Performance Trio's

The next step we took towards creating our final production was creating our performance trio's to encapsulate a live art cabinet of curiosities. These trio's were asked to based upon our discoveries and favourite works of art found at the Tate Modern.
I found myself inspired by many pieces of art at the gallery and, as mentioned in the last post, I was seemingly drawn toward pieces that revolved around equality of the sexes. My favourite piece of art that encouraged me to make a performance piece was Le Diabolo. This piece was based upon woman's place in society in the 1900's. The piece had many sinister overturns that we could incorporate in our group trio.
We began by creating a mind map on all of the ideas we had on the piece so far, also adding ideas

we discussed on creating a piece of theatre. Our first idea for theatre work was a literal interpretation of the sculpture; two women tied down with string, trapped by a man with ultimate power and control. A second idea had a deeper meaning, a black woman and a white woman, segregation between the two. A black woman in 'worker' style clothes, and the white woman dressed upper class. However, both women are taped at the mouth to show that women are still voiceless. We thought this idea covered both racism and segregation of the time and also sexism. We would be able to show how a black man and a white man were treated differently but a black woman and a white woman were still suppressed by man in similar ways. We were sure on adding a physical interpretation to our piece; women's struggle and distress portrayed through body language in order to further encapsulate no voice for women. Our third idea was to highlight the objectification of women. Two women, dressed as sexualised dolls to represent women's objectification and archetype from a mans perspective in society in the early 1900's. The women are doll-like puppets being controlled by a male puppet master. Our final idea incorporated aspects from everyones input. We used the sexualisation idea of women, two women were dressed doll-like and were being played with my a male puppet master. The puppet master would begin by playing with the women, kissing them and gently moving them. Then we wanted to further incorporate a more sinister overturn so we made the piece gradually become more aggressive. The master would move the women around throwing and hitting them toward the floor. The puppet master forced the puppets to hurt each other and do things against their will.
I believe our concept was intelligent and creative, however if we had put more time into our trio's and use more props and facilities the trio's could have become a physical performance. This idea would work well when choreographed and in sync with other trio's. Cannon's could be used and a story could grow.

Tate Modern Top 3 Picks

 Title of the art piece:

Diabolo – Le Diabolo  Bronze

Artist:

Germaine Richier 1902 – 1959

Artist Rationale:

Women’s entrapment within society – a piece with sinister overturns

Materials made of:

Bronze and Wires

Why it inspires you:

The deeper meaning within the piece; a representation of an unequal society throughout time. The wiring, a representation of women’s lack of pathways and opportunities. The sculpture shows struggle and an almost desperation for escape and freedom.

Potential ideas for theatre work:

Women’s growth and battle for a place in society throughout time. A timeline piece displaying a variety of time periods of inequality between sexes.

Title of the art piece:

Facism - The Most Evil Enemy of Women. Everyone to the Struggle Against Facism - 1941- Nina Vatolina 1915-2002

Artist:

A collection of works drawn by David King.

Artist Rationale:

A feminist piece based on the suppression of facism against women

Materials made of:

Works drawn by David King, the display accompanies a Tate book Russian Revolutionary Posters.

Why it inspires you:

The feminist stance behind the picture encapsulates women's vulnerability through time. I enjoyed the feminist art pieces at the Tate as they all represented a deeper meaning than what was on the outer layer. 

Potential ideas for theatre work:

A fascism society where women are faced with lack of opportunity and power. We could show a slow change in social order and women taking full power and control, standing on the men and taking over their freedom in a more sinister way to women's loss.

 Title of the art piece:
Nude Woman in a Red Armchair 1932

Artist:

Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973

Artist Rationale:

This work belongs to the remarkable sequence of portraits that Picasso made of Marie-Therese Walter at his country property at Boisgeloup. Marie-Therese is presented here - as in most of her portraits - as a series of sensuous curves. Even the scrolling arms of the chair have been heightened and exaggerated to echo the rounded forms of her body. The face is a double or metamorphic image: the right side can also be seen as the face of a lover in profile, kissing her on the lips.

Materials made of:

Oil paints on canvas

Why it inspires you:

I love the experimental shapes and colours used in this painting. Picasso embraces a woman's curves and features with beautiful undertones and traits.

Potential ideas for theatre work:

Beauty of women in society and embracing flaws of women. Exposing a womans body and features and examining all of perfections an imperfections that make a woman a woman. 

I have noticed all of the choices I have made from the Tate are experimental but also woman orientated pieces. A lot of the pieces are feminist views.

Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud was our focused experimental practitioner for this terms work. Artaud is considered among the most influential figures in the evolution of modern drama theory. Antonin Artaud associated himself with Surrealist writers, artists, and experimental theatre groups in Paris during the 1920's. When political differences resulted in his break from the Surrealists, he founded the Theatre Alfred Jarry with Roger Vitrac and Robert Aron. Together they hoped to create a forum for works that would radically change French theater. Artaud, especially, expressed disdain for Western theatre of the day, panning the ordered plot and scripted language his contemporaries typically employed to convey ideas, and he recorded his ideas in such works as Le Theatre de la cruaute and The Theatre and Its Double. Most critics believe that Artaud's most noted contribution to drama theory is his "theatre of cruelty," an intense theatrical experience that combined elaborate props, magic tricks, special lighting, primitive gestures and articulations, and themes of rape, torture, and murder to shock the audience into confronting the base elements of life. I feel that this element of Artaud's work was highly reflected in our group piece. We highlighted many taboo subjects of the life and the world and encapsulated this is our performance trios especially. Although Artaud's theatre of cruelty was not widely embraced, his ideas have been the subject of many essays on modern theatre, and many writers continue to study Artaud's concepts. Artaud's creative abilities were developed, in part, as a means of therapy during the artist's many hospitalizations for mental illness. His work was sinister and his addiction to opium reflected within his work, the obscene ideas and extensive interpretations were often a product of his hallucinations.  

Name Exercise

We began our experimental term with an exercise that allowed us to use our bodies to spell out our names. This allowed me to discover new ways to move my body and broadened my mind into how an experimental piece of theatre can be made through a collection of movements. With experimental theatre opportunities are endless, for me it was a case of realising this and being able to filter the unnecessary movements that wouldn't benefit a piece from the movements that would grow into a performance.
The exercise worked on my focus, it was a case of being able to multi task with actions and memory. We had to be creative with our movements and try and use parts of our bodies to spell out our names that we wouldn't usually use. I used my nose, elbow, knee, ear and fist. I struggled with putting my mind in a focused position to remember where I was putting these body parts to spell my name correctly. In rehearsal for this I managed to grasp the concept quickly however it was a mind over matter situation where you had to really get into the zone and not be distracted by peers or influenced by other peoples work.
We then added music to our pieces and the three separate groups had three separate tracks. When performing I had a fast beat, loud bass track that changed the piece altogether. We were asked not to change our movements to the sound of the music and I struggled with this at first as it is normally my natural instinct to move to the pace of the music. After a while I was able to block out the music and just primarily focus on the movement; continuously repeating the movement correctly. The music itself impacted the piece massively and I found myself creating a concept of where this piece could be placed in a performance. The intensity of the bass made the piece harsher and angrier and that reflected on the movements of my fist as it felt as though I was in a fight scene. The response from the audience was similar as they felt it gave the piece a more sinister undertone. The other two I saw had a completely different feel. One piece had slow, contemporary music that made the piece a lot softer and had more flow. This piece had a more romantic feel to it and certain people that used less harsh parts of their bodies I was drawn to watching as in my mind there movements fitted the music best.
This exercise was a great start to the experimental term, I felt more in tune with my body and able to do anything asked that term. It helped me to forget inhibitions as that is usually my main set back when it comes to physical movement in theatre.