Blood Wedding and The Woman Before Essay Example

This prevented audience members from becoming lost in the timeline, and allowed them to concentrate on the storyline. In terms of writing style, "The Woman Before" adheres closely to natural language patterns while "Blood Wedding" takes on a more surrealistic manner, spotlighting characters or elements that represent death and other symbolic concepts.

The practitioner's preference for a particular writing style impacts their choice. In our "Blood Wedding" introduction, we created a tableau to interpret the title. Initially, I believed the title represented purity ("Wedding") tainted by something ("Blood"). To convey this, I depicted the birth of a child with shadowy figures obscuring the mother and baby. I discovered a red rose in the prop box and added it to symbolize new life and fertility. Ultimately, the workshop enhanced my understanding of the play, even before reading it.

Having heard and seen each group's interpretation of the title, we were able to form our own opinions on what the play might be about. During the creation of scenes from "The Woman Before", the main challenge I faced was how to depict Romy's character. Initially, I portrayed Romy as a jealous, possessive psychopath seeking revenge, but I found this made it difficult for the audience to relate to or sympathize with her. To address this issue, I decided to convey a softer side to Romy by implying she struggled to move on from her past and wasn't in control of her actions. Instead of portraying her as manipulative and vindictive, I depicted her as a fragile, complex girl trapped in the past and torn apart by her lover's 'betrayal'. Additionally, in Act 4, I portrayed Claudia as very

manipulative, particularly when confronted by Romy, asserting her position as Frank's wife.

In this scene, I portrayed Romy as greatly perplexed and struggling to comprehend what she hears, thereby prompting the viewers to sympathize with her character. Brecht's method of Character Contradiction, which I utilized, elicited a much more powerful response and captivated the audience, as it added much-needed depth to Romy's character. Comparatively, I preferred examining interpretations of various characters in "The Woman Before" as the text allowed for a wider range of personal opinions and approaches through which characters could be performed. "Blood Wedding," in contrast, offered a more rigid structure. The play is set in 1930s Andalusia, during a time when many families relied on the fertile land surrounding them, emphasizing social, historical, cultural, and political context.

Understanding the social and cultural context of "The Woman Before" helped me act out the character of the Bride's Father. He was skeptical about the Bridegroom's Mother selling her land, as vineyards were one of the few ways to make a living and showed wealth in comparison to esparto farmers like himself. I sympathized with his skepticism, knowing that the vineyards were "worth a fortune" and provided a high standard of living. This knowledge enabled me to effectively convey my character's sentiments. The play, set in a society similar to our own, was easier to relate to than "Blood Wedding," which contributed to my interpretation of the character's motivations.

We didn't need to delve as deeply into the historical background for "The Woman Before" compared to "Blood Wedding" since the social context was still prevalent in our society, allowing us to relate to the characters' behaviors. There was

no need to study gender separation or political repression as in "Blood Wedding." As part of our research for "The Woman Before," we explored the phenomenon of overly possessive and psychopathic women, such as Romy in the play. By analyzing reports on individuals like Myra Hindley and Rose West, we gained insight into Romy's mindset, outlook on life, and cognitive processes.

In my performance, I incorporated the fragility, quietness and helplessness of both cases that I noticed. The play "Blood Wedding" revolves around an individual challenging society's norms as Leonardo elopes with the bride. While this may seem like a typical storyline from a TV show or a family scandal to modern readers, knowing about the traditional lifestyle in Spain during the 1930s helped me understand the characters' reactions better. This was particularly useful in Act 2 Scene 2 where the wedding crowd discovers that the pair have run away.

Understanding the context of the play allowed me to express shock and excitement through my portrayal of a character going against tradition. The emotions throughout "Blood Wedding" centered around love, hurt, revenge, and death, all symbolized by the color red. Keeping this in mind, I utilized red lighting to emphasize climactic moments in my set design. For most performances, a proscenium arch stage with raked seating was used, except for one where five blindfolded audience members were seated in a circle facing inward while other audience members sat in rows facing the stage. This created a voyeuristic experience for viewers as they witnessed both action and reactions of those blindfolded. Visual, Aural, and Spatial elements all played significant roles in bringing this production to life.

Due to the

five individuals with impaired vision, our vocal performances held even greater importance as they had to rely solely on hearing and touch. To complement the sensory deprivation, we utilized non-literal sounds and drew inspiration from Artaudian theories. In addition, we incorporated segments from one of Artaud's poems that complemented the text of "Blood Wedding". We also experimented with various delivery techniques, including canon, chanting, and repetition, ultimately deciding that chanting had the most daunting effect on the audience when combined with our emotionless facial expressions.

During "The Woman Before" workshop, we were tasked with using only our voice to create the final scene while the audience's eyes remained closed. I opted to open the stage curtains at the onset of the scene - this not only signalled the start of a play, but also served to mimic the sound of shower curtains being drawn. As the scene progressed, we escalated our breathing, simultaneously increasing its pace and depth. This helped generate unease among the audience as we gradually moved closer to them.

We started our performance with soft, prolonged sounds that gradually grew louder until the climax. The show finished with a chorus of cries for help followed by a phone ringing. Gradually, the sound faded away and left the room silent. Overall, I discovered that "The Woman Before" presented a greater challenge when it came to the auditory aspects of the play. However, "Blood Wedding" provided more freedom to experiment with the staging and the text itself was surreal when compared to the naturalism of "The Woman Before". One notable characteristic of Lorca’s writing in "Blood Wedding" is how he names his main characters.

The play

assigns characters with names that indicate their position or role within society, except for Leonardo. This highlights his uniqueness and sparks the theme of individuality versus society. Additionally, we analyzed the archetypes present in the play and their typical characteristics, such as a stern face and crossed arms for the Mother and hands on hips for Leonardo. Hearing others' interpretations of the characters aided my performance and allowed me to use effective characteristics observed in my group. In portraying scenes from "The Woman Before," I had to transition quickly between Andi and Frank's characters.

Due to the Brechtian style of our performance, costume changes were not an option for showing character differences. Instead, my gestus became crucial. One notable contrast was the age gap between Frank (in his 40s) and Andi (18), which I emphasized by moving more gracefully and quickly as Andi. As Frank, I often remained still. Additionally, I lowered my voice for Frank's dialogue. Lorca's language in "Blood Wedding" blends poetics and prose, utilizing metaphors and personification seamlessly throughout. Characters speak in verse during heightened moments and tense situations.

When Leonardo and the Bride converse in the forest, they use verse, such as "Be quiet I say. With your teeth, with your hands, with whatever you may", which enhances the surreal and mystical ambiance already created by the absurd characters, such as the moon. "Blood Wedding" features dark and sinister imagery and figurative language in several instances, notably in Act 3, principally in the Beggar Woman's speech.

The line "Torn flowers their eyes, their teeth two fistfuls of frozen snow" creates an ominous atmosphere that perfectly sets the scene for the rejection of the Bride

by the Mother after the death of the Bridegroom. In contrast, "The Woman Before" uses naturalistic language with characters frequently interrupting and overlapping each other, making it more believable and allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the performance. Personally, I prefer "The Woman Before" as the characters feel more realistic, making the audience more likely to believe both them and Schimmelpfennig's message. To improve non verbal communication in "Blood Wedding", we participated in a workshop where we acted out scenes without using our voices or mouthing words to each other.

By focusing solely on non verbal communication, the drama exercise magnified its importance. Without relying on dialogue prompts, non verbal cues became essential. Initially, I didn't use my body to its full potential and remained motionless throughout most of the performance. However, by the end of the workshop, I learned that incorporating gestures helped convey the play's subtext and my character's objectives, all without the need for words.

During our theatre workshops, we delved into the significance of sound effects as a medium to enhance performance. For instance, I could display frustration towards the Bride without verbalizing it in my role as the Bridegroom. Our exploration of "The Woman Before" challenged us to produce the final scene using non-literal noises and natural percussion from objects in the room. Sound is just as powerful as sight in conveying a message and augmenting a performance. We realized that sound effects can establish a setting, influence mood, and create tension while adding authenticity to the production. However, for Brechtian performances, simplicity is preferred and sound effects may not be necessary. Overall, our experience with "Blood Wedding" allowed us

to develop nonverbal communication techniques using gestures and facial expressions to convey intriguing subtext during our performances.

During a workshop, our small group focused on analyzing a portion of the "Blood Wedding" lullaby. Our objective was to determine how to maximize the section's impact. Various vocal techniques were explored, including canon. As there were four members in our group and four lines to recite, this approach was logical and proved highly effective. Although typically associated with children's playground songs such as "London's Burning," we adopted high-pitched, squeaky voices for the initial part of the performance.

By simultaneously repeating gruff and monotonous lines, the haunting juxtaposition of tones was able to counter something as pure as a nursery rhyme ("Wedding"). The repeated groans of "Blood" tainted the purity which aligned with the interpretation of the play being tarnished by something unholy. In "The Woman Before," I played with voice tone to convey a sense of panic to the audience.

As Andi becomes aware that he may have killed an innocent woman, feelings of fear, concern, and eventual panic set in. My task was to convey these emotions to the audience in a subtle manner. I experimented with various volumes and discovered that as my panic heightened, my voice grew louder, nearly reaching the point of shouting explanations. Additionally, I noticed that juxtaposing soft, high pitched tones with loud outbursts shed light on Andi's youth and innocence, as well as his apprehension toward facing consequences. Overall, I found "The Woman Before" to be preferable due to the wider range of emotions each character could express solely through their voice.