The Followspot

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Today the focus of my journal, as requested, will be my reflections about the movement we did today. But before that, i would like to put in a quote which i found rather profound today.

"There is sense, even in nonsense" - Mrs Kamal.

Which is rather true. Today Mrs Kamal made us stretch out our arms and legs and walk around like starfish on 2 of its legs. It was an interestingly painful way to walk.

I felt big and clumsy to walk around like that, so i was rather glad when she told us to relax. However, she told us to continue like that and say our lines. My aching arms cried out in pain but i perservered.

After that apparently nonsensical process. We were told to make sense out of it. Mission impossible? We'll here's my attempt.

My third part of the performance of The Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral has been interpreted as two children playing by myself and Prakash. And this movement reminds me, being in touch with my inner self, of terriermon. A digimon i used to like in my childhood days. It had big ears that were the size of hands and a minute body. I felt pretty much like i was mimicking it and decided that since we're acting as children in part 3, the child who loses the sissors paper stone game can have a funny forefeit! This could be part of the dream's nonsensical movements as anything - even the weirdest of things, can happen in a dream.

Another way is that this movement can show the floating of actors, as if in an abstract dimention. Just like the dream world. However, it does not corrospond with us wanting the two actors to seem as one character and hence we decided not to use it during this point in time. But it is still in consideration.

The movement, if done staccato and slow and moving gradually to liquified form could give a reasonable melting effect to show something dissolving or melting into a liquid. This form of movement can also be used; however, not in our performance as it will take too much reconstruction. We could use it in the sense that instead of feeling around with blindfolds, we be floating and slowly liquifying, as if the waves that Zheng He's fleet of ships ride on, telling the story of his past. This would mean a totally new interpretation of the text and we will find ourselves back to square one.

Hence, we have decided to incooperate this movement, minimally into our 3rd scene. Whoever loses, shall talk like that for one sentence!

Aching arms, tired body, improved performance!

The actor froze at 12:11 AM