Shakespeare Assignment Day Two
7th January 2014
The second day back, another introduction to Shakespearean plays. In our second lesson, on our new assignment, we were introduced to three play all from the comedy genre; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The Taming of The Shrew', and 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona'. These three plays became a crucial part of the assignment, as we would come to perform extracts from certain scenes, which include a comedic conversation by at least three characters on stage. The idea is to have the three scenes, from different Shakespeare comedies, and have all on stage together to make it seem as if they are all part of the same world.
However many of us in the tutor group didn't know much about the plot of these three comedies, so to ensure that we understood a basic idea of what the plot was our teacher gave us a task. This task consisted of several pieces of paper with a key points in the play, and we, in three groups one doing each play, had to simply put the pieces of paper in order. In my group we had to put the key scenes, from the play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in order. To begin with I thought this was going to be an easy task, as me and my group knew a lot about the play, except the task was a little more challenging. This made the lesson more intriguing and interesting. In the end we all managed to get a decent understanding of the plots of each of these plays. Once that part of the task was over, we came to the next part, to get a decent understanding of the characters in the plays. With another sheet of paper we had the names of the characters on one side, and the part they played in the play, and our task was to match the character with their role. This was all very helpful as I knew little about two of the three plays and with these tasks I was able to get a decent understanding for uncoming lessons.
Another great task of the day was to perform our understanding of the plays in the form of a trailer. Again we were put into two groups and we had to summarise two of the plays ('A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona') using the key moments in which stand out the most and turning it into a trailer giving a decent understanding of the plot. For example in my group we did a trailer for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', and our idea was to highlight the different group of people, in the play, and present an understand of what they do in the play; such as the group of lovers and how they fight for their loved ones, and the actors in company. For the group of lovers, we briefly highlighted the fact that they are under a spell and they fight to win their hearts. Whereas for the actors in company, we wanted to highlight the fact that they are truly rubbish at performing. Another part we mentioned, in our trailer, is that there are fairies and what part they play in the performance. Again this task was helpful as not only did we demonstrate our methods of acting at a faster pase, but it also help us present our understanding of the play we were given, and the other group help us get a better understanding of their play.
So in summary of today's lesson, I felt it was very engaging with the more practical exercises and allowed us to explore more detail into the three plays which are a key part of the Shakespeare assignment. This lesson also allowed us to demonstrate our use of improvisation and fast pase acting, with the trailer exercise, along with getting a decent idea of the plays plots and characters.
The second day back, another introduction to Shakespearean plays. In our second lesson, on our new assignment, we were introduced to three play all from the comedy genre; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The Taming of The Shrew', and 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona'. These three plays became a crucial part of the assignment, as we would come to perform extracts from certain scenes, which include a comedic conversation by at least three characters on stage. The idea is to have the three scenes, from different Shakespeare comedies, and have all on stage together to make it seem as if they are all part of the same world.
However many of us in the tutor group didn't know much about the plot of these three comedies, so to ensure that we understood a basic idea of what the plot was our teacher gave us a task. This task consisted of several pieces of paper with a key points in the play, and we, in three groups one doing each play, had to simply put the pieces of paper in order. In my group we had to put the key scenes, from the play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in order. To begin with I thought this was going to be an easy task, as me and my group knew a lot about the play, except the task was a little more challenging. This made the lesson more intriguing and interesting. In the end we all managed to get a decent understanding of the plots of each of these plays. Once that part of the task was over, we came to the next part, to get a decent understanding of the characters in the plays. With another sheet of paper we had the names of the characters on one side, and the part they played in the play, and our task was to match the character with their role. This was all very helpful as I knew little about two of the three plays and with these tasks I was able to get a decent understanding for uncoming lessons.
Another great task of the day was to perform our understanding of the plays in the form of a trailer. Again we were put into two groups and we had to summarise two of the plays ('A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona') using the key moments in which stand out the most and turning it into a trailer giving a decent understanding of the plot. For example in my group we did a trailer for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', and our idea was to highlight the different group of people, in the play, and present an understand of what they do in the play; such as the group of lovers and how they fight for their loved ones, and the actors in company. For the group of lovers, we briefly highlighted the fact that they are under a spell and they fight to win their hearts. Whereas for the actors in company, we wanted to highlight the fact that they are truly rubbish at performing. Another part we mentioned, in our trailer, is that there are fairies and what part they play in the performance. Again this task was helpful as not only did we demonstrate our methods of acting at a faster pase, but it also help us present our understanding of the play we were given, and the other group help us get a better understanding of their play.
So in summary of today's lesson, I felt it was very engaging with the more practical exercises and allowed us to explore more detail into the three plays which are a key part of the Shakespeare assignment. This lesson also allowed us to demonstrate our use of improvisation and fast pase acting, with the trailer exercise, along with getting a decent idea of the plays plots and characters.
Two detailed blogs Frank, keep this up. In order to develop, start to make it even more personal to YOU and YOUR development as an actor. Will you use some of these exercises and techniques during the rehearsal process?
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