Very Same Stars PERFORMANCES

I was extremely nervous when it came to the dress rehearsals, because I still wasn't entirely excited about performing. And I was nervous as well because it was the first performance ON STAGE, in front of my PARENTS, in front of little KIDS, and most importantly, in front of my PEERS.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.


But performing in front of those little kids.... and in front of my best friends. It was the best feeling ever. Seriously. The energy in the cast just SHOT up, and being able to interact with the audience on such an intimate level-- it was SO MUCH FUN.

I truly enjoyed every minute of it, even after the 3 STRAIGHT DAYS of performing it over and over and over again... the makeup and the costumes and the stupid, horrid japanese wigs... Haha. Even through all that, I had the time of my life. Performing alongside some of my best friends was the best feeling in the world. And being able to catch those special people's eyes in the audience and wink at them, or catch the bright excited eyes of my little brother as he shouts out "Japan! Japan!" or "The sloth! It's right there!!" Hahaha.

There is nothing like it. :)

Grammalot

Grammalot is the language used when Commedia actors are in a foreign country where they do not speak the language of the native audience. It is a string of made-up words and syllables-- gibberish, basically-- that is put together to sound similar to the native language but is totally nonsensical and made up.

Sometimes they would throw in random actual words from the native land to help establish a plot line.

We played around with this in a fun activity during class today. :D :D
We got to get onstage and improv a scene using only gibberish and a few choice words to help get the point across. I chose the words

FOOT

BLISTER

POP

to help tell the story. :) :)

Pictures from Commedia Skits

I took about 500 pictures during these performances, but here are some of the best. :)

Commedia Skits (Class Performances)

I feel like we spent quite a long time working on the Commedia skits in class-- time that was wasted for me because in our skit, I play the character Pedrolino, who doesn't have any lines and is only on stage for the first scene and last scene. Haha. Most of the time I sat off to the side and helped critique others' blocking or inflection, which was just as helpful I suppose. Just more boring for me... Ha.

Our play was called The False Turk in 12 Minutes. It was a humorous little piece-- a play within a play. After my short improv introduction, the actors on stage stumble on stage drunk and completely unprepared for the show they are supposed to perform, The False Turk. They argue, and then finally decide they will just present a very short presentation of the two-hour play, where a lover dresses up as a Turk to get a father's approval to marry the daughter, Franchescina.

Although I enjoyed our performance greatly, I almost equally enjoyed WATCHING the performances from other groups.
According to Ms. May, we did really really well.
People really got into their stock characters, and I actually think we captured the physical confrontation/comedy that Commedia emphasizes. :)

Stock Characters-- Pedrolino

Commedia Dell'Arte revolves around the STOCK CHARACTERS.
The stock characters are the basic characters used for every skit or performance.
Each character has its individual properties, traits, and characteristics.


The character I researched was Pedrolino.

• the innocent child, always gets blamed for everything


• often silent (pantomime)


• wheres all white


• very baggy clothes


• often a small cap or bedtime hat


• snotty nose


• walks like a chicken


• clumsy and often embarrassed

Other important stock characters:

Franchescina-- flirty lover
Columbina-- slutty maid
Pantelone-- father who often falls asleep
El Dotore-- doctor, says people are either pregnant or dead
Arlechino-- acrobatic, often main protagonist

Costumes and Choreography for Very Same Stars

Eva and I, as Rain and Fire in Ghana, were presented with the task of making our own african costumes and choreographing our own solo dance for the scene in Ghana.

We were originally given these bright blue and red "prom dresses" by Kat... but we definitely decided right away that they were not at all african and we needed something a little more FIERCE, a little more raw.

So we first did a lot of research.
And I mean A LOT of research.
It started with youtube videos on all the most traditional Ghanian and African dancing, and then the trusty google images on the clothing and dancing costumes of Africans, especially in Ghana.

Once we had an idea in our minds of what we wanted, we headed to the fabric store and got several yards of different shades of blue for me, different shades of red for Eva, and a few yards of animal print to add to the flare and zest of the costumes. :D :D

I have to admit, the costumes turned out to be pretty badass. (Pardon my French. )

:)

Eva did most of the choreography, but the dance is really cool too.
The only issue is we don't have the music yet.
So we might have to change it up when we know what the counts are. Haha.
But for now it's great. xD.

AND. Best of all. The dancing and the costumes seem AUTHENTIC.

I'm excited. :)

Lazzi

Lazzi = the funny skits/tools used to improve the quality of the humor

• usually very dirty
• dropping chamber pots onto people's heads
• wiping plates with your butt as a waitress
• continually getting numbers/questions wrong
• futile attempts
• etc

Several different categories:

• Lazzi of Sexual Humor
• Lazzi of Physical Contact
• Lazzi of Questions
• Lazzi of Nonsense
• etc

Commedia Dell'Arte

• improv theatre
  
• originated in Italy
  
• the actors work in troupes
  
• stock characters are used
  
• often languages are made up/improvised to help actors blend in countries where they didn't know the language
  
• mobile stages
  
• first stage where women became a key part of theatre
  
• audience interaction is key
  
• MASKS
  
• many props to help with humor
  
• PHYSICAL comedy
  
• slapstick
  
• acrobatics
  
• dirty humor

Off-book Rehearsals

So today was our first off-book day for Very Same Stars rehearsals, and I admit, I felt a little lost. I guess the whole production experience seemed a bit rushed to me. I mean we havent even started working on the solo dance for rain and fire, and I only learned today that I would be speaking the drummer lines. TODAY I learned that, on off-book day. Haha. Thankfully it was only like two sentences so it wasn't a big deal, but you know... That kind of thing needs to be said BEFORE the off-book rehearsal, don't you think?

I don't really know how I feel about the show.
At least at this point.
It's a little bit stressful, knowing we have all of 3 weeks to perfect it.
And besides the stress, it just doesn't seem interesting. I mean I'm staying optimistic... hopefully things will pick up once we add costumes and all the set design and everything. But for right now, practices are tedious and boring, and it just seems like educational BLAHBLAHBLAH coming out of the script. And some of the actors are plain out READING it. This is gonna lose the little kids' attention FAST unless we pick up the characterization and motions and inflection and set design.....


We'll see how it goes. :\

Set Construction!

Today was AMAZING.

Haha. Really just the best theatrical experience I've had thus far.

WE BUILT AN EIFFEL TOWER.

Haha. Isn't that just the coolest thing you've ever heard?!
I admit, I was a little nervous this morning when I showed up (early, mind you) and Eva showed me a large pile of flimsy black cardboard and said YAY let's make an Eiffel Tower out of this!
I was.... dumbfounded, to say the least.

And for the first half hour, it was mostly just punching out pieces of cardboard and finding where everything was. Sorting into piles. I let Eva lead that for the most part.

But then, Eva had to leave for work. At like 9:30.

GREAT.

So here I am sitting with a huge pile of cardboard and a crumpled up sheet of instructions not knowing where the hell to even begin. :\
But shockingly, it became really fun. Especially when Candace showed up. Being my best friend and all, she definitely makes everything more fun for me... Haha.

So we started with the top.

Hot-glued everything together.

Then Ms. May asked us to build the base so that the crew could build a wooden structure for it and make it easier to move. Which was... a little frustrating, since the guys just threw the wooden structure together without any super accurate measurements, which made all our hard work kinda useless... But hopefully it'll turn out well in the end. :)

SO in total, Candace and I stayed two hours later than everyone else, just trying to get it done, poking those freaking lightbulbs through the freaking cardboard and freaking hot-gluing everything....

*PULLS HAIR OUT IN FRUSTRATION*

After those five hours though, we felt really good about all the hard work. Cause it seriously looks SO COOL. I can't wait to see the little kids' reactions. :D

Here's a picture of the not-quite-finished product:

:D :D :D :D :D :D

Oh, I also got a wonderfully huge blister on my index finger from the hot glue.

OWWWW.

...The sacrifices we make for good theatre. Haha.