Overwhelming and oppressive

Description:
This week we have been really busy regarding school play aspects (since the opening is in two weeks) such as making it come alive. Also, this week we went to watch "Acreedores" a play performed by a colombian theatre group "Teatro Errante".
So, specifically the things I've done this week are:
1. Replaced Marisa and Siu on scene 8. Due to their absences I had to replace their characters, at least occupy their space on stage.
2. Interpreted for the first time my character (the aunt) on the final scene.
3. Contacted the school's carpenter to fix some details regarding the white panels on the stage. 
4. Watched the play "Acreedores" by August Strindberg.

Analysis:
On number 1, I was able to experience interpreting other characters than mine. I understood how important it is to have the complete number of characters in a scene, and if they are absent it is really hard to continue doing it. I saw similar characteristics in both characters, they both aimed to oppress and overwhelm "El hombre"aside from their similar postures and constant phrases. Besides this, not only these two characters but all the ones in the scene had the same aim. The whole idea of masses along several scenes in the play, is once again shown in this one. The overwhelming produced by the masses to the man are seen as a constant which helps the spectator realise the effect we want to create: oppression.
During the scene I realised the importance of the platforms. The different levels give the scene more dynamism, the idea of oppression is once again showed while the characters are placed around "El hombre" in all levels. As well I presenced the change of scenes, from the one before this one and I watched the disorganisation that appeared because of the several elements that were supposed to be moved. This was fixed when we decided every person on the scene was taking in their table, chair and typewriter. This helped the scene have a better organisation and contributed to the effect of "automatic-mode"since every character entered in a zombie-like characterisation.
A remarkable thing in that scene, is the use of the tower as a pedestal for the authority symbol, in this case the boss. It plays with the idea of the levels, once again to transmit the idea of overwhelmingness; this time, since the level is higher it could approach the idea of the oppression from the character on top is being superior than everybody else's. This makes me think that there could be more than just one level of oppression and overwhelmingness not only according to the characters but expressed by the levels in the scene.
The symmetry in the scenery and in some movements is a key element to transmit to the audience a physical atmosphere of perfection at first, of organisation, of routine but then twisted in way where they encounter disorganisation and chaos approaching the Expressionist ways of course. This makes them realise and possibly reflect on how life can be perfectly imperfect: full of unexpected things inside the routine or extraordinary things in an ordinary life.

Moreover on number 2 I explored a little bit more of my character. I started the evolving process. This means that I was able to enter to another side of my character. I imagined how would the aunt act on different situations which helped me focus on this specific one. It is important the presence of the aunt as she counts as another oppressive factor. I link this back to the idea of different levels of oppression I mentioned earlier. As I said, we can see it through the characters; workers as a massive and collective oppressive group, the boss connected to labour oppression and the aunt as in a more personal level family oppression. We see this progression as the scene goes along; that from a bigger scale it narrows down.

Inverted pyramid showing how I the
levels of oppression I see in scene 8

As for the exploration of my character, I have started thinking on how it evolves since it is the same effect trying to be created but in a different way now. Even though on both she is trying to overwhelm him, there is a different approach on each. It forced me to explore and understand the behaviour of my character, but more importantly how it would fit and complement the scene. It had to be an extension of the existent feelings created in the scene. Some obstacles I faced were that I didn't know for sure how would my character walk as she is sitting on the other scene. So I decided to explore different things according to the scene. Since it was the first time done, I had to talk in gibberish because of the lack of text. This meant being able to create different inflections and intonations and intentions while saying lines in gibberish. It was a challenge since it was done for the first time and was improvised but of course it has to be well developed in characterisation terms according to the scene situation. Why is the aunt included in this scene? Well she is the last drop (la gota que derramó el vaso), she is considered as the breaking point in which "El hombre" explodes due to the crescendo in oppression.

On number three, I was concerned about my production task: scenery. To achieve a more Expressionist effect following one of its more important conventions (3D shapes), we added higher relief on the shapes that are going to be on top of the panels. There wouldn't be a contrast of colours but a contrast in relief and deepness. Like other conventions state, we will use sharp angles and geometrically incongruent shapes to create a bizarre atmosphere not only in the scene but visually for the audience. This will make the scene not only have details but it will follow the German Expressionist conventions.

On number 4, as we watched "Acreedores" I reflected on how important it is to have a straight direction concept, it becomes the connecting thread through the scenes. I observed how closely linked were the direction concept with the design concept. The use of the microphone was a media that permitted different effects. For the audience, it situated them in the era, making them reflect on how we rely on technological things. I realised the importance of the concept in plays for them to be in order and understandable. Due to its lack of movement, it suddenly became flat and boring at times; so what I understood from that is that in plays, there must be an element that keeps the audience connected to it, the plot or the actions, the movements, the dialogues, anything. Relying heavily on the microphone as a portal of communication, might have been an interesting proposal since it was used to create different SFX and the audience had a sound image to them which at least strengthen the connection.

Connections:
The connections I found with scene 8 was with the brumas scene. Like I explained before, the idea of masses is a constant in the play, and is repeated in this scene. The idea of oppression and overwhelming is present in both. Even though we see different levels of it in scene 8, the brumas one is also a good example of the feelings transmitted in the play. The coordination and organisation attempted on both highlight that they are trying to show how the chaos starts as something normal. The idea of how we use the same resources and techniques in several scenes as well makes the connection more noticeable. It shows that most of the scenes are aiming the same and following a concept thread.

Another connection I saw is with "El Ultimo ensayo". This, in a more technical aspect. The changes of scenes in the mentioned play occur without the audience realising it. They pass in front of us, but we can't really tell the exact end and beginning of it. In our case, we are making every change of scene as slow as we can to achieve the effect that the atmosphere instead of changing suddenly, it evolves. As if "El hombre's" life was in a constant evolution that is as well seen in the changes of scene. It is a slow- paced moment that tries to differ from last plays in which the changes of scenes have been fast, by an evolution of the visual things while "El hombre" reflects. This is done so the guiding thread is noticeable for the audience, as if the play didn't stopped or changed and doesn't give the audience a chance to rest but instead they overwhelm them, which implies the overwhelming trascends to the audience as well.  

Reflections:
As you may have noticed along this whole entry, the idea of oppression and overwhelming in the play is constantly mentioned. This is because I realised they are important factors that help us develop the play. 
As I've been taught a concept is only one, but it mutates and changes: in this case we can see overwhelming and oppression along the whole play as a key factor. This means that even though the concept started as "identity as a permanent construction and thus as a permanent destruction", it goes through different branches supporting it. The development of a concept changes and even though it might have different elements that support it, it can be helped by other factors that we try to achieve in the play. 
I realised a play and theatre itself goes way beyond than just developing your character. It involves production tasks and many other important details. How we explore and learn. How we let ourselves guide by the common thread: the concept. I realised how a concept can variate as the play progresses which I didn't know before. I used to think that it was one of the things that didn't change, but this week I realised it can be. This makes me wander to what extent can a concept such as ours rely on the different supporting branches like 'overwhelming' and 'oppression'? Should we rely only on that or try to focus on finding other supporting elements in the play? I know they are helpful for the development of the concept, but to what point? Can it as well be something negative if we choose only to use them?