Our masquarde: Masks and movement

Masks

Trestle masks

Are handcrafted, beautiful masks that are sold to teachers and schools across the world.

Working with and in the trestle intermediate and, they're very accessible and have a simple but familiar design; each mask has a specific expression that represents a character and character mood or implies the archetype a character might be for example; the virgin might have big but slightly dull eyes, small, famine lips and an upturned nose and the devil might have large, prominent eyebrows in a permeant scowl etc..

I found the simpler mask more charming than the more advanced masks; the complex masks gave me a sense of uncanniness because there was more to look at.

After some time we decided to use the collection of Strangeface masks and utilized the almost disturbing aesthetic they have for our performance, in my opinion it worked very well.

Movement

Soon I realised that I had to focus on my body and my mannerisms to portray the characterisation I desired to show the audience in my performance. Jack taught us about mime, commedia dell’arte and archetypes and how the movement of these different stock characters affected the audience perception of them, we also had the pleasure of receiving a workshop from a professional mask actress, who taught the class breathing techniques to better show emotion while in mask, unfortunately I was unable to attend this workshop but thanks to my peers and friends they gave me a run down on how to properly breath depending on what my character was feeling in specific moments of our performance, this helped me greatly and I created the illusion of strong emotion while masked up; during my performance there was a scene where I have to look very distressed, while sat on the floor I made sure my breathing was ever-changing rapid then slow, harsh and brisk and then I would let out a long sigh, I also twitched slightly with my upper body- this made it look to the audience as though I was weeping heavily.

Our masqurade: Fairy tales and folk lore

29|1|2020

We split off into small groups and started our individual research into fairy tales and folk lore, me, Ben, Alex and Ruby all visited the library and brought back: a copy of The Grims brothers tales and a collection of Celtic folk tales. When we returned I opted we do a play inspired by a tale about selkies; mythic sea beasts somewhat like mermaids but instead we decided on our own adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin. 

 We started production on "Follow", our modern adaptations of Rumpelstiltskin. I originally wanted to play the 'Rumpelstiltskin' character but I was suggested that I play the female lead instead. At first ideas came slowly to the group but eventually, we decided on a theme of fame and exploitation on the internet.

George, Harry and Joy's group settled on 'The moon' a purculiar tale about three siblings and theirjoruney to bring back light into the world. Ben, Amy and Harry C decied to adapt sleeping beauty. 

Fairytales are often very simple, they rely on our structured narrative that ends with one of the characters receiving justice or learning important life lesson. Somewhat like fables they often have an unusual cast of characters but often they are recognisably archetypal and somewhat childishly simple. But unlike fables the moral or the ending of the story can be almost ambiguous; in Rumpelstiltskin the fairytale that me, Alex, Ruby and Ben are basing our masked performance on ends with the brutal, bloodied death of the villain, this set is a suicide and doesn’t teach a clear lesson but rather was written almost to shock and disturb the reader.

Our masquerade: Dead good

23|1|2020

About

Vamos direct and produce original, tear-jerking theatre; inspired by real life events. They're rooted in social research and are leading mask theatre. They have been producing since 2006 and continue to make excellent full mask plays- which they tour each year while also performing at festivals and events.

Dead good

I recently had the pleasure of watching their latest full mask production, Dead good, which I found to be extremely enjoyable, I brought along my partner who described it as moving and charming. The emotions channelled by the masked actors was tangible and when the satire begun I instantly felt drawn to them. Their body language and coordination on stage made the acts flow and I have to applaud their stamina; acting for seventy minutes straight, under hot theatre lights. The Vamos mask themselves the actors describe as 'buckets' covering the entire front and sides of the skull, some even require a fitting.

The Vamos production of Dead good was an extraordinary piece of theatre influenced by the real life struggles of dying men, the feelings were tangible and brought a crisp reality to the play without destroying the comic aspects.

I brought along my partner form outside our performing arts circle to watch it and I recall their joy and sadness throughout as well as my own. Entirely speechless- Dead good explored what it meant to die with flare or 'go out with a bang'. The actors embraced every moment of performance; their body language ands motion captivated and mesmerised the audience; for example they controlled the speed and intensity of their breathing to show how they were feeling- the mime influence was obvious throughout, these actors were skilled mast actors and some of the best in their field in my opinion; at the questions and answers section with the actors at the end I asked 'if sometimes they get overpowered by the emotions they're portraying on stage'

Our masqurade: Achetypes

Archetypes and 

20|01|20

We discussed the different types of archetypes in literature and theatre; I contributed my knowledge of personas in this lesson and enjoyed acting out the different characters of each archetype. We wandered around the room taking on the role of each archetypical person and 

Archetypical women

The damsel in distress/The innocent- virginal and beautiful and despite their apparent helplessness their strengths lie in purity which makes them untouchable. Generally, female or at least feminine. In Camilla Paglia's book ‘Sexual personae’ characters who reject ‘brutal pagan forces’ I.e. sex and nature are Apollonian and god-like because of this they’re likely to be the love interest of the hero. With this particular character I wrapped my arms around my middle and glanced up at the world from under my eyelashes.

The huntress/Diana the huntress/Athena- A subversive, warrior woman, bent on her own agenda. Powerful and still attainable by men. Most likly the assertive heronine of the story.

The Venus- the ultimatum of feminine beauty, desired by all men. Typically, in modern plots she would be comparable to the 'hottest girl in school' or 'the popular girl'-blonde, beautiful and elegant.

Archetypical men

The hero- Prideful and stereotypically masculine, these men are particularly skilled and tend to know it; they're clever, physically and mentally strong. They were born to win/defeat the villain and win the heart of the damsel.

The wise old man- A wizened, ancient scholar; he's wise and moral but no longer has the power to defeat evil himself so he must guide the young hero/heroine

Some other archetypes I personally researched:

Femme fatale/Medusa/Lilith- they’re the opposite of the damsel; mature, sultry and evidently sexual, in Sexual personae Paglia describes the female vampire- alluring and dangerous. Although she is powerful, her baseness makes her villainous and even disgusting. She is unfavourable and unlikely to be the main love-interest in literature because of her Dionysian nature.

The male heroine/the passive male sufferer- They're gentle, brooding and fragile. He's an opinionless observer who seems to have no real objectives, this is infact not the case because of his primarly feminine nature he's often a nurturer and acts on this rather than on a desire to 'be the best' or 'defeat evil'. 

Our masqurade: 'Follow'

03|03|202

We are producing a play based on the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin, I’m in making an effort to try and come in on time and work to the best of my ability so that me and my piers can produce a quality piece of masked theatre.  


Unfortunately, today I have been struggling to remain focused during rehearsals despite wanting to move on quickly through the piece to the end which we have not yet worked on and trying to remain on the ball while writing these blogs and balancing rehearsals and other extracurricular activities but due to Rubies recent absence, general stress and inability to take the lead I’ve been finding it extremely difficult to keep up to the standards of others. Alex has worked hard to do produce edited film for the live performance and ben had narrated the entirety of the piece, so I feel like I could be doing more to contribute although I did I volunteered to write a script to better understand the thoughts and feelings of our given characters. 


Today we worked on the three acts we have rehearsed before: the scene in which I, Babybekah_xo, and introduced along with my manager and love interest, then demand work opportunities and respect from my manager, Gary Stevens, only to be told that I must get big prince 5000 thousand followers in the next 24 hours, I then proceed to get manipulated into trading nude photos for followers. During this scene I take I have taken the advice from my peers to breathe according to what I’m feeling at any given time during this piece for example when I’m on the floor distraught after Gary Stevens tells me to do something impossible, I breathed heavily at moments and others brief quickly, just after this when the anonymous caller calls me I breathe sharply and rapidly this is to give the audience the impression I am having a panic attack or I am just extremely frightened. We also rehearsed twice in mask, which was very tiring so I have an idea of how hot and exhausting it will be to perform under the mask on Monday.

9|3|2020

Yesterday we performed our devised pieces, honestly I wasn't nervous, in fact I was confident about my performance and rearing to start. Possibly because the masks created a sense of security and even comfort for me, shielding my face from the audience so they couldn't see what I was really feeling throughout the experience, if felt anything at all that is; which I didn't throughout I was perfectly calm but apart from the mask this also might be because I've improved as an actress over time.

Alex and Ben put a lot of hard work and effort into the video that was the glue that kept the piece together, I applaud their acting in it, especially Bens which was hilarious but also Alex's high equality editing. Alex filmed a large majority but I also assisted in filming and acted in the video myself.

'Follow' itself received many welcomed and welcoming laughs from its audience. I was pleased with the performance as a whole, it seemed put together and overall a massive accomplishment.

Our masquerade: The begining

Starting out

"Follow"

8|1|2020
We completed a animal kingdom questionnaire and discussed the skills we will carry into Mask. We also assumed the skills we would learn this term, I believed that we would be focusing primarily on body language and physicality; mask work requires the actor to communicate without dialogue to an ever different audience.

We also view a short clip from Steven Berkoff play, The tell tale heart written by Edger Allen Poe- a gothic story that end in tragedy, Berkoff used mime to express this.

We also watched some mime performances from a French course from the le coq school.

9|1|2020

We arranged to travel to Worcester city to see a mask production by Vamos on the 23rd, I was originally sceptically about the quality of the show, believing it would be hard to follow and lacking in certain qualities that go hand in hand with dialogue; you wouldn't want to see a Shakespeare play without any dialogue? No.

The commedia Dell'Arte (Italian- Comedy of the profession) was an establishment of significant French influence settled Venice-Italy during the mid 1500's, when performance was generally unscripted and required no admission fee, actors where supported by audience donations. Heavily influenced by mime, making for dialogue-less performances. Made up of the literary society and street performers, it was popular theater whose cast of recognizable characters represented everyone in society. It's throngs were run fairly; everyone was paid and women frequented the stage.

Techniques

Lazzi- physical or verbal comedic relief that guided the action away from the main plot and then back to it.

Characters such as the 'early clown' the harlequin are still prevalent in entertainment today for example, the character Harley Quinnzel in the DC comics and films.

Commedia Dell'Arte archetypes

Pantalone- ( Mr. Punch from Punch and Judy for example) They're deluded, greedy and grotesque. An important Del'arte stock character, frequently paired with Dottore.

Other characters originated as stock persona's and became familiar faces as skilled actors played them, for example the nimble Zanni, the wistful fool and the braggart capitano.

About Vamos

Vamos direct and produce original, tear-jerking theatre; inspired by real life events. They're rooted in social research and are leading mask theatre. They have been producing since 2006 and continue to make excellent full mask plays- which they tour each year while also performing at festivals and events.

14|1|2020

We were given the option of several, current news stories to change into a mimed performance, as a group we decided on Harry and Megan's split from the royal family- Apart form Ben Deller and me, the group took terns narrating, I was very impressed by how quickly and efficiently the group worked as team to make an enjoyable, little performance. Starting out we talked about their move to Canada and then continued on to rehearse,

In addition four members of the group, at a time, selected a mask each; we were lined up facing away from our remaining piers and were called out one by one and given a personality to act out to the audience by Jack. I played a nervous, reserved and shy character, I crossed my arms around my middle and shuffled around. I felt as though I had become anew when putting on the mask, I realised that by hiding my face i was hiding my true emotions and only expressing the thoughts and feeling of my character though the movements of my body.

16|1|2020

Assignment was set to begin blog and we received feedback for our animal kingdom project.
We recapped yesterdays exercise 'magnet eyes'; where the eyes lock onto the audience and the body moved in the opposite direction to the stare. look to the audience for approval; maybe your character is doing something morally ambiguous
the audience)

For our warm up exercises, we pretended we were trapped inside a large bubble stretching out one part of the body at a time, focusing on our breathing while we move our bodies to touch the sides of the bubble.