Monday, 30 January 2012
...
For this week, I don't think there is anything interesting to reflect at. Well for me, since I didn't even see Bloody Mess I can't really write a whole page on it like Richard did.
On Wednesday, we had a lesson on Bloody Mess and what the similarities there was in Forced Entretainment, Brecht and Artaud. In my journal I have written everything and i also decided to do some research on Brecht.
On Friday, we talked about Panto for basically one hour. The last few minutes, Mr F. told us how to approach the Stanislavski essay we have to write for Friday which ill definitely help me, there were lots of useful ideas he told us.
Today (Monday) we performed AGAIN a Doll's House for Year 10s and some Year 9. The year 9s didn't seem that interested in our play which made me want to punch them but then I thought that there were only in Year 9 and that they haven't got to the serious part of Theatre. The Year 10s though seemed fascinated about it; Susanne's face was the funniest to watch while Spencer and Georgia were performing! It looked like she had never seen a play in her life but I think I know why she had that facial expression which i can't say out loud in public.
I thought it went pretty well this time as well, there was no big deal about it.
I will reflect more next week since we are going to devise a piece from Forced Entretainment. Can't wait!!
wahh.
Finally got around to blogging and I'm sorry it's been so late. So its been an incredibily busy week and right now I feel rather shattered.
Last week we stayed behind on wednesday afternoon to do finish up our work on a Dolls House. Mr Fearnehough taught us some new exercises to help us with our rehearsals. The first was were we had to stand both facing forward and say our lines, line after line, we weren't allowed to turn around and look at our partner and kind of placed in a diaganol line so we couldn't see them and give them any visual ques. I didn't find this hard as I know my lines pretty well, however I can see how useful it is as sometimes instead of learning lines and using them as ques we learn another persons actions. We also did some Boal exercises, we used the same one that we had done in our drama tok session. We put ourselves into an exaggerated mask of our character and then acted out our scene in the mask. I took Noras superobjective of the scene being that she wants to manipulate rank and get him on side and decided to try and make my mask as flirty as possible. I have a problem with flirting being that I just can't seem to do it. I found myself breaking out of the mask quite a bit while rehearsing, I find it very difficult to ignore the cop in my head and just go for something, I worry a lot about what other people are thinking about me and how I look, I need to learn to let go a bit more and put my all into it. Another exercise we did which is popular with directors was to say the lines on our extract backwards, I found it very challenging but me and Spencer managed it, albiet going at a very slow pace and messing up a few times in the process. As well as doing some of these exercises we also continued just rehearsing using Stans system.
We performed to the english and spanish class friday morning and also had a surprise audience of the year 8s. While the rest of my group didn't find it easy to perform while having an audience sat in a different space to how we rehearsed it I didn't find it a problem as I just performed it how I had rehearsed it, using an end on theatre space. However, I did not think the performance went as well as it could have or should have. I know I set myself quite high standards to judge myself against but even taking that into account I don't think it went as good as I wanted. Personally, I found I could have looked at the audience more, not get as distracted by the audience (look above them slightly instead of making eye contact and getting frazzled) and I did not put in the actions or looks that I wanted too or had rehearsed. Then in our friday drama lesson we photographed both the pieces to make a storyboard of the piece and to annotate.
We performed again on Thursday lunchtime to an audience made up off our classmates and friends, this time I was less nervous with the performance and happier with the result, but still not sure that it was as good as it could have been, I think I remember the line "at least we didn't fail, thats a good place to be" which to me isn't, I need to know that I have done well. We are still waiting for feedback from the classes who came to see us, but so far people have only made positive comments.
Recently I have been involved back stage with the local pantomine, me and Demi have been doing the make up for dancers and also helped with the hair and wig changes. It was nice to be involved back stage in a performance and was great to see how everything happened. But the experience has tired me out greatly as I don't cope so well with late nights.
Because I don't like to have a social life or any free time I also decided to go and watch Bloody Mess on tuesday. And I am so glad I did, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I have lots and lots of notes written down on it but still am not fully sure of what I saw, so I think it is deserving of a later post purely dedicated to it.
In our class time we have started reading part of Tim Etchers book, and annotating it, we are going to continue that this week and also start writing a list of Forced Entertainments conventions as we plan on doing a devised piece based off it.
We performed again today at lunch time and I think it was a bit of a disaster. Spencer had forgotten his costume today so had to perform in clothes we found in the drama room , I've lost my stocking and feel so shattered that I knew I did not give the performance my all. We perfomed to some year 10s, Mr Fearnehough and my sister and her gang. it was nice to have some Stanley support there and bless her she still said it went well despite my effort.
Georgia Stanley
Last week we stayed behind on wednesday afternoon to do finish up our work on a Dolls House. Mr Fearnehough taught us some new exercises to help us with our rehearsals. The first was were we had to stand both facing forward and say our lines, line after line, we weren't allowed to turn around and look at our partner and kind of placed in a diaganol line so we couldn't see them and give them any visual ques. I didn't find this hard as I know my lines pretty well, however I can see how useful it is as sometimes instead of learning lines and using them as ques we learn another persons actions. We also did some Boal exercises, we used the same one that we had done in our drama tok session. We put ourselves into an exaggerated mask of our character and then acted out our scene in the mask. I took Noras superobjective of the scene being that she wants to manipulate rank and get him on side and decided to try and make my mask as flirty as possible. I have a problem with flirting being that I just can't seem to do it. I found myself breaking out of the mask quite a bit while rehearsing, I find it very difficult to ignore the cop in my head and just go for something, I worry a lot about what other people are thinking about me and how I look, I need to learn to let go a bit more and put my all into it. Another exercise we did which is popular with directors was to say the lines on our extract backwards, I found it very challenging but me and Spencer managed it, albiet going at a very slow pace and messing up a few times in the process. As well as doing some of these exercises we also continued just rehearsing using Stans system.
We performed to the english and spanish class friday morning and also had a surprise audience of the year 8s. While the rest of my group didn't find it easy to perform while having an audience sat in a different space to how we rehearsed it I didn't find it a problem as I just performed it how I had rehearsed it, using an end on theatre space. However, I did not think the performance went as well as it could have or should have. I know I set myself quite high standards to judge myself against but even taking that into account I don't think it went as good as I wanted. Personally, I found I could have looked at the audience more, not get as distracted by the audience (look above them slightly instead of making eye contact and getting frazzled) and I did not put in the actions or looks that I wanted too or had rehearsed. Then in our friday drama lesson we photographed both the pieces to make a storyboard of the piece and to annotate.
We performed again on Thursday lunchtime to an audience made up off our classmates and friends, this time I was less nervous with the performance and happier with the result, but still not sure that it was as good as it could have been, I think I remember the line "at least we didn't fail, thats a good place to be" which to me isn't, I need to know that I have done well. We are still waiting for feedback from the classes who came to see us, but so far people have only made positive comments.
Recently I have been involved back stage with the local pantomine, me and Demi have been doing the make up for dancers and also helped with the hair and wig changes. It was nice to be involved back stage in a performance and was great to see how everything happened. But the experience has tired me out greatly as I don't cope so well with late nights.
Because I don't like to have a social life or any free time I also decided to go and watch Bloody Mess on tuesday. And I am so glad I did, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I have lots and lots of notes written down on it but still am not fully sure of what I saw, so I think it is deserving of a later post purely dedicated to it.
In our class time we have started reading part of Tim Etchers book, and annotating it, we are going to continue that this week and also start writing a list of Forced Entertainments conventions as we plan on doing a devised piece based off it.
We performed again today at lunch time and I think it was a bit of a disaster. Spencer had forgotten his costume today so had to perform in clothes we found in the drama room , I've lost my stocking and feel so shattered that I knew I did not give the performance my all. We perfomed to some year 10s, Mr Fearnehough and my sister and her gang. it was nice to have some Stanley support there and bless her she still said it went well despite my effort.
Georgia Stanley
What a Bloody Mess we've got in to!
Last week (23rd - 27th January) was strange and exhausting to say the least
Our week of Theatre started off with Tuesday where we discussed what we were to expect from Forced Entertainments Bloody Mess (pictured left), we read part of Tim Etchell's book and learnt how he felt the audience should experience things, for example he does not want his audience to be simply observers but more witness'. We made small progress through the extract, however it was still intriguing to see how a piece from Forced Entertainment starts out.
Later that day (well in the evening) Me, Georgia, Spencer, the 3 year 10 students, Grace and one of Mr. Fearnehough's TMA adults all headed over to Theatre Garonne so that we could witness Bloody Mess first hand. Now comes the hard part which I've failed at countless times before which is.... EXPLAINING BLOODY MESS. It was chaos, pure chaos, Gorillas throwing popcorn, women flashing, naked men with stars, a miserable clown, a cheerleader, some drama queen and two 'sound technicians'. That is the closest I'm going to get, so that is all you are going to get. This 2 hour long piece was disturbing, strange, chaotic, random, weird and a matter of all other words which to someone who has never seen Bloody Mess will never get.
However, after the show for around half an hour we got the chance to ask the director of Bloody Mess and creator of Forced Entertainment (Tim Etchell) some question that did (well kinda did) clear up the piece. Some important things he said was that the piece of Bloody Mess is made to be chaotic (with more than one thing going on at a time) so that each individual audience member's takes a different story out of the piece, this also meaning you could watch it a second time and come out with a completely different story. Also the reasons for not having an interval is due to it ruining the actor/audience relationship since he wants to achieve reactions from the audience from a bio-mechanic level of participation. Tim also explained that the characters seen in Bloody Mess were taken or "quotations" from popular culture such as pantomime, circus, greek theatre, technicians at theatres ect ect. One question asked was about the use of practioneers (such as Brecht, Stanislavski, Boal, Artaud) which he responded to that they are rarely used, more poked fun at than anything even though each actor has most likely trained with these conventions, which is also the other side of the problem. Forced Entertainment hires actors which have been classically trained which is a problem since Forced Entertainment just want the simplicity of human, just an absolute normality. Another point he made was that like all theatre companies they have good and bad shows, and that they always run into problems just like any other theatre company putting on a show, however instead of sitting down and letting it overcome them, they just keeping trying out everyone's ideas to see which one fits best. They never stop, they just keep moving forward, he also mentioned that even though onstage Bloody Mess looked like chaos, the final months of rehearsal are extremely and tightly policed.
One final thing I would like to add is that but then end of the 2 hours the actors looked exhausted but also as an audience member I felt exhausted too! This is what Tim meant by a bio-mechanical level of audience participation.
Wednesday was a long, tiring but also interesting lesson to say the least. It was 2 hours of tyring to pin down what Bloody Mess was all about. We came up with five words explaining our feelings towards it, Raw, World, Real, and two others. Any one remember (leave a comment)?? Mr. F described the class as a dissection of Bloody Mess, and that is was, a full 2 hour dissection in the end making it slightly clearer but nothing that makes us say 'This is what it was about'. And I also think that we will never be able to say so.
Also a few hours after school was the 4th show of the Panto (Beauty and the Beast) which Spencer and Mr. Fearnehough came to see, who both seemed (well I hope) enjoyed it! I know I did!
Friday, the first 30-40 minutes was talking about the Panto and a look back upon the week, but then our hopes and theatrical dreams were crushed when Mr. F announced.....THE ESSAY! -insert dramatic music-. So yeah we've got to write a good ol' lengthy essay upon non other than......
 |
| STAN THE MAN! |
Richard #1
Friday, 27 January 2012
Bloody Beauty's House
This week was immense, we saw Bloody Mess on Tuesday, went to a Panto Wednesday, and preformed Dolls House again. Three performances back to back and each one was very different but tiring all the same.
Describing Bloody Mess is rather hard as it was a piece developed around organized Chaos. The piece's nine characters where each existing in their own worlds and these worlds would crash into each other resulting in chaos and raw ideas. While it was definitely strange to watch, the Gorilla and Popcorn, it was also very engrossing. We managed to get seats on the front row and most of the show I forgot that there were people behind us. It was a little like an episode of Monty Python as it had sections that made sense but if taken in the context of the entire piece were illogical. It had definite cycles but they seem completely separate from each other. I think what made it interesting to watch was the same reason as the Railway Children, emotion. However, the type of emotions were very different. While R.C had moving emotions, love and sorrow, Bloody Mess revolved around excitement and a desire to know where they will go next.
Wednesday revolved around analyzing B.M. To be continued...
Wensday was also my first British Pantomime. It was interest because of the amount of audience involvement. While B.M had interacted with the audience, Pantomime was about the audience interacting with the show and characters. It was fun to be part of the show rather than watch it.
When we preformed Doll's House a second time, I actually did have Black shoes(they were big and hard to walk in but...). I felt under much less pressure and I think that it was caused by the informality and that it was a small audience who we knew. I felt like we were just preforming to Drama peers, and that if I made a small goof it would be forgotten quickly. I did however, feel like this impacted my acting quality. I'm not sure if I actually did worse though, or if I was able to pay more attention to my actions, as I made sure to fix corrections from the last performance but in the first one I was only able pay attention to my lines and timings.
Friday was a wrap up lesson for the week. We discussed the Panto, the essay on Stan, Thursday's performance, and Forced Entertainment. We talked about how the techs in B.M. just seem happy when they were air guitaring, they didn't just look like they were having fun and than we each share a moment in which we felt truly happy(Jump up and Down Happy). I told getting my math test as it was easy to explain the context but it was hard to choose a moment as I haven't had a really big moment in a while. but I think the idea was in the emotion, but I also learned that some people have a hard time concealing when they get flustered.
Describing Bloody Mess is rather hard as it was a piece developed around organized Chaos. The piece's nine characters where each existing in their own worlds and these worlds would crash into each other resulting in chaos and raw ideas. While it was definitely strange to watch, the Gorilla and Popcorn, it was also very engrossing. We managed to get seats on the front row and most of the show I forgot that there were people behind us. It was a little like an episode of Monty Python as it had sections that made sense but if taken in the context of the entire piece were illogical. It had definite cycles but they seem completely separate from each other. I think what made it interesting to watch was the same reason as the Railway Children, emotion. However, the type of emotions were very different. While R.C had moving emotions, love and sorrow, Bloody Mess revolved around excitement and a desire to know where they will go next.
Wednesday revolved around analyzing B.M. To be continued...
Wensday was also my first British Pantomime. It was interest because of the amount of audience involvement. While B.M had interacted with the audience, Pantomime was about the audience interacting with the show and characters. It was fun to be part of the show rather than watch it.
When we preformed Doll's House a second time, I actually did have Black shoes(they were big and hard to walk in but...). I felt under much less pressure and I think that it was caused by the informality and that it was a small audience who we knew. I felt like we were just preforming to Drama peers, and that if I made a small goof it would be forgotten quickly. I did however, feel like this impacted my acting quality. I'm not sure if I actually did worse though, or if I was able to pay more attention to my actions, as I made sure to fix corrections from the last performance but in the first one I was only able pay attention to my lines and timings.
Friday was a wrap up lesson for the week. We discussed the Panto, the essay on Stan, Thursday's performance, and Forced Entertainment. We talked about how the techs in B.M. just seem happy when they were air guitaring, they didn't just look like they were having fun and than we each share a moment in which we felt truly happy(Jump up and Down Happy). I told getting my math test as it was easy to explain the context but it was hard to choose a moment as I haven't had a really big moment in a while. but I think the idea was in the emotion, but I also learned that some people have a hard time concealing when they get flustered.
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
"Theatre, that's so easy. HA!"
This week has been a very busy,annoying and tiring week for me; on Friday, we performed our
A Doll's House performance to the Spanish and English literature students. On the weekend, we had 3 Panto performances which were very intense. On Wednesday, we have another Panto performance.On Thursday, we have another performance of a Doll's house and I will be busy working with the children at TMA later on. On Friday and Saturday, we have the 3 last Panto performances. So if someone will come up to me and dares telling me theatre is easy or nothing, I will slap them. Literally.
I guess that I've never realised how much energy theatre takes away from you; of course I've experienced it and I know how much effort you have to put in it, but right now I honestly feel exhausted because of all of it. Which by the way terrifies me because if I can't cope with this how will I be able to cope with my future career if that's what I really want to be? I have been asking my self that question several times but I've never really admitted to my self that putting to much effort into a theatre practise or work scares me and might hold me back a little? That is one reflection I really find useful for me.
On Wednesday the 17th we had a full day of theatre. No,really. In the morning, we changed to our costumes and practised with full set and full costume. It was good because that way it affected our acting in a way that we knew exactly where the table was, we could carry the presents, we could sit down on the sofa...
In the afternoon, we did 3 different sorts of exercises, but in costumes, which I think helped us getting more into character rather than just doing it.The first exercise we had to do was to stand apart from each other and not facing each other and just read our lines out. We weren't allowed to look at each other, we just had to say our lines nice,loud and clearly. We had to pretend as if we were in a massive theatre and so we had to be really loud and articulate our lines which I think I was pretty successful in. That exercise was supposes to check if we really knew our lines correctly and if we could present them to an "audience". The second exercise we had to do was amazing. It is not part of Stanislavski's system but I find this exercise really amusing and helpful at the same time(Boal). You have to put this exaggerated mask on and act out what your character is really like, completely opposite to what Stanislavksi thought about people, everyone should hide their real emotions and feelings or showing it but more sutler. That exercise would relate to Artaud I think; showing of the character in a very grotesque and intimidating way. Anyway, that exercise helped me to understand more about Nora's character and I had a clearer image of her in my head. We performed each scene with the mask on and it was hilarious to watch,honestly. Me and Richard then had to do it but Nora had to have an Italian accent and her head was supposed to fall, randomly. Torvald had to have an itchy back and was supposed to be this funny little gay person. It was hilarious performing it, we had lots of fun doing it. Mr F said that directors often ask actors to perform such a task to see if they can act in different ways and is they can take all of the information and create this fabulous character. Anyway,Georgia and Spencer didn't get to do it which was a shame.
The third exercise we had to do was to recite our lines but backwards! That was a check, again, to see if we really knew our cues and lines. I actually thought it went all right for me, I didn't really struggle with it which pleased me. Finally, all of this work I've done gets rewarded.
On Friday, we had our performance in front of the year 9 and the Spanish students and the English Lit students. It was quite a big audience and made our space more intimidating, and we were acting really closely to them. But it didn't really bother me, I was actually pleased that so many people wanted to come and watch our performance(even though the year 9's had to) I'm pretty sure that me and Richard's piece went very well actually and I really enjoyed it doing in front of and audience. I was really pleased with all of the audience's response to our piece, they really understood what I wanted to get across, I think I was successful showing what Nora objective was and that they could spot everything out.
SO THERE!
Monday, 23 January 2012
1 Million!!! 2 Million!!!!! 3 Million!!!!!!!
Last week (16th - 20th January 2012) was showtime!
Tuesday was just a run off the mill rehearsal lesson. Me and Maria got movements and all lines ironed out, we polished out the rough bits and it was a kind of preliminary dress rehearsal which seemed to go fine. Oh yeah Ms. Steinson (the principle) came in and had to help me out with tying a tie, then she sat down and filmed us for a bit (for the promotional video). All in all it was a pretty successful lesson.
Wednesday was a biggie. Two hours of drama during school, then another 3 after school! We started by getting changed into our costumes and what not. Me and Maria watched through Spencer and Georgia's piece just to see how it was going which seemed like it was finally going somewhere. Maria and I were about to start but then Mr. Fearnehough came in and instead of rehearsing our piece we did some hard and some easier activities. Firstly, we stood diagonally from each other so we couldn't see each others faces (Maria and I naturally stood on the stage) and so we were told just to say our lines out, no actions, no turning to partner, no movement and no help just say it out to the 'audience'. This was easy since we have done a similar thing at Panto and this really was just a go through of lines primarily. Next we all stood in a line and were told to take the thing that when our characters are stripped down to the bare minimum drive them. For me (Torvald) it was his complete lust for money, so I completely exaggerated this by smelling the money, rubbing it against my cheek and by counting it millions. Maria's was very child like, Georgia's was more seductive and Rank's was......well.....Rank. We then had to go through our script as this over exaggerated self of the character, it was going well for me and Maria....Then we went off script and so it seemed like we ended up going shopping in the end.
We then watched Spencer and Georgia's exaggerated scene, it was...creepy.
After this we tried and may I say heroically failed and going through our script backwards. I just couldn't do it at all. It ended up going backwards and forwards. Kinda like the reversal of that saying 1 step backwards 3 steps forward. This didn't go so well, enough said really. We got one good dress rehearsal in which went, well, GOOD! But the final thing was major fun and was a great way to end the lesson. Maria and I were given traits and characteristics that had to added onto our characters. Maria (as Nora) was given an Italian Accent and a head that kept dropping, I (Torvald) was given the trait of being very camp and having an itchy BACKSIDE!!!! (watch Panto and you'll get that joke). It was just some light hearted fun that ended the lesson greatly.
Friday morning was Showtime!!!!!! Everything seemed to go smoothly, one second we were onstage then BOOM! It was over. Question time was slightly awkward since no one was asking questions but it went fine still. Our Friday lesson was a debrief of what had happened, we talked about how over the course of doing A Doll's House our characters objectives have changed whilst playing our characters. Then there was the moment that made the week seriously.
Mr. Fearnehough on the sofa, with stockings around Spencer's neck (as if he was Nora seducing him) and just as he pulled Spencer in close up and said "nothing for being so...Naughty" who has to walk in but none other than Tess. We were killing ourselves.
This week has been such a fun week. We've learnt new rehearsal techniques, we've learnt that how as playing our characters has slightly changed our objectives and how fun theatre can be (but also draining). It's been a week of drama for Me! A Doll's House and the beginning 3 shows of Panto (which have gone swimmingly!)
Richard #1
Saturday, 21 January 2012
To be Continued.... (ish)
On Tuesday, we did more rehearsing. Friday, however, Mr. Fearnehough watch our piece and made a few criticisms. As I was expecting, many of them were about actions and finalizing our emotions. As we didn't specifically work on actions and it had been a long time since we discussed our character's objectives, our ideas had changed and we didn't communicate all of them to our partner.
Wednesday was a lot of Drama though. We did went through our piece a few time during class and put together what would be our final set. We showed our excerpt to the other group with the sheet that we were given Tuesday, so that they could check if we had fixed issues. After school was where the real progress happened. We managed to get permission to stay after school till 3:00. We got started around one as we had to eat, put together the set, and change. We did our run through and R/M were going to do theirs when Mr. Fearnehough came in with a few exercises. The first one involved going through our lines with out moving and no cues from our partner. It was easy, but I found it much easier when I was moving(walking in place or swaying arms). I do wonder though, why we stood at an angle to each other rather than back to back. (For more than two person casts?) We did one other line exercise which was to go through the script backwards, now this was hard. Some parts were easy as I could think which one of my lines in the general area caused her to say her line, but others... It was easy to know what area of the script we were in and soon we would get into a flow but if it was broken it was a struggle to get back into a smooth process. At one bit we skipped a section and we became so lost that we had to restart a little back. Really good practice though.
Then we were told to do an acting exercise. We were supposed to take our character's super objective and convert it into a whole body mask than extrapolate it. I'll be quite honest here, I strongly disliked it. Playing a character that already makes you uncomfortable in some bits(Stockings) and making him even more grotesque... Once I was acting it was much easier(in a way) as I had to really focus to make my hips really move. I think that I just couldn't focus on how I felt just the lines and actions. It was much more interment though and I wish that we could have had some time to use this exercise to improve the piece. I do like the idea for the exercise but if I was Torvold instead of Rank... Richard's involved getting high off of money, rubbing it on himself, and counting it. (not humping) I did notice though that when they got off script there was only a small pause of confusion before they continued improving(it got really far off the script), I think if they were doing it normally they would have stopped and attempted to correct themselves.
On Friday we presented our excerpts to the Spanish and Lit classes. It was really stressful at the start as we were getting into costume and preparing the set as people were coming in. Once we started to preform though, the time just vanished. All of a sudden it was over. I think that their are three main things though, that I would have liked to do differently. First, during the stockings bit we were seated so far apart. This added to the pressure of not being able to make a mistake and already being uncomfortable caused me to worry but we made it through alright. Secondly, I wanted a day or two to work in what we had done on Wednesday afternoon into the excerpt. We came up with new ideas discussed how we could use them but weren't able to put them into practice. Third, was my shoes. I only have one pair of shoes and they're white sneakers. Yah, not going to match a black suit. Apparently though, we were asked if we could do it again for another group on Tuesday, so it had to be alright. It is going to be weird though starting normal class work again.
Wednesday was a lot of Drama though. We did went through our piece a few time during class and put together what would be our final set. We showed our excerpt to the other group with the sheet that we were given Tuesday, so that they could check if we had fixed issues. After school was where the real progress happened. We managed to get permission to stay after school till 3:00. We got started around one as we had to eat, put together the set, and change. We did our run through and R/M were going to do theirs when Mr. Fearnehough came in with a few exercises. The first one involved going through our lines with out moving and no cues from our partner. It was easy, but I found it much easier when I was moving(walking in place or swaying arms). I do wonder though, why we stood at an angle to each other rather than back to back. (For more than two person casts?) We did one other line exercise which was to go through the script backwards, now this was hard. Some parts were easy as I could think which one of my lines in the general area caused her to say her line, but others... It was easy to know what area of the script we were in and soon we would get into a flow but if it was broken it was a struggle to get back into a smooth process. At one bit we skipped a section and we became so lost that we had to restart a little back. Really good practice though.
Then we were told to do an acting exercise. We were supposed to take our character's super objective and convert it into a whole body mask than extrapolate it. I'll be quite honest here, I strongly disliked it. Playing a character that already makes you uncomfortable in some bits(Stockings) and making him even more grotesque... Once I was acting it was much easier(in a way) as I had to really focus to make my hips really move. I think that I just couldn't focus on how I felt just the lines and actions. It was much more interment though and I wish that we could have had some time to use this exercise to improve the piece. I do like the idea for the exercise but if I was Torvold instead of Rank... Richard's involved getting high off of money, rubbing it on himself, and counting it. (not humping) I did notice though that when they got off script there was only a small pause of confusion before they continued improving(it got really far off the script), I think if they were doing it normally they would have stopped and attempted to correct themselves.
On Friday we presented our excerpts to the Spanish and Lit classes. It was really stressful at the start as we were getting into costume and preparing the set as people were coming in. Once we started to preform though, the time just vanished. All of a sudden it was over. I think that their are three main things though, that I would have liked to do differently. First, during the stockings bit we were seated so far apart. This added to the pressure of not being able to make a mistake and already being uncomfortable caused me to worry but we made it through alright. Secondly, I wanted a day or two to work in what we had done on Wednesday afternoon into the excerpt. We came up with new ideas discussed how we could use them but weren't able to put them into practice. Third, was my shoes. I only have one pair of shoes and they're white sneakers. Yah, not going to match a black suit. Apparently though, we were asked if we could do it again for another group on Tuesday, so it had to be alright. It is going to be weird though starting normal class work again.
Monday, 16 January 2012
Rank and Skank.
So in the past weeks we have created our set, we have changed it and made it our own. We have decided that it would look best if the stage was cluttered as this will make the mismatched props blend in, and I believe that the home should feel stuffy and overbearing, making it look like Nora is trapped. This helps with the fact that she paces a lot and fidgets and also is drawn/attracted to the stove for protection. So far we have some throws, a sofa (or a makeshift sofa), two tables on either sides of the stage and some chairs. We need a few more props to fill the set up a bit more. We have been continuing rehearsing our pieces, and checking it afterwards to talk about how we think we are working with Stans system and how it is fitting in. We missed out on a wednesday afternoon rehearsal but we have changed to have another. At the moment I think our piece is getting better, but that we could slow down a lot more. Me and Spencer both tend to speak quite fast while on stage and we need to slow down to make sure the audience miss nothing. We also need to continue checking how we are using Stans system in our work. We have been having problems with the stocking scene but i think our problems have been ironed out, we just need to keep going over it a few more times. Me and Spencer also need to do a bit more work on characterisation in the coming week, just to make sure we don't come through on stage. Sometimes I forget and when I'm meant to be acting I stand as myself or put my hair behind my ear or something. Hopefully everything will be sorted and verging on the perfection i would like (haha) by the next time I blog!! Georgia x
Sunday, 15 January 2012
Make a Plan than Act
I don't remember what happened on Tuesday but I would guess that rehearsed our parts. I checked Richard's post but I'm not sure what belongs in last week and this week. I don't think anything importent happened. Oh well, I'm sure that I'll be able to ask Georgia(or just look at her post). I cannot wait for my deluge of work to end.
On Wednesday, we were kicked out off the Drama room by the Year Elevens. I hope they got a good amount of practice done. We were hoping to be able to stay after school and work on our parts but we didn't have a teacher and thus couldn't stay. We did manage to secure the uses of the common room during class though. We made a set out of the sofa thingy and walk through our part. This really helped me get the lines down for the last bits that we had not worked as much. Our approuch to learning our lines and parts earlier was to keep adding another section when we were good with what we had. However, we were working a little too slow and we havn't manage to do some parts near the end. Thus when we had to show off our peice, we started stumbling after a bit. Richard said in his blog post that we had:started out strong but seemed to loose it by the end. We were already a little worried about that.
Friday was the big step forward for us. We ran through the entire piece a few times. Its hard to practice when you're worried about running into another performance. Than we assessed our flaws: our main Issue was with the Stockings but we also lacked concrete physical movements for some sections, everything else should get ironed out with more practice. In order to fix those faults we are going to use the Method of Physical Action to get movements but I don't know what we should do about the emotions with the stockings. The other hard bit with that is that if I focus on my lines and the actions it doesn't look right but if I focus on all three I have a hard time with all of them, just need to work on it more.
Richard Spencer
On Wednesday, we were kicked out off the Drama room by the Year Elevens. I hope they got a good amount of practice done. We were hoping to be able to stay after school and work on our parts but we didn't have a teacher and thus couldn't stay. We did manage to secure the uses of the common room during class though. We made a set out of the sofa thingy and walk through our part. This really helped me get the lines down for the last bits that we had not worked as much. Our approuch to learning our lines and parts earlier was to keep adding another section when we were good with what we had. However, we were working a little too slow and we havn't manage to do some parts near the end. Thus when we had to show off our peice, we started stumbling after a bit. Richard said in his blog post that we had:started out strong but seemed to loose it by the end. We were already a little worried about that.
Friday was the big step forward for us. We ran through the entire piece a few times. Its hard to practice when you're worried about running into another performance. Than we assessed our flaws: our main Issue was with the Stockings but we also lacked concrete physical movements for some sections, everything else should get ironed out with more practice. In order to fix those faults we are going to use the Method of Physical Action to get movements but I don't know what we should do about the emotions with the stockings. The other hard bit with that is that if I focus on my lines and the actions it doesn't look right but if I focus on all three I have a hard time with all of them, just need to work on it more.
Richard Spencer
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Scene 1....Take 300
So, this week (9th-13th January 2012) alot has gone on....well alot?......Well alot of repetition.
Primarily this week has just been a week for us to go over again and again. A rehearsal week so to speak. Tuesday we sat down and watched each others pieces, as always there were some strong points and weak points too. For mine and Maria's piece Georgia and Richard#2 said that we had to take care with some of the lines and bring their meaning across to the audience, not with all lines but some specific lines that tie into the piece later on. Maria and I then sat down to watch Georgia and Richard#2's piece. The feedback was similar to what we have given before, slow down in certain parts to emphasise words or phrases, REACT MORE TO BEING HIT WITH THE STOCKINGS, and for Spencer mainly was to just project a bit more and sometimes slow what he is saying down.
Wednesday we lost the studio to the Year 11's who were practising their devised pieces. I watched one of them and I thought it was pretty good and funny even though the message behind it was a serious one. Our Year 12 class however had less success, since we had no space, no set, and no costumes. So we just went through our lines again and again trying to master and remember them so when we do get, set, costume and the proper space we needn't worry about lines.
Then on Friday Mr Fearnehough was back. So Maria and I asked him if he could watch our piece and give us feedback. We were acting in pretty much full costume which felt like you could sink into the character that little bit further. We performed it to him and he gave us feedback some of it included: wedding rings since Nora and Torvald and married they would naturally wear wedding rings, Me and Maria need to seem more like a couple on stage since in some parts you forgot we were, I need to be more dynamic with gestures not as in melodramatic but just more dynamic, NEVER APOLOGIZE to each other or to the audience during a performance or else you will fall into the Circle of Doom (where an actor apologizes, the audience sympathise, then actor feels guilty, audience sympathise ect ect ect). Leant that on ISTA.
That is pretty much it for this week!
I just want to say Congrats to Mr. Fearnehough on becoming a Dad! I'm sure you'll be a great one!
Richard #1
Monday, 9 January 2012
Set Design for a Doll's house
We have now started to think about our set design for our piece. On Wednesday, we were supposed to work on our acting but not in a kind of GCSE way, that we would just do it over and over again. We we're supposed to insert one of Stanislavski's method in it, emotion memory for example. But we didn't do that.
On the first hour, we talked about how we were supposed to write our Stanislavski essay which I thought was really useful. Personally I just wanted to get on with my acting and pretend that I knew what I have to do but then I decided myself that the writing was also a part of the Theater IB course and that I had to listen. I'm glad I did, there were lots of useful information I took in.
On the second hour, we discussed about the set. We were told that having the set on stage and rehearsing with it would affect our acting which I completely agree with. That's why we need all of the equipment as soon as possible. I have made a sketch in my journal about the set and about the props as well for 19th century,which will help us to make the right decisions when we chose our props and not mix it with 21th century props.
On Friday me and Richard set up the set at lunchtime and then when we had our lesson we work on our acting. We decided to watch each other's performances and to give critical feedback at the end of it. Georgia and Richard went first and then me and Richard decided to help them out with their acting because they seemed to have some problems with it. I was voice coaching Georgia and Richard was voice coaching Spencer. I thought it went pretty well, I thought we were pretty much successful at it. We all had different opinions which we all calmly shared between us and it did work. Then me and Richard went through ours but we didn't have time to finish it.
We have now started to think about our set design for our piece. On Wednesday, we were supposed to work on our acting but not in a kind of GCSE way, that we would just do it over and over again. We we're supposed to insert one of Stanislavski's method in it, emotion memory for example. But we didn't do that.
On the first hour, we talked about how we were supposed to write our Stanislavski essay which I thought was really useful. Personally I just wanted to get on with my acting and pretend that I knew what I have to do but then I decided myself that the writing was also a part of the Theater IB course and that I had to listen. I'm glad I did, there were lots of useful information I took in.
On the second hour, we discussed about the set. We were told that having the set on stage and rehearsing with it would affect our acting which I completely agree with. That's why we need all of the equipment as soon as possible. I have made a sketch in my journal about the set and about the props as well for 19th century,which will help us to make the right decisions when we chose our props and not mix it with 21th century props.
On Friday me and Richard set up the set at lunchtime and then when we had our lesson we work on our acting. We decided to watch each other's performances and to give critical feedback at the end of it. Georgia and Richard went first and then me and Richard decided to help them out with their acting because they seemed to have some problems with it. I was voice coaching Georgia and Richard was voice coaching Spencer. I thought it went pretty well, I thought we were pretty much successful at it. We all had different opinions which we all calmly shared between us and it did work. Then me and Richard went through ours but we didn't have time to finish it.
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Cardboard Stoves for Dummies!
This week (4th-6th Jan) was a short week, returned back to school on the Wednesday (4th Jan 2012!!!!!!) and so we were met with a double lesson. We spent the majority of the lesson talking about set. Where it would go, how we could make the set less modern, working around the stove problem as well as having to literally cut the set in half.
We had a clear view of how the set was laid out from the drawing in my book however replicating it was more difficult. Wednesday, we had to use stand in furniture as we were not prepared and so we made a 'template' of the set, we had huge problems with figuring out what to do with the central focus stove piece, it was either make a cardboard one which frankly no one wanted to do or scrap it....We scrapped it. We then worked from there. We ran out of time for a full run-through of our piece so that is all we pretty much achieved Wednesday. Wednesday we also had around 1hr talk about an essay we shall soon write because you can't have this much fun for free can you? I'm fine with writing the essay, it is getting the needed information in it which worries me but after Mr Fearnehough talked us through the top 8 or so Stan the Man system aspects I do feel less worried now.
Friday, we got to work by fully setting the scene, we got the right chairs, a sofa, an x-mas tree, presents and some table (library was a major help). Sure there was the odd hitch with the sofa but we got it in in the end. We then proceeded to perform our extract to each other. Georgia and Richard #2 went first, they started out strong but seemed to loose it by the end. As Spencer mentioned in his post we noticed that he was from time to time chewing his words and mumbling making what he was saying incomprehensible, there was also a matter of other points but ones easily changed.
Maria and I then performed our piece, feedback seemed somewhat positive. Naturally, no piece is perfect, there was the odd awkward movement and forgetting of line but we were working with a new set so there was always going to be problems. When we have costumes I feel things shall improve.
We had a clear view of how the set was laid out from the drawing in my book however replicating it was more difficult. Wednesday, we had to use stand in furniture as we were not prepared and so we made a 'template' of the set, we had huge problems with figuring out what to do with the central focus stove piece, it was either make a cardboard one which frankly no one wanted to do or scrap it....We scrapped it. We then worked from there. We ran out of time for a full run-through of our piece so that is all we pretty much achieved Wednesday. Wednesday we also had around 1hr talk about an essay we shall soon write because you can't have this much fun for free can you? I'm fine with writing the essay, it is getting the needed information in it which worries me but after Mr Fearnehough talked us through the top 8 or so Stan the Man system aspects I do feel less worried now.
Friday, we got to work by fully setting the scene, we got the right chairs, a sofa, an x-mas tree, presents and some table (library was a major help). Sure there was the odd hitch with the sofa but we got it in in the end. We then proceeded to perform our extract to each other. Georgia and Richard #2 went first, they started out strong but seemed to loose it by the end. As Spencer mentioned in his post we noticed that he was from time to time chewing his words and mumbling making what he was saying incomprehensible, there was also a matter of other points but ones easily changed.
Maria and I then performed our piece, feedback seemed somewhat positive. Naturally, no piece is perfect, there was the odd awkward movement and forgetting of line but we were working with a new set so there was always going to be problems. When we have costumes I feel things shall improve.
So yeah, this past half week has shown us the value of set. From panto I know how useful it is for an actor to have the stage and set all there as it brings in further actions and naturally adds that dimension and believability to the performance.
EDIT: I just read Chapter 2: The Russian Revolution from Great Acting Teachers. Mr Fearnehough said it would be an easy read and naturally like usual I was pretty cynical of this since is was a blooming big pack of around 40 pages!!!!!! Guess what? Just read it all in one sitting, it is extremely well written and really easy to understand and cleared some things up for me. Naturally, I ran out of ink for my highlighter due to the amount of info in there. It was very very good!
Richard #1
Also Happy New Year Guys!
2012 for the Year 12!
Also Happy New Year Guys!
2012 for the Year 12!
Short week of not London
Due to not having school on Monday, the week was slightly shorter than most, but it was productive. On Wednesday we spent most of the day coming up with the set for Dolls House. We took the set that was given in the book and cut it down to a manageable size. There was very little that I could bring in as most of my stuff is from IKEA, just what you want for Victorian. Then on Friday, we practiced using the new staging but were interrupted and told that we couldn't move the sofa due to liability. We did manage though to each get a run through done. I really need to work on a section of my lines and the order of a few of them. I was also told that sometime I start speaking rather quickly and become hard to understand. We really need to work on a few bits together.
Richard Spencer
Richard Spencer
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