Moving on up, Moving on up, and nothing can stop me!

And we are back for yet another instalment of.....THEATRE IB!

-insert claps and cheers here-

So this week (10th - 14th September) we have been getting back into the swing of things. Such as checking up on Extended Essay, RI and talking about upcoming assessments such as the PPP, and the TPPP as well as the Independent Project (IP). TOO MANY P's!

Monday (10th) was mainly talking about how our research for our RI's were coming along, and then we spoke somewhat about the TPPP. As for the RI so far I'm confidant that I have enough sources to use to write it however I am still struggling for primary research, I have been in contact with French/Asian company as well as Japanese Embassies (due to the fact that my research investigation is on the Japanese Theatre of Kabuki). Which after doing an extended amount of research on seems to be a very interesting and unique practice. We also were all set the task to come up with one image that represents where we are within the course at the moment as well as to find a piece of artwork that represents this too. This is what I came up with for the task which made us use each other to represent this:

Even though it is not too easy to see with this image we are forming a triangle, which the aim with this was to represent moving forward (this isn't to represent who's better or anything), but by showing this formation shows that we are still moving forward and still learning, and putting myself on a highr level is supposed to emphasise that moving forward or moving up. Also though the use of a triangle it shows that everyone is equal in theatre and no one person is better (thinking about it in the way of an equilateral triangle). So the key words I would associate with this image are: moving forward, moving up, equal, and ensemble. I will post the image of the artwork and the end of this blog.

Tuesday (11th) is now our double lesson day. So for this lesson we did two things, for the first hour we had an in-depth conversation about the RI's, how everyone was doing, where we were all at and where we could potentially find more resources for them too. We spoke about using Google Books, Google Scholar, and ITunesU as well as being reminded to always critique your sources. Another useful piece of info we were given was think about: Author, Authenticity, Bias, Comparison, Origin and Value of the source. For the second hour we were introduced to the one, THE ONLY, ARTAUD! Who (from what we got a glimpse of) had very particular views about what he wanted theatre to be, he was a genius however he was also insane from what I gathered however aren't all geniuses? But that is all I got I think it will take me a while to get comfortable with Artaud and hopefully when I do I will begin to understand him slightly better.

Friday (14th) is our final lesson of the week and for this lesson Maria gave an excellent presentation on Artaud and really broke down his system of Theatre of Cruelty which I think both me and Georgia both benefited from. As well as that she tied this into real examples that Maria had previously done with another class. Here is her break down of theatre of cruelty for anyone who wants to know (all credit goes to Maria on this one!)

• Language of screams, cries and gestures
• Lighting and sound used as characters
• Unusual audience seating arrangements
• Shock Tactics
• Symbolism
• Juxtaposition
• Puppets and Masks
• Non-chronological storyline
• Spitting, breathing, violent acts, ripping clothes, slapping, red lights
• Centre of Vortex (where action takes place)
• Anti-Character - The non-human roles people play
• Sounds to replace langue
• Cruel not in the sense of violence but in the sense of towards actor and audience
• grotesque
• Trapped
• Taboo
• Showing life in all it's horrible reality
• Dark Reality
• Catharsis (a cleansing, that one was Georgia)

That is pretty much it for this week however before finishing I am going to put in my piece of artwork that represented me at this point in IB Theatre: This piece of art is by a street artist called Typoe. To some people it would appear that the skull is vomiting all these colourful pieces of paper (which would be the case) however I saw it backwards. I imagined that the great cluster of papers at the right hand side of the image was me in year 12 not knowing what to expect and full of ideas and thoughts and everything else to do with theatre. However as I have progressed though this course I have realised how channelled you have to be to actually do well in theatre, as if I have got to reduce this pile of expectations and ideals down to something manageable and refined so that I know what I need throughout this course. That is how I saw this image so once again I will add key words to this for my benefit: ideals, expectations, scale, unknown, refine, knowlage, unlimited possibility and unknown.

That is it for this week, been an interesting week back at school but I think I shall be able to live! Oh and by the way just a subconscious message to Mr. F......TAPS O_O

Richard #1 (even though we have lost Spencer, sad times)