We also explored what it was like to interact with the other characters this way, which kind of happened automatically for me and Sophie, and we basically started acting out a part of scene 6 between us. Lecoq used this kind of game to just play around with the relationships and perhaps find new levels in them. Watching it back, I feel like Ui could be even slower, since he is high status and he doesn't really to be anywhere soon. In my interpretation, he has this fidgety energy to him, but I want him to walk slower than the other characters. I think this fidgetyness will turn to the lower end in the later scenes as Ui becomes more confident, but I want there to be moments when he gets agitated or angry when he kind of forgets that training he had and for a split second turns into his old self, only to the realize it and fix his posture. We talked a little bit with Siou how, even though we are doing a Brechtian play, it is important for use keep using other practitioners in devising and character development. I feel like I have been using Stanislavsky throughout, thinking about my objectives and the characters super objective in my CHARACTER blog post. What makes the character Brechtian is the Gest and how we use it. I have really grown a liking to Ui's hands being in nervous fists, but as he gains more confidence he opens his hands to create that 'open and trustworthy politician' impression. For Flake my gest is rubbing of the hands together, and he has a more lean back posture, rather than Ui, who is more hunched forward.
Then we moved on to scene 12. I will be focusing more on the flower formation, the movement and how we made them rather the actual dialogue of the scene, since it wasn't what we were focusing on today because wanting to work on the rhythm of the movement and choreography of it. I am standing in for Yunuse, who is actually playing Dullfeet in this scene, but wasn't in today.
This is what I wrote in my HISTORY post about Dolfuss: "Dollfuss was the Chancellor and later the dictator of Austria, before being assassinated in a failed coup done by the Nazi agents in 1934. When Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, Dollfuss became alarmingly worried about the rise of Nazi party in Austria and because of the rising influence of Soviet Union in Europe, Dollfuss banned communism in May 1933 and then the Austrian Nazi party. Under the banner of Christian Social party he then declared to be the dictator of Austria, largely modeled after fascism in Italy. " This scene represents Dollfuss being worried about the rise of the Austrian Nazi party, after Hitler being selected as chancellor of Germany. He didn't want Austria to become part of Germany, as long as the Nazi party was in control, and so he took extreme measures to keep away from Nazi party becoming prominent in Austria, banning them and appointing himself as the dictator and turning into 'austrofascism', working with Mussolini himself to keep Austria independent.
This is scene is in Givola's flower shop, and we really wanted to show with this how even though Givola's flower shop might look beautiful and welcoming, it is really dangerous. This is really a metaphor how Hitler's and Ui's power worked, they made an image where they seemed like good people with good intentions, but in reality they used violence to get that power. Our political view of this scene is exactly that, and how Ui and Givola are trying to sweeten Dollfuss up by speaking to his wife, whose mind easier to manipulate. We had this idea of having the flowers kind of trapping the different pairs as they disappear and appear. Here are the videos we took from today:
There was a bit of misunderstanding from all of our parts, but in the end we agreed on how we are going to do the flower arrangements. There is 9 disappearances and appearances all together and we decided to use Max's idea of the moving flower corridors in the last two, so that then the two pairs will come together in the middle and for the first two, we will have the characters be going into the flower arrangements. We still need to try out going into the flower arrangements, will both of the groups and pairs at the same time, so that we will know the timing, and if Mrs Dullfeet and Ui will be at the arrangements too soon, since they are not starting the poem. For the others, we will alternate between simple movements, for example just going down on our knees to reveal the pairs upper bodies or moving away from the to reveal them from the middle of the flower. This way, there will be some movement, but it won't be too complicated nor take the attention away from the poem and the dialogue. Us holding the flower arrangements will reveal the pair as the other pair is finishing their last rhyming line and the other side will then close off.
We all agreed to make the flowers bushes by attaching fake flowers to bamboo sticks, since these are easily manipulated and light to carry. They can be easily hidden underneath the stage before and after the scene. We did also discussed having wooden boards with flower pots on them, but bamboo sticks were literary there for us to use and after trying out putting on the flowers on them, it worked better to have the sticks, which we can use in any way we want, rather than worried to keep the pots parallel. This way it also looks like walls of flowers that are moving around and hiding the characters. During extra rehearsals today, me and Sophie went to buy flowers and then we all worked together to create the flower walls. We only finished four, so the walls for one side of the stage, but we need to buy more flowers to finish off the rest of the sticks. We will 8 people doing the walls, so 4 on each side of the stage that form squares where the characters can hide inside when they are not speaking during the poem. We did discuss whether to have it on the floor or the stage a little bit, which I can remember us leaning more towards being on the floor, but what we really should do is try it out at Pelham, to see how the audience would see them if they were on the floor. I do think on the floor would be better, since it would give us flower people more room to move around, when we open up to reveal the characters. With more rehearsing I think this can look very sharp and effective in the actual show. When we first started doing the flower movements, they were very sharp and robotic, but we are actually trying to make them more floating aesthetic ´, like flower have in a light breeze. This will also contrast with the movements of the characters, who in epic theatre style would be more extreme and powerful.
- Did I achieve my last goal? What could I or the group improve on?
- Since we didn't have a lot of people today, we focused on scene 12 and the production side of the show. Max and Harry were doing the music as we were working towards the flower arrangements. I did discuss with Max about my accent and he offered to help me sometimes, since I am struggling with keeping the accent going with certain phrases and words.
- What is my goal for the next lesson? What do I need to do to achieve this? What information do I need?
- I want to continue to work on the transitions and coming up with ideas. I think this Friday at Pelham that is what we should focus on and working out blocking of some scenes. We can run them with lines during extra rehearsals, but to know if the transitions and blocking work we need the staging.
- I came up with a transition from scene 12 into 13 that would incorporate the change of Arturo Ui as well. We talked about having a blackout with the voice of the pastor starting in the darkness, but U thought perhaps the voice could start while Liam as Ui is still on the stage. As everyone else leaves, turning from the flowers into a funeral march to get the coffin from behind the audience, I would stay and me and Liam can switch parts on the stage. Then Liam could leave the stage and I can stay as Arturo Ui to wait for the funeral march, as if I would have been watching from a far. This would incorporate the Brechtian ideology of seeing the actors change on stage, to keep the audience from getting into the illusion, but also prevent us from using another black out. Even though black outs cab be very useful and effective, used too much the show can seem choppy.
- We could have a similar change between scene 5 and 6 where everyone else leaves and only me and Yunysa are left with opera music to change, as if we were changing from a suit into something more relaxed. We still need to think about how the other members would leave the stage in a stylized matter.
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