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In the first lesson we were told that we were going to be performing several monologues and we were told the acting audition requirements.
take part in a site reading
required to keep a reflective log (tumblr)
Aim: identify what is required of you in an audition.
Identify your audition candidate
Understand what material is appropriate for an audition candidate
Practically research for material you could use for an audition
reflect and identify what you have learnt
The monologue must be no more than 2 minutes and the classical monologue must be between 1:30 - 2:00 minutes. We got told that for classical monologues, to try and stick to either Elizabethan or Jacobean.
We then discussed what we thought ‘appropriate material’ could mean and what makes the character you have chosen appropriate to you. These things included
condition of character (disability etc)
these things are important because it makes the performance more believable and because we can connect with it more, it becomes more real to ourself and would seem more real in the moment.
What research is required for preparing for audition material?
Stanislavski techniques (imaginary world)
These things are crucial because you obviously need to know about the whole piece, the place its set and the character because if you do not then you will not really know what your talking about when performing your peace and will be meaningless. You need to know about the writer and what inspired him because again it gives you a deeper understanding of the play and what the character is talking about.
At the end of the lesson, we got given some homework (see image)
Its also important to research about the actual place you are auditioning at, because different places have different requirements. Here are the requirements for the drama school ‘East 15’, a drama school that i am considering. (see image)
Aim - To develop an understanding of Laban’s exploration of dynamics within movements
take part in a warm up exploring the use of dynamics
explore dynamics in movement
First we got into groups and discussed some questions set out for us.
What is the difference between Dance and movement?
My group and I had a few ideas so we chose a few of them and concluded in thinking that the difference between the two is that dance is something made from a stimulus and movement is training for such things as stamina, strength, power, discipline and that dance is a sequence of them movements.
I personally wrote down ‘Movement is a way of portraying something and dance is the sequence of those movements’
our group came up with ‘a set of movements formed into a routine’
We discussed and thought it was ‘Expressing actions, reactions and speech to tell the story of the character your portraying’
There a 5 things that should all be happening
Laban believes it is crucial to say what we see and not what we feel. I think is is because you cant tell what someone is feeling unless its portrayed on stage by an action therefore you should say what you see and if a emotion looks like its being portrayed then we say it whether or not it is the correct emotion. Feeling is personal, we can only create what we see.
Body - limbs, stucture, parts, shape
Relationships - senses, touch, see, hear
Space - personal, general, global/superzoning
We then started to get up and put this into practice and firstly we did a warm up exercise. (See image)
At first I wasn’t really understanding the exercise as I was doing it but then I began to understand and connect with it more an personally thought the first part was about control and balance and the second part was about listening to each other and using our peripheral vision unit with at first one person then a few and then the whole group.
Strength - committing to the exercise
Weakness - answering the questions - therefore I think I need to be more opinionated when it comes to things like this.
At the start of the lesson we were told that we were going to be performing our own William Beamont piece.
We were then shown a presentation by Zac, telling us about William Beamont and what he did, these are a few facts about him:
He was the first mayor of Warrington (1797 to 1889)
Educated at Botelar grammar school and also chester
Established the first municipal museum
Changed the law for the whole country in pin heading/making
Firstly, to get us warmed up and more familiar with previous beamont pieces and the ‘beamont walk’ we had to firstly on our own, go across the room doing the beamont walk, then in pairs from each corner of the room and then randomly all around the room without stopping. Zac then gave us 5 minutes to make up our own 2 walks that could be possibly used in a beamont piece. whilst i was doing this i thought i would be more creative so i decided to add different levels in to mine so one of mine was where i had to get really low and the other one was quite a up high posture. We then had to do our created walk across the room and Zac then chose three of the walks.
We then got put into groups to make a little performance on what we just learnt, trying to use facts about beamont and the three walks that were choses by Zac in the performance. My group was Ronan, Atlanta, Piotr and myself, at first we couldn’t think of any ideas and it was a slow start but after a few suggestions and ideas that got the ball rolling we started to put things together and all chip in ideas on what could work. i think we worked well as a team, everyone listened to each other, there were no arguments and we had fun whilst creating the piece. We then got told to join another group and make out two separate performances as one big performance. the group was now Ronan, Atlanta, Piotr, Bethan, Amie, Leah, Codi and myself. we started off by watching each others performances and thinking how we could link certain parts of each one so that it seemed like one whole piece. Again i think our team worked well together with no conflicts or disagreements but i think we talked too much about what we were going to do instead of actually getting up and doing it, so it was a little under rehearsed and some bits didn’t seem cleaner than they could of been. here’s our final performance. (See VIDEO 1)
Firstly we were given a brief explanation of what we were going to be performing at the end of this. We got told that we were going to be performing as tour guide characters and touring people round certain parts of Warrington and that we were going to improvise the whole thing which is where this lesson links in.
Performance dates - 26th October / 16th November
Aim - to develop an understanding of the theory and process of improvisation.
to discuss and understand improvisation as a skill
to take part in improvisation exercises
to reflect on personal growth
to identify personal growth
We got into pairs and and discussed what we personally though improvisation was, me and my partner (Cammie) came up with a few suggestions
something that is not choreographed
doesn’t always have a set structure
We then had to sum up what we thought improvisation was in one sentence, me and my partner came up with this.
“Drama improvisation is a performance that does not always have to have a set routine and is not choreographed.”
Do not open ended questions e.g. who are you?
Better you make your partner look, the better you look.
Focus on the here and now
Be specific - flesh, build your character
Change - character needs to go through change
Focus - do not shine above teammates
Dont use jokes which do not advance the scene
We then got up to do an exercise so we had to pair up with a different person, i paired up with Loren for this, we played ‘the yes game’ in which we had to pick either to be A or B and then improvise a scene with our partner, however partner B always had to start of there sentence by saying ‘Yes’. At first i found it really difficult to not block my partner when i was being A because i was often saying things that you would naturally but it was something that she couldn’t really respond with ‘yes’ to for example “no its not good is it?” but as we got settled into it, i found it easier and started to think more about what i was saying. When i was B i also found it quite difficult to add new information at first, but again as we continued i found it more easier and it was coming more naturally. I found that in this exercise you have to think quite a few steps ahead all of the time to keep the pace going.
We then all sat down and in turns went up to improvise a completely new scene with someone else in front of everyone, when i got up i was with Joseph and i was going to be playing partner B. At first i thought i was going to mess up or not keep it entertaining and it would be dull but i found that from the beginning i could bounce off Joseph easily and found it much effortless to add new information because he was not blocking me and i was not blocking him, my character naturally came to a change within the scene and i didn’t try to force jokes that wouldn’t advance the scene whereas before i think i would have if i didn’t know the 5 rules and the technique so i will be keeping to these techniques in the future and not thinking ‘i have to be funny in this scene’ and it will all happen naturally. when we was given our feedback i was really pleased with myself i it was fairly all positive and because this was my first time really going up there i felt i was improving already.
What is status? - Position/power within the situation
Why it relates to drama improv? - Determines what position you are in within the scene.
Every inflection and movement implies a status - Why? - Because its how your character moves and acts which communicates your position to the audience.
'No action is due to chance or motiveless'
^ This means you do everything for a reason.
We normally are not aware of status unless in conflict.
Strength - learning and understanding the rules of improvisation, performing improvisation with Joseph and not blocking him and adding new info.
Weakness - fully understanding status within improvisation.
Homework - answer this question
Within drama, especially improvisation, a character will always have a little more or less status than their partner - why?
I think its because one character will always be the more dominant and have more power that the other character. Also as the traditional call and response’ conversation, one person will always be calling and the other responding because both characters could not be calling nor responding at the same time, but saying this, the caller can change within the scene many times depending on the situation or topic.
We first started the lesson by getting into threes or fours and then we just had to start raving and come up with our own version of ‘big fish, little fish, cardboard box’. We then moved on the playing ‘What time is it Mr wolf’ but instead of just playing normally, we had to think of creating ways in which to freeze and it was about taking risks and interacting with each other and also with some props. i think we did these exercises to get our bodies warmed up for the lesson, and also to get our mindset in knowing what the hacienda is all about.
We were asked what we thought a stimulus was, here are a few of the answers given.
The ball point in which you base your performance around
The inspiration of a piece
We then got asked if we personally thought ‘air’ could be a stimulus, i think yes it could because literally anything can be a stimulus and air comes under the boundaries of ‘anything’ so therefore must be able to be a stimulus.
We had to go round the college and take picture/write down 20 things that could be used as a stimulus in a performance then we had a few tasks involving these things. (see image)
I picked these 20 things:
We got into groups (Hamish, Ronan, Jack and myself) and discussed how 5 of these stimulus’ could be made into a performance, we had the idea that all 5 of them could make like one big story.
When it came to creating our solo performances, i don’t think i was as creative and experimental as i could of been, i found it really hard to think of things and had a kind of mental block, i think it was because i was over thinking things instead of keeping it simple.
We then got back into our original groups and had to make up a performance using of the stimulus’, i think i was more creative during this exercise and was thinking more simply rather that over complicating things, i think out team worked really well together, we listened to each other and all gave ideas, we kept it simple using ‘bag’ as our stimulus. (see image)
We performed our piece clearly and confidently and it got a good reaction which i was pleased about.
Strength - teamwork with peers
Weakness - creativity and taking risks when creating solo performances - this was due to me over thinking things too much so in future i need to think about keeping things simple.
We then got given a homework task to be in for the next morning (see image)
I researched them and this is what i found
During the 1990’s, it was labeled “the most famous club in the world”
Opened in 1982 - until 1997 - demolished in 2002
Associated with the rise of acid house and rave music
English record label owner
Radio and television presenter
Nightclub owner/Manager (The Hacienda)
Journalist for ITV and BBC
Today we watched a documentary on the making of the film ‘24hr party people’ and I think we watched this because it was about creating a project (a film in this case) and what that involves and it would give us an idea on how things work and maybe if we wanted to make a film about the Haçienda, we had some ideas to work around an knew what was expected of us.
We were then given homework.
We had to find the song these lyrics came from:
” why don’t you do those things to me”
And then had to download the song.
I searched it up the same day and I went on a lyrics website and typed it in, and I wasn’t 100% sure if this was the song but I found a song called
‘Bob’s yer uncle - Happy Mondays’
So that would hopefully be the correct song.
We started off by raving and having a bit of a dance, followed by our own version of ‘big fish, little fish, cardboard box’ (box dance) which we made and devised last week. We then got in lines and had to perform this set routine that the tutors had made which went like this.
Walk forward 4 steps, then back 4 steps (with attitude) x4
Dig left x4, dig right x4
Stack the shelfs x4 (rotating)
Bake the cake left & right x4
Lasers high to low x4
Salt & pepper left & right x4
Own box dance (solo)
We did this to warm up our bodies and get us ready for the lesson.
We then was given 30 minutes to complete a number of tasks set for us. These tasks were
1. Observe the behavior and interaction around the college - draws a Birdseye view on what you see
2. Photographs - take as many pictures in the lrc as possible in 2 minutes
3. Listen to a conversation - within the canteen, listen to a random conversation and make into a script using the people as A. & B.
4. Ask 10 people ‘what does hacienda mean to you?’
As i was completing the task i was very independent and did all the tasks solo whereas normally i would go with Hamish and Ronan and do the tasks as a group with the same answers and results as them two.
These were the results I got from the tasks
2. Here’s a few i took (see images)
3. Here’s the result of the conversation
A: you’ve just told him you ran off
B: i know yeah haha
A: i like your scarf
B: aww thanx
A: i used to have one like that
4. Here are the answers for the question ‘what does Haçienda mean to you?’
1. newt
2. What the fuck?
3. Nightclub innit?
4. Spanish word for something
5. I have no clue what that means sorry
6. I know its a club isn’t it?
7. Summit in 1980’s
8. Dunno sorry
9. nightclub in Manchester
10. A long time ago that
We did these selection of tasks because it showed us that the stimulus of the piece can just be as simple as setting yourself tasks and answering them, and doesn’t have to be over complicated.
We then got asked to get into groups, and that these groups consisted of a 2nd year actor, 1st year actor, musical theatre and a dancer and create a performance using the results from 2 of the tasks we just did previously. Our group was Atlanta, Loren, Holly and myself. We first started by deciding between us which of the 2 results we were going to create the performance around. We decided in the Birdseye photo and the answers, we all decided to get up and be proactive really early when coming up with the ideas and rehearsing, instead of sitting round and over thinking things. We came up with the idea of making like a fun gameshow in which the host asks the question ‘what does the haçienda mean to you?’ And the contestants give the answers which the public we asked gave. Building on top of that format, we had a nice idea of when the contestants step up to answer their question, they perform their movement in the style of a pathway that was on their Birdseye view picture. When we were rehearsing, i think our group worked really well together, we all chipped in ideas and listened to each others ideas and were encouraging and didn’t argue or have any disagreements. We performed our piece and we were all clear and confident.
We carried on with the hacienda lesson and we all got in a circle to discuss our homework we got given last week and what research we had found about the hacienda and Tony Wilson’s part in it, i gave some of my answers that I’d found out like Tony Wilson was as journalist for ITV and BBC. We were then told about the project we were gonna be doing and the questions we would have to answer when crating ideas for our piece.
Me and Ele Ball decided to go in a group because we’d rarely worked together in previous projects and because i am an actor and she is a dancer it would give the group more variety in skill and could get the opportunity to learn from each other. We started answering the questions and coming up with ideas as as soon as we could so we got into our own area so we wouldn’t be distracted. Here are our answers to the questions.
Why do we create theatre? - To entertain, educate, document
What is it you want to devise? - A physical thearte piece with elements of dance and acting within different scenes (different part of the club).
Who are you devising for? - 18+ because of content, because of what we want to educate them about.
What are your initial aims and objectives as a company for this project? - To educate, research what happened inside ‘the hacienda’ nightclub, create scenes about them.
Is the form or structure important? - yes because we are aiming to educate but in an abstract way.
After we answered all the questions we thought we would start our research and get to work straight away by giving ourself a little homework task. We had to research happenings within the hacienda nightclub
After everyone shared there initial ideas to the rest of the groups, we got set a couple of homework tasks:
- Why does he relate to the hacienda?
- interview an eye witness
Aim -
to develop an understanding of the theory and process of improvisation
recap what is improvisation
to take part in a improvisation exercise
to reflect on development
We started off the lesson by getting into groups and recapping some of the things we’d learnt last week and to see if we could remember things. here are our results.
learnt - about techniques and rules/about status (see-saw) and how we are going to use it and apply them to our tour guide characters.
We then got kick started into doing some exercises, the first exercise was to see and develop our understanding of ‘status’ within a scene. so we played the ‘park bench’ game where we had to improvise a scene in which our character had to act and react to things around them and thus determining if the person had lower status or higher.
I picked higher status and was correctly guessed when i performed it, to apply a character with a higher status i sat up straight on bench with a high posture and the way i reacted to say a persons dog, i would wipe my clothes after it had gone as if to portray i am better than the man and his dog. If expressing a lower status you would kind of do the apposite, David was a very good example of this as he chose lower status, he sat low sunk into his chair, constantly looking around and being cautious, then would give up his seat to any other pedestrians.
We then got into pairs to begin another exercise looking at the concept of status, me and David went together as we had not been together before. the first scene we had to improvise a scene with a set script, we had to say
A: you been waiting long?
We had to stick to this script but experimenting with status each time we did it, like firstly partner A would be of higher status and B lower, then vise versa, then both Higher and both lower, then we had to do it again but this time one of the characters changes their status within the scene and we had to decide which line that was at and how we did it. I think me and David worked well together, we listened to each other and communicated well without getting side tracked. i found it easy to bounce off David, we performed the statuses clearly, however i was a little unsure when it came to the ‘changing statuses mid-way’ and didn’t know where and how to change but David directed me and then i was fine.
We then got into different pairs, i went with Holly, we then got given another script we had to stick by:
BOSS: ah, smith, come in, take a seat, i assume you know you know why Ive sent you in here?
BOSS: (slides newspaper across the desk)
SMITH: i was hoping you wouldn’t see that
BOSS: you know i cant hire anyone with a criminal record
SMITH: wont you make an acception?
SMITH: fine!, i didn’t want your poxy job anyway!
We had to perform these whilst experimenting with status again (just like previous exercise) as we were trying out the different scenarios, me and holly stayed on track and kept our minds on the exercise, i found that i could understand more where the changes could go and how to change it compared to the other one, i think it was because the script was a bit longer so i had more to work with.
Strengths - confidence, teamwork
Weaknesses - understanding where the best place to ‘see-saw’ the status within a script/scenario
research tour guide, research Warrington centre - what could you talk about on a tour guide (A3 piece of paper present your findings)
Firstly we discussed 3 things we learnt from last week
1. different dynamics (impulse,impact,swing, rebound,continuous)
2. 5 things should be happening (body,relationship, space, Action, dynamics)
3. that Laban believes it is crucial to say what we see and not what we feel.
We started off the lesson by doing a warm up, walking in the space, then freely moving an arm, then an internal body part etc (see image 5^). After that we then had to create six freeze frame movements, completely a random at that point sing different parts of the body (external and internal) using different levels. We then got in pairs, learnt each others six movements and combined them into a routine using different dynamics to link each movement, for this exercise i worked with Amie, i personally think we worked well together, we were calm and collective and did not panic and over think things, we kept it simple and we listened to each other and clearly guided each other when teaching the other person their movements. We performed ours, and the audience could clearly see which dynamics we were portraying and guessed them correctly without any confusions, but unfortunately forgot to video it. We then had to pair with someone else for the upcoming task, for this task i went with Nikita, and we had a set routine to go by but using our own choices of movement (see image)
I think with this task Nikita and myself found it really difficult to think of ideas that weren’t original and our minds were blank at first but as we got started with ideas, they kept coming, i think we also found it quite difficult keeping up as the set movements were coming up, as we were usually still working on and hadn’t finished the previous one, but when we’d had all the applications, we got stuck into rehearsing them and trying out different dynamics and levels. We then was told to try and complete the sequence of movements within 13 seconds, so we then really put effort into trying to keep it within 13 seconds but also trying to keep all the dynamics clean and clear. I was quite proud of Nikita and myself as we performed it in 13 seconds exactly, although some bits were rushed, the dynamics were still all there and clearly identifiable. (see VIDEO 2).
Strength - teamwork, movement
Weakness - thinking too much when doing the warm up
Learnt - that you can use Laban when acting aswell to define mood (like if you use swing in your arms, could be showing distress)
We first started by doing some breathing exercises, we first got told about the diaphragm and how to use it/breath through it, so we practiced using our diaphragms whilst breathing normally at first, we then went on to doing
“In for 5 - Hold for 5 - Out for 10”
at first i found this difficult because i had never really done it before, so i was struggling on the ‘out for 10’ bit and running out of breath too quickly like when i was getting to 4-5 seconds in, this was due to lack of control of the amount of oxygen i was letting out, i was letting it all out in one big take instead of pacing it, so i know i need to work on control as it just takes practice. after a few attempts i was getting there with much ease than beforehand. we then moved onto doing
“In for 4 - Out for 4 (then adding 4 every time)”
With this exercise again i struggled keeping my breath when it came to the big numbers, but this was due to lack of practice i had at it and would surely improve as the weeks go on.
We then did some vocal exercises including some humming and tongue twisters to warm up our voices, lips, jaw, tongue etc. Austin then told us about choosing the right songs for the right people and choosing the right one for you depends on things like key and Range and a vary of other things and can be quite complex.
In this lesson we basically all sat down a discussed our material that we found, heres my material (See VIDEO LOG 1).
i had to research the play DNA as explained in the video log so i spent the rest of the lesson researching up on the play and Dennis Kelly and the character Phil in the play. I found a good edition of the book on amazon.
we then all gave ourself personal task to do and set a time when to do it for.
In this lesson we looked at site specific risk assessments, we first had to get into groups and make up our own risk assessment sheet and the columns that could be included in one. heres one my group (jasmine, Cammie and myself) did.
Hazard Who Might Be Injured Emergency Contact Health&Safety
(answers) (answers) (answers) (answers)
We then was set a little task in which we had to go to certain locations (sites) and then identify risks within the the area. We took photos of these things (see images)
Bench - could slip and fall (if its wet due to rain)
Corner unit - could harm yourself on pointed edge
Grass - could slip and get hurt (if wet due to rain)
SITE 2 - indoors (canteen)
RISK 1
Chair - could bang yourself on it or trip over it
What we were going to be doing (see image)
We started off the lesson as usual by warming up by doing the hacienda dance routine but this time we added ‘flip the burgers’ to the end of the routine and then retrograded it meaning we performed it in reverse. (See videos 7 & 8)
We then got into our groups and this week every group had an additional member joining from musical theatre, so now our group consisted of Ele Ball, Lauren Hall and myself. We first shared the homework we found from last week with each other, this included:
Who is ‘Bez’? - Mark Berry
Why does he relate to the hacienda? - he performed there, was a member of ‘happy mondays’.
Eye witness - although i couldnt interview an eye witness because none of my family went to the hacienda or know anyone who did; Ele got a very good interview off a guy who used to go their all the time and he had some very good information about the place visually so that would help us with our facts on our piece which would bring us closer to our objective which is to educate.
We then had to discuss and inform our new group member of our objective, motivation, intention etc. (See image)
Objective - Educate but in a abstract way physical theatre
Motivation - To do so Because we want to educate people about what went on in the hacienda because a lot of people do not know
Intention - To use real facts to educate people
Our Thesis - Good for social well-being, but not for physical.
Subject Matter - Scenes/facts that has happened inside the hacienda, show the social side
Jobs - Research interview, Who went Hacienda, Bring rope in
Lauren then had to go and do jazz, which left just Ele and myself to work on the upcoming tasks, we had to now structure our piece into 8 scenes, at first we thought our ideas that we previously had would not work now because we wanted it to be abstract and not narrative, but then we thought it actually could still work because our piece is physical theatre and we’ve got different types of scenes like dance and acting so would still be abstract. We decided that our 8 scenes would be different parts of the hacienda nightclub. We decided our scenes and which order they will go in, then drew our storyboard out like a comic strip (see image)
Scene 1: Outside the club (queue) - in this scene we are going to be using the answers the person gave in Ele’s interview but changing it slightly so its not like a Q&A, so now its more like people talking amongst themselves about what they’ve heard about it and what it looks like inside.
Scene 2: The Cloakroom - we thought this scene should be a nice little neat piece with no dialogue.
Scene 3: The Bar - within this scene it will show the different types of people you find within the club, we’ll be doing this by bumping into each other and instantly changing personality.
Scene 4: The dance-floor - in this scene, we will be saying facts about bands that played in the hacienda whilst were raving.
Scene 5: Drug taking - this scene will be about the drugs that were taken inside the hacienda, this scene will be the most physically demanding.
Scene 6: High on drugs - this will be the scene where we say lots of facts about the hacienda itself, will be saying these as if were high and don’t know ourselves what we are talking about but what the dialogue itself about will be very informative.
Scene 7: The toilets - this scene will be showing the ‘after affects’ of drug taking,but thinking outside the box and not being unoriginal and showing it in a typical way.
Scene 8 - Flats - the last scene will be showing what happened to the site the hacienda was on now, it will be in a block of flats, and will be a nice little comic piece to end on.
Our next task was to start devising our first two scenes. because we knew the general idea of it and what we were going to do for our first scene, we just jumped straight into it. We first decided what we were gonna say and in what order from Ele’s interview, when we decided that, we then thought instead of just walking, we should travel in a particular way thats simple but looks really nice, so we played on the idea of how our feet shuffle in a queue every time the line moves up, but traveling in the speed of like a normal walk. In the second scene, at first we were really stuck with ideas, i think this was because we were over complicating things and trying too hard to think of amazing ideas instead of just keeping it simple and neat which would make it look amazing, but as we went on, we were thinking more simply and doing nice little clean movements with a coat and a hat, it was difficult to see how good it could look because we didn’t have a hat and the coat was too small for me so we will have to sort that out in the upcoming weeks. We performed our first 2 scenes with confidence, but just needed to be clearer on our changes of character. (See video 3)
heres what i found from researching the homework tasks:
Why it relates to The Hacienda
Dry Bar was first opened by Factory Records and New Order in 1989, and was owned by Tony Wilson - the founder and manager of The Hacienda nightclub, and one of the five co-founders of Factory Records.
Dry Bar was originally designed by famed Hacienda architect Ben Kelly.
Dry Bar holds a Factory catolgue, FAC 201 - hence it’s recognition as Dry 201.
Aim -
develop improvisation skills
Create tour guide
Obj -
recap
develop character
improv exercise
reflect
We started off the lesson by showing the rest of the group our homeworks that was set last last week (see images).
After everyone had shown theres, we moved onto a series of exercises that looked on ‘insults’ (see image)
For these exercises, i went with Kenisa, i was partner A (shopkeeper), while doing these we found it really difficult to achieve all our objectives at once, i found it relatively easy working with Kenisa and i could bounce off her quite well, but sometimes we found that we was coming to a stop, and i don’t know if this was because we were blocking each other or not adding new information ourselves and also i laughed a few times. I think we did these number of exercises because insults are usually used within conflict and when we insult someone, we are making there status lower, and within conflicts, status is clearly shown.
Those previous exercises were the last time we were going to look at status, we now moved onto developing our actual tour guide characters, but first we were showed what a tour guide was and the rules of being a tour guide.
Tour Guide - a person who shows areas of interest,heritage etc.
We then looked at building our own character with a series of questions identifying ‘Who are you?’
Where you live - lives in America: Owatonna, Minnesota (born in Britain)
What is your occupation - Student, loading coca-cola trucks
Why are you a tour guide - Because he wants to get into Princeton university but needs a few extra credits, and his college will give them him if he gives some voluntary tour guides.
What status are you - lower
Favourite film,book,food,colour,music etc. - Music - Tom Jones, Billy Paul, Del Shannon, Michael Buble. colour - navy blue. book - still rockin: Tom Jones - a biography. movie - Muppets christmas carol, Muppets treasure island (anything with the muppets)
Any dark family secrets - No
Any distinctive features - wears glasses
Characteristics or quirks - geek-ish, enthusiastic, happy-go-lucky
Dreams and ambitions - go to Princeton,
Does your character have any friends - 1 - Martin Henson,bigger geek than him, thinks Matt is the coolest guy ever.
What clothes does your character wear e.g chav - chinos/skinny jeans, a shirt, a bow tie,
How does your character move/what is your characters walk like - Upright, quite fast paced, weird arm movements whilst walking.
Mannerisms/quirks - exaggerated, pushing glasses up nose,
Characters voice - Quite High, squeaky, polite
Facial expression - mostly always smiling
Personality (exited,shy) - pedantic, enthusiastic,
Interaction (social/anti) - social but also socially awkward,
Any repeated phrase or sayings - No
heres my character (see image)
Strengths - understanding why we use status within scenes, having ideas for my character early.
Weakness - laughing during improv scenes - therefore i need to keep myself focused more.
We started off the lesson with our usual Laban warm up of walking in the space, then moving a body part etc. while i was doing this, i felt like i was more controlled that before and was constantly in my own zone and not looking around at other people like in previous sessions, and i also noticed that my peripheral vision had improved when we were doing the group walk.
We then got into our pairs from last week and recapped on our previous routine, Nikita and myself picked it up again pretty quickly and memorized the movements well. We then had to split up and do the same routine, but this time, changing the dynamics of every movement. while i was rehearsing this, i wanted my new routine to be very physical, so i decided to make my new movements very impact based, a lot faster and more demanding. We then got back into our pairs and performed our original ones but then with the new ones added on. we performed them to see what they looked like. (see video 4)
Firstly we said 3 things that we had learnt from previous Laban lessons.
- how to apply an impulse to a movement
- to be less wary when it comes to warm up movements
- not to be too unoriginal with actions, shifts of weight etc.
Tension <——————————> Release
( ^(light)
)
movement —> (
strong—-soft )
^ gravity
4 Motion factors - 8 qualities
1. Space (spacial qualities, where movement is going)
Flexible <——————————> Direct
2. Weight (related to machines attitude, picking up objects)
Light <——————————> Strong
Sustained <—————————-> Sudden
Two different families - it becomes interesting when one becomes another
Here are some quotes from the lesson i found interesting:
"Meaningful performance, use these techniques to create deliberate movement in the body"
"You need to see dynamics as a tool to find the moments of shift in performance"
"We do not see movements - we see impact, something we as humans have learnt to read"
"Expression is in the body - qualities bring out expression"
1 thing you wish to improve
2 things you have learnt new
- The motion factors
- different peoples perspective on which dynamics work in a routine
- Staying in my zone
- Creating solo piece
- peripheral vision
4 aspects of applying it to acting
- when actioning
- helps with status
- characterisation
- control of body
We started by doing a series of vocal warm ups which consisted of:
Mouth shape scales (ah, eh, ee, or, oo)
Somewhere over the rainbow
Tongue twisters (Fa fi / Peritiple pitter-patter)
We then moved on to singing ‘Little shop of horrors’ i was singing with Ronan, Hamish and Joseph, and we were singing melodies, i think i picked it up fairly quickly, and enjoyed practicing this song.
Strength - working with my group and making it work
Weakness - running out of breath during some of the warm up exercises
We first had to see if we had achieved our self given targets from last week, mine was to buy ‘DNA’ and read it, i achieved my target by buying it off amazon and reading the full play.
We then looked at ‘sight reading’.
What is sight reading? - Reading a piece with no previous planning or rehearsal.
Why Sight read? - see how you cope under pressure, to see flexibility, improvisation skills, understanding of characterisation.
We then got into pairs and read a information sheet all about site reading and had to from that pick 5 techniques and 10 rules to performing a sight reading
approach with correct attitude.
focus on your own interpretation of the words, and not the words themselves.
if not read before, always ask for self initial reading.
1. you must display your talent as an actor
2. you must demonstrate your suitability to the role
3. indicate your understanding and sense of identification with the part
4. you must start with yourself
5. understand who your Vis a Vis is
6. dont panic
7. ignore stage direction
8. don’t build too quickly
9. make a decision
10. ad lib when you need to
When trying to identify these, i went with Loren and we struggled at first because we were getting the techniques and the rules mixed up.
We started of the lesson by warming up our bodies, so we decided instead of just doing a normal warm up, we though we would do the hacienda dance warm up so we could get warmed up but also develop on the hacienda project, when we was doing it, we added some more movements to it, so now before and after the main part we would do the ‘bez & curtis walk’ (rotating left first then right).
Firstly in the lesson we had to come up with 2 pedestrian walks relating to ‘School’ and perform them from one side of the room to the other, for my ones because we had been doing Laban, i decided to apply some of his techniques to them so my first one contained a lot of swings in the legs, and was on an up high level, and the movement itself was very accelerated, as with my second one, it was much slower and at a low level and was performed with a continuous dynamic. We then had to try and see how we could develop these, whilst doing this exercise, i think personally i was creative with my movements and wasn’t unoriginal and always played with levels. Next we had to get into pairs/threes and pick three out of the ones we all just did and perform them in unison, i went with Hamish and Ronan for this, we again decided to play with levels so we picked one that was high then middle height then low on the floor. (See video 5)
We then went on to planning the actual Beamont piece, and because we had new members from musical theatre joining in who didn’t perform it last time, we though we would recap on what we could remember, and see at which points they could be part of it and then could develop it from there, while trying to remember parts of the piece, we had a lot of disagreements and were getting very annoyed at each other, but as different parts started to come together we started working more as a team.
We really started to progress as the lesson continued, adding more of the musical theatre in to do some extra bits but keeping the parts that previously looked really nice. (see video 6)
Interesting facts about William Beamont
outlived his son ‘William John Beamont’
We first warmed up by doing the original Hacienda dance and then with the additional Bez and Ian walk, We then learnt a new routine that consisted of 8 paused positions and then with the added original hacienda movements (see video 10 & 11) while i was doing this i felt very unmotivated and didn’t put as much effort in as i could of and didn’t perform and put in 100%, so next time i think i should really perform no matter how I’m feeling.
We then had to get into our groups from last week and had 25 minutes to develop what we showed last week. because Ele wasn’t in and i was with Lauren who wasn’t here last week, i had to teach Lauren the two scenes we had done last week, so she knew where we was up to, and then adding a little bit more at the end that we had devised in the lesson, because i had to do this, we didn’t really progress any further than what we did last week because i had to come back on myself, on the other hand me and Lauren worked really well together, we picked up things rather quickly and listened to each other and our overall teamwork was i personally think great. We performed the bit of our piece with confidence and clarity (see video 12). Our feedback was that again, we didn’t really progress from last week, and sometimes it got a bit confusing with the different peoples stories in it, therefor think it would be better if we stuck to one persons story so its easier to follow, although the second scene was a little confusing, the first scene worked really well, and we should focus on developing that bit which was outside the club.
After we had a break, we were given the structure of the whole hacienda piece. (see image)
We then had to just practice and develop our little pieces even more, so in this lesson, me and Lauren decided to play with the idea of the rope in the queue and the shuffle that was said looked really effective. In this lesson, we had Cammie joining our group, and we also came up with a few ideas relating to the dialogue, so we played with the idea of when Lauren asked me a question and i answered her she would tell the person behind her (Cammie) and they would tell the person behind them and so on. Because we didn’t have any rope, we used the material from the Id badges, this gave us a general idea of how it would look and i think it looked really good and would look better with actual rope and would clearly identify that we were outside. As we were devising this, again we worked rather well as a group but started to get distracted a lot and was talking too much so i think next time we need to just focus that little bit more. we performed the little bit more that we did, and people said it was a lot more cleaner, and the turning around thing was nice and worked well, there was a suggestion that when we turned around to tell the other person, we could make it very comical, and change what has been said at the end like in Chinese whispers. Our group liked that idea and though we would definitely play with the idea after our break.
When we came back, all of my group were in jazz lessons so i was on my own, so i thought this would be a good time to write a script and think of some good ideas for the Chinese whispers, when i had a few ideas in mind, because none of my team members were here, i had to use some other people from other groups, so i used Joseph, Ryan and Rebecca, and we came up with these funny changes in the dialogue:
Q: Whats it like inside?
A: just like a big warehouse »»» smells like a big whorehouse
Q: is it expensive inside?
A: well the drinks are but nobody buys em »» someone found a fish finger inside em
Q: is it busy?
A: yeah, especially on a Friday night »»» she did what with an angel delight?
We also worked on the little shuffle movements and how we could make a funny little exit for each of the characters. We performed it, and it got a good response and people liked the Chinese whispers idea.
Strength - teamwork, adapting things in my piece
Weakness - putting 100% effort in the warm up
Aim - to take peers on a tour guide in character
recap last session skills required
to take part in an improvisation exercise
We first started walking in the space as ourselves and then in our tour guide character, we then had to talk to someone as our tour guide character, We then took part in some exercises, in the first one, we had to say a word then our partner would say a word relating to that and so on, firstly as ourselves and then in character, i went with david and whilst doing this i found it difficult at first keeping the pace up and found myself going ‘errm’ a lot, we then had to pair up with a different pair, so i went with Ronan, then we got told about the new exercise and it was all about being spontaneous, so first we had to imagine a box, and answer questions as ourselves and then do the same, but this time as our character, so after doing this i found that it was easier to be more spontaneous when i was in character. We then got into groups and started our tours around the college. heres mine (see video 13). heres me reflecting on the tour (see video log 3)
Why? - helps with acting skills such as
- characterisation (understanding how they move)
- actioning the script
- keeps you controlled
- understand how dynamics are used in performance
We started with the usual walking in the space, using different dynamics and now different motion factors we learnt from last week. This week was going to be about gestures, so we all had a little set routine of gestures we had to perform but with different dynamics and such, my group was Ronan and Cammie, we worked well together and picked up a different routine rather fast. We then had another routine of 8 set movement we had to learn, then get into a different group and change the dynamics etc. I picked up the original routine quickly but then when i got into my new group with Lauren, Leah and Carly, i found it really difficult to work with Leah and Carly, they didn’t listen to anyone and kept shouting over people and wouldn’t rehearse with he rest of the group at all times. We then performed our new routine but then was asked to do it with other random members of other groups, then we all did it together to see how it would look (see video 18).
Strength - staying in my zone
Target - perfect/polish dynamics
1 thing i need to improve
movement memory and going with it
2 things you have learnt new
understanding of dynamics
using different gestures in my own dynamic
4 aspects your going to apply to acting
shows character in more detail
we started off the lesson with the usual series warm up:
bella senora/strawberry pavlova
perritable pitter-patter- we added a range of different harmonies
somewhere over the rainbow
scales different mouth shapes (ee, eh, ah, or, oo)
numbers- changing the tempo
We then continued to practice the song ‘little shop of horrors’ after we sung the full song, we recorded how we sounded and then reflected on it and how we thought we sounded, we had to come up with things we thought was wrong with it, these are the things i thought:
- people were shouting
- people were singing the wrong words
- not listening to each other
- phrasing
We then all split up into our groups and worked on the things that were wrong with the song, so Joseph, Ronan, Hamish and myself decided to sing the first verse on our own individually to hear how we sounded solo, so then we could blend our voices together correctly, we then kept practicing our bit and getting it better. All groups then came together and sang the song again and the improvements were clearly evident.
At the beginning of the lesson, we had all chosen our first contemporary monologue, and we did a few exercises, in which we walked in the space whilst reading the monologue then whenever we came to a full stop, we would change direction, then we did it but changing direction every time we came across any punctuation, then one more time, this time when there was a change in topic and our characters motivation changes. We did this exercise because it helps us notice the punctuation more and realize when and where the breaks are within the monologue.
We then had our sight reading, we got given a script and had 15 minutes to apply the rules and techniques of a sight reading we learnt last week, i did mine and i reflected on it. (See video log 3)
we then got homework for next week (see image)
We started this lesson by doing some stretching warm up exercises, to get our bodies ready for the lesson, i found that i was really inflexible for some of the stretches so i think i need to work on my flexibility.
We recapped on our school movements from last week and played with a few more movements, we then got into our pairs/threes from last week and performed them across the space (See video 14)
We then got straight in on rehearsing the beamont piece from last week, i remembered all the movements rather well and knew which bits went where when people got confused and helped people out in remembering them, we then moved onto working on another section about school children, whilst rehearsing this, it took me a while to get the right speed of the movements as i was going too fast a first but then once i got it, i progressed rather quickly (see video 15)
We started by going over all of our dance routines(bez, ian curtis and new order blue Monday), getting them strong and tight, I put a lot more effort in all of the routines this time and gave 100% energy, we then went straight into rehearsing our own hacienda pieces, this week,Ele,Lauren and myself were in and also Amie was going to be joining us permanently, so we got stuck into rehearsing and what we were going to say, we came up with two more questions to add into our piece:
Q: Where do i get the ease?
A: Oh, you just get them through me basically »»> he bends everybody over generally?
Q: Whats everyone wearing?
A: There all wearing them kickers »»» everybody walks round in their knickers?
We also was playing on the idea of someone moving in and out of the line whilst doing the shuffling, bumping into people and pushing in, but we then found it wouldn’t really work with the extra people in it making the line. Whilst rehearsing this, we all worked together well, and chipped in ideas that helped progress the piece, although some people could have gave a few more suggestions as they were quiet and left it to other people.
We then performed our piece (see video 16) this was before we added all the people in and the feedback we got was that I would really work nicely and be a strong piece if the line was longer, the longer the line, the funnier it will be.
We went into the town centre to plan our route and what we were going to say etc. for Friday, so firstly we got shown the route we will be taking people on (from old fish market to Parr hall) and little facts we could say about places of interest, i took pictures of some of the places (see images)
I practiced mine, and whilst I was doing it, I felt really fatigued so I didn’t use my characters quirks of being over dramatic and enthusiastic, I had some interesting facts that no one else had in there but was let down by the effort level I put it and would have to perform much better if I want to get picked. (see video… )
In this lesson, we firstly reflected on the sight reading we had last week:
1 strength
- creating imaginary world
2 areas to improve
-take time to build dramatic situation
-watch hands – be controlled more
Target for this lesson
- learn all lines for monologue
We then got straight into rehearsing our monologues and developing character etc. I got straight up and started actioning whilst I was learning the lines, I picked up my lines really quickly, this I consider one of my strong points in acting. We had 15 minutes to develop our monologues, so during this time I times myself to make sure I didn’t go over the two minute mark, my time was about 1:40 which was a decent time which I was happy with, after I was confident with the line, I tried not to over rehearse as I wanted my fit performance of the monologue to be as natural as possible and not too deep in character. I performed my monologue confidently and remembered all my line (see video 17). My feedback was that I created the imaginary world well and that it was believable, I came across dark but could have been more darker and I need to see if I can play with that and one bit seemed forced when I say the line ‘yes..yes shh yes..sorry’.
i believe i met my target in this lesson as i learnt all my lines.
We started off the lesson by stretching and getting out bodies warmed up, after that we started rehearsing a new section of the beamont piece looking at school movements, We played on a movement using our knees so they were constantly bouncing, We were sat on the floor with our legs crossed to signify the traditional classroom setting. We decided that the count would be in counts of 5, because 8 would have been predictable, after the counts of 5, we would go down for 5 then back up, then after the third set of 5, we would turn, we then decided to change it so different people were turning at different times, so I turned on the 4th set. Whilst we were rehearsing this bit, it took me some time to get it right and not get confused, but after we practiced and practiced, we were all starting to pick it up. We then had to add our school traveling movements into it which we had been working on the weeks before, we decided that we would use them to go into the next bit of the performance (who is William Beamont), we used josephs ‘chicken’ like move to get to our next place, because me and ronan were in our places quite a bit before everyone else, we decided to add a little sequence of movements until everybody was ready, so we interpreted a movement that was in the original beamont piece.
This was the day we were going to town to perform our tour guide to Dereck Dick, I performed mine. This is me reflecting it (See video log 4)
Today we just focused on rehearsing our pieces ready for the performances on thursday, so we all did the 3 dances, I was putting in loads of energy whilst doing this, once we were all pretty clear on the dances, we used the rest of the lesson to go over our own pieces and get them clear and polished, because we were pretty clear on what we were doing, Ele, Amie and myself went into another room and went over what we were going to say, adding the addition questions on that we added last week. We also decided that it would look nice if we got people to drop off after every question because of what the diologue had been changed to, so we thought we have 5 questions and 12 people in the queue, 2 drop off everytime, leaving just amie and ele to go in at the end. We got the 10 extra people we needed and performed the piece to see if the idea worked, and afterwards, we got told that it did and looked a lot neater.
Today we were doing hacienda all day, rehearsing in the morning and then performing the actual piece in the afternoon. We spent most of the morning polishing the 3 main dances, this took longer than needed as people werent putting in as near as enough effort as they should have been doing, it was then decided that the main dances had to many people in the space, thus making it look messy, so she decided that we would perform them one more time, and the people who were putting in the most energy, would then be picked to stay in the middle and the others would just do there own dance around the space, I was one of the ones to stay in the middle, so that was a good sign that I was putting in lots of effort and energy. We then split up into our groups to work on our own pieces, within this time, we performed it under the lights to see where the light would look effective, I gave the cues to when to turn the light on and off and after which other piece it was on, also during this time, I looked at exiting my piece into the next, which was one of the main dances, after that my group and I just rehearsed over and over getting all the lines right and directing people where they go off and when.
We then performed it, I personally think it went really well, I remembered all my lines, and performed them clearly and confidently, the piece kept everyones attention and was clearly understood. Within the main dances, I was energetic and over enthusiastic about all the movements. Overall it was a nice conclusion to the show because as people were leaving, they were talking about the dance movements and how it reminded them of others ones they knew so it related to the audience and connected with them well.
After the Performance, we decided to do william beamont as the piece was in a weeks time, we carried on rehearsing the school section, we had to peform it without anyone counting aloud, whilst rehearsing this, people were saying that I was going a little too fast with the movements, I think this was because I am at the front for this section and cant see what anyone else is doing, therefor cant go off anyone elses counts, so I found it hard keeping the counts inside my head whilst performing the movements. We then was given diologue to say ontop of the movements, again I struggled keeping in time with the counts, but after some practice, I started to pick it up and it looked nice.
This week we started our Movements technique lesson with Rachael, This lesson, we looked purely at Stretching to get us more flexible. Rach gave us all a goal, that we had to be in the splits by Christmas. Whilst I was doing these stretches, I realized that im not as flexible as I should be and I was really stiff is some areas, like getting into the splits against the wall, so these lessons will be really helpful for me.
In this lesson, we developed the beamont piece even further, adding our learnt diologue on top of the movements, this time I was on time with the movements and did not rush them, we then practiced running the whole thing, working on a few movements and transitions between different parts of the piece, Hamish, Ronan and myself kept on top of our movement and was always on time and payed attention at all times. Because hamish wasn’t in the day before, ronan and myself had to teach him him the transition between the first school bit and the who is william beamont part, which he picked up pretty quickly. We then finally looked at out starting positions, as I was the last one to sit down, I had to make a cue in which we would all start counting and doing the movements, I decided to make it a deep breath motion then we would all start, to keep it simple but noticeable to other performers. Here we are rehearsing (see images)
Relate tomorrow ill happy to TIE
Today we started a new unit called ‘theatre in education’ which just the actors would be in and this linked to our tomorrow i’ll be happy lessons that we would have later on this week, so in this lesson we would creating a theatre in education company, identifying how it relates to tomorrow ill be happy (TIBH) and be assigned our own job roles within the company, then applying these roles to the performance and workshops that we were going to be doing. First we had a discussion on our understanding of the play.
Themes & Issues within TIBH
What is Theatre in Education?
TIE is theatre within an educational environment.
After the discussion, these were our job roles we decided we wanted:
Mike – Stage manager
Hamish – Workshop Co-ordinator
Joseph – Assistant Director
Amie – School Liason officer
Carly – Assistant Marketing
We then took part in a discussion, basically giving our opinions and views on TIBH and what we thought about each character and such, just our general thoughts on things, we would go into more detail on the Thursday because we would be with musical theatre aswell.
We then got some homework, which was basically to start our job roles, and with me being the Stage manager, I decided that I would write down all the props and costume needed for each scene by next Tuesday. Another homework was to research TIE companies.
the themes and issues within TIBH
In the beginning of this lesson, we were told that we were going to be performing a highly demanding 15 minute dance routine, so in the next couple of months, we will be learning technique and taking part in highly physical training including yoga stretches and such.
So we Spent this lesson Again by doing yoga stretches to get us towards our goal of getting in the splits by christmas, then we started to work on our cores, like staying in the plank and then go from left to right balancing on each arm. I definitely could see some improvement from previous weeks whilst I was stretching. We started practicing getting into/staying in a handstand, then getting in the crab in a variety of different way e.g. backwards from the wall.
Strength – Getting into the Warrior positions
Area to improve – Getting into crab from wall
First of all we reflected on our tour guide characters, and past lessons we had done.
how were the tour guide characters improvisation?
What improv skills applied?
Which would make your performance stronger in the future?
For me it would definitely be characterisation, as I lacked in my performance.
Strengths – loud, some areas were informative
Weaknesses – Planning, enthusiasm
We then had to assess each others tour guide in pairs, I went with Amie, but because Amie hadn’t got any in video evidence, I couldnt assess hers, so she just did mine, she assessed the practice one I performed in college and gave me DDM. We did this because it gave us and understanding of what we get graded on and what it takes to get a distinction.
We then were told that we would be doing an assessment, which would be assessing solo and group improv and our understanding of starting points.
We were then shown a umber of things on the board and then we had to relate it to exercises that we had done in previous drama improv lessons.
Body language – park bench
changing status – office scene activity
status – office scene activity
word at a time – word association game
developing characters – tour guide
storytelling – imagine a box game
narrative skills – imagine a box game
succsess and failure – shop keeper and customer
being spontanious – the insult activity, imagine a box game
accepting – the yes game activity
We then started the activities, the first game was this story telling game, where we all got in a circle and had to tell a story but only using one word at a time, this game would help and develop our skills in adding new info and not blocking, I was alright at this game at the start and never blocked, but on the other hand, I never really added any new information or made it exiting. further on into he game where we had to make the story go somewhere and make it spontaneous, I couldn’t think on my toes as much and ended up blocking a little bit, this is an area I could really improve on in the future. (see video 23)
We then all got together in an audience and then in two’s got picked to go to the front and act a scene out using only body language, and see if it was clear to the audience, when I went up, I acted out a scene where I was in a barbers, cutting someones hair, at the end, people seemed to identify mine clearly, so I think this was a success and an area I was strong on.
We then got into pairs, I went with Nikita, this exercise was all about not turning down offers, So A had to make an offer (again without speaking) and B had to accept the offer and finally A said thank you, at first, Nikita and myself did not understand it so we struggled, but as we started to get a fair understanding of it, we worked together well, we then got into another audience and two people at random, were picked to go up and play a series of offers, I went up with Chloe, and we performed ours, these scenes included: helping reach the top shelf, giving a hug and helping out in a game, we never blocked each other and our ideas were original and afterwards I was pleased with myself as beforehand I thought I was gonna be stuck for ideas but instead I just went for it.
At the end of the lesson we had to identify our strengths and weaknesses from the lesson.
Strength – The accepting game - coming up with original ideas
Weaknesses – the story telling game - need to think on my feet more
In this lesson, we would further our discussion from Tuesday now that musical theatre was with us. Firstly, we were shown what we should be able to do by the end of the lesson. (See image)
So we started our discussion on TIBH (see image)
After quite a long discussion on different viewpoints and ideas, we all decided that it was about Acceptance, Therefor for next week, we had to write a 250 word essay on acceptance in TIBH.
What are the themes and Issues?
This was to see what musical theatre thought and to get their view across
Social – facebook, sexuality, hate crime, crime, punishment
Cultural – customs, views on education, language, theft
political – david cameron, unemployment, benefits, barack obama, justice system
technological – texts, facebook, news reference
How do you see each character?
Darren – happy-go-lucky, happy with who he is,
Marcus – genuine, means no harm, misunderstood sometimes
Dior – most realistic on life,
Scott – in denial, hidden in some ways, but also open minded
Troy – there for the ride, doesnt know whats going on most the time
Siddie – Mad, crazy, the cat amongst the pigeons
Joanne – loud, stereotypical chav
Jadenne – tough, opinionated
Cyprus – peope pleaser, dopey, funny, means no harm
I think scott is gay but doesnt want to accept it himself because hes scared of being different and wants to fit in and be ‘normal’
Who is the central protagonist?
I think it is scott, because he is within the triangle of some characters, and the major drama and issues revolve around him.
We started vocal lesson as usual with the warm ups and voice techniques to get our vocals warmed up for the lesson.
This week we moved onto a new song, so all the actors got given the song ‘Seasons of love’ from ‘Rent’, so we went into another room, and listened to it a couple of times to get a general understanding of how the song goes, fortunatly,most of us had heard it before, so it didnt take thayt long to get into it. We practiced it over and over until we were comfortable, then we sung it without any vocals and just to the instrumental. I personally think we all worked together well and sounded fairly decent for people who have only just started vocal lessons, after many rehearsals and practices, we went back into the room and performed it with Musical theatre, after we finished, we were told that we needed to start pronouncing ‘love’ loke LAV not LUV. Austin then changes around groups and such, as soon as he did this, I didnt sound as good, I couldnt hit any of the notes properly, I dont know if this was because I was just having an off day or something else.
This lesson was the lesson we were auditioning for TIBH characters, but first we decided to do some Articulation, so like we did last year, when doing the monologues
We then did our auditions, (See videos 24, 25, 26) heres me reflecting on it (see video log 5)
We did some more auditions, but this time in duologue’s, heres me reflecting on it (See video log 5)
This week was another lesson for stretching, whilst I was doing these, again I could feel the difference from previous weeks, and could tell im getting more flexible as the weeks progress.
- present findings of TiE companies
- discuss and identify targets for next week
At the start of this lesson, we Presented our research on TiE companies which we had found, I did some research on these few
Theatre in education companies
tiny Giants Productions Limited formed in 1999 as a not for profit arts organisation.
Over the past 12 years they have steadily grown to become one of the most innovative companies of its kind in the country.
Based in Liverpool, tiny Giants are now one of the largest Theatre in Education Companies in the UK.
Tiny Giants perform to around 1200 schools every year.
Lantern theatre Liverpool
Lantern Theatre Liverpool is an intimate, family run venue, nestled in the heart of Liverpool’s creative playground.
Founded in 2009 by ‘tiny Giants Productions’, the theatre changed hands in September 2011 when mother and daughter combination, Margaret Connell and Siobhan Noble, stepped in to take the reins. With a vision centered upon the support of local artists – especially those looking for their first professional platform – a new era for Lantern Theatre Liverpool began.
Belgrade theatre in education company
In 1965, the Belgrade formed the first ever Theatre in Education (TiE) company,
A company dedicated to using theatrical performance and drama workshops to explore issues of cultural, social, political and moral significance as part of a free service to schools and the young people of Coventry.
It was a groundbreaking project and word soon spread to other UK theatres and beyond.
The Belgrade’s heritage continues to inspire the theatre’s current programmer of work. The TIE programmer is much smaller than it once was, but giving young people and minority groups the opportunity to build their confidence and to develop their own voices, whether as young artists or active citizens, remains at the heart of all the theatre’s community and education work.
The Belgrade currently runs one TIE project on an annual basis, Big School, a project about transition from Primary to Secondary school. The theatre is open to developing new projects on request, and was recently commissioned by the Minority Groups Support Services of the Local Authority to create The First Time I Saw Snow to support schools in their handling of the arrival of large numbers of pupils from new incoming communities in the north of the city.
Hobgoblin Theatre Company
Entering their seventh year as a company
grown from 2 shows, to 12 shows
formed out of desire to do something worthwhile with training, while still enjoying the excitement of live performances.
They write all their own Material
belief that learning should make a difference
mix of live theatre and dynamic workshops
joined together with leading educational provider “speakeasy4schools”
Do productions for adults and kids
We then looked at the similarities and differences between the different companies.
- some pieces are original, some are extract
Then reflecting off these similarities and differences, we discussed what we needed to make our company successful.
address issues (hatecrime, crime, homophobia, sexuality, social media)
Educational setting = school workshops.
We then presented what we had done for our job roles, This week I looked mainly at what possible props would be needed in each scene, and what the characters would be wearing. Also did some extra research is what is invovled in being a stage manager.
What being a stage manager involves
An essential skill for theatre stage managers is people management, as it is their role to coordinate all aspects of a theatre company to ensure the successful delivery of the performance.
This involves managing rehearsals, actors, technicians, props and costume fittings, as well as liaising with front of house staff and the director.
A stage manager needs to have a good understanding of both the technical and artistic elements of a performance so that they can ensure it is delivered exactly to the director’s requirements. They will be involved from the rehearsal stage through to the live performances, where they will be on hand to deal with any emergencies or issues that may hinder the show.
procuring all props, furniture and set dressings.
arranging costume and wig fittings
managing the props and possibly the design budgets and liaising with the production manager regarding costs.
compiling and operating prompt copy - also known as the ‘prompt script’ or ‘the book’ - which notes actors’ moves and the requirements for props, lighting and sound.
making changes to the set between scene changes, prompting actors and cueing technicians;
running the backstage and onstage areas during performances.
liaising with the director, stage personnel and other technical departments, e.g. costume, lighting, sound.
calling actors for rehearsals and performances.
Props – bunch of roses, two umbrellas,
Costumes – Marcus = suit / Dior = Formal dress
Props – pushchair, bunch of roses, flower bouquet
Costume – Dior = wedding dress, veil / Cyprus = dress (possibly what a bridemaid would wear) / Scott = suit and tie / Troy = suit and tie / marcus = jeans/chinos and a jacket
Scene 3: Prison Nail Room
Props – bowl of water, nail filer, nail polish, table, small scissors, two chairs
Costume – Joanne = prison attire / Jadenne = prison attire
Costume – Siddie = prison attire / Cyprus = tracksuit (or chav attire)
Scene 5: Diors back garden
Props – washing line, laundry basket, pegs, blue tracksuit top & jeans (for on the line)
Costume – Dior = chav attire / Scott = boxers, tee shirt
Props – torch, pushchair, knife, phone,
costume – darren = chav attire / Scott = blue tracksuit top, jeans / siddie = chav attire / dior = chav attire / cyprus = chav attire / joanne = chav attire (because of next scene, they will be dressed up for the party)
Scene 7: Outside scotts house
props – pushchair, bottle/can of alcohol, bag of crisps,
costumes – scott = blue tracksuit top, jeans / dior = party attire / cyprus = party attire / darren = party attire / joanne = party attire / siddie = party attire
Scene 8: Inside scotts house
props – box of lagers, sports bag, phone,
costume – siddie = party/chav attire / troy = party/chav attire / scott = chav attire
props – picnic blanket, bag of crisps, ruck sack
costume – Darren = chav attire / Scott = chav attire / Marcus = hoodie, chinos/skinny jeans
For next week i was told to look at who would be using each prop in each scene and note it down.
In this lesson, we were going to be looking at the process of performances, and the different processes that performers and directors can go through. We looked at a process scale that explained the 5 different types of processes going from Process 1 which is the ‘didactic process’ (Director as expert/Actor as instrument) all the way to process 5 which is the ‘democratic process’ (Director as co-owner/Actor as co-owner). So basically process one is where the director gets all the power or say in a production, this goes all the way to 5, each time, the actor getting a little more power within the production until they have 50% say. (See image)
We then moved on to getting a chance to direct ourself, to see which type of director we were and which process we go through and which is our preferred one. We were then given a blank piece of A4 paper and was given a minute to do something with it, making this the stimulus to base your performance around when directing some peers, I didnt get chance to direct this lesson, but when I was one of the actors, and they asked for ideas, I think I was very helpful and chipped in with a lot of the ideas for the performance.
Personally I prefer Process 2 (Director as author/Actor as interpreter) as this is the process used mainly for when plays are being rehearsed and me being an actor, felt more comfortable and knew my role within this process.
This lesson was going to be took up mostly by improvisation games, and then after the game, we would be reflecting on it.
So the first game we played was called ‘Its Tuesday’, in this game, A had to start the conversation and then B had to always start every sentence with “its tuesday….” , performed this with Joseph as partner A and then holly as partner B, I found this game really difficult as both partners, I found myself not adding new information and really struggled not to block. The skills and techniques used in this were
accept offers (dont deny)
The second game we played was the ‘verbal game’, in which A had to ask loads of questions like why, when, how etc. and b had to answer them in rapid succession and if we hesitated or said ‘errm’ then we failed, this game I personally found the most difficult because the first question had to be like “your in a street, why?” and it didnt give you as much range, I first didnt understand the game when I was A with hamish and I over complicated things at the very start, making it hard to go anywhere with it. On the other hand, when I was partner B with carly, I understood the game, and answered all the questions without hesitation and didnt block her at any time. The skills and techniques used in this game were
meet objective
The final game we played was called ‘Working someone’ where partner A had to offer the scene and B had to go with it, This game I found the most fun and easiest, I think this was because you were not given a set scene or dialogue, and could go anywhere you wanted with it, I was quite successful when I went with loren as partner A, I opened the scene clearly, and didnt block, adding new info throughout, keeping story and didnt die. The skills and techniques used in this game were
From this lesson, and from the games we played I learnt that I usually tend to be higher status within a scene, so with this in mind,i need to play on being lower a bit more.
Firstly, we looked at the two hate crimes that we researched on, discussed them and then looked at how they relate to TIBH and the contextual factors.
Political – says its not a hate crime
Social – social backgrounds, homophobic
technological – pictures on phone
Historical – the case influenced the play
We then were given a task to do for next thursday – 'A 250 word account on the two hate crimes and how they relate to TIBH'
We then moved on to developing our characters in TIBH, we did a three column list (see image)
We then had to reflect on this list and say what we had learnt about our character and such. (see image)
What have you learnt about your character?
I learnt that Scott doesnt really say any facts within the play. Also when he talks about himself, it is usually explaining himself or saying what he thinks going to happen and how he feels, when he is talking about others, which is the most frequent in the play, he usually talking to dior about the future and how everything is going to turn out fine, apart from darren and dior, he doesnt have that many long conversations with the rest of the characters. I also learnt that when people are talking about my character, dior is usually quite angry with scott exept from one line at the beginning where she is explaining that he will look after her, whilst darren when he talks about him, is usually making an innuendo of some sort apart from the scene where scott tells him hes getting married.
Does your characters own view of self differ from that of other characters?
In some ways yes, like regret, scott reflects on himself and regrets things hes done and feels bad, like said would mess up darren and I know it was a mistake, and this links with the other characters views on him, because they mostly think hes going to do something he regrets or he has just done something stupid.
Is the character talked about a lot?
Only when he is within the scene himself but apart from that there are only two occasions where he is mentioned
How will this effect your development?
Well in one way because the links between his own view on himself and then others on him will have to be really effective and believable as they are a big impact on the story.
We then looked at the characters back story, and what we decide or can tell from the script.
Who are you?
Name: Scott
Age: 17
Where do you live? Who with? Kind of home?
In a coastal town, with little brother/sister and parents (but they have gone away)
Occupation? Where do you work? How long for?
In scenes with dior, usually lower status but scenes with everybody else, its higher.
Favourite film, book, food, colour, music etc?
Any distinctive features?
Characteristics or quirks?
Does your character have any friends?
Darren, Dior, Troy, Siddie (closer when they were younger)
What clothes does your character wear?
Presuming chav attire, blue tracksuit top and jean
What is your characters voice like?
Has a mix of soft apologetic, angry frustration and emotionally distraught
finally we had to Unit and Obj etc each scene within the play (see image)
Scene 1: Graveyard (Normal counts for a lot round here)
Scene 2: The Pub (panic attacks)
Obj – to assure Dior that everything is going to be alright
key line - “things are gonna be well good, I promise”
Scene 3: Prison Nail Room (just like him)
Scene 4: Prison (Three rooms away)
Scene 5: Diors back garden (Somethings burning)
obj – to get comfirmation off dior that everything is going to be fine
key line – “Dior, talk to me, im sacred”
Scene 6: The Old School (Darrens life cut short)
obj – to get through siddies plan
key line – “Something came up”
Scene 7: Outside Scotts House (close shave)
Scene 8: Inside Scotts House (The proposal)
obj – to try and cover up the reason for the pictures
key line - “so what if I said. Marry me”
Scene 9: Hilltop (the picnic)
obj – to convince darren what they are doing is wrong
key line – you shoulda gone with him
We have done this because overall its gets us familiar with the scenes, it gets you intact with your objectives for each scene which is where the key line comes in, your key line should be the centre of your obj and the most important, powerful and believable line within the scene.
In this lesson, after we warmed up our vocals, we carried on with rehearsing, seasons of love from rent, austin worked a lot with our group (boys) in this lesson as we needed help getting the harmonies right, we needed to be higher and pronounce love as LAV not LUV, so after austin shown us how we do it and we copied his voice, we soon got to grips with the right tone and level that was needed for the song, and could definitely see improvement
- To develop your second contemporary monologue
- recap previous learning
- process contemporary monologue
- reflect and identify what you have learnt
Recap
We did a little recap on what we did last session, and we basically did our auditions for TIBH and we did this because we get to see areas of improvement during an audition that we need to work on. Then we looked at strengths and weaknesses.
the questions beforehand (seemed to stammer and sounded like I didnt know what I was talking about)
To see if my second monologue is right for me and audition worthy
In this lesson, we were going to be developing and performing our 2nd contemporary monologue, as we would not be performing these again until our assessment, heres me reflecting on the rehearsals and the performance (see video log 6 and video 27)
We were not in any lessons today as we were at the pyramid for a workshop
This week we were taking part in a Mock assessment to get us ready fo next weeks real assessment, we would be playing some new games and improvising new scenes whilst also doing some ones that we had done in previous weeks.
We first started the lesson by having a recap of last lesson. We basically played some games including its Tuesday and the working someone and then reflected on how we did and what improv skills were needed. We did this because it gets us more comfortable with improvisation scenes and lets us see our strengths and weaknesses. We then set a target for the day, mine was to explore lower status as last lesson I found that I mainly played higher status characters.
We then started with the first game, called 'is your name smith' in which we had to start off by saying is your name smith then can do anything with it from there.
I think in this game I achieved my target quite early on in the lesson as I was lower status in the scene with ronan and myself, we were spontaneous within this exercise and the banter was there so it flowed nice and was naturally funny without us trying, although we did lose focus at the end, I think it was a good try and we didnt really block each other, didnt deny offers, added new information and it wasnt boring. (see video 28)
On the other hand, the scene with jack wasnt as successful and didnt have natural flow, no real story was being told throughout and it died very early on. (see video 29)
The next game was 'sing' in which we had to sing everything we said throughout the scene. Whilst performing with my group in this, I thought it was me coming up with most of the story and ideas, I think at some points, I talked over one of my team members, but I was spontaneous and met the objectives of the game and didnt not sing at any point. (see video 30)
The next game was 'Props' and for this we had to tell a story using different props, but using them in a creative way and for their primarily use In this game I think I was creative with some of the props, I created a story whilst trying to be spontaneous. We then played the yes game again, in which one person from the scene has to always begin their sentence with yes...., this was another game which didnt go so well, although it started off pretty strong and had a story building, my mind went blank and it quickly lost the audiences attention.
I think I met my target in this session as I explored lower status in one of the scenes I was in.
Lesson 2
TIBH
We started the lesson by getting into groups and refelecting on the process of our characters, and what our interpetation of our characters. Hamish, Ronan and myself got into a group and told each other what we had done and our interpretations of our characters were. My interpetation of Scott was that he was a higher status charater within most of the scenes exept when Dior is in the scene, in which he tends to be lower status. He is quite confused in what he wants and would rather do something that everybody else wants rather than what he wants.
We then looked at our characters given circumstance, motivation, obsticles and how they will overcome them within each scene, we were told to do the first scene our characters were in, for me, this was scene 2 (the pub).
Who?
Who's there? – cyprus, dior, scott, troy, marcus
Who am I? – scott
Who am I talking to? – dior, marcus, cyprus
What?
whats happening? – scott and diors having their wedding party, standing outside a pub, wondering where dior is
Why?
Why am I there? - because its my wedding
Where?
Where is it? - southport, outside a pub
Motivation
Because he wants to move
Obstacles
the guilt of helping kill darren
Overcome
get married and try to forget
After this, we did some hot seating, I went with amie and we both answered the questions welland knew about our characters but one thing I was unsure on was wether or not to answer the questions that I think my character wouldnt answer or would lie about the answer. We did all this because we need to have a clear understanding of our interpetation of the characters and need to know what other peoples interpetation of their characters are.
We then started to look at actions and adding dynamics to an action, and how different dynamics can change the meaning of the sentence. We looked at the phrase 'would you like a coffee?' and how many different meaning it could have depending on the action and the dynamics of the action or the way it was said, we then got asked to make an audience and then we would perform the line with a chosen dynamic and chosen action, I chose to do it with sympathy, and with an impulse, and the audience saw that and guessed correctly.
Lesson 4
Acting Auditons
Aim:
To develop an understanding of delivery of classical text.
Firstly we recapped on what and how we did last lesson.
1 strength – using knowledge of play to develop monologue
2 areas to improve – more control, grounding myself at certain points
Target for the contemprary monologues – work on contrast between the two
Then we moved onto learning about iambic pentameter for our classical monologue.
Iambic Pentameter
meter refers to the pattern of syllables to a line of poetry.
penta = 5
the most basic unit of measure in a poem is the syllable and the pattern of syllables in a line from stressed to unstressed or vise versa.
Syllables are paired at 2 or 3 at a time depending on the stresses in the sentence.
2 syllables or 3 would be known as a foot for example 'the cow' would be considered one foot. Because when you say the words, 'the' is unstressed and 'cow' is stressed.
It can be represented as ti/tum (ti – unstressed, tum – stressed).
An unstressed/stressed foot is known as a iambic
in basic iambic pentameter, a line would have 5 feet of iambic unstressed followed by stressed.
Example
- If Mu/sic Be / The Food / Of Love /, Play On -
I understood this pretty quickly and understood it all and how it would be said after we did a few practices with the example. We then looked at different writing structures within shakespeare plays (see image)
We then looked at some shakespeare plays to see if we could find the different styles within the plays (see images)
blank verse
Strenght – understanding the syllables within a meter (stressed, non stressed)
Weakness – finding the different styles with ease
Homework
Write an iambic pentameter
find at least two classical texts
Friday
Lesson 1
Technique with rach
Today was took up by doing extreme yoga, this was to get us ready, flexible and strond for the half an hour routine which we will be performing, and we will be doing extreme yoga until after the christmas holidays.
We first presented and told the group what we had done for homework. I did this.
Prop holder in each scene
Marcus = an umbrella, bunch of roses
Cyprus = pram, flower bouquet
Scene 3: prison nail room
Joanne = chair, bowl of water
Jadenne = nail file, scissors, chair, nail polish
Scene 5 = dior’s back garden
Dior = washing basket, pegs
extra = washing line, blue tracksuit top, jeans
Scene 7: outside scotts house
Cyprus = pushchair, bag of crisps
Scott = can/bottle of alcohol
Siddie = can/bottle of alcohol
Scene 8: inside scotts house
We then looked at what we needed as a company. We decided these things.
we then had to decide on what dates would we be performing to which audience, after a discussion, the ideas changed a lot but decided on this
21st – for performing arts
23rd – for schools (plus workshop)
24th – for parents and others
This was the lesson we started to really get on with our job roles to make this production happen. With me being the stage manager, I began working with the assistant director (Joseph) and decided that we would be projecting images around the stage, thus meaning we needed to source images. So we started on the first 4 scenes, me doing the first 2 and Joseph scene 3 and 4. after a discussion we decided our images. Here was mine.
slides – pub door, bricks, pub door, road
In this lesson we recapped on the didactic/democratic scale from last lesson. In this lesson, it was my turn to be a director, but I had to do it in the style of director is expert, I found this difficult because I think for this process, you have to of had a lot of planning to know exactly want you want, I was told that I didnt give exact instructions and that my piece didnt make sense in some parts. I think the only time I would do this process would be if I wrote a comedy play and wanted the lines to be performed in an exact way for comic purposes.
This week was our assessment. Heres me reflecting on it (See video log 7)
Because we will be performing this in the round, we started to discuss what things we need to consider and what affect will this have.
positioning of each character – every audience member needs to see at least one actors face at all time.
What effect does this have?
feels more intermate – gets the audience to seem like their in the scene
can use more naturalistic tone
We then started developing our characters actions and dynamics. Heres me reflecting on the tasks (see video ... )
We didn't have a lesson this week due to comedy improv workshop.
This lesson, we first looked at the grading criteria for theatre in education and found that it was easy to get distinctions in the different units just by answering the grading criteria.
D1 - Analyse and justify ideas for a TiE project that meets the educational needs of the target audience.
D2 – develop ideas for TiE project that would entertain and educate with flair and imagination.
D3 – apply organizational skills with foresight and attention to detail.
We then looked at the financial side of things and started to look at the costs of things.
We decided to make the ticket price at £3.50.
We will be seating 80 people if sold out
We then got on with our job roles, so Joseph and myself went to discuss set costs with David Wilson to get some advise and confirmation. He advised us to use fabric around the stage instead of wood because if we used wood, our budget will be gone straight away, but with fabric, its cheaper but still as effective.
We then continued to source images for the scene settings, Joseph and myself had a few pictures on potential ideas for the first few scenes, it was then pointed out that it would be much better and effective to take the pictures ourselves, instead of getting them off google images etc.
In this lesson, we first started by warming up our bodies by doing a bit of release, and timed jumping, changing from first position to neutral, this was to get us back into the habit of pointing our toes and getting us familiar to the positions so they come more naturally when it comes to use them.
In this lesson, the class would be working as Director as co-owner/Actor as co-owner. We were given a scenario that we were working for a big company, and they had set us a task to create a 4 minute piece within 45 minutes. We first started off a bit slow as no one had ideas, then Hamish took a little bit of leadership and started us off, we decided that we were going to be doing a dance piece on African tribes. So then I took charge and said that we should all get in a line and one by one, come up with a simple movement to go into the sequence. Throughout this bit, all of the girls didnt really give any input and just kept saying 'I dont know' and doing half hearted moves, so it was upto Hamish, Ronan and Myself to come up with the movements, so we created a set routine lasting about 45 seconds and the girls just went along with it. Then other members were added into the group and thats when the arguments started to arise, people weren't listening to each other and not letting each other speak, I lost my temper at one point and started shouting, and by the end because that many disagreements arose, we didnt end up meeting our objectives and only managed to create a minute piece.
We first answered a few questions, we looked at priority aims and what they mean. It means setting certain personal objectives that we thing are crucial and important to the scenes and characters e.g. planning and preparing. Then we looked at why we set these, it is because we need to have a fully developed character, and the show to have life and energy and make it watchable.
This week was our first rehearsal lesson, but first we began looking at lines and delivery within the play. Heres me reflecting on the lesson (see video log …) and my rehearsal performance (see video 32)
Aims and Objectives (see image)
We first had a little recap on some things we learnt last week, there were a few statements on the board about classical text, some were true and others were false, and us remembering from last week had to state which of these were true, these statements were things like. ' theres 5 feet within every line', 'follows the pattern unstressed/stressed' and 'unstressed/stressed is known as iambic'. We did this to get our knowledge of classical text structure back into our heads and to see what we had learnt so far.
We were then given a text from the Shakespeare play 'measure for measure' as the the character of 'Claudio' to practice marking out unstressed and stressed words within the text (see image). When we had finished that, we got up on our feet and practiced saying it with the 'ti-tum' system, pronouncing every stressed word clearly and kind of robotic whilst stamping our feet to help ourselves keep the rhythm, whilst doing this, I was rushing ahead of people even though i'd not fully understood the ti-tum techniques and the footwork, I found that I struggled with the footwork when saying some words that were three syllables or more, and started to get really annoyed with myself, thus meaning I was stopping and not progressing, but after a little more guidance, it was starting to come together more naturally.
Strength – separating syllables into stressed/unstressed
Weakness – knowing how to do the feet when it came to a three or more syllable word
This week we considered what had to be done, and what had already been done, after a meeting and discussion, we found that hardly anything had been done. So we decided to get on with out priority job roles, Joseph and myself went to find Stephen to see if we could have the money for set, but he said we needed to email him a sheet of all the budget, like how much we were going to make and how much we need to spend on everything. So we started on props and how much we would need to pay overall for props, luckily we found that the budget for props would be that much as most of the props we could get ourselves and the only two things we would have to buy.
Retractable prop knife – 1.99
We started this lesson by doing some stretches and such to get us ready for the lesson as we would be really getting into it and doing lots of physical movement in this lesson. Mainly this lesson was about creating dance through movement improvisation. So we started with a quick warm up which involved walking in the space differentiating between different amounts of energy, going from 1 to 10, 1 being hardly no energy at all and 10 being an excessive amount of energy. We then had to move around the space but this time gliding as if we were skating on ice, and whilst doing this, experimenting with our body like seeing how we can move with our pelvis or how many different ways our arms can move. We then had to dance to the music and then find different partners and dance with them using completely improvised moves. We then made up several movement sequences on the spot, and then remembering these, got into pairs/threes and put our movements together and make them work, I worked with hamish and ronan, we were very productive and learnt a good sequence pretty quickly and decided to make it physically demanding. Heres our first improvised sequence (see video 31).
Finally to end the lesson off, we had a little 'jam' in which we stood in a square and whenever we felt like or it felt right, we would go into the middle and improvise and explore with movement. This was to get us familiar with the concept as we would be doing it next week and we would be filming our improvisation and using that to create another dance sequence.
Thursday
Lesson 1
Hilden project
(See mikehappiapp page)
Lesson 2
TIBH
We started off the lesson by warming up our bodies and vocals, we first did some walking in the space, differentiating between the 10 effort levels but also adding some dynamics in as this would get us into the habit of using laban techniques during the performance. We then did the series of articulation exersices ready for rehearsals.
This week, Joseph, Hamish and I continued with our hilltop scene with our lines learnt so that it would be more fluent, we were keeping alive, making changes each time, although the lines were still a bit sketchy at some points, we were progressing with the scene rather quickly and was so much more improves than when we first did it. I then started to work on the 'inside scotts house' scene as joseph continued to learn his big monologues in the hilltop scene. At the start of rehearsing this scene I knew all my lines within the scene which was good but we just needed to work on actions and keeping it alive, making changes each time, because as we were doing it, it seemed dead and boring to watch. Eventually we got our heads together and started being more creative and making the scene alive.
Lesson 3
Acting Auditions
This week we would be doing more exercises to get us performing the classical monologues well.
germansingergirl
jacobvanloon
discoholicmusic
baratheonpilled
stormborns
janainaart
yousharknotpass
andulkaphoto
annaxmalina
snowghoul
kianamaiart
pixelskylines
