SECOND TERM: STUDY PLAN

The tasks and the responsibilities I will assume at this term are divided in two projects: a collaborative and a solo performance. Both of them should advance my research on escapism and, in general, on conditions of hyperreality. As concern as the practical issues of this term I will explain below my aims and my thoughts about the two projects:

Project 1: Ambient sound

“The Balcony” of Jean Genet was chosen to be the text our performance will be based on. Having our project and research proposals combined, we conclude in this play, as it contains all the areas and the fields which we are interested in.
As my previous studies are in theatre theory and history, I would like to approach first the dramaturgy and the history of the text. In my opinion, every answer in our questions is hidden in the text, and the more we have solved our questions and we have understood the meanings of the play, the better inspiration we will have.
As the performance will last around 20 min, we should make an adaptation of “The Balcony” and keep just the elements we need and we think they go forward our collaboration project.
Parallel, as we have already taken special responsibilities and I will work on the set and the lighting design, I will research the image, the aesthetic view of the performance, the materials we will use, the colors and the props the performance should have. Apart from the design, I will deal with the construction of them, or with the research of them in markets and in internet. As in my project proposal puppets are included as a medium of images of hyperreality, I will try at this term to get information about masks and puppets and how they can function in a theatrical space. Moreover, as I have never dealt professionally with the lighting design, I want to investigate this field, and learn to transform the spaces with light.
The work of the company will be both collaborative and individual. Which means that except for the set and lighting design, I will contribute in the other responsibilities of the performance.
My personal goal in this project, as concern as the collaborative point of view is to learn how to find solutions between different opinions and to recreate a new form, a new idea.
Concerning my project and research proposal, I would like to find ways of how I can represent the need of escapism, and conditions and figures of hyperreality.

Project 2: Solo performance
My ambition for the solo project is to make maybe an installation, or if I find an actor to create a performance. But the most important for me is the scenography, the space that I will create and not the direction of a performance. So, I will try to create a theatrical space in which I will test the mediums that can result in an unrealistic representation of the world.
As I have mentioned before, masks and puppets would be a medium of how I can reach the world of illusion and of fantasy. I m doing now a research on Aristophanes piece of work “The Birds”, a play written in the 5th century B. C in ancient Greece. I chose it as its main subject is the escapism. Two men disappointed from the institutions of their society, they chose to leave it and live in a society of birds in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land. I have started making a mask inspired by these birds, but my goal is not to create a mask for the play, but just to get inspiration from this. In this mask, I was wondering how the elements of commedia dell’ arte, which is a field of my research proposal, could fit in a mask inspired form an ancient Greek play.
Apart from the mask, the construction of puppets will be one of my aims in this term. Moreover, as it will be a project where I will be the only one responsible for, I want to learn all the basic technical issues, which are necessary for a performance (lighting, sound, projection etc)
My solo project appears as an opportunity to test all the ideas that I proposed in the first term in real. I will combine the different influences I have in one piece of art, and this will be the first attempt of these characteristics, before my final project.