18th Sept - Final Choreographry Session. Costume and Makeup.

We started the session looking at some painted faces from Japanese Kabuki theatre.  These are the designs that will influence the makeup of Rai Den, Rai Taro and the storm demons.

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http://www.tokyotopia.com/image-files/kabuki-make-up.jpg

The storm demons will have black bases, instead of white, but also have the red markings.  Rai Den will have stronger, angrier makeup, to convey his greater power and strength, whereas Rai taro will have smaller, less intimidating makeup, conveying his youth.

We also discussed the costumes.  Whilst all performers will wear black, there will be some differentiation in style of clothes, to suggest role.  For instance, the peasants will wear many loose layers, and possibly hats, the gods will wear kimono or monk style garbs, and the storm demons will wear leggings and tshirts, enabling them to move around and showing of the lines of movement in their styleised dance.

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The narrator will be the only performer dressed in colour.  She is a fairy, and hopefully, we will get some hint of the Japanese in her costume, but with short time and short supply of dressmakers, we may end up improvising with some scarves and netting.

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We have finally got to the end of the story in terms of choreography.  There is still some choreography for the narrator, and sometimes she may have to improvise.  However, for this style of performance, which is very deliberate and focussed, my feeling is that it is better if all movements are well rehearsed.


Finally for this blog, a mention about how sometimes a moment of drama can conflict with a person's real life and experience.  This is what happened during this session, as an actor found that they had big difficulties when asked to portray something that brought up a lot of personal issues?  We came across this situation in today's rehearsal, and whilst we didn't come across any definite solutions, I am left with a few thoughts.


1. Firstly, it is important for the actor concerned to set the pace at this point, and very positive if they are able to communicate the difficulties that they are experiencing.  


2. Implications for the way that we are working are that whilst we normally seek to find an authentic energy in visualising and internalising the circumstances and history of the role and themes conveyed, in some cases, we may instead use a more technical approach, less reliant on a projection of inner experience and more reliant on using method and logic.


3.  Implications for a therapeutic group - What came up in the session would have been very useful material for a therapy group, and the group member would have had the opportunity to explore their response to the themes they were working with in more detail, and if they wanted, to share these experiences with other group members.  As it is, the fact that the group member was able to recognise and acknowledge what they were experiencing, meant that they were able to reflect on this later, and begin to internalise what the experience meant to them.