25 years in and only 12% completed

"Life begins at 40."

40 is only 15 years away now. That is a sobering thought indeed. I am still young, lots to learn and much I have yet to achieve. The training wheels have been off for a few years and every step towards my goals has been a hurricane of learning.

I am contemplating my next steps, and I actually don't believe in the quarter life crisis concept. Sure, I am freaking out at the possibilities of the future and the decisions I am yet to make, dumb and smart ones alike. I have to go full Kenneth many more times because every failure is a brutal opportunity to learn. Every now and then I imagine most people will have a crisis about what they are doing, "am I making the right choice?" Self questioning can be a good way to self check the potential results, though sometimes I have to throw it aside when it becomes self doubt. Jump off the ledge into the unknown.

"Life begins at 40," is what I told my sister last week. It was a joke, because it doesn't.

I'm looking to my next choices and changes, wondering what the next steps have in store. Regardless of what the result is, the journey is still continuing so I am just a day older. "Kenneth, there is no need to panic. It is only another day." I didn't jump a whole year in a day, just a number

I am thankful to every inspiring person I have met along the way. I am very lucky to know such people, and luckier to have some of them as my friends.

Anyway, I have to prepare for rehearsal. And, singing and acting on my birthday is pretty damn awesome.

Choose your destiny, Champion.

O.K.

So, you may know I want to create an interactive show where the audience will choose the character's destiny.

The audience would be presented with scenarios and options to choose from to advance the story.

The story will change with each choice. Yet it will be linear.

It's looks a little bit like this:

1)

So, from left to right.
The story is happening going along a linear path...
Oh no! An event of decision occurred!
The audience must choose between A or B...

2)

The audience chose option A.
The narrative branches out to acknowledge the choice made - different to that of option B - before resolving into a linear narrative before the next event.

3)

Another choice!
This time the audience choose B, and the story branches in the opposite direction to A this time...

4)

Another choice! The audience chose A this time.

All the choices have been made, time to count them.

5)

Because the audience chose A twice, and B once, ending A will occur.
The audience get ending A!

This is a simplistic structure I have tested a few times now. In Algora, and Shadows of Algora (both 2014), the audience had 3 options to choose from.

In order for a conclusive ending, the amount of choices at the very least must be one greater than the number of options within a choice.

To elaborate.

2 options = 3 choices  or  2 options = 5 choices  or  2 options = 7 choices
3 options = 4 choices  or  3 options = 6 choices  or  3 options = 8 choices
4 options = 5 choices  or  4 options = 7 choices  or  4 options = 9 choices

Thank you for reading,
If you have any thoughts, do the thing!

Happy long weekend,
Kenneth :)

2015 - A short update.

Hello,

I am the Actor that has all the questions, I will have the questions for all eternity.

I'm not going to apologise for my absence, because I have nothing to apologise for (that was a little bit cathartic :P).

I have graduated from Drama School, and I struggled a bit, I still am.
My growth is moment by moment, experience after another.

I wish to share three things.

1. I have someone who is mentoring me and helping me focus my pursuits with their talent, skills, and experience. This is instilling me with much confidence (in the last 2 years, that has been severely lacking within myself).
2. I will be Writing and Directing a show this year. It will be based around Video Games, and will focus on the the beauty of teamwork, and inner hero within all of us.
3. Yes... After My mentions of my research into the choice based shows (pick a path - if I dare...) I will create a tour-able version of this -more refined - idea. The genre, and style of storytelling is to be decided. However, this game will be a fun game to play. :)

I hope this message finds you all well, it is good to be yarning about ideas again at 4am.

:)

Gaffosaurus Rex.

An Introduction to change

Consistency has never been a strong attribute of mine, though I am aware the first step to changing that is acknowledging it.

I've found something I'm passionate about. It is something that I am actively perusing.

I want to make theatre where the Audience contributes to the progression of the narrative.

When the moment of decision comes. when the character can’t decide what to say.

I want to give that decision to you.

I want to heighten the Audience experience where the actor and the audience work together to collectively tell the story.

This talk is called Pick a Path Theatre. Remember those choose your own adventure books?

I am wanting to use this as a model to test work to begin with, which I will refer to later.

I want to use my solo to test this so I am investigating examples towards the kind of work I want to make.

Specifically now, I am speaking to what the shows did, not what they were about. If you want to know more about these shows, find me in a break.

Taku Rua. This was our site specific project last year.

The Audience was split up into groups by the Actors and then guided through the space. Actors would leave the audience, and another actor would pick the audience group and continue to guide them through the space.

What is strong about the Audience’s experience in Taku Rua model is:

·       They were specifically cast.

·       Relationship with Actor was clear.

·       The Audience got to experience different character’s stories and perspectives through their encounters with them.

What doesn’t support what I want to make with this model is:

·       Audience had no choice.

·       Could not affect or change the narrative.

Punchdrunk.

Sleep No More.

100 rooms. The audience could go where ever they wanted. The audience had masks, Actors did not. Two rules. Remain silent and keep your mask on at all times.

What Audience experience within the Sleep no more model is:

·       Rules were clear.

·       Choice, who to follow and where to go.

·       Audience actively search and engage with the world, play detective the find the narrative.

What doesn’t support what I want to make with this model is:

·       Audience do not affect or change the outcome of the piece.

·       Audience can feel alienated if they believe they are doing it wrong.

·       ALOT of material can be wasted.

·       Free Roam does not give a sense of a linear narrative.

I want to engage with theatre like the way I do when I am video gaming. In particular I mean role playing games, such as World of Warcraft, Fable, Neverwinter Nights.

Rules are clear.

Consequences of choice.

Challenge to beat the game, competition.

However gaming is an individual experience.

Theatrically, I can see that Hackman Theatre company are beginning to explore some of these things with Apollo 13.

What is strong about the Apollo 13 model is:

·       Audience work and engage with each other and the Actors to solve the problems (bringing the crew of Apollo 13 home)

·       The Audience could choose whether or not they participated or observed (console seat: participate, press gallery: observe).

·       Like Taku Rua, and Punchdrunk, a sense of play and game with the audience. Someone using a phone to engage with an actor who was offstage.

·       Individual roles hold Responsibility

What doesn’t support what I want to make with this model is:

·       Consequences are not genuine.

o  The audience cannot fail, the crew of Apollo 13 will survive, that’s the game the actors are playing with the audience.

I have also investigated

·       Dungeons and Dragons, and other tabletop roleplaying games. (Also, Live Action Roleplaying).

·       Interactive fiction, like Choice of the Dragon, which you seen me play earlier.

After looking at these, I know that establishing the game of interaction and the rules of engagement are important. I need to cast the Audience and make their job clear, in order to not confuse them.

I have a potential model which I wish to test in my solo, or if not in that context after it. The model has a Linear Narrative, within it are moments or events of decision. The Audience make a choice, and the choice branches out and changes, yet it will connect back up with the main story. However, the Character’s or Audience’s perspective will be affected by the last decision they made. The outcome is affected by the choices they make throughout the Narrative.

This form can very easily become gimmick, and be used for comic effect; I want to discover what it is beyond that.

I want this to be script based as opposed to improvised in presentation. I want foremost to tell a good story.

The Dream is to use technology, consoles with buttons for each audience member to make decisions that go to a computer offstage, then a screen shows me onstage what they picked, and I react accordingly.

I want to push this form as far as I can.

Pick a path is only the beginning.

How much choice can I give the audience?

The reason why I am talking to you is, I need help. I cannot do this alone. For example, I need technicians to help me incorporate technology into this process. I need designers to help me map out the choices. I need writers to help me write a meaningful story. I need directors to guide the vision. I need people to collaborate with me. I need people to help me realise this work on the floor, from today.

I acknowledge the enormity of the form I am tackling.

If this engages you, or interests you in any way, drop me a line: kenneth.robert.gaffney@gmail.com 

Same as before... Comment, challenge, follow.

The choice is yours.

A Return from the brink.

Kia Ora.

It's been 3 months.

3 very full months.

Where to start? Well, I didn't get to Australia in the end; I reconnected with people I hadn't seen for a very long time; I fell back into some old patterns. I realized that some things need to change.

I had my professional debut at Bat's Theatre though! Worked in a fringe show called The Adventures of Wendy the Wonderful, Leslie the Lover, Winston the Worrier, and Marama the Muss.
I played a Caricature French Lover, and a Severely Autistic boy - both called Leslie. These roles challenged me technically in their diversity, but also with their high energy demands. (I used my Toi Toolbelt).

During this project and up until now, I have been thinking about something that has developed in my process.
It centres around Role and Functionality in relation for character.

Wow. What does that even mean???

These questions help me focus these developments.

What is my Character's base function within the piece?
What would happen if I removed my character completely from the play? What dynamic would be missing?
How does my Character drive the story forward?

Also: What can I bring as Kenneth Robert Gaffney to the piece that no one else can to serve -or maybe Juxtapose- the story?

That's that spillage of unclear thoughts for now...

My other thoughts/question: How can I use Object Animation as a Conduit to connect with Audience? 


So, if you don't understand it in it's current form, I'll explain it visually in a short vid soonish.

I remember I did promise to upload the stuff I talked about when I did that workshop with Capital E.
I will get onto that now.

For now, I'll leave you with these thoughts and get onto my Pecha Kucha. :)

Write back, approach me, challenge me... And all that Jazz.

Kia Kaha,
Kenga.

Some big things, The question of Life...

Hey People, Readers, and fellow Powerade drinkers.
In other words.
Yo.

Hot off my mind, and onto the interweb comes my latest blog installment.

I had an Interesting talk with my niece last night.
Her question to me...

Can you cry on cue?

The discussion then moved onto a twisting journey about life experience and how it correlates to Acting. I told her that:
"Yes, crying on cue could be good, but what's behind it? Where does it come from? Why are you crying?"


Her response told me that we had gone onto two separate topics, So ironically I told her to come back to me with a clearer question based on what she was curious about (usually I'm the unclear one).

This little story leads me to my brief topic today.

Life Experience - Acting.

It's a massive topic, I'm not going to cover it with 200 words nor will I cover it with 1,000,000.

So I'll begin with what I know.

I'm 20 years old. I went to an all boys school. I'm from another country. I've never seen Titanic; been in Love; lost somebody in my immediate family or any of my closest friends (for which I am extremely grateful).

So in many respects my life experience is not that vast. There are many roles that are beyond my life experience. (I mean I don't ever want to know what it's like to get revenge on a villainous organisation for taking all the things dear to me, and end up killing scores of bad guys - that's a bit absurd).
There are things I do know, these things make up my life experience and who I am.

I believe at this point in time that relating these experiences to my acting will help me with the things I do not know.

How do I relate my life experience to a character who has experienced things I have not?
(I'm not talking about method acting - sure, I take my thinking from some of it's principles, however I'm trying to look specifically Life experience in relation to acting).

So where am I going with this?
I guess upon reflection, I recently have experienced and am about to encounter  some massive events in my life, and I'm wondering what wider effect it will have on my acting (It probably won't be visible on the outside, but it'll be definitely be internally)?

Nevertheless, I think I need to get a little bit specific and find something Tangible within the topic that I can work on... Possibly I could pick a monologue from a Character who's Life experiences are very very different to my own and go from there?

Comment.
Agree.
Disagree.
Troll me if you want.
Challenge.
Follow.

Rock it, yo.
Kenga.

PS, Engage with me.

Encounter with Suzuki Method with Body and Space.

I engaged with some of Tadashi Suzuki's actor training/method techniques and exercises on Tuesday night and got to try out the Stomp I had heard so much about. I also got to revisit some Viewpoints and boy... It hasn't lost it's charm on me at all.

So, I hate to generalize it and simplify it, but I have to.

From what I know, Mr. Suzuki had seen a generation of young actors heavily relying on their faces and facial expressions to act (the world of film), and wanted to bring back an awareness to the body, and the centre (the core from my understanding 3 fingers below the belly button, inside the basin of the pelvis. I guess our voice teacher D'Arcy Smith used to liken it to the image of a pool of bubbles of marbles that hold your impulses and such - if you read this, hope you're rocking it in the US with the Fambam). Basically Actors using the whole tool they have, which is their body to Act, letting the whole body be affected etc etc.

We started with intense as warmups, anarobic stuff to the max, i almost stretched to the splits!!! Anyway, then we moved onto some basic Stomp choreo. It involved using a set number of movements, using the lower body mainly.

(Quick interlude, the Stomp is a lift from the knee and not the foot. and the whole foot must touch the ground at the same time).

The movements were simple to pickup, yet once the next component was added, I just kept forgetting the sequence, I guess I have some work to do to... The impulses to move come from the centre, the torso, essentially the image that worked for me was that it's the first thing the move (I guess the leading centre).

We then moved into a 2:30 minute Stomp with music, "Stay low" "Push through the Crisis point" (When I wanted to quit, too hard - it's all in the mind baby!) All around we moved, through the space. There were moments when we were all in sync, supporting each other to create something.

After the music reached a resolve we moved to one side of the room, fell to the ground safely and smoothly, and rose again when we had our breath under control, and did the slow 10 exercise together (Moving through the whole of the foot on a horizontal plane like a rope was pulling our centre towards the audience - some cushions.)

Then we finished and moved onto some Viewpoints. Sick times this was.
I will explain the viewpoints in the morning, because it's 3 am and I can barely keep my eyes open...

Sleep soundly NZ, Australia (Acknowledge our Cricket effort already...)
the rest of the world that is asleep too.
Everyone awake, have a good day.

Respond, challenge, correct me if you want, I'm not perfect.
I probably got something wrong.

Learn with me,
Follow,
Comment.

Rock it.
Kenga