The Story of a Man (MINI IP) ...

Theatre Year 37 Creative Assignment

The Story of a Man:

My play is about 5 different characters from all the different level of the society. They all don’t have a name, because they represent a category, such as The Lawyer in career, The Man, The Drag King, The Immigrant, The Rich Lady. The five different characters all have a strong personality, but the main character is The Man, who is the actor that connects all the other characters. In this scene, I will focus on bringing out part of the personality of The Man, a man who became schizophrenic after losing his job and seeing his wife and his daughter dying. He keeps on living the same daily life, pretending that his daughter is still with him and his wife is away for a conference. Sometimes he does live in the reality (not in this scene), abusing drugs as a solution to not face the question.

The Mini IP starts with all these five characters entering in the stage, but we don’t get to know anything about them, even their name. The scene focuses on The Man character, and one of his long monologues (in the call center) will be a big part of the IP. Another character that would be introduce in this scene is The Drag King, who works in the call center and “knows” The Man (sine he goes there every single day) and will introduce himself and his personality, slightly. The Drag King just likes to dress like a man on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In these days he goes to work in the call center; while in the other days, when she is a woman, she stays at home and write about anything that fascinates her, she writes about people, the people she meets while walking back home, after her job, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The entire play (as I will discuss in the oral presentation) has a combination of theater styles, such as Traditional Shadow Puppetry and Body Shadow, Commedia dell’Arte (The Rich Lady), some (slightly) elements of Butoh and Naturalistic theater; following the rehearsal process of both Stanislavsky’s Method and B. Brecht “Defamiliarization Effect”.

In this particular scene, which could be considered as the preview of the whole play, the theater practice that emerges is Naturalistic Theater. The attempt is to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies; detailed and three-dimensional setting (a real door); everyday speech forms (the monologue of The Man and his dialogue with The Drag King); and an exclusive focus on subjects that are contemporary (actual global issues shown on the video; the main character himself reflects the issue of schizophrenic in the society, who lives without no support from the governments; all characters represents a category in the society); an extension of the social range of characters portrayed (far away from aristocrats, but working-class, homeless, or eventually bourgeois).

According to this form of theater and this specific scene, I choose to use a style of acting that attempts to recreate the impression of reality, which could be identified with the Stanislavsky’s Method. As a director, during the rehearsals for the scene, I will be using different elements from Stanislavsky’s Method (Magic if, motivation, objectives). Even if the scene itself is very short, and many rehearsals would not be necessary, I will still first focus on the actors’ mental preparations for their roles, and then on their physical performances on stage. I therefore hope to obtain as a result the union of a psychological and a physical involvement while the actors are performing.

Ø  Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of your creation.

• I think the naturalistic ambient is really effective and, if I can figure out the set I have in my mind for this scene, it will be great.
• I love the idea of live music at the beginning and I’m so glad I find such a good and appropriate piece (thanks Beethoven).
• I think this is a play where I can easily apply some of Stanislavski and Brecht theories, defining well the two styles and obtaining great results.
• In the general idea of the play, the elements I get introduced to in Tim Goesley’s workshop, would make the difference and give a particular and lovely element to the play. (Contemporary Shadow Puppetry to express emotions)
• I could be able to emphasize more elements of Absurd Theatre (I would really like to) since already now they could be more irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence. It is true though that a godless universe, human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down, is not the main idea I want to express (just in some scenes).
• In the scenes of the play, I generally try to make irony (but I’m scared sometimes is not really functional). I have to work more on this element.
• In the scene I’m presenting for my MINI IP, I might be using a video (already made the video, but still thinking whether I should use it or not) with contains different imagines about what is going on in the world right now. Is a way to send a subliminal message, but if it is too inappropriate and awkward (sensitive), I will just forget about it. Talk with Libby, ask her opinion.
• The choice of using no names on this piece, but just generalizing categories (e.g. The Rich Lady) could be disadvantaging for me. By doing this a might give an inappropriate connotation/reputation to the category, which is not my major aim. I’m still thinking about it; if I have to choose, right now, I will keep my actual style. I will ask some advice from Libby.
• Sometimes the fact that it is obvious that I’m talking about a westernize country (I had Victoria in my mind when I was writing the piece) make me feel kind of incomplete. I wish I could have write a piece that could be set anywhere in the world.

Gugu