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Intro to Theatre, Oklahoma!, Suematsu Michiko, “Japan,” in Shakespeare in…

- - - - the feeling of being split up and in a different space, and of having to move around, adds a sense of nervousness/unease that you don't often feel in theatre; the small group also adds to the feeling of intimacy; the being in a house is different than a usual theatre space
        
        Fefu and Her Friends
        
        Fefu makes your own perspective very tangible/important/felt; by nature of the structure of the play and the design (ex. being able to hear other scenes at the same time as the one you're watching), you know that you are not the only one experiencing this and that your perspective is not the only perspective, and Fefu forces you to think about that
        
        who are you as you relate to theatre?
        what does that mean for how you experience performance?
        
        you participate in this experience, both the theatre pieces and the exhibitions you are a part of it and the vulnerability and the subject matter means that you cannot separate yourself from these stories; they ask you to actively contribute your own experiences
        
        because of the nature of these personal and tragic stories you are inherently forced to ask about your place and how you contribute to these injustices; also the personal format of this as interviews and the solo performance draws audience members in and makes them feel personally involved
        
        what is your role as a theatre critic? if your role is to describe a piece of theatre's effectiveness, how much of that is dependent on your own identity and how you relate to the piece?
        
        theatre criticism becomes part of the archive as one of the ways that performances are recorded in history; what is the responsibility of a critic, then, to not only accurately give information to current audiences but also be aware that criticism lasts beyond the performance itself
        
        the importance of diverse perspectives in theatre criticism, both for audiences today and for creating an archive
        
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      - seeing the polar bears, the beauty and striking impact of the landscape, etc that is conveyed by the design helps you understand the tragedy of it
        "Audiences have to fall in love with them, but not in a Disneyified way. They need to be terrifying and heartbreaking" (introduction to Sila)
        
        Sila
        
        goal of the design as stated in the introduction: "the most important things for the public to understand were: 1) We can't get back what we've lost. It's gone. 2) We must adapt to the unavoidable results of climate change. I knew our production needed to create a space that was simple and pristine enough for the technical information to be communicated effectively, and also beautiful and poetic enough for the impact of loss to be deeply felt on a large scale"
        
        use of performance to disseminate knowledge
      - "the party has already begun, the queering the world has already begun. We are in a full space. We are in a confrontational space. It's a paradise, but also, we are dancing for our lives. " - my lingerie play
    - - the design adds a lot to the story because of the lack of language, it sets a scene and gives the audience context; details like the dirt or the red blood or the chairs add emotion and help give a sense of the world
        
        Pina
      - the design elements help you understand where you are literally, immerse you in the world, which helps you grasp the importance of the subject matter and also helps emphasize the sense of loss
      - The costumes and decor in the original production; the blend of 70s and 30s brings to mind the contrast of women's roles during those time periods and the role of women in the play
      - the design and more specifically the lighting almost completely defines the world for the audience (and in some ways for the characters); this is not a traditional setting for theatre and so design allows the audience to understand what is happening
    - - Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play
    - - Long Day's Journey Into Night
      - Also, the family's relationship to the space of the house over time (how they don't feel comfortable there, how they don't see it as a home and how that relates to their conflicts) is important so the design of the house is important in being able to convey this feeling
- - - - the play is about the location and is in some ways a love letter to / a reflection of the setting; was written and built around the setting
  - - - Notes From the Field
        
        the design (the background projections, which are the main design element besides the costumes) both gives you a sense of the setting for these interviews and brings you into these moments; helps ground these moments and make them feel more real, makes you feel like you're there and forces you to see the size and impact of these stories
- - - - what is it to create a performance that can be seen as reality / that some interpret as reality and that is not introduced as a performance?
        
        theatre as it relates to / borrows from real experiences / what is the boundary between performance and reality
        
        makes you see the 'slow violence' of climate change, helps you understand the reality of this problem and the humanity of the people most directly impacted; also, the use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the format of theatre as a way to discuss and experience science offers a different approach to the problem than is often seen
        
        my lingerie play
        
        what does it mean to 'queer the world' through performance? the structure of this performance (as compared to a traditional play) reflects this goal of queering the world in subverting people's expectations and going outside of the norm; the script for the written allows for flexibility within the performance (through the ad-libs during the stories, audience participation, etc) that would not be there in a traditional play
        
        these are personal and real experiences, the way she embodies these realities is interesting and creates a "documentary" style; she is not imitating these people, but rather finding a reinterpretation of their words
      - what is your moral obligation if you see this as reality instead of as performance (as some people did)? if you realize it is in fact performance, how does the difference between your expectation of reality and this performance in the museum setting change your understanding of the performance?
      - the technique of The Couple in the Cage shares some ideas with Theatre of the Oppressed's techniques of invisible theatre: the idea of performance in a situation where the audience is not aware that the performance is happening
  - - - being vs becoming; what it is to become a character rather than trying to keep performance separate from your reality as many Western forms of performance and theatre do
      - theatre as a communal experience and as inherently something based in community
      - Zarrilli describes performance which is used, in part, as a way of keeping track of history / of keeping these forms of performance alive; while The Couple in the Cage uses performance as a way to question what is considered history and what we maintain as historical fact
      - the boundaries between performance and reality are blurred in Mr. Burns as well as in the performances Zarrilli describes; how performance creates mythology in Mr. Burns, and how performance is used to contribute to a collective memory, is an interesting parallel to how Zarrilli describes becoming the character is sometimes a way of keeping these art forms alive
      - Hagen's ideas of presentational vs representational styles of acting relate to Zarrilli's discussions of becoming versus being a character; Hagen's idea of deliberately choosing to imitate a character's behavior vs. presentational "acting from the inside" is not quite to the same extent as Zarrilli describes becoming a character is, but a similar idea in some ways
        
        Uta Hagen, Respect for Acting
        
        how different styles of acting allow one to tell a story with one's body in different ways; the body as an instrument, and also the importance of knowing yourself and who you are to be able to connect to and use your behavior in your acting
        
        also the idea of what is 'authentic' when talking about acting; 'method acting' seen as 'authentic' in some ways in some Western acting practices, vs the art forms that Zarrilli describes which are much more 'fully' becoming the character
  - - - Theatre of the Oppressed - Augusto Boal
        
        "We thus engage in a dialectic of action and reflection, acting on and transforming our environment and simultaneously transforming ourselves, because we are part of that environment. Boal refers to this dimension of our humanity as “essential theater” "(Boal, 2002).
        
        Theatre of the Oppressed thinks of everyone present as inherently part of and participating in theatre; theatre as a way to make change in the world