Exploration Notes- as Level Drama and Theatre Studies Essay

1) Discuss and compare the exploration of characterisation in Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff and (A Doll’s House). Draw your own practical understanding of the skills used including use of language and voice to portray character. In our practical sessions of Modelling Gregor in â€Å"Metamorphosis†, we thought about how we would physically see Gregor. To do this, we had to individually create the shape of Gregor with our bodies. We all started off thinking about it really literally- â€Å"How would a beetle look?† rather than thinking about how our body represented Gregor and his feelings towards society. We then expanded on our thoughts about Gregor and then tried to empathise with him and think about how we would look if we were in his situation. My finished individual beetle was crouched/curled up on the floor on my side with my head down, hidden away- this represented Gregor’s vulnerability (a beetle on his back is helpless and cannot move, but a beetle has a hard shell which protects him; I was half and half because with my head down, I didn’t want to be seen by society and I was ashamed of what I had become however with my front/underside slightly showing, I was exposed to society and helpless but because you could see my back/shell, I was half protected by family- I think that throughout the show this would change and I would end up completely on my back because the family does end up abandoning/killing Gregor) , one of my arms was in a jerky/awkward position and the other was outstretched away from my body- the jerky arm represented Gregor changing and being abnormal and different, the outstretched arm however showed that I was reaching for someone to help and save me from what I was turning into; my legs were limp, lifeless and in an awkward shape to show that I was, again, turning into something new and weird but could not move and physically get away from it. After we made our individual beetle, we then worked in partners and modelled them into Gregor. I decided to use props for this (I used a chair). Hana (my model Gregor) ended up being positioned on her side, with her head under the chair and one of her arms reaching out onto it, her legs were crooked and awkward to show that she couldn’t move from her pain. After that, we raced our â€Å"beetles†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Hana lost.. but this showed that Gregor was in a good position because he found it difficult to manoeuvre himself and get away from what was happening to him- his movement was limited and awkward when he did so. Hana then modelled me, she had me stood up with my legs wide open (showing vulnerability) and one of my legs turned in and that knee bent (which looked awkward, abnormal and hard to move), my head was dropped and my stomach was contracted in. She placed my arms out to the sides in awkward positions, which was quite physically demanding as I was holding the position. We then used these positions for a scene of Metamorphosis. The dream scene; we incorporated our ideas of how Gregor felt and moved into this scene. We decided to have a narrator and an actor onstage being Gregor. I tried to capture the essence of Gregor’s franticness yet vulnerability in the way I directed Hana as Gregor. I did this by changing the speed and dynamics of how she was moving; this matched the way I was narrating as I also changed the tempo, dynamics and pitch of my voice to really capture how Gregor’s character felt. To create the family we thought about the physical features of a beetle and applied them to the metaphors of the family. We ended up putting Mr Samsa in the middle, seeing as he is the heart of the family; we then had Gregor again in the middle with his arms over Mr Samsa almost saying that he is protecting him and the family with his income but he is still exposed to society and therefore vulnerable. We had Mrs Samsa knelt in front of Gregor and Mr Samsa looking straight forward with a blank expression almost as if she hasn’t got much to say about the situation and is just disregarding Gregor. Greta was at the very front of the beetle as the antenna, looking out for Gregor and being his sense of feeling. The legs of Gregor were made up of society, but reaching out and away from the beetle and from Gregor. We also (as a practical exercise) held hands as a whole group and twisted ourselves into a character from the play each†¦ this ended up looking abnormal, as the family’s situation is and a lot of it also looked quite painful but we were as one as a unit, as the family is. In order to characterise Nora in a Doll’s House, we used the techniques of Stanislavski because A Doll’s House is a much more naturalistic play compared to Metamorphosis. We started with a focus exercise in which we lay down on the floor and concentrated only on our breathing and our body contact with the floor. We then got thought about some key words to describe Nora’s character and tried to focus on each of them individually, letting each emotion overwhelm our bodies. We then were counted down to stand up and walk around the room as Nora, showing her feelings through non- verbal communication. We also created some tableaux of the family in a dolls house. For this we used visual, aural and spatial techniques. 2) Discuss and compare the Visual, Aural and Spatial elements and the use of non-verbal communication techniques to present issues and ideas in both plays studied. Make reference to your practical work. Visual, aural and spatial elements either have an iconic or symbolic reference. Iconic is always visual, for example a prop; it is iconic because it is what it is and only serves its primary function (e.g. a stool is a stool and is used for sitting on etc.) However a symbolic reference is something that represents something and has a metaphor behind it (e.g. a chair could be symbolic for a particular person). Metamorphosis is an extremely abstract play and the visual, aural and spatial techniques used are very important. The play is commonly set with Gregor at the back on a platform above everyone else, slowly becoming more and more deformed. This is a very visual thing and represents the time’s changing and matters are slowly getting worse and worse for the family. The fact he is higher up than everyone else as well could also symbolise the fact he is hanging over everyone’s head and is a burden on the family. His height could also represent his status and the fact he is the cause for everything happening on stage and when he changes, everything else does as well. Another common way of positioning Gregor is to have scaffolding angling up to the back of the stage like this: This gives perspective; it also makes Gregor look further away but because of the angle, you are drawn in, giving a stronger emotional impact on you as an audience member. The scaffolding itself makes the whole aesthetic of the performance seem more skeletal; which Gregor is also slowly becoming. It is also, obviously, very structured which contradicts how the family’s situation is in the play. In the script it says that every prop is mimed other than 3 black stools places equidistantly of each other for the family to use. I think these proxemics show how the family are as a unit and detached from Gregor. In order to explore and interpret this, we created a series of 10 tableaux. In these 10 tableaux, we used visual, aural and spatial elements to show the subtext of the plot- we mainly focussed on the family and how Gregor’s change affected the family. We used a ladder laid down on its side for scaffolding in which Gregor spent a lot of the time in various awkward ways, becoming more and more deformed and trapped as the tableaux progressed. We thought we should only use the organic sounds from our movement and the ladder for our performance to represent the tension and how awkward the situation/plot/subtext was. In the changeover of each tableau, we decided to move a chair gradually towards the back of the stage to represent Gregor slowly distancing from his family. One element of these tableaux I was quite proud of was the proxemics of each member of the family compared to Gregor and the ladder/scaffolding. This is said ladder; as you can see, there is a divide across it. We used this as a barrier stopping the family from getting to Gregor; apart from in one tableau where we â€Å"broke† this barrier and Greta reached out to Gregor through the partition. Gregor was slowly becoming more and more deformed into the corner during the tableaux. Greta reaching over through the barrier to Gregor. Mrs Samsa reaching over to Greta trying to stop her from â€Å"breaking the barrier†. Mr Samsa: Back turned to Mrs Samsa and Greta (and obviously Gregor, wanting no part of it) Gregor was slowly becoming more and more deformed into this corner during the tableaux. We also used visual, aural and spatial techniques when studying A Doll’s House. Unlike Metamorphosis being abstract, A Doll’s House is much more realistic than Metamorphosis and therefore uses lots of props which are all in one way or another, symbolic of something and metaphorical. As a class we discussed the characters and props and what they may metaphorically represent: * Christmas Tree- The family’s relationships falling apart simultaneously with the pine needles falling off the tree. It could also show that looks can be deceiving because of the fact that while this tree is looking beautiful, the family is deteriorating. * Door- Freedom when Nora leaves. Trouble when she enters from the unknown outside world. * Dr Rank- Society hiding their decay. * Money- Power and all things bad and poisonous. * Nanny- The calm, security and support of Nora and the children. * â€Å"Skylark†- Nora is just a pretty singing bird with no other purpose than looking beautiful. Also the fact that a skylark cannot speak words, this is reflected in Nora; she is not allowed an opinion or it is not heard. * Stove- The characters always go back to it (especially Nora), this could stand for support and forgiveness, the warmth of friendship and loyalty because it is always there. * Macaroons- Nora’s deceit. * Lamp- The light of truth. * The Doll’s House- Nora is a kept woman, everyone’s play thing†¦or so they assume. It is actually Nora who plays with and manipulates the characters around her. Again, looks can be deceiving. Another way we explored visual, aural and special elements in A Doll’s House was when we studied the Tarantella scene. A tarantella is a traditional Italian folk dance. It gets its name from the venomous spider, the tarantula and it is supposed that when one gets bitten by this spider, the victims needed to engage in a frenzied dance in order to prevent death or disease, using very rhythmical music. Now, in context with A Doll’s House, I believe that the reason a Tarantella is danced by Nora is because she is trying to rid herself of the poison from Torvald, Krogstad and maybe even Dr Rank; or she could be trying to rid herself from lies she’s told as this is her poison. We re-enacted the tarantella scene with the proper script. We played with spatial awareness of characters, use of voice and visual effects. Nora’s movement gets gradually more and more frantic and her speech also more frantic and louder and high pitched. Torvald moves with purpose but in a much more organised and authoritative way compared to Nora; he is always keeping his eyes on her and making sure she does it ALL correctly. Mrs Linde comes in from side stage quite discretely, says her line to Nora then moves slowly and almost mysteriously to a chair in the LDF corner. Dr Rank, playing the piano, cannot keep his eyes off Nora but is fairly wary of Torvald’s presence so near him. Nora used a shawl while she was dancing which added to the visual effects and at the end of the dance she threw the shawl on the floor as if her freedom of dance had gone and the poison had come back. We then performed our own interpretive dance for the subtext of the tarantella and the whole play without any script work. We started with Torvald controlling Nora, almost as a puppeteer- for this we used music box doll music. The music then ran into Kashmir by Bond which starts with quite a distorted wave of sound which we used to show Nora slowly changing and fighting back with Torvald. Throughout the dance, Nora got stronger and less poisoned- instead, the poison was transferring into the other characters. After Nora had kicked Torvald to the floor, Mrs Linde came in and started controlling him alongside Torvald; after having liaised with Nora, she became poisoned and slowly deteriorated to the floor. Dr Rank then came into the picture, stepped over Torvald to get to Nora. They danced together until she pushed him away and transferred the poison. Finally, Nora ended up sat down on the floor, looking around almost like a child who had just broken all of her toys. Aurally, there is one very poignant moment in A Doll’s House where the door is slammed at the end by Nora. This gives the play a final point of closure where Nora has gone and has gone for good. Similarly in Metamorphosis, when the apple is thrown into Gregor’s back, this is a definitive sound of the end of the main plot. 3) Evaluate your understanding of the practitioners studied and their influences on Metamorphosis. Use your interpretation notes to aid this question making reference to the practitioners, playwright, and your own practical exploration. Leslie Steven Berkovitch, better known as Steven Berkoff, was born on the 3rd August 1937 to Russian Jews. He came from a poor family and because of their descent; he never fitted in as a child and found it hard to be a part of a group of friends. Growing up in the East End of London is a gritty, tough time for most people let alone someone of the likes of Berkoff. He was a badly behaved child and got kicked out of school a lot. You could argue he was the original â€Å"East Ender† until he then moved to New York- he lived in a 1 bedroom flat, shared with 3 other families (who were also outsiders in New York). Wherever he travelled, he could never fit in and never found anywhere to call home. He grew up to resent his family and moved back to London at age 13. As an outsider, a Russian Jew living in London, he wanted to be a gangster. He was in a stage of identity crisis where didn’t know where to belong and after being so badly influenced and behaved, he ended up in a young offenders prison which obviously made him extremely angry! After this, he changed his name to Berkoff because he didn’t want to be seen as a Jew or associated with his roots. He brought a whole new movement to British playwriting in British society. These plays he wrote commented on equality and people- they were often based in the home. When he came out of prison, he decided to go over to Europe and learn the skill of tailoring like his father had done. During his stay, he was given the book â€Å"Metamorphosis† by Franz Kafka. When he read this, he could instantly make connections between himself and Gregor. After this, he went back to the East End and started writing plays. Unlike his fellow playwrights John Osbourne and Edward Bond, he believed drama should still be abstract. Berkoff was influenced by Greek theatre; he was a â€Å"Megalomaniac of theatre styles† who loved over exaggeration and the use of masks to rid people of their identity. He loved the use of chorus (voices together) and poetic verse because it takes things out of context. I was inspired by Brecht and his political (borderline social) take on drama and the use of gestus and satire. He also like Artaud and his theatre of cruelty and the way he used the senses and sounds to put over metaphorical messages. He then travelled to France and worked under Lecoq who was a mime artiste and physical theatre worker and trained with him until he decided to move back to London. When he got back to London, he built up his manifesto of theatre. TOTAL THEATRE. Total theatre Greek theatre (chorus, unison, exaggeration), theatre of cruelty (loud sounds, harsh, gritty images and metaphors) and epic theatre (Brecht- teaches a message, gestus, stereotypes, alienation). Berkoff moulded all these ideas together and created his characters as comic and caricatures. Using the whole of the body was very important to him as he was an extremely physical director, well demonstrated with the character of Gregor in Metamorphosis. As a practitioner, Berkoff also wrote plays as well as acted and directed. He liked using lots of language and words (almost Shakespearian). He was extremely articulate and using beautiful language he talked about the gritty East End and reality of life. To put Berkoff’s views into practice, we had to pretend to be in love with a chair. We exaggerated our love and feelings and the chair was like a metaphor for our lover. We then had to flip our mood and become angry with the chair; it got us all to think how people would stereotypically act with someone you loved and then hated. We also had to pretend we were at a picnic on our own, slowly becoming more and more exaggerated with our eating and drinking, and gradually more grotesque. It really got us to focus into it and get into it, so when it was time to â€Å"fake wretch†, I actually felt physically sick! We also practiced slow motion. This was very physically demanding, like how Steven Berkoff would have directed. It was very important to control your movements but not forget that when you sped up the movements, they should look exactly the same as the slow ones. 4) Evaluate your understanding of the practitioner studied and his influence on A Doll’s House. Use your interpretation notes to aid this question making reference to the practitioners, playwright, and your own practical exploration. Henrik Ibsen was born in Norway in 1828 and died in 1906. He was from a well to do Merchant family, however his father’s fortunes took a significant turn for the worse and he ended up a moody, nasty man and turned to alcoholism which he then took out on his family. Ibsen subsequently, only wrote about money and marriage as this was influenced from his own life. His plays were seen as scandalous to many of his era because they were always touching on sensitive subjects like human rights. This then influenced many other playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller and James Joyce. He is one of the founders of modernism in theatre. During his time, despite failing to achieve success as a playwright, he gained a lot of practical experience at the Norwegian theatre company. His play â€Å"A Doll’s House† is a realistic drama that highlights the cultural conflicts of the 19th century. The play was very controversial when it was first published as it was sharply critical of 19th century marriage norms. Her ended up having to change the ending of the original script because the leading actress didn’t like the idea of having to act out abandoning her children. It also manifests Ibsen’s concerns for women’s rights and human rights in general. This was widely considered as a landmark in the development of what would soon become a highly prevalent genre of theatre- REALISM. Realism was consequently realised. It wasn’t however until the likes of Stanislavski came along that realism became so well known and loved. He wanted a sense of realism in his work and he wanted his actors to really connect with their character. In his eyes, the actors WERE the characters. He believed REAL ACTORS=REAL ACTING. We used Stanislavski’s techniques to get into our roles when studying A Doll’s House. We began with a focus exercise, lying on the floor and zoning out our thoughts. We then thought about our character and let their feelings overwhelm our own like Stanislavski would have got his actors to. We then connected with their emotions, felt how they felt and immediately after, acted out a short scene between Nora and Torvald. This helped us all enormously because got us to lose out inhibitions and focus entirely on the story, situation and emotions of the characters. 5) Discuss the Social, Historical, Cultural and Political content of the texts studied and compare the impact on an audience and on yourself as a student of drama. In Metamorphosis, the social, historical and cultural background is made apparent in a number of ways throughout the play. Franz Kafka (the author of the original novel) took his inspiration for the characters from his own relationship between himself and his father. Unforgettable images of dislocation seem to represent both the madness of the modern world and his own desperate neurosis. Similarly, Berkoff wasn’t very close with his father. Practitioners like Brecht and Artaud influenced his work- this is clearly visible in Metamorphosis as he took Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty and gave it Brecht’s Epic Theatre attributes. Berkoff’s own unique style created this play incorporating his personal passion of mime and the genre of expressionism. Acknowledging what I know about both Berkoff and Kafka, it is blatent that the Social, Cultural, Historic and Political aspects in terms of the two writers were their personal experiences of suppression from society, the culture they were brought up in (Kafka brought up in the a Jewish community and Berkoff brought up in the lower class and status he was born into by Russian Jews). Metamorphosis can be seen as a reaction against society and its demands. Gregor’s physical separation could represent his alienation and understandable desire. He was crushed by authority and routine and had been imprisoned by social and economic demands: â€Å"Just don’t stay in bed being useless . . .† It prevents the forthcoming rebellion of the son against the father. Gregor had become strong as a result of his father’s failure. He destroyed his father’s self-esteem and took over the father’s posts and duties within the family. After the catastrophe, the same sequence takes place in reverse: son becomes weak, and father kills him. Gregor is shown as a symbol of anxiety and alienation who is a lonely character, isolated in his own mind from the community and true friendship (much like Kafka and Berkoff). Looking at where Gregor’s values were anchored: servant to the needs of an oppressive boss in order to meet the needs of a family that continuously exploits him. The metamorphosis was inevitable. Metamorphosis shows the views and attitudes of society. It isn’t necessarily the one we live in today, but looking at it from a historical point of view it could have been representing the society in the nineteen hundreds (1915) when metamorphosis was first published. Kafka was born in Germany and could be referring to the time of the war, and how the Jewish communities were discriminated against. In A Doll’s House, patriarchal ideals were supported and reinforced by a social structure in which women had very little political or economic power. They were economically, socially, and psychologically dependent upon men and especially dependent upon the institutions of marriage and motherhood. Motherhood within marriage was considered a woman’s highest possible achievement. It was a social responsibility, a duty to society, and therefore, a full-time job. Mothering was no longer something that came naturally, but was something that had to be learned. High infant mortality rates, particularly in urban areas, were solely blamed on mothers. Working class mothers were labeled neglectful, when in truth they struggled with both child care and feeding a family. The plot concerns the collapse of a middle class marriage. It sparked debates about women’s rights and divorce. It was considered innovative and daring because of its focus on psychological tension instead of external action. It also created a new acting style that required emotion be conveyed through small, controlled gestures, shifts in action, and pauses and it was groundbreaking in that it caused drama to be viewed as social commentary and not just entertainment. For me, I think that these factors in both plays have different effects on me because in A Doll’s House, the living situation is so much more common these days compared to the monstrosity it was back when it was written. I feel like I can however relate to Nora and how she’s feeling because she is quite feministic like myself. I become quite confused when thinking about how Metamorphosis affects me because it’s obviously a very abstract play but I can empathise with Gregor and moreover Greta because she just wants to help her brother but the higher members of the family won’t let her.