Dawa School of Dramatic Arts

	Amber's Flower Shop Dawa School Of Dramatic Arts ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - Blessed Love And Greetings To All This is Ras Jus Dawa-Colibri, Artistic Director, Dawa Theatre Group ... Some may recall our shows at The Royal Peacock - Last Production there was "A Night Of Revolutionary Theatre - Blackness In Epic Measures". It was both a blessing and a joy. Classes Begin Sept 6th - Check The Creative Loafing Listing "Letures/Seminars" *Also if you would like to sponsor a student, please do not hesitate. The course is very intensive - 32 classes - Meeting twice a week - (Sat. & Sun. are currently the tentative days) - Running through 4 months. (Curriculum listed below) The goal, coming out of the Theatre School is to gather a theatre troupe of at least 16 to do perfomances both here and abroad. Previously, in every production I've taken part in - I have never been in a situation where I could simply "Direct", it's always been a situation where I had to both Direct and Teach, which takes away from the most important part of a production on my part - Directing. Trained actors are the most difficult because the have to "unlearn" there western acting methods. It's quite alright to employ other methods, therories etc. I do readily - But to approach western teachings with a firm grip on the West African "TIATA" in particular (I studied with Prof. Yulisa Amadu Maddy, Sierra Leone) will put an actor, be they Black or White in a better position. Knowing the root makes one better equipped to not falling off the branches. Na'Mean! Needless to say, the School of Dramatic Arts will create an environment in which evryone will know the Theatre Theory we're dealing with, and just get into the works at hand. Benfit Reggae Dances are in the works, so the core of our students will not have to pay any tuitions - We can then go after the talent to join us. Please enjoy the curriculum - I have also included a few Introduction Lectures which will be thoughrouly addressed during the course. For any who have an interst in either taking the couse or becoming involved ,my email caribchild2002@ yahoo.com or visit the Afrikan Dieli for more information. More Life, More Love Jus Curriculum - Intro Lectures - Below Dawa School Of Dramatic Arts Rooted – Definitive – Classical "Our mission is not to renovate existing theatre forms, but we seek to elevate its content by employing a return to the Tragic. Innovation is not our modality, but to chasten into noble traditions … This is our singular cause." Jus Dawa-Colibri Rooted in the nobility of Theatre Art, creating Definitive works, which resound with Classical elements. The Dawa School of Dramatic Art educates, trains and inspires students of theatre in a conservatory setting that is rigorous, disciplined, culturally diverse and that strives for the highest level of professional skill and artistry. The Theatre School is primarily a place of learning and for the making of humanity. It is a place for the moral, spiritual, social, political and artistic development of all engaged in this noble enterprise. The Theatre School engenders respect for self, for others, for learning, for cultural differences and for the profession itself. The Theatre School encourages creativity and freedom of expression as a part of our commitment to our professional standards and responsibilities. We strive to create an atmosphere that is conducive to exploration and risk-taking. A commitment to diversity and equality in education is central to our mission. As an integral part of the training, the Theatre School produces programs from a wide repertoire of classics and original plays created by the students to entertain and stimulate the imagination. We seek to enhance the intellectual and cultural life of our community, our city and the profession. The Dawa School of Dramatic Arts emphasizes a comprehensive theatre education within a liberal arts context. Students pursue a systematic course of academic study that considers theatre theory and performance, production, management, history, literature and criticism. These studies will be enhanced by the final session, which is a full production put on by the students. The culmination of everything learned, practiced and realized put to work for a Performance Graduation. Dawa School of Dramatic Art Curriculum Guide African Philosophy, Literature & Theatre Traditions The Meaning of Nommo and Kuntu (African Concept of the "Word" & The Function of Art) African & African American Playwrights Negritude Movement & The Harlem Renaissance (Residual African Culture in the Americas.) Dramatic Style & The Purpose of Theatre The Author, the Play and The Audience Epic Theatre vs. Dramatic Theatre The Importance of People's Theatre Lessons from Bertolt Brecht (German Playwright & Theatre Theorist) Theatre of Situations (Virtues & Vices of Tragedy) Writing a Play (Fundamental Questions a Writer must ask) Critique & Analyses of Student's Plays Acting Methods Actor or Player? (Case study of Kean, England's Greatest Tragic Actor) The Comic Actor Theatre and Cinema Acting Elements of Method Acting (Introduction to Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky The Man & His Work) A Working Theatre Roles, Duties and Functions of Producers, Directors, Theatre Managers, Technical Crew and Actors The Audition Process From Writing a Play to Production Performance Graduation ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - ---- Dawa School of Dramatic Arts Rooted-Definitive- Classical African Theatre Acting Methods Theatre and Cinema Acting Theatre is a social art, which produces collective facts. Its character derives, therefore, as much (or more) from the section of society controlling it as from the author … Whereas in a film we have actors and action ready canned, so to speak, theatre is a true event, a jam session, an event at once ordinary and unique. In most societies nowadays this event has a structure peculiar to itself, not everywhere perhaps, but today. I shall call this presentation. The audience takes part in a social event; but for this very reason it does not take part in the story, which is being related. This is presented to it. You get more participation in a film than you do in a play. You have the film directly before you. The actors are live, but... a) In film the actor is closer: close-ups, the naked face. b) The film dominates the audience; it is above the audience. The audience is flattened: low-angle shots. In theatre this "superman" aspect, the sensation of the actors' size and weight, does not exist. c) Guided vision. I am made to see what they want me to see; our perception of things is directed. In the theatre, by contrast, you look at whomever you want to. This is why it is so hard for actors to control their faces while someone else is speaking. Theatre therefore has more freedom. d) Consequence of absolute proximity in the film: a strict adjustment of persons to part. Appearance emerges with reality. In theatre it hardly worries you for a moment to see a twenty-year old perform the role of a 60 year old widow. For what counts is not that she is a widow of twenty, but is acting here. Where are the beauty and youth? They are not there. What is there is the significance of gesture. It is not a presence, but a kind of intangible ghost; the absent object is enveloped in the gesture; you believe it is still there. A film is a landscape. In a sentimental film, landscape is a mood, which creates its interpreters. A film depicts men who are in the world and are conditioned by it. The opposite happens in theatre. The décor in the film holds the man and destroys or saves him. In Peking Opera the feel of a river, boats, danger, night, is suggested by the action. Theatre, then, presents action by a man on the stage to men in the audience and, through this action, both the world he lives in and the performer of the action. This does not imply voluntarism; it means that everything, even failure, impotence, or death, must be signified as acts. But what is an action? To be continued. Artistic Director Ras Jus Dawa-Colibri ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - ---- Dawa School of Dramatic Arts Rooted-Definitive- Classical African Theatre The Meaning of Nommo & Kuntu African Concept of The Word & The Function (Modality) of Art There are four categories and two principles, which form the African Philosophy (African Ontology, African Perception, or way of thinking.)  Muntu (human being; plural: Bantu)  Kintu (thing, object, animate and inanimate, including animal; plural: Bintu)  Hantu (place & time)  Kuntu (modality, quality, style, rhythm, beauty, etc.) Everything in existence and everything conceivable is held and fashioned by one of theses four hands. Not only does everything in existence and everything conceivable belong to one of these four categories, they are not merely substances, they are forces. All things are forces. Man and Woman (category, Muntu), Cat and Stone (category, Kintu), East and Tomorrow (category Hantu), Beauty and Crying (category, Kuntu). All are forces. The first principle is NTU. It is the determinative stem for all the categories. Consider it (NTU) to be the uniting stream or essential coherence of everything and of all disciplines. Yoruba writer Adebayo Adesanya says of NTU, "Philosophy, theology, politics, social theory, land law, medicine, psychology, birth and burial, all find themselves logically concatenated in a system so tight that to subtract one item from the whole is to paralyze the structure of the whole." NTU, at one and the same time, creates the whole, and is created by the whole. It does not and cannot exist independent of its manifestations in the forces of the four categories of Muntu, Kintu, Hantu, and Kuntu. NTU is what all of these categories equally are. Force and matter are not being united in this conception because they have never been apart. Therefore, in traditional African Culture, life and death, secular and sacred, night and day, black and white, ugliness and beauty are not antagonistic substances, but they are all constant and continuing forces. None of these forces are "self-activating" , rather they are dormant or anesthetized forces, until they receive "NOMMO", which brings us to the second principle. Nommo (the word) is the driving power, which gives life to all things. Nommo – The spoken word, the sound of the drums, the laughter of the throat, the poem, and the song – Constitutes the "magical" force that activates and enlivens all other forces. This awesome power, Nommo, the word, is exclusive property of Muntu. This is because Muntu is the only force endowed with intelligence, or "Ubwenge". Muntu is not automatically a Muntu by virtue of physical birth. The makeup of a human being is a double process. The physical life must unite with a "shadow". This process is indicated by the principle of Buzima. At the same time a spiritual force, Nommo-force, unites with the body, and the human being is originated in terms of a body with a spirit. This is the principle of Magara. Both Buzima (Physical Life) and Magara (Spiritual Life) are in the category of Kuntu, the category of way and matter. These principles specify how life originates and it operates as principle. The Nommo-force process is indispensable to produce a complete human being with intelligence and a soul. Images, objects, works of art, animals and so forth get their particular meanings by speaking the meanings into them, the humanity (Muntunees) of the human animal is designated by virtue of pronouncing or speaking the word-name. * Depending on the Nommo-force of ones ancestors and the extent to which one acquires the Nommo-power (spirit-force) of ancestors, individuals may possess varying degrees of Nommo-power, and since the word is all-powerful, a powerful Muntu, such as a Griot or Shaman, may be capable through Nommo-power of effecting anything. * A newborn child becomes a Muntu only when the father gives the child a name and pronounces it. Only the giving of a name adds the Magara principle (spirituality) to the Buzima principle (living human being). If for example, a biological child dies before its name is pronounced, the child is not mourned. The full-fledged human being is produced not by the act of birth but by the word-seed. It is designated. Artistic Director Ras Jus Dawa-Colibri ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - ---- Dawa School of Dramatic Arts Epic & Dramatic Exercises For Training & Rehearsal The seemingly opposed Theatre Philosophies of Bertolt Brecht and Constantine Stanislavsky have for our purposes been codified. Nearer to his end Stanislavsky came closer to an understanding of Brecht and Epic Theatre, doing an about-face (volte face) on many of his ideas. Brecht as well, nearing his end had a greater appreciation of Stanislavsky. After attending and being impressed by a production at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1955 he said: "Now I shall have to defend Stanislavsky from his supporters. Now I shall have to say about him what people say about me – That the practice contradicts theory." We use Stanislavsky' s "System" for practice and training, dissolving into Brecht's Rehearsal exercises for production. The actor will undoubtedly attain a more comprehensive understanding of their characters, not only aesthetically (i.e. gestures, accents, physical habits etc.) but also psychologically, leading towards a political or demonstrative portrayal. This approach challenges the audience and the actors in a way, which constantly demands attention. A departure from the "naturalist" ideals in Dramatic Theater, we do not require the "suspension of disbelief". Never once should the audience forget that they are in a theatre. The actors can better show their characters as having a basis in real life as opposed to creating the illusion of their characters being "real" onstage. Our deepest concerns lie in the end product, which is the audience's experience in the playhouse, the aim being to lift both actor and audience out of illusions and the numinous. Preparing them for a critical theatre experience, the type in which Brecht himself used to advise, "…to study even the smallest, apparently most simple activities in life, to view them with mistrust, and to question whether they had to be performed as they were performed." Dawa Theatre Group, Artistic Director Ras Jus Dawa-Colibri ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - ---- Dawa School of Dramatic Arts Epic & Dramatic Exercises For Training & Rehearsal "The System" Internal Preparation of the Actor Development of the Actor's imagination, observation, concentration and emotions. This first exercise asks the actor to examine "Giving Circumstances" and find the "creative ifs" of their characters. External Preparation of the Actor Development of the Actor's body and voice with emphasis on physical relaxation, body awareness and self-control. The Actor's voice training involves exercises on diction, intonation and expressiveness. Super-Objective Preparation of the Actor This third and final part of The System transitions into our Epic exercises. This exercise requires at the onset of rehearsals for actors to find the "super-objective" . The "super-objective" is the actors meaning of the play, expressed in one sentence, and mutual for all. This sentence then acts as the guideline for the entire production. Epic Rehearsal Exercises The main objectives of the following exercises are getting the actor to maintain a distance between him and the role he plays. It also requires the actor to think critically of the characters they are demonstrating. Third Person Preparation of the Actor The Actors are to use "He/She" and turn direct speech into reported speech, thus inviting the actors to see their roles as other than themselves, as objects to be contemplated. Narrative Preparation of the Actor Here, the Actors are, before delivering their character lines, made to speak aloud the stage directions that refer to them. The effect is to strengthen awareness of the narrative which their roles are embedded. Poetic Language Preparation of the Actor The Actors here are required to paraphrase the poetic language of the play in colloquial speech, which in effect prompts them to view the play script in a new and critical light. Dialectical Opposite Preparation of the Actor The Actor, in rehearsing a scene, is to precede each thought expressed in the dialogue or action with its dialectical opposite, thus enabling him to define the various alternative choices available to his character which he, the actor, may make clear to the audience. Scene Swapping Preparation of the Actor The Actor is instructed to swap parts with a fellow actor or actress in a shared scene so that each is able to view his character – as played by the other – from the outside. Artistic Director Ras Jus Dawa-Colibri Give Thanks for taking the time to read this - AND GET INVOLED!