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

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

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.

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!

Cheesy photos and Macaroons

12th - 16th December 2011.....OUR LAST 2011 THEATRE LESSONS! 

This week started off like any other week, rehearsing and going over again and again A Doll's House trying to burn those lines into our memories. Naturally we had things thrown in over the week which turned out to be one of the most enjoyable weeks for Theatre Arts we've had so far (in my view). I feel this maybe a long blogging so KEEP READING it's semi important...ish!!!

Tuesday (13th December) like previously stated it was a bog-standard lesson of rehearsing bits of our extract. Me and Maria decided to... WORK OFF SCRIPT -add dramatic 'dun dun duuuuun' here-. We worked off script to try and get our actions more believable and fluid (since we looked more like acquaintances than Husband and Wife). This I actually felt was better than working with the script (OMG) since we could explore possible actions towards each other to the max. An hour seemed to fly by, with us only getting a few actions done, nevertheless we seemed confidant that those few seconds looked believable. SUCCESS!

Cheesy Photos (Left to Right):
Bekki, Spencer, Izzy, Lydia, The Hough, Natalie, Maria, Me
and Georg

<----- Now who is that amazing year? (not year 11)

On the same day, us 4 year 12 IB Theatre Arts students (and some GCSE ones too) went to go and watch a rehearsal of Botanica (a dance show at the Oddysud, video in link) created by the theatre company Momix. I have to say I had my doubts, however I literally sat through the whole performance with my mouth open. The two things that stuck with me were the usage of the UV reactive costumes and lights, I often had to remind myself that these were actual people doing this, you just couldn't see then at all (if only we could do this at school....maybe in the cupboard?). The second thing that stood out was the presence all of the dancers had on the stage. How they held themselves and just their physical presence. One person was able to hold the presence whereas I've seen things where 30 people can't even hold it. The ability to sit on those front row seats were amazing (saying the rehearsal was free to watch and tickets were some 50 odd euros). This just goes to show that walking around and saying words isn't the only type of theatre. Botanica had no words or dialogue, only music, AMAZINGLY EPIC costumes, some good ol' projections and pretty darn good dancers. Goes to show how dancing theatre can make an enthralling show (well rehearsal).

Wednesday (14th December 2011), for the first hour of our double period we learnt yet another Stanislavski technique....Tempo-rhythm which basically is (well what the bubble says) "Our pace, both mental and physical, the pace of everything round us and everything we do". Which in Richard terms means the pace of the character, the piece and the metal pace of a character. We then did a few exercises and what-not on it to show what it is (loving the face Spencer :-P) then we had to show the tempo-rhythm of a certain bit of our extract. This didn't go so well, I seemed to be showing pace/tempo of speech not character and piece. After this and fixing what needed to be fixed, during the second period we identified the tempo-rhythm of certain areas of the script and got to work pacing out a certain bit. During this we got stuck on what to do for a movement during this bit, we asked the other 2 (Georg, and #2) they said each action was equal and it doesn't matter which we used. We then asked Mr.F which told use about the subtlety of the action instead of a big huge reaction. I could see where he was coming from, subtlety and the things no one notices are believable whereas clear and big actions are well Panto.

On Thursday last break, (not sure if the other two know this) Maria and I went to see Mr. F about what we need to do to achieve a 6 in our next report. Naturally he said to me what I had already identified (more than once and I am fully aware of this, as I was by the end of last year). What is pretty much something like, "Don't take negative feedback to heart, don't beat yourself up about it. Embrace the feedback, instead of casting it aside and getting annoyed. Don't see it aimed as negative instead see it as a building block or foundation to add into your piece to make it as structurally sound as possible." Yes that was a metaphor. But I knew before I even asked him what I had to do to get to that 6.

But whereas on our last day of school for 2011 (16th December). We pretty much sat down, ate the scraps left off from the year 13 party and had a macaroon (NOW DO YOU GET MY TITLE?) which didn't seem to stick to the side of our mouths, Nora's these days. Anyway we did a small exercise where we had a partner (I had Spencer) and we were told to talk about food. Easy enough right? Wrong! We had to use gesture through parts of our body, such as the feet, stomach area, heart and head. So I was wiggling my feet and trying not to use my hands, it was easy, fun, hard, and difficult at the same time. We then watched a small video about Guildford school of acting and we discovered that the Imagination Muscle is the most important and that we need to learn to control the cop in the head.

Been a great start to the year, Mr. Fearnehough you are a great teacher (even if you do speak a little too much) lets hope next year is even better. Also I will probably blog near the end of X-mas.

(Sorry for the Republish it seemed to have become a draft again!)

!Happy Christmas!

Richard #1

DRAMATIC RAYS FROM OUTER SPACE!!

Did you feel those rays from the title? huh did you? I know you did! Anyhow onto the reflection.
5th - 9th December 2011

This week in class we were studying Stanislavski's hidden world of Rays. Which when looking back onto it is a very hard topic to explain. It could be explained as a 6th Sense, mind-reading or some kind of supernatural force that us drama students process.

Whatever you call it I found it good fun and rather easy to pick-up. What we did was we sat down with a partner (I had Maria first off) and we just looked into each others eyes and tried to give of rays/vibes to our partner to make them do an action you were thinking of without any indication to what it is. Maria was the sender first of all and she wanted me to scratch my ear which unbelievably I did get on the first go, how I knew she wanted me to do this? I will probably never know. Then we swapped I was the sender she was the receiver, the first try she got it wrong then BAM! She scratched her nose. Ray successfully sent and received, over. Sometimes I do feel it could have been more trial and error than Rays of a greater Dramatic beyond!!! 

However naturally I feel that the more trust there is between 2 people the easier it is, as if somehow trust is the link that connects us all together and allows us to feel and understand the rays that people give off. I would have liked to have too have seen how said exercise would have worked between someone you don't know well and someone you know very well (e.g Yr 12 Drama Class)

So, looking back upon the week I felt that these rays (for me) where rather easy to get a grip of and relatively easy to integrate into our work on A Doll's House. It's adding that extra depth and subtlety to the character this then makes the audience believe this is a real person not just some actor trying to represent someone. Giving the character that bit of flare. Naturally even looking into each others eyes caused the class to giggle but that seems like a natural response to do when looking directly into someones eyes.

What Mr. Fearnehough said to us I felt really rang true to us as actors and us as people too. It was something along the lines of "90% of all emotions experienced through everyday conversations between people in real life are not taken/identified by the dialogue but rather by the Rays people give off". Overall really I felt it an easy concept to grasp and integrate into or class work. I've just got to remember in the future to use them.


Side note: We had a small test upon what we had learnt so far this term. One question was Circle of Attention which me and Maria (from what I know correct me if I am wrong Maria) hadn't really be taught about. I was aware that Mr. F had been talking to Georgia and Richard #2 in their class work but in the background and we were I think focusing on our bit. I had back in November (13th) come across it on the Internet and the example given was focusing on a certain and specific sound in the room (which could be seen as focusing attention). Just a little side note for myself really.

I also like how everyone seems to be using my bolding key words technique, its useful isn't it? Your welcome guys!!!! (-:

Richard #1

Active Analysis - Reflect

Active Analysis.....Enough Said!!!!

28th November - 2nd December

The past week we have been studying and putting into practise Stanislavski's method of Active Analysis. I'm going to say now, it definitely was not my favourite thing we've done in Theatre Arts this year. It involves the actor putting down the script and improvising a certain "bit" of the script, letting the actor discover, given circumstances, objectives, actions, super objectives and is supposed to help with line learning.

I found it hard to put into practise this could be for a majority of reasons. Me and Maria did Round-table analysis (as well as a role in the wall for our characters) of the whole script and we felt it was very thorough. Meaning that active analysis helped much less than it would have been on a script we had never seen or studied before. But also something that I think that could have been a contributing factor to why I found this difficult was because I have done Panto for some 6-7 years now and the way we go about learning lines and "finding" out character is through round-table analysis and re-reading the script over and over again, 'formatting' me (as Mr. F says). One last thing that I felt that made it difficult was working off-script (improvising a scene). To me I felt why should we improvise a scene that we already have on script (and previously practised and studied) and are just beginning to get used to it. I mean I can see Active Analysis' benefits to certain actors (as well as certain scripts) but not a script that we have been practising from previously. If you were to give me 'A Doll's House' script (when I have never read or studied it) and tell me to do an Active Analysis of Torvald, I think this would have been much easier that doing this after Round-table analysis and role in the wall of this character.

However, when we started to do The Method of Physical Action (with the script being read to us and we have to show and do actions of our character) this felt soooooooooo such easier and much quicker to acquire your characters actions and objectives or lines. I had no problem with this and would be happy to use The Method of Physical Action again for another script. 

On a side note, when we all sat down to discuss how we felt about Active Analysis and highlighted certain problems, I felt as if I could understand it better (just ironic it was through a round-table analysis) but by the end I felt slightly more comfortable about it. Lets just see what happens in the future and see whether I can try to use it to a greater extent on another script.

Richard #1