Electronic Colonialism
Adapting The Tempest from perspective of Electronic Colonialism helped me to analyse the quality of organic harmony. Because elements of Electronic Colonialism, such as ‘digital’ ’exploitation’ ‘domination’ ‘hegemony’ ‘automatic system’ seem the opposite concept of organic harmony. Each scene of my production deals with different aspects of Electronic colonialism, so that I could examine organic harmony in the different ways, using factors of Electronic colonialism as catalyst. Please refer to scene 1, scene2, scene4, scene6 and scene7.
Yugen 幽玄
Noh theatre has the word ‘Yugen’ which describes the ideal condition of Noh performance. ‘Yugen’ occurs when all the elements of the performance are in harmony with one another and create a perfect balance of form” (from leaflet of No time like present, 2017). I believe Yugen is one of keys to explain “organic harmony”.
Through my training and rehearsal, I found that elements below are essential to create organic harmony.
Training for ‘scenic presence’ and Coordination Technique
Eugenio Barba’s concept of “presence” and Grzegorz Bral’s (Song of The Goat Theatre) Coordination Technique seem to helpful to find “organic harmony”. Those theatre makers criticise the western traditional way of theatre making which rely on texts and form rather than performers’ individual body and mind, and research minorities’ traditional and ritual performances.
Jane Turner mentions an interesting story about Eugenio Barba. Through the years of Barba’s work, there was a central dilemma which he could not ignore. He commented the importance of regular training such as Asian actors undertake life-long period. However the fact is that some actors are not good performers but are very good in training, and some actors are very bad in training but good performers. Turner stated (2004) “…although there appears to be no connection between the quality of performance and the quality of training, the emphasis for all actors must be on training his or her potential scenic presence.’ Later, the essential question of his training in Odin Theatre became ‘how to give the impression of life in their work….and how they can continue to develop their scenic presence” (Turner 2004).
In dance classes in the U.K. and Japan, I met some performers who had solid technique but did not have ‘scenic presence’ and some performers who did not have special techniques but had ‘scenic presence’ and made me feel the sense of “organic harmony”. Barba cited determination and precision as elements to develop ‘scenic presence’. (Turner 2004) He requires performers to determine and record each of their movement as a score which include the size of the action, the position of the body, the breathing, the focus of the eyes. In many ways, the actor’s score is similar to musical composition but the score also covers their mental record.
Recording each movement including the mental one sounds quite innovative to me. Because I believed that organic movement is not repeatable and something we can capture as data. It is a big shame that I could not try Barba’s method in my rehearsal room, however I will research more about this and operate in the near future. I also refer his boxing excise in the explanation of scene 4; stick fighting scene.
While Barba’s approach is very subjective, Bral’s one is more internal and sensory.
Coordination Techniques is based on the understanding that all of performer’s acting tools, such as voice, gesture, rhythm, imagination and energy, are interconnected. It aims to search the organic interlinking and integration within an individual performer as well as on the researching and developing the path of coexistence between a partner and the group as an ensemble.
Bral’s term ‘the organic interlinking and integration’ (refer to The Coordination Technique workshop), very similar to the concept of organic harmony. In their workshop, participants start with simple physical exercises, and gradually move to voice, to rhythm, and text, and energy exercises. The true sensation of interconnectedness will unfold and grow Magnetism, Charisma, and Presence on the stage, and let them experience their body, and voice in an organic, and cohesive way. Actors often describe this experience as a feeling of being centered again and truly rooted. (refer to Theatre Olympics' introduction of Song of Goat Theatre)