I found this particular lecture very interesting and amusing, as we looked at Myth and Ritual.I am very proud to say that I come from a very mythical background full of rituals that gives me a clear idea of where I come from and a taste of tradition and belonging. Thinking about it I am quite disappointed not to be going Romania during Christmas time for since 1988, as Myth and Ritual is highly present around this time of year as many different events take place during Christmas which brings a highly sense of community and magic.
I found it interesting but not surprising to find out that the Olympics go back which once used to be about cultural competition. I think that myth and ritual plays a big part into our present structure, as the past myths and rituals has a massive impact on our social and cultural beliefs. On the other hand I feel that some beliefs are very powerful, such as the myth of "Marriage" I feel that this particular belief has been very demanding on our society, as it is seen weird if a love affair does not end in Marriage. I think that in Helios the play at Ham House shows a rebellion against this imposed myth and ritual, when female protagonist makes the choice of living an independent life by her self with no need to follow the mythical approach to leaving a life, I personally do not see nothing wrong with that particular choice as long one is happy, but it does make me think about the response of other audience members that respect the myth of marriage.
I personally agree with Myths and Rituals I think that they help to bring people together as social rituals enable this to take place such as: football, pubs/clubs, birthdays, Christmas, marriage, etc. Furthermore myth and ritual gives the opportunity and creativity to distance people from their personal stories as an abstract dramatisation allows this to occur for a therapeutic attempt. In addition the gift of exchange occurs as one witnesses the transformation of a particular person such as a friend that becomes the bride than someones wife, witnessing this as an outsider is a very rewarding gift.
On the second half of the lecture we had to map out our personal memories that occurred, will occur or might of occurred at St Mary's. There were many memories that Flick, Emily and my self remembered and laughed about. We than had to pick a memory/myth/ritual and rein act it in a group, Flick, Emily, and my self decided to look back at the first time we meet, this being at Strawberry Hill station, and physically go back to the station. I found this very amusing but also celebratory. The reason I say amusing is because Donna was also part of our group but as she was not present as she is not in the same course, I found my self imagining that she was there which I found my self getting a few weird looks from the people on the platform. When we had to present back to the rest of the class, it was very interesting to see the reaction of a member of society response to what was taking place around her at the time, as she found herself the only way to escape from that particular uncomfortable moment was to release her nervousness in using her phone. As a performer I particularly enjoyed seeing her in that particular position, and felt curios to see what her reactions would be. I enjoyed all of the different scenarios as it was interesting to see the different public reactions.
In this case this very much relates to Augusto Boal's type of theatre that introduces particular scenarios in order to fuse public reactions that are politically concerned. This type of theatre is usually called 'Gorilla theatre' in which it becomes highly dangerous as the public reaction is unknown, therefore one takes the risk of dealing with different and dangerous responses as the type of theatre can be humiliating, mocking and highly political which it all comes down to personal judgement/risk. A powerful example of this was Monsay's group I particularly seeing the security guard in a situation where he was not very sure what was taking place, I thought that the group made the right decision in not letting the security guard what would be taking place before the rein action took place as the naturalism would completely be lost and it would not have been as successfully, on the other hand it also depended on the security guard as he was very comfortable and with the amount of people watching him, I think it would have been a different story if it was a different security guard.
In this case this very much relates to Augusto Boal's type of theatre that introduces particular scenarios in order to fuse public reactions that are politically concerned. This type of theatre is usually called 'Gorilla theatre' in which it becomes highly dangerous as the public reaction is unknown, therefore one takes the risk of dealing with different and dangerous responses as the type of theatre can be humiliating, mocking and highly political which it all comes down to personal judgement/risk. A powerful example of this was Monsay's group I particularly seeing the security guard in a situation where he was not very sure what was taking place, I thought that the group made the right decision in not letting the security guard what would be taking place before the rein action took place as the naturalism would completely be lost and it would not have been as successfully, on the other hand it also depended on the security guard as he was very comfortable and with the amount of people watching him, I think it would have been a different story if it was a different security guard.
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