Week 35: More Sticks and Massage, and the RI

Tuesday: Bekki gave her presentation on Bunraku Puppets, Costumes, and Props. I was particularly impressed with the simplicity of of the puppets. They were little more than wooden head on top of a wooden rod. The arms were strings, yet the puppets look almost life-like on stage. This is a credit to the puppeteers and the costumers. I had expected the puppets to be much more complex and include mechanical parts controlling facial features and other body movements. In this presentation I also learned that the puppets often interact with props onstage. I found this impressive and unexpected, at least partially because my largest experience with puppets is "Sesame Street". In this instance the puppets rarely interact with props, even though they interact with real actors, who interact normally with props. This creates a distinct difference between the humans and puppets, that I unconsciously generalized over all puppets. Following Bekki's presentation we watched a documentary about Bunraku. I liked how the different things we had discussed were illustrated. This made it easier to understand.

Thursday:This was the first due date of the RI. I had finished my very first draft, with very little editing, or embellishment. When I came to class Mr. Fearnehough asked for our papers. When he discovered the lack of effort put into this draft, the only one that he would be able to give us feedback on, he was understandably disappointed especially as this one of the primary determiners of our predicted grade in theater He gave us the weekend to work better on them, and then it was due. I have been finding it difficult to concentrate and get into writing papers lately, which is part of why my paper was such low quality. Then, we got back into our exercises with Bunraku. We practiced balancing the sticks again. I found this very difficult again, and part of me just did not care if I was able to do it, which is a way of believing I couldn't do it. We progressed to balancing the sticks on our chins and noses, though I had little success with it. This exercise ended with Bekki sitting down to give up, followed closely by me. My heart was not in this exercise, I was not committed to it, and it showed. This brought down the morale of the entire ensemble, and ensured my own failure. Then Mr. Fearnehough brought us back together and had us do an exercise that actual Japanese puppeteers had to do in their training. I involved balancing the stick on my outstretched wrists and standing with slightly bent knees. While this did not originally sound difficult, it becomes more and more uncomfortable the longer I stood there, my shoulders got tired, my arms got heavy, and my legs started to hurt from standing. But I have discovered in sports exercises that if I find something else to concentrate on time will pass quicker and I won't notice the uncomfortableness as much, but one problem with this strategy this time was that the exercise was not active. So I couldn't focus on the movement, I had to "entertain" myself, and I found it kind of difficult, especially because I had to make sure to not be to distracted and drop the stick. This exercise showed me that I have to do things that I don't like to get better, because of the failed RI draft I found myself applying this lesson to it. I have to push myself to do my paper even though it is hard and boring and seems pointless. Another thing that I learned from this exercise was that it is difficult to empty my mind, I generally dislike sitting in class just listening to the teacher, but this was like sitting in class listening to nothing. Mr. Fearnehough talked about a type of theater, in which the actors were pushed beyond the point of exhaustion and then their subconscious did the acting. 

Friday: Today Mr. Fearnehough introduced us to a book "Zen in the Art of Archery", book is about a dramatist that attempted to master Bunraku, by learning Japanese Archery. A key quote that was read to us is, "If one really wishes to be a master of an art, technical knowledge of it is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an 'artless art', growing out of the unconscious." This summed up several of the key qualities we would need to succeed, or progress in this theatre practice, perseverance, skill, commitment. Mr. Fearnehough compared it to watching David Beckham play soccer. He is a master at the sport, and has a skill in it that cannot be taught. He could teach his technique to others but they would not have his "style" and would not be the same as him by just learning his style. It is similar in this art. We need to be committed and learn technique, but it does take a gift to excel at it. Then, we continued with the Bunraku exercises, but this time it was more teamwork. We teamed up "balancing" the stick between two people. At first one person led. I found it easier to let Bekki lead me. Partially because I had no idea what I wanted to lead her to do, no goal, and also because I knew that Bekki would let me take over if I wanted to, although I was happy to let her lead. Then we had to swap leaders, this meant I had to lead, which I did not like. I find my leadership style to be more background and diplomatic. I let people decide what part of something they are going to do, and then after I make sure everyone is working toward the same goal I let them take care of it, only interfering when I think that they are struggling. In this exercise, I was not able to lead in this style, because even though I thought that Bekki had everything under control, I was placed in a position of direct, totalitarian leadership, which is generally my last resort when placed in a leadership role. I usually allow the team to make the decisions, only taking direct charge at the end bring everything together. It was impossible to lead in this way for this exercise. I found myself running out of things to do and feeling as though I was being very repetitive. The next thing we did was decide there was no leader, and we did it with our eyes closed. This part of the exercise seemed very rhythmic or like dancing to me. With our eyes closed, we weren't able to take visual or physical cues, we had to rely on the movement of the stick. Then we swapped partners. This was more difficult than I expected it to be. I had gotten used to the way that Bekki and I did it and found it kind of hard to get used to the way Lydia did it. This showed me how teams need to have experience with one another to succeed. We experimented holding the stick with different parts of our bodies; this made the experiment even more difficult. Then we moved up to making a circle, with the sticks held between each person. When any person moved it affected everyone else. Then we went on a trip around school, this involved me being put in fronts followed by the rest of the ensemble. I found it hard to regulate my speed to accommodate everyone behind me. Then Mr. Fearnehough led us. I had to keep my face next to his hand, and everyone behind me had to copy my movements. I actually enjoyed this exercise. I felt as though everyone was focused as a team. This exercise seems like the Silver String (from TaPS) level 2. It involved focus, although as a group it meant each person was following someone else, with one leader. As a group, it was not diplomatic, similar to Bunraku. The final thing we did that day was massage. This was more of a group trust exercise than a Bunraku exercise. It takes a lot of trust of the people doing it, as they touch the massaged person all over. Even though I did not go, I felt very awkward touching the others in such a 'personal' way. I have always been kind of weird about touching others, or letting them touch me, especially in such a close, continuous way. I am kind of nervous about going, and being the center of attention for such a long time.