UNIT 1-4

Greek Theatre



Wednesday 5th september

First homework/ research task
Ancient Greek theatre originated in Athens where a company of actors performed shows and festivals to worship the Greek Gods. Greek tragedy was created in Athens in around 532bc.
The typical Greek theatre was shaped like a rounded arena, a circle of rows of steps over looking the stage/ performance space in the middle. Thespis was the name of the earliest recorded actor and frequently used Greek masks in his shows.

Thursday 6th September

This morning we had our first acting lesson, this was a chance to get to know the new students that i will be working with for the next 2 years and for the others to meet Rob the acting teacher and our tutor. Rob greeted and welcomed us to the course and conducted some ice breaker warm up activities. This was helpful as I got the chance to learn a few names and helped me feel comfortable and confident even though there was lots of new faces in the room. We played a few acting games eg. Human Bingo and opposites. Human bingo was a game we played where we had a tick sheet and had to meet a different person every time to tick off one of the boxes on the bingo ticket, the boxes contained things such as 'I know a famous person' and 'i go to the gym'. Opposites Is an activity where you walk around the room and when Rob says jump you clap, when rob says clap you jump and when rob says up you go down, and when he says down you go up.

This afternoon Rob gave us the Handbook speech starring special guest head of department Charlie.
Rob and Charlie explained in depth about how to conduct yourself in college, how to keep safe and not to bring fast food into the college. They also explained about BTECH Certificates, and how to set up our blogs.


Monday 10th September

Today we was in the dance studio, we started with a warm up (Opposites). We also played a variety of impro games, the first game was where we was in pairs and had to improvise a scene where the lines begin with the letters through the alphabet eg.

1- 'Apparently Mary shaved her head.'
2- 'Brave girl that one'
1- 'Crazy more like!'
2- 'Do you think her boyfriend likes it'
1- 'Eventually he will have to get used to it'
2- 'F......'

We done another improvisation game where you had to improvise a scene around a frozen pose your partner has chosen. These improvisation activities help develop an actors ability to think on their feet quickly and throw themselves into a scene.

This Lesson we spent some time as a group thinking about an actors hopes, skills and fears.
Some of our hopes are to make friends and to gain our qualification.
Some of our skills are...
- Confidence
- Awareness
- Imagination
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Discipline
- Listening
- Openess
- Enjoy
- Voice

some of our fears are...
Habits
Shy
Failure
Rejection

Tuesday 11th September
Today I set up my blog.
This afternoon we had a acting lesson with Sharon. Sharon warmed us up and made us make a dance sequence we then was given a title of a 3 scene play. Ours was called 'My life as a geek' our task was to do all 4 moves in our play. A synopsis of our play is that there was 2 geeks that wanted to join the popular dance team however after being rejected after auditioning they decide to start their own dance team called geek chic and challenge the popular dance kids to a dance battle. After dance battling the geeks win and its a happy ending. Sharon also taught us the importance of a perfect circle.

Wednesday 12th september
Today we had an acting lesson with sharon, she handed us our scripts for Medea and we did a initial read through.

Thursday 13th september
Today we had a acting lesson with rob. He made us lie on the floor, close our eyes, relax and focus on our breathing. We laid on the floor breathing, humming and destressing for quite some time. This lesson we focused on developing our voice as an actor, Rob gave us the names of 2 famous voice gurus called Cicely Berry and the other, our lesson based on her book, Patsy Rodenburg. Patsy talked about the truth a lot and stressed the importance of being truthful as an actor. She also spoke about diction and articulation and to help us with those Rob did a voice warm up. We recited vowel sounds oo, oh. ore, we was told how to avoid glottal. A glottal is when your voice gets staccato and you sound a bit like a seal.  We also recited consonants C,G/ L,N/ D,T/ M,B,P. For M,BP we said mamamama papapapa bababababaahhh.
We then where each given peoms to perform the task being focusing on pacing the peom, staying truthful to your normal voice , moving the voice and projection.



monday 24th september
This morning we were in the theatre with rob for a change this was helpful so i could get the hang of performing on the stage for the real performance. Today we spent a lot of time thinking and discussing the subject of the text, this means what emotions and objectives are written in between the lines. We did an impro excersice that helped us understand subject. It started off with walking around the room and then we acted out the story rob was telling us. The story was that we lied to our boss and told him we arent feeling well and we have to leave early, and then we make way to the train station on our way to meet our lover to go and see a concert, and then all of a sudden we see the boss from work and have to sneak onto the train without being caught. This was a helpful senario to help us with subject as there is a clear moment when the emotion of the scene changes and that is when we see the boss. It is important to understand how the emotions of the scene can change through out the piece due to the subtext.

This afternoon we carried on rehersing my Antigone and Ismene piece with Rose and then we had to perform it for the first time, considering this was our first performance at least we managed to make it all the way through, the script consists a lot of large sums of text so if you lose rhythm it can be easy for the audience to lose focus, there are a lot of original greek words and names with unusual pronunciations. My feedback was to fill the dead space, keep my inner thought process going and to watch my posture.

Tuesday 25th September
This morning we had context, I updated my blog and some people decided they are going to run for class rep, however I have decided not to run as I would like to keep all drama inside the class room.

This afternoon we had a drama class with Sharon in the drama studios. We had to get some things done in preparation for the PAPA TANGO theatre company who is coming in tomorrow morning to run a script writing workshop with us where by the end of it we will all have our 5 min plays published. I worked in a group with Kieran, kaddi and Micheal we all created our own characters and decided on our background strory. Our characters are called, Grayson, Star, Michelle and Simon. We have all just ran out of a beginning of summer  party because the police where called. The characters end up in a local park where the four of them share their deepest and darkest of secrets discovering that they all have a lot more in common that expected.

Wednesday 26th September

This morning we met Paris form the PAPATANGO theatre company she helped us with the structure of our plays. She explained to us that plays usually consist of 5 parts...
1- Exposition
2- buildup
3- Climax
4- Consequence
5- Resolution
We started on our script and have decided on a name for our company and the show. I really loved working with my group it was a non stop flood of creative ideas and I like that we all decided as a team weather we should add it. My group got on with the work very well and I appreciate that everyone pulled their weight evenly. ID3NTIT4 is our company name and the show is called Glow. In the show there is a drug called glow that is extremely dangerous and can cause extreme negative hallucinations and sensations. The protagonist Michelle gets raped by Graysons evil identical twin brother who shortly after overdoses on Glow. Every character who ends up in the park holds a part in Michelles story and all hold deep dark secrets of their own which will soon be exposed. The character i invented called simon is geeky and really wants to fit in, he has a rough home life since he watched his mothers death and his father is an aggressive drunk. In search of release from all responsibilities and simply to be anywhere that's not home
Simon attends the party. However Simon gets bullied by the posse of popular boys lead by Jason the evil twin, Simon finds saftey in an upstairs bedroom, until he hears voices approaching and hides under the bed. This is how Simon is  crucial part in justice for Michelle as he is witness off her rape.

Thursday 27th September
This morning Rob gave us a speech about the mark scheme and what is expected of you for unit 8. He also showed us a list of credited drama schools and gave us a little explanation of each. Italia Conti and the are the 2 on the list that appeal to me most. Italia Conti simply because it is the school from cbbc school for stars and has a very successful agency and Royal central school of speech and drama because it is local (swiss cottage) and my sister has just graduated with a degree from there and highly recommends it.
This afternoon we jumped straight into a half hour rehearsal and then had to watch every single group perform. Rose and I had improved greatly since our last performance. Our feed back was to slow down and find a steady engaging pace, obviously when the words are learned it will flow a lot better. Rob commented that there a nice stillness to the piece however wants us to delve deeper into why am I saying these words and to think about the lives the characters live off the page.

Monday 1st October
Rob wasn't in today so i didn't come in.


Tuesday 2nd October
Rob wasn't in this morning.
We had a lesson with Sharon in the afternoon and she split the lesson up and asked us to come back an hour later so she could have time to speak to each group individually about their papatango script.
Our group made a google documents for our show so we could all contribute to it at any time. We wrote up the first scene together. My partner Kaddi made an amazing fake snap chat video to be displayed on the theatre projector when the actors perform.

Wednesday 3rd October
My groups time slot with Sharon so we worked on our scripts in the Learning Resource Centre

Monday 8th October
This morning we had time to rehearsal time to practice our Antigone and Ismene duologs
however my partner wasnt in this morning to I read through my script. We had a tech rehersal in the afternoon this was helpful so i could familiarise myself with being in the theatre however my partner still wasn't in so I was a little worried because we haven't rehearsed before the show.

Tuesday 9th october
Today was the day of my performance, my partner was in however she didn't learn her lines.  The performance was a bit of a shambles and I tried my best to say my lines in order however my partner struggled to keep the order chronological, I managed to improvise my way around the mistakes and stay in character however we did confuse the tech team as the final que line wasnt said.





The Seagull

"Stanislavski developed the technique in the early 1900s and they have been used ever since to help actors create believable emotions and actions in the characters they portray. Stanislavski method acting is basically in seven steps, these techniques where developed to help actors to build beliveable characters." - 

https://www.dramaclasses.biz/the-stanislavski-system

1. Who Am I?
2. Where Am I?
3. When Is It?
4. What Do I Want?
5. Why Do I Want It?
6. How Will I Get It?
7. What Do I Need To Overcome?

Our first job in the rehersal process is to annotate our scripts here is an example.

Ie:
I need to talk to you…inner monologue: God I am dreading this.

I don't think we have been getting on too well...inner monologue: All we do is argue.

The objective of this scene is to break up with the person, identify the obstactles that there might be.

Our class was split into 3 groups and given a script by the famous playwright Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). The three plays are The three sisters, The cherry Orchard and The seagull. My group was given the seagull. Chekhov is a Russian playwright whos career peaked in the late 19th century. The main theme that ran through out all Chekhovs writting is the difficulty of communication among people

The rehearsal process for The seagull

When given a new script for the first time it is important to read it all the way through and understand the value of the script, the difference between the fresh crisp neatly stacked stapled script i was initially started off with this is long gone! My now dog eared, scribbled on and highlighted script has not left my side since it has been given to me. I read it on the train to college, i test myself while I eat my dinner and watch X factor. At first i was a little unimpressed with the script, frustrated with the lengthy language and baffled by the concept of a play in a play. For the first couple of rehearsals i was struggling to take my character seriously and focus on my characters objectives. This is when i decided to spend some time researching my character and finding parts of text that give me a clearer idea of who my character is and what her motive is in my scene. Even though I only had to perform one scene out of the whole play, I discovered it was really important to know what Ninas (my character) journey is through out the play. My character Nina is a beautiful, flirtatious, mischievous young lady who holds a lot of darkness within. Ninas mother died when she was young and her horrible step mother and father keep her locked up and trapped inside the house, she suffers muliple heart breaks through out the play. I feel Nina is a pretty song bird trapped inside a bird cage who longs to fly free and be selfish and take all for themselves like a seagull.
A main part of working in one big group as a company and then seperated into 2s or 3s, is so that we can watch each others performances and give constructive criticism and feedback. While receiving feedback it is important to firstly listen attentively, but most of all to be able to not fear criticism. Professional actors overtime develop what we call a 'thick skin', this means not being to sensitive if someone is expressing a negative opinion. It is an incredible skill to be able to turn the negative into positive and learn from mistakes.

As an actor i find it very important to be grounded to the performance space. Our usual rehearsal space is the dance studios which is not where we will be performing, however the last few rehearsals leading up to the performance we got to spend in the theatre, i found this time crucial to feel at one with my character and the space. Of course I have been in the theatre many times but every time i approach the space with a different character I like to walk around the space to get a sense of spacial awareness, then i will stand in the middle of the space with my palms facing the floor, feeling a rush of energy from the floor through my feet and then all the way up to my head. This exercise may seem silly and bizarre however it is my coping mechanism for stage fright and helps me feel confident simply because i know im grounded. This whole unit has helped me develop my confidence skills, over the past week i have understood the importance of being able to just go for it and throw yourself in the deep end without worrying about making a fool of yourself. Always in life it is important to be able to laugh at yourself, taking yourself too seriously will turn you into a serious boring person.
Finding your characters voice can be a tricky process. Firstly you should do a vocal warm up before any performance or rehearsal. Usually before we split into our separate scenes to rehearse, our rehearsal director (Danellia) will conduct a vocal warm up as a company. Performing on stage isn't just about being loud in volume, it is about projection, diction, pronunciation, articulation, tone and so  much more. All of these are important to take into consideration when finding your characters voice. I also developed my tone of voice to display the subtext and achieve my characters objectives.
Acting isnt as simple as standing on stage and spouting a load of emotional poetic nonsense, it requires a skillful multi tasker to get the job done properly, an actor has to focus on multiple things aswell as the lines while performing. Providing equal amounts of thought and research into listening to the other characters on stage, re acting to their lines, not breaking character, involving props and technicalities, keeping eye contact with other characters, being physically emotionally vocally and mentally engaged. Being mentally engaged requires you to not only act and speak like your character but think like your character too, I developed an inner monolouge for Nina. Being physically engaged requires you to pay attention to sight lines, no backs to the audiance, circles of attention. As well as being spacialy aware it is important to take the physicality of your character on this means thinking about what Ninas body language might be like and how does the time period the play is set in contribute to this. Since this play was written along time ago i imagined Nina would have had to behave in a socially acceptable 'lady-like' way. Meaning she would cross her legs while sitting, sit up straight. Although when performing i was just wearing black leggings and a black long sleeved top, I found it useful to imagine that i was wearing a big 19th centenary dress with a corset and petti coats. This also helped me display Ninas flirtatious side.
Through out the whole rehearsal process I conducted a good energy and good behavior. My biggest struggle was probably making it my own but still keeping it naturalistic. I received a lot of contradicting criticism for this piece, for example some people would be like spread out a bit more, and Then Rob is like stay close to each other... Its a difficult skill to be able to find a perfect balance.

STAN THE MAN!
One of the most important things to learn from this unit was to apply The almighty Stanislavsky's methods to our pieces.
Stan the man wanted to change the style of acting that was being performed in the theatre so he created these methods so his actors could understand how to turn theatre from a slapstick, comedic, display of jokes, into a naturalistic, emotion evoking, slice of life drama. I honesty think stan had great respect for the arts and the theatre because he knew theatre is more than entertainment but a powerful tool for an imaginative soul.Stan used the theatre like a blank canvas, creating masterpieces that have never been seen before, and of course he received a great reaction, the whole of dramatic arts was revolutionized!

Methods!

Subtext- Hidden meaning under the dialogue

objectives- what are we trying to achieve

Given circumstances- the information about a character that you start of with and the play as a whole

through line- the logical coherence of a character role, including their life off stage

Magic if- what would i do if i was in this situation

 Actions- how we achieve our objective

Emotional memory- when an actor find a real past experience where they felt similar to the emotion to that demanded by the role they are playing

Circles of attention- awareness of the space around us from small to large