The Great Brazilian has gone

ON the 1st May it was announced that Augusto Boal had died.  For a man who fought for the under privileged it is fitting that he passed away on May Day.

For many IB students and Drama teachers he was a guru of gurus.   I remember hearing him on the BBC World Service talking about self censorship.  He used the term 'the cop in your head'.  He was passionate.  His energy leapt out of the wireless.

I wanted to jump and join him.

Complicite in Tokyo

We were at the first night.  Complicite did not disappoint.  The cast enters in a line.  A brief introduction. Then things start happening. Curtains rise.  Birds flutter.  Actors rapidly change in the dusk.

Butoh, Bunraku, Kabuki elements were there.

Physical and ensemble theatre too. 

Tanizaki presents this impossible girl to us. A blind bitch.  And an unctuous servant/lover Sasuke.

A Brechtian narrator.  But mainly magical moments and visual splendour.  Do Complicite just illuminate but not inhabit?

At the end the curtain rises again to reveal white light, a line of actors and the cinematic display of crowds in modern Tokyo.  We are back to earth.

Physical Theatre?

Click on the title above and you will be there.  The music is called 'Dreamer,' by Toni Childs.   

The actors use one prop; a book.  This book allows them to dream of: crossing streams, being pirates, bullying a friend.  Pages get ripped, fences get peeped over and flowers are strewn.

One of the lines in the lyrics is: I sometimes run and chase the view. 

This kept repeating in my mind.  I thought that the use of the book was a way into dreaming and views.  They stand on it and peep over fences.  They dream.  Good and bad.

Starring: Resa, Michelle, Ceci, Andrea, Alyssa, Alisa, Namita and Sofia. Dream.  

Tina! meets Comus

I FELL in love with a band 30 years ago. Comus.  They were unlike anything I had ever heard.  I saw them 5 times in London.  Then they disappeared.  Over the years I caught scraps of news about them but no sighting.  They were another lost band. Dead.

Out of the Scandinavian mists this year came a festival called Meloboat 08.  And Comus were going to play.  I could NOT believe it.  Impossible. They did though.  It is on YouTube. 

MySpace too. Click the title.  Suddenly they are alive again. You can hear them in a third way.  We have chosen their music to be in Tina! the play about Faust.  They are both dark and scary.   It is wonderful that people have waited and discovered them these last 30 years.  Enjoy.

At the cliff's edge

There is something perfect about this photo. The light, the perspective, the sense of emptiness. Where did the driver go? What is the significance of the split in the white line? And for the first time since taking this photograph in April, I see myself in the mirror. What else is there full of symbolic menace? It is the start of an Antonioni movie [The Passenger?]. It is the image at the start of my next play, Tina! It is the end of my memoirs! It is ...well? What do you think?

Finding the next Play

The next school play is one of those exciting and excrutiating tasks a drama teacher has to do. It can be a great freedom. No one tells you what to pick. No one insists on a musical. No worries. Well that is what has happened to me. There are 3 questions. How many kids want to be in it? What play has something for everyone and a new genre to challenge us? Is anyone going to be offended? The kids worry about the first. The teacher worries about the second. And the Principal always asks the third. For this coming year the favourite is a pastiche of Marlowe's FAUST. We found it on a Times web page of resources. Someone calling himself Mad Dog [ no it can't be a woman] is the author. That is all we know. Attempts to find Mad Dog have not been a success. Whoever he is, he writes well. It is a joy to read. So 'Tina!' by Mad Dog. It has something doesn't it? [painting = Vision of Faust by Falero]

Out of Africa

We are approaching African Theatre. We have identified elements of common use: dance, music and mask. Two years ago we were fortunate to see a version of the Oresteia set in a South African township. It had chant, dance, singing and musical instruments. But most memorable; the throat singing. The play is called Molora and I have written about it here, a year or so ago. I enjoy the connections that slowly emerge. South Africa, throat singing, Mongolia, Korea, mask. Then a parent asks, "Can a student create a puppet theatre?' We look at puppet making and African stories. Something is beginning to connect. [ the photo above is from Tatyana Baganova's troupe ]