Olivia HL Theater Blog

I like my ideas and I believe I can create a great piece by getting my ideas across. This idea of showing the philosophies of Existentialism and Nihilism are extremely fascinating. The most important thing I want to make sure I do is respect the two philosophies. I do not want to question why the schools of thought are the way they are in means of truth. My goal is to simply express the two sides. I slightly would like to incorporate theater of cruelty into this piece in terms of lighting etc. but I am not sure if I will. I am not intrigued by "simple lighting", that is simple white light, and I want to use barley any lighting and maybe add some red to this. Possibly some dark blue also? To add depth to the scene, since the stage size will be very small. The small stage size will be very beneficial in creating an intimacy. This intimacy is for the actors. The audience can still feel isolated. The audience should truly feel as though there is a glass box between them and ...

My stimulus : dead trees. "Walk in the woods" is a conversation I had repeatedly with someone. I had written in my daily log later on that day: [ today i pondered the thought, “am i a nihilist?” after the most vexatious being known to earth decided to interject their assumptions on my character, going on to bash my schools of thought. i read from Nietzsche to Foucault. then realized i just might be an absurdist with perhaps nihilistic undertones of belief. i felt content (that is to emphasize that this was a mere satisfaction) when arriving at this new personal awareness, highlighting my nihilism even further. ] Nonetheless, the person I was conversing with was blurting out some existentialist philosophies. Thus, I decided it right to explore the contrasting practices of life for both a Existentialist and a Nihilist.  Existentialism vs Nihilism  Existentialism is the belief that through a combination of awareness, free will, and personal responsibility, on...

Overall pitch for director's vision due on blogs by this date The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh  Martin McDonagh's work contains characters who take part in cruel and violent actions that appear to be apart of they're usual lives. The Pillowman is a dark comedy about a children's author named Katurian and his impressionable brother, Michal. Michal, influenced by Katurians' children books revolving around child murder leads him to commit murders of his own. Martin McDonagh uses Katruian as a way to voice the seriousness of the matter, but erases that thought with the abrupt action of killing Michal. What this shows is the voice of rational that is quieted by the violent nature found in societies of our world today.  Pitch: Sitcom feel, help to normalize the violence even more. Confuse the audience, alienation affect. Make them question if they should listen to the voice of rational or fit in with the crowd who seems to be pleasantly entertai...

Link to Revised Solo Performance Paper: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RsDEyC2AVVv2gDlEPlkV5_dcqhReNK0HcHcWpag-oZY/edit?usp=sharing

Sources Digital Theater Plus+: Commedia dell'Arte History Commedia dell'Arte an Actor's Handbook by John Rudlin Commedia dell'Arte a Scene Study book by Bari Rolfe Exploring Modern Commedia dell'Arte by Ale Lavendvatter

Context of the Theatre Theorist. Theorist: Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud Dramatist, poet, essayist, actor, theater director Type of theater: Theater of Cruelty Avant-garde theater  A skeptic of old traditions and standards Author of: “Theater and its double” ORGANIZED ANARCHY Goal was to draw audience in and wake up their nerves and heart Irrational, feeling that life is meaningless or a man that's a puppet control by invisible outside forces Aspect of the Theory. What I will be pulling from Artaud Throughout my creative process, I kept in mind some of the philosophies of Artaud: The Plague: Artaud believed that theater should be like a plague that takes over the actor(s) and spreads to the entire audience. There is no way of escaping the plague. This idea was explored in the workshop I led for my IB theater class. Cruelty: “Without an element of cruelty at the root of ever spectacle, the theater is not possible. In our present state of degradation ...

Edits, Reflection, and Audience viewpoints: I ended up changing a lot of aspects of my performance. The things that I have changed are the following: Costume for Laura Lighting Audio track Glass prop Costuming for Laura: For Laura, I originally that that she should be wearing a plain cream dress, as it is seen as more “ritualistic” which was another philosophy of Artaud. I decided to change this because I realized I don't have to focus on every aspect of Artaud. To make it more authentic to what I believed Laura would be like, I put her in a light blue ruffled dress. The light blue color was pastel enough to not take away from the lighting, but also show that Laura could be in modern times. Audience viewpoints: The audience was able to feel for Laura more as she seemed more like a realistic person in everyday life.  Lighting: The lighting was originally very simplistic. I did not want much light on Laura. This was to emphasize that Laura really di...