Chapter Three Methodology
3.5 The Annotation Scheme
3.5.2 The Stage
The annotated stage side has two parent tiers, ‘Stage Mimetic’ and ‘Stage Dialogic’, in order to capture both scenic and enacted, and dialogic information from the stage. The Stage Mimetic tier includes descriptions of performed enactments and scenic information deemed salient to the development of plot and dramatic situation. In theatre, as we have seen, visual and spoken
information often occur simultaneously. For this section of the study, however, I will discuss each separately.
3.5.2.1 Scenic information and mimetic activity
As discussed in 2.7.1.1, we would expect the interpreter to give focus to the stage during sections of salient stage activity or information presented scenically. In order to enable analysis of the interpreter’s negotiation of these visual sections of the performance, they must be identified and captured.
As discussed previously in 2.4, enactments salient to the progression of the drama may be categorised alone, or in combination with accompanying dialogue. The mimetic activities were chosen without reference to any accompanying dialogue, and therefore some occurred alone and some simultaneously with dialogue.
The enactments were identified in the plot and situation developing segments of the performances chosen for annotation. In ELAN, a description of the activity is recorded in the parent tier cell ‘Stage Mimetic’; we can see the descriptions as reverse-engineered stage directions, for example Reece puts the radioactive substance in David’s coffee (Gravity).
Incidences of mimetic activity do not necessarily occur in isolation from each other, and it may be the case that a string of smaller connected mimetic activities occur, for example, Mr Tom brings out a leather belt / Willie slides off his chair and cowers under the table (Goodnight Mister Tom). In the annotation scheme, the string of mimetic activities is described within one tier cell, as this
is sufficient for the analysis to capture the extent to which the interpreter gave focus to the stage for the activity.
Fig. 3.5.2.1.a, below, shows an example from ELAN of the annotated mimetic enactment Charlie enters through the door followed by the dog, and Fig.
3.5.2.1.b, also below, shows an annotated string of mimetic enactments.
Fig. 3.5.2.1.a. ELAN showing description of mimetic activity in Stage Mimetic tier.
Fig. 3.5.2.1.b. ELAN showing annotated string of mimetic enactments
3.5.2.2 Dialogic Information
Dialogic information is contained within character dialogue, distributed
throughout the source text in character turns. These turns are captured on the second parent tier 'Stage Dialogic', which consists of cells containing the name of the character currently speaking.
For each of these named character cells there are four linked child tiers:
1. [Character Name] Transcription of dialogue of character currently speaking 2. [Character Name] Orientation of character currently speaking
3. [Character Name] Direction of address of character currently speaking 4. [Character Name] Referents = as occur
An example from ELAN is illustrated in Fig. 3.5.2.2, below.
The characters’ dialogue tiers contain a transcription of the spoken text from the source material. I chose to make a transcription of the recorded
performance in preference to inputting the text from the written script, so that
Fig. 3.5.2.2. Illustration of the arrangement of Stage Dialogic parent tier and linked child tiers in ELAN.
any spontaneous modifications to the dialogue during the performance were recorded accurately, to give a true reflection of the live performance.
In response to the research question, one area of the study is the analysis of the interpreter’s maintenance, in the rendition, of the spatial relationships between the speaking characters onstage. In order to do this it is essential then to capture the onstage characters’ spatial organisation, their orientations and directions of address, throughout the progress of the performance. Before we consider this, however, it is necessary to discuss the traditional way in which actors are configured in the performance space.
The theatrical convention of dividing up the stage into a grid (stage centre, right and left; upstage centre, right and left; downstage centre, right and left) is based of the actor’s perspective looking out to the audience, in order that the actors can easily move to the appropriate location in the space when directed.
The convention is illustrated in Table 3.5.2.2.a, below.
‘Downstage’ is the part of the stage nearest to the audience. Conversely, the part of the stage furthest from the audience is referred to as ‘Upstage’; Stage Left is the area to the performer’s left (the spectator’s right), and Stage Right the area to the performer’s right (the spectator’s left). From the perspective of the spectator in the auditorium, the right side of the theatre is known as ‘House right’ (to the right of the spectator), and the left side as ‘House left’ (to the left of the spectator).
Table 3.5.2.2.a. Actor Point of View of Stage
UPSTAGE
Since, the performances were filmed and are analysed from the viewpoint of the audience, and for ease of labelling, whilst keeping the conventions of upstage and downstage, I have chosen to label the orientations and directions of address L (left) and R (right) from the spectator’s viewpoint, as Table
3.5.2.2.b, below, illustrates.
Thus, if a character is orientated to the audience’s right, this will be labelled R, and orientated to the audience’s left, L, and so on.
3.5.2.3 Character Orientation
As explained in 3.5.1.1, the interpreter’s range of possible orientations is restricted due to the need for the target audience to see the signed rendition.
The onstage characters, however, are not limited in this way. In Fig, 3.5.2.3.a, below, the possible character orientations are shown, labelled as if from the spectator’s perspective.
The tags used in the annotation of character orientations, and their
descriptions are shown in Table 3.5.2.3, below. For characters speaking from offstage, orientations are labelled OFFR or OFFL. The location of the character is determinable from either their direction of exit prior to the utterance, or direction of entrance after the utterance.
Table 3.5.2.2.b. Spectator Point of View of Stage
UPSTAGE
Table 3.5.2.3. Character Orientations
Annotation Tag Tag Description
C Centre: Directly facing the audience
DSR Downstage Right: Diagonally orientated to audience right.
R Right: Right side of body to audience, facing audience right.
USR Upstage Right: Facing away from audience, and diagonally to audience right.
DSL Downstage Left: Diagonally orientated to audience left.
L Left: Left side of body to audience.
USL Upstage Left: Facing away from audience, and diagonally to audience left.
US Facing away from the audience DSR DSL
L R
USR USL
US
Fig. 3.5.2.3.a. Possible character orientations (adapted from Hodge, 1988:97).
C
Fig. 3.5.2.3.b, below, shows examples from the corpus of a character orientation to the right (R), and a character orientation to the left (L), as summarised in Table 3.5.2.3, above. In the image we can see the female character’s body orientated to the right, with the right side of her body to the audience. In contrast, in the same image, the male character on the right is orientated to the left, with the left side of his body to the audience.
In Fig. 3.5.2.3.c, below, we can see that the female character is orientated towards the audience (downstage) diagonally to the left. Table 3.5.2.3 shows that this orientation is annotated as DSL (Downstage Left).
As discussed in 3.5.1.1, the interpreter’s range of orientations is restricted in comparison to those possible for the characters on stage. Fig. 3.5.2.3.d, below,
Right (R)
Fig. 3.5.2.3.b. Female character orientated to right (R); male character orientated to left (L).
Left (L)
Downstage Left (DSL)
Fig. 3.5.2.3.c. Female character orientated to downstage left (DSL).
shows the annotation for the character’s orientation facing away from the audience, fully upstage. The tag description in Table 3.5.2.3 is US (upstage).
3.5.2.4 Character Direction of Address
As explained in 3.5.1.1, in role shift, the signer’s eye gaze demonstrates direction of address, and also indicates the relative position in space of the addressee, and this is also the case with the theatre interpreter rendering the interactions of the onstage characters. For the hearing interlocutors, however, eye gaze is not necessary to indicate direction of address. For the purposes of the present analysis, then, the onstage characters’ directions of address are annotated according to the direction of communication to the addressee. For example, in Fig. 3.5.2.4.a, below, the character Tom, centre, (picking up the paper bag) addresses Willie (seated at the table) asking ‘Now then, what you got in ‘ere?’. In this case Tom’s direction of address is annotated thus: R-WILLIE. The name of the addressee character is included to disambiguate the location of the addressee.
Upstage (US)
Fig. 3.5.2.3.d. Character orientated fully upstage (US).
In Fig. 3.5.2.4.b, below Tom (L) addresses his line ‘Don’t I knows it’ to Charlie, located upstage centre. Tom’s direction of address in this case is upstage and to the right, towards the location of Charlie. In this case the direction of
address is annotated ‘USR-CHARLIE’.
The character directions of address comprise directions on the three axes, lateral (L-R), vertical (up-down) and horizontal (upstage-downstage). It is not necessary for this discussion to list the many possible combinations of directions of address, however below, in Table 3.5.2.4, is a selection from the corpus of an annotated segment showing some examples. The complete character direction of address and corresponding interpreter eye gaze
annotations for each case study can be found in Appendices 2.3, 3.3 and 4.3.
Fig. 3.5.2.4.a. Tom addresses his line ‘Now then, what you got in ‘ere?’ to Willie. The direction of address is annotated ‘R-WILLIE’.
Direction of address
Fig. 3.5.2.4.b. Tom (L) addresses his line ‘Don’t I knows it’ to Charlie, located upstage and to his right. The direction of address is annotated ‘USR-CHARLIE’.
3.5.2.5 Character Referents
We can apply referent tags to the performance text in an attempt to capture the entities the characters refer to and their relative locations in the performance space, and compare this with the interpreter output. The tags here are
constructed similarly to the interpreter referents tags as described in 3.5.1.3.
Table 3.5.2.4. Example Character Direction of Address
Character Start time code Dialogue Direction of
address
Mr Tom DoA 00:31:25.180 Well, ask. LD - GEORGE
George DoA 00:31:26.740 I 'ave. RU - MR TOM
Mr Tom DoA 00:31:27.700 Ask 'im! LD - GEORGE
George DoA 00:31:28.900 Aww!... Would yer? USR - WILLIE
Willie 00:31:33.430 Thanks. DSLD - GEORGE
George DoA
00:31:36.000 An' I'm sorry about the other day... And
Willie DoA 00:32:00.990 Can I, Mr Tom? RU - MR TOM Mr Tom DoA 00:32:02.470 Glad to get rid o'
yer. USL - WILLIE
Willie DoA 00:32:04.612 Thanks! RU - MR TOM
Willie DoA 00:32:06.262 What's a picnic? DSLD - GEORGE
Since English does not encode space in the way that BSL does, in order to compare the spatial construction of the interpreter’s rendition with that of the performance, we have to analyse to the arrangement of entities in the
performance space, at the time of the character’s spoken utterance, to identify the relative location of the referent, or to establish an implied direction of movement between referents in the case of utterances such as ‘Ask him’.
As in interpreter referencing, the first person pronoun is annotated, but not included in the analysis, as its location is always at the deictic centre of the speaker.
The primary referent types are again tagged DCT and DIR tags, but the individual referent tags within each type are constructed slightly differently in order to accommodate the difference in mode between the spoken dialogue and BSL.
Again, the individual referent tags within each type are constructed in three parts. Deictic referencing tags are constructed thus: [DCT]+ [referent]+[relative location], and directional referencing tags thus: [DIR] + [verb] + [direction of movement]. In contrast with interpreter referencing, here, when the referent is a person and a personal pronoun is used, the character name is included in the tag in order to locate the referent precisely in the stage space.
In Fig. 3.5.2.5.a, below Tom (T) is located on the left. His line ‘Don’t I knows it.
Got me an evacuee to prove it’ is directed at Charlie (C), and refers to the
‘evacuee’, Willie, seated right. This example of a character deictically
referencing another character in the visible performance space is tagged in the annotation DCT: ’EVACUEE' [WILLIE] - R.
Fig. 3.5.2.5.b, below, illustrates an example of ‘directional referencing’ in the performance. In this example, Tom tells George (G) to ‘Ask ‘im!’, referring to Willie (W) standing centre. The ‘direction’ of the verb, then, moves from George, left, to Willie, upstage centre, and the referencing is tagged in the annotation DIR: ’ASK’ [WILLIE] L>USR.
T C
Referent
Fig. 3.5.2.5.a. Tom (left) references ‘evacuee’ Willie, right. The annotation tag is DCT: ’EVACUEE' [WILLIE] - R
Fig. 3.5.2.5.b. Tom (right) tells George (G) to ask Willie (W). The annotation tag is DIR: ’ASK’ [WILLIE] L>USR
G
W
Again, while it is not necessary to list all the possible combinations of
directions in the referencing of entities on stage, examples of referencing by onstage characters is shown in the annotated sample in Table 3.5.2.5, below.