March 16 Rehearsal Notes

Space Project
March 16th Rehearsal
MilePost 5
Jonathan, Faith, Julie, Scott, Jerry, Liz

To Do List:
- Ripping of DVD to .avi's. (or stack of DVD's?)
- Binder for show material
- Look on Craigslist for mic stands,
- Notetakers...post Etudes, try and capture text, reference what text used/notations
- RCA Small Wonder, download sound codecs
- Printer PAPER!
- Multiple copies of text

Rehearsal Schedule:

7:00 - Revisit Etudes
8:15 - Break
8:30 - Review Source Material
9:00 - New Etudes
9:30 - Review Sequences (Notes from Movement Sequences)
- Focus on Blocking Notes, way things were done
- What material Jonathan can access regularly. Video, RCA Small Wonder clips, clips from movies



ETUDE REVIEW:
- Marc's Etude (3 pregnant women):
1 woman center, behind light, slowly rises up, looks right, turns right. Turns in circle, walks around light, faces audience
1 woman DR, with microphone
Woman speaking through microphone, "Purpose...", standing woman laughs hysterically, "Pardon me, miss" "Miss..." "Why don't you answer me?"
standing woman keeps laughing

- Faith's Etude (crickets, table), TEXT - In Search of Lost Time
- Bulgarian Nature Sounds, "night crickets and the kitten Petrova"
1 woman sitting at table, 1 woman enters, DL, "Have you seen mom", exit
Table starts to shakes, lights go out, lights come up, a new woman standing behind table

One take with woman folding paper cranes

Narrating text: "Perhaps every night we accept the risk of experiencing, while we are asleep, sufferings which we regard as null and void because they will be felt in the course of a sleep which we suppose to be unconcious...and I entered the realm of sleep, which is like a second dwelling into which we move for that one purpose..."

- NEW Etude: TEXT - selections from Proust
2 microphones on pedestals, L and R
1 woman by each pedestal, speaking into mic
Portions of text overlap each other, intersect each other, volume varies, fluctuates, moves in speed and intensity
Movement around pedestal
(1st attempt, used Solaris - Dream and Ill

Favorite sentences repeated:
Julie - "One of the few things in the world, that can open our eyes to what is new and unknown"
Faith - "People who love us, who believe they have fashioned us, who go on kissing us, morning, noon and night"

Question of movement improv work to use with this material
Faith - Song of the Goat(?)
Julie - Running exercises, one speaker in middle
Confronting idea, trying to make a character choice...but don't want that. How to make it ILLEGAL to make a character choice
Explore the words, how they feel, sound, resonate. The WORDS will carry
- Gatts (?)
- Resist urge to poeticize
Idea of transitioning, low-key melding with and into high-intensity
- low-key pieces that are intense, (feeling and to look at)
Challenge for warm-ups and/or training
Way to formalize a focusing routine (something) before moving into improv/movement work
3 qualities: Warming Up, Training, Viewpoint(ing) ensemble attention

One idea: learn a song?


Jonathan's Notes:
- Intensity, okay being slow, but has to have earned that intensity...audience perception of that intensity


Music Notes:
- 1st 1:15 of Natura Sonoris #1 is really creepy

SOURCE MATERIAL:
Julie - Foxfire Books
Covers ways of living naturally, homestead lifestyling, how to make things
Published in the 1970's. Students were collecting stories from rural living folks.
Stories (instructionals) are from different people
Julie read story of how "daddy" growed all the food for the family, we made our shoes, made our clothes

Jerry, how did they pick the topics? Appalachian. Stories about what people knew.
Lost art of living

Faith - Wanted to bring The Neverending Story

Jonathan - Black Hole
Mad Scientist, traveling into the black hole. "In, through, and beyond"
"The word impossible is only in the dictionary of fools."
"The Vortex, which allows us to move at incredible speed."
"We are going where no one has gone beyond"
Looking for the Ultimate Knowledge.

Ship falls into the black hole. Images warping, twisting, sound distortion.
Final epic image of ship flying towards eclipsed planet/sun.

Jerry - Star Trek II Wrath of Khan
Concept of exploring new worlds and new cultures.
Every week, new theme, new idea to analyze
Final battle between Kirk and Khan
Idea of dialogue on stage between one person and video of Star Trek II

Liz - Blade Runner (1st scene, 11/36...2nd scene, 7/36)
Scenes of android woman being tested to see if she is "real"
"I'm Rachel"
"How can it not know what it is?"
"If we gift them the past, we give them a cushion...to control them." "You're talking about memories."
Photograph of Rachel with her mother...Decker making her question her memories.

Reactions:
Faith - Relief to have over the top music and epic comicness of sci-fi
Slip in between that aesthetic and creepiness
Likes idea of crazy stereotyped villain, nice contrast
Likes the mood of Blade Runner a lot...very serious, not trying to be campy...
Themes in Blade Runner mesh well with Proust, but still not definitively drawn to Blade Runner or Tarkovsky as core theme of work
The multitudes of source material are helping us contstruct our own story
- Ideas for etudes, improvs. Inspiration.
- Little "somethings" that can take the movement further
Moving forward...
- not interested in action sequences
- wants themes of replicants, identity, memories...

Julie - Strangely interested in Black Hole...not sure if she was drawn to imagery
Star Trek interesting, but loaded.
Good - can be touchstone, 2% ST to vibe ST
Bad - same, 2% ST totally resonates as that, speaks so strongly as what it is
Blade Runner, Sense of everyday, which is familiar...acting style, subdued, not over the top. Attractive element, one can still connect with it.
Grounding of regular activity and speech pattern
No sense of everyday in Black Hole.

If we are trying to make decisions, we should approach the material in that way from the start.
- There are likes/dislikes about any of these materials.
- But the definite opinion Yes/No is always there...
-not to discount the material, there is a lot to draw from...but to move forward...

Jerry - Liked images of crazy sci-fi mind (Black Hole)
Wants to use "speeches" but only if it fits
Likes imagery of journey into black hole
Likes Foxfire, but not sure how we would use
Blade Runner, different view of the future vs "clean" future in Star Trek
We will we find a singular source?
Likes the contributing factors of many of them, drawing ideas from multiple places. A fusion.
How do we keep these ideas floating?
- Catalogue of ideas, for use later on?
- We do NOT want to lose any of these themes

Jonathan -
Trouble with the main theme of action is it is not interesting
Time wearing out special effects, not impressed by special effects
Liked Heroic speech about what is greater than us
Concept of "key huge moment"
Great exercise, 30 minute expression of what show is about
Tarkovsky not interested in sci-fi, interested in setting up scenarios that are impossible in the real world to explore the human psyche
Scenarios that are striking, dynamic
Could you take one aspect...form, speed, language...from pop culture and reference it
Seen before successfully as a "gag"...BUT what if it is serious...what if it has intent, profound!

Are we looking for a source material based show? OR a theme based show?
- Source material helping clarify theme of show
- Some decision that moves us forward...we will use that, or not use that...like/dislike

What is the next step of action that we take?????
- Thematic thing we would like to see?
- Have we seen Pop? Have we seen Personal?

Any theme is not frightening...only NOT using it can be frightening.

Point is to bring something that we possibly CAN use.

We have not seen THE source yet.

Liz - Reaction to Star Trek "sigh"
Liked idea design-wise of tiny picture, Huge sound! (from watching Star Trek on Jerry's phone)
Liked the "feeling" of Blade Runner, dirtiness
Wants show to be based on ideas
- other action scenes can inspire Etudes (aka Khan)

Etudes:
Continue using past Parameters...but carrying themes of discussed work.