Superheroes and Leather

The last week of half term (6th - 10th February) was a little difficult...

It was the week that snow finally arrived in Toulouse, closing school on the Monday. But luckily with the WTF System of Theatre (Wednesday, Tuesday, Friday) we missed no Theatre at all. However we were stumped for the Tuesday and Wednesday lessons since Maria wasn't here so we had to compensate slightly, but noting major.

Tuesday was the Brainstorm Day. Deciding on certain things to include, such as a line up, and the "beautiful types of silence Fear", then beginning to flesh out our characters which were nothing more than a vague skeleton of what they will eventually be. We all decided as a class that ours characters should partly be us, however we take a certain aspect (for example Maria's bossiness) and "turn it up a few notches" so the original idea is there but it is way more clear and in your face than just that subtle trait you actually see in real life. Spencer took the trait of always wanting to move about (wander off), Georgia just took the trait of a complete bad-ass, and as for me I was unsure but by Wednesday I figured it out (I'll get onto this in a minute). We also had the task of trying to create and make-up Maria's character, so we took and built from what we had and these things were a quote from her blog, and her natural in control trait and so built around that. 

Wednesday as per usual was the biggie, the double lesson! The first hour was basically another brainstorming however we began on structure, this does not mean in a linear fashion...Far from it really. Any idea that popped into our heads after our play time lesson, however the ideas became more concrete. Such as entrances, music, costume, each time getting more and more intricate even if we have no where close to a "finished" piece (if you could ever call a piece like Bloody Mess finished). So we discussed for a while and then decided to begin going through the line up which is the VERY beginning of the piece. That is when it hit me (metaphorically not literally), just as I walked up to do my complete improv line up speech, I had an epiphany, I knew what trait I would take for my character. YES! That side of me that I think is "funny and humorous" but usually comes across as vain/arrogant so then it just developed from there and kinda went along the lines of, "Well, I don't want to boast but I think I am the best actor here. The funniest one too. I bring light and colour to this already bright room where as the others don't. I want you to look at me throughout this piece and if you are not laughing you're doing something wrong. Your diaphragms should be failing and your eyes blurred with tears of joy and laughter....Thank you". Something along the lines of that is what my character is now based around, it's Core you could say.

Wednesday second lesson was different. We got up and started to...not play but experiment in places. It was still heavily focused around the line up since we didn't want to go steaming ahead without Maria since it would not have been fair on her since she was unable to get into school due to the snow. Anyway we decided to film the lesson for her benefit and for ours later on, after watching it I can say that filming rehearsals is rather useful (something that I would like to do more of in future). It was nothing special, we weren't acting for the camera, most of it appears to be my back for a strange reason. It's not so much the video but the audio which is key. The line up was underway so we headed onto our entrances (which would take place after the line up), we played around with music to see what fitted best for each character. For me the music was the Theme Tune to Superman, Spencer it was Dancing In The Moonlight, Georgia was You Make Me Wanna Die and we had the idea for Maria's character of the song Maneater but she rejected it and now has decided on another song, which we'll discuss when we get back. In all after alot of tuning, re-going over the line up, finding music we came to the end of a successful lesson. Gotta get a whole piece now!

Friday was more of a cool down lesson, we sat and talked (about relevant stuff). With Maria we filled her in on things and cleared/wrapped certain issues up. Giving out homework, wrapping some issues up, filling in on the piece, giving her some notes on how we did. That was pretty much the final lesson of the Half-Term. Nothing special just a wrap-up lesson.

It was a good week, it had its ups and its downs. I just hope Maria can catch up on everything we did since she missed a big chunk of lessons. I'm sure she will, however I think there won't be much time to re-go over what we did. I feel that Maria will have to accept it as it is for now. But that shouldn't be a problem at all!

Have a great Holiday guys. When we get back lets get straight into it. Think about costumes and what not, I'll start to get music onto my laptop/iPod.

Richard #1