On Thursday, I was privileged enough to be part of the class who got to hear Penny Francis, who has been, by far, one of my favorite practitioners. She was easy to follow, engaging, and overall I took away something that I had been lacking: confidence.

Puppetry is something I have been interested in since I was fiveish and saw Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock. That's right folks, my puppet obsession didn't begin with the Muppets, it was the five main Fraggles, and the Doozers that got me hooked. Ask any member of my family and they will be sure to tell you with exasperated sighs that the house was always full of some sort of creation. I remember building marionettes with my cousin: cows, horses, dogs. You name it, we built it. In my senior year of high school, I built a lifesized cow out of cardboard, faux fur, straws, and a ton of hot glue. The bones of the cow were anotomically correct and pieces of her were removable so that you could see the effects of mad cow disease.
So for some reason, I decided to put all of this on the back burner, and ignore the fact that something had attracted me to this artform all of my life. When I got to Central, I admit, I was intimidated because I felt like I had missed some vital part of training in order to be a puppeteer, but now, after Penny's lecture, I feel much more confident bringing to the table what I can. I am resourceful and a creator. And I should not feel intimidated by other people's experience because I will have my time to be a craftsman and then an artist.
Here are a few pictures of the puppet heads I have been working on. Enjoy :)

A quick litle post

http://dapodestheaters.blogspot.com/2009/10/ein-spiel-fur-frau-morewedge.html

The German version of my play.

Pictures of Work

The first three are installations done by members of our Sceneography cluster. They are some of the better pictures I have, unfortunately the others I took came out poorly. The last picture is a puppet I am working on. Her name is Bruhmhilda, and she is one of the witches from Macbeth. She is based on a toad. :)

Reinvention

I got to thinking today after all of our lectures and various discussions, and like Mischa said would happen, a little *pting* went off in my brain at a very odd moment, and a connection was made.
There is a bit of a story here. When I was roughly six years old, I was lead to believe that I was a horrible human being. In hindsight, I was a typical six year old who did not want to eat veggies, threw tantrums when she did not get something she thought she could not live without, and basically had the same amount of energy I have these days, just a lot less contained. I am the youngest child of two, and me and my sister did not have a great time growing up, to put it in mild terms. So when you are six, and you are told that nobody is going to like you if you keep behaving as you are, it sends you into a depression that only a six year old knows. To be so young and so fragile and have such negativity to contend with everyday made me do the only thing I knew how to do.
I reinvented myself.
I literally began to walk around and tell people that the "old Lizzy" had gone, and that the "new and improved Lizzy" was now among them. This was a Lizzy who if told to go to bed early, fought the urge to fight back, and instead went. She tried veggies (but to this day can not eat rice a ronni...ask her about that story one day if you'd like) and every time she began to fuss, those around her asked "Is that something the New Lizzy would do, or the old Lizzy" She had, indeed, become her own worst enemy, she had aspired to a new level, and had succeeded in going to that new length. It was hard and that six year old me surely still threw the occasional temper tantrum and picked on her sister (who is five years her senior), but she was no longer herself as she knew her. I was no longer the me that I had been. It was a process and a product. ... you can almost see where this is going...but not quite....

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/medium

me⋅di⋅um

  /ˈmidiəm/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [mee-dee-uhm] Show IPA noun, plural -di⋅a  /-diə/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [-dee-uh] Show IPA for 1–9, 11, -di⋅ums for 1–11, 14, adjective

Use medium in a Sentence

See web results for medium

See images of medium

–noun

1.	a middle state or condition; mean.

2.	something intermediate in nature or degree.

3.	an intervening substance, as air, through wh ich a force acts or an effect is produced.

4.	the element that is the natural habitat of a n organism.

5.	surrounding objects, conditions, or influences; environment.

6.	an intervening agency, means, or instrument by which something is conveyed or accomplished: Words are a medium of expression.

7.	one of the means or channels of general communication, information, or entertainment in society, as newspapers, radio, or television.

8.	Biology. the substance in which specimens ar e displayed or preserved.

9.	Also called culture medium. Bacteriology. a liquid or solidified nutrient material suitable for the cultivation of microorganisms.

10.	a person through whom the spirits of the dead are alleged to be able to contact the living.

11.	Fine Arts. a. Painting. a liquid with which pigments are mixed. b. the material or technique with which a n artist works: the medium of watercolor.

12.	a size of printing paper, 18 1/2 × 23 1/2 in. (47 × 60 cm) in England, 18 × 23 to 19 × 25 in. (46 × 58 to 48 × 64 cm) in America.

13.	Chiefly British. a size of drawing or writing paper, 17 1/2 × 22 in. (44 × 56 cm).

14.	Also called medium strip. Midland U.S. median strip.

15.	in medium, Movies, Television. with the principal actors in the middle distance: The scene was shot in medium.

–adjective

16.	about halfway between extremes, as of degree, amount, quality, position, or size: Cook over medium heat. He is of medium height.

---

Origin:
1575–85; < class="ital-inline">medius middle. See mid ¹

Synonyms:
16. average, mean, middling.

Usage note:
7. See media ¹ .

Yes, the most basic definitions of medium. As an artist/performer/practitioner, I decided that in my definiation I would strip away the word theatre completely and just think about the practitioner/performer.
Going back to my little story at the beginning: the practitioner/performer is the medium through which theatre speaks, and is an ever evolving, ever changing device.
I am on an evolutionary road, my person is not the same from day to day, but I am a tool, a device, an object, a mind and a mean for transport of thought, emotion, agenda, and art.

That's really all I want to say. If I try to explain any further, I'll muddle it all up.

As part of my evolutionary process, I want to beco me more open about myself as an artist. Which for me as a visual artist, is something that is extremely hard for me to do for various reasons.

http://deathslight.deviantart.com/

A taste of my artwork, if you are interested.

Anarchy

I do not know where to begin this blog, so forgive me in advance if it seems more like a Pollock and less a Da Vinci.
Anarchy: from the Greek term, without ruler. After reading a chapter from "The Gift", I am trying to wrap my brain around the concept of a gift giving society, why society and government have corrupted that, and what exactly it means to be a "civilized society".
First, it is interesting to note, that social contract theories date back to the beginnings of philosophy, or of philosophical thinking. The basis of which that the individual is tied by a moral/political code/obligations between them to form a society (http://www.iep.utm.edu/soc-cont/) This is a lot of information to wrap the brain around, because it makes you wonder what your own ties to society are, and how your own politics tie you into society. How do these ties that bind create a responsibility for the individual to perform in society?
As an actor, what then, by social contract, is my responsibility to society? By choosing said profession, how can my politics affect the art/work that I create and craft? How will sharing these ideas with others improve my life or the life of others?
According to the reading, Hobbes theorized that "less" civilized cultures were more aggressive and out for power, living for oneself. Hobbes never went farther than France, or so the text says, so what is his version or vision of a "savage, less civilized society"? Is he referring to the ghettos of the the civilized world? And it seems to me, that a more "civilized" society is on the fast track to money and power. While people who make millions a year are fortunate enough to give to charities, they exist in their own community, and do not belong to the vast majority. I have a tendency, based on the reading from "The Gift" to agree more with the anachronistic point of view: do I have that much faith in the individual to act on their own accord in a moral sense? I am not sure, as I have never seen a true example of anarchy, that has not been perverted in some way, either by Hollywood or the extremes it is taken to in some literature. I had a friend once, who lived and took part in an anarchist commune. (Sounds funny doesn't it?) But essentially, each individual cared for themselves, while causing nobody else in the community any harm, and also there was a sense of giving when you had something to give, not being forced in any way to give or bring others up to your level. If someone needed something, and you had some to spare, you gave a true gift. All of this philosophical theory lead me to think about how can a gift be received and how can a worthy gift be given to a society or an individual? I realize I am posing a lot of questions but that is the point. There are so many questions and really no concrete answers, because everything is subjective. Theories, politics, religion, morality: all of these are subjective to the individual. I could spend the good majority of this post telling you (the reader) all about my own political beliefs. Or I could pose some good questions, throw in an opinion or two, and let you decide for yourself.
In the sense of giving and receiving, I was very proud of the embodied practices. During our final day of Grotowski work with Ita, every member of the class gave some piece of themselves to the rest of us. I personally found a really dark part of the work, which I wasn't anticipating at all. I rather thought my bit was sort of upbeat and the lighter part of it, but when I did work with one word "broken" it took me on a journey that was surprising. Again, I can not say how glad I was to be there today, I feel very privelaged to be part of a group of individuals who are so supportive and inquisitive....and to top it all off...we are still strangers to each other.
On the Shunt day: I feel like I understand the concept, but it still feels a little beyond my reach. There is a gray area around it, and I don't know, but think that maybe if I go to see a Shunt show, my reality will change, and I will start to see what it is I might be missing. I feel like everybody's work was really brilliant from taking pictures in the dark and being told to be as "quick as you can" to watching a student pull his clothes on after being bound, I felt like there was a lot of original work, each with great moments. As always, for everything, hindsight is 20/20, but for a first attempt at this kind of theater, I felt all the pieces were relevant. Our piece worked well for our specific vision, and it is always great to hear what other peoples vision of the work would have been.
Well that was a long winded post. Tomorrow I shall post more!

Image: Not really what anarchy is about....

Image from: http://indieanthems.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/16592460-16592463-slarge.jpg

Shunt/Art/Impro

This will be a quick post, as I have a ton of reading to do tonight. This week has been going by really very quickly, with a lot of information. I haven't had a chance to really let it sink in before I am off to the next thing.
Had the opportunity today to work in an art class setting, where the puppeteers were allowed to sit in and get an anatomy for the artist lesson, which I found to be extremely satisfying. It is my personal opinion that in order to move away from or distort the figure, you have to know the figure first. I think the same is true in theatrical terms, relating to tradition and contemporary performance, but that is another post, for another time.
The art class got me really very excited and hopeful that the puppeteers might have more opportunities to work this way. I can't wait to do more of this sort of work.
Picked up "Impro" by Keith Johnstone after our class with Nick Wood on Tuesday. I have worked on improvisational theatre before, and found it refreshing to jump back into the elemental and basic principals of doing improv.
What this week has done for me, is prob into what do I want to research? There are so many avenues, but after doing this work, I think I am most interested in neutral mask, mask work, and really getting to use puppets to mask the human form. I therefore have picked up "Masks, Transformation, and Paradox".
On another note, during the Shunt presentation this week, we were asked to collaborate in groups of three. I won't go into detail here, as we have yet to present our piece, but so far, the pieces have all been unique and intriguging.
Tune in tomorrow to find out about the end of the Shunt lectures!
(Here we are gathering ideas.)

Sound Theory Part 2

After concluding our session with Ross Brown I had discovered, and perhaps always knew, but never gave it much thought, about how visual of a society we live in today. I feel that it is true, we've begun to use sound as a filler, instead of really letting ourselves as beings, be immersed in our everyday soundscape. Sound is something more interesting than noise, sound is distinguishable and has meaning. We all hear, but when do we listen? I would challenge every reader to go out into the world for one day, and make it a point to not have their headphones in, and see what sounds occur in your everyday life. Make it a point to listen, instead of hearing. I'm sure I'll have more notes on this tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to listen to a new album and do a few sketches of images that hit me today during my embodied practices class. Hopefully I'll be able to add those here in a few days.

Sound Theory

This week, our course work covers sound and "How Does an Audience Hear?" lead by Ross Brown. Upon initially reading the email, which announced what we were in for, I felt at a bit of a loss, because although I am exposed to sound in my everyday life, I have not had the experience of working with it in a technical sense.
I thought to myself that perhaps I was actually missing sound in my everyday life. Just like every other person on the train, I had my earbuds shoved in my ear, not able to really experience what was happening around me. I found that I was in a bubble. So as an experiment to myself, I spent the weekend without them, and made a point to find the noises that I'd never heard before in surroundings that seemed somewhat familiar. Everything caught my ear: the click of a high heel on concrete as opposed to asphalt, an airplane flying low over the buildings, the music coming from other people's mp3 players, even the wind blowing paper against a fence as a train whirled by. It was a unique experience, that after doing the reading for the course, began to make me think about sound in performance.
We've become a society based on remaining and keeping to ourselves so much, that often times, we do not take the time to "stop and smell the roses".
John Collins, Scott Gibbons, and Paul Arditti all got me thinking in a new direction. Sound can in fact be "part of the fabric"(John Collins) of a production, not to be seen as something separate from, but part of the living environment of theatre.
I feel that even if a piece is not necessarily a known noise, say it is a more abstract sound, that it can be organic and grown organically from the theatre environment and the collaboration of the actors and the technicians as actors. Sound should not be viewed as a cold entity of hisses and pops and a door opening, but should be treated as if another actor is on the stage. This of course comes with living in the moment and a kinesthetic awareness that the sound isn't there to support the actor, the actor is there to support the sound.
I'm sure I'll have more on this tomorrow, seeing as today was only day one of a five day lecture series.