Zen Zen Zo Workshop

Our new performance all started with this the Zen Zen Zo Butoh workshop.

“Zen Zen Zo is a Brisbane-based physical theatre ensemble at the forefront of contemporary performance and training in Australia. Founded in 1992, the company has continually produced edgy, innovative theatre experiences ranging from radical interpretations of classics to original new works. These have been showcased throughout Australia and Asia.” (Retrieved from http://www.zenzenzo.com/About/Artistic-Vision April 2010).

During the workshop, I experienced a whole new type of theatre, which not only gave me new theatrical skills, but it also widened my perspective about theatre and the purpose of theatre and inspired me to develop further and learn more. 

I experienced several new types of warm ups and exercises. What I found most fascinating was the Butoh walk and faces, back exercises and partner exercises. One of the first exercises we did, after being briefed about what Butoh is and simple stretches was tracing. We worked in pairs, with one person moving his/her finger, and the other following the finger with his/her nose determinedly. I found it most interesting being the follower, as I saw it as a challenge. How accurately can I follow the finger? What can I picture the finger as to improve my performance? I also found it interesting to work in pairs with new people (there were several people I didn’t know at the workshop) and see how they would move and act like. This warm up inspired us to think about using tracing in our upcoming performance and during the following classes in school, we used this technique as one of our warm ups. I think it helps you to become more comfortable with another person, as well as to explore your own body (the person moving the finger can sometimes come up with extremely challenging moves and combinations etc.) 

Another exercise I really enjoyed was the back exercises. We worked both as pairs, and individuals were we focused on being expressive with and explore our backs. This much focus on the backs was completely new to me, and I was fascinated by how much one can actually show and see from the back. It’s something completely opposite from every-day life or movie acting, and I found it very surreal and captivating. In a way it’s harder to express a message, but it is more real as it is more open to different types of interpretation- and that’s how life really works. We don’t all view things the same, and simplifying things and telling something in a more abstract way encourages different perspectives and individuality. If you like, this is a more primitive way and during the workshop we tried to convey our messages in a way that’s more similar to what animals do than what humans what do. I’ve realized that Butoh helps you to release the inner animal in you, which is extremely relieving and captivating. I think this is one of the major reasons why I enjoyed this workshop and Butoh so much, it lets me act like a wild natural animal without being judged. 

The Butoh faces was another completely new aspect to me. At first, I was a bit self conscious about making such “ugly” and grotesque faces- it’s not everyday that someone encourages you to drool like an old man and show it to a group of people. However, after I while I relaxed and I started to enjoy it. Again, I saw this new aspect as a challenge, and I wanted to be good at it. I think the faces and the walks is a major reason why Butoh differs from other types of theatre. Greek Theatre for example, as far as I know, the faces used are inspired by the feelings experienced by the character one’s playing. Butoh is partly inspired by the character (if you’re playing a specific character), but often it’s inspired by different images. These images includes texture, animals or something physically happening to your body such as ant on face, orchestra in the head etc. They are often very extreme and not normal/beautiful images but they help to create a shocking and interesting performance. 

To conclude, I was fascinated by:

How far I can go

How far I dare to go

The power and story behind Butoh

How fast I can pick up new skills

How I can use my previous dancing skills in drama

How I can affect other people

How affecting other people affects me

How stepping out of your comfort zone feels some comfortable afterwards. 

Pride Research

The Sin of Pride

Preoccupation of oneself

“The sin of pride is the sin of sins.” It was this sin that transformed Lucifer into Satan, the devil and it was also this that first led Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. 

Pride is all about me myself and I. It’s sinful because if one values oneself above all else, including God, one is completely contradicting God’s purpose for us, which includes serving each other in love (in a non-prideful way). Pride is often seen as the “first of all sins” as many of the other sins derive from pride. In complete admiration and love of oneself, one will ignore the well being of other and lust for what one believes one rightfully deserves. It makes one unresponsive of criticism. One will resist help and assume that one knows everything already. This leads up to lust, greed, gluttony etc. It’s also one of the earliest sins we learn about in the bible (through the story of how Lucifer, the very “seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” was turned into the devil, “the father of lies” (http://www.allaboutgod.com/sin-of-pride.htm)

“In general, pride is at the bottom of all mistakes” 

(Said by John Ruskin - http://thinkexist.com/quotation/in_general-pride_is_at_the_bottom_of_all_great/146361.html). 

To me, pride is extreme overconfidence. It’s a state at which the love of oneself, destroys all the other possibilities for love and salvation. I also connect pride with divas. A diva does indeed love oneself (especially ones appearance) and being confident and gorgeous is a big part of a diva’s life. I believe divas are a milder more modern version of pride. Divas are not necessarily regarded as sinful, but they are often secretly looked down upon in society (or in some cases admired for their never ending belief in oneself and beautiful appearance). This idea of divas and pride is something I might develop in my scene.

Below are some quotes that I think describe Pride well: 

"When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom." (Proverbs 11:2) 
"By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well-advised is wisdom." (Proverbs 13:10) 
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18) 

I find the part the describes pride as a extreme love for oneself especially interesting and I plan to focus on this during my scene. I want to audience to see the performers falling in love with themselves on stage. I want them to feel the desire and lust for themselves. I want them to feel uncomfortable and like the performance intrudes their private space. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e2CLfq0UnU This link shows a documentary on pride from the History Channel that I found very useful. It explains what Pride is and the history behind it. It states that pride made one feel like they didn’t need God, which I think describes very well why it might be on of the most sinful sins. If one doesn’t need God, one certainly doesn’t need anyone on Earth either. One believes they are perfect and are immune to any critique. It’s from this arrogance and ignorance that I think the other sins are partly developed from. Ignoring God, and believing oneself as being equal to God (like Lucifer did and therefore became Satan) is obviously extremely disrespectful and sinful.

Narcissism

When thinking about pride as a love of oneself, one can see the connection between pride and the greek myth of Narcissism. The story behind narcissism is a story about an extremely beautiful and handsome young male, named Narcissist who falls in love with his own reflection. Throughout his youth all the people he encounters, including male and females falls in love with him- but he denies all of them. Until one day, the God Nemesis, who is the Greek goddess of retributive justice (also known as the goddess of justice), cursed Narcissist, and doomed him to fall in love with his own reflection. Soon he walks by a pool of water, and falls in love with his reflection. Some myths claims he drowned while trying to reach his reflection, other states he died of starvation for not wanting to leave his reflection. No matter the ending, the moral is always the same. He died from his arrogance and love of himself. This idea is something I wish to develop further, and probably use in the final scene. The image above shows my first stimulus. It is a picture which I believes shows narcissism well. From this picture, I will ask the performers to draw a symbol. Previously, we’ve written down words that a stimulus evoked, but I want to try if it’s possible to do this in a more visual way. I want to see if this will give more abstract results, as the performers have to simplify the concept of narcissism to a symbol before processing and working with it.  

Butoh research

Butoh

Research

For our next topic and performance, we’re doing physical theatre-or more specifically, Butoh. I’ve therefore conducted research in order to understand this type of theatre. So far, this is one of the most interesting types of theaters I’ve ever seen. And I’m excited to learn more about it. 

Butoh -The dance of darkness 

“Taking the body to pieces and putting it together again.”

 Butoh is a type of physical theatre that originated in Japan after the second World War. It was in many ways a form for the victims of the bombings in Hiroshima to express the undiscussed and horrific feelings they had, which explains the grotesque side of Butoh. However, this grotesque and realistic/naturalistic side of Butoh is what I believe makes it so fascinating and exciting to watch. It’s nothing like Greek theatre or anything I’ve studied before, but that does not make it less worthy to put on stage. It has been described as “the dance of darkness” which I believe describes it well. It is a way to express the undiscussed, the forbidden and accepted such as homosexuality, murder, sins etc. Butoh is supposed to make the audience feel uncomfortable. 

It’s physical theatre so it’s therefore based on body movements and strongly relates to modern dance. The movements are extremely slow and distorted. “When you’re body wants to go forward, go the opposite way and you have Butoh.” Many movements are centered around the idea of tension (tensing a small muscles, and then releasing it again and so on). However, it’s not a strict style so it may be purely conceptual with no movements at all. The picture above shows a butoh ensemble. I find their facial expressions especially interesting (masks) as well as the use of hands. The hands are distorted and along with the white body paint they look almost supernatural. I believe this picture clearly shows how powerful a Butoh ensemble can be, and this effect is something I wish to achieve in my scene.

The first butoh piece named Kinjiki (forbidden colours) by Tatsumi Hijikata was performed at a dance festival in 1959. Based on a novel, it explored the taboo of homosexuality and paeodophilia, it ended with “a live chicken being held between the legs of Yoshito Ohno”. This shocking act caused Hijikata to be banned from the festival. 

Botuh artists traditionally perform covered in white make up with very limited clothes and no hair. I believe this is to simplify the body so that unaccepted concepts can be explored without judgements. 

The word Butoh is made up of two japanese words. Bu and Tuh. Bu means dance and Tuh means stamping on the ground. 

Directorial Concept

Directorial Concept:

In order to link all the different scenes together, create a sense of unisys, and keep each other focused, we’ve come up with a question that we aim to answer/explore through out our performance;

WHY DO WE WANT IT SO BAD?

As a director, it’s my job to guide the actors, explore and show how this question relates to pride. I can rephrase this question so that it fits pride;

Why do we become prideful? What drives us to be self-centered, self-loving and ignorant to other people? 

The main aspect of pride I’m going to focus on is falling in love with your self. I want to explore the aspect of falling in love with your own reflection, just like the story of Narcissism. In order to do this, I will incorporate water into my scene, preferable in a pool, bucket or if possible, projection. I believe the water will make it clearer for the audience to understand what’s happening as well as add several interesting and creative movements. Some movements will be directly based on Narcissism, while some will be based on a more modern take on pride.

An example of a more modern take of pride is is Divas, and this is an aspect I wish to focus on as well. To me, a diva is a extremely prideful person who disregards the needs of others, and primarily cares about her own appearance and well being. Divas are mainly females, but I want the actors to be inspired by divas when creating their movements, no matter their gender. To emphasize this aspect, I will incorporate diva inspired music for the entrance (e.g distorted catwalk music), as well as diva inspired movements (chin up, chest out, spread and distorted fingers etc.)

Through my scene, I want the audience to feel the arrogance and self-obsessed part of pride. I want the actors to show them how much they love them selves etc. 

To conclude, the main aspects of pride I want to explore is falling in love with yourself and divas. I will do this by introducing a stimulus related to this and basing the music and props used upon these aspects. 

My role as a director

My Role as a Director

Throughout the creation of our upcoming Butoh performance, all of us are going to get the chance to direct our own scene. I’m the director for the scene based on pride.

“Ultimately, theatre needs three elements: actors, play, and audience. But for theatre to actualize its potential, a person would need to impose his or her point of view that would penetrate all aspects of the production. That person is the director.” (Debra Bruch, chapter 10) 

I need to go into this role, I need to impose my view point and use the actors and set in order to vivify my viewpoint and ideas about pride. According to Debra Bruch, the director has two main roles.

To invoke a unified vision of the final production and

To guide and lead cast members to their full potential. 

In order for me to do this, I need to

Clarify what my vision of the scene is

Explain and invoke my vision to the cast members and fellow actors

Make sure my vision works on stage, if not then conduct changes that will make it successfull

Motivate the actors to ultimate actualization. 

Unify the vision and final results of costumes, set design, make up, lighting etc.

Make it WORK. 

If we were to produce a play based on a script, my first step as a director would be to analyze and visualize the script. I would then meet with the costume designers, set manager etc. in order to make sure my visions are achievable. In these meetings, I would not impose my personal view of the play but instead listen to different interpretation. This highly creative intercourse often results in a compromised, but better vision of the production. 

The directors most time-consuming task is to rehearse the actors. It’s therefore extremely important that I remain organized and focus throughout this process, especially since I only have about a week to direct my scene. This is where the scene is choreographed, blocked and rehearsed. Even though our production does not involve any lines, this stage is crucial and time-consuming as we are devising our own butoh movements. 

Pride Scene Summary

Pride Scene Summary:

Below is a summary of what I’ve planned for my scene to look like so far. It starts with a diva inspired entrance, then moves onto the encounter of the water where the theme/aspect of Narcissism is explored. The actors then fall in love with a specific part of their body, and together (based on which body part they are focusing on) they create three different “bodies”. E.g, Ryan, Ruby and Ronn focuses on shoulders, arms and hands. They move into the shape of a torso using their bodies and together they explore different movements based on the story of Narcissism. The music climaxes, and at the end everything falls down.

Part One- Entrance “The Walk of Pride” (1 min)

This is the first part of Pride the audience will see. I want them to feel the arrogance and self-obsession part of Pride. 

Start in a line, then gradually move into the “Fishy” formation with Ronn in front. -Connect by hands-to-shoulders etc, while the walk, face and hands gets more extreme (the tension builds)

Walk: Think Diva/Macho. Chin up, Chest out. Typical “I’m better than you” attitude

Face: Butoh Mask- Extreme Happiness. Mouth open in huge smile, eyes open and excited.

Hands: Slightly distorted, but still Diva inspired. Slightly bent wrists, separated fingers.   

Part Two- Image One: Narcissism (1 min)

(Remember: the story about the man who feel in love with his own reflection with the water).

This is the first encounter with the water and where you fall in love with your own reflection.  

Move forward into a semi-circle and find your position using the “Walk of Pride”.

Once in position, move down into a seating position using Dianne’s Movement. 

Once seated, the number ones move into Ruby’s Movement. The number twos move into Gail’s Movement. Remember to keep the arms+hands distorted. Face: Completely Mesmerized: Big eyes, open mouth, like you’re  falling in love with your own reflection.

Gail dips her hair into the water. Calvin and Ronn, take the lead from Gail (when she moves her head back up, splashing the water) to know when to splash the water.

Ryan, Ruby, Dianne and Lisa: Play and interact with the water. Smear it, drip it etc. Improvise! 

Part Three- Image Two: Love and Obsession with Oneself (1 min)

This is the extreme part of Obsession with Oneself and Pride. You are in LOVE with your favorite body part and not afraid to show it. 

Find your “favorite body part”. 

Show it to the audience, and move into position for the three bodies, while emphasizing your “favorite body part”. 

Start the different movements for the three bodies. (This depends on which body you’re with, work together with your partner/partners.) 

Slowly build tension. BIGGER movements, move out to the side, even more distorted arms etc.

The music comes to a climax and everything falls. Those sitting or kneeling, fall completely to the floor. Those standing, kneel down/drop down but necessarily all the way. 

Props: 

Pool of water.

Music & Multimedia:

The music for part one will be diva/catwalk inspired, but adapted for Butoh.

For part two and three, the music will be arrogant and building in tension as the scene progresses. 

The multimedia used is Garageband. Might incorporate a projection of a still image (?)

My role as a make up director

Make Up

Beside participating in the upcoming production as a director and actor, I’m also the make up director. As this is new for me, I’m sure I will acquire several new skills and techniques. I look forward to working as the make up director, as it gives me a chance to explore the visual arts as well as to develop/improve my drawing and creative skills. The make up along with the costume is especially important in a physical theatre performance as it helps to emphasize themes and develop characters. Since there’s no dialogue, the make up can help the actor to “speak” and express the character’s view points etc. Appropriate make up will also improve and increase the visual effects of a particular movement etc. By incorporating make up into a physical theatre performance, one can develop symbolism and add several layers of meaning. E.g, washing off make up on stage can symbolize cleaning the soul etc, where as adding make up on stage can symbolize deceiving appearances and false innocent etc. I wish to bring similar effects to the performance, resulting in a more interesting, vivid and fascinating overall final performance.

Below is a short summary of the role as a make up director: 

Meet with each director in order to determined their desired effects regarding make up. 

Analyze the blocking of each scene to know if any particular scene requires a specific type of make up, or lack of. 

Acquire needed materials such as foundation, body paint, pencils, make up remover etc.

Basic knowledge of fine arts- be familiar with the technique and theory required to compose, produce and apply the acquired make up.

Basic knowledge of design- be familiar with design techniques, tools etc. required to produce a plan (drawing, model, mock up etc.) 

Researches on the above in order to produce what each director wants. 

Produce sketches for each performer/actor.

Do a mock up on these sketches to make sure they will work.

Edit and carry through any changes that might be needed.

Brief the make up assistant of what will be done on the night of the performance and make sure she and any other people that can help are familiar with the desired final outcome and techniques required.