#Revolutionary Theatre

[narrativecradle]

The Theatre of the Oppressed: Using Performance to Challenge Injustice

The Theatre of the Oppressed is a revolutionary form of participatory theatre that began in the 1960s and 70s in Brazil. Created by visionary theatre practitioner Augusto Boal, it uses performance as a vehicle for promoting critical thinking and social and political change. At its core, the Theatre of the Oppressed aims to transform the passive audience into active “spect-actors” who can observe…

[zzz1gzag]

Pspsps sorry these are rushed i have. Exams coming up lol

Child actor haitham and cyno + nari who was kind of just being child exploited and not allowed to act. Where kaveh learnt to draw because of the show

Into an art school college au where haikaveh are muse x muse

and cynari is most useful person in local theatre troupe x loser celebrity (he doesnt act anymore but yknow. His fame is heightened around theatre kids)

And kaveh is an animator! And cyno is a law student! He was placed in the art student dorms because ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[mabithebard]

Check out my latest Revolutionary Girl Utena AMV!!!

Song - Turning from Les Misérables (Original Broadway Cast)

[inbarfink]

Okay, so I accidentally thought about Stage Productions of Dr. Horrible Where There’s Not Enough Male Actors So Billy is Played By a Woman too hard again. And the thing is, well,  I say ‘Stage Productions of Dr. Horrible Where There’s Not Enough Male Actors So Billy is Played By a Woman’ and not, like, ‘Female!Billy Productions’ because in all of the ones I’ve seen the script is unchanged and so the character is still textually a man. Super-minor characters like the Mayor and the two Newscasters or even Bad Horse can sometimes get genderswapped, but usually the kind of people dedicated enough to DHSAB to want to create their own recreation of it don’t want to change the script too much. So Billy remains gendered the same way he is in the original.

But also… Dr. Horrible isn’t gendered that much in the text of the script. Like, he gets talked about in third-person way less often than the other two leads (so there’s less places where he would be called he/him/himself), he’s not referred to using gendered terms as often as the two other leads, ‘Billy’ can work as a gender-neutral name and ‘Dr. Horrible’ is 100% gender-neutral. As such, the only textual references to Dr. Horrible being a dude are:

Refers to himself as a guy in ‘My Freeze Ray’: ‘I’m the guy who makes it real/the feelings you don’t dare to feel’

Refers to himself as a man in the title line of ‘A Man’s Gotta Do’

Moist calls him a man in the line ‘look at me, Man, I’m Moist!’

Refers to himself as a guy in ‘Brand New Day’, ‘Go ahead and laugh/Yeah I’m a funny guy!’

The one time Dr. Horrible is called by a third person pronoun is during ‘So They Say’, when Moist notes that ‘he’s still not picking up’

During ‘Everything You Ever’, he sings ‘My victory’s complete/so hail to the king’. Implicitly calling himself a ‘king’.

So, like, what that means is that if a production did just want to genderswap Billy… it’ll be considerably easier than doing it with either of the other two leads. There’s basically just a few lines you have to change and basically nothing else.  

Like, ‘I’m the gal who makes it real’ is really a no-brainer. ‘a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do’ is an Idiom and I could see a woman quoting it without it meaning anything. (And in a pinch you can replace it with the gender-neutral ‘one’s gotta do what one’s gotta do' or maybe 'I've gotta do what I've gotta do').

“He’s still not picking up” often gets cut from stage reworks of ‘So They Say’ anyways or swapped for something like ‘Doc’s still not picking up’ to make it clear who’s Moist talking to without the Magic the Kuleshov Effect Really. The only line that offers any meaningful challenge is in ‘Brand New Day’ and 'Everything You Ever' cause that use of ‘guy’ and 'king' is part of a rhyme, but I still feel like it’s not the toughest one to solve. 

… of course, I keep saying the three main characters because Moist isn’t actually gendered once in the entire script. So basically every time a production gets a girl to play Moist that Moist has a Gender Quantum Position. 

But, with all due respect to Moist and their Quantum Gender, that’s just not a change I find as interesting as the possibility of a Female Billy. Like, hey! We’ve got a second female character who is not primarily defined through her romantic relationships and survives through the end of the narrative and has a kind of a Gross Power you don’t really see for a female super-character, that’s… kinda neat. But I don’t really think there’s anything in here that really shakes the basic thematic undercurrents of the movie the way Female Billy does. Female Billy has a really the highest rate of Implied Changes to the Meaning of the Text Caused by the Change Vs. Actual Changes Required to the Text

Because, okay, look… Would making Dr. Horrible a woman fix every single thematic problem people have with the DHSAB Narrative forever and ever and make it the Politically Perfect-est Musical Ever? Nah. Does it arguably create its own set of problems with the whole Tragic Toxic Lesbian Trope? Yeah… 

But that’s why I’m advocating for it not as some sort of Remake that’s gonna be the New Definitive Version That Fixes Everything, but as a stage production. A new version that exists in the Kaleidoscopic Multiverse of takes that the stage inherently creates. Not Ultimate, not Definitive, not ‘The’ version. Just A Version I think should exist. Because even if it’s not a change that’ll Fix Everything, it’s still gonna change things in a way I, personally, find very Compelling.

And I was thinking, as part of this train of thought, that if I were to do Lesbian Billy, that for Penny’s role, I would try and cast a girl with a very butch and/or nonconformist haircut. Cause, like, at the start, the one line Billy wants to tell Penny is

And that way you can connect it with how nonconformist hairstyles are used as a way to communicate queerness to other queer people with some plausible deniability from Mainstream Society. So it’s not just that it helps explain ‘oh, that’s why Billy even assumes her attraction could be mutual’, wanting to tell Penny that she loves her hair is a whole thing of

Or rather, because it’s Billy, more like

So that’s another layer of Added Thematic Meaning just via casting choices, without changing anything about the exact text of the script!

And, you know, charity, compassion and kindness are not Exclusively Feminine Traits. Penny could be kinda gender-nonconformist while also being innocent and maybe a bit naive. And, y’know, she’s a damsel in distress when compared to the characters who have super-strength and super-science at their disposal.

And then I thought, well, maybe we can also show Penny dressing more feminine during her time dating Captain Hammer, so there’s kind of an unspoken implication to the audience that maybe CH is pressuring her into being more gender-conformiming. Which isn’t just a New Way in Which Captain Hammer is terrible,  it also connects with how he, as a superhero, functions as an upholder of the status que that Billy is trying to upends (and again, it makes ‘love your hair!’ an actually Really Important Line! It’s Billy showing that, even if her attraction right now is kinda shallow. She is appreciating something about Penny that is her choice and CH is probably trying to take away from her.)

And, like, even in readings of the DHSAB narrative that try and make it as critical of Billy as possible, you always kind hit a snug that there is also an unspoken but present assumption, that while Billy does kinda suck, he could’ve been a good romantic partner to Penny if he just Got Over His Shit and is still always better than Captain Hammer despite… not really doing a good job establishing why. 

So this thread does give at least one clear reason for why Captain Hammer is absolutely worse for Penny than Billy is, without necessarily letting Billy off the hook for all the way she does still kinda Suck.

You know, since we’re talking about changing as little of the actual dialogue as possible, the audience might not be able to tell if Penny is an out-and-proud Bi woman and Captain Hammer is pressuring her to be less Obviously Queer or if she still hasn’t fully processed that her affinity towards gender-nonconformity is also somewhat connected to her sexuality and the whole debacle is her shoving herself deeper into the closet… but I think that if the audience notice Penny suddenly changing into girlier clothing after she starts getting close to Captain Hammer that’ll be enough to create a visceral “Oh, this guy is BAD” reaction of sort.

Plus, like, the way the narrative kinda treats Penny slowly sobering up to Captain Hammer’s bullshit and realizing she’s not actually in love with him

is treated as interchangeable with the process of her gradually falling in love with Billy

that would hit as less Weird, at least thematically, if we have that thread of Captain Hammer representing, like, Heteronormativity and the Patriarchy Billy and Penny both being girls....

And that’s when I came to realization

of what I was actually doing.

[fitzrove]

I KNEW IT!!!!!!! I FUCKING KNEW IT

In the proshot there's a meaningful pause when Lucheni says "you can't expect an empress to... care for children" and he gets kinda emotional. IN THIS RECORDING HIS BREATH LEGIT WAVERS

[raphaelly]

To anyone who might be a Takarazuka fan and an old shoujo fan and a yuri fan, I got my hands a few days ago on that one completely obscure short yuri manga from Ariyoshi Kyoko and scanned it as well as I could with a mobile app!

For a lil summary ~

“Naao's dream is to join the Byakuouji Revue, an all-female theater group (modeled after the real-life Takarazuka Revue), and become a big star. To enter the Byakuouji Revue, she first has to attend the associated music school. She also discovers that she's started having feelings for other girls...”

Seems like it never got any release outside of Japan and afaik there aren’t even any raw scans of the japanese release on the internet and for something that is basically the culmination of all my passions, that felt criminal. 

I gotta say the scans aren’t the best, sorry about that, I basically took pictures of every page and tried to “straighten” them with an app, as I wasn’t very comfortable cutting every page (and basically destroying the volume) to scan it properly, considering how rare copies are and considering the shipping costs.

It’s all still readable and Ariyoshi’s beautiful art can still be enjoyed! So here is the link to the google drive with the scans for anyone who might want to check it out! (And also translate it lol I certainly can’t do that myself)

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1866 – Birth of Irish revolutionary and patriot, Maud Gonne MacBride, near Farnham, Surrey, England.

Maud Gonne was an Irish revolutionary, suffragette, actress and a romantic muse for William Butler Yeats, as well as the mother to Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Sean MacBride. Maud Gonne was born near Farnham, Surrey, England. She founded the Irish Nationalist group, Inghinidhe na hÉireann (The Daughters of Ireland). She had a relationship with poet, William Butler Yeats and was the inspiration for…

[metanarrates]

have you ever played the stanley parable? if yes what do you think about it?

i actually played tsp for a college class in video game narrative analysis a few years back! specifically, tsp was part of curriculum so we could discuss choice mechanics, and the illusion of choice in games. given tsp's somewhat unusual approach to choices and endings, it was a great pick for the purpose of class discussions.

i do like the game a lot. i consider it to be an interesting take on choices in games, and it's definitely got the potential to be influential for how future games approach choice. (slay the princess is clearly inspired by it for example lol.) however, given that it's a game devoted to pushing a single concept - what are the limits of choices and endings in video games? - to its limit, it ends up feeling a little sparse as a game. even if it is genuinely clever and funny, it also doesn't offer way too much outside of that. it feels like a semi-joking, semi-serious thesis statement rather than a full game experience to me.

is it a good game? yes. i think something like tsp is necessary for the medium to continue evolving. but it's hard for me to be interested in it on its own merits. it's been three years since I played it and the only thing about it that sticks with me is the possible games in future that could further riff on its concepts

[mariocki]

Play for Today: Come the Revolution (BBC, 1977)

"You see, heavy irony is good, so long as it's so heavy we know it's irony."

"Right, we'll change it for Sunday."

"Medical inspection bit, solid fun. And the RSM bit, especially the wig joke: that's universal."

"Oh! We thought that was corny."

"No!"

"We couldn't think of anything else."

"Corny's very useful to us. It gets straight through to the people. They like corn, recognise it."

[dear-evan-fansen]

musical theatre fans are wild because they'll say "I can't possibly watch Dear Evan Hansen, what Evan does is too awful" and then they'll be like "I can't WAIT to go watch the musical about the guy who kills people and bakes them into pies and then sells those pies to other people!!"

[cagdasyatirim]

[millidew]

WAKES UP IN A COLD SWEAT. kaemugi utenanthy/rgu au. junko akio. monokuma chuu-chuu. it’s all coming together

[fictional-actors-bracket]

Round 1C.5

Propaganda under the cut

Edward: "A Shakespearean actor (and theatre producer but that gets less focus) who is hated by critics (despite seeming to be fairly popular with audiences?) for his overdramatic performances (which range from cartoonish to actually quite entertaining, from what we see of them)--after a group of critics cruelly mock him and nearly drive him to suicide (he recites To Be Or Not To Be--in what, unlike some of his other performances in the film, is a genuinely great and tragic moment--and then jumps off a building into the Thames holding the award he was denied), he decides to murder each of them one by one in elaborate Shakespeare-inspired ways using a variety of disguises (including over the top French, Scottish, and German accents in his different disguises, and a very camp gay hairdresser disguise that would border on TOO stereotypical if it wasn't for his actor, Vincent Price, being bi in real life and clearly having a great time playing with stereotypes), helped by his daughter who also wears disguses and plays the role of his "stage manager" during the various murders (it's not clear whether she's ever also acted, she pretend to be an actress for one of her disguises but it seems her actual job is as a stage makeup artist?). He succeeds in killing all but one of his intended victims. He also has a very entertaining over the top swordfight where despite being 60ish he manages some quite impressive leaps and flips, it's a lot of fun to watch. After his daughter's death, as he was a truly loving father despite being a murderer (and they seem to have had a close and genuine relationship), he is devastated and climbs to the top of a burning building, holding her corpse and quoting from King Lear, then either falls or deliberately steps off to his death. Despite his arrogance and other flaws (and the fact he's a murderer) it's hard not to sympathise with him and feel sorry for his tragic fate, especially as the majority of the critics were very cruel and unlikeable."

Shadow girls: "The shadow girls are a literal embodiment of a Greek chorus within the stage-inspired world of Utena, complete with moving sets, prop-like stabbings, and actual spotlights all magically appearing in universe. They are a theater story telling device living on a metaphorical and literal stage. Their awareness of the show, its themes, characters, ect has been enough for a person who worked on Utena to call them the real main characters of the show. They serve as narrators, story telling devices, and important characters that appear in every episode."

[mabithebard]

Check out my latest Revolutionary Girl Utena AMV!

Song used is The Last Midnight from Into the Woods(the original Broadway cast version)

YouTube link

Preview:

I loved the movie version of Into the Woods when I was a kid and finally got to see a live performance of the musical version(which was definitely better than the movie, which changed the tone of scenes and missed things that were important to the themes and intent of the story) two days ago, and hearing this song for the first time in years I was just thinking "WAIT THIS COULD BE AN ANTHY AMV" in my seat lmao

Honestly this is probably my best AMV I've made so far, I'm extremely proud of this one,

and what's more I only started it yesterday🤣(yes I'm bragging. i know being humble is an admired trait but i think my ego is part of my charm sometimes tbh...)

[inbarfink]

Okay so my ‘casting’ of the Revolutionary Girl Utena ‘Shock Treatment’ Movie AU has shifted with time. I mean… ‘Shock Treatment’ (1981) just has such a big cast, finding the Right Character for everyone while also making the character relationships Make Sense is bound to require some… compromises. It’s basically a pick of which character’s ‘casting’ is more important.

But with the Revolutionary Girl Utena ‘Shock Treatment’ Stage Musical AU, I thought I had its ‘cast list’ nailed down from day one. Thanks to ‘Shock Treatment’ (2015)’s considerably scaled down but also better-explored cast - it’s much easier to come to compromises between characterization and relationships and general Vibes. The cast is Janet!Utena, Brad!Anthy, Farley!Akio, Cosmo!Mikage, Nation!Mamiya, Betty!Wakaba and Ralph!Touga.

I mean… is it Weird to think about the idea of Touga being Wakaba’s ex-husband? Yeah, but also I always felt like it would be even weirder if the Gay and Homophobic proudly self-interested asshole who serves as a dark mirror for Janet/Utena, is fixated on Farley/Akio as the societal ideal he yearns to achieve while mostly just being exploited by him WASN’T Touga, y’know? 

But now I’ve got that little moment from the Musical’s ending, where Betty thinks of turning back towards Ralph just before he’s about to get, well, Shock Treatmented

But Janet stops her and reminds her that ‘we’re just gotta keep going’

Just Rotating in my head on a loop constantly. It is SUCH a powerful little character moment. It honestly makes me consider either switching Wakaba with a RGU character with a more meaningful relationship to Touga, or switching Touga with a RGU character with a more meaningful relationship to Wakaba….

[dandelionjack]

back in a hadestown mood okay let’s goooo. tell me what’s my name our lady of ways our lady of means