Olivia HL Theater Blog

Script analysis write-up: What strategies did you use to analyze your script last week and what did you find from that technique? Also, how did you revise your piece based on the findings. 300 words. Post on blog. Last week the devising group and I worked n analyzing our script and figuring out what we needed to revise in our work so far. The strategies included: Understanding the physicals levels in our scenes Finding where to build up and break down emotion Feeling Tempo and Rythm Fluency Plot holes In order to understand the levels in our scenes, we needed to physically act out the scenes. It was not until we went through the scenes, were we able to see what was awkward or seemed too boring. Our group decided to show levels by having people walking around, standing, sitting, and movement of body such as arms and legs n order to show more energy on stage as well as a a picture with various dimensions. By picking apart our scene’s script, we were able to (and ar...

The first devising company I researched was Reckless Sleepers. They decided to do this performance where about 15 women sawed wooden chairs that they were sitting on. The video I watched of this was about 10 minutes long and showed them doing this performance in various locations. For some reason, even though the idea was explained in words seems so simple, this performance was undeniably intriguing. The women kept a center of gravity revolving around the chair even though they were falling all over the place. There was some type of emotional outburst from the women even though their faces showed no emotion. I think they were alienated from the audience, but still managed to send a strong and bold message. I find this very impressive.  http://www.reckless-sleepers.eu/a-string-section-images?fbclid=IwAR0U_iHHqdYeDyFiNDiMNs_GAJ5qJ3Rwbv9wt29O89RE1Y61Q7VsWbNa9to&lightbox=image_1prv Another devising company I researched was Potato Room Productions. This company revolves arou...

Love Is Complicated Ideas based on stimulus The inspiration for our devising group project titled, Love is Complicated is derived from the stimulus, the painting the hole on the wall. We gathered our information and ideas about the theme of the play by recalling what we see and what we think of the art work. The very first thing that we realized/noticed about the painting is the distinctive red balloon. Obviously the balloon used to belong to the human figure on the left side and now the balloon is gone, we can tell this by looking at how the hand of the “human” is trying to reach for the balloon. Also the balloon has a shape of a heart, which is possibly referring to love. Combining love and the sense of distance/abandon, we’ve decided our topic to be about the sad facts of love. This piece has allowed the members of our group to explores themes of the following: The longing for love Heartbreak Unfaithfulness Betrayal Love is complicated Devotion Etc...

Blog post -- reflect on what you learned in this unit (Director's Vision for Yr 1/Director's Notebook for Yr 2) Overview: In this unit of IB HL Theater, the focus was mainly on Director's Vision. The Director's Vision encompasses aspects of the theater that gets the Director's message across. In a Director's Vision, topics such as theme, setting, historical context, general understanding of plot, etc. should be addressed. The Director's Vision can be a great way of organizing what the Director wants to get out of the performance. The message of the performance could either effect audience, actors themselves, the director, etc. The point of having the goals addressed in the Vision being so open ended is because Director's Vision should reflect the Director's own personal goals and wanting.

Blog post due -- reflect on your experience at the devising workshop The devising workshop was super cool! Something I'd like to say is that used to feel very nervous when going to workshops and interacting with people, but today I was very comfortable and overall happily excited. The workshop included a lot of different activities including; warmups, reading comprehensions, writing, and acting.  The warm ups at first seemed pretty silly, but I realized that it allowed me to be more aware of my surroundings. By laying on the floor, I found my self on a new level of the black box, one that I had not really been at yet. We also jogged around places of the black box which helped me to understand that I should be able to flow anywhere around the stage. By yelling, "Hey!" I was able to use my voice! It was less of a whisper and I was able to speak a bit more throughout the following activities. The workshop provided us with readings as well as writing that we woul...

Visit from Alumnus Jack Cheng today -- take some notes on his presentation and post them on your blog. Notes from Jacks' visit: Lighting Grids Lights are on them and can be moved around, but when placed need to have a safety chord on them. For Specific Lighting Place lights to balance out shadows if wanted Lights can do a great job at setting the mood for a scene ex. Jack showing us a good monologue scene set- up. Cool tip! Blue can look super cool as a contrasting color to separate the actor(s) from the background. Note Light blue can signify day time with white light or just blue light usually indicates scene change.

Time and place: take into account whether or not it is important to recognize the time and place to the actions as well as whether or not a everyday modern audience will understand Shakespearean work. Approach to directing can be active or recessive. Director’s intuition is VERY important It could be fun to focus on visual aspects of the play when directing It is alright to have things be your inspiration. Does breaking the 4th wall make things more complex?