BECOMING A ROSE: A NEW BLOOM
A virtual reboot of The Bare Character Studies videos. Actors experimenting with the connection between their instinctual impulses and their rational approach to acting
Becoming a Rose - Original Production - Secret, Sacred, Private Photoshoots scene - Guido Luciani Photography © 2021
A series of short virtual theater pieces inspired by Becoming a Rose: An Artist’s Survival Guide According to Jean Genet.
ABOUT THE ORIGINAL PROJECT
Becoming a Rose: An Artist’s Survival Guide According to Jean Genet, was originally devised as a long-format virtual theater production and streamed live at the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2021. Right after the original production, I thought about re-structuring the play and making the three acts in the play as separate shorter performances. Now, I’m proposing a complete new structure - a series of short scenes performed either live or pre-recorded videos - and, a re-devised, evolved concept reflecting my current stand as an artist.
READ MORE ABOUT THE NEW BLOOM ORIGINAL PROPOSAL
PROJECT DEVISING NOTES
September 4th, 2023
Thinking about the whole “gods and monsters” concept and how this might have been shaped by my catholic upbringing. In the original play (Becoming a Rose), a reference to “Incubus” was made in the “Dreams and Fantasies” scenes and, although the concept of how these - dreams and fantasies - are part of the “illusory world of theater”, I would like to explore further into how these “characters” are just “masks” that allow us to free ourselves in the theater.
September 3rd, 2023
Becoming a Rose was without a doubt an intimate and honest exposé of my personal and creative worlds. Every day since this virtual theater piece was streamed live a little over two years ago, I keep going back creatively or emotionally to a scene from the play. Revisiting this crucial moment in my personal and creative journey seems not only inevitable but also necessary.
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BARE CHARACTER STUDIES: VIRTUAL REBOOT
A virtual reboot of The Bare Character Studies videos. Actors experimenting with the connection between their instinctual impulses and their rational approach to acting
A virtual reboot of The Bare Character Studies videos. Actors experimenting with the connection between their instinctual impulses and their rational approach to acting.
ABOUT THE ORIGINAL PROJECT
A while back in NYC, I started a project I called The Bare Character Studies videos. After several sessions of training on the Sensory-Somatic approach to acting and an introduction to The Bare Character concept, a group of actors experimented with the connection between their instinctual impulses and their rational approach to acting.
NOTES FROM THE ORIGINAL PROJECT
ABOUT THE MONOLOGUES - The project was originally named The Mantra Monologues Videos. The idea was to use the monologues as a “mantra” … something to say - without a necessary connection to the feeling or motivation being explored - that would not engage the brain for memorization, etc.
For the most part, the actors participating in the original project chose monologues that not only required memorization but that also were “pre-attached“ to a particular feeling so as a result, some of the actors had a hard time transitioning from the first non-verbal stage - the connection to their bodies and energy of that particular day - to the verbalization of their monologues.
Reboot Proposal: Even though we did work on the monologues selection, the ultimate decision was that of the actor’s and, we all picked the monologues using our “brains” rather than our bodies so, my proposal for the reboot is that of letting our sensory-somatic “musing energy” choose the monologues.
ABOUT THE FINAL VIDEO - When the actors were first approached, they were told that the “final video” was to be mainly a “recording” of the results of the experiment and not an audition tape. The process - the exploratory and training sessions - were the core of this experiment and the product or the final video was just a sort of a souvenir from the experience.
Reboot Proposal: Since the entire process will be virtual and therefore conducted via Zoom or a similar platform, the sessions will be “recorded” so this will hopefully take some of the pressure from the actors to “perform” or focus on the final “session”.
ABOUT THE CHALLENGE
It is a “virtual” reboot so, teaching the sensory-somatic approach without the human contact is the biggest challenge for me as a director/coach and as for the actors, not being able to take advantage of the collective energy from having all the actors in the same space is certainly a disadvantage.
PROJECT DEVISING NOTES
October 9th, 2023
Today I made a major discovery during one of my morning Workouts and Recharging Session. While “reciting” the monologue I will use for my own Bare Character Study video, I found that for this study to work, using the monologues as a “mantra” might not be enough … that during the Bare Character connection exercise prior to the video, we might have to “focus” the driving energy by coming up with an “intention” - a path to follow - so the energy can drive the monologues and prevent getting stuck and having to resource to our brains for help. I will further explore this idea in open virtual rehearsals.
August 20th, 2023
I’ve been working on my own Bare video to promote the reboot. Although this will be a “video” - yes, a product - it’s a necessary evil since not only, I doubt anyone will watch a series of recordings from the process but also, the process is different for because I’m doing this on my own, I have the training and I have being exploring this idea since before the original project.
CALL FOR COLLABORATION
At the moment I’m looking for actors to collaborate virtually in this project. There is no charge or pay to participate in this project. If you are interested, please contact me.
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WINDOW PEEPING: A NYC STORY
A LAT Digital Space production for the series NYC STORIES: Not Your Classic Stories based on my post: A Collective Energy of Some Sort.
A LAT Digital Space production for the series NYC STORIES: Not Your Classic Stories. Story about voyeurism, exhibitionism, self-confidence and a collective energy of some sort.
ABOUT THE FORMAT
Although this series was originally proposed as a collection of Short-One-Act Virtual Theater Plays for LAT Digital Space, I thought I better follow the ideas wherever they want to take me. Perhaps they will end-up as short videos, cross-disciplinary collection of works or - as they were originally intended - short virtual theater productions.
OTHER NYC STORIES CURRENTLY ON THE PROJECT DEVISING BOARD
PROJECT DEVISING NOTES
September 11. 2023
I believe that because of how this particular story relates to my need of creating The Absolute Creative Space, this will be most likely the first NYC Story in the series. All the triggers and thoughts I’ve been exploring lately in my Creative Energy Workouts are somehow linked to this project.
September 6th, 2023
A lot has changed since the events that inspired the “Window Peeping” story took place. The Internet wasn’t around so the current venues for exhibitionism were not available just yet. I was thinking about the differences between letting someone in your world through a computer or phone camera and just opening the drapes in your apartment. Obviously, unless you limit your audience by going into a private chat room or connecting directly with someone, anonymity plays a big part in this. I was also thinking about the time when “live cams” came around - the kind when someone just had cameras on in their house all they long and you could just tuned in an watch them go about their lives. These were a one-way stream so, in my opinion, closer to the idea I’m exploring in Window Peeping where the person is not necessarily “putting on a show” but “sort of” living his/her life and just letting others “peep in”.
August 18th, 2023
Since I no longer live in NYC, in order to convey the city’s inspiring energy, I first must explore the particular “energy” for each proposed story and to do so, I probably will end-up creating a series of sub-projects “triggered” by the original musing energy.
CALL FOR COLLABORATION
At the moment I’m looking for actors to collaborate virtually in this project. You can either participate as an actor in a existent story or bring your own story (for stories requirements please contact me directly). If you are not an actor but would like to collaborate with the project, please contact me.
There is no charge or pay to participate in this project. If there was money to be made from livestream performances’ tickets sales or on-demand charges, the profits will be distribute equally among the cast of each show. For more information about the business side of this proposal, please contact me.
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DIS-SCENT: A NYC STORY
A LAT Digital Space production for the series NYC STORIES: Not Your Classic Stories based on my Dissenting Scent story.
A LAT Digital Space production for the series NYC STORIES: Not Your Classic Stories based on my Dissenting Scent story.
ABOUT THE FORMAT
Although this series was originally proposed as a collection of Short-One-Act Virtual Theater Plays for LAT Digital Space, I thought I better follow the ideas wherever they want to take me. Perhaps they will end-up as short videos, cross-disciplinary collection of works or - as they were originally intended - short virtual theater productions.
OTHER NYC STORIES CURRENTLY ON THE PROJECT DEVISING BOARD
PROJECT DEVISING NOTES
August 18th, 2023
Since I no longer live in NYC, in order to convey the city’s inspiring energy, I first must explore the particular “energy” for each proposed story and to do so, I probably will end-up creating a series of sub-projects “triggered” by the original musing energy.
CALL FOR COLLABORATION
At the moment I’m looking for actors to collaborate virtually in this project. You can either participate as an actor in a existent story or bring your own story (for stories requirements please contact me directly). If you are not an actor but would like to collaborate with the project, please contact me.
There is no charge or pay to participate in this project. If there was money to be made from livestream performances’ tickets sales or on-demand charges, the profits will be distribute equally among the cast of each show. For more information about the business side of this proposal, please contact me.
NYC STORIES: NOT YOUR CLASSICAL STORIES
Collection of One-Act Virtual Theater Plays. Series of short stories about lust, fantasies and the inspiring collective sexual energy of New York City
Series of short stories about lust, fantasies and the inspiring collective sexual energy of New York City.
ABOUT THE FORMAT
Although this series was originally proposed as a collection of Short-One-Act Virtual Theater Plays for LAT Digital Space, I thought I better follow the ideas wherever they want to take me. Perhaps they will end-up as short videos, cross-disciplinary collection of works or - as they were originally intended - short virtual theater productions.
CURRENTLY ON THE PROJECT DEVISING BOARD
PROJECT DEVISING NOTES
August 18th, 2023
Since I no longer live in NYC, in order to convey the city’s inspiring energy, I first must explore the particular “energy” for each proposed story and to do so, I probably will end-up creating a series of sub-projects “triggered” by the original musing energy.
CALL FOR COLLABORATION
At the moment I’m looking for actors to collaborate virtually in this project. You can either participate as an actor in a existent story or bring your own story (for stories requirements please contact me directly). If you are not an actor but would like to collaborate with the project, please contact me.
There is no charge or pay to participate in this project. If there was money to be made from livestream performances’ tickets sales or on-demand charges, the profits will be distribute equally among the cast of each show. For more information about the business side of this proposal, please contact me.
Dissenting Scent
The dancer’s intoxicating scent awakened my most primordial instincts evoking a Sensory-Somatic connection between us.
When your work as an artist is mostly inspired by your Sensory-Somatic System, having highly developed senses comes to a great advantage. From all the senses, the vomeronasal sense is perhaps the most acute and influential of all my senses. Even when surrounded by the breathtaking visuals of the fall transition into winter at the mountains, it was the sultriness of the soil and the scent of the stillness of the menacing snow what evoked the deepest of my sensory-somatic memories.
During an exploratory trip to New York City in the spring of 2013, I attended a physical theater performance at La MaMa’s main stage. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the company's nor the production’s name but, I remember the driving force of the show: a man’s fight to overcome a gender identity struggle.
The audience was sitting on chairs along the two long sides of the stage at the same level of the performers. The show was engaging and the performers powerful and inspiring. It was half way into the show when I experienced what I would call a “total immersion”, a "sensory-somatic connection” with the lead performer at levels far beyond the performers' intentions.
As the lead male performer/dancer eloquently expressed his character’s torment with a series of very physical and explosive dances, he began to sweat profusely, saturating the theater with his intoxicating scent. Every time he ran past me, his penetrating scent awakened my most "primordial instincts" which allowed me to feel his pain, taste the sweat streaming down his face and body and, smell the fear emanating from his groin, armpits and body hair.
After regaining “consciousness", trying to collect my “thoughts”, I reflected on both the theatrical reality we were being presented with and, the show’s proposal … is there such a thing as a “masculine” scent? Could any “rational” inference we the audience could reach from the show’s proposal possibly defy the bold statement being made by this male actor’s powerful dissenting scent?
RELATED PROJECT DEVISING PAGE
Dis-scent: a NYC Story
More information about this project coming soon
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