Scientific Initiation Projects

Scientific Initiation Project (2017-2018) presented at the 24th Scientific Initiation Congress of the University of Brasilia and 15th Scientific Initiation Congress of the Federal District.
Research author: Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Alexandre da Silva Batista, Jorge Marinho, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira

Summary: The present research starts from the understanding of differentiated instances of vulnerability in the actor's work resulting from the initiation project The Vulnerability as a Tool in the Creation in Collective Facing the Stage (2016-2017, UnB) and delves into the instance of vulnerability during stage performance and its use in clowning. Starting from my previous practical experience as an actor in clowning and the results of the mentioned research, this work aimed to identify vulnerability as a technical tool in the art of clowning at the moment of performance. It seeks, from a personal praxis, to understand how it can help clowning or not, in which circumstances it becomes essential, how the actor/clown deals individually with this sensation and how he/she can or cannot manipulate vulnerability in his/her favor at the moment of performance. For the execution of this work, a bibliographical research was carried out about the themes of vulnerability, actor's vulnerability before the audience and the art of clowning, including techniques of clown withdrawal (technical term for the creation of a clown character) and its development. With the previous knowledge in clowning and after the referential readings, I made the retreat of a new clown, baptized Baú (trunk), central focus of this research. With Baú I made internal presentations for the Coletiva Teatro group, a line of the research group Criação em Coletivo para a Cena (UnB) as well as external presentations at the University Restaurant of UnB and at the small arena theater of BSAN (UnB). Finally, I received feedbacks from the research group, made logbook entries about the feeling of vulnerability in my body during the performances and analyzed the respective recordings of the performances. Compared to other instances of vulnerability that the actor deals with (before or after the performance), I realize that the moment of greatest vulnerability for the clown is during the performance. Since the actor has the option of placing himself vulnerable or not on stage, I notice that on stage as the clown Baú, while I remain vulnerable, porous, open in the present moment of the performance, I feel that there is a greater sensitive sharing between audience and clown, which in clowning I consider fundamental. During each encounter with the audience the vulnerability allowed me to remain in a state of uninterrupted clowning. My previous experience and current research allow me to understand that the use of vulnerability is a noticeable and recurring tool in the work of other clowns, although most do not articulate this explicitly. In this sense I believe that vulnerability can be understood as a fundamental tool in the art of clowning. According to referential readings about clown art in terms of vulnerability and the results obtained in this research I conclude that a clown needs to say yes to his vulnerability in front of the audience, just as he says yes to the game, to himself and to the here and now of the performance. A clown who doesn't allow himself to be vulnerable starts and ends in himself in a flow that moves nobody, maybe even himself. A clown who stumbles on his own feet and falls down laughing generates the empathy of laughter, because he reveals himself to be vulnerable. The audience finds him funny, but also finds himself funny, because he recognizes himself in this everyday action. In this way, he also allows himself to be vulnerable. He understands that when he sees the clown comfortable in front of the tumble, he believes that there is the possibility of laughing at himself, understanding that we are all vulnerable just by existing. Accepting vulnerability as a better way to live: smiling with and at life.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro - UnB
Support: FAP - DF

Scientific Initiation Project (2017-2018) presented at the 24th Scientific Initiation Congress of the University of Brasilia and 15th Scientific Initiation Congress of the Federal District.
Research author and storyteller: Jorge Marinho
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Alexandre da Silva Batista, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira, Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes

Summary: This study analyzes the technical work of English storyteller Jan Blake in search of guiding instances in her storytelling. As a result, the research identifies, conceptualizes, exemplifies and analyzes three of these guiding instances: principles, strategies and devices. The consequent theoretical and practical analyses provide a greater understanding of technical procedures that assist the storyteller in both preparation and presentation stages. The study also substantiated the creation of the workshop "Strategies for approaching the written text for storytelling" and the adult storytelling session entitled Tales of Salt and Sorcery, an aesthetic result of the research.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro - UnB
Support: FUB

Scientific Initiation Project (2016-2017) presented at the 23rd Scientific Initiation Congress of the University of Brasilia and 14th Scientific Initiation Congress of the Federal District.
Research author: Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Alexandre da Silva Batista, Jorge Marinho, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira

Summary: The present study aims to identify aspects of vulnerability of the actor before the audience in the process of creation in collective. Using the praxis of the Research Group Creation in Collective for the Scene (CRICOCEN) the work examines the aspects that permeate the feeling of vulnerability during the presentation of the actor in front of the audience, and right after his performance: how they affect the actors and how they can or cannot potentiate the creation work in front of the audience. In order to carry out this work, a theoretical and conceptual study was made about the term vulnerability. Then, collective and individual presentations were made in the courtyard of the BSAN building, in the Darcy Ribeiro campus of the University of Brasilia. The presentations were recorded on video and the actors made written records in their logbooks of their personal perceptions regarding the aspects felt or not of vulnerability during the performance. There were also interviews and round tables with the members of the research group regarding the moments of vulnerability during and after the performances. Afterwards, the personal accounts in the logbook, the videos and the interviews were analyzed in order to examine the moments of vulnerability of each actor in front of the audience. We realized that vulnerability in the actor's work can be classified in five distinct stages. The main focus of this study is on stages V4 and V5, which involve the actor's work during the scenic/artistic performance (V4) and immediately after the scenic/artistic performance (V5). As each a(u)tor recognizes in himself the sense of vulnerability, he recognizes the possibility of directing his focus, his energy, and his production of scenic presence wherever and however he wishes during his performance. Identifying these stages allows the performer a better understanding of his sensitive potentialities and eventual fragilities before the audience in moments of exposure/pressure that he may experience. The presence and composition of the audience, the environment, internal personal issues contribute to the potentiation of the feeling of vulnerability in each stage. If vulnerability is not understood as something inherent to the human being, it can be confused with fear or other negative feelings that can paralyze the actor creatively and/or in performance. Understanding the aspects of vulnerability in stages allows a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of this feeling. The more the performer goes through these stages, the more aware he becomes of his strengths and weaknesses. Having knowledge and mastery of his abilities generates more security and self-knowledge as a(u)tor. Knowing how to manage this tool is a unique opportunity for the artist to be able to transit through new and/or unknown places, making the most of the uniqueness of the encounter with each audience at each performance.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro - UnB

Scientific Initiation Project (2016-2017) presented at the 23rd Scientific Initiation Congress of the University of Brasilia and 14th Scientific Initiation Congress of the Federal District.
Research author: Jorge Marinho
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Alexandre da Silva Batista, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira, Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes

Summary: This work analyzes the concept of porosity applied to the actor's work in the modus operandi of creation in collective and from the practice of the Research Group Creation in Collective for the Scene (CRICOCEN), of the Department of Performing Arts of the University of Brasilia. The practices and analyses produced aim at a better theoretical and practical understanding of porosity as a technical element of exploration and creation in collective as well as differentiate it from permeability. For this, theoretical and conceptual researches of porosity and permeability were carried out; application of the definitions found for the actor's technical work; and systematic practice of rehearsals with registration in a Logbook. As a result, this article raises strategies of training, activation and/or channeling of the creative actor's porosity and permeability used by CRICOCEN.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro

Scientific Initiation Project (2017-2018) presented at the 24th Scientific Initiation Congress of the University of Brasilia and 15th Scientific Initiation Congress of the Federal District.
Research author: Alexandre da Silva Batista
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Jorge Marinho, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira, Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes

Summary: The present study records the practical and reflective experience carried out on the creation of actor dramaturgy from the analysis and transcription of the following literary works: Four Lives of a Dog (CAMERON, 2016); Vidas Secas (RAMOS, 2007); and Of the Difficulty of Being a Dog (GRENIER, 2002). The research points to how the actor, when using the transcription as a technical element, is able to generate his own devices for the creation of his theatrical poetics, thus expanding his technical-creative possibilities, as well as his autonomy before the compositional process.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro - UnB
Support: FAP - DF

Scientific Initiation Project (2016-2017) presented at the 23rd Scientific Initiation Congress of the University of Brasilia and 14th Scientific Initiation Congress of the Federal District.
Research author: Alexandre da Silva Batista
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Jorge Marinho, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira, Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes

Summary: This research seeks to identify how vulnerability occurs in the actor's work during the process of scene construction within the modus operandi of Creation in Collective. As a case study I use data collected through the praxis developed in the Research Group Creation in Collective for the Scene of the Department of Scenic Arts of the University of Brasilia, of which I act as actor-researcher. The article presents how vulnerability is evidenced in the process of scene construction through distinct and subsequent stages: V1: in exploration; V2: in composition; V3: of exposure. In addition, it addresses the location of internal and external sources that can generate the feeling of vulnerability in the actor's work. The definition of the stages, like the understanding of the sources provided greater clarity as to the specific characteristics of vulnerability in scene construction. Furthermore, it proposes the use of vulnerability as a technical-creative skill for the actor from the understanding of how it is capable of provoking physical-sensory stimuli, putting him in a situation of risk and emotional exposure, broadening his ability to affect and be affected in creation.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro - UnB
Support: FAP - DF

Scientific Initiation Project (2015-2016) presented at the 22nd Scientific Initiation Congress of the University of Brasília and 13th Scientific Initiation Congress of the Federal District.
Research author: Jorge Marinho
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Alexandre da Silva Batista, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira, Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes

Summary: Recognizing the importance of organizing and systematizing contents generated by theatrical groups of collective creation, this paper proposes to explore these concepts along with the constant connection with the practice of the research group Creation in Collective for the Scene of the Department of Performing Arts of the University of Brasilia in activity since 2015. The practical contributions of this research on the creative process of the group and how the best apprehension of organization and systematization strengthen the creation in collective are shared. This article argues that systematization provides an opportunity for the historical existence of the production of a theatrical collective as well as contributes to the self-construction of its identity, enhancing its own production in collective. The methodology employed in the construction of this study was supported in the praxis of the research group Creating a Collective for the Scene (CEN-UnB) and included the historical contextualization and study of the specificities of the theatrical practice of collective creation from the authors Rosyanne Trotta, Stela Fischer, Antônio Carlos de Araújo Silva and Nitza Tenenblat, Brazilian researchers of this mode of theatrical production; the deepening in the theoretical concepts of systematization, organization and method, strengthened by the reading and analysis of theoretical studies on the subject found in the booklets of CUT Brazil "What is systematization? " and "Systematization Project"; individual and collective analysis of the exercises of collective creation for the scene created and/or developed by the group; collection, organization and register in a systematized way of these exercises in the light of the work Theatrical Games: Viola Spolin's Binder by the referred author. The research led to the opening of a conceptual range and fruits for the collective and our praxis as a theater research group: the concepts organization and systematization became more concrete and distinct from each other, enabling a more mature understanding of our characteristic production mode. From this, we developed a more critical look over our practice, which influenced in more effective decisions regarding dramaturgical organization, meetings about production and its unfoldings, and the forms and procedures of rehearsal records. Another important result was the creation of a systematized list of collective creation exercises for the scene created and/or developed by the group since the beginning of its activities in 2015. This study reveals the importance of the awareness of theater groups for the systematization of their productions as well as the organization of the procedures and exercises that precede the scene. This movement not only results in a more critical look at the group's praxis, but also provides an opportunity for the historical existence of a collective's production and contributes to the self-construction of its identity, potentiating the collective's own creation. This approach will allow us to reflect on the legacies of creative collectives for theater and group theater, considering the contributions of the scene, which is ephemeral, added to those materialized in time.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro - UnB
Support: FUB

Scientific Initiation Project (2015-2016) presented at the 22nd Congress of Scientific Initiation of the University of Brasilia and 13th Congress of Scientific Initiation of the Federal District.
Research author: Alexandre da Silva Batista
Supervisor: Profa. Dr. Nitza Tenenblat
Collaborators: Jorge Marinho, Nei Rodrigues Cirqueira, Pedro Henrique Silva Lopes

Summary: In this work, it is sought to identify, through practical-conceptual research, how the actor's logbook can serve as a tool for individual creation and authorship in a collective creation process. The research has as a case study the praxis of the research group Creation in Collective for the Scene (CRICOCEN), of the Department of Performing Arts of the University of Brasília during the creation of the show 'Encounters with the Soul' (provisional title), between July 2015 and August 2016. The research examines how this individual space, in which the actor sediments his creative process within a collective, reveals itself as an important instrument in his authorial, artistic and scientific research and development.

Realization: Coletiva Teatro - UnB
Support: FAP - DF