Christina's World

The Painting

In lesson we looked at a Picture called "Christina's world" which was painted by a man called Andrew Wyeth. The painting is of a woman called Anne Christina Olsen who was the next door neighbour to Andrew's wife. Anne had polio which is a disability where the nerves of the spine are damaged and makes them unable to move particular muscles. In Anne's case she was paralysed from her hips down and so she had to drag herself around her house and her field. she did have the choice to have a wheel chair but she turned it down.

Initial Response

Before we even looked into the background of the painting we had to make notes about our first responses to the picture. Some immediate words that popped into my head was alone or escape as the woman in the painting is the only person in it and she is far away from the house so I presumed she wanted to be isolated. I also notice her pink dress and how it look old so the picture was probably based in the 1940's because of her old dress and hairstyle. I also noticed that her dress was a very distinctive bright pink and it make me see the woman as the brightest part of the painting. I also thought that because she was reaching towards the house that she was remembering the good memories from the house and because she was sitting in a dark patch perhaps she was in a dark place in her life.

Second Response

After looking into her background we realised the painting was based on her disability and how she is struggling with her weakness but she still keeps going. My group therefore it was about strength and determination because she doesn't want to dehumanise herself. We therefore had to create a freeze frame showing Christina's physicality. We did this by having everyone lean on each other in an ascending order to show how even though she hasn't got the ability to walk she can keep going like any normal human. we tried to base it on the position that Christina's position in the painting so we all looked as if we were crawling to our feet. to push this image further we added the sound effect of panting to show her struggle in her everyday life. it also therefore inspired the name of our piece to be called "Heavy Breathing".

Final Response

From doing this activity I have learnt that it is good to look into your stimulus as the meaning behind it  could be different from your original interpretations are. I also have realised that even the smallest of idea or theme can influence the whole piece and can be a good starting piece for any devised piece of drama.

Forced Entertainment - Information

Forced Entertainment

Origins:
They started in 1984 and have been running for over 30 years.

The Company:
The company has 6 core artists who have based themselves in Sheffield. They have been running for 30 years in which the company has been able to show a rare example of their people building, maintaining and developing vocabulary, ways of working and innovating together over long periods of time.  The company is always ready and prepared to take risks in their performance by being able to push themselves to their limits. This also means that the company have control over their performance as they are based on personal needs because they do all the devising for their performances. 

Funding:
The company are funded through the national lottery and Arts Council England which are both from public funding.

Style:
The company's main aim is to challenge people's views of the theatre. They use their 'creative laboratory'  in order to create unexpected and inspiring answers to questions on life and art. For their audience they want to create a state of confusion as it will lead them to question the aspects of their work and the expectations to theatre. They do want to break the norm in the relationship between actors and the audience so they try to make their performances like a conversation between them. It therefore brings the audience deeper into their performance and closer to the art being performed. 

Stimulus:
When the company want to start a new performance, they go back to the rehearsal room in which they discuss ideas, raid costume boxes, play music, focus on specific lines in dialogue or improves a scene until something starts to stick. The stimulus is a very important part in the devising process as it can become the starting point or main component to their artistic projects. Stimulus's could be  anything from an object, dialogue, picture, mood or music piece which could open up their imagination in the creative devising process. The company previous stimulus have varied from ideas when they were drunk to objects that rub against each other in everyday situations but have worked together as it has created tensions and excitement in the companies imagination.


Starting Point:
In order to build some of their ideas they have created lists, played games, been in silence, dressed up, used jokes, got drunk, used improve, spoken in gibberish and experimented with long durations of time (the longest being 24 hours). This also leads the company to look into different and contrasting themes like comedy and serious, for example they created serious scenes that turned out to be funny and vis versa. They also experiment with aspects of the theatre like gallery installations which means their setting would change the audience would move interaction with the art.

Devising Methods:
The company  is mainly devise from their stimulus as it gives them a starting point which they can creatively work around to develop their ideas further. However they also look into different devising methods like the emotional states of the actors. They have an occasion used the actor's mental state like tiredness to add layers to their characters or the scene itself, They have also used accidents in rehearsals into shows to break the expectations of traditional theatre as the audience doesn't expect their to be mistakes. They also use creative blocks to their advantage as it forces the artists to push themselves to get out of the creative block. 

DV8 essay

DV8 Essay

Dv8 is a physical theatre company who have inspired groups such as Frantic Assembly. The company was created in 1986, in which they have produced 19 highly acclaimed dance pieces and four award winning films for television. They are able to get funding from Arts Council England due to the fact that they are an Arts Admine Associate Company. The company have built their huge reputation from their ability to push their own boundaries and constantly examining the role and relationships of men and women in today’s society. It means that all of their pieces are currant and relates to the modern society. DV8 focuses on taking risks, braking boundaries between dance and theatre plus communicating themes and ideas to audiences. They try to be radial yet accessible and stretch their work to as wide an audience as possible. What makes DV8 so different is that they don’t want their work to be based around financial, organisational and touring demands dictate the creation of new works but they was to focuses on artistic inspiration and creative needs. Their work constantly questions the norm of today’s society and key subjects that impude on everyday life.

When devising or creating a new production, DV8 does lengthy research and development periods in order to maintain artistic irregularity. This means that they always try to make their work different and stand out. They mainly focus on themes of questioning social, political views and sometimes taboo subjects in order to make their work have a bigger impact on their audiences. In Lloyd Newson’s piece “psychologist’s playground” they explored themes like exposing human emotions and feeling, and investigating questions of sex, identity and relationships. This piece also make Lloyd Newson to create evoking images, structured movement with a raw in your face portray of extreme behaviour.

They tend to use brutal looking, violent or provocative movements and they will try to avoid pointed feet, complex steps, high extensions, graceful arms, difficult jumps and so on. This is one reason why their work is as different as they don’t stick to the norms of dance techniques even though they are a dance physical theatre company. In another of their performances (called “My sex our dance”) some of their moves consisted of tensely clasping hands, furious tussling, twisting, crashing into walls and raped around each other to break their fall. The company believe that to reveal human emotion they often had to use very extreme movements.

One of their more taboo pieces was called “dead dreams of monochrome men”. It was based on the London serial killer Dennis Nilson. They only used minimal set designs to portray a ‘pick-up’ nightclub and a flat where the killer took his victims. They had surreal images and used body language that carried a deeper probing of homoeroticism. They used its dark sadomasochistic message to create a piece of intense and sometime uncomfortable performance all portrayed by the four male performers. This piece was so effective that in 1989 (one year after its stage release) it was filmed to enable a wider audience to see their creation.  It went on to win the awards Evening Standard Ballet Award — 1989, Time Out Dance Award — 1989, London Dance & Performance Award for choreography — 1988 and Digital Dance Production Award — 1988.

“Enter Achillies” was one of DV8’s pieces in 1995. It looked into straight male bonding in the 90’s as its theme was of a physical manifestation of the ‘new lad’ image which was being promoted in the media at that point in time. It was considered as a striking piece of popular culture as it exposed the crisis of masculinity expectations through movement, sound and design. This piece was so successful nationally and internationally that it was made into a film and it won 7 awards which were:

·    Jury Prize Montreal Festival for Films on Art 1998, Montreal
·         Emmy Award 1997, Performing Arts, New York
·         Golden Spire Performance Special, San Francisco Film Festival 1997
·         Prix du Ministre-Président First Screening Stage Arts Festival 1997, Brussells
·         Prix Italia Special Prize - Television, Music & Arts, 1996
·         Best Stage Performance Reworked for the Camera IMZ Dance Screen 1996
·         Special Prize 6th Golden Antenna Television Festival 1996

I thought that certain aspects of the piece symbolised or represented different area of the lad culture. For example when the first man entered the bar he went over to the karaoke machine and he started to sing a slow and emotional ballad. However when all the other men joined the bar, they made him stop sing by changing to a more lively song. I personally though that this represented the idea that the men weren’t allowed to show their weaker emotions as they are meant to be ‘men’ who are strong and don’t get emotional. I think it was meant to bring light on the stereotype of ‘being a man’ and how it forces men to be something that they aren’t.

Another, more disturbing, symbolism was that not female in the piece but they did have a female sex doll. In the first scene we see a man being gentle and romantic to the doll which could mean that the doll is meant to portray the loneliness of men or that the sex doll was mean to symbolise all women in the eyes of men. Later on in the piece one of the other men steal the doll and the men pretend to have sex with it and burst the doll by piercing it with a beer bottle.  It could mean that men saw woman as object rather than people and that they could do what they like with them. Or it could show how beer could destroy there relationships with women as they are drunk and have no responsibility. I think the doll was meant to question men of that time’s view on women and the way they decide to treat them due to the intoxication of alcohol.

I also noticed that whenever the men were all together they all did the same movement and they used animal and wild images. I felt that this was meant to imply that men are like animals in the way the treat each other and those men naturally copy each other in order to fit in. Therefore I think it shows the true loneliness of men and want of exception as they keep repeating the same type of movements throughout the whole piece. This addresses to the audience the wrong stereotypes of men of the 90’s and the expectations of them because they are ‘men’. 

Frantic Assembly Essay

Frantic Assembly Essay

This essay will inform about some of Frantic Assembly’s devising and technical features that they have used in some of their plays and successful stage show like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Frantic Assembly main aim as a company is to create thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company focuses on new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture.  Their unique physical style combines components like movement, design, music and text in all of their performances. Frantic is known as was of the most exciting theatre companies in the country all due to their reputation.  The company pride themselves in believing that theatre is for everyone and therefore promotes diversity and access in all of their performances.  They also believe that opportunities should be given to all that’s why they encourage individuals who are not yet represented in the arts to apply themselves into the company.

One of the most important features in the artistic process is that all the initial ideas come from the company itself. Some of their ideas can take years till it reaches the stage. It doesn’t mean that their ideas take years of development but more that an idea might be put aside because the company are waiting for the right climate (whether it be artistic or social) before they even consider putting the idea in to their production. When devising, frantic find music to be a huge inspiration to their work, which means they included it in all off their rehearsal in order to enhance their creativity. They also believe that design to be very important in their creative process. They want designers to absorb as much of the creative process as possible, comment on movement ideas, observe the potential character work and get a feel for the aims of their projects.

Even though Frantic were inspired by the company DV8, they wanted to find their own moves and techniques in which other people could use to create the same illusion of extraordinary movement. One of their improvised movements was called ‘Hymns Hands’, due to the fact that they used this movement in a devised play called hymns. The movement is entitled of a person placing their hands on their partner’s body. Both people can switch hands but they always must come back to the main part of the body. It focuses on fluidity between the switching hands and the connection to the partners. To extend the exercise further, the partners do the movements in slow motion but they have to follow the hands moving with their eyes. This makes the partners focus on the control of their movements and the effect of the weight of their touch. It makes the hands have different meaning depending on how they are place and at what velocity. For example if they were doing the movements quickly, it might look like the partners are have an argument but if they perform it slowly, it might look more loving and relationships maybe formed between the partners. Therefore this movement can create intimate but effective movement between the actors.

Another of Frantic’s techniques that are used as part of their building block is called ‘Round, By, Through’. This movement involves two people moving around, next to someone and going through each other. It consists of close contact and moving differently near someone. Their moves could be anything from going under each other arms to rolling around their body but it all depends on how the group have choreographed their piece. To develop this movement further the partners could squeeze the area in which they were working in, it means that the have closer contact and the moves become harder as they are having to move with the other person’s body. They also could add small lifts between the partnerships as long as they smoothly transition the lifts into the movements.

This movement makes the company think primarily on the three universes. The three universes consist of the moment before the touch, during and after the touch. This concept creates a lot of tension on stage as none of their movements are thrown away and they create the focuses point between the two actors. In Frantic’s ignition project, they used ‘round, by, through’ with the three universes in a slow motion which created an intimacy between the men and made a dangerous atmosphere as people were anticipating the next movements. It shows how depending what pace or intensity the moves are performed, the mood could change the style of the piece.

The physicality of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was created by the production’s Movement Directors Frantic Assembly. This mostly included their lifts that they have created special techniques to make the movements look more effective on stage.

One of their lifts is called push hands. It consists of the person flying walking up to their rock and the actor’s around him lifts him up. As this happens the person being lifted pushes down on the rock’s shoulders. This simple movement of pushing down on the shoulders immediately gives the illusion that the actor is weightless or a lot lighter than they actually are. And if the bond between the actors are strong enough the person flying can let go and the will be able to move them around the stage swiftly as if they were really flying.  They did use this technique in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Another of their most extraordinary lifts, which was also used in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is called walking the walls.  This move is all in its title; it makes it possible for the actor to walk along a wall with the support of other actors. The move consists of a base person who will take all of their weight onto their shoulder, someone to be lifted and a third man who supports the bell when first being lifted up. Once the actor is up the third man can take themselves out of the piece leaving the two men walking the length of the wall. This move only works because the person lifted pushes into the wall with their feet which creates their own gravity that can support the base man. This piece can look effortless if all the actors commit to the move and they keep creating gravity with every step they take.