Down to earth : Props

Yesterday, when the rehearsal finished I told the actors to bring some school equipment that they don´t use anymore at home. They were told to bring rulers, pens without ink, glues, etc.

By doing this I would be able to make a list of how many school equipment do we have and how many do we need to build the rest of the props. I'll wait until the next rehearsal and see what they bring.

The other day, I worked with the three bullies. These boys have a lot of potential. They acted very well and they could be able to interpret all my indications as a director.

I like the comedy a lot and so I gave them some tips to make their scene very funny and it worked.

¿Te duele?

Yesterday I watched a play called “¿Te duele?” from the Bolivian theatre group Teatro de los Andes. The play represented the violence between couples. I really enjoyed this play. I liked all the visual effects they made just with their body.

At first, the scenery was very interesting. It was a big square like a boxing ring but instead of ropes it had some lights like the ones we use to decorate the Christmas trees. Each corner of this “ring” had like little bells that the actors touched as if a new round had ended. Inside this square, there was a table with some plastic dishes and two chairs.

The lighting was simple. They only used some white lighting and the “ropes” of the boxing ring (lights that we use to decorate a Christmas tree) also helped, sometimes they were very shinny and sometimes had a very dim light.

The things that fascinated me about this play were the effects. I think that the actress was a ballet dancer because she knew and controlled totally her body. She was able to do a lot of plastic movements without falling down. In one of the scenes she was standing very straight and the man was carrying her all around the square and it gave me the sensations as if she was a doll. Another thing that I liked was when the actress used the broom. The floor was totally clean but when the actress moved the broom, some grey papers went out of it to represent the rubbish and after doing more movements, the floor was full of these papers.

Another part that I liked was when the actress stood on top of the table and the actor was standing next to it while grabbing the table cloth. Suddenly he started to pull the table cloth and the girl started to walk. This was amazing and you could see the hard work of the actors. In another scene they put on their boxing gloves and started to “fight”. Their backs were together and one was looking to one side and the other one was looking to the other side but they were actually looking to each other eyes. This was their way of interpreting this part of the fight and I really enjoyed it.

All this effects could be used on this year´s play in some way. In the first scene the girls who clean in the manager’s office can maybe use the effect of the broom and also when the super heroes fight against the villains we could use the effect of the actors’ backs together and their front looking to opposite sides. This could be very useful.

Down To Earth: Props

I´m in charge of the props for this year’s play. My first idea was to use 2 different materials for the props, plastic and . But then, talking with Valentina and Roberto another idea came up, the use of school materials to build different props. This is a great idea because Felipe is designing a Ciclorama that will create the sensation of a notebook. The theatre will be like Sophie’s notebook or diary and so school materials are used to write in notebooks.

The materials that I will use to construct the props are: rulers, compass, protractor, pens, pencils, notebooks, bags, pencil cases, scotch, colours, paint, featherbed. Some of these props will be painted with red, blue, yellow, blue or green colours to make them colorful and some other will be left like they are so that the audience will be able to find a relationship between the scenery, the props and the costumes.

El Álbum

Yesterday I went to the María Reiche park in Miraflores to see a Colombian play called “El álbum” from the Tecal theatre group. The play was about a family album. One of the girls in the photo was telling us the different stories of her family members in different moments in their life.

The girl who was telling the story had a microphone in her hand while the other characters were in still picture at the back on top of tables. I felt as if I was in a 4 year old party with animation. The actress’ voice gave me this sensation, this could be because she was with a microphone in her hand and she was moving a lot.

The actors had an incredible balance and control of their body. They could stay still for a very long time while doing difficult postures. They also had body paint. They represented one specific colour. For example one of them was blue and all the props and costumes were also blue. This character used to watch blue TV shows and used to eat blue food.

The body paint, the costumes and the props helped a lot to create the illusion of a statue. The costumes were like old and they looked like if they were made of plastic. This three factors and the ability to stay still of the actors helped the audience to think that they were just statues instead of normal people when doing very structured and well organized still pictures.

What I didn´t like of the play is that it was represented in an open space, in a park. I was standing up with a lot of people in front of me and the actors where in the same level as I was. I think I prefer to watch plays in theatres. A proscenium arch is better for me. In here I can sit very comfortably and watch the actors in a higher or maybe lower level than me. It’s my preference.

Cocina y Zona de Servicio

Today, I went to watch a play at Teatro la Plaza Isil called Cocina y Zona de Servicio. The play was about a dinner where everything went wrong. Some old friends join after 10 years for a dinner. The actors didn´t show the actual dinner but they showed the kitchen and the patio were the characters used to fight or to say how bad the dinner was or what was happening at that moment in the living room. The play was about the different comments of a disastrous dinner.

The acting was amazing, it was clear that they had a lot of experience. They knew how to balance the space very well, everything was in equilibrium. The actors sometimes gave the back and that made it more interesting because you had to imagine what the character was feeling.

The lights were simple. When the play begun they used a very dim light from the top and then the characters came out and the lights were brighter. From the change of scene they totally turned off the lights and put some music as a background. The music had been recorded and prepared for the play. They used a wide variety of rhythms and different types of music.

The scenery was very realistic, it was like a real kitchen. It had a fridge, a table with three chairs, some windows, glasses and dishes, etc. everything to make it look as real as possible. My seat was very close to the actors and so I could feel as if I were inside the house watching everything from another room because of the realistic scenery also.

The props that they used were also part of the scenery as well. A good example could be broom. It was in the patio next to the lavatory but suddenly the character picked it up and started to walk with it. The broom was part of the character now. It became like a doll for one of the characters. The actress used the broom to talk with it and to hug it because she was feeling desperate because of the disastrous dinner.

The actors didn´t use microphones. The theatre had a good acoustic and so the microphones weren’t needed.

In general, it was a very good play in terms of set design and acting. I spent a good night at the theatre.