All the Tea in China: Part Two

Here are a few more rehearsal pictures from my time in Shanghai!

The rehearsal process was interesting, and very unlike any process I have been part of before.  The language barriers between the tutors and ourselves meant the style of teaching was definitely more of imitation rather than really understanding the part of style. 

There was little room for explanation, and often we would watch the tutor, and then copy the movement, or phrase of a song. This would be followed by the student repeating the movement upwards of 10 times, as perfection, or as close too, was definitely the aim here.

Despite the lanuage barrier, the relationship between tutor and student was quite strict. One tutor in particular got really quite exasperated and shouted at us a lot, though most of it was lost on us as it was said in Chinese. I wondered if this was mainly founded in the frustrations of a language barrier, or if it was just a style of teaching I wasn't used to. Throughout the three weeks I had my hair pulled and arms slapped into the correct position - all in relatively good humour for the most part I must add - but still such a contrast to anything I'd find or expect in my University workshops. Really I expect it was that they wanted us to really acknowledge and appreciate how hard Jingju is!

Despite this one tutor, I did find a very special relationship with the female tutor teaching my part. We couldn't really communicate via language at all, but we still managed to understand each other through physicality and expression, and often found ourselves having a laugh with each other.

The discipline and aim for 'perfection' was overall an admirable thing in my eyes, and something I think all the students took away from the experience.

Here I am demonstrating the 'Orchid Hand' used by female role types.

Here are a few more costume photo's - they really were beautiful.

All the Tea in China (Part 1)

Today's tea: Green Jasmine, from Liu Xiang Ge Tea Shop, in Tianzifang (Shanghai). 

This summer I took part in a three week summer school at Shanghai Theatre Academy! The course was an introduction to Jingju - a style of Bejing/Peking Opera. We had a three week introduction to the art form through a series of lectures and movement classes, before rehearsing a scene from a Jingju Opera, and performing it on the last day.

Jingju as a style wasn't something I knew a huge amount about before starting the course - so I really went into it not knowing what to expect! I've seen Opera in Britain, so I guess I was really expecting something along those lines, but I was proved wrong about that pretty quickly.

For a start, the style of singing in Jingju is very different to a 'western' conception of 'opera singing'. With a classical singing background myself, I'd been taught to create these wide, open sounds and tried to create something of a purity in tone with singing. Jingju Opera creates a sound quite nasally in quality, to the point where the sound almost resonates in the front of the face. The diapragm support still needs to be there, but the overall sound being made is all in the head.

Not only was it difficult to get used to singing in that style - we we're also singing in Chinese! My Mandarin gets me no further than 'Thank you' and 'Excuse me', so again, no easy task. The extract I performed was from 'The Fisherman's Revenge', which is one of the older Jingju Opera's performed, and was in an ancient Chinese dialect, as opposed to modern day Mandarin.

The manner of speaking was again different to anything done before. The whole style of performance is as 

far away from anything naturalistic as possible - and the voice used for my character role type () is a high 

pitched, nasally, quite 'girly' voice - nothing like my own northern accent! As I had very little idea of what I

was saying, my delivery was copied of that of my teacher, and honestly at times felt like I was just making

sounds - and hoping they were in Chinese!

   The costumes were beautiful, and though the hair and make-up process took an absolute age, the end 

result was great! Here is a video of the process, sped up, as it actually took hours! 

Gone in 60 Seconds Festival

Today's tea; Tesco Red Berries Infusion. Something a bit fruity for the bank holiday ;-)

Today marked the first day of rehearsals for 2013's GI60 Festival. Gone in 60 Seconds is a unique festival of one minute plays, written by writers from all over the world; but mainly from the UK and America. I've been helping to finalise the final 50 plays we're going to use, and am assistant directing the show which is to be performed on the 8th June at Halifax Viaduct Theatre.

A 60 second play sounds easy - though you'd be surprised! After reading hundreds of submissions I had a go at a few myself, and there definitely is a 'knack' to it. The comedic ones play like little sketches - but in just 60 seconds you've haven't much time for any build up and need to get to your punchline pretty quick. The more reflective response can seem rushed, as a minute doesn't give you much space to explore the idea. You can see videos of previous years performances here;
http://www.youtube.com/user/gi60channel?ob=0&feature=results_main

We've had some fantastic submissions, and started rehearsing today with a great cast. Along with the Halifax performance, a separate group at Brooklyn College in New York will also be performing another set of 50 GI60 submissions. It's really exciting to have a writing network spanning that sort of distance!

Will write more as rehearsals progress. Enjoy your brew!

http://gi60.blogspot.co.uk/
@GI60

'The Zero Hour' by Imitating the Dog. West Yorkshire Playhouse 14th February 2013.

Today's tea: Good old Twinnings English Breakfast Tea, we'll start off safe.
http://shop.twinings.co.uk/shop/twinings-tea/english-breakfast-tea/english-breakfast-envelope.html

3/5 Stars

UK Theatre Company Imitating the Dog explore a fusion of live action, recorded footage and animation in their perplexing piece The Zero Hour. Blending cinematic qualities with live theatre, The Zero Hour explores the different accounts of three couples in the final moments of WW2 Berlin. Through these different versions of the same ‘moment’ the characters lives at once connect, and fail to connect.

These characters are actors, filmed by a Chinese modern day film crew, and their lives are shot in short episodes of non-chronological narrative. This is further framed literally by a cinematic set; a screen filling the stage, projecting live video of the action, with hatches which open to show the actors on the stage. The layers to this piece are complex to the point of incoherency; using multiple spheres which seem to grate against one another.

The short episodic scenes, shot with the brevity and pace of a film making process, are juxtaposed with the image of an endlessly long train, a metaphor with science fiction connotations. Adding to all these layers of seemingly unrelated content is the fact the actors undertake multiple roles, performing different characters. At times the actors speak in German or Russian, and sub titles are projected onto the wider cinematic screen. At other times they speak in English with those accents. To say Imitating the Dog are really making their audience work to follow any form of narrative in this piece is an understatement.

What ‘The Zero Hour’ is seemingly trying to highlight is the falsity of fictions, in especial focus to the way we consider historical events, by literally showing the audience the ease with which they can be created. Though a baffling, and barely enjoyable theatre experience, ‘The Zero Hour’ really pushes conceptual boundaries in theatre. This is commendable, though it seems the desire to be innovative has come at the expense of creating a decent story.

@Imitatingthedog

http://www.imitatingthedog.co.uk/projects/the-zero-hour/

Fancy a brew?

My name is Jessica, I'm a theatre student and enthusiast of all things generally artsy-farty (genuine terminology there). I wanted a space to share my thoughts, occasional reviews and post about my findings and experiences of the arts mainly in the North of England.

I think it's important people make the time for the arts, and also make time to sit down for two minutes with a brew (and perhaps a biscuit if it's an especially good day). The purpose of this blog then was something to peruse for a while, mug in hand.

So, pop the kettle on, and enjoy.