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Lesson 2: Stanislavski

Ask yourself these questions:

Who? - ‘Who is my character?’ - All on page.

When? - ‘When is the play set?’ - Director or script will tell you.

Where? - ‘Where is the play set?’ - ‘What locations do the scenes take place?’

Why? - ‘Why is the character in the play/scene?’ - Imagination.

For what reason? - ‘ What reason is my character doing this?’ - Objectives.

How? - ‘How will I react to that line?’, ’How will I walk onstage in this scene?’ - What we are thinking and doing as the character onstage, the actor can give a believable performance.

Magic ‘If’ ‘What would I do if...?’

Halloween (spooky season)

30/10/18

In the morning we were given our dialogue pieces for our pairs, mine and Alex’s is called ‘Shopping’ it is a bit of a strange text but I don’t mind it, I guess I’ll have to read and watch the whole play to have an opinion on it. We had to practice our lines and have a good amount of knowledge on the play so we would find the text easier to understand.

Then last lesson we had rehearsals for the singing piece in the library we went through the song three times then we had to head over to the library and perform it there. We had all of performing arts watching us and whoever else was in the library.

29/10/18

We started the morning off with a warmup first, we had songs playing in the background which makes me happy because it takes the focus off the pain because I just end up singing as well as doing the moves. Then we did practice for our movement pieces, mine and Alex’s is coming along pretty well and I really like it.

We had to do an improv of pushing and pulling but we had to do it with different parts of the body eg. hands, arm, finger, leg etc. we had to put our little improv piece into our actual performance which worked very well. Josh also had us doing a wall sit for a solid three minutes which was honestly so painful ew, but it was so all of the bad blood would go into the thigh the we had to put our bottoms against the wall and put both legs up for another 3 minutes to get the bad blood flowing to the heart to oxygenate it.

The last lesson was just practice for our fear piece, this lesson was just where we kept going through the scenes for our piece that will be shown next Monday (05/11/18).

Introduction to Stanislavski:

What makes a good actor?

Confidence techniques (ignoring audience surrounding).

Creativity - imagination.

Ambition.

Willing to try new things, resilience.

Research/knowledge of the character (Learn your project).

Enthusiasm - Motivation!! No Plan B!

Communication - With audience/fellow actors/director!

Team player - No time for DRAMA QUEENS/KINGS!

Research (know your stuff)

Play more than one character.

Glossary terms:

Relaxation, Imagination - Active + Passive, Circles of attention, Objective/super objecting, Emotion memory - difficult session, Magic If, Communions/internal monologue.

How to learn lines:

LISTEN, ROTE, PHYSICAL ACTION, WRITE THEM, SECTION.

Things to remember about acting:

You are a story teller!

You interpret other people’s work. Immerse yourself in it to inform character.

Character is key to unlocking a performance.

Be true to your character + yourself.

Learn lines on day one.

Find a way of learning that suits you.

Read/watch as many plays as you can.

Meet as many different plays as you can.

Turn the world around you and observe.

There is no ‘one way’ to learn this craft.

Be receptive to all theories, use what is right for you.

FAIL but NEVER QUIT!

Stanislavski was born in Russia in 1863. He worked for a time as an actor and he is well known for his immersion. He also believed actors needed to play characters in a more naturalistic way.

“All action on the stage must have an inner justification, be logical, coherent and real.”

Love art in yourself, and not yourself in art.”

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=whose+line+is+it+anyway+props&view=detail&mid=20037259282087D8C46F20037259282087D8C46F&FORM=VIRE

I like this because I enjoy the way they can make a lot of uses out of the props without corpsing and they both can help eachother out instead of just being dependent on just an individual.

17/10/18

We had improvising sessions for basically most of the day because on every Wednesday we only focus on improv. We had to play this one game which is called ‘Fruit Bowl’ and you’re either an apple, a pear or a banana, when your fruit gets called a chair gets moved out of the circle and you have to find an empty chair and run to it before another person gets to it otherwise you loose a life. The aim of the game is to be quick at moving and to know before hand of what chair to run to.

We then played this game called ‘Chicken’ which I hated because it was actually so shameful and horrible. Basically all the chairs were spaced out and one chair was empty and one person would be the chicken. The chicken was only allowed to walk with their feet put together but I just couldn't do it, I walked way too slowly so it just felt horrible like I was never going to complete the game. Eventually, I ended up completing it but I felt like it was because everyone knew it was just impossible for me to eventually do it.

Then we had to do a task to do with reactions where we went into groups of four and we all had to copy of what each other was doing but there wasn't anyone who can take the lead. Then we had to show everyone else, everyone just ended up awkwardly laughing during performances because it is a strange task.

We also had emotion island which had three different islands. The three islands were sad, happy and angry. We could spend as much time as we wanted in each island, I chose to stay in the sad island for the longest because for me it was the easiest emotion to do.

16/10/18

Today we had to bring in a costume in which was someone’s clothes who we knew really well because we had to dress up as them and be them for about 3 hours (maybe 2 I'm unsure of the time span). They had to be the same gender as us too and they weren't allowed to be in the same college as us incase anyone from the class knew who it was. At the start of the task we had to walk around the room in 10 different stages and when we got to the final stage we had to completely be the character we had chosen to be, this stage was where we all fully developed that characters walk, the way they act, talk etc. We then had to go speak to at least 3 other members of the class and introduce ourselves to them and ask them a few questions. After we had done this we all had to sit in a circle and have like a group therapy session, Andy (our therapist) would individually ask someone if they had spoken to anyone and who they got along with most and who they didn't get along with. This went on for quite a while because everyone has different opinions.

We then sat in a line and there was this one chair in the spot light and we had to individually sit on the chair and get asked some questions what we had to know the answer to. We had to learn 20 questions (roughly) and know all the answers to them to be prepared for anything we would be asked. Each interview went on for about 5 minutes or maybe a little more, anyone was allowed to ask questions at the end but they had to be relevant.

15/10/18

We started off with practising for our movement pieces, me and Alex haven’t got all of the moves yet but we have some of them which tell a sad yet happy story at the same time. After we had time to practice what we had so far we had to show the group our performance and get feedback from them. Then we had this yoga type exercise with the giant inflatable yoga balls this was were we got taught new techniques of how to make sure our bodies are completely relaxed.

After that we had to do one of our improv assessments which was split into four different songs. The first one we all had to lay on the floor and all of our actions on the floor as if we newly born. The next song we had to act like we were in our personal bubbles and we had to get of them but we could explore so do kicks, twirls, punches etc. Stage 3 was very lively we had to interact with others as if we were in a nightclub. Finally the last one was asif all of our energy had gone and we were getting weaker and weaker.

10/10/18

Always starting every Wednesday off with Bev but this lesson was different to the others we have had with her because we had to swap rooms as the computers were broken. Then we had Josh for the rest of the day doing improvising. We had this one game were one person had to go out of the room because they were the detective and then Josh would select one person to do movements and everyone else would have to copy of that selected person. The detective was allowed three guesses to try and figure out who the leader was, this was mostly to do with reaction time. Then we had to do this improv exercise with props but we couldn't use the props for what they were for so for example, if you picked out a hat you couldn't use it as a hat. This exercise was a challenge because the object I picked up was just hard to use it as something it wasn’t it was literally just a bag of these weird gold coins but the bag wouldn't open lol. Another game was used called King Of The Jungle this was were there was five seats at the beginning of the seats there was a certain animal (forgive me but I don't remember what it was called all I know is that it is Plankton from Spongebob) then the chair next to that was a butterfly, then a weasel, then a giraffe and finally the top of the throne was a lion. The game would start of by the lion standing up and yelling ‘Rawr’ whilst doing the hand action of a lion very fiercely. Then the lion would make another noise effect for example ‘Flutter Flutter’ this means that the person who was the butterfly had to stand up and say flutter flutter whilst doing the action of a butterfly very softly, the purpose of this game was to get where the lion was because the lion is the king.

Tuesday 09/10/18:

Andy had us looking for a £5 note but it didn't exist it was just to see what we would all be like, two people stayed sat down and others worked individually or in a team but as the time got on from 10 minutes to none we all knew it wasn't existing and we all got a bit fed up. Some people felt emotions such as boredom, sad, tired etc. because it was a treasure hunt without the treasure basically.

Then we had to have one of our pictures on the board, the one that means most to us and we had to get up and describe the emotions it made us feel, what the day was like, any memories from the day. I liked this task because the picture I had chosen was one of me, my mum, my dad and my sister but it was such a good day because it was my little cousin’s christening. After this task we had to space ourselves out from everyone else and listen to our happy or sad song, I chose the sad song first which was ‘Broken Hearted Girl’ by Beyonce which is an amazing song! we then had to write a letter based on the song we were listening to and we had to share it to the rest of the group. Later on it was vocal sessions which we just practice our song.

Lifts:

On this fine Monday morning it was started out with a Zumba session, personally I liked this a lot more than yoga because I found it more amusing. After that we had to do headstands but I unfortunately had to sit that one out because I wasn’t feeling too good, it was fun to watch others do it even though it looked a bit painful to the neck. We found out our partners for the movement pieces, I was paired with Alex which I was happy about because we get on with each other. All together there was 14 different lifts: (I’m sorry but I’m a little bit unsure about the names of the lifts:

Hip Lift - Person A and B are connected via hips (side to side) Person A lifts Person B sideways Person A has to ensure their hip is below person’s B hip to they can lift B up Person B has to jump up as they are lifted and shape outwards into a star.

Backpack - Person A and B are connected back to back stood up Person A and B wrap their arms around each other Person A has to lower their waist below Person B’s waist to be able to lift B up.

Mushroom Airplane Superman 1 & 2 Fireman’s Lift Running Lift Queen’s/King’s Throne Pendulum Lift.

After the lifts we had our lunch break this was where we just rehearsed for our Donald Trump performance. Level 2, Level 3 and years 2 had to all do their performances in front of each-other. Level 2 went first theirs was about someone with dementia who loved to dance but they can't remember their life so they replay it but she still can't remember and she ends up passing away, which was very moving. Our performance was about assassinating Donald Trump so ours was more of a funny vibe than a sad one, we had the audience laughing which is always a good sign. Last but not least years 2 was about the tragic event of the 22nd of May 2017, they started off at the concert and then they danced to One Last Time by Ariana Grande, well as soon as I heard this I was crying, it was honestly so upsetting. After each performance Andy and Josh gave their feedback to the performances and we all got positive feedback.

Wednesday:

in the morning we had our session with Bev, in this session we just do things that are vital so write up our pro portals on what we done on the week etc.

Then with our sessions with Josh we focused on improvising in the morning session we talked about major and minor roles for example, major roles mean that the scene(s) are focused on that one character and that the audience can tell that they're the main character. Minor is where the camera/focus isn't upon that character but they're still apart of the role.

We had this activity to do and it is called the ‘park bench’ this was where person A would have to sit on the bench and just act how they normally would in the situation they have been put in. Then person B would have to come into the room and try to get person A to move, there was some wild ideas lmao. For example, this boy wasn't talking but he was doing actions like a mime yet he still annoyed the other person and made them move. My idea was to be obsessed with christmas songs so I just kept bawling out christmas songs but really loud to annoy Alex and get him to move. I really enjoyed this activity because I could be my loud, bubbly self which was really fun.

Tuesday:

We done acting in the morning and were put into partners for all of the lesson, I was partnered with Codie, we were set this task where everyone in their partners had a two line performance to do to the group. Person A had to say to person B ‘Are you okay?’ and person B had to reply with ‘Yeah I’m fine’ and the audience had to guess the scenario, ours was at a therapy session. At the start the people who were trying to get the answer got it wrong but they eventually got it correct because they seen my notebook and pen (a therapist). After everyone done their performance of that we had been given a piece of paper with a scene on it and some instructions. Our scene was unfortunately at a funeral :/ Person A which was me was the parter of the man who passed and person B who was Codie was his receptionist who he was cheating on person A with. However, person A had never met person B before in their life and they were confused as to why someone they didn't know/ hadn't met was at their partners funeral. We had to start the performance with a handshake and end it with one. After it finished people had to guess what the scene was. I liked this task apart from the fact we were at a sad scene because I’m more of a happy person than sad.

After that we had a vocal session which boys were separated from girls and we were given some of the parts because some parts are better higher pitched and some are better lower pitched. We then finished the day with computer stuff, we didn't do much that lesson it had to be done though.

#acting #vocalsessions

Much more movement:

I’m just going to talk about the Monday on this specific post. At the start of the day we done this exercise which wasn’t yoga but it hurt as much as yoga does, it may have been called cardio? I’m a bit unsure though. After we had our warmup exercise we done shoulder roll overs which just seemed physically impossible to be honest because I no longer have the mind of a younger child like when I was in primary school I was just care free like if I broke a bone then I broke a bone lol however, now that I’m older I’m a lot more cautious and scared to take risks because the thought of breaking a bone now knocks me physically sick. As bad as I just made the shoulder roll overs sound they were bearable haha. In the same session we also done forward roll overs and back roll overs, these were a lot more fun to me because I just casually sit on my bed whilst being bored and just do a roll over for some weird reason. Whilst I was doing the forward roll over I froze into a headstand? rip me.

Later on we had to partner up with someone who was a similar height and build to us because we had to do trust falls and also jump over our partner. So person A would stand in a table top position and person B had to run up to person A and jump over them, it was scary because I feel as if I can’t jump that high, despite that everyone completed it which was great!!

In the afternoon we had 30 stories high in I think they're called and we had to do an exercise with them where we had to write a poem about the isms such as racism, homophobia, bullying etc. after we wrote them we had to tell the class our poem.

The Third Week:

On the Monday we focused on animal study this was where we had to act like an animal in ten different stages, I was a chicken lol. It was very hard to separate each stage. On the tenth stage we evolved into a human. Another task was we had to walk from one side of the room to the other in three different animals, the first one was a crab, then a worm and finally a lizard. Later on we were taught how to do handstands and cartwheels, this was pretty fun apart from the fact I’m awful at them. We also had a mini yoga session, it didn't hurt as much as the first time because my body is getting used to stretching.

Then on Tuesday we had another lecture but it was more fun this time because we had little tasks in-between. These tasks were based of memory so it was pretty hard to remember the picture format. Later on in the day we had vocal sessions filled with weird tongue twisters, we had to sing a song that was filled with these, it was quite confusing but funny because I kept saying the wrong words.

On the Wednesday we had more improv but it was more group improv than individual. This was where one person would get up and do a scene and then someone else would have to go up and change the scene completely, then someone else etc. but we weren't allowed to do the same type of scene it had to be different. Then we played HEP again, the more we play it the better it gets because the rules aren't as complicated as the first time we played the game. Also a new game was played with a ball and it was so tiring! we had to throw a ball and get another person with the ball but without throwing it but it went on for like an hour!!!

#animal study

The Start Of Something New:

Yoga!! (more to come about that later) The day was started of with two games. One of these games was sort of like a pulsating vibe game. We all had to stand in a space and one person had to walk forward, then two, then three etc up to five but no communication at all was allowed. We finally completed this game after so many tries it was quite hard but everyone felt relief after it.

The second game was very sweaty, it was called ‘The Human Knot’. We all had to stand in a very small circle and hold hands with another person not the person stood next to you on either side though. We didn't end up completing this game because it was highly stressful and complicated, (we didn't give up though). We were ‘playing’ the game for exactly half an hour, it was just so sweaty and confusing lol.

Then we started to do yoga, boy did that hurt! I am not flexible in the slightest bit, I also have the weakest upper body strength ever so you can imagine that I was struggling. I ended up laughing through basically all of it.

On the Tuesday we had a lecture with Andy, this was were we learnt about Stanislavsky. Later on in the day we had an exercise this was were we had to lay down in a space and imagine that we were on a beach. Andy read out a descriptive piece to us, this task made me quite tired because the image of a beach makes me feel very calm, it didn't help my tiredness laying down with my eyes closed haha.

A new day, Wednesday. was basically all about improv, I find it pretty exciting because it is different. We played two games, one of which involved running pretty frantically. The second game was called HEP, this was scary with how many rules there was because they started to get mixed up in my head as there were a lot of different actions. If you didn’t react quick enough then you would have to go into the middle of the circle and do 10 push ups/sit ups. Later on in the day we tried a lot of improv, it ended up being a really fun experience.

#college #yoga

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