BREATHING, CENTRE OF ENERGY & COLUMN

'Training is knowledge, knowledge is power.'
On the last weeks of March, we worked on the three principles of a rehearsal: breathing, centre of energy and column. We started with the centre of energy. It was very difficult for me to understand what the centre of energy was, and how to use it.

In one of our first exercises we had to lie down in position A and imagine that all the energy we had, was leaving our bodies. Then, with every breath we took, energy entered our body but stayed on our centre of energy (near the bellybutton). Roberto told us to imagine that our energy was like a sphere that spins through our bodies. After that, we stood up, focusing our energy all the time in the centre and we had to imagine that we were like Spiderman going down a building, but the building was upside down.

I HATED THIS EXERCISE. It was impossible for me to imagine a sphere, my centre of energy was a purple box... and boxes don’t spin. My energy couldn’t reach every part of my body. I fell asleep in the middle of the exercise. I couldn’t concentrate on the Spiderman-exercise. Every time I felt I was concentrated enough to take one step down, I lost my focus. It was frustrating.

To train with the column we did various exercises, and of course, I hated them all. One of them was about ‘waking our column’. We had to try different movements and positions to create our own routine. I focused more on the upper part of the column, so I need to work on my lower-column more. After that, Roberto put us in couples, so each couple would create 4 movements involving the column and then we would create the whole-class routine. At first, it was very difficult to concentrate because of the heat of the room (we were all sweating like pigs) and the laziness I had those days... but after a while I started enjoying the exercises.

One of the best things about working with breathing, centre of energy and column is mixing them all. On the last day of ‘training’, Roberto made us work with all the principles. We started by waking up our bodies and then we had to imagine a situation and walk around the room being always aware of the 3 principles of training. I imagined I was a human being raised as an animal. I walked through the room using my hands and back. I watched everything closely because I was in a new environment and I was scared. I really enjoyed that exercise and I discovered how difficult it is to walk with the hands and to be aware all the time of the three principles while acting.

I wonder, in what ways I'll put in practice breathing, centre of energy and column when building my character for the play?

'What is there, IS there' (past entry)

(Thursday, 5 March 2009)

Today's class was out of the ordinary. We were given 2 tasks: redesigning Roberto's class, and do a sculpture with some props provided by him. Both of them sounded easy to me.. but they were not.

The whole group had to work together ro redesign Robert0's class. First, we had to plan the layout od the room. Then, explain to Roberto whar our plan was, and finally, do it. We wanted to create some kind of 'theatre': we moved the chairs so they were located in rows; we used some lockers and black cubes to create a backstage, and we moved the desk to the end of the room. After that, we explained what our purpose with those changes was. We realized we had made some mistakes. For example, the doors of the locker that we used to create the backstage couldn't be openeda nd putting the chairs in rows meant that people in the back woundn't enjoy the play as well as the people in the front. Roberto taught us that the audience is the most important thing. We have to look after them. One of my favorite quoted from this class was 'What is there, is there'. Roberto explained to us that we cannot except the audience to suppose some things that are in the stage are not there. Everything we put on the stage should have a meaning or a purpose. I believe that if we are given another exercise like this, we should plan and think more carefully where and why are we putting the things where we are putting them.

For our second assignment, Roberto gave us: 1 bench, 2 black cubes and 4 chairs. The class was divided in two. I worked with Valentina, Rodrigo and Sebastian. We first started to do the sculpure and then the idea of what it could mean came to us. We decided that it would represent the way civilazaion is taking over nature. I don't think everyone in the class understood our sculpture. The other group had a whole story for their work and they really criticized ours while we tried to understand theirs. I think athat our problem was that we should have planned what we wanted to represent and the adapt the materials to our idea, not the other way around. However, I really liked our sculpture; I think it was original in a very modern style. I now understand that the artist may know what his/her work is telling, but the audience won't if the work is not clear.

Why is it so difficult to understand a piece of art not done by yourself?

MY FIRST LOOK AT IB THEATRE ARTS (past entry)

(Wednesday, 4 March 2009)

We had our first class of IB Theatre Arts on Monday 2nd March. It was our first sneak peak at the infite, painful, hard work that's ahead of us. I was very excited. I was pretty sure I made the right chose when I choose to continue with drama for IB last year. I knew it required a lot of responsibility and commitment: you are not only working in class (7 periods of 40 minutes a week), you also have to do reaserches in your own time and stay 2 hours after school to rehearse for the school play. But, responsibility and commitment are challenges... and I love challenges.

Roberto explained to us what the areas of study, the assessment and the theatre practices that we were going to study were for this course. I am really looking forward to the theatre practices. I find the Spanish Golde Age Theatre quite interesting, and this year's school play is 'La vida es sueño' by Pedro Calderon de la Barca. One of my fears in this course is the fact that we hace to do a lot of writing. I enjoy doing research (reading books, watching plays, searching in the internet), but when it comes to writing it all up, I don't. For IB Drama, we have to write one report of 1000-1250 words, and one reasearch investigation of 2000-2500 words. I hope I do well on these assignments. What I'm most excited about in this course is the are of 'Theatre in the Making', because I really like the role of producing plays.

On our second class, March 3rd, Roberto gave us some sheets ro tead for homework withe the title 'The Holy Theatre'. I tried to read it yesterday, but after the second paragraph I was faliing asleep. I supposed it was a boring reading but today I gave it another try and I found that it was not boring at all, it was very interesting. MY favorite part was the beginning. Peter Brook, the author, says: 'the notion that the stage is the place where the invisible can appear has a deep hols in our thoughts'... but, what is the invisible? I am looking forward to discuss this in class, or do some investigations on my own because I want an answer.

That same day Robert told us our first two assignments. The first one was to get a partner and tell him/her 3 facts of your life that nobody knew. The your partener had to invent a false fact and then present you and your 4 facts to the rest of the class. My partner was Diego. I think I didn't do very well in this assignment bacause I made mistakes while speaking and instead of just continuing with the presentation, I paused and laughed... I wasn't concentrated. I also think I had problems with my pronunciaton, maybe I spoke too fast. I believe it is good that I notice these mistakes now in the beginning, so by the end of the course I would have worked on them and won't have these problems anymore.

Our second assignment was to answer, in partenrs again, some questions about theatre. My favorite question was 'What does theatre mean to you?'. My answer was that theatre is my way of expression: it's an opportunity to be someone else while you portray a character, something our of the ordinary. I really liked one of Valentina's answers. She said that theatre let her learn more about herself every time she had to stop being herself to play another character. This got me thinking, and then I realised that she was totally right. You have to really know yourself: your mannerisms, your tone of voice, the way you walk, etc, to leave all those things behing and build another character in your body.

Finally, Roberto left us some homework for Friday. We have to bring 5 things we like very much: a picture, a smell, a song, an item of clothe and another object. He told us that we were going to create a little scene or presentation using those 5 things. The song and the object that I am going to take came to my mind as soon as Roberto mentioned them. Tomorrow I will look for the picture, the smell and the item of clothe. It worries me that I won't find a way to relate those 5 objects and my scene or presentation wil be a failure. Also, I think I will find it difficult to find a smell because...

Why is a smell useful in the process of building a character or scene?