Ouroboros 

On Thursday 7th of November we went to watch Handspring Puppet Company in their piece 'Ouroboros'. This show was incredible and the puppets were so realistic it was so intriguing to watch. After the show we had the amazing chance to meet 3 of the actresses manipulating the puppets, we had the chance to talk to them about the process of rehearsals and teamwork and they gave us advice for how we could work to make our own puppets. One of the actresses talked to us about 'BERPI'  which stands for:
Breath - Breathing life into the puppet.
Eyeline - focus of the puppet itself.
Rythm - how the puppet moves
Physics - shows the realness of the puppet
Intention- what is the point of the puppet.
The actress told us that 'BERPI' was important to keep in mind when we would be performing with our puppets. It would make it the piece more realistic.

We found out that head puppeteer is always the same for the specific puppets which is something i certainly didn't know at first so was useful to know so we can do the same when we will make our puppets. Another actresses suggested we should do trust exercises to get us started before actually using a puppet, which is what we exactly did so it was good to know we were on the right track. One of the actresses told us that when manipulating a puppet it requires mental sharpness and being in sync this links to the concentration exercise we did about our mental focus on what we are doing and being in sync for manipulating the puppets.
We were also told 'The actor must die in order for the puppet to live' to me this means that the actor must be in pain in order for the puppet to look realistic, in some  performance the actor will be put in painful positions they will have to maintain in order for the puppet to work.
We then talked to the actresses about rehearsals and we were told that it only took 4 weeks for them to rehearse which surprised me because i thought it would of taken much more longer because of the manipulating of the puppets. They told us that for a few days they spent on testing eye-line, which i had never considered before but i realized quickly when one of the actresses brought the puppet out that it is very important because if the puppet does not look in focus on what it is specifically there in the piece it will not look believable.
We were told one of the most important things is that the puppet should always be breathing and always moving if not then our belief is broken and we cannot believe in it which ruins the piece.

The next day we talked about the piece we saw the previous night and were told to write 3 words down about the piece, the words i chose were.
Intriguing - to watch how the puppets come to life through the actors. 
Focus - of the puppeteers on the puppets and being aware of whats around them
Trust - in each other, how they work together to make one puppet come to life and tell a story.

Other words that were thought of by Lydia, Axel and Mr.Fearnehough was:
Imaginative
Surreal
Authentic
Truthful
Coordination
Ensemble

These words more or less connect together to show that we all came out of the performance with a certain feeling and emotion to what we saw.

What I realized: 

- All in breath - Breathing life into the puppet is one of the most important things to do.

What I already knew: 
- Concentration  and the trust exercises needed to work together and gain trust.
- How BERPI can be put in any sort of acting.

As actors we cannot give up on the puppet mentally but also we cannot give up physically unless we want to fail. Whilst talking as an ensemble we talked about the pauses in the piece which we realized was marking the moment, so that we took away that specific moment which would help us with a meaning of what we were watching. The marking of some of the moments was when death was shown on stage through the puppets, which reminds the audience that death is so close to everyone and everyday people could be joking death or be very close to it and no one being aware. This is interesting to realize because it reminds us that we have to live to our fullest but still be reminded of whats important in our lives which id life itself.

Talking a bit more we realised that these moments conencted to Brecht, Bertolt Brecht wanted to make an audience revolt about what they saw although in 'Ouroboros' the director wanted to mark the moments she did it in a way that people would be reminded of life. 'Ouroboros' had an important message just like Brecht's plays people leave understanding that message.

Talking more about the piece we realized that dialogue was not always important in a piece and does not offer more clarity. 'Ouroboros' did not have much dialogue which i find made it better because i thought it showed that it was a representation of everyone because it looks at life and death so everyone in the world is involved, if dialogue was added i think it would break the belief of the puppets and how realistic they showed to be.