- Rehearsal and Improv:
In the previous company, we were able to have rehearsals all together. In these rehearsals we brought different scripts and theatre plays with themes related to the themes that we aimed to portrait, such as femininity. The two most useful plays that we used were The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, and 28 Days, The tragedy of a menstrual cycle by Olga Shilyaeva. The last play consists of “a woman's story of menstruation experienced as her private and the state’s experience at the same time” (Bradecki, Nyczek and Morawski, 2020) and which is probably “one of the boldest female statements in the Russian theatre of recent years” (Bradecki, Nyczek and Morawski, 2020). We applied Stanislavsky’s active analysis, in which “you read the scene, you discuss the scene, you improvise the scene without further reference to the script; you discuss the improvisation, before returning to the script; you compare whatever happened in your improvisation with the words and incidents of the actual text” (Merlin, n.d., pg. 197). In rehearsals we also used objects in our improvisations, as Stanislavsky describes it, by using the “here, today and now” (Merlin, n.d., pg. 311) we let our imagination flow, without overthinking the situation and interesting dynamics appeared out of these improvisations.
This process led to see what texts worked and which ones did not. One of the findings from the exercise was when our male colleague read a monologue about being a wife who does not want to shave, this worked well comically while also depicting a significant and current issue in society.
- Scriptwriting and editing:
Example of a part of the script which I wrote
(look at Word Document attached below)
Examples of Planning and idea conception which I wrote
(look at Word Document attached below)
- Collaborative dramaturgy and the individual writing.
For the Soleca Teatro Company we chose to have a Collaborative dramaturgy team. In the beginning we instinctively divided the scenes writing and chose different characters to create and give shape. But since this model of working was abstract and we did not divide these roles officially, the lines of who ad to writ what were blurred. I learned in this process how “This final model is designed to consider a way of working wherein a company has commissioned multiple writers to create a script for a production that will involve a significant amount of devising, workshopping and discussion, in addition to the writing itself.” (Sigal, n.d., Pg. 153)
One thing that worked well was the communication that we had among the dramaturg team. Thanks to being in the same page most of the times we were able to divide the play “among the three writers largely by character; each of us was responsible for a number of characters, and sometimes we shared scenes.” (Sigal, n.d., pg.159) one thing that also did work well was writing scenes with your character in it, since you would know better how your character would talk or react. Another process that worked really well was when two dramaturges wrote the same scene, one being each character: it was a really efficient process.
One of the main issues was the lack of support: I felt (and I think that the other dramaturges felt too) that it was too much work for just three people and that was added to the lack of support and the lack of the job of the director, which would have made a great difference to the work division and supervision. In the begging process we had to devise the outline of the play, write the script, and perform it. The sum of the little time we had, all the work for just the three of us and the lack of help and support from our fellow colleagues resulted on the outline ending up ambiguous. Since “the vaguer the outline is, the more decisions will have to be made later on during the script and devising process” (Sigal, n.d., pg. 180) and that is how the project instead of getting smoother once we started recording the scenes, got even more intricate and trying.
It was extremely difficult for the dramaturgs to write the entire script and the characters without any help or support from the director, since “in collaboration with the director, the writer can come up with a comprehensive outline for the entire play.(...) This outline should be as throughout and detailed as possible” (Sigal, n.d., pg. 180).
- Decision of performing improvisations
Since we had that lack of time. For the scripts of the actors that were dramaturges, we allow ourselves to devise the scenes by stating the min issue that was going to take place and then improvise it. This process worked amazingly since we talked about more relevant issues that involved other characters and the scenes looked more natural overall. As an example, there is the scene between Lily and Carolina the 11/06/2020, in the Soleca Teatro Instagram.
- Characters creation and development
Example of a character I developed:
I gave the basic trait to some of the characters such as Yvonne being romantic, Lily hippie, Mariana sexy, Colin is simple, Carolina as the crazy outgoing and Anastasia an influencer. Between the dramaturgs we created the personalities. As an actress, I then develop the personality of Lily.
We dramaturgs decided to give each character a colour to be part of their personality. Since my character’s main trait was a hippie like personality, nature and meditation was something instantly linked with the personality choice, consequently I chose the colour green. I portraited this colour in my Instagram feed by posting pictures of green landscapes or adding filters that made the picture seem greener. Other colours that I wanted to portrait were the green and the white, since the colour white is linked to peace and meditation (mindfulness) and the colour green is very much present in nature, since it is an earthy shade.
A tool that worked remarkably for me as writer to develop the character was the Stanislavski tool of the “Six fundamental questions” (Merlin, n.d., pg. 100), which are “Who? When? Where? Why? For what reason? How?” (Merlin, n.d., pg. 101) I found this tool rudimentary to create and develop the characters. Since we develop basic ideas that we wanted to portrait in the script/performance before fully developing the characters, this tool was significantly useful to adapt these character’s personalities to chime with written script.
- Idea: The diaries
One the main ideas that I had but could not be done since most of the group did not wanted to invest more time in this project was the daily log of the characters. The log or diary would consist of a daily short video (maximum five minutes) about what happened that day from the character’s point of view and how does those events make character feel. The purpose of this would not just be for character development and for the actor to know what was happening (which was a recurrent issue), it would also help the audience to follow the story lines, thus empathising more with the characters and making the interaction with them easier happen.
Something that could be consider an issue from some people’s point of view, might be the feeling of this diary project creating an extensive amount of information in the company’s account and thus seeming overwhelming. To overcome that issue, I would structure the diary videos, so it is clear and interesting. I would do so by pre-writing a brief list off bullet points with the issues and as a conclusion of this reflection I would have two options actions to choose from, so the audience can comment which one they would do or which one they want to happen next. We writers would be able to use this information to perfectionate the script: adapt it to what the audience wants or write an unexpected outcome.
- Idea: Recording the isolation
The idea of recording the characters in isolation came after a dramaturg brainstorming. The final idea had as aim, to show the isolation experienced by the characters. I wanted to portrait the isolation by recording the character with a time lapse video. This tool gives the sensation of the time passing slow as many movements happened in a brief amount of time, and since I wasn´t doing many things (reading, writing, stretching or staring at the sunset) it gave the illusion of time passing and things not happening. Another key thing that I wanted to record in my video was the sun was going down, since this helped with the illusion that time passed swiftly while the character was isolated alone, just with her thoughts and issues.
- Interaction with the audience
(look at Powerpoint Presentation attached below for the examples)
The interaction and immersion of the audience: How the interaction could have been improved.
The tool of doing live videos on Instagram as only planned to be used by the character of Anastasia, since she was an influencer. I think that if all the characters used this tool the audience could have interacted with them much more and easily. The was that I would us it, knowing what I know now would be to represent the isolation or as a private conversation between two characters. In the live video we would obviate the comments of the audience, so they can talk to each other and stipulate what is going to happened, this interaction between audience members would encourage them to interact even more with the characters and their thoughts on the videos would be great feedback of the actors and writers. After performing in the live videos, we would save if to our galleries and upload them to the company’s account, as another regular scene.
Bibliography
Merlin, B., n.d. The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit. Pg. 100, 101, 197, 311.
Sigal, S., n.d. Writing In Collaborative Theatre-Making. pg.153, 159, 180.
Bradecki, T., Nyczek, T. and Morawski, P., 2020. Issue 10/2019. [online] Dialog. Available at: <http://www.dialog-pismo.pl/en/archive/issue-102019> [Accessed 28 April 2020].