Week Two: Mon 16 September – Weds 18 September 2013

Our second week, lead to our second Acting Skills and Techniques lesson, which was the date our first homework was due in.  Our homework was to learn a monologue.  But it wasn’t to be a random monologue; the main point of this was for each of us to perform a monologue where the character was to be similar to our own characters in reality.  My monologue was from the play ‘Man of the Moment’ written by Alan Aykbourne.  I chose this monologue as I had performed it twice already.  The first time was for my Bronze LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts) award and the second time was for an audition to get into South Downs College Level 2 Performing Arts.  Plus I see a similarity between the character Douglas and I.  But when we were all performing, there was to be two other students who were to review your performance, just like I was to review two students.  The purpose of this was to show what the students’ performance was like through an audience member’s point of view; as well as give each student understands of performance techniques.

Our second lesson of singing had us handing in homework.  But this homework was to look at techniques of singing.  The purpose of this homework was for each student to come up with a technique in which allowed a singer’s vocals to be prepared for a singing performance.  For example, I came up with the phrase ‘The Tip of the Tongue and the Teeth and the Lips’ and the method was you were to sing it in rising octaves, so the first time you sing it, you sing it in a deep note, and the next time a bit higher, and increase as you repeat the phrase.  This brings your vocals up so their prepared for a performance and high notes.  Each student gave their techniques amongst themselves, and then they were to share it with the whole class and the teacher.

At the end of the day we had our second Art Industry lesson; these lessons allow us to take a look deeper into the industry of the art within drama.  In this lesson we were focusing on individual skill.  Skill which may come in handy when we come to taking a look at our understanding of ourselves, within this subject.  We listed many skills which we expanded and kept for when it comes to performances, we know what we are all capable of. 

The next day, we had our lesson of The Development of Drama, where we were looking at the history of drama and where and when it originated.  We had a look at a documentary of its origins in ancient Greece and how it became so popular and where the three main genres came from and how they expanded.  This was all useful as; again, it gave us all better knowledge of the history of drama and it may come in handy when it comes to future tasks.

Our final lesson of the day in Movement was quite simple as it was near the same as our first lesson.  The only difference was we were given the task of learning a warm up strategy, which was to be used at the beginning of every movement lesson.  After we went through all the basic dance moves we were introduced to last week, we finished up the day.

The next day, was our second lesson of Physical Theatre and we spent the day working on stage movements and techniques similar to the ones we learn last week.  It was pretty basic but the idea was to get a good understanding of an actor’s physicality on stage for when we get into different practical work next week.