New character analysis for Death + Disability stuff

Hi my name is Death. I am the person that governs the whole of purgatory and makes sure that there is order within this so called chaos. I also help to make sure that the needs of the people living in purgatory are taken care of. So therefore, I make sure that their bed sheets are cleaned, they have comfy pillows, they eat their medicine regularly and whenver they argue, I will stop their arguments with my powers. Furthermore, whenever a newcomer comes into purgatory, I have the duty to make sure that he or she will be able to settle in comfortably. I have a better relationship with the people that have been purgatory for a longer time. For example Mug etc. However ultimately, it is my wish for them to move on from purgatory, either to go to heaven, hell or to be reborn.

Regret
I regret my role and identity as Death. Being Death, I have witnessed many people coming into and leaving purgatory. While it comforts me to see people finally leave purgatory, it pains me because these people will have to die first before they are able to come here. Furthermore, a terrible fate awaits them if they go to hell afterwards, and if they choose to be reborn, all their memories will be erased. These people, especially those who want to be reborn, usually wants to make up for their mistakes. However, only I know that they never can. Therefore, since I am the one who ultimately grants them their decision, it pains me and thus I regret.

I guess to show this regret, it can be physicalised by being bounded in chains, to show how even though I regret being myself, I have no choice as I am still bounded and trapped in my role as Death.

Disability
I am blind. God made me blind so that during my time in purgatory, I will not be able to physically see the pain, regret, anger and sadness that the people are feeling. However, even though I'm blind, I can see better than any person. I can feel and "see" very clearly the emotions and desires of the poeple living in purgatory despite my disability. However, my blindness does it affect my movements and I still function as if I have perfect eyesight. I guess to physicalise this, I can wear the black shades that blind people usually wear, and even move around with the walking stick that blind people use. And when I finally remove my shades, we can make it more grotesque with the use of makeup. We can make my eyes look as if someone gouged it out.

P.S. I don't think I have a realization but rather more of a coming to terms with my role as Death with the help of Sarah or Mug. My disability is also never removed.

Group meeting 23rd/24th Feb (cum TSD lesson)

Location: Blackbox
Agenda: Get the 'world of the play' for Hungry + Draft set for it

1. Main themes: Regret, Greed, Life / Meaning of life, Death
   
   • Regret: Love, Pain, Temptation/want, Waiting, Dissatisfaction, Unwillingness to move on, Is ignorance bliss?, Mother/child relationship (family), Sin, Suicide, Realization, Greed, Death
     
     
   • Greed: Disillusionment, Knowledge vs Wisdom, Survival of the fittest
     
     
   • Life / Meaning of life: Repression of society, Regret
     
     
   • Death: Dying religions
     
     
2. Key words for our perception of purgatory:
   
   • No where; universal space
   • Confusing
   • Smokey
   • Cold
   • White
   • Empty
   • Spooky
   • Dark
   • Dusty
   • Bright
   • Vacuum
   • Surrounded; claustrophobic
   • Industrial
   • Deserted; bare
   • Quiet
     
     
3. 1st Idea of RESTAURANT:-
   
   • Like a terminal where we are dropped off to have our break and we WAIT to get to somewhere.
   • Clocks. Everyone wears it. Death fixes our clocks at times. It represents our regret and that it is weighing us down.
   • OR All of us having our 'disability' look. Eg: Sarah in ropes.
   • Extra set ideas: Extended kitchen used for puppetry. Elevator cloth.
     
     
4. 2nd Idea of HOSPITAL WARD:-
   
   • Each of us has our own physical disability and we all have our own beds with our personal items that represents our character. That physical disability weighs us down.
   • Curtains. It allows characters to 'leave' the scene so they don't feel awkward :)
   • Death serves as a nurse that checks on us, cleans for us etc.
   • Sleep. We all do fall asleep in this purgatory and when we do, death scenes are replayed.
     
     
5. 24th Feb's decision: HOSPITAL WARD:-
   
   • Scenes:
     - 1: Adam & Eve
     - 2: Death drags Sarah in
     - 3: Guak & Sarah
     - 4: Mug's intro (Death needs to wind Mug up)
     - 5: Muichoo + Baby (Muichoo is playing cooking games w Baby)
     - 6: Lesson btwn Sarah & Baby
     - 7: (+) Muichoo + Sarah heart-to-heart talk (Baby plays w Mug)
     - 8: (+) Baby + Mug story
     - 9: Sarah + Guak
     - 10: Mug + Muichoo + Baby
     (and we got interrupted...)
     (p/s: (+) means additional scenes that weren't included in original script)
     
     
   • Character's disability:
     - Sarah: Neck casted
     - Guak: Spasms; twitches at times
     - Baby: Deformed hands & cannot walk properly
     - Muichoo: Wheelchair bounded
     - Mug: Has to be winded up to be alive
     
   
   
6. 23rd Feb TSD lesson:
   
   • Miss Norzian's words of enlightenment:
     - CONCEPT: We need to know how it LOOKS (set, light, sound, costume, etc.)
     - What's our personal angle to this play?
     - Purgatory = waiting. So, check out different waiting places! Examples: Bus interchange, restaurants, airport, etc.
     
     
7. WE NEED TO WATCH "DEAD LIKE ME" AND OTHER RELATED MOVIES.
   

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee we all can do it! Gambate!


XOXO
MUICHOO

Group Meeting 19th Feb

Location: BBx
Absent: Rachel Boo
Agenda:-
1) What exactly we want the audience to get from the performance?= We want them to be able to feel for and with the characters onstage. Be able to relate to them and their emotions.

2) What scenes do we want to keep and what are those that should be taken out because they dotn contribute to the DV= Take out

3) Scenes were going to be performing on Sat (27th Feb) for Grp Showcase-
(i) Adam and Eve (Shadow puppetry)
(ii) Sarah Death scene- Scene 1
(iii) Gwak death scene- Scene 5- need to edit
(iv) Mui Choo D.S- 14- Need to edit
(v) Baby D.S- 10- Edit
(vi) Mug D.S- Scene 7 (Sequence of death scenes are not definite)
(vii) Baby+Sarah+MC - Scene 8 (Improv MC in)
(viii) Gwak+Sarah+Baby+Mug - Scene 15 (Improv B and M in)

4) Timeline for the group
22nd Feb (Mon)- Improv interaction scenes 8 & 15 + Finalize Death Scene scripts
23rd Feb (Tue)- Script finalized! + Start making puppets
26th Feb (Fri)- Full dress run with puppets (IN BB?)
1st Mar (Mon)- Final structure + Ideas
2nd Mar (Tue)- " "
5th Mar (Fri)- Finger players come down. (Meeting b4 TSD lesson)
8th Mar (Mon)- Finalize puppetry + Structure
9th Mar (Tue)- " "
12th Mar (Fri)- " "
14th- 21st Mar- FINALIZE proposal
21st- 12th Apr- Write Proposal
12th April- Submit Group Proposal

Work for next meeting:
1) Death Scenes that need to be edited will have to be rewritten to bring out the DV more.
2) Familiarize yourself with the scenes that you will be improvising in. Get the essece of it, understand what its about, main issues/problems that arise, how it ends, etc...
3) Read up on the diff types of puppetry (Boo's blog post) and think about what would be applicable where and why.

-Priscilla

Meeting 5th Feb

Aim: Improvisation
In charge: Priscilla
Location: Yellow Box

What we did...:
1) Revision of lessons learnt from previous session..
2) Blind offer
3) Yes! Lets!
4) Status interaction in gibberish
5) Experts- Thinking on the spot and throwing the light on your partner...
6) The king game- Status interaction and chnage in status...
7) Check out and wrap up!

What i learnt:
1) A person of a higher status need not look big or act taller than the one of a lower status. Their interaction says it all. Higher status can slouch and wave about lazyly while the lower status scurries around frantically doing work...

Meeting 3rd Feb

Aim: Improvisation Session 1
In charge: Melvyn
Time: 6-730
Location: Yellow Box

Sequence of exercises:
1) Ridiculous warm up
2) Gift giving
3) I am superwoman/ Superman because...
4) Walking in the space in status....
5) High and low status conversations
6) Creating a picture.. high and low status
7) Creating pictures... in character
8) The 4 statuses...

What we learnt:
1) There are three rules in Improv..
(a) Always make your partner look good.
(b) Always say "Yes!!"
(c) Say the first thing that comes to your mind

2) Physicality, expression and voices of characters help to tell us what their statuses are.

Dramaturgy and Performance by Cathy Turner

CHARACTERICTICS
· Dramaturgical analysis looks towards the translation of verbal text into live performance. (35 odd)
· Brecht's dramaturgy pays more attention to context. The person is a mechanism that generates debate and action and the work that will be produced depends on the identification of a precise political significance of each moment. (39)
· The dramaturge needs to be the navigator who differentiates between what might be an important pathway and what is probably a false lead, keeping in mind the overall journey and direction. (176)
· A sense of being kind of close up and far away. (182)
· Dramaturges must be diplomats, finding the right way to pose difficult but necessary questions. (182)

TASKS

· Question- Why are we performing and for what audience? What is the link or bridge between the work and the world and its audience? (35 odd)
· Dramaturgy is produced through a dialogue between the play and a particular community of people in a particular time and place. (36)
· It concerns the seeing and forming the various links of things in the world, Settings, people, bodies, texts, histories, voices, architecture. (36)
· Make observations on structure, dynamics and communication. (172)
· Keep the project on task, retain a wealth of information and ensure all collaborations are working according to the same artistic agenda. (172)
· Research, giving feedback, documenting the process and structuring material. (173)
· Keep track of fast moving processes, maintain an overview, take stock, establish a coherent starting point for the ensemble, think of interesting connections between the different ideas. (174)
· Create a collection of different scenes, descriptions, images and ideas for the people to respond to. (174)
· Retain and organize information/ document everything.
· A dramaturge needs to be hungry, inquisitive, full of mischief and be able to throw something unexpected that moves the text and production process forward. (183)

List of puppetry

"A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by a puppeteer. It is usually (but by no means always) a depiction of a human character"

1. Black light puppet:
   A form of puppetizing where the puppets are operated on a stage lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which both hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colours of the puppet. The puppeteers perform dressed in black against a black background, with the background and costume normally made of black velvet. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets into the light, while they position themselves unseen against the black unlit background. Controlling what the audience sees is a major responsibility of any puppeteer, and blacklight lighting provides a new way of accomplishing this. Puppets of all sizes and types are able to be used, and glow in a powerful and magical way. The original concept of this form of puppetry can be traced to Bunraku puppetry.
   
   
   
2. Bunraku puppet: Bunraku puppets are a type of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago and formalised and combined with shamisen music at the end of the 16th century, the puppeteers dress to remain neutral against a black background, although their presence as kind of 'shadow' figures adds a mysterious power to the puppet. Bunraku traditionally uses three puppeteers to operate a puppet that is close to half life-size. In Europe and the Americas, the term "Bunraku" is often used among puppeteers to describe puppets that are manipulated in a way similar to those in traditional Japanese Bunraku theater, in contrast to hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, or marionettes. The characteristics of Western "bunraku" usually include multiple, visible puppeteers who manipulate the puppet directly. Other elements emulating traditional Bunraku theater may be present. The use of the term concerns some purists, but Western puppeteers have found the word useful to describe a style of puppetry that was inspired by the Japanese tradition for which no succinct English term exists.
   
   
   
3. Finger puppet: An extremely simple puppet variant which fits onto a single finger. Finger puppets normally have no moving parts, and consist primarily of a hollow cylinder shape to cover the finger. This form of puppet has limited application, and is used mainly in pre-schools or kindergartens for storytelling with young children
   
   
   
4. Hand or glove puppet :These are puppets controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet. Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples of hand puppets. Larger varieties of hand puppets place the puppeteer's hand in just the puppet's head, controlling the mouth and head, and the puppet's body then hangs over the entire arm. Other parts of the puppet (mainly arms, but special variants exist with eyelids which can be manipulated; the mouth may also open and close) are usually not much larger than the hand itself. A sock puppet is a particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock. These puppets, although limited in gesture to movement of one's hand, are ideal for quick and robust action and can be most expressive. The live hand inside the puppet gives it an unique flexibility of physique.
   
   
   
5. Marionette or "string puppet": These puppets are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer. The control bar can be either a horizontal or vertical one. Basic strings for operation are usually attached to the head, back, hands (to control the arms) and just above the knee (to control the legs).^[4] This form of puppetry is complex and sophisticated to operate, requiring greater manipulative control than a finger, glove or rod puppet. It is versatile and can be simple or complex. Performances can be graceful and charming, and fast and forceful action is generally avoided.
   
   
   
6. Toy Theatre: A puppet cut out of paper and stuck onto card. It is fixed at its base to a stick and operated by pushing it in from the side of the puppet theatre. Sheets were produced for puppets and scenery from the 19th century for children's use.
   
   
   
7. Rod puppet: A rod puppet is manipulated with wooden or wire rods. ^[2] Rod puppets can sometimes have a complete working hinged mouth. Many do not. A rod puppet can have a fixed facial expression. Arms are usually a requirement as rods are attached to them. A fish rod puppet could have a rod attached to the tail to manipulate this section of the puppet. Sometimes special variants exist with additional manipulable parts: (e.g., eyelids that open and close). Many rod puppets depict only the upper half of the character, from the waist up, with the stage covering the missing remainder, but variations sometimes have legs. The legs usually just dangle, but in special cases the legs may be controlled either from behind the stage using rods from below. It varies in complexity and offer potential for creativity in design and presentation. Their range of swift and subtle movements enables them to deliver anything from sketches to large dramatic pieces.
   
   
   
8. Shadow puppet: A cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen. Untypical, as it is two-dimensional in form, shadow puppets can form solid silhouettes, or be decorated with various amounts of cut-out details. Colour can be introduced into the cut-out shapes to provide a different dimension and different effects can be achieved by moving the puppet (or light source) out of focus. It is ideally suited to the illustration of a narrated story but they can also handle direct dialogue and vigorous knock-about action.Javanese shadow puppets (Wayang Kulit) are the classic example of this.
   
   

The above are puppet forms that I think are more popular. For "Hungry", I think that 'Black light puppet' and 'shadow puppet' are more suitable :)