Responding and Developing - Andy.

Response to stimulus

Our stimulus was a play called The Government Inspector by Vsevold Meyerhold. Meyerhold (1874-1940) was A Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. He was well known for his abstract pieces involving symbolism and being a 'physical being'. His ideas changed the way theatre was performed and the ways in which it was perceived. Meyerhold was often criticised for his experiments because they were so avant-guard, a thing which the Soviet Russian government, at the time did not agree with, soon after Stalin came into power, Meyerholds theatre was closed down. He died in 1940 by execution following torture when he was arrested by the Soviet police after his wife's body was found in thier home. During torture he was made to admit that he was working for the British and Japanese governement. He was executed on 2 Febuary 1940.

The play The Government Inspector, is the story of a poor man called Klhestakov who enters a town that is expecting an important Government Inspector to be arriving in town any day, they all wish to please the Inspector so that they can each ask him for things that they need. The town, not used to many strangers, mistake the penniless Klhestakov for the Inspector, and offer him free food, drink and a place to stay, Klhestakov, not wanting to give the game away, goes along with it and gains lots of free things, including the heart of the daughter of a weathly town member, and Klhestakov leaves the town a weathly man, it is only after his departure that the town hears news that the inspector is on his way but will be late, causing them to realise that Klhestakov was not the Inspector, but is now long gone. 

There are many possible things we could have done with this performance, we opted to choose one scene. Some of the scenes we could have chosen were:-

• The opening scene - This is where the town members are preparing for the Inspectors arrival, they prepare the town, cleaning their houses and shops, making the place presentable.
  
  - This could be used in a performance by using Mime, this would involve using over exaggurated movement, large facial expressions and many still images. By using the influence of Silent Comedy (Something largely used in Meyerholds time) we could show the rush and the scurry of the townspeople as they try to prepare the town for the Inspector. There could be many still images used, they could be used to show the facial expressions of the characters as they rush to perfect their town in preperation for the Inspectors arrival. By using silence, movement is holding full focus, and becomes the only thing that is used, which would be good for this scene because it is such a visually noisy scene, there is much going on at once, all the characters movements could be out of sync and messy, increasing in speed as this goes on, to show the urgency the characters feel.
• Klhestakovs Arrival - Klhestakov arrives in town and is instantly surrounded by people assuming he is the inspector, Khlestakov then realises what is happening and adds fuel to the fire by accepting their gifts.
  
  - This scene could be easily translated into performance by using Mime, the scene could begin with all the townspeople still preparing the town, the scene could be set in a bar, Klhestakov walks in and the entire bar turn to face him, there is a brief pause whilst the people realise who he is, (or who they think he is) there could then be a sudden rush of movement, as every person in the bar goes to greet him, they offer him free food and drinks, and as Klhestakov at this point does not realise what is going on, he greatfully accepts the gifts, he then begins to realise the full situation and decides to go along with it, he is offered drink after drink, which causes him to become a little drunk.
• The Dinner Scene - Klhestakov arrives horribly drunk to a dinner party he has arranged to go to, whilst there, he acts incredibly inappropriately, and very unlike an inspector would, but the hosts, not wanting to upset the Inspector, for they want him to improve their town, allow his behaviour to continue, giving him as much food and alcohol as he wants. He takes a liking to the daughter of the family, who is rather disgusted at the man's behaviour but also does not want to offend him.
  
  - This scene can be very visually noisy, as it is something that can involve constant movement, this is also a perfect oppertunity for exaggurated movement and facial expression as Klhesatkovs drunken behaviour can be portrayed very comically. By using over exaggurated movement, this scene can be very comical. Whilst it can be done effectively in silent mime, it may be funnier if done without silence as the dialogue of a drunken Klhestakov will mean there is more chance for reactions and awkward silences, rather than just complete silence throughout.
• The Bribe Scene - In this scene, the town members, still under the impression that Klhestakov is the Inspector, attempt to bribe him to fix the parts of the town they need to be fixed or improved. Klhestakov, still undetected, accepts all bribes, causing the townspeople to believe that when he leaves the town, he will return to help them with their problems. He is instead just accepting all bribes with the intentions of leaving. He then becomes bored of the bribes, becoming so used to them, and having so much that they mean nothing to him, he eventually starts to reject them.
  
  - This could be done by creating something we previously created called 'The Bribe Machine' which shows the imput of the bribes to Klhestakov and his output in responding, saying that he will get them what they need, or do what they want in the future, whilst they are unaware that he is an imposter. This would be done by creating a cycle of bribes, people continue to offer him various things in return for favours, but he will gradually become bored, and one by one, start to reject the offerings. Another way this bribe machine could come to an end, and the cycle disrupted, is rather than the cycle breaking one by one, he could just reject all offerings at once, causing chaos within the bribe machine to break out.

Developing the chosen stimulus


We chose to perform The Dinner Scene. I worked with James Sampson, Taran Maguire and Autumn Anderson. We researched into Meyehold and his work, and also looked at influences on him at the time, such as things like the way 19th Century Russia's government was at the time (Soviet Russia was very much against avant-guard theatre, and so Meyerholds work was frowned upon) we also looked at the influence of Silent Theatre, and considered it's use in our performance, and whilst we thought it would be effective in the scene, we felt that dialogue would vastly improve the comedic effect of the scene.

We began the scene with Khlestakov staggering about and the man and his daughter trying to keep him upright whilt the wife, stood behind him waves frantically, not wanting to be touched by the drunken man. Khlestakov stands upright for a moment before falling backwards onto the wife, she then pushes him forwards in disgust onto the floor. (An influence of the slapstick theatre we found whilst researching) The husband and daughter, wanting to keep him happy, pick him up and put him on the table, he then goes to try to get into his seat and falls over, rolling about and writhing upside down in his chair, whilst everyone else takes their seat. When finally sat upright, the Husband goes to talk to Khlestakov but is interupted when he falls off his chair and begins the entire awkward sequence again, he eventually sits on his chair correctly, looking mildly confused. The Husband and Wife are on the end of the table while the daughter and Khlestakov sit next to each other in the middle. Throughout the performance he tries to put his arm around her, to which she screams and pushes him away, or runs off to fetch more drinks.

Each time Khlestakov tries to put his arm around the daughter, she screams and gets up to get more drinks, causing the already drunken Klhestakov to become even more drunk. He becomes more inappropriate as the night progresses, the cycle of eating, screaming and fetching drinks is repeated, getting faster and faster, this is because from our research we know that comedic repitition is very effective, it also creates something similar to the bribe machine, but instead of bribing Klhestakov, the family is instead keeping him pleased, the 'machine' then collapses when Klhestakov passes out.




Note: I have three blogs, one for you, one for Penny and Rachel and one for Sarah, i had accidentally posted this on Penny and Rachel's blog which is why it wasn't here, so sorry about that! I must look so silly :P But i used your comment to improve it so thank you for the comment because it probably wouldn't have been very good without it. Thanks! (: ~Hayley! ♪

7/12/10

Period 1 - We spent this lesson in our groups deciding what to do for Meyerhold, i worked with Autumn, James and Taran, like i did for my previous group when we did mime.

We had to choose a scene from The Government Inspector, we chose Act 3; Wherein Khlestakov has been invited for dinner by a weathly family who are hoping to win him over so that they get what they want from him, he is however, very drunnk and therefor rude and arrogant. Despite this, they still try to keep him happy, thinking that they will gain from doing so.

We started the drama with Khlestakov staggering about and the Man and his daughter trying to keep him upright whilt the wife, stood behind him waves frantically, Khlestakov stands upright for a moment before falling backwards onto the wife, she then pushes him forwards in disgust onto the floor. The husband and daughter, wanting to keep him happy, pick him up and put him on the table, he then goes to try to get into his seat and falls over, rolling about and writhing upside down in his chair, whilst everyone else takes their seat. When finally sat upright, the Husband goes to talk to Khlestakov but is interupted when he falls off his chair and begins the entire awkward sequence again, he eventually sits on his chair correctly, looking mildly confused. The Husband and Wife are on teh end of the table while the daughter and Khlestakov sit next to each other in the middle. Throughout the performance he tries to put his arm around her, to which she screams and pushes him away, or runs off to fetch more drinks.

At one point, the Wife says that she is glad the Khlestakov likes her daughter, to which he drunkenly replies "What did you say about my family?! My dad was... was... was a GOOD WOMAN." there is then a slurred joke about his father being a woman, and everyone seems disgusted. Khlestakov interupts many times during dinner, when they are about to say grace for example, the wife says "Dear lord..." and is then interrupted by him saying "We thank you for all the grape pickers of the world..." Before collapsing into his dinner.

By the end of the night, the trio decide to get him to drink so much that he passes out and doesn't remember the next morning, which is in the end what turns out to happen.

3/12/10

These lessons were given up to watch the pantomime performance.

30/11/10

Period 1 - We worked on how to move in the way that a beetle does, scurrying across the mat in an insect like fashion. We then worked on the ten stages of beetle to man, each stage getting closer to ten, we had to become more human than beetle, transforming into a man by the end. We then got into groups and had to devise a short peice wherein gregor transformed from man into beetle the more his family pestered him into doing things for them, so the more stressed he gets, the more beetle like he becomes, we discussed that Gregor becomes a beetle because a beetle scurries around, which is what Gregor does for his family all the time. In period 3 we performed it to the group, and watched other performances of it.

26/11/10

23/11/10

In this lesson we read a story about a man called Gregor who woke up one day and he had turned into a beetle. We had to recreate the everyday morning routine of Gregor and his parents and sister, and then the routine and how it is disturbed when Gregor stays in bed.

Abi, Taran and myself worked in a group together, we created a small peice wherein it starts with the two parents and Gregor's sister eating breakfast, the sister eats breakfast while the father reads the paper and the mother cooks, everything runs smoothly, then when gregor is missing, things start to fall apart, the mother goes to take the fathers paper from him as per usual but he has put it down whilst looking for Gregor, so she has nothing to take, the sister has no tea because no one has poured it for her, she then looks for Gregor also, as she does so, the father leans back on his chair to further search for his son, and falls from it, disturbing the mother and making her drop her food that she is cooking, the sister, unable to find Gregor sits back down to eat breakfast, to tired to notice anything is amiss.

23/11/10

We studied Artaud in this lesson. Artaud was part of the avant-garde movement. He was reacting against the impressionist painters and naturalism in the theatre. He joined the surrealist movement then publicly distanced himself from them. Despite this, there are signs of influences of surrealism in the theatre of cruelty.
 Artaud was a drug addict, he was addicted to Opium, which in those days was a trend. At the age of 40 was declared insane and spent 9 years in a mental institution.

He believed theatre could be used as a means of spiritual an psychological healing. He believed, like Aristotle, in the cathartic value of the theatre. Like Freud, he believed that humans hide within themselves secret, dangerous thoughts, feelings.

Total Theatre.
Like Meyerhold Artaud sought a theatre that utilised all of the elements of the theatre available: acting, stage, lighting, sound and props. He focused on the visual, rather than dialog. He sought to emotionally affect his audience. He had the audience in the centre and the performance going on around them. Movement/Gesture Three types of movement: Naturalistic, Expressionistic, and Ritualistic.
Believed in mixing realistic action with expressive movements that depict the internal world. Used symbolic, exaggerated and distorted gestures gesture in order to communicate psychologically with the audience rather than through words. He liked his human characters to turn into animals, puppets or mechanical beings. We did a breath exercise, wherein we got into three groups and ha to create the breathing sounds of three emotions: fear, anger and happiness. We then watched an Artaud clip of a woman performing.