post number one

We have named our group the M&Ms.

At first, did not know what to do. None of us had done any DS skills because we had always been acting. So, this was our first taste at total theatre and i was looking forward to learning and experiencing new forms of theatre, even though i was wary that it was going to take a lot of hard work.

For our first meeting, we had thrown out ideas for a story first. the theme was "politics of identity" and the group had many things that they wanted to show. there was an idea about homosexuality and many more but in the end, we all agreed on Mark's initial idea of souls in heaven.

We began to expand on the idea to turn it into angels and how the protagonist, Heath, is a normal angel but he longs to be of a higher rank, to shine brighter than he already is. he is not happy with himself just being an ordinary angel. his soulmate, Livvy notices this and she helps him attain his goal to make him happy, but she sacrificed herself. she makes a deal with Lucifer, the devil but Lucifer(being the evil one) sabotages Livvy and Heath and gets them into trouble with the archangel, Gabriel. Livvy takes the blame for it and Heath does not tell the truth, in the end, he attains his goal by saving the day, but he forgets about Livvy and he compromised what he believed in.

this storyline appealed to me because of the fact that it was not about humans, rather, it was about angels, the beings that is supposed to be the ultimate good, but they also have their vices and they are fallible. this is a good lesson to humans, to show that when you actually want something so bad, you might think that you are doing the right thing, but you are actually hurting others as well as yourself. i thought that this was a lesson that most people can learn and carry on.

Thus, following this incredible storyline, the directorial vision or concept is: when one is not happy with what they have and want to attain success and greater status, they will eventually lose themselves and in the process, hurting those they care about and this happens even to the best of people.

the next problem that we encountered was the choosing of the skills, all of us we leaning towards acting, because it was in our comfort zone and we thought that a movement skill would really suit the angel story. so, we had acing and movement, but what movement. in the end, we decided on dance because both melissa and suryadi have dance background, albeit not modern dance one and it could be to our advantage. also, the dance would also suit the story because the feelings and emotions of the characters can be expressed more clearly than when just acting.

we decided on contemporary dance because it was the genre that we thought suited best with the story, then, we checked out books about ballet and dance exercises to read. we though that a mixure of acting and dance would be interesting and fairly do-able.

the roles of the group was also decided(see group blog) and i was the director and set designer. i am looking forward to directing the piece but i am not so sure about my set skills but that will be a challenge for me to take up.

so far, i think the group is quite efficient. we like to get things done fast and on time and we do not waste that much time with unnecessary things. i felt that the rules that we gave out before the group began really helped put our priorities in order. we get along good and i hope to continur this way.

the trouble came when the first scene of the play was scripted, we met up and started to choreograph the dance to the first scene together since the choreographers did not kow exactly what to do. as the director, i firstly asked my cast to do a character analysis- following Stanislavski's method- so that they understand their motivations. once that is done, we watched youtube vidoes on dance movements and we decided which of the movements looked the easiest and the most accurate to the mood of the scene. however, we did not set a music first and we did not have our own moves, most of it was copied by the vidoes.

we taped it(see group blog) and when we watched it, we though that it was painful to watch and furthermore, we did not know how to continue choreographing the rest of the scenes and i realise that we needed to change the skills to better suit our talents and storyline. thus, we went to get advice from the great one.

in the meantime, i was reading a book called theatre of movement and gestures by jacques lecoq and i had the idea of using mime for the story. i thought that it would be fun to learn how to mime and it would be easier than dancing. i pitched the idea and the group considered it. as a director, i think that our piece had a lot of potential and i felt that choosing a movement skill would better enhance our directorial vision. mime would be perfect also as a new skills to learn. i still don't know what type of mime we are going to use, pantomime or mime so i guess a lot of research must still be done. one of the inspiration included the play that we watched, which was samuel beckett's acting without words as i felt that the meaning of the characters can be seen clearly even when they don't talk. also, i am worried abput own lack of skills for mime, but we have borrowed books on them and are going to start practising them soon.

we also changed acting to multi-media as we though it better suited the cncept of mime, without the words, we can use the multi-media for our "voices" to be heard. i feel that this idea is very good and i also have several ideas of my own. for example, i was thinkng we could have "GOD" speaking and the smaller version of the angels' conscience and this can be projected on a screen, in this was, we can hear the character's thoughts at the same time make the piece more interesting. also, miss norzian had given advice, for example, to do more than project pictures and videos, like the chess game. we are definitely considering this idea and i think if we do this, it will add a lot of depth to the story.

also, when we were meeting at mark's, we realise that we can make our own sound effects on his keyboard, so that is also another element of our story.

however, i think that Lucifer(my character) can still use the dance move that we found so as to make her more interesting. this is my character analysis!

location: hell

nickname: the devil

wants: to destroy the good name of heaven and the angels in them and to create havoc and chaos wherever i go.

personality: i am a complete and utter narcissist. evil, sinister and damn proud of it. i am the epitome of the seven deadly sins and moer. i revel when humans -and angels- fall prey to doing bad things and that is where i get my power, as long as there is hatred, jealousy, chaos, war in the world, i will always be there, the one to cause or worsen it. i hate angels, those goody two shoes and good for nothing idiots and one they they will all bow down to me. i love to have fun, and since i have nothing else to do right now, i might as well wreck havoc with little Heath, i have sensed that he is weak and vulnerable and i have just the thing for him. i am meticulous in whatever i do and selfish. i will destroy anyone who gets in my way-anyone and i work alone. i am the best and you better believe it.

powers: i can control humans' mind. i am the most powerful in Hell and everyone there listens to me. i have fire powers and i can shoot bolts of lightning from my fingertips. it gives me great pleasure to intimidate people with my powers. i can change my appearence at will and i generally like to take on the shape of a human woman as i find it more comfortable and sexy. not to mention, i can wear awesome shoes- the only things that humans invent worth mentioning, darling give me jimmy choos and you'll be my sidekick in hell. oh yeah, i can teleport at will too.

relationship with Livvy: ah, sweet and innocent Livvy, who is so desperately in love with the weak willed Heath. she is pretty eough, i suppose but the sight of the pink and shiny wings turning black will be very enjoyable for me. her love for heath will be her downfall and i will make sure that she will be a creature of hate by the time i'm through. she will be mice.

relationship with Heath: he wants to be at the top, and i'm just the person to help him do this. this is the perfect opportuniy for me to let his wants and greed consume him so that he lose himself and he will not know what hit him. i will have among the angels, a selfihs and greedy soul and not too lang, everyone will be the same way. i love my plan.

relationship with gabriel: he is a SOB. i cannot stand the sight of him and his presumptuous self. i will get my revenge to him for all the time he bested me and you better watch out darling, Lucifer will kick your butt.How: my elaborate plan involves tricking livvy into make heath embrace his inner selfishness and desire to get to the top so that he stop doing good deeds and things for the greater good-bah! i will sabotage the souls and intercept them so that they go to hell instead of heaven. i will have more minions to order around and i like it. muahahaha(insert evil laughter)

more updates soon!