Biography

Antonin Artaud

Playwrite, poet, actor and theatre director 

French
Born 1898-1948

Atonin was originally part of the surrealism movement in Paris during the 1920s. He was deeply effected by world war 1 and the events that happened and the damaged caused, he was curios as to how these sort of global warfare happen. 

He suffered from bad health, at the early age of four he developed Mengitus
He lived in mental asylums for most of his adult life
started life as visual artist then moved towards theatre and film.

 

He was a theorist. Artaud had no system or techniques like other practioners. The theatre and his double was his first and only play ever produce that showcased his theatrical devices and techniques, this reflected the theatre of cruelty. A new way of theatre with the use of imagination brought to life, music, pictures, sound. He wanted his work to provoke and disturb his audience. He didn't like the use of over dramatic language etc. The theatre of cruelty breaks traditional western theatre styles. 

Other practioners where influenced by Antonin such as Jean Genet, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook. Peter Brook used symbolic guesters, violent sounds  and to shock people into thinking and feeling ( theatre of cruelty).

Art From Tate Modern

By a lot of the images you will see you will notice that I really like pictures especially the ones by Henry Wessel because his images are so different and intriguing. Every image is beautifully done leaving you to question and creat stories based off of the photos. I would say he leaves it up to you to crest meaning and I like that because nothing is clearly presented to you. 

Artist

Henry Wessel born 1942

Title

Incidents 027

From Incidents

Date2012

Themes of the piece:

Assault, violence, sexual exploitation or sexual libration, embarrassment, secrets. 

 

Why it inspires you:

I like the mystery of the picture I think by the not showing the persons face that your left with many ideas and thoughts behind the picture. 

Potential ideas for theatrical work:

- I think you can explore sexuality and identification through the piece

- violence/ abuse inflicted on the person and how it may of happened this can tie into sexual themes also 

 

Artist

Henry Wessel born 1942

Title

Incidents 005

From Incidents

Date2012

Themes of the piece:

New beginnings, running away, never look back (which they are, si it can show their unhappy about moving forward) 

 

Why it inspires you:

This picture inspires me because i think it's relatable to a lot of people, we've all faced times were we have to move on or we feel the need to run or escape from things or situations that aren't good for us. I think exploing the stories and reasons behind the dicisions we make are interesting because we don't usually look back at our life and think how things affect our dicisions in the long run. 

Potential ideas for theatrical work:

Showing different stages of ones life that shows the reasons behind their life choices and how it affects the situations their in. 

Artist

Henry Wessel born 1942

Title

Incidents 024

From Incidents

Date2012

Themes of the piece:

Relationships; friendship, partnership, love 

 

Why it inspires you:

The angle of the picture is almost I'd say a bird eye view shot but the image looks like someone is peering through looking at them. I instantly felt that people are nosy about thier relationship and there not playing anyone no mind so their faces are turn and they have quite neutral body language that doesn't make you assume anything negative.  

Potential ideas for theatrical work:

Showing a relationship between two people that never talk but having dialogue from people around them to show how some people are so concerned in other peoples business. 

Artist

Henry Wessel born 1942

Title

Incidents 001

From Incidents

Date2012

Themes of the piece:

Mystery, freedom, love, spirituality, adventure, lost

 

Why it inspires you:

The picture looks like the people are going on a journey following each other awaiting what's ahead. 

Potential ideas for theatrical work:

Having a group of people going on a journey together and having and revealing their own stories and situations. 

Artist

Don McCullin born 1935

Title

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin

Date1961

Themes of the piece:

Violence, war, beauty, young hearted 

 

Why it inspires you:

No matter what difficult times you face your always trying to do what you know best.  I'd say people in the picture are just being themselves, the little girl doesn't no anything else so although around her is a bag situation or time she remains cute, young and innocent. 

Potential ideas for theatrical work:

Living life in a bubble and ignoring or noticing what around you. 

Our chosen piece 

The sitting nude 

Themes of the piece:

Reflective, naked, vulnerable 

Why it inspires you:

This artwork inspires me because it makes you stop and question who you are and how do you identify yourself the good, the bad and the ugly. 

Potential ideas for theatrical work:

Showing different scales of human emotions such as happiness,sadness envy etc.

We didn't chose the other artwork because we felt that they weren't pieces that we could develop and make personal and meaningful. We agree that we wanted to do something that encourage people to question society and the expectations put on people and the way how we chose to treat ourselves when we should love and appricate ourselves and one another. I think body image and how you identify and carry yourself is very important to help people think and do better because people can be discructive when constantly being put down or made to feel nothing but worthless.     

Session 1

Tuesday 6th January 

In today's session we were discussing what any piece of theatre needs, to be able to exist and wether all forms of art and performance work have to have meaning or not. We were discussing who has responbility? Does an actor have a responsility to their audince, their director or writer. Does a writer or director have a responsility to their consumer and workers? And I think enviably yes but in what way because you can't please everyone. When creativing a piece of performance it can be driven by a narrative with a clear structure but on the other hand sometimes work can be completely abstarct with no true meaning but as a observer you'd most likely come up with your own thoughts and feeling towards a performance because maybe you can relate to the narrative or it brings up memories and emotions that resonates with us. 

I think as long as the actor is doing what they are told wether the performance has a meaning or not and they stict to the intentions of the piece then they are sticking to the true intentions of the writer and director there should be no confusion or negative backlash. 

If I was asked before hand what I thought a theatres responsibility is, I would of said something along the lines of all theatre should be a source of entertainment, learning about new things, experiencing different styles of theatre and performance from around the world, being provoke or challenge. But now I would say that theatre has no true obligation to any of those things and every theatre will be slightly different in what they believe in. As long as you've got a performance space, actors, audince and an objective it's up to the creator what their intentions are. 

Experimental theatre 

The presentation of innovative works and the development of new concepts and techniques in stage production.  - dictionary.reference.com 

'The alphabet box'

We performed this excersie to the rest of the class. The point was to use movement and different variations of speed to spell out our name. We weren't meant to have our thoughts and emotions influence our pieces. However when we had our class discussion it was clear that a lot of us got caught up in our own thought and feelings. The music I believe gave our pieces an atmosphere and a direction. For a lot of people the work coincided with the music. When watching others perform I could come up with my own stories to their performances and relate to people different emotions and facial expressions. For instance I saw Robin perform and her movements were quite slow and she looked sad so I instantly felt sympathic towards her. Without realising it I completely over thought everything. We were just meant to spell our name with different movements and I got did that but added meaning. I learnt that not everything has to have meaning and our initial intentions could be viewd differently by another person.