Two Houses - Costume

For the retelling of the great love story ever told, we have decided to wear white shirts, white fisherman's pants and Japanese Jika-tabi for shoes.

In Western Culture, the colour white has a significance in symbolism as it is the colour of purity, innocence and cleanness, and very often within a religious context, Whereas in Chinese and Indian tradition, white is the color of mourning and death. White has also, throughout history, been linked to someone or something being "good". Two prime examples of this are; "healing magic" is known as White Magic, and the white dove being a symbol of peace. One can also see a good example of black and white depicting good and evil in the Taoism symbol Ying and Yang.

We chose white for all of the above reasons and as well as the fact that white is easily marked and stained. Since the story of Romeo and Juliet is an epic struggle, we thought what better way to represent that struggle, besides from the physical struggles the performers will be going through, than having their clothing becoming more ratty and stained as the installation goes on.

Jika-tabi are modeled on the traditional Japanese tabi. Like traditional tabi, jika-tabi have a divided toe area so that they can in theory be worn with slip-on thonged footwear, but they are heavy-duty, have a rubber sole and resemble boots. We chose jika-tabi because of the Butoh work the performers are undertaking and because of the fact that they are lightweight, so easy to move in, but still offer the wearer's feet some protection.

Exercises

Here is a list of some of our exercises to date:

General warm ups                                                                                                                   

Settling the Breath                                                                                                                                                                                       

Body/Breath Connection: Pairs                                                                            

Body/Voice Connection: Pairs                                                                              

‘Disappearance’                                 

Breath, Sound and Movement Connection                                                        

Body/Breath/Voice Continuum    

                                                                          

EXTERNAL IMAGERY

The Invisible String                                                                                                

Running on Various Surfaces                                                                              

The Kite   

Conversational Kites

Tracks                                                                                                                  

Kite: With Physical Crisis 1                                                                                               

Kite: With Physical Crisis 2                                                                                               

External Image Reactions 1                                                                                  

External Image Reactions 2                                                                                  

INTERNAL IMAGERY

Butoh-Fu                                                                                                                   

Central Imaging                                                                                                       

Omni Central Imaging                                                                                            

Containment of an Internal Image Within the Body                              

Passing the Sound                                                                                               

Flies                                                                                                                           

Reaching 

Gargoyles                                                                                                                  

EMOTIONS                                                                                              

The Emotional Line                                                                                                            

Expression of Mask, Voice and Primary Emotions                                    

Moments of Breath/Action/Voice Using Emotion                                              

TRANSFORMATIONS

Sound Transformations                                                                                         

The Space Between: Transformations and the Internal Image                     

Vocal Transitions and the Internal Image                                                                      

CONTRADICTIONS

The Mask and Contradicting Sounds                                                                  

Contradicting Emotions                                                                                         

Contradictions and Butoh-Fu        

SEQUENCING

Use of voice and speech in motion, and in static/statue poses

5 Crisis Positions (voice and speech in transitions, voice and speech in statues)

Rising 1

Rising 2

Falling 1

Falling 2

Rolling

Crawling

WALKS

Slow

Bow - Front

Bow - Back

Sideways

FLOCKING

Physical 

Vocal

Physio-Vocal

GEOLOGY

With central person

With objects

With each other 

With all of the above

Exhalation/vocalisation in leaving destination 

Internal breath/vocalisations on approaching destination

SOME NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY EXERCISE

Punctuation

• The validity and the physicalisation of the punctuation within the text.
• Not walking in straight lines turning at each punctuation point – rather it is an extension of that, it takes it to another realm.
• It connects punctuation to specific focus points, these may be human, inanimate, or even imagined.

Breath

• Breath (inspiration – dropping in the thought) – line (voice and action) – reaction and the cycle continues (breath – dropping in the next thought when moving to the next destination).
• The person in the middle instigates the line of dialogue, which then inspires the people/person surrounding him/her to ‘inhale’ the line.
• When the person in the middle says one line (up to the punctuation point), the others inhale that line and when they have inhaled that line completely (the length of the breath will determine the length of the line and thought).

Destination

• Destination changes the way in which you deal with the next thought.

Volume

• The words 'loud' and 'soft' and all the variations in between may instil a negative feeling.
• Soft (can make the person be vocally quiet) “speak softly…quiet down…don’t make too much noise”.
• Opposite to that: loud. Speak louder may straing the voice.
• 0 – 100 in an obvious gage, with about 20 or 30 being that of conventional conversational volume.

CORE CENTRIC EXERCISES AND SEQUENCING

These sequencing exercises are a combination of sitting, lying and rolling positions 

which are: sitting - V-Pull, Reverse V-Pull; lying - Reverse V-Pull, Static hold – Facing 

Up, Static Hold – facing Down, rolling -  Forward Roll, Roll Up. Moving actions are not 

explored because the purpose of the sequencing is to explore the idea of shifting from 

one still position to another in space and time. There is no problem in terms of moving 

into any of these positions from walking, as long as you are precise about the moves and follows their centre at all times. The idea is to be creative and do what works best for you.

Any combination of moves can be explored. It is best for the director/leader to call out the positions so you know where you are going. After a while, these positions become engrained in the body, so what the instruction is called to move, or a beat is heard, you instinctively know to move on impulse to any position. For example, here is a sequence that may be explored:

Start in a V-Pull position.

3 beats - hold.

3 beats – move into a Static Hold – Facing Down position.

3 beats – hold.

3 beats – move into a Reverse V-Pull position.

3 beats – hold.

3 beats – move into a Static Hold – Facing Down position.

3 beats – hold.

And so on, until the instructor calls out ‘speak’, in which you would speak your learnt text in that particular position.

The ‘beats’ may be literal, for example beating on a drum, or they may be imaginary ‘imagine 3 beats of a drum’, or ‘3 counts to the movement or holds’. It’s important to savor those 3 beats as you move into position, and on the third count you must be in that position. The critical aspect is how you get there, not where you arrive. If you do not completely end up in that position, remain still and focused. 

                                                                       

                                                        

                                  

Profuge

The next Voice Theatre Lab production is 'Profuge', loosely based on VTL's 2007 - 2008 production of 'Dr Faustus'. The main attraction is the use of Garry Greenwood's Mountain Harp, which provides the musical accompaniment to the physical and vocal landscape.

A shot from one of the first rehearsals with the Mountain Harp and musicians: