Year 2 Practitioner Performances

Daniel - Artaud

During this performance, I felt extremely uncomfortable. In the beginning, my initial reaction was to laugh and giggle, since I didn't know what else to do. However, towards the end, this feeling eventually evolved into vulnerability. I thought Daniel's performance was outstanding. His use of technology correlated well with his dialogue, the different fabric and colors were used very cleverly, and his monologue was very unique.

Hanna - Meyerhold

I thought Hana's performance was very clear and had a sense of order to it. It was easy for the audience to follow and understand the different characters. I thought her use bio-mechanics was clearly seen and very efficient. I really liked how she represented each character as a different color and the flow of her performance. It began as tragic, but eventually became power. However, even when the last character seemed powerful and strong, a strong sense of overwhelming sadness was still present. I thought it was interesting, because it was such a human like quality to try to be strong in difficult situations, but still feel like something or someone is holding one back.

Bianca - Robert Wilson

Bianca's performance was very clever. Her use of technology (the background) and lighting helped the audience understand the transitions and mood changes of all the scenes. Although she didn't use any dialogue, the communication she had with her audience was very strong. The scene that stood out to me the most was possibly the beginning. I really liked how she set up her stage and created symbolism by walking around the circle. I also thought her entrances and exits were very stiff and made me feel a little uncomfortable. However, it wasn't the same type of "uncomfortable" feeling I felt watching Daniel's piece. Bianca's performance made me feel uncomfortable, because for a practitioner who said theater was mainly for amusement and pleasure, her piece seemed very real to me. I felt a strong connection with the character during certain scenes. Overall, it surprised me how the lack of one form of communication (in this case speech) forces the human mind to focus so much more on the details in order to fully "understand."