Nature Vs Nurture

The nature nurture debate agues over whether a humans behaviour is caused by inherited genes (genetic) or acquired during development (learning from your environment).
Nature is that which is inherited / genetic.                                                                                  Nurture which refers to all environmental influences.

( http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html )

Here are some examples where the theory can be argued:

Lee Rigby Murder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lee_Rigby

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25424290

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruTu8MhSdR4

Although Adebowale had a difficult upbringing being a son to a young mother and being involved in gangs in south-east London, I believe that to kill someone you have to have a certain chemical instinct built into you which could be due to inheritance or mutation during conception. Adebowale made the decision to kill Lee Rigby. He wasn't forced into it, he had a reason which he believed at the time was acceptable. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"

James Bulger Case

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Bulger

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/12/04/local_history_bulger_feature.shtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kOCCBhQVb4

In this case, I believe it was nurture that caused the boys to do what they did. I completely blame the bringing of the children for this case. Both Venables and Thompson had been subjected to dysfunction, poverty, alcoholism, marital breakdown, neglect and bullying at home and in school. The boys were also shown violent and pornographic content from a young age, which was recreated in the killing. Without an adult knowledge of these subjects the boys would not have been capable of carrying out such an act. They are extremely young, damaged children. 

Beth Thomas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2-Re_Fl_L4

http://www.oddityworld.net/2014/07/what-actually-happened-to-beth-child-of.html

I believe Beth Thomas is also an example of nurture. Beth also suffered an abusive childhood. At the age of just one her father had severely physically and sexually abused her which Beth clearly remembers and replicates in her everyday behaviour age 6. When Beth was first adopted she seemed like a normal child and her problems developed with age. It is also known that Beth recovered and stop behaving in the way she had done after intensive therapy. If she had been this way genetically she would've taken far far longer or may even wouldn't have been able to recover. 

Daniel Kish 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Kish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xATIyq3uZM4

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/544/batman

Daniel Kish is also another example of nurture. If Daniel had been told that he couldn't do certain things because he was blind, he would've believed them. If he was told he couldn't make the clicking sound to echolocate he wouldn't be able see in the way he claims to.

Tate

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Title Of Art Piece:
Incidents.

Artist:
Henry Wessel.

Artist Rationale:

Wessel grew up in the San Fran Bay Area and was attracted by the distinctive light of the west coast. It's grey tones, soft quality and light that already exists.
The piece is made up of 27 images in a deliberate order which picks out specific incidents of interest.
Wessel describes the piece as 'Work without words' and 'Taking a walk with a friend who stops on occasion and points to a scene, saying "take a look at that".'

Materials:
Photographs, gelatin silver print on paper.

Photo:

I chose 3 of my favourite images from the collection.

Themes Of The Piece:

Ordinary moments in the everyday lives of strangers.

Why It Inspires You:
Taking the ordinary and everyday and making it seem forced even though he takes the pictures from a distance with no communication.

Potential Ideas For Theatrical Work:
Making the everyday strange and unfamiliar.
Second eye (audience) someone spying/being nosey/seeing something they're not supposed to.
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Title Of Art Piece:
Untitled.

Artist:
Alexander Brodsky and Ily Utkin.

Artist Rationale:
Living in Russia Brodsky and Utkin worked together as part of the 'Paper Architects Movement' to create imaginary architecture. 

They wanted to rethink the city as a dream landscape blending memories from the past with visions for the future.

They used a variety of architectural, literacy and visual sources from classical mythology to science fiction as inspiration for their work.

Materials:
Etchings on paper.

Photo:

I chose 3 of my favourite images from the collection.

Themes Of The Piece:

The pieces explore the theme of Utilitarianism and present the modern metropolis as oppressive and alienating, reflecting the experience of living under a totalitarian regime.

Why It Inspires You:
I like the use of height and potential of falling in all 3 of the pieces.

Potential Ideas For Theatrical Work:

Exploring the use of height and the risk of falling. Exploring risks in general.
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Title Of Art Piece:
White Field.

Artist:
Gunther Uecker.

Artist Rationale:
The piece is a monochrome composition. It allows the nails to create patterns of shadow across the surface creating patterns of light responding to the light in the room, positioning and where the viewer stands.

Materials:
Painted nails and canvas.

Photo:

Themes Of The Piece:

Light and dark, shadow, eye of the beholder.

Why It Inspires You:
It's very lyrical. It looks like grass blowing in the wind. Doesn't seem too impressive but when you look closer lots of time went into it. The different positioning, lengths and angles of the nails is very specific.

Potential Ideas For Theatrical Work:
What would happen if you used humans instead of the nails?
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Title Of Art Piece:
Untitled.

Artist:
Nam June Paik.

Artist Rationale:
Uses abstract lines and shapes, smiling television screens. The central image (of a US Secretary and a Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs) is framed with television casing.

Materials:
Acrylic paint and pastel on printed paper.

Photo:

Themes Of The Piece:

The piece is a comment on the circulation of news and the power of television as a disseminated of information.

Why It Inspires You:
I like the piece for it's feeling of child's play. It's a juxtaposition on the raw message.

Potential Ideas For Theatrical Work:
Taking adult themes and making them childlike.
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Title Of Art Piece:

Emma Dipper

Artist:
Anthony Caro

Artist Rationale:

This is one of 15 sculptures Caro made. They had to be made of easily transportable materials such as light tubes and rod because they were 200 miles away from the nearest city. The piece was returned to for further adjustments and colour changes using normal American household paint.

Materials:

Painted steel.

Photo:

Themes Of The Piece:

The internal activation of space.

Why It Inspires You:

I like the dynamic, frame like structure.

Potential Ideas For Theatrical Work:

The potential of space and structure. Child's play.

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Workshop 2

Body Over Mind

This exercise left me feeling very relaxed and open. I felt I could move freely and interact with others without inhibition which created fluid organic movement.
I noticed that through my relaxation during the exercise I became very floppy which helped with the fluidity of movement.
I was able to explore all parts of my body and all levels of the room. After the exercise I feel I benefited from this exploration of my body, how it moves and what can be done with it.

Tickle Me

I though this task was to help recreate movement and emotion form a specific moment in time. I though that recreating my partners movement was far easier than my own because I got to watch their reaction and I couldn't watch myself being tickled. But I found it much easier to recreate my emotion because I got to feel it myself and I couldn't feel how my partner felt. 
The movement became more alien the more I did the exercise. Being tickled caused me to jolt a lot and as the thought of the movement being ticking faded the movement became more like a fit and more disturbing. 
I found that instead of connecting with emotion, it was more effective to connect with movement and I think this was the point of the exercise. We weren't supposed to recreate a character we were supposed to represent it. 

Impossible Task

My impossible task was to break the window with my teeth. From the immediate start of the exercise, I knew my task was not even attemptable. If I had attempted it I would've seriously hurt myself and I have that instinct to protect myself wired into me. This instinct meant that the exercise felt tainted. I would never get to try my task because I would hurt myself. This made me feel very frustrated because I wanted to achieve my task.
Instead I pretended to attempt my task. Chewing at the window and smashing my mouth against the glass. It never felt real or organic, just forced.


Music Response

Overall the exercise made me sharper and more instinctive as at the start of the exercise the music was a surprise and fresh. However, the music queues being played at random points made the session feel bitty. Nothing was entirely finished.  
After a while I got used to the precarious nature of the music and started anticipating when it was going to be played. The more I thought about what was coming up the less organic the movement became. This exercise broke the conventions of theatre because we were performing all the time.

Workshop 1

Cost of the Actor:

Grid

In this exercise we were purposefully pushed to get us to work at our limits. It is true that I felt physically and mentally exhausted during and after the exercise but it's questionable whether we can actually go to our limit because our bodies naturally stop ourselves from passing it. We wouldn't be here if we had pushed our limits.
The music being played throughout the exercise was stopped, started and repeated very frequently. It was highly irritating and made me feel tense and angry. These emotions drove me to walking faster with more purpose - to try and get away from it maybe. 

Using something we desperately wanted at the end of our line helped give us an objective and a reason to move. It increased my pace and the intention behind my walk. I could feel myself getting a little tearful because I was so in the moment and wanted my thing so much.
As the exercise progressed everything became far more organic and natural. I didn't have to think about it as much and just felt it. This became noticeable in the room, as everyone was moving at a pace and less frequently bumped into others.

Knee Fights - Pairs

I found the knee fights frustrating. There weren't really techniques which you could clock onto and use to win - as I really wanted to. The exercises wasn't that simple and you really did have to work for it.
I found that being pushed and shouted at added more of a competitive edge to the game. I felt I was being manipulated into trying to win and beat your partner - sort of like the devil on your shoulder. I also found that the pushing did add a lot of stress to the exercise. It was very hard to listen to. It made you feel bad, as if you weren't achieving and as if you weren't good enough. 
There was one point in the exercise where I felt as if I was going to faint. This showed that I was close to passing my limits as my body started to give up on me. But as a natural body reaction I slowed down and paced myself and stopped this from happening.

Fishing Lines

In this exercise I felt like I put a huge amount of effort in. I tried to picture myself in the situation and feel the weight and tension of the line and what was on the end of it.
This exercise helped me use my imagination and concentration to feel in the moment and feel my way through a naturalistic performance.
Having a real person on the other end of the line was good for having someone to work off. You watched how much they were struggling and moving away or towards you and reacted with them.
After a while the exercise became repetitive and I found it more difficult to maintain focus as me and my partner started to expect what was going to happen and the movements we were going to use. In order to keep it naturalistic I need to keep the movement and focus fresh. 

Lover Trying To Leave

In this exercise I got to test myself emotionally and physically. I became very in the moment and used my imagination and concentration to help me with this. Like with the fishing lines, having a real person to work with made the exercise easier because you could react with them and their effort made it feel more real.
This was the only exercise that didn't become repetitive. It felt like it could be a real situation and so was easily relate-able and easy to act along with. This meant that our improvisation felt and looked organic and natural.

Alphabet Boxes - Solo & Group

As a solo, I found this exercise difficult. It was hard to remember where my letters were without going through the entire alphabet. I had to think too hard meaning that my movements were slow and slightly forced. 
It was also hard to come up with different movements and ways of touching the letters in my box. Although this challenged and helped me to come up with new ideas, this also slowed the process down and would've made my performance incredibly awkward and boring to watch. 
As a group, the exercise became slightly easier as you had people to react to and with. We also didn't have the task of spelling our name which made this time more freeing and less worrying.

Dancing In The Dark

This exercise was probably the most awkward for me. We were told to respond to the music when we felt impelled to do so but I didn't feel like moving for the entire exercise.
The repetitive nature of the music made me feel tense and a little overwhelmed. It was loud and in your face. The only thing I could hear along with the footsteps of other people. It wasn't pleasant to listen to and by the end I was forced to sit down to try and collect myself.   


The Spurt Of Blood

My initial response to 'The Spurt Of Blood' was just how weird and strange it was. It didn't make much sense to me, but as we read over it more we all clicked on to aspects of the play. I thought although it seemed random I thought it was written very specifically. The stage directions were specific in the way things were to be performed. This did help during performance though as it was direction to follow which helped with character.
I thought the play was about a relationship that was disapproved of by parents who contradicted the relationship.
You can see how Artaud has used his own techniques particularly through the stage directions you can find visual poetry, skills of an actor and deliberate cruelty.

In creating our own version of the piece, we decided to recreate this part of the text:

"...A multitude of scorpions crawl out from beneath the Wet-Nurse's dress and swarm between her legs..."

This part of the text is very detailed in its writing. You can picture and almost feel it happen which was why it drew our attention. We felt like if this can be achieved in writing it can be achieved in performance too.

Using total theatre we recreated the section by making people sit on the floor with their eyes closed in the dark. Taking away one of the audiences senses made the remaining ones more sensitive. This way we could assault their sense of touch and hearing:

• By running our fingers over the audiences legs and gently blowing on them we made their skin crawl and made them feel uncomfortable like their were insects crawling over them.
• Making insect noises and leaving pauses and irregular times between people left the audience with a feeling of anticipation and worried about what could potentially happen to them. The sense of the unknown became more scary than feeling the insects themselves.

When performing I was challenged because it was quite hard to judge timings. Leaving it too early would make the audience more immune to the feeling and too late would let the feeling of anticipation pass.
The audiences reactions also challenged me to stay in character. The reactions were very funny and it was hard not to laugh.

As an audience member I felt that when some of your senses were taken away I felt more susceptible to the emotions created by the piece. Thought of the unknown was what scared me the most. I did feel like my senses were assaulted.

Starting Questions:

What is theatre?

There is no one definition for theatre. I believe that theatre is whatever you want it to be. You can see theatre as anything but there is always potential. Theatre is a showing of work. You can perform in any way you want to portray anything you want. When watching theatre you don't have to feel or learn anything. You choose what to take in. A personal outlook on a performance. These are other things people see theatre as:

• A fictional representation of people
• Something that happens in a space (with someone watching it)
• Views and opinions represented in an artistic way
• Performance: to entertain/educate/reflect/empathise
• Have a personal experience
• A way of expression
• An idea

What have you learnt over the last two terms? What new skills have you already developed?

I feel I am able to look at a character in enough detail to perform with ease and give a believable outcome.

I also feel I am able to be free and imaginative with improvisations and trying out techniques. Conducting myself in this way allows me to come out with more eloquent work as I am willing to try things that may not work and learn and alter them if they don't. 

Grotowski

Born	Jerzy Grotowski 11 August 1933 Rzeszów, Poland
Died	14 January 1999 (aged 65) Pontedera, Tuscany, Italy
Occupation	Theatre director
Alma mater	Russian Academy of Theatre Arts

Grotowski is famous for creating a technique called "Total Theatre".

"Grotowski pushed his actors to follow their natural instinct, no longer to attempt to pre-edit their inner selves, as a safety from failure, for ultimately this tactic was relatable to imprisonment. Grotowski used his knowledge from limitless theatre forms and ancient philosophies to concentrate a true theory. Theatre in his eyes needed to be reduced down to its purest form, leaving the actor to reveal their raw self to the spectator prompting the same in return."

(http://www.dziecitheatre.org/dzfiles/boss.pdf)

Grotowski made his students go running through the woods (often naked) together. He believed that by bringing the group closer together they'd be more comfortable with each other, therefore the group will work better together as one, producing organic, watchable work. However, Grotowski takes a more concentrated, individualistic style and approach to his work. It is far more free flowing and process focused working from the the ‘inside out’. He believed that you couldn't physically work without being able to feel the emotion first.

Here are a few quotes from Grotowski:

“If you want to create a masterpiece, you must always avoid beautiful lies.” 

“I wasnt political in order to be political”

"Not in order to teach others but to learn with them what our existence, our organism, our personal and repeatable experience have to give us; to learn to break down the barriers which surround us and to free ourselves from the breaks which hold us back, from the lies about ourselves which we manufacture daily for ourselves and for others; to destroy the limitations caused by our ignorance or lack of courage; in short, to fill the emptiness in us: to fulfill ourselves...art is a ripening, an evolution, an uplifting which enables us to emerge from darkness into a blaze of light.”

Brook

Born	Peter Stephen Paul Brook 21 March 1925 (age 89) Chiswick, London
Occupation	Director
Awards	Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play 1966 Marat/Sade 1971 A Mids

Peter Brook is a successful director who has written a book called "The Empty Space" on the subject.

He believes that the most important aspect of theatre is that the play is alive, working depending on the group of actors he has in front of him and working with the core meaning of the text, often using 'image' to communicate meaning. Brook has even been known to rewrite texts to get the meaning across better. He famously said to a group of actors "You'll never be as good as the play".

Here are some quotes from Brook:

“Time, which is so often an enemy in life, can also become our ally if we see how a pale moment can lead to a glowing moment, and then turn to a moment of perfect transparency, before dropping again to a moment of everyday simplicity.”

“Reality' is a word with many meanings.” 

“A stage space has two rules: (1) Anything can happen and (2) Something must happen.”

“The closeness of reality and the distance of myth, because if there is no distance you aren't amazed, and if there is no closeness you aren't moved.” 

Artaud

Born	Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud 4 September 1896 Marseille, France
Died	4 March 1948 (aged 51) Paris, France
Cause of death	Intestinal Cancer
Nationality	French
Education	Studied at the Collège du Sacré Couer
Occupation	Theatre director, poet, actor, artist
Known for	Theatre of Cruelty
Notable work(s)	The Theatre and Its Double
Style	Erotica

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud)

Artaud is famous for his experimental theatre technique called "Theatre Of Cruelty" which was a technique which pushed performers and audience to their absolute limits to create an emotional committed performance. He did this by using the following techniques in most of his work. 

These techniques are made more poignant due to the mental wellbeing of Artaud:

"He spent a great deal of his life addicted to drugs or locked up in asylums or attempting numerous, unsuccessful, detoxification programmes; or he was to be found acting in films, or being expelled from the Surrealists, or disappearing into the hills of Mexico in search of the Tarahumara Indians, or arriving in Ireland with a walking stick he claimed to have belonged to Saint Patrick and eventually being deported, it is a wonder he had the time or lucidity to write anything at all."

(http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/images/antonin_artaud_tcm4-123683.pdf)

Here are some quotes from Artaud: 

“Never tire yourself more than necessary, even if you have to found a culture on the fatigue of your bones.”

“There is in every madman
a misunderstood genius
whose idea
shining in his head
frightened people
and for whom delirium was the only solution
to the strangulation
that life had prepared for him.” 

“I abandon myself to the fever of dreams, in search for new laws.” 

“I call for actors burning at the stakes, laughing at the flames.”