Week #8 Faceless People and Maskless Faces

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mask, 
a form of disguise or concealment usually worn over or in front of the face to hide the identity of a person and by its own features to establish another being. This essential characteristic of hiding and revealing personalities or moods is common to all masks. As cultural objects they have been used throughout the world in all periods since the Stone Age and have been as varied in appearance as in their use and symbolism. - encyclopedia britannica

A mask is something that is present in our lives every single day, but it is one of those things that when asked to define you simply can't because it is to familiar, for example it is almos impossible to describe the word "the" or a color and this is simply because we are so used to it.

 I think it was on wednesday's class that we tried to define what a mask was and at the beginning we all the same basic idea of what a mask was, "something used to cover your face, used to hide and/or change your identity", so you might think that it is not that hard to describe because the description is very simple and even though that description may be correct and probably is the one that can be found in a dictionary it is too shallow, a mask is more than that. After merging together some more ideas we developed the definition a little bit more, it changed to "an object that covers any part of your face, to change and/or disguise the appearance of the person using it" something around those margins, but that one is also too shallow, mainly because I think that it cant be something that covers any part of your face; first we have to define what we mean by face, if we count the ears as part of the face would that mean that headphones or even earphones could be considered masks? and what about a mustache? a mustache can be grown naturally, does that mean that every person that has a mustache has a mask on? and the same goes for the eye brows and the nose, what about a clown nose is a clown nose a mask? questions like these are the ones that make the definition of mask be something complicated to come up with.   After a bunch of brain storming and after continuously modifying the definition I noticed that there was a reoccurring segment in every single definition, "To change and/or disguise" this cant be correct either because for example, if i make a mask of my own face and put it on does that mean that the mask of my face is not a mask when i wear it but is a mask when someone else wears it? I am not changing my face it is the same face under the mask, yet it is still a mask, and that takes us back to our first simpel definition, a mask has to be something that cover your face, but when we were really mixed up we finally hit the bullseye, a mask is "something that FIXES an emotion or expression on your face", that is the definition I like to stick to because it takes a little bit from every definition we had up to there, it is something that covers your face but it does not need to change the way you look it just needs to give you a fixed expression, a mask cant change so you need to express yourself with your body. 

But there is one thing that I am still not sure about, if a mask can move mechanically or by any other means giving the mask different face expressions and moods, does that mean it is not a mask anymore? and if that mask has my face on it and it is considered a mask, does that mean that my face is a mask?

Week #7 are we really biting off more than we can chew?

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A few weeks ago I said that we may be biting off more than we could chew, but I actually feel a little bit embarrassed now. We are getting there, each day we work on the puppets we get closer and closer, the puppets are starting to come together and even though I know that I have not been the one that has helped the most with the puppet making in some aspects I do feel accomplished,  I feel like we have all worked hard for this and that when we are done(its still a very long shot from here) we will be proud to say that we did it. Yesterday we also went to see a couple of plays, one was a peruvian play that I liked but did not enjoy and that I will go as far as say that even though I did like the actions, I found it hard to understand because it was a little bit confusing, a thing that I totally hated was the seating of that particular auditorium, I always have the same problem when we go there it is like they make the seats for people half my size(I am a big boy) and I can't never fit in there. The second play was great, it was a mexican play called "Mas pequeños que el Guggenheim" the only thing I can say is that it is my kind of play, lots of funny dialogue, common expressions, pop culture references, good music and a little pinch of drama, I loved it and I almost went again today but I had no time, if I get he chance to go again someday I definitely will. 

Going back to the puppets I want to say again that the puppets are working better each time and also now that we already have the structure of the puppets ready we had some time to experiment and explore with them and they are coming together perfectly. Going back again to another blog where I spoke about the body as a tool, I realize that it can not only be used with the mask but also with the puppets, using the puppets as an extension of your body, this is a way to connect the puppet and the puppeteer and make the puppets movements very natural. 

As of right now I'm starting to feel a little bit more confident about the puppets and I am starting to realize that maybe we could think of more ways to do puppets and try to incorporate them in the play but only if we have time, but is it too risky to do this? Are we really biting off more than we can chew or are we ready for a bigger bite?

Week #6 Using your body as a tool

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I have never taken physical work very seriously, as a matter of fact it wasn't until last week that I took into consideration trying to concentrate when doing it. I had done this kind of exercise before but I had never focused on it as much, rarely feeling what was intended and basically fooling around when doing it, but as I do this more and more it is easier to concentrate the energy in one pat of your body and then having every move come from that point. This takes me to my main argument, concentrating on every movement, having every movement originate from a center of energy and knowing where and how every part of your body is moving really helps you become a better acorn(mainly with the physical part of acting). 

I am trying to take as much as i can from these exercises because one of the characters I'm playing will be using a mask(the archbishop) I really need to know how to move and express myself physically to create the effect that is intended, because just like last week when speaking about handling puppets I said "a little thing can ruin the whole feel of the scene. "  with masks it is just the same, for example if while acting i do a head gesture and don't finish the movement or the masks eyes are not looking at the proper direction the whole feeling of the character and maybe the scene will be lost, and as a person that has been on both sides of the stage (as an actor and a spectator) i know that it is really hard to make and audience focus on something but really easy for them to loose focus.

Now that we are already in the topic of masks, I would like to say that even though we have not started with the mask making or the using i can already notice that it won't be as tough as the puppets in both the making and the using so that is something that makes me calm down a little bit and it won't be as stressing. But really, does physical work make you a better actor or is it just a way for the actor to use his/her body more as a tool?

Week #5 we are biting off more than we can chew

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I never knew that puppets where so hard to handle, I always thought that it was a very simple thing to do but now I know that it is a very complicated craft and I fear that some people won't be able to do it in the play. Last monday we had our last workshop on puppets, we got to handle the puppets a little bit and learn how to use them but it is not as easy as it looks; first it is really hard to make the puppet look alive because you need to articulate every movement it does to make it look real and most of the times when you are controlling a puppet you focus on something like the hands or feet and forget about the eyes, or focus on the eyes and forget about the feet and so on. 

The difficulty of controlling the puppets made me realize not only that puppets are no joke but that we need to really work hard on how to use the puppets with the people that will use puppets in the play, specially the little kids because it is really hard to make them focus and last monday we saw that a little thing can ruin the whole feel of the scene. 

All this took me back to last year when we did the Kabuki play, we practiced and learned most if not all of the movements of a kabuki actor in a short period of time, and that was the main reason why the play worked, if we could do this with this play and teach every actor how to "be one with the puppet" (including ourselves) we will have a great play but if we can't achieve this goal it is obvious that the play will fail because we will use a technique that we have not mastered and that will look terrible when done. Another thing that made me realize that we are maybe biting off more than we can chew is that using a puppet is exhausting and i don't know how many of us will be able to use the big puppets in the play, I say this because the puppet that I chose to use was the biggest one and it was really tiring and we were two people using the puppet and also I am a big guy so if I get easily tired while using one of the "muñecones" it will probably be worse for some of the other people using them and we may have to get the physically stronger actors to do this. 

We also faced another challenge that was that when using a puppet between two people it is harder to coordinate with them on how to use it, for example when Mateo and I had to use the big puppet it was complicated to make the body and the arms move in a synchronized way making it look very stiff at times and not real at all, but this is something that  can be fixed with more practice and it is less of an issue. Even though we had some trouble with the big puppets i feel that the puppets that used the actors legs were great, they did not look complicated to use at all and it is something that all of us can master with ease, but they do look a little bit difficult to make and that means they probably are. Overall what we need to do is practice with the puppets and everyone because that is the only way to make these puppets work, right now I feel that it is more important to master the puppeteering instead of trying to get the scenes ready because if we have the scenes but a poor use of the puppets the play won't be a good play, but the problem is that right now we don't have puppets apart from the ones we made and we need to make more soon. 

I guess that some of us will have to stay after school and make puppets so that this can work properly, but i really want to know, are we biting off more than we can chew? Is this going to work as a whole? 

P.S. Roberto I am really sorry, it was not my fault and I really didn't want this to happen but last week when i took my puppet back home my dog, Lolita, thought it was a toy and tore it apart, she is deeply sorry for this and says it wont happen again. If you give me permission to take some materials home and do it again I will do another one but dont get angry at her it was not her fault, once again she is really sorry for this and so am I. She said it was too fluffy and soft.

Week #4 Let's dance to Joy Division

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This past week we had 3 days where we learned how to make puppets for the play and how to use puppets, a couple came to school and they taught us. We started by first learning about the different puppets of the different cultures in the world; I learned some things about Bunraku during the presentation. We then went to the theatre where we saw two plays with puppets, a long one that we just saw half of that was about a woman and her dog and a short one that was about Ian Curtis the lead singer of Joy Division. After this we learned how to make our own puppets from scratch and we are still working on them currently.

                I really enjoy making puppets because it is a really “free” type of art, when making a puppet you can do many different things and make it as personal as you can. What I mean by personal is that when you are making a puppet you feel like you are just doing the puppet and not thinking about how to do it, so you actually make original puppets and you don’t need much skills to do it(you do need some tough). But right now we have just made hand puppets and not really many puppets like the one we saw on the Joy Division show that was a puppet with no strings and where the actors using it were seen. I would like to find a way of using this type of puppet in the play but on a bigger scale if possible.

                This past week I also changed from helping with the costumes and masks in the play to helping with the puppets and scenery, focusing on the scenery. I hope that I can do a better job in this area than in the other one (even though I was not doing a bad job with the costumes)

                As of now I hope that my puppet ends up looking good and I hope it is on the play even though I think it won’t be used and if it is it won’t be used for what it was originally made I am still hopeful that it will end up looking good enough. But making the puppets makes me thing that maybe puppets are more personal. So my question is, when making a puppet is it really that personal? And if it is, should the person using the puppet be the one making the puppet?