Simon the Conductor!

I was reading up on Islamic drama. And they have a person who is called Master of Ta'ziyeh or Moin al-Boka. Now the role of this person is to during the performance direct, prompt, stop and start music, and other such things. He would walk across the stage directing the performance yet not participating. I was wondering about this.

Do you think the idea of you conducting our scene, since I am also participating, would be a good idea? Maybe not blatantly walking across the stage but using physical motions and looks to cue actions that happen on stage. The idea of fate or scripted events comes to mind. Some overpowering body that has dictated and controls all actions that happen in the world. Providing some nice alienation effect but also brings rise to the right sense of pre-destination. Not implying prophecy but pre-determinism. I think the key to this is not to perform it. To be the only one aware that this is a play and to not become part of the scene itself but a governing body that connects the audience to the action. Maybe a quick bow to the audience would suffice... something that lets them know that you are Simon and not a conductor in our world.

Thoughts?

Thought

I just realized... Everything that's in my head for this show right now. All of it seems to be stolen from or resonates very strongly with Cirque du Soliel. Just a thought.

And more!

Check it out

Commercial

How do I still find time to post and discover these things? I have no idea!

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/honda-commercial-uses-headlights-to-simulate-pixel-art

... i finally learned how to put a link thats not in the post title...

Concept!

Okay... not really concept... but a goal. The intention of the piece. The backbone as Anthony would put it.

This is my summarization of a discussion I had with Simon. In Norse mythology we have creation from two parts into a diverse world of Gods, Giants and other stuff. We have the inevitable and and unopposed fate of the Ragnarok. So we boiled down this mythology to a simplified cyclical form. Everything starts with simplicity. From this point we interact and intermingle this simplicity to create diversity and complexity. This diversity continues to interact and intermingle with each other to create extremely dynamic and intensely complex further... creations. In the end we reach a critical point where everything becomes to complex and complicated that the only option that would create progress is to revert back to simplicity.

Okay... that seemed needlessly confusing and without context. A little example. If we start off with three colours like red blue and yellow we have a very simple elegant choice of colours. As we mix them together we can create greens, oranges, purples and then we further mix it to create shades of teal, pink, auburn, gold etc... and at some point as you continue to mix and mix your colour more you will inevitably end up with a muddy brownish black colour as all the colours converge. Then from there we have to start back at scratch.

So other parallels we found are art (painting going from naturalism and realism to cubism and abstraction), theatre (melodrama to naturalism to absurdism), music (orchestral to jazz).

Anyways im just rambling at this point and sleep and food deprived. Ill just shut up now.

Idea's

Okay... so my first proposal is I do lighting for this piece. This would require our scene to be done in the studio. Also I think that would relinquish the reigns of director (person from who's eyes we are viewing the piece) to Simon.

My second proposal is that the choreography and lights physically interact. Lets say someone quickly enters a pool of light, then the light would quickly change colour,intensity,shape,angle? If someone slowly enters a pool of light it would slowly change and etc... Or this could be vice versa!

Also we should come up with a narrative so we can actually apply idea's to something instead of me just randomly spewing out ideas...

Her Morning Elegance

Interesting stuff.

Graffiti Video

You guys have probably seen this before.

Happiness is Contagious

Extremely interesting article finding a large correlation between knowing happy people and being happy yourself. I think their idea of a contagious happiness is very interesting.

The Country Where Death Is Not

Sudan Myth

There was a man with his mother. The mother was much afraid of dying, therefore she wished to go into a country where there is no death. The son said, "Where is a country without death?"

She answered, "Well, there is such a country, bring me there!" The woman was very old.

So they traveled into a very, very distant country to reach the country where there is no death. They turned into a village and asked for water. When it was given them, the son asked, "Is there death in this country?"

The people answered, "Dear me, where do you come from that you ask such a question concerning death?"

He answered, "My mother is afraid of dying, so she wants a country where death is not."

The people said, "Why, go away!"

They went and turned to another village. There they asked again and received the answer, "Why, what kind of man are you that you ask about dying? Go away! There is death here."

Then they went to a very distant country and asked, "How is your country? Is there death in it?"

The answer was, "No, people do not die here."

The mother was very glad, she said, "Well done, my son, you have brought me to a country where there is no death."

Her son had a friend in that town, and to his home he brought his mother. He said, "Here is my mother, let her live with you. I shall go to our country, and after three years I shall return to see you and my mother." His mother was satisfied.

So the boy returned to his native country and stayed there for some time.

But his mother became sick; she got a headache; she said, "Friend of my son, I have a headache."

On that the boy arose and called the people together. The people came and sat down. The boy said, "I have called you because of the mother of my friend, who is here. Now collect money, that we may give it to her son when he returns. For she says her head is aching; and because of her sickness her meat will spoil. For that reason," he said, "she must be killed at once."

When the woman heard this, she began crying, "I am not sick! I have no headache!"

But the people said, "Never mind, seize her, or her flesh will be spoiled." So she was caught, brought, thrown on the ground and killed; her flesh was divided among the people, and they ate it. The next day they collected money and brought it to the friend of her son.

And her son came back. He sat down, they gave him food, and he ate. He asked, "Where is my mother?"

His friend answered, "My friend, your mother was seized with sickness, so we collected money, -- here is the money! -- and killed her, lest her meat should be spoiled. For as for us, we do not die in our country; if a man is seized with sickness, we kill him."

The boy replied, "Why, should I sell my mother? Never!"

Then he said, "I will but go."

His friend said, "You are angry?"

He replied, "No, I am not angry."

In the meantime the people came and wanted to eat the boy too. His friend therefore went to him saying, "Go, or you also will be eaten like your mother." He accompanied him into a distant country.

When the boy came home, he said to his people, "My mother has been eaten by a lion."

That is all; and the people said, "Your mother was a sinful woman. Is not death in all the world, and should there be a place where there is no death?"

Welcome

Hey guys,

Welcome to our theatre assignment blog. I thought I'd start us off with a quick summary of the norse concept of Ragnarok:

(from http://www.pantheon.org/articles/r/ragnarok.html) Ragnarok
by Micha F. Lindemans


Ragnarok ("Doom of the Gods"), also called Gotterdammerung, means the end of the cosmos in Norse mythology. It will be preceded by Fimbulvetr, the winter of winters. Three such winters will follow each other with no summers in between. Conflicts and feuds will break out, even
between families, and all morality will disappear. This is the beginning of the
end. The wolf Skoll will finally devour the sun, and his brother Hati will
eat the moon, plunging the earth [into] darkness. The stars will vanish from the
sky. The cock Fjalar will crow to the giants and the golden cock Gullinkambi
will crow to the gods. A third cock will raise the dead.

The earth will
shudder with earthquakes, and every bond and fetter will burst, freeing the
terrible wolf Fenrir. The sea will rear up because Jormungand, the Midgard
Serpent, is twisting and writhing in fury as he makes his way toward the land.
With every breath, Jormungand will stain the soil and the sky with his poison.
The waves caused by the serpent's emerging will set free the ship Naglfar, and
with the giant Hymir as their commander, the giants will sail towards the
battlefield. From the realm of the dead a second ship will set sail, and this
ship carries the inhabitants of hell, with Loki as their helmsman. The fire
giants, led by the giant Surt, will leave Muspell in the south to join against
the gods. Surt, carrying a sword that blazes like the sun itself, will scorch
the earth.

Meanwhile, Heimdall will sound his horn, calling the sons of
Odin and the heroes to the battlefield. From all the corners of the world, gods,
giants, dwarves, demons and elves will ride towards the huge plain of Vigrid
("battle shaker") where the last battle will be fought. Odin will engage Fenrir
in battle, and Thor will attack Jormungand. Thor will victorious, but the
serpent's poison will gradually kill the god of thunder. Surt will seek out the
swordless Freyr, who will quickly succumb to the giant. The one-handed Tyr will
fight the monstrous hound Garm and they will kill each other. Loki and Heimdall,
age-old enemies, will meet for a final time, and neither will survive their
encounter. The fight between Odin and Fenrir will rage for a long time, but
finally Fenrir will seize Odin and swallow him. Odin's son Vidar will at once
leap towards the wolf and kill him with his bare hands, ripping the wolf's jaws
apart.

Then Surt will fling fire in every direction. The nine worlds
will burn, and friends and foes alike will perish. The earth will sink into the
sea.

After the destruction, a new and idyllic world will arise from the
sea and will be filled with abundant supplies. Some of the gods will survive,
others will be reborn. Wickedness and misery will no longer exist and gods and
men will live happily together. The descendants of Lif and Lifthrasir will
inhabit this earth.

Ragnarök does not mean "Twilight of the Gods"; that
phrase is the result of a famous mistranslation. "Ragnarökr" or "Ragnarøkr"
means "doom of the powers" or "destruction of the powers" (where "powers" means
"gods").