L3 Performing Arts Blog

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Romeo and Juliet Part 2

·evaluate the performance features and acting demands of at least three classical texts from different historical periods including making effective reference to: ●the social, cultural and historical context of the text and playwright ●the vocal requirements and physical demands to be considered when interpreting the text and developing character(s) for performance ●the demands and requirements that each classical text places on a modern actor eg discuss costume, vocal demands, gestures and language analysis as well as being in an outdoors location. ·compare and contrast well-chosen examples of the performance features (vocal and physical) of each classical text to support your evaluation. For example you can discuss the rhythm and ‘meter’ and ‘iambic pentameter’ in Shakespeare’s text and how this caused the actors to ‘rant’ on stage in order to be heard, to stand out and to stress the poetry in the language. You could compare this to the work we did on melodrama and the similarities of the style. You could say how this also may contrast to Greek Chorus but may compare to the acting style – all work we did in class is on the VLE to remind you! There are a lot of different techniques that are used within these different styles of acting however one common idea around the styles is the level of difficulty which for all the techniques is a high level of difficulty. When looking at working at as Chorus, this has a high level of difficulty because this technique requires a large amount of communication and team work for this technique to be able to flow smoothly. Shakespeare's work also has a high level of difficulty due to the language used within his work was large and complex words that the actors aren't use to therefore makes it a technique that the actors have to practice until a realistic nature becomes present. Lastly, the technique within melodrama that has a high level of difficulty is the fact of using large exaggerated movements which is a technique that is also used within Shakespeare's work. The difficulty level is high because it means that the actors have to use their maximum levels of skills at all times for the emotion to be expressed to the audience. Your report should be clearly presented using correct use of subject specific terminology as well as good use of spelling punctuation and grammar. Your report may be presented electronically to include links to relevant audio and/or video recordings. Romeo and Juliet. Written by William Shakespeare. 1597. William Shakespeare was a poet, playwright and actor who is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. By 1952 there is records of Shakespeare earning a living as an actor and a playwright. In the early 1950's, he was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain's Men which was an acting company at the time within London. In 1599, Shakespeare and his business partners ended up building their own theatre on the south bank if the Thames River, also known as the Globe. During the period that this piece was brought out, women were not aloud to perform on the stage so therefore all characters were played by males even though some characters were female. This would have been difficult for those who had to play female characters because they would have had to developed their characters differently with different habits to what they may usually have. The costumes would have also made it hard for them as the costumes worn in this period would have been heavy as well as tight which would have made movement a difficulty. This could have made it harder for the actors to stay in character as well. The costumes used in these performances when being performed in a classic interpretation will be extremely different to what the actors performing in the piece will be used to therefore may have trouble adjusting to them or working with them which may affect their performance. Actors may also find it hard to work with the language used within Shakespeare's work as it isn't used in everyday life so is a new technique that the actors will have to work with. London Insurance Written by Dion Boucicault. 1841. Boucicault was an Irish actor and playwright and created a large success before he was 20 by creating the piece of performance that is London Assurance. He didn't make his first appearance as an actor until 1852 in which he appeared in his own piece of work called The Vampire. In these pieces of performances the movements need to be exaggerated to the highest level possible by the actor for the story to be fully effective and create a piece of performance for an audience that has a high level of emotion. Modern actors might find it hard to work with the exaggeration levels that need to be used in this style of acting because it asks for the actors to try their hardest for the piece of performance to actually be effective enough that the audience understand the emotion levels within the piece and other aspects such as the plot and characters back stories. Electra. Written by Sophocles. Date Unknown. Sophocles received a very good education and won up to as many as 24 victories when entering a competition around 30 times compared to another score of 13 and another of 4 whilst never receiving lower than second place. Its rumoured that he increased the size of a chorus from 12 to 15. He also added a third person to on stage pieces to introduce a wider variety of interactions. This meant that dramatic conflict was extended, plots could be more fluid and situations could be more complex. During these pieces of work, they contain a lot of chorus work which means that it was hard work for the actors as it needed a lot of unison and group work. There are a lot of techniques that working as a chorus you need to include to show that although you are working as a group there are also individual ideas based around each person in the chorus. Modern actors will need to have a lot of commitment and communication to create a unison between all members of a chorus in a performance as it takes a lot of work to show an audience that the chorus works together to create a story in a piece of performance.

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Romeo and Juliet Evaluation

·Compare and contrast the style of acting used in Romeo and Juliet (with reference to Shakespeare and Melodrama) with the acting style of Commedia dell’arte used in ‘The Duchess mislaid’. (P1 M1 D1) When looking at the similarities and differences between Romeo and Juliet and Commedia dell'arte there are a few. Firstly, the gestures within both styles of acting are meant to be exaggerated to the highest level capable of the actor and although this is a similarity the emotion wanted to express to the audience is different as within comedy we wanted the gestures to create a humorous effect where as in Romeo and Juliet they were used to show the tragedy within the plot. Another difference between the styles is that the genre of Commedia is comedy so the aim is always to make your actions have a humorous affect where as the genre of Romeo and Juliet was a tragedy so there was different aims to make the audience feel different emotions. A similarity between the two acting styles is that you must use projection and diction well otherwise there could be several consequences such as if the audience are unable to hear you or understand what you are saying which could cause confusion within the plot so aspects such as comedy or tragedy are missed meaning the audience can lose interest for the piece of work. ·You must compare and contrast this using examples from your two performances and discuss the techniques you used and compare how you adapted and used these two styles to perform your characters. Using your performance in Romeo and Juliet answer the following questions…. ·Evaluate your skills throughout the process starting with your professional conduct in the group. Describe your strengths and weaknesses as part of a professional team getting the show ready for an audience. Including, setting up the stage, finding props and costume, organizing set, costume props, working as a team, time management, focus and concentration in rehearsals, your role in the tech rehearsals, organization and communication as a team to get the show ready, experimenting and auditioning for roles. I believe that at certain points throughout the putting together of the piece, the cast could have worked better as a group as there was points where there was a lack of communication. When we first started our tech roles, I think that I could have put more effort in to start my task and focus more on getting the job completed. I think that as we got closer to the performance dates, the lack of communication that had started half way through the project had improved which made the getting ready of the areas a lot better. I also believe that we worked well as a group by giving either group or individual feedback to give words of encouragement as well as helping each other to improve our characters whilst growing as an actor. In my opinion, our time management was a strong point for the group, especially when working on certain scenes with specific individuals rather than the whole group. I worked over my scene a frequent amount of times with my characters husband as we wanted to ensure that the scene looked realistic and throughout our first rehearsals at the actual performance space we worked on how to adapt our piece of performance according to each area making it look within the highest standard. As an individual, I tried my hardest to keep our space as tidy and organised as possible by always putting my props where they wouldn't get lost and always putting my costumes back on the rail when they weren't being used. Once me and my tech team had decided how we was going to create a display that represented a ball, it was easy for us to replicate it at each rehearsal therefore making it a fast task to be done. ·If you had more time what would you do differently to make the piece and your overall experience even better? If I had more time on this project, I believe that the best thing I could do would be too do more research on all the different aspects of the piece such as melodrama, greek tragedy and the different eras our work was from. This would make the piece better because it would give a more accurate portrayal of my character in the right style of acting which would also work to make my experience with the piece of performance better as it gives me a better and more accurate sight into Romeo and Juliet and all the surrounding aspects of the piece of work such as a deeper understanding of how the era was different and how these differences would have affected the characters. · What do you plan to do differently in the next project? In my next project, I plan to do more research into my performance therefore I can give a more accurate representation into my piece of work giving it more accuracy and reliability. ·Explain who your target audience might be for the play Our target audience for this piece of work would be an older audience and the reason for this is that the language within Shakespeare's work can be quite complicated so if a child came to watch the piece the language may confuse them leading them so get lost with the plot and not being able to understand the piece. As the audience will be older they will be able to understand the plot meaning they can enjoy the piece of performance we have put together and see if we have created an accurate piece of work compared to the original Shakespeare story. ·How did your audience react to the performance? What was their feedback? The audience really enjoyed the piece of work, finding it a very accurate piece as we used characterisation extremely well which made it believable as well. At the end of each performance, the audiences gave a large amount a clapping for the performance which made us feel very proud as actors and made us feel like the performance was a success. ·Evaluate each skill Vocal, physical, Characterisation. Looking at ·What was good? And why it was good using specific examples from Romeo and Juliet ·What could be improved? And why it needed improving using specific examples from the performance ·If you had more time what would you do to improve these skills/ moment on stage ·Try to find 3 examples of strengths and weaknesses for each skill Think about vocal skills we have developed eg: projection, tone, over exaggeration, poetry, rhythm, iambic pentameter, ranting. Think about the use of physical skills eg: over exaggeration, specific coded gestures, tension, etiquette and status. Vocal: In my opinion, I believe that when saying my lines that I was loud enough for the audience to hear which is a really good factor to have because it means that the audience won't get lost within the plot so there is no confusion and the piece is more likely to be enjoyed. One thing that I could have improved on is I could have tried experimenting with accents as I could have used an accent to express to the audience that my status is higher than the other characters as this could have made the plot easier to understand as well as differentiating my character from the others. If I had more time on this project, I would do more research around the higher status people in the eras we worked on as this means I could found an accurate accent for my character to have for the audience to find it easier to differentiate the different classes between all of the characters. One strength that I had for my vocal skills was that I was always loud enough for my audience to always be able to hear me avoiding any confusion in the plot. Another strength that I had was that I had really good diction as I believe I said all of my lines clearly so this was another way to avoid any unnecessary confusion for the audience. A weakness that I had was that I could have used an accent within my work which would have also helped to avoid any unnecessary confusion because by using an accent it would have helped me to differentiate my character from the others by showing my higher status. Another weakness within my vocal work is that I didn't experiment with tone enough so it is possible that some emotion was lost in speech which means that my character didn't end up sounding worried enough under the circumstances. Physical: I believe that within this piece of performance I used gestures really well because I used them to express to the audience how my character was feeling under different circumstances. For example, when I found out the tragedy my own son has caused I fell to the ground because this shows that my character is devastated by the news she has just received and by collapsing to the ground shows my character to be weak foreshadowing later events. I also think that I used facial expressions well within my piece of work because I used them as another way to express to the audience how my character felt or what she thought. I used facial expressions during the prologue by rolling my eyes or looking another character up and down which expresses to the audience the we don't get a long with the other family as well as the fact that I thought me and my family was better than them but also had a higher status than them. One physical skill that I could have improved on was over exaggeration within my gestures as within the scene where I fell to the ground after receiving the bad news about Romeo, I could have exaggerated this to a higher level which would have showed more emotion to the audience which could have created a better connection between the piece of performance and the audience. If I had more time on this piece of performance, I would have done more independent research into Greek tragedy and melodrama because this could have helped me with my understanding of the level of exaggeration in this style of acting and how to incorporate the technique into my own work. One strength within my work is that the audience always knew how my character was feeling as I used gestures and facial expressions to show the audience my emotions so they knew without having to be told which would make the plot easier for the audience to understand and enjoy. I believe that I also used tension to express to the audience how my character as during the prologue I made sure that my body was tight and upright to show show the fact that I am unhappy to be in the presence of my enemies. My last strength is that I believe I used my physicality to portray my status to the audience through techniques such as facial expressions and posture therefore it made my characters story easier to understand. A weakness within my acting is that my exaggeration wasn't at the highest level it needs to be for the specific type of acting style which meant that at some points in the piece my emotion may have been lost. Characterisation: Throughout the performance piece I believe that I constantly stayed in character. This is a good factor to have in my work because if I went out of character during the piece it would create confusion amongst the audience causing less enjoyment and less concentration given. I believe that I could have done more independent research on all the aspects of the performance so that I could have given the most accurate portrayal of my character that was possible by researching all factors such as movement, speech and specific gestures for my character to use throughout the piece. This is what I would do if I had been given more time on the project. A strength that I had in this piece was that I stayed in character throughout so the audience understood my character fully meaning there was no confusion created that wasn't necessary. Another strength was that although there could have been more accuracy included if more research had been done, I still gave an accurate portrayal of my character which includes my reactions, posture and gestures.

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Romeo and Juliet Blog 5

1 Firstly talk about what you have done during the sessions and what you have done in particular to develop the ACTING techniques and performance skills, along with any acting skills needed for the performance. During these last sessions we have been doing as many full technical run through as we could manage within our allotted time left before the performance dates. We have done these in costume with all the set/props in place so we knew one hundred percent what each person needed to do within the performance. Now that we are working with the staging, it's helped me to think about which gestures are best for my character to express my emotion to the audience according to the situation. Instead of a faint, I think to show how distraught I am it would be better for me to just fall to the ground and grab the characters around me for their love and support. 2 What were your initial feelings and thoughts on the session? Discuss the exercises you have done during the sessions to develop the style or techniques? - What was the exercise? - What was its purpose? - Where did the techniques/ skills come from? Eg. practitioner or style/ video example research. - What skills/techniques did you develop from this? - How could you incorporate what you have learnt from these exercises into your performance? I'm really confident about this performance after the technical runs because I know what my plotting is within each scene and I now know how I need to work around the staging such as exits, different conditions (e.g. grass, concrete, gravel.) and where I need to be for each scene. I have several costume changes within the performance when I am playing Lady Montague and even though it is a challenge I am confident that I can do it before I need to be on stage. 4 What was it like working with the technique eg Gesture, levels, expression? I found that working with emotion within this piece of performance is a lot easier now that we're performing with costumes, props and with the actual staging that will be used because it comes a lot more naturally under the new circumstances. 5 What is the purpose and effect of the technique? By using emotion within our piece of work it helps the audience understand what the characters would have been feeling in each situation meaning that they can be more connected with the plot and also have a bigger understanding of the plot as well. When it comes to the performance, I need to keep my levels of emotion high so that the audience can connect with my character and understand how she is feeling under the circumstances. 7 How did you show your personal management skills in these sessions? Eg: on time, had the right equipment needed, committed to the workshop, contributed ideas, worked as a group, helped others I believe that I had very high levels of personal management within these sessions because I did things such a bringing in hair products for the others characters to use and helping others set up their assigned staging of different scenes if they were struggling with anything. I worked as a group when helping to create the ball scene whilst contributing ideas to how would create it for the audience to imagine a ball. I also brought things in from home such as shoes to complete my costume. 8 How did you explore the text today? eg: blocking scenes, working on themes, language or character. In these last few sessions we have mainly focused on finishing any last blocking that needed doing or correcting according to the scenes and where they are being performed. 9 What effect did this text work have on your acting skills, character, understanding of the text or overall performance? By going through the performance with each scene being performed where it should be performed, it showed me how my acting skills are limited (e.g. hard surroundings for the faint scene.) or if I can express them as normal. 9 Discuss any Strengths and Areas for Development both physical, vocal and technical skills and set an action plan on how you hope to meet those areas for development and improve them for your performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ eg..... One strength that I had within these sessions is that I used high levels of emotion within my work to help the audience stay connected with the plot and characters. It also helped the audience to understand how the character felt under different situations. Another strength is that I used my gestures to help with my performance by using them to express the emotions my character would be feeling in different for example, when I found out that it was Romeo who killed Tybalt my character falls to the ground sobbing and grabbing for other characters around me for the support from them. Lastly, I am very confident within my movements for the performance so there won't be movements that I get confused with or forget so therefore the audience won't get confused with the plot and lose interest. Action Plan: I need to keep my levels of emotion at my highest possible level to keep the audience interested within the plot and interested within my characters situations therefore understanding how she feels.

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Romeo and Juliet 4

1 Firstly talk about what you have done during the sessions and what you have done in particular to develop the ACTING techniques and performance skills, along with any acting skills needed for the performance. Today has been our first session working at Tapton House. 2 What were your initial feelings and thoughts on the session? Discuss the exercises you have done during the sessions to develop the style or techniques? - What was the exercise? - What was its purpose? - Where did the techniques/ skills come from? Eg. practitioner or style/ video example research. - What skills/techniques did you develop from this? - How could you incorporate what you have learnt from these exercises into your performance? I enjoyed this session because I felt that being in the proper settings that we would be performing in helped me to focus on how I need to perform my scenes in the different areas. 4 What was it like working with the technique eg Gesture, levels, expression? When we started working at this performance, I use levels within this piece of work. For example, when I find out about how Romeo has turned out and what he has done so this really affects me and I show this by falling to the ground in despair. 5 What is the purpose and effect of the technique? The purpose of this effect helps me to show my characters emotion because by falling to the ground it shows that my character is crushed by the news she has just received about her son. 6 How could you use these skills to develop your skills and eventually the performance role? This technique shows the audience how my character is feeling but also the extent of the tragedy throughout the performance. 7 How did you show your personal management skills in these sessions? Eg: on time, had the right equipment needed, committed to the workshop, contributed ideas, worked as a group, helped others I believe that I was on time to the session and I tried extremely hard to work well within the session. 8 How did you explore the text today? eg: blocking scenes, working on themes, language or character. Today we worked on working through the prologue and the start of the performance for the first time within our performance area. 9 What effect did this text work have on your acting skills, character, understanding of the text or overall performance? I found that working in the performance area gave me a feel for the actual performance and made it easier to get in to character as well as using the highest levels of emotion that is needed for the actual performance. 9 Discuss any Strengths and Areas for Development both physical, vocal and technical skills and set an action plan on how you hope to meet those areas for development and improve them for your performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ eg..… One strength that I have is that I feel confident in the surroundings for the performance and it helped me to add emotion within me piece.

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Romeo and Juliet Blog 3

1 Firstly talk about what you have done during the sessions and what you have done in particular to develop the ACTING techniques and performance skills, along with any acting skills needed for the performance. During this session we blocked my final scene and rehearsed it. 2 What were your initial feelings and thoughts on the session? Discuss the exercises you have done during the sessions to develop the style or techniques? - What was the exercise? - What was its purpose? - Where did the techniques/ skills come from? Eg. practitioner or style/ video example research. - What skills/techniques did you develop from this? - How could you incorporate what you have learnt from these exercises into your performance? I found the session difficult because of the lack of confidence I had with the technique so therefore I had to put a lot more effort into this session. 4 What was it like working with the technique eg Gesture, levels, expression? I feel like I need more practice with the technique of physical theatre because as it is not a technique I have used widely my confidence is not to high with it when it needs to be. 5 What is the purpose and effect of the technique? By fainting within this scene, it shows the audience how serious my character's circumstances are and just the extent the effect has on my character. 6 How could you use these skills to develop your skills and eventually the performance role? If I practice this skill so much that I can feel confident within the scene then I can express my emotions to the maximum level possible so therefore the audience has a deeper understanding of how my character feels throughout the scenes. 7 How did you show your personal management skills in these sessions? Eg: on time, had the right equipment needed, committed to the workshop, contributed ideas, worked as a group, helped others Within the session I have focused widely on my last scene, rehearsing it plenty of times, working with the other characters within this scene. I wore the appropriate clothing to this session to be doing physical theatre which is what is included in this scene when my character faints. 8 How did you explore the text today? eg: blocking scenes, working on themes, language or character. Today we blocked my final scene as Lady Montague and looked into what the lines within the scene mean. 9 What effect did this text work have on your acting skills, character, understanding of the text or overall performance? Within this scene, it gives the audience a wider understanding of my character, of how she is a family oriented person as she is so disheartened by news of her son Romeo and how he has betrayed the family. 9 Discuss any Strengths and Areas for Development both physical, vocal and technical skills and set an action plan on how you hope to meet those areas for development and improve them for your performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ eg..… One strength I have is that I have been rehearsing my scene as many times as I feel needed to try and make the scene as realistic as possible and looking deeper into how I can physically show my emotion to the audience. A weakness I have is that I don't feel confident enough within myself to do the faint so therefore I feel like I am probably holding back within my exaggeration and gestures therefore the technique most important is not being shown like it should be.

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Romeo and Juliet Blog 2

1 Firstly talk about what you have done during the sessions and what you have done in particular to develop the ACTING techniques and performance skills, along with any acting skills needed for the performance. In today's session we have started blocking my characters first scene and looking into what my lines mean. I focused on using facial expressions within this scene to express how my character is feeling as within this scene I have minimal lines so I have to find other ways to express how my character is feeling to the audience. 2 What were your initial feelings and thoughts on the session? Discuss the exercises you have done during the sessions to develop the style or techniques? - What was the exercise? - What was its purpose? - Where did the techniques/ skills come from? Eg. practitioner or style/ video example research. - What skills/techniques did you develop from this? - How could you incorporate what you have learnt from these exercises into your performance? I felt confident with the session after all the techniques exercises we worked on. The most helpful exercise I found was when we was told to walk in a circle and then when we froze we was given an emotion to express just through our facial expressions and I found this helpful because it helped me to understand there are other ways to express emotions rather than just speech and how do it efficiently. I am going to use this exercise to help me use my facial expressions to express how my character is feeling when I don't have lines that I can use as an explanation. 4 What was it like working with the technique eg Gesture, levels, expression? I found that using facial expressions wasn't the easiest technique to use because you don't always think about what facial expression you are using whilst you are speaking, it just comes naturally and you don't always think to exaggerate it so your expression is easy to identify so it's something to add to your thoughts. 5 What is the purpose and effect of the technique? The purpose of the technique is that it shows the audience how a character feels without it having to be explained in detail and it helps the audience to connect with the character because they will understand how a character feels. 6 How could you use these skills to develop your skills and eventually the performance role? I will use this skill to express to the audience how my character is feeling during the performance in the hopes that they can feel a connection with my character and be interested in the plot of the scenes. 7 How did you show your personal management skills in these sessions? Eg: on time, had the right equipment needed, committed to the workshop, contributed ideas, worked as a group, helped others I was on time to this session and I wore appropriate clothing (all blacks and easily moveable) for the exercises that were done within the session. I believe that I also put a lot of effort into the exercises. 8 How did you explore the text today? eg: blocking scenes, working on themes, language or character. In this session we started blocking the first scenes within the performance and looking into what the lines actually mean. 9 What effect did this text work have on your acting skills, character, understanding of the text or overall performance? I think that this text work improved how I use my facial expression to my advantage and to help the audience understand the scenes in great detail e.g. how the characters are feeling under the circumstances. 9 Discuss any Strengths and Areas for Development both physical, vocal and technical skills and set an action plan on how you hope to meet those areas for development and improve them for your performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ eg..… A strength is that I use my facial expressions to express to the audience how my character is feeling so that they can connect with my character and understand how the plot effects me. Another strength is that I feel confident with what is happening within the scene we are focusing on at the moment so I know how to react accurately under the circumstances so that the audience won't get confused with the plot. A weakness for me is that because I am focusing on my facial expressions so this means that maybe I am not focusing on my speech as much as I should be therefore I might be doing things as not projecting enough for the audience to hear me meaning this could cause confusion for the audience. My action plan for this is to start giving more thought into how I should be speaking when I rehearse this scene.

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Romeo and Juliet Blog 1

1 Firstly talk about what you have done during the sessions and what you have done in particular to develop the ACTING techniques and performance skills, along with any acting skills needed for the performance. In today's lesson we have worked on creating a prologue to open Romeo and Juliet with that contains all the characters and a speech from Friar Lawrence that gives an over view of the play. We showed the audience the hatred between the Montagues and the Capulets by them giving each other a dirty look within the prologue. I do this by using gestures such as a roll of my eyes towards Lord and Lady Capulet and looking away from them to show the audience my disgust towards them and that I can't stand to look at them. 2 What were your initial feelings and thoughts on the session? Discuss the exercises you have done during the sessions to develop the style or techniques? - What was the exercise? - What was its purpose? - Where did the techniques/ skills come from? Eg. practitioner or style/ video example research. - What skills/techniques did you develop from this? - How could you incorporate what you have learnt from these exercises into your performance? I found the session interesting because I like that within the prologue we show the audience the plot of what will happen throughout the performance but without giving too much detail for the performance to be boring. 4 What was it like working with the technique eg Gesture, levels, expression? In my opinion, it was quite easy working with the technique of exaggerated movements because it was a technique that we worked with before in our Commedia project so I also found it easy to use the movements to express my character's emotions to the audience without speech. 5 What is the purpose and effect of the technique Gestures are used to express to the audience any emotions that the character may be feeling. For example, within the prologue, one of the gestures I use is looking Lady and Lord Capulet up and down which shows to the audience that I despise those two characters. It also helps the audience to understand and feel what the characters are feeling in each scene. 6 How could you use these skills to develop your skills and eventually the performance role? I can use the technique of exaggerated gestures within the performance to express my emotions to the audience, especially when one of my scenes contains such a large amount of tragedy and by using large amount of exaggeration within my gestures I can express to the audience how upsetting the situation is and how it effects my character. 7 How did you show your personal management skills in these sessions? Eg: on time, had the right equipment needed, committed to the workshop, contributed ideas, worked as a group, helped others I believe that I put a lot of effort into learning the blocking for the prologue and I was on time to the session. I tried to think of ways to show what my character was like in such a limited scene in techniques such as gestures and posture. 8 How did you explore the text today? eg: blocking scenes, working on themes, language or character. In today's session, we blocked the prologue and looked further in depth and what each line means. We also started to look in depth at what the first lines mean within the first scene. 9 What effect did this text work have on your acting skills, character, understanding of the text or overall performance? When working with the prologue, it reminded me that my movements need to be exaggerated to express the emotion that lies within the performance. It also made me look deeper in to my characters hatred towards the Capulet family. 9 Discuss any Strengths and Areas for Development both physical, vocal and technical skills and set an action plan on how you hope to meet those areas for development and improve them for your performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ eg..... One strength that I have is that I understand that the gestures used within this piece have to be exaggerated for the audience to understand what the gestures mean and why they are needed to add emotion to the piece of performance. Another strength is that I am confident within my movements so therefore they are exaggerated in a high level making them easy to differentiate and give an understanding to them or a meaning. My last strength is that I use my posture to express to the audience my higher status to the other characters, by standing with my back straight and my right hand poised in front of my stomach.

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Greek Tragedy Self Review

What did you find most interesting about your physical/vocal performance? I found it interesting how we had to mime my death as we didn't use any props so when I was stabbed I had to react to what would be a knife if we was using props. I used my physical theatre to express the pain I was in during my death by having a shrunken posture at each blow of the 'knife'. I think I also used my vocals to express my anger towards the other characters on the stage because I spoke loudly and in a deep tone to express my anger and I also expressed my anger through my physicality by doing such acts as getting up close to someone's face, pointing or grabbing at someone. How could you have experimented more with voice/movement and gestures? I think I could have experimented by reacting more to the person stood behind me who was keeping me in place because in reality in that situation someone would pull against the restraint to try and escape from the persons grasp to save their life. I could have added more gestures within my work as it is a technique used largely within Greek tragedy so would have shown that I have larger understanding. Did you use appropriate gestures and facial expressions? If so when where and how effective were they? I believe that I used appropriate facial expressions during my death because I used it to express the pain I was in during my death. I also used appropriate gestures during this scene such as grabbing at my stomach which was the part of me which was being stabbed. All these are appropriate because it shows the pain I was in during this scene. What could've been improved or been better if? As I have already said, I believe that my reaction would have been better if I had reacted to the person who was keeping me in place so they could kill me, I should have tried to get out of his grasp because this would have made the scene look more realistic. CHARACTERISATION Did you use appropriate acting techniques for the text? I believe that I used appropriate acting techniques to this text because during my scene I used a lot of large gestures such as pointing towards something or grabbing hold of someone who made me angry and pulling them towards me. Is this an appropriate portrayal of the character or chorus? I believe that my portrayal of Electra's mother was accurate because she didn't really understand what she had done wrong to deserve the death given to her by her children. Of course she was upset by the betrayal caused by her children so I showed the upset she was feeling through her character. What could've been improved or been better if? It would have been better if I had have added more gestures in the piece of work because it shows a bigger understanding of Greek tragedy and how it is supposed to be performed. GROUP PERFORMANCE What elements of the scene/performance worked well? I think that the chorus worked very well as a group within both their movement and speech. They worked hard to make their lines connect with each other and worked with different speeds within their work to express their story. What could the group improve on? I think the group could have focused on rehearsing as I think they found it hard to concentrate on the acting. Was there anything about the performance of the scenes which could have been made better? I don't believe there was anything that the group could have made better. ACTING STYLES SKILLS AUDIT Vocal- (1-10, 10 being excellent) Projection-6 Emotion/tone-10 Pace-8 Rhythm-4 Pausing-4 Accent/Dialect-8 Diction-10 Pitch-8 Fluidity-8 Comedy/Timing-7 MOVEMENT Posture-9 Facial Expressions-10 Gestures-10 Use of tension-5 Confidence-7 Use of space-4 Eye contact-5 Energy-8 Spatial Awareness-8 Audience Interaction-1 Timing-10 Memory-10 3 targets to develop your acting skills Firstly, I believe that I need to think about more ways that I could make a scene look more realistic. In the scene that we performed I should have thought about all the ways I could react to those around me because there were ways I could have done so and I didn't however if I had then it would have added lots of things to the scene such as realism. I also believe that I should have thought about more ways to add in exaggerated gestures into my scenes because it is a technique largely used within Greek tragedy, and I only used a limited amount of them within my scenes. Lastly, I believe that we could have concentrated more in rehearsal time so then the performance would have been more organised.

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Annotated script of piece done within London Assurance

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Annotated script of piece done within Electra

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Melodrama- London Assurance

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Task Sheet- Greek Tragedy

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Greek tragedy- this is our piece of work on techniques with a fourth member and some techniques altered such as pace to look at different effects on the audience.

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Greek tragedy- This is a video of our group working on techniques used when working as a chorus such as slow motion, isolations and synchronisation. This piece of work shows our interpretation of what would happen during Electra’s mother’s death.

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Greek Tragedy- photos showing our interpretations of gestures showing 'beauty' 'temple' and 'fear'

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Melodrama Pose- Accusation

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Melodrama Pose- Remorse