.

11.3.2014

Antonin Artaud

Today, we were introduced to Antonin Artaud and several acting techniques and exercises that followed his methods and theories. Artaud was the creator of 'Theatre of Cruelty'. He lived a short life of drug abuse and spent a lot of in and out of hospital. For a brief two years he was part of the Surrealist movement, but was then kicked due his views being different and even further absurd. Theatre of Cruelty especially, which demands the actor to get in touvh with their 'double', or inner core and subconscious thoughts and taboos. Artaud believed that society and our cultural structures have shaped us to the way we are, perhaps hiding our most inner wants and needs, which is the 'double'. By driving themselves to their physical and emotional breaking points, the actor could "lance the abscess" and release the constrictions the society has set upon us human.



Starter exercise
   As we walked into the room, I quickly noticed, that all the curtains were drawn and lights were down, it was dark. Only some trace of the sun light could be seen from the slits between curtain. Also, in the middle of the room there were some instruments, bells and wooden sticks, and we were told to put down our coats and bags silently and sit behind an instrument. If there wasn't an instrument, we were told to use our hands as one. As everyone had settled on the floor, Andy picked up the instrument in front of him and motioned us to follow his lead. He began to create a rhythm and everyone followed, trying to get all the instruments play at the same time. Then we got up on our feet and started walking around the room, following Andy. The rhythm and tempo of the tune changed and with it we slowed down or picked up our own pace, lifting our hands up. This whole exercise felt very ritual-like, even though I loved the fact that everyone's energy and concentration was up, higher than most Tuesday mornings, I still felt a certain uneasiness in myself. When we were told to stop, go back into the circle and give out the instruments, we were also told to think of a word to describe how we felt about this experience. My word was 'rauhaton', which is a Finnish word meaning uneasiness  or restlessness, especially of the soul. I am not entirely sure, why I chose this word or why I felt this way, but for some reason this 'starter ritual' made me feel trapped inside, like I needed to let something out.

Grid exercise
   Next we were placed in for rows in a square, forming a grid. We were told to start to walk within this grip, only moving along the imaginary lines. Our motivation and the force that drove us forward was told to be love. This exercise was really to demonstrate Artaud's theory of being 'cruel to yourself'. It was important that we stayed determined and held a certain amount of self-discipline during this exercise, since we had o start walking faster and eventually start to run in the grid trying to get love. After awhile, it certainly started to emotionally and physically feel like torture, as my leg started cramping and the idea of love seemed impossible to obtain. People we pushing and bumping into each other, but for me, I was too focused to even consider how everyone else were feeling, so I just kept moving forwards. After sometime, Andy kindly told us to slow down and eventually stop. Now I could see the faces of my peers, puffy red cheeks and watery eyes. A certain desperation was in almost all of our faces, and some seemed to be overwhelmed with emotions. I had a mess of thoughts and doubts in me, but since I am not used to expressing my personal feelings in such public situation, I found it too hard to actually let go of my barriers and let my emotions take the best of me.
   During this exercise I found it hard to imagine love, which probably made me feel so desperate at the end. I started thinking about my life at the moment and all people I have. I couldn't give focus to one person in particular, because I didn't feel I have a lot of love in my life at the moment. Everyone I know who loves me, and I love back, live in Finland, the land that I left to do what I feel was the only right thing for me. I was struck by this coldness and loneliness that I have realized is surrounding me. The worst part of this was the thought, that I felt powerless to do anything about it, even though it is supposed to be us who have the control over our own lives. Coat of despair and hopelessness fell over me as we were told to stop running. If I would have had to keep running and focusing on the love a bit longer, I think I would have had a break down. This is just to show, how much I still need to push myself to get to my limit, to get to that point of no inhibition from constructed by us or the society, to show those cruel and raw emotions that hide within us all.

Slowmotion & Emotion Scale
   The next two performances were to do with the size of performance, since Artaud preferred to use large spaces or out doors for performances, so the importance of the size of your performance was great. This enables the audience to feel those huge amounts of emotions better, to get the audience to their limits as well. We started this of by going into pairs. We were told to improvise a slow motion boxing match, a tennis match and a wrestling match, going as slow as possible and using elaborate movements. This turned out to be a bit more difficult than it seemed, since it was physically hard to do some of the movements extremely slowly, and at the same time see and predict what your partner was doing.
   The emotions scale was difficult as well, for me at least, We were divided into to groups of around 8 people. The first group started by standing in a line and then start from the other, everyone portraying the state of panic, the size of the emotion growing as they went up the scale. It was interesting to see how everyone in this group used breath as one of their main ways to show panic. When it came my group turn, our emotion was set to be love. I was right at the start of the scale, so I would be trying to convey love in two completely different sizes. I found showing the extreme of love more difficult, since love is such an abstract idea for me, so I am not very happy with my performance at that moment. These exercises really showed how we as a group need to create a environment of trust and focus, so that everyone will be able to let go and show their emotions 110%, and not only half way. 

Ritual
   Since one of Artaud biggest point in his acting methods were, that theatre should be able to show emotions and stories without words, 'rituals' are a very good way to try to learn this. They communicate directly in the most primal ways their intentions. My groups ritual dance was supposed to be a rain dance and we did this by thinking about water as an element and how it could look and sound like.

   So far, I think studying Artaud's methods further will be an interesting journey, since it will definitely push us all to our limits. I am expecting to have quite emotionally and physically exhausting days ahead of us, but it will just be big help, to let us release those most inner emotions we have hidden inside. To be honest, I guess I am a bit afraid for the upcoming days, for I know how hard I will have to work and have discipline on myself to keep going, even at the point of utter pain. 

Research - The Vampire

10-3-2014

• The interesting thing about vampires is, that you can find almost in every culture a creature, often referred to as a demon entity or a spirit, that resembles the traits that modern vampires share. For example, the earliest references to vampires come from Ancient Egypt, where it was believed that the demon(or vampire) was summoned with sorcery.
• The word 'Vampire' actually comes from two Slavonic Magyar words: 'vam' meaning blood and 'pir' meaning monster. So vampire literally means 'blood monster'. This term got more popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, when reports of vampire folklore became widely popularized in England and Germany, which formed the basis of the modern vampire legends. The first case of a real person being reported as a vampire came from Istria, modern Croatia, where some villagers believed that a dead man had risen from his grave and started to sexually harass widows and drink their blood.
• The Dark Ages have been considered to be the time where vampires date back to, even though vampire like demons and creatures are found earlier on

Sources:
1. http://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html
2. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/meet-the-real-life-vampires-of-new-england-and-abroad-42639093/
3. http://scribol.com/anthropology-and-history/the-origins-of-vampire-myths
4. http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/strange-creatures/vampire5.htm

Initial response to the play

   Since I haven't read the novel, I will not be able to look at the play from a comparing point of view, but certainly after reading the book I will. Now, I will only talk about my first impression of the play, discuss the different characters and expand on what kind of ideas I have currently.

   Mina and Lucy had a much bigger parts in the play than in the movies, and probably the book. In the movies, both of the women seem like perfect examples if the Victorian woman, but Lochhead has expanded on these characters and actually given them complex personalities. Mina, the older sister, is the responsible one who acts like a woman is expected during those times. Still, as she says herself, she is easily influenced, especially by her feistier more problematic or, how the men in the book describe it, 'hysteric' sister Lucy. Lucy has had some troubles after the girls parents passed, depression and anorexia. Lucy also differs from Mina with the fact that she is a lot more sexualized than her sister. When Mina is seen as the image of purity, not even after being under Draculas spell does she fall under temptation, Lucy embraces her beauty from the beginning and isn't afraid to display playfulness about her desirability, something that Mina doesn't show.
  Florrie is a housemaid, a character that doesn't appear in the novel nor the movies, but was especially created for this play. She is an interesting add, since her meaning, I think, is to show just how privileged and even spoiled Mina and Lucy really are. These two women, especially Mina, might have been images of the perfect Victorian woman, but the playwrite has decided to show a different side of them, by adding someone not-so-privileged to their side.

   I was surprised of how little Dracula was actually present in the play. He has a greater part in the first act, but the second act he basically disappearances, with occasionally appearing to do his attacks. It is only at the right end of the 2nd act that he shows himself to the others again, only to die soon after. I actually really liked this, since it created suspense and made him somewhat a mysterious and scary character. I can't wait to start working on the different parts where Dracula just appears on stage, planning out these moments will definitely be a challenge, but I can imagine it being fun as well.

   I found the range of characters very interesting, all of them had their own interesting personalities, so really being able to play any of them should turn out to be a well expected challenge. I especially liked how The Nurses, Grice and Nisbett were designed to be played by one person, creating a very complex character within the play. They(she?) work at the asylum, treating maniacs, when in fact they themselves, two minds, share one body. Even the dynamics between them was very interesting to read in Act two scene sixteen. They talked back and forwards and what made both of the personalities works so well together, was the fact that they weren't written to be the cliche "good and bad", but they both possessed attributes from both extremes. I am not completely sure yet, what their meaning in the play was, I'll have to look more closely into the scenes they are in, to determine what their role in the story was.
  Renfield also turned out to be one of my favourite characters in the play. I enjoyed him in the movies I watched as well,  but some how the play brought out his meaning better. He consumes living creatures - flies, spiders, birds etc. - to give him life force and vitality. He knows that Dracula is coming, it seems that he has known it all along, and in a way he tries to warn the others about it, even if he identifies as a servant for the vampire. Renfield isn't necessarily doing this willingly, but might be under a spell or just after long period of being under Dracula's influence, Renfield has given up on fighting back the evil.
  I feel that Lochhead has embraced the lunatic in all human beings, interpreting a set of characters and giving all of them moments of insanity, whether it is from jealousy, mourning, revelation or something born with.

Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker and Doctor Seward didn't impress me that much. They had big parts in the play, but I personally haven't yet had a good grasp of these characters that much. This doesn't mean that they wouldn't be interesting characters, quite the opposite, it is just that they didn't fit into my liking that much, nor the roles I imagined they would have int he play. Van Helsing and Seward seemed to be rather static characters, not having much character development within the play. Harker had some, since he turned from the naive young man, who gets imprisoned by Dracula, to a fearless fighter against Dracula, but it seemed that Mina made a much larger sacrifice during the process of trying to slay Dracula for good.

   There is plenty of changes in setting , jumping from the asylum to Dracula's castle and then back to Heartwood house, which is something we need to take in consideration, when thinking about designing the set for our play. The smartest thing to do, would be to keep it as simple as possible, perhaps dividing different parts of the stage to different locations and using lighting and sound to our advantage in creative different moods for different locations. Also, in scenes where the play displays up to three different settings at the same time, lighting could be used to separate these different places.

Nosferatu

I watched Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror to get more ideas and inspire me on our own interpretation of Dracula on stage. Nosferatu is a German Expressionist horror film, created in 1922. It was an unauthorized version of the book, with only names changed to seem like it didn't have connection to Bram Stoker's novel. It is a silent film, meaning, that there was no spoken lines, but there is a symphony playing throughout the film. The music starts as quite happy and up-lifting, but soon changes as the vampire appears.


   German Expressionism refers to several movements like expressionistic architecture, painting and film, started in Germany before the First World War, reaching its peak in the 1920's. This style was known for its stark contrasts, rigid movements and fantastic elements. Expressionists didn't seek for physical reality in their art works, but rather focused on expressing emotional meaning and experience. They often dealt with themes such as identity, and problems of modern self-reflexcivity(source 1, 2)


   The plot of the story is pretty much exactly same as it was for the novel and later on the 1931 movie adaptations, so I won't be talking about it in this post. Rather, I would like to talk about the different devices the movie used to create mood and what could we use from the movie in our performance. There were some difference thoug, like the fact that Nosferatu complitely left out Van Helsing character and changed the death of the vampire.

There are some differences between the two films. First of all, both of them are set in different times, the 19321 film being set closer to the time and era it was made in, and Nosferatu occurs at the same time as the original novel is set in



   I really liked the portrayal of Count Orlok in Nosferatu, and maybe even preferred it compared to the 1931 version of Dracula. In the 1931 film version, Dracula was this extremely charming m like expressionistic architecture, painting and film,elegance, where as in Nosferatu, Count Orlak seems like he has been living in isolation for hundreds of years, which is probably true, when you take in consideration that he lives in the middle of a forest, with only a small village not so close by. He is sort of awkward and fidgety, and when Hutter(Harker) first meets Count Orlak, Orlak does not seem to know what exactly to do around him.

My favourite parts in the film were the ones where they used shadows to show count Orlak and his attacks, rather than just showing him going up the stairs or attacking Ellen(Mina). This created tension and could be easily used when creating our play.

Dracula - 1931

   Dracula is a 1931's horror film directed by Tod Browning. It was based in the 1924 play by Hamilton Deane, which was obviously written based on the novel written by Bram Stoker. Bela Lugosi, a Hungarian-American actor, got the job to play count Dracula in the movie, after being talent-spotted from the Broadway version of the book, for the new Hollywood talkies.

  Unlike the book, the 1930's movie isn't set in the 1800's, but by the looks of the costumes, it is set in late 1920's, around the same time the movie was produced. The style of acting also reflects this time. Hollywood talkies, became popular in the early 1930's, but most of the actors and the filmmakers weren't used to sound films, making the performance style more like in the silent films. The director was also more known for his silent films, which probably affected the style of the movie greatly. Movements and emotions of the actors were often elaborate, especially with Bela Lugosi, who portrayed the confident and composed count Dracula.
  It is true, that the movie used its silence to its advantage, creating quite daunting moments within in it. Silence is definitely something we can use in our performance. A lot of times sounds are used to speak of danger, but during our group discussion Max pointed out, that perhaps silence could be an interesting way for us to tell of future threat. Like in many old movies, there is a static sound throughout the film, which I really enjoyed and felt, that had a certain unsettling mood and created tension in me.




Something that I really took notice during the film, was how much the eyes were emphasized during the film. Many times, when they drew a close-up on count Dracula, they directed the light to his eyes. Also, when telling about being attacked by a stranger, Mina Harker describes her attackers eyes been "blazing red" almost in an obsessive manner. Later on in the film, when she has started to show clear signs of becoming a vampire herself, the close-ups and cinematography is heavily focused on her eyes. I especially enjoyed the bit where she is walking trough a forest and the light shine between the shadows created by the trees catches her eyes.



Even though they weren't the biggest characters in the film, having no lines, the brides of Dracula were on of the most eerie figures in the movie. Living in the old ruin-like castle, every time the brides would appear, they moved like ghosts in a perfect line. At these points the lighting seemed to change a bit softer as well, not so many shadows and contrasts, but fog creating this phantom-like appearance for the brides. Probably the fact that they never said anything made these three women seem even scarier. I really like the fact that the movie didn't feel the need to hurry with these silences, but let the audience be apart of the suspense of each moment and feelings of the characters.
   The set and costumes help to create the atmosphere as well. Dracula, vampire brides, and the villagers all seemed to dress somewhat old-fashioned, compared to the more modern English characters, like Mina, Lucy and Renfield(at the start). This seems tell something about Transylvania, how it is too isolated from the other world for Dracula to be found and slayed from. The castle Dracula recites in, is very old and seem almost abandoned, because of the dust and spider-web spread around every room. In the castle, everything seems out of proportion, doors tall and heavy and even the fireplace seems like it was build by giants. But when the location changes from Transylvania to England, the setting changes to extravagant house, with big garden. I didn't notice anything too special about this, just that it was a rich family's living space. Still, all the bedroom windows were fairly large, giving the possibility for shots of Dracula as a bat, preying on his victims in the night.




Even though there was plenty of people that died during the movie, rarely was the actual death or bodies shown. This was an interesting choice that the makers of the movie made in my opinion, that allowed us to decide, how gruesome the deaths actually were. The only downside of this was, that when they eventually killed Dracula, the death was left somewhat anti-climactic, and I hoped this would have been an bigger and more eventful part in the film.


Over all, I found this movie very fascinating and inspiring. There are a lot of tricks and styles we can use in creating this on the stage, like trying to reenact Dracula not been able be seen in mirrors, appearing of Dracula unnoticed.   I am not sure, how exactly some of these could be done, but I am sure as a group we can find out a way.

4.3.2014

We started looking into our next project, Dracula, today. I have to say, that I am especially excited about this project, and so I cannot wait to get on planning the scenes and really starting to design the over all look of the show. But first, there is some research to do.

   Dracula was originally written by Bram Stoker in 1897 as a Gothic horror novel. Even though Bram Stoker did not invent the vampire, he did create a story that created the modern form of vampires, touching upon the themes of women in Victorian culture, sexual conventions, immigration, colonialism, and post-colonialism in his novel.
 The novel introduced the vampire count Dracula, that tries to move from Transylvania to England. Bram Stoker was himself Northern Irish, and most likely never visited Transylvania, just read about it. So, the description of Transylvania in the book probably isn't close to real life, but a improvised version of it. Transylvania is a historical region in the middle part of Romania.
  At this time, literacy levels in England were counted by those who could sign their names on a marriage register. Only about 50% of the women and 70% of men could do this, but this percentage isn't necessarily precise. Functional literacy - being able to actually cope with everyday levels of text - was harder to measure.

We also talked about the different movie adaptations of the book, especially the 1931 version and 1922 German movie Nosferatu, that is heavily based on the book, but I will make a separate post about them.