Yesterday I received the last of my essay marks- not module marks as of yet, but those will come soon enough. Anyway, the marks I got for the essays were... shall we say, varied. They were each in different grade bands- the lowest, performance lab, I received 57- which is a 2:2- my world theatre essay received 64, which is a 2:1- and, most surprisingly, my study skills essay received an 80- which is a first.
My problem, however, is that I can't see why there is such an enormousness mark difference between my essays, and so I present them to you, in the hopes that someone may comment/provide insight/etc.
This is why, below are all three of my essays- which I hope someone will read and let me know what they think. I feel like I need an outside opinion, because I cannot see what I did 'right' and 'wrong' in these essays.
Please help me!
to read an essay, click on its title, and it shall appear- LIKE MAGIC!
» Performance lab, 57 "In a place of discredited enlightenment model in which the audience gains moral and sentimental education from a night out at the civic or national theatre, we might be able to develop a model of performance as an ethical encounter, in which we come face to face with the other, in a recognition of our mutual vulnerability which encourages relationships based on openness, dialogue and a respect for difference. (Ridout, 2009, p. 59)" «
Written by Naomi Wong of the University of East London
This essay aims to outline the creation and influences of the ten minute assessed performance piece carried out during the 'Performance lab' module as well as to discuss the moralistic lessons that could be learned both by the audience and the performers. The task outlined was to create a piece of performance using a stimuli provided, which was in this instance an extract from A Suicide-Site Guide to the City by Darren O'Donnell (2006), and influenced by a practitioner, which in our case was Pina Bausch. Four key words were interpreted from the stimuli; community, simplicity, change and comfort, on which we revolved the piece around.
The title of this essay is up to much interpretation; as I understand it, Ridout (2009) is speaking about the lessons an audience is given about social situations and their 'moral' implications, what is right and wrong. In showing consequences to hypothetical situations, representing the lives of those who are perhaps out of sight and out of mind, or perhaps a simulated situation designed to stimulate the audience's moral outrage or guilt, an audience can draw their own conclusions to how they can respond, also think about how they believe they would react themselves in a similar social situation as well as harbouring thought as to how it could effect their day to day relationships.
The first segment of the performance was heavily influenced by Cafe Muller, particularly at the point in which two performers are seen embracing as a third alters their stances, moving them into an alternate position from which they spring back into their original poses (Penthesilearu, 2010). Also an influence was barbe bleue (ecrireunmouvement, 2007), in which a man repeats the same action continuously. The product of these and the stimulus resulted in technological actions being continuously repeated as an outside influence, in this instance another performer, moved the rest into more humanistic poses. Like Cafe Muller, the performers sprung back into their original positions fairly quickly. This seemed to work well as an idea, as well as a fully developed performance style. The purpose was to create a simplistic sequence, in-keeping with one of our key-words, to represent the idea of technology taking over our actions until all that remained was a series of repetitive actions. A quote, often attributed to Einstein, states that a definition of insanity is repeating the same action whilst expecting a different result; this could perhaps provide some insight into the state of humanity combating against the modernity of technology within the piece.
The second section of performance was unifying, to contrast with the separateness of the first. The aim was to create a singular action, without every actor giving an identical performance- this draws attention to the individuality of humankind whilst reaching towards a common goal. Following this, two performers 'discovered' each other, catching sight of each other for the first time despite how closely they had been located, which led to a mirror scene, in which one performer mimicked the actions of the other- again, the idea was to have the actions mismatching- the movements were the same, but the energy was different; as the same actions are applied by people, the differences seem to matter less because of a shared characteristic, this could be argued to be a form of social commentary, discussing the ethics of allowing meaningless differences to come between people.
The section that followed this was a short meeting of two other performers- they began far away from each other, speaking on phones- and drew slowly closer with each greeting they gave each other- this idea of being separated by technology came directly from the stimulus; “It's so clear, with all of us stranded in this gorgeous darkness, that the power functions to separate us. We're dying to come together with strangers.” O'Donnell (2006) From this, we could perhaps draw attention to what each person allows to shield them from interaction with the outside world. As the performers drew closer to each other and away from technology, they became happier, which begs the question; if we are not distracted by purposeless tasks and games, could we have made a difference elsewhere or experienced something greater?
Another rather Bausch influenced section was very loosely based on Kontakthof, in which performers walked to the front of their stage and 'displayed' parts of themselves to the audience, before turning on their heels and walking back into line (rphilippart, 2008) . We took the idea of walking to the front of stage with purpose and combined it with one performer moving the others, each in turn until it became clear when all walk to the front at once, that the individual actions are a part of a bigger picture. The image itself was of a person by themself, who is then comforted by others around them, the idea being that of building a community which looked after each individual within it. This was perhaps a very different style to our inspiration, and there is no doubt that the effect it has is of a different sort. Climenhaga, R. (2009) describes “their looks back at the audience make us deeply aware of our own implication in the process” which ties in with the Ridout (2009) title-quote in as much as it provokes feeling within the audience, that perhaps they have done wrong on a specific moral or ethical scale. The performance developed from the visual ideas perhaps provokes thought, but rather on a tangent; the audience gets the sense of a larger picture that each person individually contributes to, as well as the implication that we are being moved into these roles by another being.
As the piece drew to a close, scenes contrasting with earlier segments were performed, firstly, each performer 'played with' objects that were a non-technological alternative to their actions from the opening segment- there was no sharp speech, no robotic movements, on the contrary- each performer moved in a very naturalistic manner. Similarly, the final scene contrasts with the aforementioned tableau sequence, but rather than rigidly being put into place, the performers allow and welcome the guidance. The piece in its entirety was devised with the idea of technology acting as a barrier between human connection. The events described in A Suicide-Site Guide to the City are of the blackout which overtook the North-Eastern area of the United States and Canada, according to O'Donnell (2006), what followed the power-outage was calm. Rather than looting or panicking, people were “outside on their porches, in the parks, on the streets.” It was decided very early on, that the idea of simplicity would be an effective way of translating ideas- rather than overcomplicating things by presenting in a very stylistically complex manner, to keep things as basic as possible would in itself, prompt an audience to thought.
Other work considered in the process included 'The man I Love' (animajavi, 2007), which shows a man performing sign language along to a song, as well as 'The Rite of Spring' (davechoa03, 2006), however- neither of these performances really lent themselves stylistically to the atmosphere the piece was intended to create, and so, regretfully, were omitted.
To conclude, the final performance was greatly influenced by both the stimulus and by the work of Pina Bausch, more specifically by Kontakthof, Cafe Muller and Barbe Bleue. Additionally, the way in which both the performance and Pina Bausch's work are presented are open to interpretation by the audience, and encourage thought on both a moralistic and academic scale. It is my belief that the piece performed achieved a certain level of ethical and moralistic representation, which was visibly influenced by Pina Bausch and her collective works.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ridout, N. (2009). Theatre & Ethics. London: Palgrave MacMillan
Climenhaga, R. (2009). Pina Bausch (Routledge Performance Practitioners) London: Routledge.
O'Donnell, D. (2006). Social acupuncture: a guide to suicide, performance and utopia. Toronto: Coach House Books
Penthesilearu (2010) Pina Bausch / Cafe Muller / extract 2/5 / intro available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S48yBWKjdUI (accessed: 7 January 2011)
rphilippart (2008) Pina Bausch Kontakthof mit Damen und Herren ab 65 Part 01/16 Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks0mGfhNKVA (Accessed: 16 December 2010)
animajavi (2007) PINA BAUSCH - The Man I love (Gershwin) Available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rK6TJyGAHw (Accessed: 7 January 2011)
ecrireunmouvement (2007)Pina Bausch : Barbe Bleue (intégrale 1 sur 12) Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J15mFLT-pP4 (Accessed: 7 January 2011)
davechao03 (2006) Le Sacre Du Printemps by Pina Bausch Wuppertal Dance Theater Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXVuVQuMvgA (Accessed: 7 January 2011)
» World Theatre, 64 "Commedia Dell'Arte was instrumental in the creation of Pantomime as it is recognised in twenty-first century Britain"«
Written By Naomi Wong of the University of East London.
This essay aims to give context and evidence to support the statement Ellis (2008) makes that “The form and style of early British pantomime had its roots in the populist Italian commedia dell'arte of the 16th and 17th centuries...”, how the conventions have remained and evolved into what modern day Britain recognises as pantomime in the annual ritual of the holiday season as well as the general importance of pantomime in today's society.
“The name commedia dell'arte is difficult to translate. Literally, it approximates 'comedy of the artists'”, as Rudlin (1994) quotes, “Artists”, in this instance, being in the genitive case, thus hold the rank of the possessors. Some might argue, as in
Commedia Dell'arte in the 20th Century:A handbook, that this translation implies that this particular theatre form belongs to professional performers; others could contest that commedia, much like the pantomimes of today, was very much a show for everyone, evident perhaps when considering the formulaic way in which commedia artists gathered their audiences. Rudlin (1994) describes a technique in which they collected their audience on the streets and “When the audience were judged to have been sufficiently tapped, they would have been rewarded with a Commedia performance.” In addition to this, commedia artists used a fair amount of improvisation in their acts- some of which was rehearsed in such a way that gave the illusion of spontaneity in a very similar manner to the pantomimes of modern Britain; whilst the actors respond to different stimuli, they have pre-prepared behaviours and dialogue to 'slip in' to the show. One example of this is the 'end of show' audience interaction, which generally precedes the inevitable wedding finale; there is a 'Buttons' character, whom the audience can relate to, invites his fellow cast members to pluck children from the audience to 'help' him sing a song. Each child is pre-picked, nominated by their parents or guardians- however the entire event is orchestrated in such a way that it appears to the audience, in particular to the children in the audience, that those selected have been hand picked live by the cast. In doing this, the children can feel like their frantic attention seeking has a bearing on being selected to aid 'Buttons' in his task. Hundreds of pantomimes are performed every year in Great Britain, usually based on a well known fairytale such as 'Cinderella', 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'Dick Whittington'; they mess around with gender representation, often having male parts played by women and vice versa, they always feature songs, and more often than not, as mentioned previously, invite children from the audience onto the stage to sing a nursery rhyme and earn a 'present'. “A visit to the pantomime is a family outing. For many children it is their first visit to a theatre and to many adults it comes as a yearly treat: a reminder of an uncomplicated morality of right and wrong and of the fears and robust humour of childhood” ~ Bicat and Staines (2004, pg. 9)
When thinking of commedia dell'arte one tends to think of masked performers, exaggerated movement, improvised quips within a set plot and a carnival-like atmosphere. Pantomimes are equally, if not more so, recognisable by today's population for having a specific set of characters, plots and lines to play with. Taylor (2007) mentions conducting a survey of sorts amongst professionals working within pantomime itself, and receiving several responses, which include: “'It's a fairy story'; 'It has to have a dame'” and “Or the spectacle”. Similarly, Harris (2008) expresses; “every pantomime story has a 'goodie' and a 'baddie', a principle girl and boy, a comedy character and a dame...” Essentially, there is a limited bank of characters and style with which each pantomime can utilise much like the stock characters of commedia. Both forms are perhaps equal in the “spectacle” of their performances; commedia relying on elaborate masks to represent their characters and everyday situations blown overly out of proportion, perhaps how one might expect a melodrama to behave; and pantomimes with their brightly coloured sets and costume, their song and dance numbers and loud booming voices assuring the audience that 'oh no it isn't!'
Pantomine is important in twenty-first century Britain for several reasons; the first being a reason shared with the rest of theatre and cinema entertainment; as an escape from everyday life. With regards to cinema audiences, Wallop, H. (2009) quotes the UK Film Council as stating “the figures were proof cinema was fulfilling its longstanding role of providing escapism during a recession.” Many working adults attend performances and shows to experience a 'schadenfreude' of sorts, watching the lives of people with larger problems to tackle than they do themselves. Pantomime also plays an important role in the lives of many families who utilise it as a way to reconnect with family each year. Marmion (2010) speaks of a “cabbie, in his sixties” who mentioned the impression pantomimes had left on him as a child- so much so that he still returns every winter to attend local amateur performances. The theatre form is suitable for all ages of the population; the jokes are evenly balanced between childish and adult in nature, often coinciding with double entendres, which fly over the heads of the children in the audience. In addition to this, there is a certain amount of comfort in knowing exactly what to expect; whilst some frown on the way in which pantomime sticks rigidly to its conventions, it is something the audience appreciates. “We need rules to organise the fun. ... These traditions mean we all know where we are- no one is exposed or excluded, all are welcome. The only crime is not joining in.” (Marmion, 2010) This is almost certainly 'borrowed' from commedia, which has/had a very vast collection of extremely similar 'situations' in which the characters find themselves. From Gordon, M. (1987)
Lazzi: Comic Routines of the Commedia Dell'Arte:
“C02) “Lazzo of Snatching Food From their Mouths” [Rome 1610] Just as Flavia and Emilia are about to eat, a wild man frightens them, snatching the food from their mouths.”
Both commedia and pantomime present characters from all walks of life, for example; pantomimes have at least one or two characters who speak in 'common tongue' with the local dialect of the audience, usually shouldering most of this is the 'Buttons' character, who is often seen playing servant to the nobles. Similarly, the zanni speak in rough tones not unlike street vendors as Rudlin, J. (1994) describes on page 23 of Commedia Dell'Arte in the 20th Century: A Handbook. “A Modern performer wondering where to start a practical study of Commedia can do no better than listen to a barrow by or a china salesman pitch his goods from a van in an outdoor market.”
In essence, pantomime represents in twenty-first century Britain many of the same conventions and feelings as commedia dell'arte of 16th and 17th century's Venice, particularly with regards to characterisation, spectacle and social impact. Other possible points of interest could be how pantomime could have evolved had different aspects of commedia or other theatre forms were taken on as opposed to the ones that remain; what if pantomime were performed with masks- would it still be called 'pantomime' without the expressiveness of the human face in motion? Indeed, it appears pantomime, whose conventions have remained the same for at least a century, despite staying up-to-date in their social comment, is here to stay for the foreseeable future and could, in turn, influence a new theatre style as of yet unknown to us.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rudlin, J. (1994)
Commedia Dell'Arte in the 20th Century: A Handbook. London: Routledge.
Gordon, M. (1987)
Lazzi: Comic Routines of the Commedia Dell'Arte. New York: Performing Arts Journals.
Taylor, M. (2007)
British Pantomime Performance. Malta: Gutenberg Press
Harris, P. (2008)
The Pantomime Book. Croydon: CPR Bookmarque
Bicat, T. and Staines, R. (2004)
Pantomime: A Practical Guide. Great Britain: Biddles Ltd.
Ellis, S. (2008) 'Christmas at the Pantomime' ,
British Heritage, Volume 28, Issue 6, p34-37, EBSCO [Online]. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27191959&site=ehost-live (Accessed: 28 November 2010)
Marmion, S. (2010) 'Why panto is important'
The Stage, 16 December, pp. 8-9.
Wallop, H. (2009) “Cinema audiences boom as people look to escape recession.”
The Telegraph [Online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/5388334/Cinema-audiences-boom-as-people-look-to-escape-recession.html (Accessed: 6 January 2011)
» Study Skills, 80 "Discuss your three critical sources in relation to one or more of the four approaches outlined in 'The Case For a Approach' by Noel Witts and Michael Huxley in the Twentieth Century Performance Reader." «
Written by Naomi Wong of the University of East London
Performance has been used for a number of different reasons, notably, artists have utilised performance as a platform for spreading a message or provoking thought. Huxley and Witts (1996) put forwards that “Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Isadora Duncan, Jerzy Grotowski, the Living Theatre, Erwin Priscator and Mary Wigman all saw their art as a focus for changing their audiences' perceptions.” This essay will consider the various ways in which social and political messages can be translated through performance and/or other methods of communicating with an audience, be it theatre television or other art forms, based on evidence found in American science fiction TV (Johnson-Smith, 2005), Modernism -Anthology of Sources and Documents (Kolocotroni et al., 1998) as well as other sources connected to the theory and application of such techniques.
Television is one of the easiest platforms for conveying a message at the time of this essay- a popular television series can earn a millions of viewers on is original air date alone (BARB, 2010), plus any re-runs and DVD viewers on top of that. Johnson-Smith (2005) discusses a number of popular science fiction programmes which have put forward ideas about social and political matters. First to be discussed in this essay is Farscape, or, more specifically, 'Terra Firma' (2010). Johnson-Smith (2005) highlights this episode as being “A strikingly brave and sensitive effort to present the bigger picture, both within and beyond the story.” Farscape began its broadcast in 1999, two years previous to the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, and its central character, John Crichton (who is from Earth), has no knowledge of this event taking place until 2003 when he returns. Indeed, when Crichton wishes to share knowledge and technology on a global scale, those around him insist it be kept exclusively for the United States' benefit. The program makes bold statements about the values of American citizens, who had seemingly become “isolationist” and “embittered” in a few short years (Johnson-Smith, 2005). In this instance, having an outside observer 'see' the changes, focusses the audiences' attention on them in a way that is arguably more effective than simply showing the situation as was.
Also highlighted in Johnson-Smith's (2005) book is Stargate SG-1 episode '2010' (2007). The episode was originally aired in 2001 and showed a future that supposedly happened due to an error in judgement in the present; having allied ourselves with an alien race known as the Aschen, subsequent fertility rates amongst humankind fell over 90%. '2010' (2007) asks its audience questions regarding the morality of the, as of yet theoretical, idea of changing the past to 'fix' the future- this idea is hardly a new one- for years people from intellectual and non-intellectual background alike have asked the question 'if you could go back in time, and kill Hitler before the outbreak of the second world war- would you?' The concept of changing the past is a difficult one, and Dr Fraiser hits the argument against it on the head when she states: “Wait a second here... We're considering changing the lives of the entire human race on Earth; do we have the right?” ('2010', 2007) Similarly, Doctor Who (2005) tackles the same issue more than once; season one episode 'Father's day' sees the Doctor and then companion Rose Tyler witnessing the day of her father's death. Rather than see it happen, Rose saves her father's life, which causes a paradox- endangering the fabric of reality because of a change being made to 'fix' the past. Later, season four episode 'The Fires of Pompeii' has the Doctor once again being tested. Companion, Donna Noble, spends the majority of the episode trying to convince the Doctor to warn the people of Pompeii about their impending demise, whilst he attempts to explain the necessity that he does not alter the time line in such a manner.
Novels, like television, have a way of 'pulling people in', and Zola (1998) speaks about naturalistic novels and their depiction of “truth” without creating fictional plot-lines. This is a very different way of reaching an audience- without posing a hypothetical situation, the author, rather, narrates an actual event or situation as it is, without bias or angles- in doing this, the reader can make up their own mind and develop their own view based on facts put down in front of them. By showing a 'true representation' of something, it is possible to set about change. Granted, it could be argued that Zola's (1998) claims at being of a higher morality than his non-naturalistic counterparts is arrogant. However, his medium of putting forward his ideas is, as he insists is the only effective way, truth, as he sees it; “is this not being the most useful and the most moral workers in the human workshop?”
Within the same piece of work, Zola also speaks of the effectiveness of performance in presenting “truth”. It is argued that the stage holds the potential to far surpass any other means of communicating. “The wonderful power of the stage must not be forgotten, and its immediate effect on the spectators.” Zola (1998) The differences between the novel and stage is not in content, nor the theory of presenting things as they are exactly, but rather as a way of reaching a larger audience with fewer words to slow down the speed of communication.
Courbet used yet another form of communicating ideas, through paintings he was able to make statements specifically against the cruelty of hunting. Tseng (2008) sets out evidence to support the effectiveness of Courbet's attempts, as well as he criticism some of his work received. One example is that of The Death of the Stag, which portrayed hunters 'encouraging' their dogs to kill a stag by means of cruel whipping- “As an avant-garde history painting. The Death of the Stag raises an ethical dilemma within the context of an aesthetic experience.” (Tseng, 2008) In addition, Courbet (1998) made statements regarding labels and imitation- “To know in order to create, that was my idea.” to present an accurate representation of truth, one has to know the background and details of what it is being portrayed.
Each method comes with its own merits; art has always been searched for hidden meanings, and so is still to this day a fairly effective way of getting people to think about 'issues', however also holds a certain reputation of being something for people of a certain mindset rather than the every-man. Novels can capture the attention of some, but a truly effective novel must be able to hold this attention for an unspecified amount of time and can only reach as many as copies are published and distributed, and so could be argued to be less effective than other forms of communication. Performance on stage is, as previously mentioned, a good means of reaching a wide audience quickly and effectively, however also maintains a certain amount of inaccessibility through a popular belief of plays being for a specific 'type' of person. It is for these reasons that I believe television to be the more effective way of communicating ideas; at least, that is, as it stands in the 21st century. Audiences are wide and from every class of society, and with today's technology, the ability to show very real situations on both a hypothetical and factual basis makes communicating social and political messages all too common.
To conclude, there are a variety of ways in which art forms can be utilized to put across a social and/or political message, which include, but are not limited to the stage, painting, novels and television- each have their own merits and disadvantages. However, 'truth' as we know it is a very subjective matter and so I invite you, the reader, to look at the evidence presented and draw your own conclusions. That being said, I believe art to be a very effective means of communicating ideas in a non-hostile environment which harbours thought and consideration.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Huxley, M. and Witts, N. (1996) The Twentieth Century Performance Reader. London: Routledge
Johnson-Smith, J. (2005) American science fiction TV New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, pp. 153- 184
Gustave Courbet (1819-77) From 'Realist Manifesto 1855' & Emile Zola (1840-1902) From 'Naturalism on the Stage'. In Kolocotroni, V., Goldman, J., Taxidou, O. (eds) (1998) Modernism -Anthology of Sources and Documents Edinburgh: Edinburgh Press, pp. 169 – 174
'Terra Firma' (2010) Farscape. season 4, episode 13. Directed by Peter Andrikidis. Written by Richard Manning . First broadcast 2003 [DVD]. London: Contender Entertainment Group.
'2010' (2007) Stargate SG-1, season 4, episode 16. Directed by Andy Mikita. Written by Brad Wright. First broadcast 2001 [DVD] USA: MGM Entertainment .
Doctor Who (2005) BBC 1 Television, 26 March
Tseng, S. (2008) 'Contested Terrain: Gustave Courbet's Hunting Scenes.' Art Bulletin; Jun2008, Vol. 90 Issue 2, p218-234, 17p, EBSCO [Online]. Available at http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=122&sid=db3eaa63-017d-4a46-b7f5-e85706c8d46c%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=34103130 (Accessed: 8 January 2011)
BARB (2010) Weekly Top 30 Programmes 20-26 December 2010 Available at: http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammesOverview? (Accessed: 9 January 2011)
