Second god

Second god is a very bitter god in a way, he is one of the gods who still believe that if they look they can find goodness but is more easily down-heartened and plays devils advocate, he will always doubt and look for cause for doubt as seen when he noticed wang's false bottom, but this works with the group in contrast with meek third and optimist first. a way to look at him is like a grandfather who is tough but fair, he loves you but wants you to grow strong and as such he is tough on everyone in a strict way. he himself is tough as seen with the whole more spiders fewer flies, he doesn't like excuses either made by him or others, and he expects the best from a good soul and will not tolerate lax on shen te's part, as he was very upset with shen te's lack  of paying the carpenter and how the cousin is causing her to stray away from her goodness. he is also very practical as seen when he talked about the floods and how it was the humans lack of action rather than their lack of faith in the gods.

The second gods relationship with the first god is that the first god is wiser and the leader and the second god knows this and accepts/ respects this but when something he feels must be done he will voice his opinion and swing the conversation to his way of thinking, and keep the group on track on to the rules of godliness. he honors rules a lot but the fact that he is willing to forsake the rules in favor for the decision of giving money shows how much he respects the first god.

the second gods relationship with the third is a bit more abraisive, for the third is much more milder and timid and is more open to breaking the rules set forth  by the divines. this would put these two gods at ends and be more like two vastly contrasting ideals of the strong orderly second and more fun more chaotic third with neutral first.

his relationship with wang is one of a more non existant one he actively chooses to ignore him but that is not to say he is not listening and watching wang, for the 2nd god does not trust wang. he pities wang and his attempts to persuade the gods in that there is a good person in sechzuan.

plays acted in
last days of judas iscariot

plays watched
the odyssey
gullivers travels
black watch

set elements helped in
Artifacts- helped build set and paint props

IB Y2 play arty facts artifacts

I was very interested in this particular ib, play due to the fact it was written by the students, how they did with their small amount of people who were actually taking the class. I enjoyed and admired their use of colourful lights and hiding some elements of the stage before revealing the art underneath. the play also did a good job in transitioning into the dream and dystopian elements. the use of children was a brave and worthwhile as it supplemented the play and yet did not take away from it. the story was  very cleverly thought out and had a clear message they included to convey their opinions about art and our own individuality. I think that they did a terrific job and managed to successfully create a play from scratch that deserves more recognition around this school.

btb

ground plan- visual representation of what will be done
concept statement- the vision of the designer in a sentence to a page- what do you want to convey what feeling do you want the audience to enjoy

pitch plan

for lighting we plan tohave the people do the following as our focus:
Sabrina - 
1.Research of the time period or concept:
- magazine clippings 
- pictures from books
- written description

Kevin -
2.List of all changes of day and other signified lighting changes within the script
6.Description of the mood and tone of the play as a whole and in each scene or section that will be used to create the lighting scape

Peter -
3.Simple plan of where lights will go, lighting areas and what type will be used ( use the scenery designers ground plan for reference)
5.At least 5 special light areas besides those needed for general wash and front

Justin -
7.Description of why all decisions were made/ Explain vision

Gel and gobos will be covered by everyone here and there.
(taken from facebook)

also what we aim is to supplement our powerpoint presentation with maybe an idea collage and any other physical and visual representation of our vision and any solutions to problems we may face in the placements of light

Post

      After watching Black Watch, I came to a personal opinion of what i believe what post modern plays are in an essential sense. Post modern plays are the mind. Not A mind but THE mind, as in the mind of many not just the mind of one. It is the mind because it is always an idea or an observation that the mind of the author wants to show the rest of the world through a medium that can emphathise with people. it is also the mind of many, for it is important to experiment in theatre especially post modernism, and so it is the collective planning of many minds to become that one, the mind. Yet even though it is an observation it may not always ring true because how we see the world is through our own eyes and is neigh impossible to see through the eyes of others, making a post modern play a play of opinions, opinions shared and differencing from people in the cast. it adds to the appeal that we can choose to ignore or accept the mind of a post modern production and even sometimes on slightly rarer occasions, contribute to the opinions playing out in the preformance. post modern plays are memories, experiences, thoughts, dreams, observations, and opinions put into a medium that the populous can experience and build their own off of.
     The three preformances I watched were, odyssey, Gulliver and Black Watch. Odyessy was a  very confusing play without the language difference. I came to the conclusion that a running theme of the play was about masculinity versus immasculinity. the fact that Telemachus, Odysseus' son was left alone as the sole protector of the family while he was out at war. the part when the naked man was posing and the son was going crazy trying to look more manly in the background furthered this for me. There was also this feeling of lack of a father figure expressed in the beginning where he started to say the letter a then angel and then the translated word was guardian, showing this loss. The suitors were also a reminder of that protective stance Telemachus had to take. Gullivers travels was a lot less hardcore than the Odyssey. Gullivers travels was a pantomime version of the traditional story of the explorer Gulliver. this was a lot easier to follow since they blatantly told the audience at the beginning what the themes of each story were. The themes were governmental corruption seen by the lack responsibility taken by the lilliputian officials and how cowardly they were in face of danger and oppressing the people (us, the audience), and reliance on power of others (Gulliver). the next was the corruption of the mind that money has on us, and how opportunistic wally- i mean, people are when faced with money, and was expressed by the Brobdingnag giants. the final part was humanity and what separates us from the "beasts" with the Houyhnhnms (yes i looked it up) the rationalistic equine society to the animalistic yahoo hominids, and how to the houyhnhnms Gulliver was just a intelligent yahoo and therefore is a taint to their superior society, to the point of the terrible term ethnic cleansing. the genre of pantomime is a personal favorite, it gives a sense of connection through breaking the infamous fourth wall and talking to the audience, albeit still regarding the audience as characters rather than theatre goers. this gives it more comedic value in my opinion, but what also made it funny was the style of almost poor mans theatre especially with the fish scene where only a sign saying fish and actions distinguished the animal. The last and most realistic of all the production i watched was Black Watch. the story was of the Black Watch regiment and their period of work in Iraq  the story was told between two periods of time giving it that non linear feel to it. the one was the war time and the other an interview by a researcher in the pub. the play was done in a realistic way in order to make the audience feel as close as they can to the problems and emotions felt by the soldiers of Black Watch. they told a lot about its history and nature of the regiment. this piece was the most emotional piece for me of many that i have seen in the past.
      The play i read was Eurydice, but unlike the original this is her side of the story. the two stories are the same in many ways, but disregards the romantic part and the ancient greek parts to make a mock romance set in a modern theme. The original story is of how the musician orpheus plays music to save Eurydice from the underworld but fails when he turns around to look at her fearing a trick from Hades. This variation plays more with grief and loss and getting back by adding the character of Eurydice's Father. the play is surrealistic and should not be done minimalisticly, but through use of lighting i would do such. i would have two washes and five ellipsoidal lights in order to utilise lighting. a simple black and white set with a small staircase in the middle separating it and a table to the white side and a black box mesh on the black side to put up string used in the play. this play plays with the two relationships that Eurydice makes her father after she dies and her husband. this play asks us to review and make sure why we choose what we choose.
      Last Days of Judas Iscariot.

Silence Without Purpose

    Yesterday on the ninth I was sitting on the black bench in the drama lab wondering about post-modernist art, when a poster on the back wall. This was not one of our class and asked "what is art?" or something similar and noticed in the thought bubble it said "no art", either that or I misread it. Because I was thinking of Po-mo at the time I was reminded of a piece of postmodernist artwork in a picture of a museum. One particular one was an empty frame; no art in it and no art out, the frame itself was a vacant black, stoic boring frame. So I questioned, is that art, if nothing is visualised and no art is used. Well to answer that for myself I made my own little phrase of what no art is, "silence without purpose"- my words.

    To explain, silence without purpose is the lowest form of no art, where there is nothing to gain from nothing. It is a blank piece of paper that has no purpose no reason and through it people have nothing to gain from it. It is a train with people silent no one talking or noticing each other and the train dead still. It is a barren planet with no life and no water, no atmosphere, no reason for existing. Not to say it shouldn't exist but it does not stir emotion, the basis of my idea, emotion. That is what I see no art as, an empty husk that does not stir emotion at all and helps not one person.

      Silence without purpose is not the only form of no art; the other is noise without purpose. The noise does not only refer to sound but noise of the eyes, nose, touch and taste, but mostly eyes, ears and mind. But if there is a picture, and there is sound, is that not art?, not really no. this is the part of art I would call, sell-out art. This is music, theatre, literature, and visual artwork that the painter slew together to make money. Art that does not stir emotion does not serve purpose and is commonly directly influenced by common media. I see as most modern music as ones that just sound pretty but the lyrics are as shallow as the money it earns the artist, not saying this for all modern artists, but quite a few. Movies are also mostly sell-out art, the cowboy and alien movie, the expendables, many Michael bay movies with their explosions, all to impress and entice the audience to watch artless art. I’m not saying they are not art at all, many are just for fun anyway, but it is not art we should care about.

     There is a last part to this rant and that is "silence and noise with purpose" both which really sums up what think of art, anything with purpose. we can listen to music and hear lyrics that make us consider facts, greet someone or even look and smile at someone on that silent train, draw a picture on that paper that make you think or even draw what you are thinking about, like I am doing with this post. But it doesn't have to be a stimulus; it can be silence too, the silence after a heated discussion that leaves both sides silent, calming down and cooling down from anger, purpose being to not over do the argument. The silence at a funeral to give everyone a chance to silently consider how much this person meant to them and maybe even pray for their soul. The silence after a storm that leaves people happy it's gone and worried about the future. To return back to that frame I saw that was boring black and at the time symbolised things that I did not like about post-modernist art, I now see that, that frame is art it is silence with a purpose.