Kathryn's Collage

Kathryn's 10 Questions (late yeah)

10 Questions

1.) How will this class help me as an actor?

2.) How will this class help me as a director?

3.) How will this class help me as a playwright?

4.) Will I actually end up with some basic designing abilities?

5.) How will I perceive theatre differently after taking this class?

6.) What is the purpose of the blog?

7.) What is the purpose of the interview assignment?

8.) How do I post things on the blog? (I’m kind of computer-dumb.)

9.) What exactly should I be posting on the blog?

10.) Why do hotdogs come in packages of ten and hotdog buns come in packages of eight?

Kathryn's Aronson Reading Notes

Kathryn Wahlberg

Notes on Aronson’s
“Can Theater and Media Speak the Same Language?”

Page 1:

*From the beginning (Ancient Greece) theatre has been a technical spectacle.
*Aristotle—Spectacle is “the least artistic” aspect of theatre.
*1920s director Erwin Piscator added to “the scenographer’s palette”: projections, film, video.
*These mainly used as scenery, illusionism, setting components.
*Projections etc. rarely function as intended—disconcerting.
*Fundamental truth of stage: “Theatre is the only art form to use that which is signified as the signifier of the object.” (i.e. a person represents a person, a chair represents a chair.)

Page 2:
*Key element: Space or volume, implies time.
*Though time in context of play may be different from actual time, audience understands that actors and action exist in time and space similar to their reality.
*Projected imagery—no spatial continuity between stage and auditorium, thus no comprehension of time.
*Set illusions of space work only form particular angles.
-Pictorial space mimics exterior world but is inward looking.
*Eye observes stage’s live images through normal visual processes and photograph’s reproduced images mechanically—Inevitable clashing.
*Live video feed deal with time issues but spatial dislocation still exists.—If “live” where are these objects/people in relation to stage?

Page 3:
*Framing: How does audience deal with stage and actors occupying same space as audience, yet depict a different world?
*All styles of stage imply a frame (proscenium literal), defined as: “A self-contained space carefully delineated from the world around it.”
Page 3 (continued):
*Frames allow us to place representational images together without visual dissonance.
*Movies can present us with an infinite world that theatre, in some sense, cannot.
*Movies transform fantasy into reality.
*Theatre—being composed of real immediate objects, transforms reality into fantasy.
*Film running on stage with live actors brings corporeal, imagistic, and symbolic reality are brought together and often conflict.

Page 4:
*Onstage objects move against static stage.
*Cinema—movement enhances by moving camera/directorial intention.
*Human instinctively drawn to flickering video image, even if live actors are present.—Competition for focus.
*Frederic Jameson: “The cinematic ‘thickens’ the photographic.”
-Sobchak: “Transforms thin abstracted space of photograph into thickened concrete world.”
*Objects on stage exists for audience as long as they are onstage, and then continue to exist offstage.
-Projections are gone completely when the projection stops.
-Concepts of “erasure”. Two realities.
*Architecture, flat images (windows), sculptures often successfully combined.
-Key element: Vocabularies combined with awareness of how one informs the other.
*Wooster Group: Video not substitute for conventional sceneography. Becomes challenge to motion of theatre in our time.

Page 6:
• “Our modes of perception and our modes of thinking are undergoing a radical change for first time in some 500 years. The new technologies cannot be placed onstage without acknowledging and understanding this fact.”

10 Questions Holly Nichols

Holly Nichols
Into to Design
April 2, 2009

10 Questions

1. If someone is a playwright, how do they get their plays produced in the real world (not college)?

2. If someone is a director, how do they get to direct a professional play (not in college)?

3. Do you have to be good at drawing to be a set designer?

4. Are theatre jobs hard to find in this day in age?

5. Does a theatre practitioner have to travel a lot if they want to be successful?

6. Should someone who wants to pursue theatre also pursue film? (In writing/directing)

7. Do theatrical designers have a difficult transition into films?

8. Would you know if San Francisco is a good place to try and get noticed in the theatre world?

9. Should theatre majors go to grad school?

10. Is modern theatre leaning toward being experimental and strange for the sake of strange? Are we losing dialogue with the discovery of movement?

Here are my reading notes guys:
Theater has ignored Aristotle in pursuit of making the theater have mechanical functions, and to minimize the appearance of human agency-wanted it to look naturalistic
Argues that media should never be involved in theater-beg to differ, ex. Corpus Christi involved media projections to make the piece more powerful, when Jesus was having flashbacks, dying, then at the end where they could slideshow all the hate crime deaths that have happened
Argues it doesn’t work because media deals with reproducing something while theater is happening right now right in front of you, this mixing of reality makes it confusing
The stage is a frame and anything distracting that frame should not be allowed because it breaks our suspension of disbelief
Once everything on the stage is in that world, it becomes a sign
Media is bad because it has no permanence

ALSO has someone turned in that sheet yet? I'm a bit worried about it

Alexa's Collage!

Sorry I missed the meeting, I'll definitely be there next time!



See you all in class!

this is Alison posting my reading notes: sorry that I couldn't make it to the meeting, next week?

States, “The World on Stage”

-semitotically everything that composes the stage is a sign of something

-phenomenologically speaking, there is more to say: “there is a sense in which signs, or certain kinds of signs in a certain stage of their life cycle, achieve their vitality-and in turn the vitality of theater-not simply by signifying the world but by being of it.” (20)

-phenomenologically looking at art means removing objects from the world and then seeing that object in a new way “Here art is perceived as act of removing things from a world in which they have become inconspicuous and seeing them anew” (22)

-“Unlike the sign, the image is unique and unreproducible; whereas the sign is of no value unless it repeats itself” (25)

-uses the example of taking clocks offstage or hiding the face because it is some type of distracting for the audience

- in theater there is not difference between the image and the object because the object is on stage, present

-“theater ingests the world of objects and signs only to bring images to life” (37)

Directors and designers notes

Directors and designers

 

Shanna McCoy

 

The visionary architect Adolphe Appia saw that ‘creation’ meant the synthesis of space, light and performance achieved by one personal vision.

 

Merging text and vision (director and designer)

Relationship between the director and the designer meant that the designer was like the supportive “wife” who ultimately had to acquiess to the directors requests.

 

Philip Prowse: Believed that the best relationship with a director is one with himself. He believed in being both the designer and the director working through passion.

 

The artistic collaborations between composers, painters and choreographers naturally brought together the primary artists commissioned to create new work that had a sensual no-verbal impact on the spectators.

 

Designer as the servant to the director

 

Producers get the offices on higher floors with better views etc., while the other artists and designers were stuck down in the basement.

 

The designer can no longer be a decorator of directorial concepts, but has to be the architect of the imagination

 

A lateral collaboration is needed in theatre rather than a more common vertical or linear managements

 

Zeldin said “let us therefore move away from the labels. Stereotypes and definitions and focus our attention on what we can do, individually on the ground”

Kaylie's Collage :)

10 Questions--Zackary Forcum

1. What am I going to do this summer?
2. When is my father going to get a job?
3. What’s next?
4. Are people afraid of change or uncertainty?
5. If a person feels tired while in a 12 story building, and wants to sit down, is the person just tired, or is gravity simply pulling the person down?
6. How can I make myself feel good today?
7. Why is a list of ten questions so hard to create and write?
8. Why do I stress about doing everything at once?
9. Does everything end, or just change form?
10. How big will my family get in the next two generations?

Zackary's Collage "A Doll's House"

Amanda's Collage

Inspired by spring and how bad i yearn for the weather!

Marissa's Collage

Hannah's Collage

Notes on Reading for 4/16

Shanna McCoy

 

In a world of sitcoms…the door is a barrier; a bulwark against the chaos that lurks just beyond. But it is an easily transgressed border, and the forces of disorder slip in with ease…At the end of each episode, harmony and balance are temporarily restored…

 

What is theater after all if not a series of exits and entrances (life itself acts in this way as well)

 

The door sets upa thythm it is a visual equivalent to a metronome—that not only regularizes the action but sets up expectations..Once we understand the structure, we eagerly await the next opening of the door and the next flow of information…the door establishes a boundary

 

“It also marks the BOUNDS between order and chaos, between a world of fules and a world of alogical action. To go through the door is to pass from one state of being, or one world, to another.”

 

The world seen and the world unseen

 

Behind the closed door lies the possibility of pleasure as well as the terror of the unknown

 

Signals some sort of transformation

 

The use of the door allows characters to come quickly and exit quickly (rhythm)

 

IMAGINATION FOR WHAT LIES BEHIND DOORS

 

Theatre: Terrifying, dangerous and ominous

TV:iconic

Notes on poets creed

By Shanna McCoy

 

“one reads what one likes-yet one writes no what one would like to write, but what one is able to write

“I though I knew all about words, all about language of course, I didn’t understand them

-not living in the present

“Language wasn’t just a way of saying things, language could also be a music and a passion.

There are many monets in a someones life but the one moment that sticks out is when a man knows who he is, when he sees himself face to face

            A reader, no trouble no anxiety he is merely out for happiness

            Never ending, going on forever

            Something to the imagination in the framework of the book (for a great book)

 

He believes in Don Quixote’s Character and the friendship between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

 

In poetry, feeling is enough,

 Metaphor essential element of literature

 

Being a writer means being true to your imagination

            (something deeper)

Eternity in beauty-despite accidents and failures

 

“When I write, I do not think of the reader and I do not think of myself, but I think of what I am trying to convey and I do my best not to spoil it,

            Allusion: Symbols

            Convey what the dream is

            Believe in things even if they let you down afterwards

This creed useful to me, but hardly to others

 

Borges

Literary titan

Manifesto-Creed

There should be as many creeds as there are poets

            Come up with your own creed

Memories

            In ones life your life can become who they are in an instant

Nightingale

            Present

Poetry

            Creating a type of musi

A system of art and how they all (Art forms) work together see a sound, smell what we feel

Synesthesia

 

Powerful ideas that were created a long time ago, can be reused today  : )

Cobralicious' ten questions

1. Why is there a certain time/age that people think they need to know what they want to do with their lives?
2. Why do people settle doing things that make them miserable day after day?
3. Why don’t people have more faith and hope in themselves?
4. How can I become someone im proud of ?
5. When will I find success in multiple aspects of my life?
6. Why do some people think that by doing the safe and practical thing that they are living life in a “smart” way?
7. How do I start my own business that is full of creativity, innovation and structure?
8. Who will I inspire in my life?
9. Who will inspire me?
10. At the end of each day will I feel fulfilled once I find a way to express my passion?

Shanna's collage

My Collage

Look closely everyone there are two cobras in my collage! Can you find us?
-Bethany

My notes on past readings

Im not sure if im supposed to post these or not, but what the hell
-Bethany

Notes on A Poet’s Creed by Borges
1. Quote
a. “I suppose there should be as many creeds, as many religions, as there are poets.”
i. This quote is a beautiful sentiment that sets up the article very nicely
ii. Everyone sees the world through different eyes, thus to have a shared creed would mean that many people would have to be tailoring their thoughts and ideas, even ever so slightly, to a foreign standard.
2. Ode to a Nightingale
a. Borges says that it was through this poem that he discovered that language could be “a music and a passion”
i. When I was a little girl my mom used to read me the book Anne of Green Gables. I didn’t understand the rich language at all, but I loved the sound of it. I understand Borges when he says that looking back on his childhood fascination with language revealed something he had, for some time, grown to have forgotten.
3. Lengthy books
a. Borges talks about Arabian Nights
b. I found his suggestion that a book’s length can be a literary device of sorts
i. While others fear long books he sees that it gives the story being told more power. It reflects the way that life continues on.
4. Characterization
a. Borges talks about Don Quixote and The Hound of Baskerville
b. Though the stories are a bit unbelievable, the characters were so fleshed out that they were believable despite the plot
i. The idea that character development is the most important and attractive thing
1. I would have to agree with this. My favorite books have always been books in which I am awed by the character’s realism. For example, I was entranced by Catcher in the Rye, not for its plot, but for Holden. I believed him, and because of this I cared for him.
5. Finding metaphor
a. I adored Borges take on the way people attempt to decipher poetry
i. Borges uses the sentence “style should be plain” to explain to us that things can be read into much farther than they should be
1. I always feel as though many try to find and end up creating a deeper meaning then what authors intend
a. Perhaps it is Borges idea that poetry is about music and feeling that allowed him to feel this way
6. Free Verse
a. Borges comments that free verse is the most difficult way to write
i. There is not a strong pattern with which to create upon, there is only freedom
1. While freedom is what we aspire to, it is much easier to have some guidelines to build upon, then it is to start from a place only you have been
7. Simplicity and truth
a. Borges talks about emulating styles and disguising ones true voice
i. He admits a story he wrote would have been better had he not tried so hard to filter his thoughts through another’s writing style
1. He regretted his use of extensive metaphors and showy language and wished that he had written more simply, an a voice that was his own.
8. History
a. Borges believes that true art is art no matter when it was produced
i. He mentions Indian Philosophers
9. Truth in Circumstance
a. Borges does not like to write about an event truthfully as it happened
i. It threatens an artist’s title as an artist
1. He thinks that If all one is doing is reproduce exact events they are not artists, but journalists or historians
a. I do not fully agree with this statement, however I like what Borges says about at least changing details, if not just to make the story one’s own, but to create the correct feeling that may have not existed prior to some tampering
10. Advice for other writers
a. I like how Borges begins to give out advice only after mentioning that art is personal and should be figured out by the artist himself
b. His advice
i. He advices writers to stop over thinking and allow what is raw to immerge because it is coming from a true voice
ii. Do not concern yourself with your work’s readers
11. Quote
a. “I think that one of the sins of modern literature is that it is too self conscious”
12. Sharing responsibility
a. Borges says a reader has a responsibly to bring themselves and their own viewpoints to the literature they are reading
i. While Borges avoids flowery metaphors in his writing, some have read into his work farther than he had planned for them to. Even though he expressed feelings of dislike towards this practice earlier he writes that it is the reader’s job to bring their experiences and understandings to the table. He cannot expect anything other.
13. Borges’s tone
a. Borges is humorously self deprecating in this article.
i. “The fact that many of you have no Spanish will make it a finer sonnet”
b. This tone of modesty and wiliness to joke about himself kept me very interested in Borges.
14. All over again
a. I do not know if this was intentional or not, but the first page of A Poet’s Creed was at the end of the article again
b. I loved this effect!
i. It brought everything full circle
ii. It created more power and meaning in a way that Borges would have, in my opinion, suggested and/or approved of. Instead of emulating others, or using fancy metaphor to achieve this, he repeated his honest clear voice
1. A clever way to end, and to serve as an example for the ideals within the piece



Notes on Directors and Designers by Pamela Howard Potentials of Space by Alison Oddey & Christina White
1. The article
a. In 1988 a conference was held by the Society of British Theatre Designers on the subject of the director designer relationship
b. Directors spoke about how the relationship was perfect while a few seasoned designers who were brave enough to speak out told these directors that the relationship they thought they had with their designers were fabrications
c. Designers would avoid conflict and would only make suggestions through a guise that let the directors think it was their own idea using language that asks for their approval and not just stating their ideas
i. “what do YOU think about…….”
d. Philip Prowse, who worked with the Glasgow Citizens Theater, was one of very few directors that was also a designer
e. Prowse is quoted in saying “the best conversation I ever had with a director was with myself in bed at night”
f. Due to reviews of Prowse’s shows the term “European” became a euphemism for designers like those of us in my group in TA 10 who push boundaries with their work
g. Josef Svoboda wrote, directed, and designed his own work. He like the director/designer Adolphe Appia believed that personal vision was important in creating a cohesive piece
h. Robert Edmond Jones wrote he saw the end of realism in theater
i. The author of the article tells us that the relationship between director and designer was never equal
j. Designers do not get the opportunity to pick the shows they would like to design
k. Idea of a designer as a “wife” or a “servant” to the director
l. The author calls for the creation of theater in which all those that work on it work together with equal amount of input and prestige
2. Quotes as food for thought
a. “the excitement that should be in theater is found only in baseball parks, arenas, stadiums and racecourses” (pg 25) quoting Robert Edmond Jones
b. Design is “…a sensual nonverbal impact on spectators.” (pg 27)

and this is Alison

sorry guys, so this is my collage:
Borges, “A Poet’s Creed”
-talks about his experiences as a writer, how along with writing there are many essential moments in life
-talks about that one moment when he was a boy listening to his father read poetry
-talks about Arabian Nights that he followed themes running through the book
-likes Huckleburry Fin because it lends to the imagination- able to imagine floating down a raft on the Mississippi River
-influenced by the idea of Germanism because Schopenhauer, Holderlin, and Lessing
-interested in the poetic harshness of the language that still held some kind of meaning
-belives in the power of the metaphor
-also believes in making mistakes and acknowledging and fixing those mistakes
-the most important part of writing is staying true to the imagination; accounts real situations; tries to think about what he is trying to convey


Pamela Howard “Directors and Designers”
-previously the relationship between the designer and director was cooperative; the designer would do anything that the director did
-Giles Havergal and Robert David MacDonald were the first designers/directors that really wanted their sets to speak to the audience
-Philip Prowe’s is a designer that used similar elements in all of his designers but over and over in different combinations
-designers’ tend to be the slaves to the directors- they rarely get to choose to design what they want/or how they want
-designers rarely have a space to put all the components of what makes such a good designer (samples, fabric, etc)

Aronson, “Behind the Screen Door”
-a door stands for much more than the physical but also has a deep meaning symbolizing the unknown, the shut off, the mystery
-the introduction of the door to the stage meant that there was a seen world and a not seen world; it was a divider
-460 BCE the first door was used in Greek tragedy
-with the introduction of the door, dramatists were no longer confided to having to do real time
-allows actors to be able to transform once they walk through the door
-tragedy: doors symbolize death
-comedy: doors symbolize chaos

and these are my notes, enjoy?!

The Spice of Life

I figured I'd share with you some funny things that inspired me to smile and laugh out loud...because I most certainly believe that HUMOR is the spice of life. Enjoy!











Hope these brightened your day! We will get our collages up from today's class in the next few days..

ta ta for now,
Amanda V.

MANI-WHAT? MANIFESTO!

Hey Hey TA10 friends. Team Leaps and Bounds is now up and blogging.

And here is our Manifesto--
Leaps and Bounds creates art that stimulates the mind by working within Boundaries and then Leaping out of them. We experiment with all types of theater by combining different genres of the art. In the context of the course "Intro to Design" this company's primary focus is geared towards the various design elements that come together to make a cohesive production. We are not violent but forceful. ...Hssssss ;-)

Our company consists of the following humans who create wonderful, creative, and illustrious art:
Zackary Forcum
Kaylie Caires
Kathryn Wahlberg
Miranda Blackman
Marissa Siegel
Hannah Jester
Alison Rubens
Bethany Friedel
Holly Nichols
Shanna McCoy
Alexandra Stahl
Amanda Vidmar

We we all leave you now with our team mascot...




--TEAM LEAPS & BOUNDS aka THE COBRAS.