Bunraku Theatre

Our IB Bunraku Theatre performance was a very difficult project to undertake. We were put under a great deal of stress to complete and make our performance great. It was all put together in just a few short weeks and there was a great deal of tension during rehearsals. Bunraku is a Japanese puppet production and we made it our own. Our story was about an autistic teenage boy killing his best friend in a moment of rage and confusion. It was quite a deep story. The audience seemed very in to it and really seemed to enjoy it. At points when the narrators were yelling, the audience got a bit frightened, which was the tension we wanted the room to feel. Considering they were eighth graders, I think we did well.
My role in our Bunraku performance was co-director with Varia. A director takes on a variety of jobs. We worked with the producer, actors and designers (set, costume, make-up and lighting). If something goes wrong, it is your job to fix it. For our story to take place, we had to assign many various roles- Director, puppeteers, musicians, chanter/narrator, lighting, set design, puppet makers, props, script writer, producer and someone to cast people. All tasks were difficult and taken with great responsibility. The greatest challenge of being a director was getting people to focus and getting the right amount of effort out of them. Since we spent long hours rehearsing, people were tired and frustrated a lot, so having to yell and tell them what to do. Lots of notes were taken because actors, narrators and musicians forgot cues, tempo and the effort they had to put in so we had to tell them how to improve. It was a lot of stress because Varia and I had to find music, have a vision of what the stage should look like, tell the puppeteers how to move the puppets and the emotion they had to portray.
As the director, it is your responsibility that people are on track and know what they are doing. You must be aware of what everyone is doing and make sure they do it