Traditional Japanese Street Puppet Theatre Performance: A Drunk Scene and The Lion and the Butterflies.

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Last Sunday 24th, 2011, I went to enjoy a big party in Yokohama, the Noge Street Performance Festival. This festival has place every year since 1974 (this is its 37th year) with dozens of street performers from all over Japan and the World. Of course my main interest was around those japanese performers rarely viewed in our western World and I was not deceived.

Among many of those performances it was this Japanese traditional puppet theatre: charming, simple and very interesting. 

I took some photographs and two videos. Enjoy.

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama
(By Gustavo Thomas. All Rights Reserved. 2011)

Video: 

Presentation and A Drunk Dance Scene

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama 

Video:

The Lion and the butterflies

Traditional Puppet Theatre at Noge Street Performance Festival, Yokohama 

Bunraku Puppets at Kaganawa Prefecture Museum of Cultural History, Yokohama.

Bunraku Puppets. Kaganawa Museum of Cultural History. Yokohama (2011)

I've always loved Bunraku and seeing those amazing puppets was a real gift for me. The Kaganawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History in Yokohama has two Bunraku puppets in exhibition and I could take some photographs of them. 

A 19-Century Zoetrope in Yokohama

Kaganawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History, Yokohama (2011)

Well, Japanese also enjoyed the last in technology and entertainment during finals of 19 century, the zoetrope, a simple machine to provoke the illusion of movement. I just saw one similar to the originals at Kaganawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History in Yokohama, Japan; they let you use it so I recorded how this thing works. A nice curiosity.

Zoetrope

If you have not seen before any original image of a zoetrope...:

"La danza del padre" Eleventh Movement: Le père meurt pour dernière fois.

I had delayed your death but today I am willing to assume it and write about it.

There was no last time for me:

Your trail is lost and the pain of a phone call does not change my hatred for you.

They say you died in your bed, of that which you had asked for so much,

of what you had rehearsed so much: "Le père au coeur" comes to my mind.

You left when you were already gone,

already lost from my heart

There was no pain for me.

Dying, I pictured you in your bed

looking at the sky, breathing hard,

and thinking, "am I playing again?"

Your dry lips, cold sweat on your forehead, your hand "au coeur" in a sign of pain.

Maybe an extra beat or an excessive rhythm alerted your truth;

you then surely felt fear, and no longer knew how to stop it,

you got lost in your barbaric game of rehearsals

and it alone, alone stopped, without you to help it.

Distant calls finally announced that you were finally gone.

Some brothers wept, while others prefered to remain silent.

I never knew whether God spoke with you again.

I, ... I think not.

Those had always been lies, nonsense of yours,

remains of a total lack of adventure in your life.

Two Ghosts of my Theatre ( A Dream)

For years I've had to deal with my ghosts, who are my dead ones.

Yesterday, in my dreams, I was visited by two of them:  teachers of art and of the spirit, beloved beings.

One of them was finally using his time to fulfill the desires he forgot for living just for theatre,

while the other one continued his work, searching.

Both had contact yesterday night; they met, they smiled as their heads touched in a strange, friendly greeting.

I was visiting the one that was still making theatre, now in a faraway country, with people of different tongues and different places.

While I was telling him the reason for my visit, he talked to me while his head turned, getting next to mine, following the movement, then we both talked and turned.

I told him of my experience during the years of life we exchanged, of how everything was a result of his steps.

I had forgotten all my recording instruments with which I work nowadays, and I could only assimilate things, with them, participating, living and acting.

My two ghosts left, they got lost in that world that is my dream, fading in my brain.

Awake, they now remain just as a memory.









(Translation by Tadeo Berjon)

Screen Photographs of Physical Actions and Body Postures From Meyerhold's Film "The Inspector General"

Meyerhold directing the film "The Inspector General"

With the new possibility of taking screen shots from the computer screen I got some helpful still photographs of physical actions and postures of each of the scenes of Meyerhold's film "The Inspector General", video extracts I published in the last post of this blog.

I have divided those extracts in 5 slideshow-scenes to better define the physical actions and postures to observe, and at the end you have the video of the film again to see those scenes and actions in motion. You can see the slideshows here in the post or  go to Flickr (just follow the link on each video name).

Unfortunately we don't have the sound of this film, but I am sure that the physical movement itself can be a very useful source of study. 

Enjoy.

Meyerhold Film "The Inspector General" Table Scene

Meyerhold Film "The Inspector General" Seduction Scene

"The Inspector General" Big Group Scene

"The Inspector General" Seduction Scene 2 

"The Inspector General" Inspector on Table Scene

Video of Meyerhold's film "The Inspector General"

"La danza del padre" Tenth movement: Le fils se cache.

I'm walking on one side, and you're walking on the other.

I find you without getting caught.

I'm visiting the land where you live but I never thought about visiting you.

Years of not seeing each other, of you not wanting to see us, of not wanting to see you,

and fate makes me meet you there.

I do not want, I do not want it, I do not want to hug you, nor kiss you,

nor know about your life, nor ask how you are.

I look at you, I hide, and I'm still looking at you.

You look healthy, strong, your hair is dyed.

And you're still there, standing.

How could I know that this would be the last time I was going to see you!

And you will stay there forever,

and I will stay hidden, watching.

Extracts from the original film of "The Inspector General" performance, directed by V. Meyerhold.

"The Inspector General" A film by V. Meyerhold

Peter Brook: "(...) I saw a short video excerpt from his great show "The Inspector General" and I was amazed at the number of small gestures that one of his actors made. There, were not watching neither the system nor the method, but we did discover something far more important and far more useful: the work embodied. " (1)

I have the pleasure of sharing these excerpts that Brook saw a few years ago.

Meyerhold directing the film of "The Inspector General" performance.

Somewhere in Russia there must be the full version of this historic performance of Gogol's work "Revizor" (The Inspector General), but until now it's only accessible through some scenes; thanks to the development, in recent years, of some documentaries for Russian television, the original material has been remastered and excerpts that I show on this blog are, I think, of an admirable quality; in the few scenes shown here you can appreciate that "work embodied", as Peter Brook called it, where Meyerhold's search really becomes body and action in the scene itself. An admirable document.

This video complements the one I posted in this same blog months ago, Original film images from Meyerhold's Biomechanics, and which dedicated a few minutes to original scenes of the training exercises of Biomechanics.

Peter Brook: "I saw in Moscow some students who work very seriously on the biomechanics of Meyerhold, convinced that he taught it the same way. But even if one limits the biomechanics to this precise form, I do not think it can be useful for any montages today. " (2)

By publishing these documents it is not intended that we try to repeat what the teachers have done or to seek to imitate their work in an exact way, but to observe in a direct line their work and learn from them. As I always say, I believe that these original documents of the great creators of the theater scene place us, with much more clarity, in their "real" contributions, with every myth that has been created around them slowly fading away.

As Peter Brook did when he saw these excerpts, we can discover how Meyerhold applied his exploratory work, how far did his applied training go, his practical solutions on the scene. We can not (yet) hear the words of Meyerhold during a training or a montage, but we can indeed see the actual movements of his actors and compare them with descriptions from others and with texts by Meyerhold himself, and then analyze them and place them in our mind with greater precision. I strongly believe that, by doing that, we can learn much more from those experiences in order to consolidate our own creations.

Video: Extracts from "The Inspector General", a film by Meyerhold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSuhgGYVT_0

(1) That is a free translation from the original in French: "(...) j'ai vu la video d'un court extrait de son grand spectacle Le Revizor et j'ai été stupéfait par la série de petit gestes que faisait l'un de ses acteurs. A Travers ce minuscule extrait, on pouvait ressentir ce que Meyerhold cherchait, pourquoi il le cherchait. On n'y voyait ni le sistème, ni la méthode, mais on y découvrait quelque chose de plus important et de plus utile: le travail incarné." (Avec Grotowski. By Peter Brook. Préface de George Banu. Actes Sud-Papiers. France, 2009.)

(2) That is a free translation from the original in French: "J'ai vu à Moscou des élèves très sérieux qui travaillaient sur la biomécanique de Meyerhold convaincus qu'il l'enseignait de cette façon. Mais, même si on limite fidèlement la biomécanique à cette forme, je ne crois pas qu'elle puisse aujourd'hui être utile à une quelconque ouvre." (Avec Grotowski. By Peter Brook. Préface de George Banu. Actes Sud-Papiers. France, 2009.)

Gustavo Thomas Theatre Blog by Gustavo Thomas is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

"La danza del padre" Ninth movement: La mère est malade.

They say that my mother is about to die.

You come back from your exile, pretending to be crooked, limping.

As a model son you're repeating the steps of your father:

embolism, exaggeration, hypochondria.

Mom told us that our grandfather was lying, she had caught the old man walking well, 

with normal face muscles, with his hand well, 

she said that the old man was deceiving them.

You arrive as the prodigal son,

with your face twisted, your hand cramped, limping.

Like a copy, like an inherited model.

I catch you while others aren't looking:

with a normal walk, quiet, straight.

You come back to the room and, before coming in, you pause, you enact a cripple.

You visit your dying wife, our loving mother, you present a loving face, a crippled body, a trembling voice.

You are such a case,

I must either describe you or paint you or kill you.

Behind The Bullseye, A Performance by The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator in New York (2010)

I have no idea why, one year ago, I forgot to publish a post about "Behind the Bullseye", a performance by one of the young companies which have worked with The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, the mythic Richard Foreman's lab and studio in New York. Whatever has been the cause I am here now writing about it.

I wasn't really impressed (theatrically) by this work but more by its energy and idea of theatre. This kind of groups keep American experimental theatre alive, they has been (and they are) an important source of experimentation and new ways to do things and, the most important, they are absolutely open to expose on stage problems of our society, of our bodies and our minds, without those economic worries of any other theatre, two blocks from there, about ticket sales, stars cast, and thinks alike.

Program of "Behind The Bullseye" by The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator.

This is what The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre's page says about its Incubator:

"Beginning in 1993, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, in addition to its primary support of the work of Richard Foreman, opened its doors to emerging, independent artists. Since 1993 the emerging artists program at the Ontological took many forms, including the Obie-winning Blueprint Series for emerging directors. In 2005, the OHT reorganized the programs under the name INCUBATOR, creating a series of linked programs to provide young theater artists with resources and support to develop process-oriented, original theatrical productions. By 2010, the program had quadrupled in size, involving a range of artists and increased support. The programs included the centerpiece Residency program for premieres, two annual music festivals, a regular concert series, a serial work-in-progress program called Short Form, and roundtables and salons aimed at keeping Incubator artists involved year-round. In May, 2010, the Incubator received an OBIE grant."

Poster at The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator. (By Gustavo Thomas. New York, 2010)

And this is what the same page says about "Behind the Bullseye":

"BEHIND THE BULLSEYE is an original interdisciplinary theatre work; fusing elements of theatre, film, journalism and installation art to examine the shopping habits of Brooklyn residents. The Target store at Atlantic Terminal Mall (Brooklyn) is used as a focal point around which to explore what lies beneath the collective shopping experiences of consumers across diverse ethnic and class backgrounds. This Target store has emerged as a defining location where residents from various neighborhoods converge to obtain their basic necessities. With the advent of gentrification across various neighborhoods bordering this location, the Target store itself has evolved into an engine of displacement for neighborhood stores. This latest work from Sponsored By Nobody is a chamber play for the American consumer – or – how we are able to buy what we want when we want.

SPONSORED BY NOBODY is a Brooklyn-based theatre company committed to developing original work that is relevant to contemporary America. Founded in 2005, SBN has established a reputation in New York for presenting abrasive, engaging theatre while refusing to relinquish the idea of art as a catalyst for social change. While rooted in theatre, SBN incorporates multiple disciplines in its work -- borrowing from dance, film, music and installation art -- while employing both found-texts and original writing."

"Behind The Bullseye" by The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator.
(By Gustavo Thomas. New York, 2010)

"Behind The Bullseye" by The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator.
(By Gustavo Thomas. New York, 2010)

After watching the play I took some isolated notes:

- Me, spectator: I am a consumer, I know it, and they know it.

- They talk about all of us as consumers. 

- The Sellers: Our life is in their hands, as employees, as consumers. 

- Our life is in sale, but it's worth nothing. 

- A supermarket universe could be a metaphor of our life itself, of our own universe. 

- Our chaos is a play by the big merchandisers, our life is a game by them as well; but we don't know them and nobody wants to know them; all of us live in the same chaos, selling, bargaining, dreaming about sales, about new acquisitions during sales. 

- We are only consumers, we know it and we can not do anything to avoid it.

- Packages are object of entertainment, fulfilling our simple life; packages give to us color and shapes.

- We don't have our life anymore, we don't remember how we lost it inside a supermarket.

- A supermarket employee is a Shakespearian character: he has the power but "the wheel of power" is working there, tomorrow it will come the next and he will be out.

- Working at a supermarket really really sucks!

I saw "Behind the Bullseye" during a short trip to New York in January 2010, at its former venue (till end of 2010) 'The Onthological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator' inside St. Mark's Church in the East Village.

I'd like to add a curious detail of that evening: among the 50 spectators (more or less) it was Peter Brook, the English stage director. Short as he is and with those unmistakable eyes of him, it seemed he was looking once again for the avant-guard in the young generation of theatre outsiders. Good for him.

Slideshow: "Behind the Bullseye" Ontological-Hysteric Theatre Incubator (2010)

Trailer of "Behind the Bullseye"

BEHIND THE BULLSEYE -- 2009/2010 promo trailer from Kevin Doyle on Vimeo.