Practitioner’s Workshop Part 2

09/30/21 - 10/04/21

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The other part of this workshop was listening and participating in the other two groups’ practitioners workshops.

We learned about Artaud and theater of cruelty. I found the way you are able to utilize lighting with this type of style was interesting. An example of this is to use red lights to show anger and passion and make them flash. I think it really represents the style of theater of cruelty because it is intense and almost disturbing and forces the audience to pay attention. They said something when explaining this style that to me sums up theater of cruelty in one sentence which was “actions speak louder than words” which I think is the main focus of this style, actions. I can definitely plan to apply this to my own learning with them talking about how in theater of cruelty “actions speak louder than words” I think that this is super interesting to me when thinking about the play we are putting on in Theater 3, Picnic at Hanging Rock, I think that in this play there are a lot of scenes where the violence and weirdness are portrayed through actions instead of words. I can see how theater of cruelty could impact these scenes and playing into that would make the scenes even more gripping. In their La Llorona scenes they talked about using loud stomping and grotesque screams to really convey the emotion the characters are feeling and to make the audience fully pay attention to what is happening.

We also learned about epic theater and Brecht. Epic theater seems to be mainly focused on the story, there can be narrators, actors can switch roles or play multiple roles, lighting is bare. I think that these elements all allow the audience to focus mainly on the story being told instead of the set, acting, or props. When thinking about the Director’s Notebook, I think that I can utilize the multiple roles per actor for the first act of my play. There is a part in the play where there are a bunch of characters at a cafe and they are conversing with Lisa. I think having one actor play some of these characters would be fun for the play in making it more fast paced and quick and witty. When listening to them explain their La Llorona scene I learned a lot more about what different things can symbolize when using epic theater. They suggested fragmented costumes to show how La Llorona is apart of her children and very connected to them. They also talked about breaking the 4th wall and speaking to the audience in an effort to get the main point across.

Overall I loved this workshop and I liked seeing how everyone took their practitioner and applied their work into the same play. I liked seeing how we each interpreted the scenes we were given based on our practitioner.