"Kabuki Final 2012" Dramaturge evaluation

Through further research

Dramaturge evaluation

As a dramaturge, I loved getting to find out so much about Kabuki, maybe things I would have never been able to know if I was just an actress.
This below, is the “Dramaturge information booklet” I created, and updated each week following requests from the director of inspired by personal curiosity. I liked working with the cast closely, using my knowledge in private lessons with them to explain what I found out and helping them apply them with my acting experiences.

Things I found the most interesting:

v How it was the government, with the intend of trying to clean the publicity image of the art, that improved it by making the costume fabrics better, the blades of the Samurai swords out or real, expensive materials and making the plays subjects less sensual, leading to making Kabuki more authentic, richer in content and more sophisticated. I thought it was very interesting on how politics, economy and sociology had such a great effect in its growth.

Evaluation of resources so far: I made sure that all the web pages I used were reliable by backing up the information with other sources. The videos I used were youtube videos of original performances and the articles I read were wither student articles on the same research or from articles o famous magazines and newspapers.

So, as a dramaturge it was very difficult for me to find information about ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING In the play, as the art f Kabuki takes years to master. So …….Through further research, after our performance, I realized that there were some things that I could have improved more upon. Examples of this are the way the fan is positioned. The use of the fan in Kabuki is an art in itself, as there are different ways of holding it and moving it around that can indicate different things about the physical and mental state of the actress e.g In these 2 video, there is a tutorial on how to work the “Uchiwa”, which is a theatrical fan. They are simple tutorials, but they raised my interest in the fans and if I had more time I would like to research on them further.

http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/jacult.arts.drama.fan/ = Therefore I researched more and found this official video, from Kabuki master Shozo Sato that talked in more depth about the origins and the vocabulary of the fan and its use. It originated in the 9^th centaury, and a men’s accessory, and it is a fan used by both Kakubi actors and Noh actors. There are different types of fans for different characters, depending on their class and age. In the page, they also have essays and teaching tips on the subject that explain in further detail, and I would use them for next time, to make the piece more authentic.

It was interesting to find out that they weren’t originally used for dancing, but to show of wealth as famous artists would write their calligraphy in them. There are maybe different movements that symbolize different things with the fan, such as the blooming of flowers and their recollection.

http://www.freewebs.com/kabuki_gallery/ = to back up my research, I also used this page to find more pictures and videos on the subject of the “Art of the fan” in Kabuki performances. I believe that the video was a very helpful insight as it gave me clear visual image and understanding of the motion of the movements, and it made me appreciate its flow and beauty more than in pictures. For me personally, in subjects to do with drama, I enjoy more learning visually and auditory.

Another thing I regret not having have done more practice on is on the Kabuki walk for Onnagatta characters. I came up with the idea of  having a had made Tony and Negina, tie their knees together with a string, as a form of practice for walk in a womanly manner, with their knees bent and taking tiny steps, adding to the graceful and weak look. This is a method used by professional Kabuki actors as part of their preparation to really embody the characteristics of a woman, and as we were intending on being as authentic as we could possibly be within our means, this would have been a perfect practice for the actors, as it would have mastered their minds to get used to the difficulty of walking like a professional Kabuki actor, and it would have made them value more the efforts in preparation needed in a life time to master the art. Also, because the male’s interpretation of woman in Kabuki comes from hundreds of years ago and through techniques of observation and mimiquing, it is interesting to see how relationships and sociology changed the way they viewed a ‘proper’ womanly walk, and how practice has made this walk develop through the years, as if you watch videos, the male actors take tiny steps, and sway their hips from side to side in a very coquette manner.

It was through further research that I found out a very interesting facts about the “Harakiri” Cutting of the belly ritualistic ceremony to perform a honorable death in (Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku, http://formypupils.com.sapo.pt/11thGrade/Cultural_Context/Seppuku.html article on the history: http://www.artelino.com/articles/seppuku.asp  , and and extract from a Japanese movie 1962 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfswo9ZClas , and a more modern version of Seppuku (cutting in the stomach) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVE7aqrva0g ), and it was that Samurai’s, as the documents said, when committing suicide, would tie their knees together so that when stabbing themselves, this ‘rope’ or ‘string’ would prevent their knees from spreading due to the pain they suffered, and therefore maintaining their body, although dead, in a honorable, stylist, clean manner. Also, as it would be a public event, this posture and appearance was important as a way of remembering the person as honorable.

 For the male actors that performed male characters, another invention I thought of was putting weights on their feet, to make them make more effort in lifting their walks.

Michael and me walking on the Kabuki walk, could have maybe been improved by my suggestion above of hanging weights from them

Choreographer working with Grace on her Aragato walk

Finally, watching the videos mentioned in other posts, I realized that the way the heads sway are as important as the gestures of a Kabuki actor. This is again, something I would like to find out more about and experiment with the cast with.

"Kabuki Final 2012" First impressions 2

Saturday 26^th May, 2012

Primary foot of lighting board

Green Light

Today, Sat 26 May 2012, I worked with the lights for the first time! I re-organized the lighting board in order to fit my mental schema, and for it to become more familiar!

For the very beginning, I illuminated the musicians first with a yellowish wash on the left stage, as they were the first to open the show, and I believed that they should therefore be the first to be introduced. I chose yellow, as it is as if a candle was lit in the house when dark, the beginning of something; of our story.

Illuminating the musicians made me realize of a mistake I made as a dramaturge
I chose a green center wash instead of the naturalistic yellow that my teacher first suggested for two reasons:

1.     It fitted perfectly with the size of the platform, illuminating the 4 characters perfectly without illuminating anyone else and isolating it from the rest

2.     The color green appealed to me, as I thought, that along with the brownish and greenish costumes and bright make up, it created a very interesting  combination in terms of a mysterious composition, making the first tableau of the show freeze with curiosity and a tint of modernized interpretations.

I then decided on two different colors, RED and BLUE, for two major changes of mood and relationships between both the actors on stage, and the expected reactions of the audience as a response to the actors feelings.

RED was used in moments of intensity, as shown below in the picture. It would appear in a drastic change, normally from a calm, naturalistic overall yellow/white wash on stage representing normality, to a 100% RED wash. The moments I chose to use this effect were in:

Red Lighting and Mie's

1.     When actors struck a MIE. All of the MIE’s in our play were caused my a negative/aggressive stimuli, and therefore they needed the emphasis from the light to intensify them e.g. “Hearing you talk this way, it almost sounds as if you were trying to black male us!” – Master Seibei to Negina's character.

2.     At climatic moments of the play, where the audiences were meant to feel feelings of surprise, fear or shock from them e.g. When they discovered that Kyuta was the dead man, and the whole cast was in shock, and expressed this in unison with noises.

BLUE washes, from the upper sides, center stage and from the side lighted were used accordingly in moments of empathy and confessions, as I liked to call it, and the audience is meant to feel sorry or moved by the emotional charge of the moment, by the use of pathos and ethos (emotional appeal to language and content in the script) e.g.:

1.     When little Kyuta is describing to the audience the story of why he was dead (the incident with the blow fish and the glutinous rice)

2.     Nigina’s ironical monologue of when she explains how she is so overwhelmed by her brother’s death. This was an exception, as the monologue didn’t have truthful intentions as the actress was aware of this story not being true, and so was the audience in a way by her over exaggerated, falsetto manners of expression (fake cry)  (a theatrical  form of comical interlude known as “Kyogen” from Noh drama (Oracle educational foundation) However, I thought it was very effective as it added a comical element from my part, as we are encouraging the actress to deliver this monologue under what I created to be a very miserable atmosphere, making her believe that she is being successful at lying to the other actors, however not to the audience. As a dramaturge, I knew that this was an important moment I had to make good use of, as one of the main and most important concepts of Kabuki is that actors are never trying to hide the performance element of the work, and are never afraid of exaggerating.

PICTURE MISSING

As a minor use, I also incorporated the blue light as a method of isolation on stage, for example, while the group of actors were having an aggressive conversation onstage and the ligting was read to symbolize the intensity of their emotions and words, I kept the blue centre light shining at the ‘dead’ body of Daniel, to show how the actors also were sad by this young boys death, and to represent with this symbolic color the isolation of sorrow on stage.

The spot light, as shown in the picture, was mainly used for:

1.     The 4 main monologues = (Both Negina’s monologues, Grace’s short monologue and Daniel’s final monologue). This idea came to mind through research, as I found out that in long-standing Kabuki performances, when there was no electricity, they had a man called Koken who was  the chief puppeteer and was incharge of the Tsra- akari (face light), to enlighten a character by holding the candle closely.

Spotlight on entrances

2.     To strengthen the mies! Fro this,  for example at the Amanda’s mie of “who are you, and how did you come about this?” I had to make sure the lights were bright enough so that the spot light, because it didn’t have a dimmer, could be switched on from the booth with our the audiences noticing, and then bringing the lights down and the red lights up to create a contrast in color. By this I fortified its power, making the actor seem much bigger and powerful.

3.     Follow the characters through the “Hanimichi”, to make distinct the two physical distances, and to illuminate Kihei and his wife at the end, when the stage was in complete black out.

Other minor used of lighting were simple things I wanted to make sure I included,  like:

ü  Entrances and exits- A purple sidelight was used to indicate the opening and closing of doors when characters entered the Aburaya Shop. I likes the color purple and the effect, as althought it might have come unnoticed, I thought it was a minimalistic and simplistic way of incorporating lights to show realistic actions.

Black out and spotlight

ü  I had in mind the change of time- at the sart, what I called the ‘stand by lights’ (the yellow/white overall wash) used for when the mood was at a ‘balance’ in terms of emotion, were brighter than the ones at the end. In the lighting board, the scale measures 80% white and 60% yellow, and as the play went on, I lowered the intensity to 50% white and 30% yellow. I used previous artist experiences  in terms of balance of color, always starting with the lighter colors and THEN adding the darker colors, so that if I found the lighting was too dark at some point, t would be easier to fix without it being too apparent.

Over all, I was very proud of my performance on the day. I believe that I managed to impress my group with the lighting I put on, as it was colorful yet appropriate for the changes of moods. “I felt like a painter, and treated the show as my canvas!” In the second performance, because of the wonderful experience, I asked my teacher if I could be the one, instead of Bong, to be in charge of the lights, and in 5 minutes, I reorganized the whole board with my new tags and put on the second show!!!!

Things I learned on the way:

v THE BLACK OUT BOTTON- an easy way of switching everything of, as I was working manually.

v Ways o programming the board- this I didn’t have time to do, as there was little notice, and sometimes I found it hard to keep the flow of the lights if I had to treat the board and the spot light separately….. but for next time!

Evaluation from my mother:

I was happy by this feedback as she appreciated the beauty of the lights, and understands that it is more than just putting lights together, but it is about thinking of the adequate light, form, color and moment.

I liked how she enjoyed the drastic fusions of red, green yellow and blue. I thought of this through, as because I always had in mind that Kabuki lights had to be simplistic, I thought of “THE PRIMARY COLORS”. This was my interpretation of adapting to old practices of Kabuki, in a modernized way. Also, how she comments ‘’I enjoyed the abstract touch”, i believe she refers to the combination of unexpected colors such as the red from the lips, the big black eyes, the pale faces that are covered with “blankets’ of color washes to create a very interesting and surprising piece.

When she comments on the harsh intensity, I guess this is something we agreed to do and it depends on the viewers taste more than on its knowledge about the elements of Kabuki drama’s, however it is something to have in mind for next time!

VIDEO MISSING

"Kabuki final 2012" First Impressions 1

My experiences as a dramaturge, assistant director and lighting person.

For this assignment, I was in charge of the lighting set of of our Kabuki play, something I have NEVER done before!

 Thursday 17^th May, 2012

Today, I was told that I am in charge of the lighting set up fro our play, and I am very scared as I have never used the lighting equipment before and because of previous experiences of IASAS, and watching Dinesh get stressed about it, however managing to make beautiful color and light combinations for the play “Indulto”, I feel like it will be a very challenging task.

Saturday 19^TH May, 2012

Today, in class, was the first time I was in the boards and the spotlight I will use to illuminate the people walking in the ‘Hanamichi’.
I talked to Amanda, and she told me that  she didn’t think they were that necessary, and from my research I knew that because in old performances of Kabuki, technology wasn’t advanced enough, there was no light except for candle light  to illuminate faces in emotional monologues and the house lights or torches, therefore lighting was VERY minimalistic, and it was performed at day time.

However, because we are performing it now, lighting can be applied following the guidelines of modern predictions of Kabuki were:

·      Light colors are used for metaphorical descriptions of weather

·      Colors are also used for changes in moods and atmospheres

·      Changes of scenes

Video 1 = Naturalistic Light

Looking at videos as part of my research, I realized that most of the time, the lights were naturalistic as a means of being faithful to the original performances, and also as a way of not distracting the attention from the costumes. (Videos 1 and 2) However, talking to the costume people to ask for permission, because of lack of time, their costumes weren’t as elaborate as their original ideas, and therefore, the group and I made the artistic choice and liberty of making the lights more colorful to add emotion, life and color to the performance.

I enjoyed watching videos 3, as they are a clear example of how Kabki lighting help convey a change I mood and atmosphere, and even in time of day and climate.
In minute (2:01) It starts to snow in the scene, and the lighting changes from pale yellow to blue, to accompany her change, noticeable in the dance as well, from a delicate woman to a woman suffering from anguish and distress, transforming into evil in her chaotic dance. There is a predominant use of Blue. And there is a transformation of color to accompany it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU66syDUuJ8 = Viedeo 1 “Yoshitzune Sembon Zakura”

Video 3 = Blue light

Video 3 = Dark blue light

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHNCpKQDgCo =Video 2 “Cultural event performance”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv-9Mmo8a-Y =video 3

As part of my research, I looked at an online interview with a Japanese Kabuki actor:

http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=359&pID=1146 = interview with a Kabuki actor Ebizo Ichikawa XI

Evaluation of Resources (HL STUDENT)

I believe the the resources I chose in terms of video (visual resources) vere accurate and reliable as they were primary resources from recordings of original videos that were posted on the web of Youtube, and therefore the content reflects an original performance. From video 1, I did some further research on the play to confirm that there is one, and there is. For videos 2 and 3, the performances were recordings of official events such as the “Japanese cultural event 2010”. The quality of the videos is clear, and it allows me to visualize the lighting effects clearly, and its contrast with the actions of professional Kabuki actors. However, as they are not my videos, they are not primary research and I don’t know as much about each event (without further research into it) as I need to really understand.