9. PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP – CONCEPT AND CREATIVITY Anca Doina Ciobotaru195 Abstract: The analysis of the double dimension of characters of the animation theatre – the imitative and the interpretative – and the role between animation and public, allows us to show the need to use methods focused on interdisciplinary and comparative studies; belonging of these characters to performing arts is obvious. These elements determine us to structure the show workshops so as to have as a starting point the practical argumentation of theory supported by our research. Every scenic action started from a core idea, concept or hypothesis, the stage performance confirming or invalidating the anticipated formula. This led to better understanding of resources of scenic expressivity offered by simultaneous presences (puppet actors – actors), which can be identified throughout the history of performing arts; this aspect forces us to perceive more attentively and objectively the relation between various forms of performance; tendencies to structure the role theatrical language in outlining the show being harmful, in our view. Key words: scenic action, animation theatre, theatrical language The analysis of the double dimension of characters of the animation theatre – the imitative and the interpretative – and the role between animation and public, allows us to show the need to use methods focused on inter-disciplinary and comparative studies; belonging of these characters to performing arts is obvious. These elements determine us to structure the show workshops so as to have as a starting point the practical argumentation of theory supported by our research. Every stage action started from a core idea, concept or hypothesis, the stage performance confirming or invalidating the anticipated formula. This led to better understanding of resources of stage expression offered by simultaneous presences (puppet actors – actors), which can be identified throughout the history of performing arts; and to necessity to correlate rehearsal time (voice, body) to the type of performance and also to organic understanding of the theory used. All these aspects call for a more careful and objective perception of the relations among different forms of theatrical performance; tendencies to structure the role theatrical language in outlining the show being harmful in our view. The anthropological approach can generate, though, getting an awareness of cultural patterns, inside which a performance unfolds; creation always has a tendency to overcome cultural limitations, the autonomy of the stage language being the result of the ability to summarize and communicate factors of influence. Modernity invites to accepting the necessity to study not only artistic creation techniques (system building, animation, actor interpretation) but also the role of art, of the dialogue between the artist and the public in shaping response attitudes equally to everybody’s and community problems. On stage, on streets, in health and educational institutions – the performance arts merge trying to redefine their role. Among entertainment, therapy, teaching method or response to life impulses, more approaches appear, more artistic identities choose to adopt as a means of communication the one specific to animation 195Associate Professor PhD, “George Enescu” University of Arts from Iaşi of Romania, [email protected] 179 performance. The puppeteer must leave world of illusion and fiction, in order to use its metaphor for expressing his ideas about the world and life; parable acquires its meaning only if it finds its correspondent in the unrest of human existence. Animation theatre looks for its stage identity (in classical forms of expression) also outside theatre; sociology, education, communication sciences – these use more often techniques specific to this art. The debates that place animation theatre falsely in obscurity made us launch a series of argumentative studies not only by providing our own experience of practising performance workshops but also by relating it opinions of important creators from the world of performance (outsides the technical sphere). We draw your attention on the observation of the stage director Andrei Șerban : „Later I read Gordon Craig, who in Űber-Marionette says that, in fact, the ideal actor is the puppet-actor. Paradoxically, a puppet can have more soul than an actor, who sometimes is conceited, full of his subjectivity. A puppet is more expressive, more generous and more objective.“196 Thus, a stage director interested in funding the meaning of theatrical experiment emphasizes the importance of special qualities of puppets, his opinion reminding us of an important essay by Kleist that stresses this important feature of the puppet-actor in relation with actor-person. Stage directors can also consider the principles that govern the art of animation in their attempt to understand actor’s psychology; small stag becomes, thus, a theatre space where we can discover ways of expression, formulas of high expression. Starting with the second half of the XXth century, puppeteers firmly acknowledged srage interferences by redefining their art as a synthesis of performance techniques; where they tried to incorporate the path from primitive art to 3D cinema projections, received and used influences from the world of circus, dramatic theatre, dance theatre, entertainment shows, popular theatre (rituals based). This was the reason that made us engage into a new research of the duality character-object, including the double condition of the object as an actor and playground and also the relation between text and performance in the animation theatre, and the reevaluation of Alfred Jarry’s, Gordon Craig’s, Vsevold Meyerhold’s, Jerzy Grotowski’s theories. In fact, this redefining is triggered by the development of a new relation between the actor and the stage object in a new semantics adopted in approaching the performance. Defining the theatre puppet as an animated object (by the human factor) in order to deliver a message transfers us into a space of the sign object that involves emotional and cognitive engagement in the exchange of ideas between the stage and the public. It reverses the path: from the specially built object (sometimes technically sophisticated) to a natural or common object, of faily use. The common becomes a source of expression, the object passes from its common use to that of aesthetics. „The art (…) is connected, on the one hand, to visual perception, and, on the other hand, to technical procedure. Perception can be an object of rational thought for a 196 Șerban, Andrei – O biografie, trad. N., Editura Polirom, Iași, 2006, pp. 21-22 180 philosopher and scholar; and for an artist it is an incentive that triggers a system of operation designed to produce through proper techniques artificial images identified as an object, the work of art.“197 In case of animation theatre, the synthesis is even more accentuated, the actor functioning, in fact, as a technical system, an object that develops a specific animation technique; aesthetic rules will remind equally of the understanding of the beauty in both fine arts and in performance art in perfect agreement and that goes back in time. The Puppeteer, named generically, handler, falls behind its own animated object becoming an actor; the technical system designed to create stage images generating certain emotions or ideas, force the animator to adopt a playful style, adapted and well-defined. This type of interdependencies create the specific context in which we will something that could be called simultaneous appearanaces – the handling actor and the object actor in a dialogue, one serving the other, but ready to fight for its supremacy. The research of this topic forces us to reflect on psychology of creativity, anthropology and theatre aesthetics. Thus, the art of animation theatre can suggest ways which are many times neglected by those interested in understanding the world of the theatre performance art; in its attempt to discover forms of stage expression by which the pupeteer could communicate to the public its message (with high impact), the puppeteer has to abandon himself for the benefit of the created object. The magical meeting point is searched, and the animated system becomes a machine which makes the journey possible and that is why it should be carefully and rigorously chosen. The viewers are willing to accept this convention if, beyond technique, the emotion is born. The performance-workshop can facilitate getting closer to the magical point, as its main aim is the journey and not the final end, without excluding it though The aestheitic side is replaced by the educational one; the performance should not be only enjoyed but also it should develop conscienceness and creative personalities. The unrest of searching is learnt, the patience of acquiring a skill is trained, the undefinable talent is given from a place Beyond Our Understanding. The performance energy is born in a close meeting of the actor with the character, of the concrete with the metaphor. It is important to approach the performance-workshop with at leat with an intial understanding of theatre semiotics. „Etymologically, a symbol is a recognition sign made of two parts of an object torn in two parts which we get closer to; the verb sumballein literally means to throw together with and it means to put together, to gather, and from here its derived meaning to weave - and here we get closer to the text, texture and to its weaving.“198