House/Light -The Wooster Group/ DVD Review

“The biggest thing for us in House/Lights was that thing about learning not to anticipate what you are going to see on the televisions - in the same way that a lot of acting teachers talk about not anticipating how you are going to feel in a certain scene and to always be open and responsive.” - LeCompte

House/lights (1998), which is directed by Elizabeth LeCompte was regarded as one of the wooster group’s signature productions. The play based on Gertrude Stein’s Dr Faustus Lights the Lights(1939) and film Olga’s House of Shame which directed by Joseph Mawra. Some reviewers described the play as deconstructive; some as neo-cubist (Brantley, 1999). LeCompte talked about their Faust interests said “On one level it went seamlessly into the Olga’s House of Shame film beacause of the relationship with Olga as leader of the girl-gang. The voice-over even calls Olga ‘the devil herself’. And then there’s the power struggle with Elain and Olga and Faust and Devil. It had a symmetry to it ”. This dynamic link has helped me to define the use of footage for my final work. I will continuous working on editing footages and trying to raise relationships from it.

The play reinforced for many Stein’s own deconstructive understanding. Sten’s own deconstructive reading of Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights evokes sense of nostalgia for a golden age of American avant-gard art. It was acknowledged that Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights is considered to be one of Stein’s landscape plays, and the play nevertheless evolves of the earlier work and shares many dramaturgical features with it. The group’s work examined the undertaking of Sten’s concept “theatre as landscape”, which Fuchs calls “a signature style of contemporary experimental theatre”in American. (Callens: 192). Indeed Stein’s work concentrated on the materiality of language, entity writing.

Moving on to visual perspective, the set was a mechanical grid. Ramps and rails divided the playing area into a series of parallel tiers. Televisions displayed the editing footage which reflected a similarity of performers‘ actions. It evoked the audience realize the true value of performance screens. The action, occurring on rails behind the monitor, pushed the performance to an new level of energy and excitement.

In its exploration of new media, it has also made audiences aware of the process of the work. LeCompte sliced off the audience’s gaze, mentally broken down the time and the space into “screen” and “off screen”, real and surreal. Valk's intelligent performance, controlled humorous and charismatic. The play have delivered an deconstructive reading of Faust’s legend.

16 June 2010

Lecture Review

‘We need a set that satisfies the demands of
the text.’ - Christopher Oram

Review my notes after the set designer Christopher Oram’s Lecture, what I found in his speech is Functionalism and Minimalism. From the design perspective, Christopher discussed about the theatre developed in the age of media, and the way of theatrical performance interact with the audience. As the boundary between cinema and theatre are blurred, they both more present multi-layered narrative than a literary text, and provide more possible interpretations of the language. Based on the text, all the elements on stage have to get a response to the initial story line. Christopher attempted to reduce performance’s culture background in his work.

Related to his practice work, I watched one of his product Red which took place in Donmar Westend on January. In this play, Mark Rothko experienced his painful art career who suffered from the art critic with low expectations. It reflected most of the artists whose experiences about creation and perception. “The play’s about the commission of the seagram’s murals, and they’ve been in the Tate since I was a kid” Christopher Oram said. The whole performance followed a sort of traditional conflict of dramaturgy, with certain intense and certain end, which is not surprised to me too much.

In this tiny size theatre, Christopher made it definitely like a art studio, and dramatic atmosphere. There are some simple settings such as a Bauhaus’s style chair, work tables and Rothko’s big size abstract drawing, it turs out to be a gloomy and lonely space where the artist requires. That have linked with all my memories about artists and their workshops together. I agree with the ideas that emphasized simplification of forms, by use of symbolic colors and objects.

More over, one of Christopher’s another work I watched last year in Donmar Warehouse is Hamlet. Jude Law played the main role, who represent a modern version of Hamlet . “The set is a big castle with big sliding doors upstage, and great height,” explains Halliday. Christopher chose some cold color like blue, black and grey to set up the whole atmosphere whatever costumes or settings. Although it was a new creative approach to the interpretation of Hamlet, the debate still revolve around the simplicity style of design.

The lecture did open up to me a multitude of new view points from a set designer’s perspective. It has encouraged me to think about the balance of the visualized object.

5 July 2010

Revolution Now! - Gob Squad

Incidentally the revolution will be televised
With one head for business and another for good looks until they started arriving with their rubber aprons and their butcher’s hooks. - Elvis Costello

Gob Squad’s Revolution now! is the second performance I have seen during the Lift Festival at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). Gob Squad launched a revolution from the inside theatre building to the outside wold, attempt to break the “participation rules”, between the audiences, the potential audience (who outside the theatre) and performers. “Gob Squad take the dreaded words of “audience participation” to a new level in their performance” Jake said.

All of the audiences and performers dependent on cameras, monitors, microphones and speakers to communicate with people who walk on the street outside ICA. One camera and one TV are set on the street where the TV displays our stage and auditorium. “Gob Squad want to electrify the masses and take advantage of the capabilities of a large media production: cameras, live links, big screens, wireless transmitters and very long cables”. The goal of this revolution is to get a member of the outside world to join us. This is really a big challenge that Gob Squad tried to ask people to make change, but who beyond a certain theatrical context. Especially who do not believe the little change and do not want to have a change in UK.

By broadcasting to the outside world, we desire for a revolution right now. It is fact that few people stopped and tried to understand what was happened in the theatre, what informations we want to convey. Gob Squad shown up the specific aspect of our negative audience. Most of the audiences don not like to shift the position with the performer, instead of sitting and watching the show. But the task is finally successful. Gob Squad have break the audience’s conventional believe about theatre. Obviously we all experienced a fantastic night.

What’s more, Theatre is getting wise to the digital age, high tech holds the power to engage audiences to interact with performers within live performance. The performance reminded me another example: that is Rimini Protokoll’ Best Before, which is also one part of the Lift Festival. The Canadian based company created a virtual realm video game, allowed all of the audiences play a role in this game. It was quite exiting because everyone do interact with each other via a game pad. Both of the two performances got a relative point of view: performance is about what the audience was actually experienced.

29 June 2010

Continuous City -The Builders Association

“In an age in which many of us have hundreds of online E-friends‚ we've never met, digital media has arguably transformed not just the method but also the meaning of human interaction. ”

On the South Bank Centre, New York’s company - The Builders Association present their multi-media project Continuous City in london for the first time. The show tells the story of the network issue, using social networking technology to keep in touch with people. For all of us, the way of communication and human connection have changed a few years ago, since the high-tech exists. A generation who have grown up with the internet might find the following questions, are we having a real relationship through video chat, or losing real connection because of physically absent?

Back to the process of analysing my practical work, I am thinking about the issue that online social networking has become a really important way for people to maintain connections with both friends and families. It is clear that the Internet extends the possibilities for the intimacy of relationship. However, our embodied experience are increasingly disconnected from the convenience and immateriality of online communication. Turning this idea into theatrical performance, I will continue to examine the nonlinear relationship between physical place and virtual space. In other words online communications are whether building communities or fragmenting personal relationships.

"At first you feel you're in touch with someone you love, and then you feel almost deceived by the technology, because it can be a hollow feeling," says Sinclair, who's also a co-writer of the play. The situation like young people chat with strangers by using MSN or Skype, an intimacy grew up between the two may just take several hours. But the virtual reality may not equals reality. it hard to identify the relationship due to the crash and non-physical communication. People struggle with our real world personality and our online identity which is quite an interesting point of view.

The company make use of the technologies also raise a question about the technologies. That is also my interest with the idea of intimacy and distance. The intimacy promised by the technology impact which is fantastic but unstable. “I started thinking about how specific kinds of technology are being implemented and marketed to the developing world. I'm particularly fascinated by how social networking translates to other cultures.” the director Marianne Weems said in an interview. Both the Wooster Group and the Builders Association explored cultural symbols within their performance which insprit me a lot.

PPD continuous

work on my website last week. based on what I did last term. I made it too rush at that time, too many mistakes and its unprofessional anyway...

progress:

http://www.disong.co.uk/

start to think about our MA-show poster when I design my site, as font and color was already decided. I'm looking for an abstract image which may give public a simple taste of our show. cause we have enough text and informations, but not visual elements.

progress

sketches for my final show

still think about how to structure these elements. struggle with my dissertation as well...

Outside Exhibition

Our first Exhibition took place in Brike Lane !
I have to say we got effective communication with public. It is a substantial experience that we all gain a lot. Good to received different point of views from audiences.

My main idea was created a serious of fragmented and blurred images. Reflecting my own memory about family, which has also presented on Interim Festival. The shaped paper evoked all of the memory of childhood. A game you can found many countries all over the world. When I tried to project my footage on it, the effect was just what I want.