Constructure, Structure, Substructure / Frame, Portraiture, Score

 


I

 Unit: The Structure

Theme: Constructure, Structure, Substructure / Frame, Portraiture, Score

 

Introduction

In all fictionalized performing forms, depending on the aesthetic structure of the performance, actors use extra- daily scenic behavior in a fictionalized manner, which is different from daily behavior. The use of terms such as constructure, structure and substructure should make sense in the context of embodied movement within the stage context. I our lab, these concepts are illustrated through the creation of frame that delineates the performance space, the exploration of shapes (portraiture) within that space and the creation of a score to document the choreographic structure of the solo work.

 

II

Learning Objectives

 

  • Understand the concepts explored in class
  • Explain the importance of extra-daily techniques for actors 
  • Gain an awareness of how these concepts aid the development of your solo work
  • Embody these concepts through movement and expression


III

Main Lesson

 

Constructure


Although it is considered obsolete, we will use the term constructure to describe the process or act of constructing (or the manner in which movement is constructed) using all the elements of extra-daily techniques.  Extra-daily techniques are those movement techniques we have explored in class.

All the grounding and guiding information that the audience needs, such as:

  • who the characters are
  • where they are, 
  • what time of day it is
  • conform the body language of the performer.

Like the word "context," constructure can also be any other additional information the audience needs to interpret and accurately understand what is happening in the movement story.

Question 1

 Based on your work so far, how would you describe your own experience with the process of constructing movement?


2


Structure 


Structure comes from the Latin word structura which means "a fitting together, building." Your body structure can refer to how your muscles and bones fit together. A movement phrase structure (choreography) is the movement put together, including the elements you choose to use from all the elements of extra-daily techniques explored in class. Structure is usually a noun, but it can also be a verb meaning to create order, like if you structure a movement phrase to express an extra-verbal or even non-verbal story.

 

Question 2

The structure of the phrase you created in class made possible the work with the text you brought to class? Explain.


3


Substructure

 

It is an underlying or supporting movement structure devised by the performer to tell that part of the story that escapes the lines of the text and/or the overt movement structure explored during the structuring (dancing) of the character (or play at a larger scale) during the creative (rehearsal) process. 

The substructure can stand on its own when used as the primary source of story telling (a movement piece, a dance piece or a physical theater piece, an opera).  Thus, the substructure, as the subtext, can also happen through implications. 

It can also use contradictions of one sort or another [I avoid movement literality (illustration) by verbally saying/singing "I love you," when what I am really saying in movement has no connection with stereotypical ways of saying it in abstract movement [and/or abstract gesture].

*Both structure and substructure allow the performer to have some schema (essential form) to rely on when nothing else works.

 

Question 3

How does the substructure enrich the movement proposed by the actor or dancer?

Source:

 https://writershelpingwriters.net/2018/11/context-text-and-subtext-what-they-are-and-how-they-help-storytelling/

 

4

 

Eugenio Barba and Extra-Daily Scenic Behaviour: Influences of Stanislavski, Meyerhold and Grotowski* 

 (Grotowsky Poor Theater and Total Act, page 33) 


 ABSTRACT

Three directors who influenced 20th century theater, Konstantin Stanislavski, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Jerzy Grotowski, and they each conducted comprehensive studies on the position of acting through theatrical aesthetic. In order to realize this theatrical aesthetic, these directors emphasized the need for actors to practice systematic exercises and develop particular scenic behaviour, which is different from daily behavior. Their work has paved the way for various theoretical studies on acting. The actor who is going to act within a reality that fictionalized on stage, no matter the strength of its relationship with daily reality, has to leave the automatized daily behavior behind and develop a technique that is built upon the necessities of the stage context. In this article, the basis of the extra-daily scenic behavior of actors in the Odin Theatre is dealt with in the light of approaches of directors who strongly affected the theater approach that developed through the 20th century: namely Stanislavski, Meyerhold and Grotowski. 

Keywords: Extra-daily, Eugenio Barba, KonstantinStanislavski, VsevolodMeyerhold, Jerzy Grotowski

 

IV

 A Note to Remember

 The actor must develop a theater-specific manner of behavior in order to reveal the truth overshadowed by daily behavior on the stage. The scenic behavior Grotowski developed with the actors' aims to liberate them from these obstacles. The actions of the actor aiming to be freed from natural behavior have an extra-daily quality.

 

 V

Case Study

 

Robin Hood 1- Off Balance, International Devising Theater Company


 

VI

Activity 

1

 

Frame

 The performance space is framed by a yarn. The students look at the framed-space with intent noticing the differences between the general space and the framed space.

Portraiture

 Portraiture is the art or an instance of making portraits. The students use their bodies to experience instances of solo, dyadic, triadic portraiture, etc.

 

Score


Students create the score of the phrases they have created so far, so by drawing a rectangular space. Within that space, they draw their movement for their solo and ensemble phrases.

 

 Those who are making up, please, do the work on your own and add your reflection to Discussion Board.


2

Rehearsal

 

VII

Journaling

 

VIII 

Glossary


IX

Sources

Eugenio Barba and Extra-Daily Scenic Behaviour:
Influences of Stanislavski, Meyerhold and Grotowski. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/1342459


X

Students' Work

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