We have to go with the reversed chronology approach: we start with the dramatic texts (plays), although the last 25 centuries of drama is the latest performance method in evolution of "theatre" -- the "word" was born by the "action"... This is why I (and some others) call playscript -- "pre-text"! Confusing? BM sees the words as suplimentary to physical action on stage (something like in opera?)
"I don't care if people think I'm an overactor. People who think that would call Van Gogh an overpainter." -- actor Jim Carrey
Acting One Fundamentals : BioMethod
* The Images (The Album) are still not all in place! [new from vTheatre -- GeoAlaska, links to my graphic files are in the list minipages]
It's "show business," right? -- and we need to "show" drama, we need physical theatre -- and therefore -- visualization! First, the attitute. We know that most of the communication are done not in words, we know about body language, but can we contruct visual sentenses? Do we know the lexicon and grammar of this ancient language? Biomechanics (BM) is a dream of physical motion notation for actors, but we are far away from it -- NTL, we can take another look at acting, the outside POV.
Summary
In the old (main) BM directory I hardly speak about dramatic texts (words), I wanted to stay strictly with performance texts only. But what about practical applications of BM for scenes, productions, monologues? After all, I am not interested that much in BM training, more -- in use of BM for practical needs.
"Stanislavski told the actor he must forget that he is on stage ... Meyerhold told him he must remember that he is one of the audience." ... Meyerhold wanted to bring about a new relationship between the stage and the audience by focusing on the theatre as a mirroring device by means of which other codes—social, political, cultural—and not only aesthetic ones could be reexamined. (Kiebuzinska 1988:44)
"Theatre should not mirror reality but should transcend the common place of everyday life by deliberately exaggerating and distorting reality through stylized theatrical techniques." [Roose-Evans, 1989]
This is acting 200 level -- and I wish, if you do not theatre seriously (professionally), you stay away from this class.
There is no time and place in classroom to talk about what does it mean "seriously"...
Too bad.
Too many waste their time (and life) for nothing.
If you play violin, you learn very early if you aim at profession or it's just hobbi for life. Not in acting. Why? Do you need another year, two, ten, twenty to discover that you will never be making a living by acting?
Once Leo Tolstoy said: "If you can NOT to write, don't!"
I am not to say that you should not do theatre, if can live without it; I say -- do know what you are doing! Get yourself a profession, income -- and enjoy acting, when you have time. Alas, you want to be an artist, fotget about "time" -- all time is theatre. It's a dicision about WHO and WHAT you are.
I do not want to follow the structure of Biomechanics I @ filmplus.org/biomx: I. Performance, II. Actor's Chronotope, III. Homework -- mono, IV. Showcases.
First, I want to develop the first BM directory for film acting. Second, I need to try linking new BM pages to showcases directories: 12th Night, Mikado, Don Juan (shows I directed) and see how we can make of use of characters' and scenes' study for class. Third, I need to assign pages from the textbook ("5 Approaches to Acting").
"Pre-text"? Yes, this is how I call any dramatic text, the "text" is your performance -- Actor's Text!
Well, the "real" text is the spectator's reading of your text...
How do we start THR221 Intermediate Acting?
Of course, the main parts are the same:
Dramatic Analysis!
Biomechanics applies engineering methods to analysis of human motion... Can you look at your audition's monologue from this POV?
"Mechanical Principles" in text breakdown -- each monologue has it own "dramatic" design (call it "subtext" if you will), and it is ACTION. I make "BIO" primary -- get as much as you can without analysis, follow your instincts, but very soon you will reach a plato (no improvement) -- this is the time to apply "MECHANICS" -- time to look at your monologue from outside. What you are not getting -- and why?
Oh, you do know when your monologue is the same as before! You know, I know and everybody in class -- we see it! It became "mechanical" -- a repetition!
Biomechanics is a technique to be in control, to be a master of your own feelings, movements and everything that we call "performance"...
I studied physics, remember -- Newton's Law of Inertia? NTL, you start your monologue without emotional inertia, as if there is no energy of the dramatic event BEFORE you say your first line! From where your character is coming? How would I know without where do you go?
This is exposition. E(motion) you bring in before you speak (pre-acting).
More?
Newton's Law of Acceleration: F = ma. A force (F) acting on an actor will cause an acceleration (a) of the actor-character in the direction of the force and proportional to the strength of the force. Remember, motivation? "Remember me!" Remember -- "Force will be with you!"
Acceleration? We know it as "raising action"...
M = mass. This is tricky, how to increase it. It depeds how deep you digged into your character (the "stakes," "urgency," and ect.) This is the border line between good and not so good acting. The "mass" of dramatism in your character you have to provide (the great monologues won't save you, because there will next other actors -- and professionals saw thousands of "To Be or Not to Be")...
A = Acceletation... Changes in speed (of action)...
Newton's Law of Action-Reaction.
...
First -- cold reading. Last -- actor's text (performance).
2008 Notes : ...
In THR121 Fundamentals of Acting, I introduce the basics of both: Method and BM.
Notes and comments (right table); new and updates.
THR221 we start with "scenes study" (after we are done the intro stage in class: your two monologues -- comedy and drama).
[ actor & writer ]
Structure Physical Action!
[ Simply, extent the concept of "body language" to "writing texts" in that language. In Method Acting the conflict between the words and actions are given birth to subtext (character's thinking); but we can see physical statement as a prime text and words as secondary messages. How do we read "person" -- first, we see... Meyerhold wanted to restore this natural order of perception and the origins of performance. ]
* In old directory there is a page on Structure of Physical Action.
First and foremost, Meyerhold believed that theatre was not subject to the same laws as reality. The language, signs, materials, and time and space of Meyerhold’s productions differed in spirit from those of naturalism. He effected a renascence of theatricality, bringing back the magic of the theatre of masks and the forms and conventions of the commedia dell’arte, the cabotin (strolling minstrel player or story teller) and the Japanese Kabuki theatre. Meyerhold destroyed the footlights that cast shadows on the stage and separated the audience from the stage with a wall of darkness. He bared the stage, constructed bridges into the auditorium, introduced constructions to set the actor into a three-dimensional perspective and made lighting a new device for dividing scenes and individualising episodes and details of the set.
Meyerhold, at this time, also introduced a new discipline of the study of gesture and motion, based on devices used by older theatrical traditions and the training of gymnasts and circus performers. This attitude differed significantly from Stanislavski’s in that the goal was to train actors to study the conventions of gesture rather than the psychological motivations for these same gestures.
In addition, he also declared that the director was the author of the production and has the right to revise classics and to interpret dramatic material freely ... (Kiebuzinska 1988:47).
...
Meyerhold wrote: "In order to rescue the Russian theatre from its own desire to become the servant of literature, we must spare nothing to restore to the stage the cult of the cabotinage (stylised character from Comedia) in its broadest sense." (As cited Symons: 63)
Meyerhold: "(T)he grotesque, advancing beyond stylisation, is a method of synthesising rather than analysing. In turning away details, the grotesque recreates the fullness of life." (As cited Symons: 65-6).
Part VI. Comparing Approaches
Chapter 14. Comparing
Chapter 15. Choosing an Approach
Chapter 16. Combining Approaches
Hey guys, Rose here. He is my first monologue with actors text, it's
from the play Wit, and the character is Vivian. And it's looong.
WIT
Vivian: (Standing, arms folded watching her nurse leave. In aghast.)
That certainly was a maudlin display. (hmph) Popsicles? "Sweetheart"?
I can't believe my life has become so ….(Sarcastically.) Corny.
(She's in a hospital and her nurse has just consoled her after her
realization that she really is going to die.)
(Resigned) But it can't be helped. I don't see any other way.
(Addressing the audience now in a practical tone.)We are discussing
life and death, and not in the abstract, either; The tone becomes
more fierce.) we are discussing my life and my death, and my brain is
dulling, (Emphasis on my. One to audience left one to audience
right; the last my is to center. Gesture desperately with palms up
and out to audience, giving them the my's).
(More distracted, said to myself.) and poor Susie's was never very
sharp to begin with, (with pity in her voice for this nurse who is
going to outlive her.) and I can't conceive of any other… (More
distracted, said to myself.) tone.
(Quickly, with urgency because I might not have time to get it all
out.)
Now is not the time for verbal swordplay, (down left gesturing in
the air) for unlikely flights of imagination and wildly shifting
perspectives,(down right pointing into audience) for metaphysical
conceit (Center center ) for (beat, beat, exasperated, tired looking
up) wit.
(Angrily pounding one fist against palm.) And nothing would
be worse than a detailed scholarly analysis. (These three lines are
attacks at the audience, as if they are responsible for these
things.) Erudition. Interpretation. Complication.
(Slowly, trying to regain control, fighting tears.) Now is a
time for simplicity. (Hands clasped in front of chest) Now is a time
form dare I say it, (looking up, wondering, am I really going to say
this.) kindness.
(Laughing a little at my self. Then searching for the words.
(I thought being extremely smart would take care of it. (ha ha) But I
see that I have been found out. (ha)
(Doubling over, the pain she had been fighting caught up to
her.) Ooohhh. (Slowly getting into a little ball, speech broken up by
gasps for air) I'm scared. Oh, God. (Loosing it for a second.
Regaining…) I want… I want... No. (Firmly in motive, weak in result.)
I just want to curl up in a little ball. (Head to knees.) (This is
actually a scene change, but for the monologue I kept it one scene.)
(Struggling to move, and talk. Clenching her stomach where
the cancer grows.) I want to tell you how it feels. I want to explain
it, to use my words. It's as if (deciding to try and get up, but
fails.)… I can't (tries to stand again, a little progress) …. There
aren't (determined too get up she squints against the pain, and
stands, slouched)… I'm like a student and this is the final exam
(begging for someone to understand) and I don't know what to put down
(crying) because I don't understand the question (sobbing now, then
yells, angry) and I'm running out of time!
(Calmer, but scared)The time for extreme measures has come. I
am in terrible pain. (Trying to make a sarcarstic mockery of Suisies
voice, but failing.) Susie says that I need to begin aggressive pain
management if I'm going to stand it. (Exasperated laugh.)
"It": (hmm) such a little word. In this case, I think "it"
signifies "being alive." (this is a realization for me. I didn't
understand the simplicity of it.)
(Out of character for a second, realizing what she has done
to her audience.) (Explaining like she is a teacher again). I
apologize in advance for what this palliative treatment modality does
to the dramatic coherence of my play's last scene. It can't be
helped., (then back into the desperation of dying.) They have to do
something. (Collapsing, completely spent.) I'm… in… terrible… pain.
(Rocking back and forth on the floor like a child. Hugging
her knees. In a hissing whisper.) Say it, Vivian. (shouted) It hurts
like hell! (lower, like a child.) It really does.
(Head bent into chest, between sobs. ) Oh God. Oh God.
[ The end! ]
Don Juan 2003: Commedia and Biomechanics (Theatre UAF).
