Happy Christmas

In the spirit of the season christmas season I have decided to write again. Watch this space please.

Street theatre?

I made it into my local newpaper in Cornwall, England. Read all about it. Click on the title please.

Fell among thieves

I was directing a play in Tokyo when one night a reliable actor never appeared. He rang me later and apologised with, 'I fell among thieves.' It is an excuse I have used often myself since that night. However, I have found a formidable web site. The British Library has an archive as you can see. Within it are collections of interviews with a host of theatre people. A wondrous source for research material. Please take a look. Everyone from playwrights to back stage people are questioned. Just click on Fell among Thieves. I found it via a Chinese British playwright. www.benjaminyeoh.com

Places seen and been

create your own visited countries map Just click on the title above the atlas to set your map up. Can you beat me? I think I have been to over 50 countries. But I still have not visited Greece, the very birthplace of THEATRE. Shame on me.

Hidden faces

Today the 9th grade were putting the finishing touches to their Mask work. This week is the last for some of them. They may never have a drama class again. In 10th grade it is an option at IGCSE. Anyway, these four calm girls are quietly getting on with it. And it is looking impressive. They begin with the mask under their chair. They put it on but we do not see a lot. We are left to wonder. Then they pull out a sketch book and look at a church? One of them does not. She seems to be furiously finishing her drawing. What does it all mean? It is simple, harmonious, still and mysterious. I like it.

From the Tanner

These are the five IB students who keep me going on Monday and Wednesday. They had been out in the park and on the roof assessing the potential for Promenade theatre. They came up with some good plans and locations. But when I suggested a real performance they remembered something about Chatroom [http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=12951] which I do not think is a vehicle for promenading. And then I talked about a performance of Roger Salmon Cornish Detective; Site - Specific, Geevor Tin Mine by Kneehigh Theatre [www.kneehigh.co.uk] that I saw in 2001. All this of course prevents me from progressing from the last entry about my Malaysian play.

Remain Standing

Before I came to live in Japan I lived in Malaysia. It allowed me to do a lot of theatre. The main product of this was a Trilogy of plays which I called, 'Bending towards the East'. The photo shows four of the women in the first play, 'Remain Standing'. It was a great success and sold out for three weeks. Last week I read parts of it to a Japanese audience and it lived again. I will say more about its origins and outcomes in the next entry.

I bought a painting

Some fifteen years ago I saw a painting in a gallery in Manila. It was an acrylic image of a native women and I fell in love with it. However, the thought of transporting her and paying so much for it stopped me committing a life time to her. But every time I went to Manila we met; it seemed that no one else wanted her either. Then upon one visit she was gone. And I wanted her more than ever. I have never seen her again. But I did discover other paintings by Mario de Rivera. I now own five to make up for my silly mistake. As my mother once said, 'Silly idiot. Let so many women slip though his fingers.' This painting is the fifth and is called Bosque Marurugi. I was fortunate, this Christmas, in dining at Mario's house with him & his family. Bosque [forest] was one of his new works on the wall. And I am now used to carrying paintings on planes. It has everything I like about Mario's work: textiles, weaving, women seen before, colonial faces, gold foliage, distant hills, butterflies and one or two annoying rocks to remind us that nature is not all beauty. It is so crowded that one can discover things later. I still search for her. And don't you see a piece of theatre here about lost love and weaving?

Happy New Year

This photograph is one of my better shots taken with my Ricoh in December on a glorious sunny day. The view reminds me a little of my home county of Cornwall. And its composition owes something to my theatre experience. Have something in the foreground to justify the background. That knife and fork suggest that the visual meal is there to be taken. This is some 40 minutes from Yokohama and is a special place.

PAIN

Will be on Friday 8th December. I have been wanting to have an IMPROV night for ages. Did one several years ago. The school diary has a PAN planned. But I have added an I and got PAIN. Performing Arts IMPROV night. The winners will be rewarded with a cup. But not the normal cup. And especially for the IBtarts we will feature a THEATRE TRADITION game. I like the idea of creating Macbeth in the style of PANTOMIME. Lady M.: 'A little water clears us of this deed." Audience:"Oh no it won't!"

The Burial has passed

Yes the Burial is buried. And from comments and e mails received we were equal to previous productions. One or two regulars felt it had surpassed others. 'You out did yourself.' What delighted me was the moments on stage of creation. Where did that come from? I mused. Not from me. It had just happened instinctively. This photo is from one of my favourite scenes. There is speech, simple arm movement, the stomping of feet and reflected light across faces. Very watchable I say!

You can't just pluck your honour off a bush you didn't plant

What a change in the weather from Friday to Sunday. Wind/rain to calm/sun And in between a clear night with the most staggeringly clear MOON. I felt this was a good sign. And so it was. The Sunday rehearsal was reassuring. At last. Sound, light and acting. The cues were tighter, and in the second run I began to hear the meaning clearly stated. However, several light cues will be have to be adjusted; my fault. But I like the shade and gloom that signifies the state of Thebes. And the audience are close. The photo is of my bag that carries the script and iBook. And on it, the poster I admire the most from my Ricoh. There is another more GLAM poster for the student audience. The title of this is from the mouth of Antigone. How contemporary.

3 weeks tonight

I bought this camera today. It is a very expensive gadget that many idolise. The cast of Funeral will now be subjected to it over the next few days as I try to get to grips with: ISO, f-stops and noise. The film will develop. Which leads me to this opinion on character from Tennessee Williams: ...' He insisted that people don't always develop. "Paralysis in a character can be just as significant and just as dramatic as progress......and less shop worn." ' And another quote looks at character action on the stage. 'Even the parlor maid races around the room, as if it's just a summer job until her audition for Cirque du Soleil comes through. As staged by Robyn Nevin, it's a textbook example of how unconfident directors confuse busyness with energy. You can have energy in the stillest moment in the play, and the actor's failure to understand that is so squaresville all the cool irony in the world can't make up for it." I cannot recall who wrote that. But it's good isn't it? Creon and the Guard had stillness. Which character has paralysis? [ 3 weeks tonight is opening night.]

The Rice Boys

Do you remember the 2 boys who came from the UK and performed a series of plays? Perhaps you remember the one about CHEESE. You would have been in 9 or 10th grade. They are coming back to Japan. They will perform a 90 minute show at St Maur on the 6th October. I would like us all to go. This will be the first external play visit for some of you. I ask you to cough up 500 yen to see it. Then you can create a review of the show. You will have a chance to talk to the actors later because.... They will come over to YIS on the 10th October and conduct a workshop with IB students. If you wish to see their show from last year then I have it on film. Put the FRIDAY show in your diaries please. And prepare some questions to ask them post-performance.

A Chorus Line

Here are my noble Gang of 6. I think they now realise why I kept telling them that they are the most crucial part of the show. They inform the audience and create transitions. They bring a visual sense to the stage. I am amazed how quickly they pick up ideas even when I have explained them in a dreadfully inept way. It is still early days and I can't wait to see them in costume and involved in more intricate moves. We need to add more layers of movement. And I should listen to other music. How do you explain the moment when the mood seems right between action and sound? Today the addition of Daiki's piano playing lifted the long passage of Creon. And there is an actor who was perfectly cast. There is still much to do and many miles to go.

The Burial at Thebes

And so a week has passsed and the rehearsals begin to become a part of our weekly lives. And depending on your responsibilty you may ask: What is my costume? Shall I learn my lines sooner than last year? Is this Magic realism? Is this presentational? Is Tiresias a MAGUS? What is a MAGUS? 'I am not the target. I am the arrow.' Are you a target or an arrow? Is this photograph, of an artist and his son, relevant? What is the language? Could it be 'borrowed' for one of the characters in the play?

The Gurkha Brothers

Welcome and namaste to all. The vacation is over and the photo above is possibly my most dramatic moment in the entire trip; Peter Jackson and I in Bhaktapur, Nepal considering a double act. I saw no live theatre. I saw no concert. I read no play. But I did fly into Bhutan, saw the Photala in Tibet, and fly out of England over my birthplace. And I vomitted in all the countries I visited starting with the letter T. Quote of the holiday: Always tell the truth; it saves you having to remember anything.

Easy Set Designer Program

Ever wanted to design a set quickly and easily, and save all the hassles of drawing on paper? Now that we are using iBooks around the campus, this design program is simple and quick to use. Sets can be designed with different stage layouts and flats - and coloured too. Please visit this site to download a demo of the program: http://emergency.nearest-exit.org/~aaron/SetDesigner/index.php Registration and licence fee is quite inexpensive, if you wish to purchase your own copy.

The Voysey Inheritance

This play is playing at the Royal National Theatre,London. It had been revived recently or rediscovered. It is about a family and the effect upon them of fraud. The purpose of this blog is to get you to read Paul Miller's analysis of the director's vision compared to that of another play he saw in the same week. Both directors are called Peter. Over to Paul: ... it's the contrast in directorial approach which fascinates. Peter G makes it his task to tune in with perfect pitch to the tone and intent of the writing in all its scope and details; Peter S takes the play as a jumping off point to make an event which describes to the audience what they should feel about what they are watching. Gill understands how theatrical authentically lived actions are on stage; Stein emphasises the artificial in the setting to create a sense of strangeness which is separate to the play's incidents. Gill's actors uncannily catch and embody the nuances of class, power and gender positions as they ripple through the play; Stein's actors, though gifted, are crudely cast and thus have to put on odd accents to imitate the social background indicated in the play. In Voysey the appearance of the domestic staff to clear the grand dining table is poetic and real, casting a perspective on the upper-middle class family they serve and being in itself a perfect miniature piece of textured physical theatre; in Blackbird various people ostensibly working in the factory peer and leer through the window at the back every few moments, conveying nothing true about factory life and shattering what drama there is on stage with bathos....... If you can think like that and write like that ......... the IBTA examiner will adore you. Connections, dynamics, bathos.

The Best Japanese Dance I know

This is the AWAODORI which I fell upon in 2004 at a Ginza festival. I was out shopping and was lucky to be there. The dance of fools, as it is sometimes called, involves two groups. The men creep around making the music and the women create the dance moves. On one level it is very simple but within that are complex formations as they make their way down the street. At the time I thought it was the nearest thing to a carnival in Rio. It is boisterous, funky and beautiful. I put it into my 2004 production, 'The Navigator' with costumes and hats borrowed from the Kanagawa Awadori group. The dance is mainly celebrated in August in the city of Tokoshima but the great blogger Q-Taro has led me to Koenji a suburb of Tokyo. Koenji has a 3 day festival at the end of August too. The above photo is from Q-Taro's 2002 visit. And more info on Koenji is here : http://www.koenji-awaodori.com/ See you there then!