The book Thief
This year, the HS play for ISM had a very different topic
from that of the Musical of “Romeo and Juliet”. Happy, playful and full of
dancing and music was changed for a more dark drama about a little girl called
Leisel and her hunger for books!
This year, the HS play was based on the novel of Mark Zuzackof the Book Thief
bestseller. I remember during summer, in the long waits inside metro in Paris,
or in a café in London, I took that book with me to prepare myself for the
audition. I liked the character of young Liesel for her innocence and strength
at the same time, and so I liked Death too. I really enjoyed the way the book
was written; I thought it was very original to write in in.. 3rd
person and by an allegorical character such as Death himself, and I was intrigued
to see how it would turn out. Also during the summer, I researched about world
war too, to understand better the context of the play, as well as watching
movies such as “Shindler’s list” and my personal favorite “Life is beautiful”,
to see other scenarios and specially focus on the different character’s
physicality’s (e.g. The Jews Vs. The Nazi’s).
when coming back, I was overwhelmed by the work that I had to put into my new
academy for fashion which is my other passion, and therefore I decided that
instead of auditioning I would help out in other roles such as make up or
costume, however little did I know about my job as a STUDENT DIRECTOR!!!!
At first, I didn’t really understand my role, I didn’t know what were my
boundaries or where I was expected to interfere and help, but eventually it
came natural. I would show up at rehearsals and watch the cast rehearse, and
Mrs Hilman would give me some scenes to work on with. I was so nervous at
first, I wasn’t sure of how to approach the cast and I was scared that they
didn’t listen to me; would they take me seriously? Would my advice be helpful?
Scene 19: Fighting the Fuhrer
This scene took place in Max’s head as it was a constructed dream made up of
exagerrations and false premises, as he never fought the Furher, but based on
his sudden wake up in fear and screaming, I understood that the importance of
this scene in the play was to show Max’s fear of death, destruction and loss of
power. For this I made my own objectives to achieve as a Student Director:
ü
Show that Max is talking about his greatest
fears: the reason for why he is working out.
ü
Show the brutalism and the effects of propaganda
and linguistic imperialism that took place at the time as a way to coming back
to the reality of human history
For the first objective, I attacked it in different ways. I
realize that the actors lost strength when coming into the ring, and that was
one of the biggest ways in which the scene wasn’t working. For that, I divided
the group into two and asked them to warm up their bodies and energy starting
from the wings, so that when they would come in, they would already be
energized to run and jump.
The first time I worked with this scene, we were missing a Fuhrer, and so I
picked at Random a boy named Paulo to stand in and read the characters lines,
and I picked right! Paulo has always been amazed by the storied of war and he
told me that he really liked the character of Hitler. I asked his to perform in
the center of our imaginary ring with strength and convincement, in both his
voice tone and his actions. This turned out to be a great starting exercise and
Paulo really managed to perform the script as I imagined it, with a very harsh
voice, poignant ends in the sentences and a lot of aggressiveness. I then made
the crowd respond to his scripts as they felt like as it was full of rhetorical
questions, with nods, screams of “YES” and “NO” and fist raises, to make the
crowd members seem individualistic and therefore realistic, yet in the same
group. The energy and threat that Paulo managed to convey gave the crowd
members more to grab into, and understand the power of words. I managed to
create a build up of energy and aggressiveness between the “question and
answer” exchanges, however, I felt like at some points it might have been a bit
monotonic. Therefore I decided to analyze the script further, and found a
perfect line for a change of mood “Will you simply stand there and let him do
this?”. I unconciosly used the technique of hot seating mentally, to find out
what Hitler’s objective would be, which I decided to be: “conviction of Jews
being a plague of disease for the country”. I looked into the diction of his
speech and noticed that at first, Hitler describes the actions that the Jews
had had on the German lives; A perfect
way of preaching the audience by describing real life yet negative situations
and encounters between both ethnic groups. Pathos is used to make them feel sorry about themselves, and
envy from the Jews as a way of convincing them, and thus I made the crowd
understand that it was their lives he was describing, and theferore responses
were needed to show agreement, and to show how he managed to make it clear to
them what their situations were. However conviction is fully achieved at the
line “will you simply stand there and let them do this”. It was a risky choice
I made of interrupting a build up of noise, to create a strong contrast and
change of mood. After that line, I asked the crowd to concentrate their energy
instead of shouting and jumping. I also asked them to narrow down their circles
of focus to concentrate on Hitler, and show through this and their controlled
nods and “yes” that they are being brainwashed, showing that they finally have
been convinced, and that there is no turning back.
when talking to Mrs Hilman, I was happy to find out that this is what she
wanted. The scene, with its power of words and responses created fear in the
audience, and therefore exposed Max’s greatest fear.
However, there was a change of Hitler. Paulo was changed by Christian, a boy
that looked more like Hitler however wasn’t as aggressive when performing his
lines. At first, I wasn’t convinced as to how still managing to achieve the
effect that I was happy with before, as I though that being realistic and loud was
the only way the scene would work, however I was wrong. The effect of a parody
was to be also very powerful. Working with Christian as a student Director I
realized that we needed a change of objectives. A dream that was not real as
this one was needed a comedic effect that could still bring out fear. I asked
Christian to engage with his audience by emphasizing on the words “you” and
pointing at them. I also asked him to sharply turn his body around when
addressing different people, to show how Hitler always wanted full attention
and in a way was scared that people weren’t listening. After the fight against
Max in which he knocks him down, Hitler clumsily stands up and gives his
speech. I thought that this new approach was much more effective, as it shows how
someone so small and clumsy managed to have that much power on the people.
On the first night of the show, I realized that I could still push the effect a
bit further. Audiences aside was created when Hitler knocks Max down and makes
the audience believe is it the definite hit, when without noticing, Max stands
up behind him. I thought that this was the perfect moment to bring out the
humoristic element of Hitler, and asked Christian to make a little victory
dance to reinforce his unawareness of the situation, and then make the hit more
effective. This little dance was meant to embody the egocentric character of
Hitler, and how it all started as a game. This little dance of the movement of
the hips and the coming back of the hair was also meant to bring out a sense of
femininity, and create a great contrast with the second half of the
performance. I believe this was one of the great lessons I learned as a student
director, and I was very happy about the outcome of the scene.
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Christian on stage as "The Fuhrer" performance 2
Fotos by Sung Yun Bae
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Scene 23: Hans makes a mistake
