New Monologue

"La Gingra" by Carmen Rivera written in spanish is about a young Puetro-rican American woman who travels to Puerto Rico to find and connect with her ancestral roots. There is an interesting monologue which includes both spanish and english in a phone conversation with her mother about choosing to stay in Puerto Rico permanently. I think this monologue could work well as the intermediate of the three I plan to showcase at STAC night. The first, is the Lorca monologue that emphasizes this old generation being set in an earlier time, spoken in spanish. The monologue here has nothing to do with the changing of culture specifically about being hispanic but rather focuses on the idea of being free from the family's control. Then this second monologue is about the transition between being hispanic and american or rather american and hispanic because the girl goes back to the roots of being hispanic. So maybe this monologue would be better as a simple contrast to the first. The third I have not found yet but I wanted it to be in english reflect on a heritage that she does not know anymore. The three would show very drastic differences based on being hispanic as emphasized by the degree of being spoken in spanish.

Maria
(It is nighttime. Maria is talking on the phone with her mother.)
Mami, encontrare un trabajo aqui… estoy segura… porque necesito hablar Espanol, Mami if I don't practice I won't get better… since I don't practice at home I have to practice somewhere… Mami yo odio ese trabajo… a ellos no les va importar… I'll mail in my resignation… I don't have to give them two weeks notice, believe me they won't miss me at all… I don't care if he doesn't give me a reference… ?Como me vas a decir que no puedo vivir aqui!? … No me puedes decir eso! Yovtengo veintidos anos, I can do whatever I want!!! Mom, mom, mami, let me speak… (Maria holds the telephone far from her.) Mami, are you finished? You're not even giving me a chance to… okay, okay, Because I love it here… me encanta Puetro Rico ?entiendes? Yo quiero vivir aqui, mom… mami… tu siempres estas hablando de Puerto Rico, tu ninez… It's not different for you! Tu amor por Puerto Rico es mas que recuerdos, yo tambien quiero recuerdos de Puerto Rico… mami… forget it… you never listen to me anyway… mom… okay, me tengo que ir, no quiero que la llamada salga cara. Bye… what? … si a todo el mundo le qustaron los regalos… tia Norma? …Si le di el regalo que tu mandaste… no se si ella lo ha abierto… no, no me dijo nada… okay… bye. (Maria hangs up.) ARGH!!

Adela

Last night I thought of the idea of making my monologue into a mini-film. I realized that it would be much easier to put subtitles on this than live. Also I could make it more understandable using the silent actions in a film. At this point in the play, Adela is sneaking out to go see Pepe el Romano but Martirio catches her in the act. Martirio scolds her and tells her to stop fooling around with Pepe el Romano because he is getting married to their older sister Angustias who is uglier and much older but has the most dowry to give to Pepe el Romano. As a seperate complication Martirio also is in love with Pepe el Romano but no one knows this. Finally all the girls feel the incredible riegn of terror of living under the control of their mother Bernarda who has recently been given the power of being the head of the family because her husband and the girls' father recently died....

As much as this information is helpful in understanding the monologue, it is not neccesary. For this movie I want to show Adela, myself, sneaking out of the house and being caught by Martirio. In this way the sense of anger that Adela has towards Martirio for taking away what she wanted is somewhat shown. It may seem Adela is only fantasizing over a boy and being a silly girl, but in reality being with Pepe el Romano meant leaving behind all her feelings of captivitiy and lonesomeness in being controlled by her mother and the societial beliefs. In a way this reminds me of my mother. The most fun she had in her life was when she was first married to my dad. In those first few years she was finally truly free of her parents, their household and their restrictions or guidance. She had her own job, her own home, her own decisions to make. This idea of going from your parents home to living with a husband was seen as the only way to becoming an adult. There was no living on your own, especially for a woman. This is probably why Adela was feeling so infuriated by everyone: Angustias, her mother, society, her sisters, for letting them all take away her chance of freedom. Adela would not let this happen which is why she snuck out to see Pepe el Romano and was thinking to devote herself to him. She was in love with what the future with him meant for her. Because of this it is not hard to see why she would commit suicide at the end of the play, when she found out he was killed.

The monologue

Here is the monologue I am working on. I took a section of Adela's lines while speaking to her sister Martirio about her love for Pepe el Romano and its effect on herself and her family when is choosing to marry her older sister because she has the most dowry. I have included the translation that might sound awkward at times because the Enlgish does not match up with the Spanish that well but I wanted to keep true to the text as much as possible so that I can understand what each sentence and word really meant. I found translating the text was a lot like preparing a Shakespeare monologue because I would have to look up certain words, phrases and references. The metaphors only make sense and sound lovely in the Shakespeare text while in regular English they sound a bit wierd and confusing to explain.

Adela

La Casa de Bernarda Alba: Federico Garcia-Lorca

Esto no es mas que el comienzo. / He tenido fuerza para adelantarme. El brio y el merito que tu no tienes. He visto la muerte debayo de estos techos y he salido a buscar lo que era mio, lo que me pertenecia. El vino por el dinero, pero sus ojos los puso siempre en mi. Sabes major que yo que no la quiera a Angustias. Sabes, por que lo has visto, que me quiere a mi. Me quiere a mi. Me quiere a mi. / Por eso procuras que no vaya con el. No te importa quel abrace a la que no quiere. Ya puede estar cien anos con Angustias, pero que me abrace a mi se te hace terrible, porque tu lo quieres tambien, lo quieres. / Martirio, Martirio, yo no tengo la culpa. Aqui no hay ningun remedio. La que tenga que ahorgarse que se ahogue. / Pepe el Romano es mio. El me lleva a los juncos de la orilla. Ya no aguanto el horror de estos techos despues de haber probado el sabor de su boca. Sere lo que el quiera que sea. / Todo el pueblo contra mi quemandome con sus dedos de lumbre. Perseguida por los que dicen que son decentes, y me ponder la corona de espinas que tienen las que son queridas de algun hombre casado.

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Adela

The House of Bernarda Alba: Federico Garcia-Lorca

This is nothing more than the beginning. / I have had the strength to advance myself. The intelligence and merit that you do not have. I’ve seen death underneath these roofs and I’ve left to look for what was mine, what belonged to me. He came for the money but his eyes, he put them always on me. You know more than I that he doesn’t love Angustias. You know this because you have seen that he loves me. He loves me. He loves me. / Because of this you say I should not go with him. It doesn’t matter to you if he kisses another that he doesn’t love. He can be with Angustias for one hundred years but if he kisses me, it becomes terrible for you, because you love him too, you love him. / Martirio, Martirio, I am not guilty.  Here, there is no solution. The one that must drown herself, let her drown. / Pepe el Romano is mine. He takes me to the end of the cliff.  I can no longer stand the horror of these roofs after having tasted the taste of his lips. I will be whatever he wants me to be. / The whole town against me, burning me with their fingers of fire. Followed by those who have conformed, and they will put on me a crown of thorns like those for the women who love a married man.

Monologues

Last Sunday I saw a Spanish performance at Repertorio Espanol. It was called En El Tiempo De Las Mariposas which means In The Time Of The Butterflies. The play is based on the book written by Julia Alvarez which is about the 3 Mirabel sisters who were brutally murdered under the Trujillo reigeme in the Domincan Republic. The play has 6 female characters and one male (who plays various small roles). I understood the show in Spanish and I thought it was well done. Each actress was different in the way she acted, perhaps training and experience. They were all dominant in Spanish. I liked the way this actress Dalia David acted and she seemed to be most similar in the way I do. I later found that she has worked in a lot of TV and Film and sometimes in English. Whereas another actress Zulema Clares is a very Latin American trained actress. I really enjoyed Ines Garcia's performance as The youngest daughter. I felt she acted the most real and interesting to watch. I really want to copy her style. These past few days I have been working on a monologue from La Casa De Bernada Alba of the youngest daughter standing up for herself to her older sister. In a way the two parts of the youngest daughter have become a theme for me as the only daughter. I can see how the idea of wanting to be free keeps coming up. Also in both plays the girl wants to do something in her future. Perhaps for my final project I will find various monologues that have to deal with the idea of being young. The Garcia is the old times, a later generation. I should probably get one from my generation in Enlgish and a middle one that switches from English to Spanish.

Working

For the past few days I have been reading the original text in spanish of the play La Casa De Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca. Although I technically can speak Spanish, the reality is my skills are very limited. All that I know is what I learned from speaking my grandmother. Although Spanish was my first language I never truly learned the grammar, reading and writing. However, I can figure it out. Basically, I am reading this play as if I was dyslexic reading in English. I like this better though. When I read in English words are almost meaningless and often I will skip over a part or read over quickly because I can. Here I need to read, process and accept the word and its meaning before I can move on. In truth, meaning is no so much the problem as figuring out how to pronounce and read a word. This is something I have never experienced before. Although I studied French I was learning the word, its spelling and pronunciation at the same time whereas here I already know a word but I have never learned how to spell it. It it so odd to read a word and be so confused at to what it means and read it a different way (different inflections, ways to pronounce letter ex: "ll"= sounds like "ja"… silla= sijya or chair)

Besides the learning about the technical part of the language, I also am learning about the play. I have already read a translation version. I know the plot and the general direction of the play but there are so many more little details and a richer text that a translation could never capture. I can see how translations of sacred texts, the Bible, the Quran are better in their original text because the meaning could be slightly altered with each translation.

Finally, I read a spanish biography of Garcia-Lorca and what really stood out to me was his community. Every few lines it was a name-dropper bomb of different people who he studied with, meet with, lived with. Throughout his life he accumulated more and met different people. He traveled a lot as well to make these new encounters and his work reflected every change. This was very important in the development of his career and life. Right now in my community I have people I can truly trust to ask questions and not feel as though I am exposing myself. My mother wants to help me with my Spanish and grammar. My father has studied Garcia-Lorca in addition to various Spanish and Latin American important figures. My aunt has done a lot of research and studies in Latin America having taken various trips and has even won grants to study the history of various Latin American subjects.

Fourth Quarter Project

This quarter I will be continuing with the development of my acting but also trying something new- acting in spanish. To do this I will have to open a whole new scope of performance that I have never even attempted. It's exciting and it makes me nervous. I have already read a play, "La Casa de Bernada Alba" by Federico Garcia Lorca a Spanish playwright from the 1930's. This play deals with issues of motherhood, mother-daughter relationships and the idea of an elite status because of money. These three motifs are ones that stick out to me and relate to me the most throughout the play. In the play there is a monologue by the youngest daughter who wants to rebel against the strict reign of the mother. I think this monologue will be helpful for me not only because it is in spanish but because it is of the right age range and topic. I also want to find more influences for my work as an actress and a bilingual actress so I will be watching various plays at the Repertorio Espanol, a theatre company in the city that does plays in spanish by various playwrights from different parts of the spanish speaking world. I've only had a day to truly think about my plans for the this performance project but I think I am at a good start for what I am able and what I want to do.

Acting Intensive Quarter 3

Pertaining to this specific acting class I see that I am able to use the techniques of part 1: objectives and tactics in my scene with Kalli directed by Ilana. I am able to apply the techniques at the start but do find myself moving away from them which is normal. I started off with an objective but I really could not stick with it my mind wandered to other things and I did not feel natural to think about an objective while also trying work off my partner. This would be the clash of using intellectual techniques and using more a “the Method” thinking. I do like that there are many ways to approach the situation and I can see how perhaps using many will help in the end but I can not say that I have reached a complete understanding of it all so I can use the techniques in a seemingly simple and certain way.

Part 2: I do enjoy using Meisner technique more but after this class I see that there must be a combination of pure working off the scene and what you have with a sense of preparation going into the scene. It is also much harder to learn lines if they have no meaning whatsoever, as we did one day in the 2^nd week of training. Working with unknown and forgiving text (I say forgiving because there were monologues that we kept repeating and trying out new ways so that a screw up was not a big deal) was more physically and mentally tiring but also more difficult to retain. The key was to ignore the words being said and instead put inflections based on thoughts. I suppose this is more interesting for viewers but not completely living truthfully because everyone has some awareness of what they are saying.

In this acting intensive I felt we focused more on intellectually analyzing the text. I do realize how important this is, but I have not mastered this skill yet.  Perhaps the intensive was not intense enough.  I have learned what the skills mean and somewhat of what the finished product of annotating and finding the best objectives and tactics for a scene and character looks like, but I do not think I am ready to do this perfectly for whatever script is thrown my way. In this way, I am excited for college to teach me more. I am satisfied with the knowledge I know now because I will soon be working to practice and work at it on a daily basis for the next four years.

            This thinking is actually similar to the way I was evidently thinking at the start of this acting class. http://vivsblogging.blogspot.com/2011/09/acting-class.html I was ready to keep working at my skill: working at my 10,000 hours. I still am ready to keep working and doubt there will be a day when I will not be able to keep working at it. 

Important People

Constantin Stanislavsky [Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev] (1863-1938)
-co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre
-laid foundations
-the first acting "system": method acting ~ very influential on modern stage and screen
-went against the traditional system of acting: becoming the character and leaving emotions behind
System
1. research the situation created by the script
2. break down text according to character's motivation
3. mix with an actor's own experiences to create their own actions and reactions
-ideally the actor's motivations are identical to that of the character which would create a more genuine performance
-main responsibility as an actor is to be believed rather than understood
-emotional memory: prepare actors for roles that involve specific feelings by remembering something that makes them feel: fear, joy, anger

Michael Chekhov (1891-1955)
-nephew of playwright Aton Chekhov
-Stanislavsky's most brillant student
-worked at Moscow Art Tehatre, New York Group Theatre & Actors Studio,
-Oscar for Hitchcock's "Spellbound"
Psycho-physical acting technique: imagination, body and intellect= Psychological Gesture
1. The Imaginary Body and Center: every actor has one that transforms for different characters, the center is specific for where all impulse comes from
2. Composition: balance and form to prevent fake expresssion
3. Psychological Gestures: a movement that embodies the objective of the character, puts actor in a mood
4. Style (feeling): everything on stage is unreal, so a feeling of a style will help keep order
5. Feeling for Truth: truthful behavior while acting, movements and speech are true to self, historical truth, stylistic truth, true to character, true to relationships
6. to Sit, Walk, live- With a Feeling of Ease
7. Knowing/ being aware of one's body and its movement through space
8. Beauty and harmony in every action
9. Have a Beginning, Middle and End
10. Qualities: move arms with quality of sadness so that the sensation will turn into a feeling
11. all activity is psycho-physical and not mechanical
12. Train Imagination to create depth of character
13. Radiating/ receiving: invisible essence
14. Improvise to improve
15. Be open and in tune to fellow actors
16. Know which moments are most important, what deserve a line or a movement
17. Have an objective and super objective
18. Create an environment with real things: fog, water, dark

Lee Strasberg
-co-founded Group Theatre, joined Actor's Studio in NY
The "Method"
-Substitution/ Sense Memory: drawing on personal experiences and memories to produce believable emotional result
-recall physical sensations surrounding personal emotional events to reproduce on stage (rather than pure emotion)

-misconception of a single method

-combines careful consideration of psychological motives of the character and some sort of personal identification

Robert (Bobby) Lewis (1909-1997)
-co-founded Group Theatre
-"never settle for 'what' and 'why' we are doing it.. ask 'how' we are doing it… if we have found the how we mustn't forget to justify the what and why."
-head to heart
1. Relax and Energize
2. Concentrate inner and outer
3. Sense memory as a subsitition
4. Express intention in terms of a VERB
5. Improvise to train
6. Imagination muscle

Stella Adler (1905- 1992)
-co-founded Group Theatre. taught at New School for Social Research
-"living in the moment" using your partner and a belied in the imagined circumstances to create emotional results
-theater is to uplift humanity
-a successful actor is one who connecters to their deeper self and to the shared humanity
- search between the lines of the script for the important unsaid messages
-"the theater exists 99% in the imagination"

Stanford Meisner
-co-founded Group Theatre, taught at Neighborhood Playhouse
-Strasberg's pupil
- "Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances"
-reality of doing
-good acting should reveal the humanity in every character and in order to do that an actor has to acquire a deep connection to himself/herself
-along with Alder strayed from Strasberg memory use, both went back to Stanislavsky for inspiration
-Two year period for layer of a complete performance; systematic approach
-based on behavior that comes out of real human response to circumstances of other people
-Accessing an actor's impulses
-Repetition Exercise:
1.phrase about each other's behavior,
2.it changes in tone, meaning and intensity;
3.the actor stops thinking about what to say an do but rather to respond more freely and spontaneously both physically and vocally
4. More imaginary circumstances are added to the exercise to become a kind of improvised scene
5. work with actual scripts
6. creating characters, questions.. what are you playing, doing.. task, objective, expectations
7. Final performance

Right Brain Rampage

I think expressionism is art that allows for the representation of emotion in its raw, intense state as long as it is interesting and with the purpose of showing emotions. As I have noted through today's class the best and most common fors are dealing with emotions of suffering and death that make viewers uncomfortable yet spiritual. I remember this while watching Metropolis last year. From the few black and white film clips in class, and even the Alan Berge Wozzeck opera where the colors where grim and monotone, I noticed that this creates a dismal sense to the work. As for the poetry, most poems are about pain coming from love, death, war... Expressionism is quite dramatic, perhaps even overdramatic but it works because it is portrayed as completely real. In the Twilight Zone episode, superstition was a real threat to the man and we followed his fear throughout the show.