21M.645  Motion Theater

Hello Class,

Was very happy to see your work this week. All the groups are creating interesting structures with good potential for exciting performance events.
I look forward to seeing the next version of these.

ACTING NOTES:

A next step for everyone, as individuals within your project, is to strengthen the narrative, character-driven structure of your work.
In the context of your performance: Make who you are, and what drives you clearer.
For those of you who are working in a relatively plot-driven narrative mode: you can think about this in terms of your character's motivations and relationships. How does your character feel and think about, and relate to the other people in performance. Make it specific -and deal with them as "real" people. Specify for yourself what is driving your actions through these events. The more important, specific and authentic these motivations are to you the easier it will be for you to invest in the situations and the more grounded your work will be.
For those of you working in a less plot-driven, more expressive or abstracted mode: the task remains more or less the same. It is just that we talk about who you are playing and what you are doing in different terms. So you may not have a psychological or emotional motivation for what you are doing -it may be an aesthetic, a rythmic or compostional drive. Nevertheless this drive should be grounded, specific, focussed and important to you in the moment. You may not be playing what we would think of as a traditonal character -but rather something more expressive (similar to a dancer or a musician). Nevertheless your authentic presence and commitment to this role is needed. Your human presence and seriousness of purpose should be apparent.

SCHEDULING STUDIO TIME:

Outside of classtime, you can always stop by and see if the studio is free. But, especially as the semester moves on -the classrooms do start to get booked up.
It's smart to reserve the space, especially if you need to review lighting + tech.
Reserve by emailing Alexa Torres (Theater Arts Admin):
alexat@mit.edu
Alexa is on a M-F daytime office schedule -so plan ahead if you want her to receive your request!

PROPS
The Theater Arts dept does have some props. If you are looking for something special for your project and are having trouble sourcing it yourself- email me and I will put in a request to see if we have something apropriate in stock.

CLASS SCHEDULE APR 8+9
You will have about 30 minutes to do final preparations for your performance. This is purely time to make sure the logistics are in order for the night - testing that the lighting + sound are working the way you expect them too - that your set/props are in order, etc... It is NOT a replacement for your out of class rehearsal time! We should see significant progress in these works next week---

I've gone ahead and reserved the hour before class (6-7) for all of you. So if any groups are able/want to show up early to prepare the space is yours-

We'll spend most of the rest of the class looking at the final versions of your performances. We'll do a little reflctive feedback after each, time permitting.

We'll spend the last 30 minutes (or more, time permitting) talking about the final project and forming groups for those. The final project groups should get mixed up a littleb bit so that everyone is working with someone they haven't worked with yet...
I'll send out the final project description +work schedule over the weekend so you will have a little time to think about it ahead of that discussion.

Best
CH