04/12/14 EET homework 5

Rehearing:

Here is the basic configuration of our performance space. It is called THRUST staging. 

• Give an advantage of using this stage space.
• The audience feel included and an intimate atmosphere is created. Having one end which is visible to all provides a ‘back’ to the stage.
• Give a disadvantage of using this stage space.
• The audiences line of sight can still be an issue. 

Question:

As an actor what are the challenges you think you will have personally being directed in this space? When delivering my lines to an audience while on a thrust stage I will have to be aware of engaging with the audience on all three sides.That means that when focusing on individual members of the audience, I need to include everyone on all sides.  

Below is a plan of a stage. It tells you what we call each area of the stage. Familiarise yourself with this as you will be asked by your director to enter from stage left or right, move up or down stage. This is vocabulary that you should be able to use as an actor. 

How have we staged the prologue? Why have we made this choices? What is the effect that is created? We have staged to prologue with the lights down and by positioning the stools all around the stage facing outwards towards the audience in different directions.The staging is well suited to the trust stage because it means that all of the audience can see what is happening on stage and feel engaged.People were selected to be taxi drivers and everyone else's was paired up with a driver so that each taxi had one driver, two headlight and an inside car light.The person standing behind would hold up there phone to eliminate the drivers face while the other two people knelled down on the floor and shined there touches forwards like headlights on a car. 

Answer for the tale you are in. Girls - Tale 1, Boys - Tale 2

What is your role in the tale?h

How has it been staged?Much the same way as the prologue was staged everyone was facing outwards towards the audience with the lights down and everyone lighting up their faces.After the dialogue was finished we all made our way to the back of the stage and drew the woman we were describing on the wall with chalk. 

Why have these choices been made?h

What are the strengths of this piece so far?h

What developments need to happen throughout the rehearsal period? h

LINE LEARNING

You all need to learn lines that have been allocated to you so far for the next lesson. 

PLANNING 

Have a read through Tale 3, 4 and 5 again.

We will be working on these next week.

Unit 15:Performing Scripted Plays

Grading Criteria

DEVELOPING IN REHEARSAL  

P1 Explore, develop and shape a role using practical activities and research findings

M1 Explore, develop and shape a role using practical activities and research findings in relation to the demands of the text

D1 Explore, develop and shape a role using practical activities and research findings effectively,fully appreciating the demands of the text.

REHEARSAL 

P2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal making a positive contribution to the process

M2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal, consistently making a positivecontribution and constructive contribution to the process.

D2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal with consistently positive andconstructive contributions, engagement, commitment, input and self- reflection.

PERFORMANCE 

P3 Perform a role demonstrating competent use of relevant performance skills to communicate intentions to the audience

M3 Perform a role demonstrating competent use of relevant performance skills confidently and consistently, clearly communicating intentions to the audience

D3 Perform a role with competent, sustained and effective demonstration of relevant performance skills, accurately communicating intentions to the audience with confidence and control.

27/11/14 EET homework 4

Developing movement for characters

Here are some interesting videos on creating characters. Watch these and make some notes.How might the information in these films be useful when rehearsing and creating a role?

Notes:I didn't know that there was such a thing as a movement director let alone know the difference between a movement director and a choreographer. I was very interesting to see how much the play depends on movement and how essential a movement director actually is.When seeing a moving director help an actor create their character I was amazed at the amount of time and thought that goes into finding out how a character might move and hold themselves. I thought it was up to the actor alone to discover how their character moved but it seems a lot more involved than that.

Physical Theatre

The final piece will rely on physical theatre and the work of a tight ensemble to tell the story of 'East End Tales'.

Frantic Assembly are a UK based physical theatre company-notes:Physical theatre is obviously a huge part of how the company puts together a performance.Othello is a play about passion and jealousy which are strong emotions that have inspired the movements of the performers.Frantic, dynamic,and contorted movements that are interwoven to reflect the tangled web of lies and deceit.   

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time'-notes:The play tells the story of an autistic boy named Christopher and the events are seen through his slightly alien cotious.The performance takes a multi sensory approach to explaining autism which makes it easier for people to understand what it is like to be autistic.The dynamics of the movements seem to be constantly changing and will switch from fast to slow very suddenly.This is to show how even though Christophor may overcome one barrier there is always another one just around the corner.  

TASK 1 – MONOLOGUES

You were asked to think about your favourite character that you've worked on so far.

You we asked to write a monologue for that character that stays with the same style of the play. 

You then worked in pairs to stage the pieces. 

Q- What choices did you make when staging your monologue? Think about how you used your voice and physicality. I performed my monologue whilst sitting on a chair facing the audience and delivered my lines in a fast and frantic way.My chair was positioned at center stage and fairly close to the audience to try to engage more with them and I was speaking quickly to try and make the piece seem more exciting.My monologue as well as everyone else's was spoken directly at the audience as if they were having a conversation with them. It was a very personal piece in terms of the connection between the audience and the performer and I felt that in my scene my character was being very open and honest to those watching. My character is completely against violence and doesn't want to get involved with the fight that is going on around him. I think he is quite innocent relly and tries his best to escape the violence of the rough world around him. He would never harm anyone but generally speaking he wouldn't go out of his way to help someone. He is not a very sociable person and he encloses himself in his own little world as a way of getting away from it all but a pint or two now and then is as good a coping strategy as any.

Q -How did the monologue task help you to understand the play further?I think that having to explore a monologue and create a character from scratch was a good test of my imagination.Also having no guidelines meant that what I created was raw and honest because the monologue was written out solely by me.Creating a character in the setting of the east end and creating a story from that helps you to get into the mind set of the playwright.Making up monologues like that is part of the process that the writer would have gone through to make the play. By almost creating a tail of your own you gain a greater understanding of the raw messages that are being put across within each of the tails in the play. 

You performed and watched your peer's work.

Q- What monologue performed by a peer worked well and why? What had they written about?I was paired up with Roseby who I think she has a lot of talent and she showcased it very well in her piece by using her gift with accents to create a wild and bold character that stood out from other performances for me. She played the part of the landlord but in a completely new and surprising way by going back in time to when her character was a lot younger and free.I loved her casual use of space, sitting down on the floor early on in her monologue instead of standing or sitting down on the chair like a lot of other people did.This combined with the interesting choice to make the character scottish which obviously played to her strengths made her monologue thrilling to watch.An outstandingly creative piece.  

Q - Who performed their monologue successfully and why? As well as Roseby's performance there were many really imaginative pieces which told some thought provoking stories. An intriguing performance from Rory was unique because the monologue was delivered like we as an audience were only hearing one side of a conversation between Rory's character and someone in the police force.It was very emotional watching Rory's reaction to having the news broken to him that he had killed his own wife. His character didn't remember killing her so he reacted with confusion and fury which was stunning for the audience to watch.A relly clever and emotional piece of theatre.