Differant Characters in the Devil in Drag

In the Devil in Drag the characters will have to lead with differant parts of their bodies to show off who they are, what they are and their personalities. The video above shows a type of physical theatre called Commedia dell'Arte. Within the video it shows us how differant characters move. Some of the charcaters realate to the charcaters in the Devil in Drag. I think that the way the character of zanni moves in the video is how The Devils would move in our play as it gives a suspicious and mischievous character. As well as this many of the differant charcterisations would link into our play like leading with the stomach out for the Cardinal; in for Pizzocca, head for the Judge and chest for Borlocco-Pizzocca.

Questions

1. After looking at the first two to three sites on Google, how helpful do you think the information is?

It's helpful as it has Wikipedia and BBC sites with good and clear information, even though Wikipedia can be changed by the public, BBC can't so is reliable.

2.How is the information in Yahoo! different from the information you found in Google?

Yahoo!'s first results where ads realting to the topic Vasco Da Gama I put into search and gave me sites for Hotels not anything to do with my topic but under the ads it had similar results to google.

 

3. How might a metasearch engine like Dogpile be more helpful than a regular search engine?

The information was more reliable and had more sites with information on the topic where as the others didn't have all this information.

 

4. How does the information you get from Brainboost differ from the information you got on other search engines? What else do you notice on the left hand side?

 

 

5. How might KartOO be more helpful than other sites? What makes it unique?

The information was mostly ads that where not important to my search. Many of the sites had more visual results to them rather than written work.

 

6. How would you explain the benefits of using an Advanced Search to someone who had never tried it before?

The benefits behind using Advanced Search all depend on what you want to look up online, if you want to have visual information KartOO is a good site but other all I still think regular search engines had good clear information.

The Ass and The Lion

One year, as every year, all the beasts of the valley were invited up to the sanctuary on the top of the mountain for the blessing of the animals. The lion chose the donkey as his travelling companion, because he thought: "This journey is going to be long and wearisome, and when the going starts to get steep I can get up on the donkey's back. He can carry me. And then, if I happen to get hungry, I can eat him too!" So he suggests to the donkey that they travel together, and the donkey agrees. But the donkey proposes a deal: "We'll take turns in carrying each other. Alright? Two miles each." So off they go. When the road starts to get steeper, up speaks the lion: "Time for me to get up on your back!" "Alright, up you go...?" And with a leap the lion is up there on the donkey's back. "Hey, go easy with those claws sticking into my ribs," says the donkey. "You scratch me like that and I bleed to death!" "I can't help it. I have to hold on as best I can! Giddy-up! Giddy-up! Away you go!" So the donkey reaches the top of the mountain, and by this time he's got blood pouring down from his scratches. "Well," he says, "now at least for the journey down it's my turn to ride on your back!" "True enough, fair's fair," says the lion. "You did the work on the way up, I do it on the way down. Away you go!" And the donkey jumps up onto the lion's back... But he has a terrible time keeping his balance. He slithers here and there, because he's got hooves, you see, and he can't get a proper grip. Then all of a sudden our donkey jockey has an idea – a thrust of his loins, stiff as a ramrod, and straight up the lion’s backside. Held in place. Good and solid. "Hey, ho, ouch!" shouts the lion. "What is that blooming great truncheon that you've stuck up my rear?" Forgive me, your majesty...” says the donkey. “I can’t help it – each of us has to hold on as best he can! Giddy-up! Giddy-up! Away you go!"

SONG: Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up
and away you go, and don't even stop.
Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up, and go
and imagine that you’re flying.

The story is about class systems. That when people believe they are better than others that they can do what they like, put them down or injure them. The story tells us that no matter what people do to you, you can do it back just a lot worse than the way they did.

The Devil

Being the devil

The Devil is a main part in the play, The Devil in Drag. At home I used differant techniques to find out how the Devil would move. I found that the bum and knees didn't portray him the way I thought he should be within the play. Then I tried using my chin and nose. I thought that this worked better and gave him the right presence within the room. Overall I thought that using the chest seemed to give the right character and persona of the Devil. It was strong and seemed to fit perfectly with how I thought he could be within the play.

Researching The Devil In Drag

Instead of using just the internet to research the play The Devil in Drag Tahlia and I though of different ways in which to research and get information about the play.

The internet: Is a wide range of research types, ideas and information but can be unreliable or false.

Library: Books of or about the play, books on Italian Renaissance, plays by Dario Fo. DEtail is also much better. The problem with this is that books can take a long time to read and aren't always available.

See the play: See how the play is performed and what the underline story is about. The problems with this is directors can change the story and manipulate the script of the play.

See similar plays: See how the plays link and the similar ideas in script or settings. The problems that this has is that they are not going to have as many ideas or maybe none at all about anything to do
with the devil in drag.

Look into the Italian Renaissance: This will give us an idea about how people acted and how important people from the play would have been.

Research Dario Fo: This would give us an idea about how how writes and how all his charatcers are portrayed to get ideas about our play.

Go to Italy and see where it was set: See what the setting of the play is like and how it would work in withgin the play, also getting an idea about how the people of Italy are like.



Art of the time:

Improvisation From the Script

In groups we were given a piece of script from the Devil in Drag. Each section of the script gave a little idea of what the play was about. Ours was about racial discrimination and standing up for yourself and others. Within our groups we had to devise a scene using the piece of text as the point behind the scene. My group did a scene about kids in detention. Nicole, Amber and myself where misbehaving kids who where rude and racist to our teacher and people we knew. This was how we portrayed the racist elemant within the play. Hector then decided he's had enough of our comments and stood up for Tahlia, our teacher, by using the section of the script we were given as part of a monologue. We then added in parts to give it the comic feel that The Devil in Drag has.

Leading from Parts of the Body

This term we are doing a play called The Devil in Drag. This play is a physical theatre comedy piece. In the play we use our bodies as much as our vocals to play our characters. In preparation for this, we did some physical activities. The first was 'Fishing' where in pairs we would reel our partners in by different parts of the body like the bum, crotch and heel of foot. This helped me to use more of my body to lead me and less of my vocal ability.


We where then told top walk around the room. We where given a part of our body to lead from. First was the knees, in which you walked with a bend in your knees which gave off a character who was slightly strange, next was to use our chest, the character created was very strong and brave Then we used our bums to lead us, this gave the impression of an older person with back problems or a supermodel whose hips and bum controlled her. Finally was nose and chin, both of these gave off a snobby, rude character who thought they where better than everyone. This exercise showed me how a character can be lead by the parts of body and how it can define a character. I didn't know this till we did this exercise










Dario Fo