It's Show Week!

A Great Resource

From The Guardian:
Boal's Obituary

Weekly Video Updates

Natiah and Jordan give us a video update about this week:

Tech

Here's a rehearsal photo from our first run through with all technical elements!

The True Power of the Performing Arts

This talk is great and, in my opinion, very inspiring.  Skip to 10:43 to hear why the performing arts are so important in this day and age.

Theatre of the Oppressed in Action

"I'm not telling you it is going to be easy, I'm telling you it is going to be worth it."

Awesome interview with Boal

Today's Rehearsal

Yesterday and today we have been working on the transitions of our play.  We have actors moving all of the set pieces and handling all of the props, so we have been practicing to make sure they run smoothly.

Tomorrow we begin tech!

"The noblest motive is the public good." Virgil, 19 B.C.E.

Video Update

Here's an update from Julia and Ivana:

Wordle of our show

This Week

We had to cancel our tech rehearsal today due to snow, so unfortunately, we don't have a weekly video update for you.  Hopefully we can do one on Monday!
So in short:
We had our first tech on Tuesday, staging in the space.
At our Tuesday rehearsal, we decided one of our scenes wasn't working, so we re-wrote it on Wednesday, as well as rehearsed some other scenes.
Thursday we continued staging in the space.
Friday we did a first "run through" for our crew and costume team.  We were able to practice having a talk-back and answering their questions about the show and the process.  It was a great way to see where we are and what we need to do this coming week!
Elias also finished the poster design this week.  This isn't the final draft, but the final looks pretty similar to this one:

Rehearsal Photos

These photos are from a scene called "Gray."

Rehearsal Photo

First tech rehearsal

Today we are rehearsing from 10-5 for our first tech rehearsal.  We have the second draft of the script in our hands, the Black Box set up the way it will be for the performances, and the time to stage the pieces in the space.  It is a very exciting and productive day!
Here's a photo of the cast rehearsing their song for one of the scenes:

Update from last week

Weekly update from Zach:

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Marched Today

Occupy Wall St Protesters March on MLK Day

A few videos

Some videos from Natiah:

This one is Stephen Fry's "How to be Gorgeous."  We talk a lot about beauty in rehearsals and in our show, and I think this is a really fun way to think about it.

The second is a spoken word piece that is an interesting reflection on religion.

I'm Human

This video was put together by the students and teachers at Liberty Middle School in Alabama:

Beauty

Standards of Beauty: Then and Now
A recent article about body image in the fashion industry.

Marine Responds to Police Brutality

Carli sent in the original video of Sgt Thomas' response to police brutality during the Occupy Wall St protests.  I think this interview with him is an example of the positive things that came out of the Occupy movement.

“The theatre is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it.”

—	Augusto Boal

Guest Artist

We are very fortunate to have a guest artist coming in on Wednesday to teach us about Boal's Forum Theatre.

Gail Burton

Part Time Faculty, Emerson College (2005)
B.A. Harvard College

Gail A. Burton grew up in East Harlem NYC and graduated from Radcliffe College, Harvard University. She has been a member of the Medea Project Theater for Incarcerated Women in San Francisco, CA. In Massachusetts, as a workshop leader for her New Freedwoman Project, she has utilized spoken word and movement to support healing, sisterhood and therapeutic transformation on the journey to community re-integration with women at the Suffolk County Sheriff Department Women's Resource Center.

She received the Cambridge Peace Award in honor of Muses, her first play, and the community building and organizing activities surrounding the production which celebrated and created positive visibility for LGBTQA communities of African descent in Massachusetts.

She trained and is currently a member of the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory collective at the Brecht Forum in NYC. She has studied Augusto Boal's Image, Forum, and Rainbow of Desire theater techniques under Claire Picher and Julian and Augusto Boal.

Weekly Updates

Weekly update from Alexys and Elias:

Passport Scene

Migrant Rights Article

This is the source article for the very first scene we created.  We've been calling it "The Passport Scene."

Gay Rights

How to Explain Gay Rights to an Idiot

This cartoon came up in rehearsal yesterday as we work on a scene on gender and sexuality.

Today's Journal Entry

What are you personally going to do to make a positive change in this world?

Poster Submissions

Don't forget!  Poster submissions are due tomorrow!

Teens React to Rick Perry's "Strong"

As you know, I'm a big fan of the Kids React series, which has a new show called Teens React.  I am especially interested in episodes that focus on social and political issues.  Last week's episode of Teens React focused on Rick Perry's campaign ad.

We haven't talked much about the upcoming elections in rehearsal, but I think this video is interesting.  I also think it's a good time for the cast to pat themselves on the back for being politically informed (since most of the teens in the video don't even know when the Presidential election is).  Enjoy!

The earth without art is just eh.

Why We Do What We Do

7 Reasons Why Theatre Makes Our Live Better

Thought you would like to see this!

Time's Person of the Year

I bought the Person of the Year edition of Time magazine to read on the airplane.  As you may know from my previous post, they chose to honor the protester this year.  The article has a lot of great images, and I will bring it to rehearsal if you want to take a look.  The thing that struck me was one line that sounds like it could have come right from Boal's mouth:

"It was marvelous to see people become the actors in their own lives...You could watch them breaking out of their passivity."

                       - Olmo Galvaz, Madrid protester

Postsecret

Postsecret is a project where people can anonymously mail a postcard with their secret on it, and the editor posts some on the postsecret.com blog.  This Sunday, this was one of the secrets posted:

Beauty

Carli sent in this song because the lyrics reminded her of what we've been talking about with beauty.  Check it out!  Do you think we could use this somehow in the beauty scene?