Abstraction

LSU Theatre's production of Elephants Graveyard effectively created dark matter for me. An elephant is put to death after killing a human. But should she have without a fair trial, which is put to question. But the dark matter is the elephant. The elephant is never seen or heard. So without seeing, we have to go to our imaginations to picture this elephant in physical form. So we have to rely on the stories of the town people that are speaking about this elephant and the horrific thing that happened to her. The emotions and stories of these town people effectively bring the dark matter of  the elephant alive which by this result there is still the mystery of what she looked like to take in her physical form and reflect all as a whole. But would the physical form of the elephant solve the questions that you would have on the matter at hand. Would with or without dark matter questions would be answered. 

Them we go to the question of could we handle the scene of the elephant's hanging. When I was hearing the step by step actions that were taken of her killing, it was good choice not to show or watch her death in any form or way. It's is something that should not be seen or heard. And the dark matter of it all is so powerful because it brings the power of mystery and questions alive. I enjoy that power and it is effective to strengthing my imagination and questioning reality itself. 

Disturbance

A disturbance in theatre that resonates is Street Theatre. Street theatre's purpose is to take the theatre world to outdoor  places to communicate an issue for the most part from what I have gathered. I believe that street theatre is the way to bring theatre to the next level for the 21st century. It is effective to me by just spreading this art form through the streets. I feel that through street theatre you can engage audience members and attract audiences of different ethnicity. But can street thetare attract people to the theatre we know today. All theatre should engage the audience and lead them into a feeling. The theatre should be an experience.  Also anther idea to change theatre and make it more attractive is to start with the young minds. The kids. Theatre can bring a little one's imagination alive just like B Street Theatre School Tour. They are a touring group that travel throughout Northern California to school putting on production. Here is a statement form one teachers about this touring,

 "We are always amazed by the performances. They are so engaging. The students and staff cannot keep our eyes off of the characters. As teachers we really appreciate the instructive language that increases the student’s exposure to interesting vocabulary without leaving them in the dark. The kids get joy and fun along with the growth. Today my first grade class wrote some dialogue for a play and were all excited thanks to your troupe. Bravo!"


K/1 Teacher, Heritage Oak Elementary School, Roseville

And another take away from this touring group is that theatre can benefit in a learning environment to engage experience than learning from text books and repetition.

Truth!

A production that hit really close to home is Swine Palace's production of Rising Water. This production took me on an experience rather that create a new truth for me. I can relate to the the feeling and thought of water rising in my home after a hurricane or the possible thought of water rising in my home. And relate to the experience of not knowing what is going on outside while you wait thinking of the worst that can happen. Even though I didn't experience the disaster in the capacity of the production. I felt the reality of the events that were taking place by how the production was executed. I was involved in a production about race. LSU Theatre's Dionysus of the Holocaust  clarified a truth or rather a question. There is a scene in the play where the Caucases (white people) are dividing the gift of cultures. And the question that arrived was why is ask on a form your race or ethnicity in America? Why cant we just clarify simply American?   

As for the differences between performances that offer some kind of (new or newly clarified) truth versus performances that strive for documentary “verbatim” or naturalistic reality, I think that there is a difference in execution between the two but the idea of the two are the same. The reason why the ideas are the same is that both ideas are trying to present something that is part of reality. Verbatim is is using words to present the truth, and a performance that offers truth is presenting a truth within that performance. I clearly understand that a new or newly clarified truth and verbatim are the same. I really believe that truth lie with people, and what they hold as well as express.     

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Performativity!

At the top of this video there are young people having fun. Then the band starts to perform. First you would think that this band is a regular band performing for entertainment for the youth who have gathered there to have a good time. There is a underlying message of why this band is performing. As we here the lyrics there are not direct say of Jesus in the song but the song and the performance is all about Jesus. There are phases in the song that relate to the bible and what Jesus stands for. The band is not the only group performing but the youth are performing as an act of praise to God as they dance and sing the lyrics of the song.

I know when I was beginning my walk out as a "saved" christian. In my mind I  thought that I could not have fun because I was a christian after God hearts, and I had to have all these restrictions up which is so weird to me now, But as a young person that is what I wanted to do. And as I learned through my walk I found that I can have fun and this video definitely was a influence to be young and free. So this is another underlying message about being a Christian and loving Jesus.

People are looking at skin when through a UV camera but there is skin look different when they see themselves through the camera. At the end of the video people put on sunscreen and it's appears black which sunscreen's purpose is to protect you form the sun. But in the middle of video there is mention you can tell when people have healthy skin and those people are people of color.      

What is Performance?

"Certain distance between "self" and behavior" Is is fascinating how actors or someone performing can be oneself during a performance and the oneself outside the performance period. (pg 4, Carlson) I always was interested in how you can act to be another person and come back to yourself. This idea brought the thought of there must a place the actor goes to distance themselves to make their performance happen. They have to be fully aware of there distance and how far they can go. But there must me a point were the path stops and that leaded to the thought of how far is to far. Does it stop at personal morals, what can change inside of your true self, or to create a change or awareness during the performance. How far can performance go and how much can is represent. I think performance changes over time and over different subject matter.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj7MPPpd9yI 
The link above is a video journal made by a guy named Micheal. He posted this video as a journal for his doctor but it's his real thoughts and feelings but their are others watching not just his doctor. Is he performing something that distance himself from who he really is or he just being Micheal? But it is put on medium for viewing. This changes my way of seeing performance which concludes to the question of "What is performance?". But technically for me it varies across many things and comes down to what is performance to you.