Writings

Polyphonic plane of composition: montage and agency into a creative process 

 This paper reflects on procedures and concepts, through composition plans, which can contribute to creative processes that aim to integrate a polyphonic perspective. Starting from a personal statement-manifesto, concepts such as polyphony, agency, montage, performativity, organic body, and inorganic body are correlated to compose potential reflections and trajectories in creative processes. Understanding the concept of polyphony from Mikhail Bahktin perspective, the emphasis here is to increase the multiplicity of voices in performing arts creation from the decentralization of the dominant discourse and the decreasing of the narrative sense. 

Underground Investigations: wandering perspectives and modes of expression

This paper aims to investigate the creative process for the interdisciplinary project The shadow of others. The project was produced by the theater company Grupo Desvio and based on a wandering immersion in New York City’s underground universe. This process was developed through aesthetic and philosophical procedures to destabilize and decentralize notions such as body, individual and representation. The research presents procedures that enable a reconfiguration of the modes of expression and the establishment of a plan to allow for new perceptions and new modes of existence.

Paper

Thesis: A poetic approach between cinema and theater: reflections about the presence and the scenic performance in the work of John Cassavetes

This study aims a discussion about concepts, procedures and cinematic aesthetic works regarding in particular its contribution to the actor’s performance in the theatrical context. To this end, the focus lay in researching the work of American director John Cassavetes. Through his productions in movies and theater, it was observed that, in this way of filmmaking, when the priority in the scene’s composition resides in the moment, the affect is crafted with both the presence and the materiality of the actor’s body without appointing possible representations, thus increasing the performance. This is the bridge established between the film and the prospects of the performative theater. Under this perspective, a starting point to this study was the consideration of the movie’s features through its appropriation in three scenic experiments, outlining the assumptions of this thesis with the point of view of philosopher Gilles Deleuze. From that, there was the analysis of procedures established by filmmaker John Cassavetes with his actors to identify any singularities of his work that presented a relation to his theatrical processes. The works considered for the purpose of proceeding to this analysis were the movie Opening night, which deals with the theater as a meta-language, and Love streams, a result of the theatrical trilogy Three plays of Love and hate. With the idea that in the Cassavetes films the actor’s body can be understood as photogenic, it was proposed a discussion about the correlation between body, gestus and the instant in order to produce affect. Finally, this study also aimed to think about the constant processes in the actor’s work through the encounter between the cinema and the performative theater, by creating and presenting a work in which there is the bodily presence of the appropriation of objects and images in an affective capacity, performing this way a study about the experience.

The performativity on John Cassavete’s process and his contribution for the theatrical performance

This study aims a discussion about concepts, procedures and cinematic aesthetic works regarding in particular its contribution to the actor’s performance in the theatrical context. To this end, the focus lay in researching the work of American director John Cassavetes. Through his productions in movies and theater, it was observed that, in this way of filmmaking, when the priority in the scene’s composition resides in the moment, the affect is crafted with both the presence and the materiality of the actor’s body without appointing possible representations, thus increasing the performance. This is the bridge established between the film and the prospects of the performative theater. Under this perspective, the idea is to analyze procedures established by filmmaker John Cassavetes with his actors to identify any singularities of his work that presented a relation to his theatrical processes. The works considered for the purpose of proceeding to this analysis were the movie Opening night, which deals with the theater as a meta-language, and Love streams, a result of the theatrical trilogy Three plays of Love and hate.

The Body in John Cassavete’s Filmmaking and its Consideration for the Performance

The present paper intends to investigate the body in John Cassavetes’ filmmaking under the perspective of Gilles Deleuze and identify its contribution to the craft of the contemporary actor. Considering the craft of acting as a fundamental factor in a piece of art, this work attempts to rethink the affective potentialities of the body, especially, in the cinematographic structure conceived by Deleuze as time-image, in which Cassavetes’ work would be part of. Within these boundaries, Brecht’s concept of gestus will allow us to find a new meaning for the body in a cinematographic work, surpassing fixed or disciplined social postures and presenting itself in a latent state, where the gestus exceeds the individual and reaches the collective. In this sense, the actor’s body will be seen as a generator of fundamental instants for the development of a piece of work, regardless of the character, but what this character and this body can achieve. The pregnant moment will be painted by the actor’s gestus, which pulses life and poetry.

Paper

Photogenic’s investigation: the affection production in John Cassavetes:

The main goal of this paper is to investigate the concept of the photogeny within the production of films, and to understand how the photogeny, as a cinematographic device, is achieved in movies by John Cassavetes. Considering Walter Benjamin’s aspiration that identifies a new configuration in arts with mechanical reproduction, this paper aims to expand the photogeny’s concept within the movies relating it to its ability to produce affections.

An experience from theatre to film: the body At the wrong place

The present paper intends to investigate the actor’s body in the film No lugar Errado, directed by Luiz Pretti, Guto Parente, Pedro Diógenes and Ricardo Pretti, an experience between theatre and cinema. Considering the craft of acting as a fundamental factor in a piece of art, this work attempts to rethink the affective potentialities of the body in a film created from a theatre play. The actor’s body will be seen as a generator of pregnant moments for the development of a piece of work, regardless of the character, but what this character and this body can achieve. In this sense, the analyzed work film will allow a reflection in the way of how the actor’s body can transit between the theatre and the cinema, therefore indicating common characteristics between the two languages.

Three plays of love and hate by John Cassavetes and the cinematographic process onstage

The present paper intends to investigate procedures of the filmmaker John Cassavates when he appropriates cinematographic resources to create the theatre trilogy Three plays of love and hate. Besides the few materials published about this trilogy and also the interviews with some actors who participated in this process, the research will examine the film Love Streams directed by Cassavetes, considering that the film was created from the theatrical experience in this trilogy. Following this examination, the aim is also to understand how cinematographic process can contribute to theatrical process, especially in terms of acting.

The Performance Misanthrofreak: An experience to turn poetic images into pathetic images

Misanthrofreak is a solo performance, which wishes to affect the audience with the simplicity and humor of one man and his existential dilemmas. Every action performed on stage is motivated by doubt. Working with an empty space, few objects, one performer who is operating the lights, the sound and the projection with one computer, the performance works with a language between theater and film. The performer’s interaction with the images on the screen is for searching multiples ways for his relation with time and space. The whole performance is being developed in an extremist aesthetic, converting poetic elements in pathetic elements and the pathetic elements in poetic elements. This way, the performance put drama and humor together, where the audience could change abruptly your impression about the scenes. The paper’s idea is to analyze this performance focusing on how the interaction of all elements on the stage, including the projection, can turn pathetic elements into poetic elements or vice-versa. And how this can multiply the images.