Creative Act #3 - GEEZ!

GEEZ! By Putu Wujiya, translated by Michael Bodden






I was recently involved with Bring Back Pluto Productions and the Student Alternative Theatre Company's production of the Indonesian, Geez! It's an hilarious play that melts the fourth wall and is based in the theatre of surprise.


This has been an extracurricular venture for the cast and me for the last four months, as we originally mounted at UVic's black box theatre at the beginning of November, and then won the best of SATCo 2009 and got the amazing chance to remount the production at the Metro.



Much was changed, and finessed for the remount, and I say that my creativity was exerted the greatest during the second run. As an actor I've had significant growth during the past year, and with this growth in ability and technique I was greatly able to express the character further and further.
It was an amazing learning experience, and I'll miss it very much.

Academic Blog Response #1

In my second creative act, I presented a dramatic story. I call it so because I do not necessarily know how it will actually manifest in a theatrical context. In a way, I am concentrating on the process rather than a product, but as was mentioned by Jennifer Kingsley and Scott Amos in their own ways, the product is always looming overhead. This can be a challenge when creating a theatrical piece, one might become to intent on what the product is meant to look like and be like instead of making discoveries along the way and exploring the issues concerning the play.
I know for this piece of theatre I’d like to show humanity a brighter side to the darkness that we might have. In Twyla Tharp’s your creative DNA, she raises some wonderful points about how ingrained in yourself is your own creativity; for example, her example of Merce Cunningham’s chaotic creativity. I like to tell stories of larger-than-life beings with extraordinary power, like my Envy. I like deities, demons and gods. I have always had a deep love of mythology, and I always try to incorporate it into my personal creations regarding theatre. I love embodying something that cannot be seen or expressed, such as envy, or desire, or love, or pain, etc. It is a trend that isn’t seen in popular, contemporary theatre.
Continuing on the hardwired DNA, I find that my personal work is physically based. Movement-based theatre is where my passion and greatest joy comes from, but I am only at the beginning stages of my own understanding and development. I am sometimes hindered by my lack of technique. Richard Klein’s article brought up some fascinating points pertaining to being an artist. My anxiety because of my lack of technique and education halts me from realizing many of his points. I do not take risks. It is a negative orientation. And it is not action oriented. It is all about thinking things out.
But for this current project I find that I intend to expand these hesitations and to look outside of my box. I intend to find a process and commit to each action I take. And respond to each impulse and feeling. This was seen with the Envy monologue for I stepped into the shoes of the character and wrote from there. Improvisation is all about following your impulses and staying in the moment and ignoring the distractions of the past and future.

Creative Act #2 - ENVY

This week's creative act is a monologue/dramatic piece of writing. I have been playing with the idea of a play involving the characterization of some of humanity's greatest vices in a competition to show their greatest act of power.
I find it a challenge to write drama as i work best with improvisation and physical creation.
This is a depiction of Envy telling its story.

"[ENVY]: There was a man and a woman. Through a series of events they met and wed and lived together. Their life consisted of bliss and happiness.
And then the woman became pregnant.
There was a seed, my seed, inside the man. For nine months, it lay dormant in the man as the child did inside the woman.
The woman and man grew excited, and their love was tied tighter through her swollen stomach.
And then the baby came.
It was a boy, and they named him, Adam. The woman was thrilled with her child and took on her role of motherhood with the greatest of ease.
The man did not follow suit.
His love, his wife, had brought a new man into their very bed. Initially Adam was well received, but as my seed grew within the man, he grew irritable as my branches coursed through him.
His wife never heard him anymore. He spoke to her but she did not respond. She only heard the whimpers of Adam. This Adam had stolen everything from the man.
When my leaves finally bloomed, the man had just come home from work and found his wife and Adam asleep, him cradled in her arms. The man had not felt the heat of his wife's body in months. He could not remember when she had last cradled him. When she had actually spoke to him. When she had said she loved him. Adam. Oh, Adam had taken her away. She was gone, but right there in front of him. Adam was her love now. Adam with his sleeping, contemptuous smile.
The man took Adam then. The man took his own son, and killed him. Horrifically. It took a long time.
And when he was done, he stood over the remains. The woman found him and her Adam. And she left the man. She ran from him. And the man stood, and followed her. He went and ended their story.

The children of Envy are never aware of their lineage, but I find them. I show them. I release them into their birthright.
I'm the only lover they will ever have. "

Creative Act #1 - A Lion's Heart

My first creative act is a small painting. I took a piece of cardboard and pasted upon it a picture of a lion's head. I used acrylic paint to create the background, and made sure to touch only the edge of the lion. After the red background was the way I wished, I took indian ink and went over the defining features of the lions face, as seen with the mane and the eyes, in order to have him pop right out of the picture.
I created it as a present for a friend and he has always had a thing for lions.