It's all over...

Farewell

This hereby puts this blog to sleep till the next iteration of Stage Movement. Have a good summer and beyond!   ~prof. Jenn

#matlife #nevertrended

Paranormal (One)activity

            On May 6^th, I attended the first night of one acts presented by MSU Denver’s directing class. It was a night of seven short plays, each one completely different from the last.

            My favorite play of the night was Starfishes, starring Trenton Bishop and Taylor Adams, directed by Kaarin Pigford. Set in a lighthouse, the story revolves around a young and lonely asexual man who lives by himself. He calls up a prostitute, but when she arrives, he’s completely changed his mind about following through, which makes her very unhappy. The two become unlikely friends and the young man comes to the conclusion that he is a “starfish” because they reproduce without sex. The set was quite elaborate compared to most of the others that night. There was a clear bedroom, living room, entry way, and even stairs leading up to the top of the lighthouse. What I enjoyed most about this play was the naturalness between the two actors. The dialogue had such a genuine feel and flowed effortlessly without any drawn out pauses or over acting. Aside from just being well cast, the two actors had a great dynamic and seemed extremely comfortable with each other. The man was a much more stiff character. When he walked, he often led with his head the top of his head because he looked at the floor a lot. The prostitute character used far more body movement. She led with her chest and moved with her hips across the stage. Even when they weren’t moving, the extreme contrast of body posture made the characters very clear. They seemed to have a very strong sense of subtext and the underlying theme of the play. There were so many different layers to the performance: tension, attraction, fear, confusion, humor. There was such a truthfulness to the play, even in such strange imaginary circumstances. The characters were not acting to their situation, they acting themselves. It was all extremely well done.

            My least favorite performance came from the play 18 Holes, directed by Peter Van Atta. The story had no plot. There was no set. The two actors, Chris Hayes and Reino Harsh were on a golf course and at each hole, they would stop and have a discussion about some random topic, often making casually underhanded racist, homophobic, or otherwise offensive comments. Setting aside the actual content of the script, the actor’s delivery was not the best. There was plenty of energy, but when either of them spoke, the dialogue seemed to be backed with false enthusiasm. Also, Chris Hayes had a habit of over enunciating so much so that I was focusing less on what he was actually saying and mostly just listening to the way he spoke.  The movement was repetitive, the moved to four points around the stage, hit the ball, and made the same gesture of successfully getting the ball in the hole. It was funny for the first several holes, but nothing changed and it got dull. Given the poor selection of the play, I think the actors were doing their best but did not have much to work with. There was no conflict or resolution, nothing. It was just two men on a golf course chatting. Nothing was wrapped up in the ending either, they played their 18 holes and went home.

             Another play, Chocolates in the Pillow directed by Desiree Webb-Phillips was complete blur. The set was confusing and I couldn’t not understand what the play was about until half way into it. The actor playing the husband, Kahlib Barton seemed to be acting for the audience more than for the moment he was actually in. When he had a funny line, he would grin and deliver it to the audience instead of his scene partner, Danielle Rankin. This was particularly confusing because even though the situation of the play was very funny to the audience (his wife brought along her favorite doll on their honeymoon), the events were supposed to be very serious and important to the characters. The two actors did not seem to be on the same page. There were also some fumbles with blocking and some projection issues where I couldn’t hear anything from the husband character. I got the feeling that there was a lack of communication between the two actors and between the actors and director. Kahlib did not seem to have a very clear idea of his character’s true objective and the subtext in the script was lost. The playwright’s meaning seemed muddled with this play. While there wasn't a lot of it, the movement seemed awkward and unrehearsed. The characters were moving in ways that seemed unauthentic to them.

            Even though I wrote more about the negative than the positive, it was overall a great night of performances. Everyone involved was wholeheartedly giving their all and the energy in the room was fantastic from both the audience and the performers. It was evident that each of the directors put their own pride and effort into the process.

-Audrey Bird

Chieftain Clogger

For my body movement analysis I would like to share the Chieftains event I went to at Boettcher Concert Hall on March 15, before Saint Patrick’s Day. In case you didn’t know, the Chieftains are a traditional Irish band and have been together since 1962 so to say they have been together awhile is an understatement. As you can image part of the band has since passed on and I saw only two of the original members because the third remaining member had become ill. Check the group out here https://www.facebook.com/thechieftains. What I liked about the original members of the band is they still had strong vocal power and when one of them did an old Irish folk song he stood like a planted tree and sang. His feet never moved once and I realized he was a master at breath control. I was impressed because he could hold notes and long breaths with no cracks and it just seemed effortless to him.

During the performance some of the songs would have cloggers to go along with and add to the music. What I found fascinating about one of the clogging dancers was that he looked to be about 6’3’’and he clogged in levies and a western type sports coat! What a fascinating sight it was to watch a tall man clog with feet of fire. The three other dancers in the show were compact in size and nature so when he danced he towered over everyone and stood out even more, not because he was tall, because he was good.

I think that height came with a price however because I started to think about how much more energy the taller dancer had to use in order to do something as simple as a hop or skip or jump and then I multiplied the energy he was expending by how quickly a clog dancers feet have to move. Being a taller dancer he also had to control his up down body plain with more effort and precision than the other dancers. If you think about dancing while your arms are folded behind you and your chest sticks out, that is how his body moved. I couldn’t help but wonder how he survived dancing so long because the amount of strain he was placing on his joints actually took me out of his performance at times. Then I assumed he probably took a lot of Advil.

Middletown Show Analysis of Movement

Brian Eno’s “Middletown” is a show centered on an eponymous town located somewhere vaguely in Mid-west America. It’s location and culture effects the characters in this play when much of the beginning of the show acts as an introduction to the show and how much “middle” is in this town, how very simple, lowly, and very lacking the town is and is just this sort of old town that is so historically and culturally ambiguous that it even makes the townsfolk wonder. I saw that in Act One when much of the characters really were given a lot of room to spout on in this platonic like lecture; hand communication galore. But intermixed in this show you saw choreography that was plucked straight from the news, especially when the cop character chokes out a homeless man in a move that dangerously resembled the Eric Garner murder.

            The dialogue is mixed in halfway between every day colloquialisms and gestures that followed something like “I dunno” or “somethin’ like that” but then were followed by juxtapositions that counter acted the their movements and then lead to more philosophical hand waving.

            But I don’t mean to negatively critique the show. There were very simple moments that shined in the play. The movement of a slowly gestating pregnant woman and her eventual total lumbering, character movements when they were sitting down summarizing the end of the First Act, and also the only character of some celebrity who’s an astronaut; his zero gravity movements of him in the space station were incredibly controlled and buoyant. But the Second Act was different in many many ways. The movements became much less a forced gesture and started to tone down into a very natural conversation you’d here at every street corner in America. It was so close and intimate; it was stunning to see. The biggest difference to see was this depiction of a Native American dance of a life being born (I know it wasn’t a rain dance, but it had the same meaning of sacredness that someone who doesn’t know what those look like (me) could see).

            It was an interesting mix of so many different movements that added a flavor to the show but was a little too repetitive, but overall was a very good show.

Stage Movement Play Review

 I went to go see Avenue Que, and I really liked it. I thought that the musical was very entertains and fun to watch, though the movement was a bit weird. I will admit I have never worked with puppets and so I cant say how true this is but I think that they could have done a better job with moving, when it came to the actors that had two people for one puppet. Most of the puppets had one person and then a stick that was attached to one of the puppets arms and then there were two actors for other puppets, one would have the mouth and hand and the other had the other puppets hand. Personally I think that when the two actors were walking on stage, it was like a rehearsal because the person playing the second had would almost always be chasing the other person, not to mention some of the hand movements were just random movements from the second hand.

          I thought that each actor with his or her own puppet was fine and I didn’t see the need for a second actor to be the second hand, but what I found out was that because the Broadway version did it then they did it. Just because it was on Broadway doesn’t mean you have to do it that way and if so then it needs to be practiced a lot more.

          There was also this spiral staircase and it was really cool to look at but I would watch the actors trying to get up and down, and on several occasions they looked like they were going to fall and die! I freaked out several times and I thought to myself, yes it was a cool set piece but not a very safe one if all the actors were nearly dying whenever they were on it.

          I did enjoy the musical though.

Quote o'th' Class

"In this pond, there is NO MERCY!"

#turtlekai #matlife

Movement Analysis of Middletown

            I went to see the play Middletown by Will Eno, performed by the Metropolitan State University of Denver Theatre on Thursday, April 23^rd. The show was directed by Scott Lubinski.

            There was a lot more movement in the show than I was expecting. I thought it would be a less physical show but that was not the case. Right off the bat, the Cop assaulted the Mechanic, holding him in a choke hold with his nightstick. From my angle I could see the cop from behind and not so much the mechanic but I could see that the nightstick was not near the Mechanic’s throat, there was at least a hand’s distance between it and his neck. They were in complete control without letting it seem too staged. Unfortunately, being in the space that we were in, where everything could be seen from all angles, it was a bit easier to see the staging behind this moment but it didn’t change the fact that it looked really good.

            Each character had a unique movement style as well. The cop seemed very grounded with his walk, it really gave him a very authoritative characteristic that I quite enjoyed and helped me believe his character. He also seemed to have a very potent energy, it drew you in and was very commanding with his presence. The Librarian had a radiant energy. I could feel the energy, for lack of a better term, radiating out of her. She brought a great life to the stage when she entered the scene. I could go into every single character but those were the ones I was able to feel and identify right away.

         I can’t talk about the movement in Middletown without mentioning the Native American dance toward the end of the show. The entire cast comes out and they do a Native American style dance together. They were in sync with each other and it was a joy to see. It wasn't perfectly in sync but it didn’t need to be. The fact that they were so attached to each other’s movements, made it more powerful. They all had a potent and powerful energy and they did a lot of skips and some small jumps during this segment as part of the dance.

Jordan Silber

Another Fox in Socks ReadAloud

Check out Ty, a Children's Lit student of mine from DU. He rocks the Fox in Socks for his Read-Aloud requirement, no?   ~Prof. Jenn

Read Aloud "Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss from Ty Dockter on Vimeo.

Stage Movement Play Review

In the Red and Brown Water Movement Review

            On March 13^th, 2015 I saw In the Red and Brown Water at Curious Theatre Company. It was required to see for our stage directing class, but it is a great play to analyze movement for. The play itself is based on Yoruba orisha and culture so the movement and language are catered towards that tradition.

            The play is about Oya, a senior in high school who is a track star trying to make a legacy for herself. There are several conflicts in the way of course, and Oya ends up being trapped at home and doesn’t go to school for track. Something that I noticed about the scene transitions of this play was that they were very dance influenced. Instead of just walking on and off the stage, characters would dance off while chanting or humming. This was a nod towards the Yoruba performance traditions. It was very important to make sure that was present throughout the play.

            There is a track meet in the play that Oya races in. And I thought the way the race was staged was very clever. The spectators were off to the side stomping their feet in rhythm while Oya was running in slow motion. When she got to the edge of the stage, everything had gone back to normal time and everyone cheered because she had won. I thought it was staged perfectly, it’s not normal to have to stage a track meet, but the thought and movement that was put into it was great.

            Along with the scene transitions, the actors themselves had very big movements and gestures. This is a part of storytelling tradition in the Yoruban culture. And the characters even spoke their stage directions which was a choice made by the playwright. Sometimes they did the gesture as they were saying the stage direction and other times they said the stage direction and then did the gesture for added emphasis.

            Overall, the vision of this play was put together very well; the movement was fluid and graceful. Each actor was aware of their space and how their body moved which made it perfectly choreographed and executed in a specific manor. I really enjoyed this show and the movement made a huge impact on the story that was being told and the subtext and underlying message of the play. 

Quote o'the Class

"One of us will meow."--Jorie