ISTA/Scene March 07

for this show, although you can buy a
sound effects tape from the publisher.
The part we are most excited about is
our Pink Panthers (PP’s). We have 7
female and 5 male PP’s who function
as entertainers between scenes but
also move set and props on stage.
This allows the show to run smoothly
without the need to shut the curtain for
set changes. Our dance
choreographer also has them walking
over chairs in the audience, belaying
off the balcony and clowning for the
audience during intermission. They
have become as important to the story
as the story itself. The students chosen
as PPs were chosen based on their
dance skills, gymnastics, athletic ability
and/or circus skills. The PP’s are also
developing their own specific
personalities, such as the shy one, the
rebel, the clown character, etc.
Neil Harris and Flicky Lappish –
Shatin College, Hong Kong
OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD by
Timberlake Wertenbaker
The play is set in Australia 1789. A
young lieutenant is directing rehearsals
of the first play ever to be staged in that
country. With only two copies of the
text, a cast of convicts, and one leading
lady who may be about to be hanged,
they struggle on and eventually become
transformed by the redemptive,
transcendental power of theatre.
In order to explore the play practically,
we began by looking at Brechtian
devices that might be used in order to
tell the story more effectively: narration,
cross cutting, addressing the
audience, stylized acting, titles and
slogans were all part of this process. It
is a good IB project as the demands of
the script (overlapping dialogue, for
example) and the doubling-up of
characters presents itself as a
challenge for the actors. There is a fair
amount of research the cast can do
into the characters they are playing as
well as the context in which the play is
set. The “play-within-a-play” element
allowed the students to research
Restoration comedy in THE
RECRUITING OFFICER that the
convicts perform.
OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD also
presents a group with some strong
ensemble moments that encourages
the group of students to work on
performance skills, another element of
the IB Theatre Arts course. To this end,
we started by looking at many of Boal’s
rhythm games and ‘shoals of fish’
exercises as well as Liz’s monologue at
the beginning of Act II to get the group
thinking about using choral speech. We
also found good use for Max Stafford
Clarke’s technique of using playing
cards to determine character status in
scenes. These rehearsal techniques
are always good for the students to
record in their portfolios and can be reused
when working on their Practical
Play Analysis (IB Theatre Arts
component). At the end of the scheme
of work all of the lines and characters
were divided up, a good opportunity
for students to help determine the
shape of the piece. The project, which
is still ongoing, placed the students in
charge of one responsibility each such
as set design, costume, lighting and
direction. We wish them well in their
new theatrical landscape!
ANTIGONE: two theatrical
approaches
The group began by improvising on the
theme of moral dilemma. The scenario
is: there has been some professional
espionage in the company, the MD has
to decide who is deserving of
promotion, who dismissal. Pursuing
the same theme but in a different
context, the group looked at
ANTIGONE by Jean Anouilh. After
working on presenting the Prologue as
an ensemble, further extracts were
chosen for performance.
Simultaneously the group researched
the techniques of Brecht and
Stanislavski and used their practice to
interpret the text. The group was then
directed to compare and contrast the
extract with a similar moment in the
text of Sophocles and at some time in
the performance move between the
two texts. These moments of switching
between the two texts proved to be
quite theatrical. The costumes used
were simple, with the title character in
white and with changes between
actors realized on stage as a
distancing device. Finally, the reasons
for the different attitudes to the key
protagonists were discussed and
decisions reached about the
playwrights’ intentions and the
historical/political context. The group
then returned to working as an
ensemble for the final moments of the
performance that was staged infront of
parents in a studio laid out in a variety
of stage configurations including
traverse. Working on ancient and
modern versions of this text offered
both exciting and varied performance
possibilities for the actors and a depth
to their studies in World Theatre.
THE RAMAYANA
We performed the ancient Indian story
of the Ramayana as a whole school
production with about 120 students
aged from Yr 8 to Yr 13. Our version
borrowed heavily from the Balinese
theatre traditions I had learnt about on
an IB TAPS there. The script was
compiled by borrowing from various
sources, trying to “beef up” key
sections between pairs of characters in
a psychological modern realist sense
e.g. “Why did Rama reject his wife”
and dividing the whole epic into three
sections for three separate casts. The
whole ensemble came together at the
beginning and the end.
The Music Department wrote an
excellent atmospheric score for a
Gamelan orchestra of about 15 players
who dressed up in sarongs on
performance nights. Rama’s ‘hunting
of the deer’ sequence was particularly
magical with Gamelan accompaniment
to the deer’s balletic movements. The
monstrous characters such as Ravana,
so important to the drama, were
created through masks we made with
gummed tape and we bought yellow
and orange silk for the ‘good’
characters while purple or black cloth
was used for the ‘baddies.’ The three
Ramas wore all over blue body paint
and there were three Sitas in identical
saris. We went through a lot of
makeup from Snazaroo! (an online
face-paint supplier). As you would
imagine with such a large cast, there
was a great deal of ensemble work
needed for the forest scenes and the
great battle at the end but this didn’t
prevent the sections being rehearsed
independently. The production ended
with the trial of Sita and a fire dance to
test her virtue. (Not very PC I know but
reflecting the tone of the original epic.)
The opening at Ayodhya was
performed outside on the playground
with the parents looking down from
landings. The actors and audience,
behind a chanting chorus, processed
together as if on Rama’s journey, to the
school hall where others in the
ensemble were already in situ as the
magical forest. Difficult battles and
seduction scenes were performed
behind a shadow screen about 15 by
15 feet in height. All in all I thought it
was great fun but I think some of the
students would have rather done
Grease again!
Scene | 2006-7 March Issue 3 | 9