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Welcome to a codification of the progress for my MP7102 Performance as Research Project, As Above, So Below.

This padelt contains a chronologically structured samples of rehearsal plans, rehearsal footage, and methodology with reflection at every point.

The intention of my chronological approach is to illustrate the evolution of my thinking toward the topic, as in my case especially, practical exploration informed the process at each step. I wanted to both show my original stance on the topic of theatrical mimesis, and how enactment of the process has refined my understanding.

Some of the rehearsal footage will be informal in nature, there are clips and long takes of a session/run, so my apologies in advance. I thought it beneficial to show the process regardless, as the collaborative process articulated this project well.

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I intend craft a 10-20 minute performance to -

Investigate the use of primarily different approaches to theatrical mimesis in the production of scripted theatrical works through performance as research (PAR).

(pre-Feburary change) The performance will be built from 2 versions of the same 5-15 minute text twice in a self-contained theatrical piece. Each interpretation will use dramatic methodologies unique to their approach to theatrical mimesis, and will enable performance based research on the topic. Research Question-I aim to investigate fundamentally different approaches to mimesis in making theatre through a process of performance as research (PAR).

(Post febuary change)

Guided by my research, I will use distinctly different approaches to mimesis to practically explore staging a self-contained but existing scripted scene (Boys, Ella Hickson).

The first approach to mimesis reflects the more traditional stylistic decision of convincingly reproducing reality on stage, which I have discovered to primarily rely on empathy and social cues picked up by the audience (see empathy section of research). The second aims in the opposite direction, not seeking to reproduce reality but instead subverting realism’s approach to theatre and expression of character through anti-realist theatrical methods.

Role- Director and Dramaturg

Actors- Joseph Roberts and Filip Kazubski

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For the purposes of performance as research project, a functional definition we can use is the relationship between an artistic object/event and the reality it represents; the relationship between art and nature (Puetz, 2002).

Mimesis-“...the relationship between art and reality: art is a copy of the real” (Potolsky, 2006, p.1)- Art is representative by nature, especially theatre.

Plato and Aristotle originated the awareness that Art is mimetic to real life by nature (Plato, 2007). 'imitation is given us by nature and men are endowed with these gifts, gradually develop them and finally create the art of poetry' (Aristotle, 2013, p.23)

Plato thought copies to be reductive of the original.

Birthed the idea of Mimesis.

Fundamentally, Art must always negotiate reality (Potolsky, 2006). Even when seeking to discard this principle, is it fundamental.

It is the collective frame of reference from which we all reproduce in our art. This includes the social reality which we as humans negotiate and recognise in others.

It was at this point in my research where I thought that this unavoidable negotiation with everyday reality can take two different and distinct approaches- both with very different effects on the spectator.

This is a continuation into my theoretical research into mimesis (BA), the incorporation of social signifiers in dramatic production (MP7001), and the role of empathy in performance (TF). I am looking forward to try practically investigating the topic.

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This story is among the most famous fables about realism in Western literature, and it tells us a great deal about how the theory of mimesis has been understood. Much like Plato, who lived at roughly the same time as the two painters, Pliny assumes that the purpose of art is to mirror nature.

Zeuxis believes himself to have succeeded when he fools birds with his painted grapes. Success for him means erasing the boundary between art and reality. Parrhasius’ painting has no other aim than fooling Zeuxis, intentionally manipulating the window of representation offered through his art.

This is the divergance in approach to mimesis that I would endevour to investigate through my research, which in the end turned out to be a kind of red herring hinting at stronger binaries than in actuality (reflection at end).

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Zeuxis was born in Heraclea sometime around 464 BCE and was said to be the student of Apollodorus. Parrhasius (or Parrhasios) of Ephesus was a contemporary of Zeuxis. Both artists produced works on both wooden panels and frescoes on walls, unfortunately none of their work survives. The two were said to be the best painters of the fourth century BCE. The elder Pliny recorded a myth surrounding a competition between the two painters. It is said that Zeuxis created grapes that were so realistic that birds saw the image and attempted to eat then. Shortly after he went to view Parrhasius painting, and asked that the curtain be lifted so he could look at the image only to discover that the curtain was itself the painting. Zeuxis acknowledged his defeat, because while he had tricked birds the curtain of Parrhasuis had deceived a man and fellow artist.

Sources:

Whitley, James. The Archeology of Ancient Greece. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

by Alicia Hernandez

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Zeuxis was born in Heraclea sometime around 464 BCE and was said to be the student of Apollodorus. Parrhasius (or Parrhasios) of Ephesus was a contemporary of Zeuxis. Both artists produced works on both wooden panels and frescoes on walls, unfortunately none of their work survives.

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Approach to Theatrical Mimesis from the outset. Academic approach

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Approach to Theatrical Mimesis from the outset. Academic approach

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My initial expectation when planning the practical exploration of this topic was to find a binary catagorisations of dramatic approaches to theatrical mimesis, encouraged by the Grapes of Zeuxis fable and such research as Stephen Halliwell-

"The first idea imagines that art reflects the world as it is, that it copies a material reality outside the work. The second idea defines art as a self-contained "heterocosm" that stimulates a familiar world, and in effect copies our ways of knowing and understanding things (Halliwell, 2002: 5).

This set the course of my dramatic exploration to find dramatic channels to explore each side of this divergance.

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Reproducing reality faithfully in art by holding up a mirror.

In a theatrical context, reproducing reality most commonly takes the form of the dramatic style of realism. As a genre, it fundamentally relies upon speaking the same social language as the members of the audience. For the audience to buy into the reality presented on-stage, the action must be socially recognised and impactful- empathy is key (Wright, 2017).

“Several cognitive scientists acknowledge that our mirror neuron systems (MNS) are the gateways to empathy” (McConachie, 2019).

Through researching into the role of cognitive studies in performance, I have discovered that the social faculty of empathy to be the biological key to effective Drama, and very closely tied to social development in humans.

Mirror Neuron System (MNS) (McConachie & Kemp, 2019)

I believe that this is one of the secret biological responses we have been subconsciously (or otherwise) toying with through any kind of emotional art through the years- especially when we apply it to the performer spectator relationship of the dramatic arts.

Stanislavski understood the nature of representative art comes from the mimetic faculties within the actor, and was too wise to aim to move beyond the boundaries of representation; he merely wanted to paint a more recognisable picture using human behaviour-

“Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. (Stanislavski, 1989, p.192).

How did I enact this dramatic perspective in rehearsals-

-Communion, impulse and repetition as a gateway to genuine nature. Firmly rooted in Sanford Meisner's methodology.
(Strandberg-Long, P. 2018)
(Durham, K. 2004)
(Meisner, S., Longwell, D., & Pollack, S. 1987)

-Post-Modern Stanislavski Interpretation
(Wright. 2017)

- Stanislavski in character research, 7Q’s and AA (Stanislavski. 2013)
(Sawoski, P. 2013)

-my practice involving realism is firmly rooted into my cross module investigations into the efficiency of using effective social semiotics to trigger real empathy in our audience. I have included a sample in the next slide.

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Empathy through Social Semiotics in theatre

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Empathy through Social Semiotics in theatre

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The following is taken from my MP7001 Research Essay, Theatre’s Relationship with Everyday Social Reality and Social Semiotics.

I use the approach of aiming to craft realistic and recognisable social semiotics through naturalistic acting techniques in my rehearsals, derrived from Sanford Meisner, Konstantin Stanislavski and John Wright.

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 The following is taken from my MP7001 Research Essay, Theatre’s Relationship with Everyday Social Reality and Social Semiotics.

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Deliberately manipulating/fragmenting the lens representing reality through subversive means.

(Early Febuary theory)

Primarily Anti-realist techniques to encourage immersivity, self-awareness, unconventional emotive expression.

Specifically-

Fourth wall breaking/Self-awareness

Mask usage

Physical exploration of emotion and situation (Artuad)

Use of contrasting stylisation to subject area (Oh what a Lovely War WWI musical (Littlewood, Joan. 1963)

From this theoretical place in the development of this project, I theorised that working through the subve
rsive approach to theatrical mimesis could encourage-

Verfremdungseffekt; the Alienation effect. (source)

Originally used to fully reflect the historical context of the theatrical piece (Féral,Bermingham). I wonder if I could use similar theatrical techniques to achieve a portrayal of the protagonist’s troubled internal psychological landscape.

From a final perspective-
How did I enact this dramatic perspective in rehearsals?
Through peppering in different practitioners' techniques with a looser relationship to portraying a familiar reality. Specifically I drew from
-Bertolt Brecht with the flexible use of set, props and presentation in breaking the 4th wall. (Speirs, Ronald. 1987)
-Anthonin Artaud with the opening expressive section of internal struggle (Morris, B. 2022)
- Augusto Boal with the idea of using audience as Spect-actors within the piece, (Boal and Epstein, 1990)

By embuing these techniques into my practice I managed to feel un-bound by the strict representation of a recognisable and empathetic reality, and upon reflection this approach provided an interesting self-contained experience.

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This is a sample as to my thoughts and planning in this point of the process (3.2.23).

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How through physcial exporation in the first rehearsal or two, I ascertained that dramatic approaches to theatrical mimesis don't necessarily play toward the simple binaries suggested in the Grapes of Zerxes allegory...

It was at this point (mid-late Febrary) that the codification of binary yes and no approaches do not fit the reality. through research used in a practical rehearsal settring I discovered them to be more flexible and less clear-cut.

This changed my perspective of mimesis to be that of more of a spectrum of approaches to presenting a reality on stage. An effective practitioner can magpie what they wish from this spectrum of effects, working in tandem when used correctly. This is the goal I ended up working towards.

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This was the practical session with Joseph that made me switch approaches.

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Research Question updated at a point in time- 

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Research Question updated at a point in time- 

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I switched tracks from performing the same text with two different interpretations according to their polar approach to theatrical mimesis (reproductive or subversive), to my current and actual research question-

Investigate the use of primarily different approaches to theatrical mimesis in the production of scripted theatrical works through performance as research.

At the time of mid February my dramatic approach shifted to use the fundemental platform of Sanford Meisner inspired realism (focussed on crafting effective social signposts/semiotics) as the recognsiable world (reproductive) in which the action occurs, peppered with significant moments whereby said world is manipulated  (subversive) to our dramatic gain using practitioner inspired techniques.

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The Text- Boys by Ella Hickson (Act 1, scene 2)

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The Text- Boys by Ella Hickson (Act 1, scene 2)

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Throughout this project and it’s research focuses, my pragmatic aim was always to evaluate each approach to mimesis’ dramatic potential in expressing a pre-established scene and it’s characters. For this I chose Ella Hickson’s Boys, as to me it seemed full of empathetic and dramatic potential- plus it was a male two-hander, matching my casting.

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The scene is part of a larger play. It carries it's own setting, meaning, and characters which I thought matched well with what I wanted to achieve from the project.

I initally intended to change the meaning of the scene presented in the text. However upon in practical enactment and in depth reflection I ultimately determined changing the meaning of the text to distract from my clear intentions of the projectm and to be somewhat overstepping my bounds in my personal responsabilty in dramatising an existing text.

Below is some thinking from January 2023 surrounding that very idea-

My adaptation and use of the scene will be to explore an interpretation that first came to me when reading through the scene- If Benny were dead, and the anti-realist sections first demonstrated mania with the theme of loss, but then we ‘wake up’ to the realist scene with the pill, then we could suggest that the virtuoso CAM is using substances to deal with the death of his friend/brother BENNY alongside his demanding career/education.

This changes the meaning of the text, and adapts the characters to explore the same subject matter which the author explores, but showing palpable loss will allow me to more effectively.

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Uni Practical taster of approach to text

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Uni Practical taster of approach to text

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Sample from mid february sharing of progress

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Uni practical taster of approaches to the same text

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Dramatic techniques used to make reproductive and subversive theatre

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Dramatic techniques used to make reproductive and subversive theatre

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Fundamentally, my project outline is to explore different approaches to theatrical mimesis (portraying reality) on stage, to understand their potential for expression and effectiveness when used to dramatise a scripted scene.

According to my research into theatrical mimesis, the clearest path I determined I must first work towards was to create a recognisable world onstage, complete with social/dramatic behavior easily digested according to a modern audience’s expectation for dramatic art; to replicate familiar reality.

I would then ‘magpie’ pieces of dramatic approaches from methodologies that firmly rested on the other side of the supposed divergence of mimesis in theatre- to intentionally distort representations of reality for dramatic gain.

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Reflect on the casting challenges that led to a week's extension, shiftin performance date from 27th March to the 3rd April
At this point of enactment and enlightment as to the depth of theatrical mimesis, I struggled with practical issues with casting and availability of my external actors.

As a director I very much value my collaborators input and am very grateful for their involvement.

Joseph Roberts who played Cam has been stalwart in his availability toward the project, however I did have to re-cast the part of Benny twice in the lead-up to the project. When Filip Kazubski offered me his time we hit the rehearsal room running with the following documented footage gained.

My tutors and MA cohort were very understanding throughout these issues, and offered me the weeks extension I needed to firmly enact this project to the point I would be pleased with it.

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The piece of music I used as the motif for the opening section. It is technically an accompanyment to a non-existing violin solo (which Cam should be playing), and creates a haunting feeling of tension, dissonance, and falling apart. It was created under "The Music of Erich Zann", and explicitly follows stylings of H.P Lovecraft's unsettling horror writings
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The very background to this padlet in an anonymous artist's rendition of said subject matter, coincidently involving a voilin and chaos.

It resonated with what I wanted to communicate in this subversive section, and also followed closely the dramatic methods (Artaud) I would use to achieve it.

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Алексей Войтенко

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Alexey Voytenko "The music of Erich Zann" for violin solo (2009)

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For this we used practice inspired by Antonin Artaud, as his methodology for direct expressiveness seemed most applicable. Primarily I found this through Antonin Artaud (Morris, 2022).
Upon reflection I think this practice offered just what I hoped to achieve in maniplating the recognisable world space for our needs.
note- we developed this moment to end up facing and crawling toward the floor level stage lighting for salvation. This can be seen in the university footage of the performance.

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This moment evolved from the last slide's footage (gaming moment pre-change) and offered a pocket of a Brechtian style re-purposing of items to subtly change the space around them.
I found the idea for this moment after treating the stage blocks as flexible stage material, repurposing it for other uses and slightly playing against a strict realities rules. This is an example of how a dramatic approach can take a subtly different approach to portraying reality on stage, while existing in harmony with other elements of the staged world. It provided a weirder format for our characters to engage in naturalistic dialogue upon.

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-ball thrown back and forth
casual but planned- stan. Rythm based and workshopped, but with room for error.
offered to create designed familiarity with world and characters through the naturalistic use of rhythm in both action and dialogue, facilitated through Stanislavski inspired practice.

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-Development from stagnant staging in this current clip, to I adapted it to a more interesting staging of the same moment in the text, captured at around 7:00 in the final researsal run through footage

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Best example of blocking with intentions, and displays progression and clarity of dramatic moments

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8:17 in Final rehearsal run through footage

It was here whereby I took inspiration from Augusto Boal to break the barrier seperating performer from audience, and with pre-permission, drag and involve an audience member in the playful happenings on stage.

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A sample of a couple of short and dated rehearsal plans

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Lighting plan of event, reasoning and use toward dramatic effect

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Lighting plan of event, reasoning and use toward dramatic effect

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The Title of the project -As Above, So Below

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The Title of the project -As Above, So Below

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I was originally attracted to the title of As Above, So Below for this project as it suggested the very prevelant themes of a binary black and white representation of the world.

From the perspective of reflection, my findings nuance this black and white seperation, refracting into more of a spectrum of light (to extend the metaphor).

The title ended up being much more relevant than I originally intended; hinting at things I would discover through it's very enactment.

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The performative event itself was very successful. I find it important, however, to reflect on the ways in which I could have improved in establishing the performace's environment.

Unlike those who studied at BA level in the University of Chester, I was not trained to use the in-house technical equipment of the venues until shortly before the performance. In this regard I was solely responsible for the planning and the enactment of the tech, which took up more time than I anticipated on the day.

In this regard I must acknowledge both the achievement of setting up these things with nothing but a tech drop in session, and the shortcomings of the focus it pulled from my ability to fully prepare my actors before the showing.
Usually I like to warm up with my actors in the minutes leading up to a performance, however I was unable to do so in this instance as I had to trouble shoot a last minute tech issue.

In spite of this occurance, my actors performed admirably, and enacted all of the careful blocking we established through rehearsal.

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Reflect on the results of what I have found

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Reflect on the results of what I have found

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As a dramatic piece, As Above So Below benefitted from the variation of approaches toward the dramatic presentation of a reality on stage (theatrical mimesis).

My inital binary interpretation of the possibility of using different approaches to theatrical mimesis proved unsuitable to the reality when practically applied. Each part of the development of the piece benefitted greatly from varying dramatic approaches to representing reality on stage, and could exist perfectly well in tandem with one another.
If anything, playing with the potential theatre gives when presenting a reality to an audience offered an audience driven dramatic practice which I appreciate greatly as a practitioner; In my opinion, how the audience views the reality on stage should be the be all, end all of dramatic reception.

Working to dramatise an existing scripted piece through this 'magpie' approach to mimetic theory suited my ethos, and having the space to investigate the pragmatism of varying dramatic approaches to mimesis through this performance as research project (PAR) has benefitted me greatly.

Upon reflection, I would engage with the topic from the outset of the project with a much more open perspective than encouraged some theorists' perspectives on the matter, or atleast, my interpretation of them.