"The difference between making a breakthrough and not can often be just a small element of perception." Brian Greene
(The future of String Theory: A conversation with Brian Greene, Scientific American: Special Edition, Volume 15, number 3.)
Something I noticed very early on while watching the actors in rehearsal was that they found themselves better when they had some prop to use in the place of something, than when they had to mime its existence. The prop didn't have to be the object but it had to have some characteristic of the object it represented, thus the concentration of the actor is released to develop the rest of the imaginary situation without additional strain. This could be as simple as holding a piece of paper when called for holding a letter. Without the paper in hand one has to, for example, judge eye distance and hand positions, and all of these discrete but familiar forms burden the mind while it tries to fulfil the higher demand of an even more complex and unfamiliar order of interaction.
This started me thinking about what an object can do for the mind of the actor. After having discussed with the actors some of the ideas Jacqui and I had been discussing about Voodoo and Macbeth I noticed how seeing images to illustrate our point triggered a greater creative interest and response. For an artist, the world of images as vessels of learning is an ubiquitous process that bares almost no explanation, but I'm realising that the world of the theatre and the domain of the actor has not necessarily been so trained. I realised that to communicate the director's vision I had to colour their world, so to speak, with objects that carry in them not just a stand-in characteristic but contained the knowledge and spirit of the idea itself.
One of the first things I did was create a naive rattle (asson) out of an old Vegemite jar and some screws that were around the studio. The actors had no longer to image a rattle, they could hold it and use its sound qualities. As the rehearsal progressed they instinctively discovered how the rattle is used to moderate and control the energy of a group - to bring it on and the calm it down. I saw this and then afterwards discussed this in terms for how it might be used in ritual, its psychological basis and in what manner it is used in Voodoo. They experienced key knowledge through the doing of it with an appropriate object stand-in.
Inspired by these effects, I began to wonder what other devices I could make to add colour to the experience of the actors. I had been asked to make some drawing of the ritual objects used in voodoo and through careful observation and reading picked out some of those things that might be appropriate for our purposes. One of the objects that fascinated me was the colourful and exotic wanga. A wanga is an object created through ritual to capture and bind into the object, supernatural spirits/powers. Since Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's fate are being "controlled" by the witches I hit on the idea of making a wanga bottle of each of them. To make something like this requires an examination of what a wanga is constructed of and the forms that they take. Through making my own wanga bottles (without the intent of a ritual of course) I could experience the art of them and also to appreciate psychologically why things like pins are used for both functional and magical purposes. The Macbeth and Lady Macbeth wanga became knowledge loaded objects for me. (I have previously posted the image of the wanga I made in Doing Ing).
At the next rehearsal I was pleased to be able to introduce these and other objects that could dress the minds of the actors for their work in this week's session. The objects gave me an opportunity to talk further about Voodoo in context to our work and introduced a new order of prop making into the working process of the ensemble - the use of art as tool.
While considering what objects I might make for next week's rehearsal, subconsciously the need to make objects physically intimate with the actors was playing at the corners of my thought. If the wanga was a loaded object for me the maker, could I create a loaded object that would colour the actors minds as intimately? The rattle came back into view. There is a moment in the development of the play so far when all the actors use a rattle. I had some little tins and with a burst of enthusiasm got to making the little rattle tins you can see in the top image. These are purely a fictional creation, as the rattles used in Voodoo are not at all like these. With the use of images of the Voodoo spirit's veve (graphic symbols) and some inspiration from a painting by the Voodoo artist Andre Pierre, I concocted these ArtTools as intimate objects that would only be visible to the actor as apposed to a prop that is for the actor and the audience. The magic symbols, colours and overall strangeness would be for the actors' Deep Play. (Deep Play is a concept being developed in Frank Theatre theory by John Nobbs, see Deep Play / Moral Purpose)
The ArtTool is one of the dynamic vessels that I had come to Frank Theatre to discover and experiment with and like all experiments the interest is in how the theories test out, and what further new discoveries are revealed.
Something I noticed very early on while watching the actors in rehearsal was that they found themselves better when they had some prop to use in the place of something, than when they had to mime its existence. The prop didn't have to be the object but it had to have some characteristic of the object it represented, thus the concentration of the actor is released to develop the rest of the imaginary situation without additional strain. This could be as simple as holding a piece of paper when called for holding a letter. Without the paper in hand one has to, for example, judge eye distance and hand positions, and all of these discrete but familiar forms burden the mind while it tries to fulfil the higher demand of an even more complex and unfamiliar order of interaction.
This started me thinking about what an object can do for the mind of the actor. After having discussed with the actors some of the ideas Jacqui and I had been discussing about Voodoo and Macbeth I noticed how seeing images to illustrate our point triggered a greater creative interest and response. For an artist, the world of images as vessels of learning is an ubiquitous process that bares almost no explanation, but I'm realising that the world of the theatre and the domain of the actor has not necessarily been so trained. I realised that to communicate the director's vision I had to colour their world, so to speak, with objects that carry in them not just a stand-in characteristic but contained the knowledge and spirit of the idea itself.
One of the first things I did was create a naive rattle (asson) out of an old Vegemite jar and some screws that were around the studio. The actors had no longer to image a rattle, they could hold it and use its sound qualities. As the rehearsal progressed they instinctively discovered how the rattle is used to moderate and control the energy of a group - to bring it on and the calm it down. I saw this and then afterwards discussed this in terms for how it might be used in ritual, its psychological basis and in what manner it is used in Voodoo. They experienced key knowledge through the doing of it with an appropriate object stand-in.
Inspired by these effects, I began to wonder what other devices I could make to add colour to the experience of the actors. I had been asked to make some drawing of the ritual objects used in voodoo and through careful observation and reading picked out some of those things that might be appropriate for our purposes. One of the objects that fascinated me was the colourful and exotic wanga. A wanga is an object created through ritual to capture and bind into the object, supernatural spirits/powers. Since Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's fate are being "controlled" by the witches I hit on the idea of making a wanga bottle of each of them. To make something like this requires an examination of what a wanga is constructed of and the forms that they take. Through making my own wanga bottles (without the intent of a ritual of course) I could experience the art of them and also to appreciate psychologically why things like pins are used for both functional and magical purposes. The Macbeth and Lady Macbeth wanga became knowledge loaded objects for me. (I have previously posted the image of the wanga I made in Doing Ing).
At the next rehearsal I was pleased to be able to introduce these and other objects that could dress the minds of the actors for their work in this week's session. The objects gave me an opportunity to talk further about Voodoo in context to our work and introduced a new order of prop making into the working process of the ensemble - the use of art as tool.
While considering what objects I might make for next week's rehearsal, subconsciously the need to make objects physically intimate with the actors was playing at the corners of my thought. If the wanga was a loaded object for me the maker, could I create a loaded object that would colour the actors minds as intimately? The rattle came back into view. There is a moment in the development of the play so far when all the actors use a rattle. I had some little tins and with a burst of enthusiasm got to making the little rattle tins you can see in the top image. These are purely a fictional creation, as the rattles used in Voodoo are not at all like these. With the use of images of the Voodoo spirit's veve (graphic symbols) and some inspiration from a painting by the Voodoo artist Andre Pierre, I concocted these ArtTools as intimate objects that would only be visible to the actor as apposed to a prop that is for the actor and the audience. The magic symbols, colours and overall strangeness would be for the actors' Deep Play. (Deep Play is a concept being developed in Frank Theatre theory by John Nobbs, see Deep Play / Moral Purpose)
The ArtTool is one of the dynamic vessels that I had come to Frank Theatre to discover and experiment with and like all experiments the interest is in how the theories test out, and what further new discoveries are revealed.
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5 comments:
an exciting role indeed- you are bringing so much to it that is plain to see - congratulations and look forward to discovering more...
sounds like a great chance for direct experience for you. it puts your knowledge in a real action context and i am excited to see it go forward. congrats and good luck and above all, enjoy!
Thanks Wrecker, Thanks Jude :)
xx
your new photo is much better colored to go with this site, nice detail thinking.
you discovered my cunning plan! ;)
xx
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