Brecht Contemporary Blog 5
Brecht Contemporary Blog 5
1. HOW HAS THE PRACTICAL LESSON IMPACTED ONTHE PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE AS A WHOLE AND YOUR INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE OF CHARACTER?
This week we have all been extremely productive on everything including myself and my characters. On Tuesday we did a big warm up and then we focused going through scene 10 because we haven’t fully blocked it yet so therefore we focused on improvisation. We then had a full run through of the play to make sure that we knew how long it lasted and how much we would need to cut down.
2. Describe the games and exercises used to warm up and why they were used.
This week we did some vocal warm ups like A E I O U and then we did a physical warm up by just warming up our muscles and just getting the blood pumped around our muscles. We did this so we could warm our vocal cords and get warm up so that have plenty of energy.
3. Which explorative strategies did you use and did they help to develop your role? e.g. still image, thought tracking, hot seating, conscience alley, role play, Forum theatre, creative writing, acting styles and acting exercises
This week we have been completely focused on our play and making sure that our characters are characterised with the stereotype because that is the way of Brechtian theatre. We have been working on the style of Epic Theatre with a lot of improvisation in our scenes.
4. Describe the scenes you rehearsed? Describe the skills you used? Facial expression, gesture, voice, emotion, reaction.
In scene 9 me and Lauren had to improvise a lot and this is the scene where Yang Sun tells Shui Ta that he may marry Shen Te and because Shui Ta is Shen Te I have to act quite surprised and shocked but I have to hide it because he doesn’t know I am Shen Te. We also rehearsed Scene 10 and in scene 10 is where Shui Ta is being accused of doing something with Shen Te and everyone is asking Shui Ta where Shen Te is and so we had to improvise in which everyone was shouting and accusing Shui Ta and so we improvised around the lines.
5. What Ideas did you have?
We decided not to add anymore ideas in this week because we were purely focusing on making sure that we did a full run through of the play so we could time it and see what needs changing or cutting for good.
6. How did you take risks and experiment today?
We took a risk by improvising our last two scenes because everyone was struggling with their lines and because this was only last minute we were only able to have a couple of run throughs.
7. How did you develop ideas as a group? Who took the lead? Were any of the ideas your own? How did you contribute to the development of the piece? Describe what you tried out in rehearsals.
This week because we were focusing on getting a run through because we haven’t been through the play fully yet because we tried on Tuesday however because we’re still on scripts it didn’t really run smoothly and so we had to stop at scene 7.
We just made sure that we have a running order and that we help each other when it comes to improvisation.
8. What drama elements were developed? For example Plot, action, Style- e.g. Naturalism, epic, dramatic tension, Characterisation
The main drama element we’re looking at is Epic theatre and therefore we have been looking into breaking the fourth wall and Brechtian techniques which we have already started to incorporate, for example a narrator and speaking out the stage directions.
9. Describe the final products of the rehearsal. Step by step what did you do? What did you see?
Finally we managed to do a full run through on Friday morning ready for the actual show in afternoon. On Tuesday we went through a couple of scenes and tried and did some warm ups so we could get ready. We also sorted out our tech with lighting and music and then we dorted out our puppets by giving them more clothing and supporting them more.
Evaluation of the lesson
10. How did you rehearse in a safe way today – think about how you used the space/set/props/equipment, as well as your own personal warm up routine (you will be video-ed in rehearsal demonstrating your own warm up routine)
We did rehearse in a very sensible way even though we didn’t have a lot of space everyone was spatial aware so there were no accidents. We worked together well as a group when we did the warm ups because everyone had a bit of the input when it came to the warm ups.
11. Your own strengths and weaknesses need to be described here. Be specific about the skills you used.
This week has been really productive because I feel like I have kept focus and have focused on really getting the performance together. However I feel like my biggest weakness was that I struggled with my lines so on Tuesday so the performance was going quite slow. It wasn’t just me however because we work as a team and because I don’t perfectly know all my lines I know that it’s also one of my weaknesses.
12.What from today are you going to keep for the performances? Eg an accent you explored or a characteristic for your role.
I think we’re keeping everything for the performance, we’re focusing on getting the performance together so I think we’re going to keep everything from today unless we know we definitely need to change something on Friday.
13.What needs to be changed or rejected from the ideas? Why?
Well I think the main thing is that we need to sort out our music and lighting on the Tuesday because we didn’t have any so we sorted that out and I think pretty much everyone agreed on the music we wanted to use and the lighting. The lighting was simple and the only thing that changed was in scene 10 when the lights go red to show that Shui Ta is in court and then we will have a blackout when the scene is completely different and doesn’t flow.
14. Do you need to do any further research to help understand and develop your character? Say what you need to research and why here. Eg do you need to explore different accents or watch and observe a tv programme to get ideas for your characterisation?
No, my characterisation is fully there now because it’s all about stereotypes and how you add them to the character. Shui Ta is a male but he is almost like a respectable business man.
15. What needs to be improved for next week? 3 targets for yourself and a further 3 for the group here. E.g. Line learning, moves, special awareness, Facial expression, Characterisation, use of props, costume, masks, music, sound, practicing cues, responding to others, giving direction, taking direction, timekeeping, practice regime.
Nothing needs improving for next week but needs improving for Friday*
- Everyone needs to learn their lines, we are still on script three days before the performance and considering we have our variety performance on the Thursday we seriously need to learn them.
- Characterisation, it will come on the day but because people still have scripts in their hands it’s not as good as it could be.
- Obviously line learning is one of them.
- Focus, I’m getting a bit stressed and distracted so therefore I’m losing focus a bit however this will improve for Friday.
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