Final blog - Richards Shields

1.
Once we moved as a company through the validating stage to the performance stage, a lot of themes started to emerge some we had not noticed before and other began to be emphasized more for the audiences benefit. Each character had the own individual issues that we saw clearly during the entrances to Porto, but we began to see common shared themes from the characters of Porto emerging such as loneliness.

Porto opens showing each character and their individual movement into the world of Porto. A common theme arises at this point as all of the characters in Porto for one reason or another all seem to quite perplexed and bewildered at this new situation they have found them self entering.

From the audiences perspective during the first ensemble piece of Porto it was the first time in which they really saw the community come together in unison. The characters all had a number of gestures which were repeated until every member of the community was in unison with each other. The next time the audience saw the characters together as an ensemble was at the very end of Porto when the characters all repeated the gestures from the original ensemble piece but at a much slower pace. The audience saw the transition of themes from total disorder and uncertainty to tranquillity. This was the major scene in which we could see the community tied together. Another point that needs to be highlighted on this scene was the positioning of the characters. The location off the chair enabled the characters to show that they had become part of Porto and settled in after placing themselves in their own subgroups.

The use of bags and items were extremely important when analysing the themes and issue through the Porto journey. Almost every character had a bag and an item inside in which they brought on their journey through Porto. Through the story of Porto the audience began to see the emotional venture of characters and their items. For my character (‘superman 1’) initially I felt a real emotional attachment to my items, they were a link to the past and also represented emotional baggage for me. My character used the playing cards as a way to make friends although once my characters journey really stared to become comfortable the cards became less important and the strain of the emotional baggage I brought with me into the world of Porto started to disappear.

“If you believe in your physical life on stage, you will also experience appropriate emotional feelings and a logical connection between them.” (Fischer-Lichte, E (2002) p.282)


2.
For me the most interesting part of performing Porto was the transition from the studio into the arena theatre where it was to be performed. I found that this was when Porto began to come alive and more realistic. It was a fresh change from the studio we had created Porto in, although it did come with a few problems that we had to overcome in a short space of time.

The first problem we faced was one more based on the technical aspect of Porto which was the sound and light management. With such a big performance space to fill and a constantly progressing piece this problem took quite a while to overcome. Although having certain lighting aspects and sound cues it forced the performers into not straying from the material they had and allowed us to focus and refine on the material we had. So although initially this was seen as a problem it actually became a positive experience for us.

A big dilemma though we found with the arena space was that a lot of the work we had previously rehearsed in the studio was up close to the audience but due to the Arena’s seating layout it meant that this work was not viable to do as it would not be seen from the audience members at the back. Other problems that arose due to the arena space were the entrances and exits of the new space. Although this did not cause any major problems as it just meant some scenes were carefully adjusted to suit the needs of the arena space.

One positive that came from the transition in performances spaces was that in the studio space that we worked from for a long time, the work performed in the periphery looked very cluttered and detracted a lot of attention from the action in centre stage, but once in the arena space that work was pushed into the outskirts with minimal lighting which enhanced the work performed in centre stage whilst also allowing the performers in the periphery to still be seen.

A last dilemma faced whilst performing in the arena theatre was that as we had many hours performing in there, speaking from the characters point of view; we became very emotionally involved with the space of ‘Porto’. It was hard to let go and leaving the space became quite intimidating. Especially on the final show when emotions of some character/performers were running very high.

“The task of emotion management is to rise to the opportunity, and prepare for the loss... We need to feel attached to others, and we dread the loss of attachment in a very pre-modern way.” (Robb,M (2004) p.255)

I originally referred to the emotional attachment as a dilemma but in fact this actually added the originality and believability of the show.


3.
For the duration of the performances Porto grew and was still developing after every show. For my character there was not one show the same, with emotions running differently for each show. The group seemed to thrive in front of an audience constantly pushing towards perfection, gaining more and more emotional attachments along the way.

I believe the RSVP model did still run throughout the performance. The performances were always changing, constantly developing and refining material. The RSVP model ran whether the performers noticed it or not.

For my character the main element of the performance that developed was the interactions with others in the periphery. My character worked with both of the superman/girl characters in the periphery claiming one corner as our property. During each performance the emotion to keep everybody else out of our corner grew stronger and stronger. It was as if we were like children protecting our fortress in a game, each performance someone new tried to get into our space and we had to find different ways of making them leave which constantly grew even during the performances as well as during rehearsals.

My character also grew during the entrances of Porto. My character walks on stage (behind the other superman character) kicking my bag along the way, the first rehearsal we had in the arena space it was pointed out that a lot of characters had become too familiar with the space, a point which I had not realised before. Because we had all performed for so long devising Porto we had actually grew accustom to it, but from the audience’s perspective, this was a new space which characters should have never been too before. This created a new emotion of slight anxiety, an emotion that was shared by the whole group during the performance. I believe without changing this at the last minute Porto would have been analysed totally different for the audience.

Also during the entrances the timing of the comic situation where my character and the other superman character both reveal their superman tops together was always changing, I feel the last performance we did was probably the best in terms of comic effect. It was hard to get the timing right for the audience to realise that we were two total strangers feeling quite embarrassed.

A further moment in the show where my character developed using the RSVP model was during the final performance, I had never noticed that the religious character (Waqar) which the superman/girl characters had previously encountered early on in the show, was sitting just to the left of my corner space. I accidently caught eye contact with and immediately turned my head sharply away as he did. As my character I felt it was appropriate to carry on taunting and copying him which is what I choose to do. For me it added another layer into the individual performance.

I found it great see that on every show different emotions came through from different characters and to see how the effect of different audiences reacting differently to the same situations had an effect on the characters/performers. The RSVP model ran throughout the whole entire length of Porto including the performances, which I feel was great as it kept the performance alive and was more enjoyable for the audience and the performers.
“A play is essentially an audio-visual experience. No two members of the audience see quite the ‘same’ play and no two performers are ever exactly the same.” (Shakespeare,W. Seely,E (2000) p.7)


Bibliography
Fischer-Lichte, E. (2002) History of European drama and theatre. Routledge
Robb,M. (2004) Communication, relationships and care. Routledge
Shakespeare, W. Seely, E (2000) Advanced Shakespeare series – Hamlet Heinemann