Blog #12 - The Final One!

First off, during this semester I kept asking myself why I never considered to major or minor in theater? It is MORE than I thought it was and would have loved to study it. Alas, with two weeks left till graduation I will have to release this new found love for theater for post-graduation.

Before this course, I viewed performance as most people do, the time and place when a person acts out a different character then themselves and someone witnesses it. Because of my WGS concentration, I also viewed gender as a performance. From the time we enter to this earth, we constantly have had a certain view of gender said of us and expected. Now, I know performance is so much deeper and broader than this. I still have a hard time in grasping the full definition though.

Although the majority of the theories, articles, authors, in this course were all new to me. The one that stands out to me is Marina Abramovic's boldness in performance art. Even over the Thanksgiving break I was showing my family her performance and explaining to them what performance art is. I had never been exposed to performance as rich as hers. It was a whole new experience of thinking of performance, art, and theater.

Recently, I visited the LASM for a planetarium showing and visited the art museums and discovered a wonderful piece by Heather Hansen. She uses her body, charcoal, and a canvas to create kinetic drawing pieces. How cool is that?! The end results are stunning and I was so bummed to find out I missed her performance that was earlier in Novemeber! Performance art so close! I would love to explore this area more and one day witness performance art in person.

Here are two articles of Heather Hansen's piece for LASM. Enjoy!
http://www.nola.com/arts/baton-rouge/2014/11/full-body_artist_heather_hanse.html#incart_related_stories

http://www.nola.com/arts/baton-rouge/2014/11/heather_hansen_creates_new_pie.html

I am thankful for this class through its challenging readings and difficult questions. Thank you Dr. Fletcher for a great semester and I am so glad I was able to take another course with you!

The Uncanny

For this blog prompt, I automatically think of films that have robots not as props but characters. Films like Star Wars, Wall-E, Interstellar, Big Hero 6 all have in common that the robots are mostly used for what humans cannot do or to assist them in some way. Yet, it never fails that the humans develop feelings for their robot buddies. In these examples, it is not a romantic feeling but of feelings of care. (Spoiler Alert!) As in the newest movie, Big Hero 6, the beloved Baymax sacrifices himself for Hiro. Hiro is deeply saddened to have lost Baymax but Baymax cannot be sad. He is simply caring for his patient and does not grasp that if he leave Hiro will be sad. Same goes for the audience, honestly I was getting teary-eyed in this scene. These feelings were the same as when another beloved character dies in the movie but it did not feel "uncanny" because a person was lost rather than a robot. A robot can be easily replaced if you have the right materials. Even having a phrase or button to push to turn off these robots is another kind of "almost but not quite human or alive" example. Yet it is so easy to become attached to these characters as though they were actual people. I think this is a valuable tool to use to invoke attachment and it has worked so far! I wonder if there will be a time when it is no longer considered creepy to find yourself sad when a robot that has no feelings is lost or gone?

Connections to Empathy

Finding connections in theatre is essentially what makes theatre empathetic. As humans the way we interact and connect with each other is by similarities and differences we find in one another. When a play is relatable to the audience in a sense shows real life examples and solutions to what is actually going on in the community, then there is more room for empathy. We live in a time where we are the center of our own universe, take for example a selfie. The turn of the camera to capture yourself in any environment is what our generation and the next ones will be known for. By expanding our viewpoint and seeing others problems and success, we will be able to relate to one other. Through these relations it would be easier to have continuing dialogue and bring about a change, first in our own lives, then in the lives around us. There’s a point when theatre no longer evokes conversation and action, or even a desire for change, that I would see it not being the answer when faced with issues such as war, oppression, and genocide.

As for Invisible Theatre, I do see it as a successful way of getting people involved that otherwise would not be. Looking back at the last group’s experiment, there were many times I would get agitated and make conversation with the person next to me or desire to get up and shut certain people up (mainly Scott). Yet, I did not do the latter except vocalize towards his direction but did not make much of a difference. It got me involved but I wonder what something more would have received a stronger reaction from not just me but the rest of the class. 

Post #9 Activism

Access to Basic Needs: Food and Water and Shelter

The basic essentials of a human's life is food, water and shelter. Without any of these how is one expected to live and contribute to their community, family, world. My focus would most likely be worldwide since in developing countries there are higher rates of people living without these needs met. Though I dare not turn an eye from Louisiana or Baton Rouge specifically. A few semesters ago I volunteered at a food bank with my class. Yet, this food bank was unlike anything I had ever seen. The unusual name, Client Choice Food Pantry, is part of Hope Ministries that serves as an actual pantry.

For my activism, not only to bring awareness of this urgent need, whether here in BR or abroad, I would use their model of the food pantry. It is simply a room stocked with all kinds of food items. The people who come in to "shop" are given a basket and a list of what items are available that day. This allows for the people to have a sense of dignity that they are not just being given food because they cannot afford it, but are able to choose what their families and themselves actually need. Even at the end of their shopping trip there is a small counter and register where I volunteer (like myself) would "check out" their items. I think having pantries like this in more common places (though it could be costly) would serve as a type of protest. It could also serve as a way for the community to join and serve each other.

I would definitely want the media to be utilized. Actually, while I was there volunteering a local news reports was there filming and interviewing the clients and volunteers. I remember seeing myself on the news later that night as I served as a mock cashier. By using the media the word about the locations of these pantries would be easy access and would draw more people into just knowing about this place, whether they are in need or want to volunteer.

For the last question, I do not think this protest would ever really end until there is access for everyone to the basic necessities of a human life. The issue of poverty has always been something I have sought to change or to help in any way. Though there are many many factors that lead to poverty that I know this only type of activism simply would not end it.

Here is a link to Hope Ministries. It is truly a great place and they are actually helping people.
http://hopebr.org/client-choice-food-pantry.html

Comments!

Blog #8:
http://http//yvettebourgeoisthtr4130.blogspot.com/

Blog #9:
http://laurengraham512.blogspot.com/2014/11/blog-post-9.html?showComment=1415065738096#c5068762168812553604

Blog #10:
http://gracieperformancetheory.blogspot.com/2014/11/empathy.html?showComment=1415918876190#c7857020775739626817

Blog #11
http://muffinsthtr4130.blogspot.com/2014/11/when-life-gives-you-lemons-squirt.html#comment-form

Blog #12
http://laurengraham512.blogspot.com/2014/12/final-blog-post.html?showComment=1417643265484#c6054298126922121584

Time & Pace

Reality, real time, the now, the happening, the present. This is what most people crave. No one wants to be around fake people with unrealistic expectations, people want to be around realness and rawness. Not faked or staged, though there is a time for this as in theater. Yet, many reality shows with their scripts, lights and makeup attempt to show how "real life" - insert your favorite reality show - happen.

In theatre, time is of the essence. If a story line needs to be told within a ten year duration, it must be communicated to the audience through various factors in showing how ten years has passed. As we saw with the Twitter plays, time was shown as it actually passed. As we discussed in class, the twitter play Next to Normal lasted thirty five days reinforcing the reality effect of the play developing over time, real time.

We can see through other multi-tweet examples, the power of pace on the reality effect on these multi-tweet plays. Particularly, I enjoyed the plays where the characters attained their own account and would tweet as if what was happening to them was an everyday occurrence. Seeing their individual issues and reactions helped to relate the followers, audience, in the "right here, right now".

As for an example of a performance piece that I think has achieved this goal, I thought of the 6 1/2 year journey of one young girl taking a photo of herself for those six years and putting them together in a time lapse. Although, Yvette beat me to it and used this as her example I thought I would find another time lapse that I saw fitting. I think examples of time lapse videos are important to note how time and pace is used to show the difference in "..the so-called real and the so-called fictional." I have always been a huge fan of sunrises and found a really cool time lapse of a sunrise (music added for drama of course). What interested me was how the guy ended the video with playing it backwards and ending it back to the sun down. Just go ahead and watch it for yourself and see!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi4MaJKd1gA

"Space Drive"

With my director's hat on, I would absolutely love to see a production inside of a moving van. The closest I have ever seen something like this is Mutemath's music video, Spotlight. For this music video, all the space is used for the performance. The back of the ban is gutted out to make room for instruments and the band themselves. They played, sang, clapped, danced inside. The front was never shown but understand to be where the camera was positioned. I see this as a transformed space. If I were to use this same space and create a production to perform inside of this moving van, we would need to find a way for an audience even to be present. A possible idea is to have a live streaming of it while the audience was in another moving next to, behind or even in front of the man where the performers will be. 

This environmental theatre would serve as a diminishing factor along the lines of the interaction between the audience and the performers. Even possible arguments could include how this is different than someone watching a YouTube video on their own. I would assert some time before and after for an interaction to happen between the audience and the performers. Something that would be interesting to work out would be the possibility of having both vans stop and one or two audience members join in the performing van. 

When I first read Kantor's quote, I found myself agreeing with his view because countless times people go to see a theatre piece that the story has been established and everyone knows how it begins and ends. Then after thinking about it for a bit more, I disagree with this view because even in those times where we know where the story is bringing us, there can be elements of surprise. Especially, with performance art, no one really knows how everything is going to turn out so there is space for "drama to be materialized."

Here's the link for the music video to get a sense of performance in a moving vehicle which would be pretty awesome to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry6GAwDCI2I