Week Twenty-One Part 1: Shakespeare

Rehearsal Blocking

24th February 2014

Today's lesson was to continue in preparation for our main production of 'Shakespeare's House Party'.  The plan was to rehearse the setting on stage and work on making it more convincing as a house party and work on developing each actors performance to achieve a higher grade for when it comes to the main performance.
     To start with we had to look at what we would do with the other actor in the scene changes.  The main focus was the opening scenes.  As the other scenes are set inside the house hold we thought it would be better to give the characters their own privacy to highlight the scenes and characters.  Whereas the opening monologue and opening scene needed developing.  The opening monologue was to be a speech by the character Puck, the speech was to be giving the audience the plot of our play in a nutshell.  This would be a little reference to Shakespeare's most famous tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet' as the opening prologue was to give the audience an idea of what's in stall for them.  So the idea was to have the monologue being delivered on stage and have every actor on stage in a freeze frame.  The freeze frames were to highlight what the actors characters look like and what will happen in their scene; the monologue also backs up the freeze frames. 
     The next step was to turn to the dance routine for each cast member present their characterisation through the means of dance, which would then go straight into the opening scene extract from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.  The task of the day was to develop the performance as well as making the setting relevant to where the scene takes place.
     The scene is known as 'the actors scene', as it focuses on a group of actors rehearsing a performance in the Forrest, or in this case the back garden.  So whilst this group rehearsed their scene, our teacher wanted the remaining cast to stay at the back of the stage as if to represent the party taking place inside.  This was to be shown by the remaining actors, me included, being at the back of the stage miming out the party, and not taking any notice to the scene extract from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', this would then make the acting scene more noticeable and important.  Just with adding a back ground to set the scene.  Lighting and props would make the scene more convincing as being set outside.  As the first scene would come to an end we would then be able to morph straight into the next scene.
     As the lesson went on we began to observe the next scenes in rehearsal.  This was important to observe as it would be essential for each members of the group having to listen and observe others performing strategies.  As this would allow each of us to include every, member of the group so we may all hear the ideas everyone has to offer and it may even help to develop the individual to make a better more convincing performance.  This whole assignment helped vastly with each member of the group in helping one another to develop our skills.
     Finally as today's lesson came to an end my input was assisting members of the group by offering ideas as help develop their performances in any way I could.  Along with inputting improvisation towards being in the back ground for the opening scene.  All was accomplished and we achieved a day of well rehearsed performances.

Week Twenty Part 2: Shakespeare

The Resposibility, the Job Role, and the Routine

11th Feburary 2014

Today we all took on a responsibility within an important job role, and learnt a new dance routine, to all fit in our 'Shakespeare House Party'.  Yesterdays lesson had us volenteering for a job role for our production coming soon.  The tasks were back stage organisations, unlike the 'Jack and the Beanstalk' pantomime, where we work in the backstage departments, but the job roles we had with this assignment was to arrange yet not deliver.  Our responsibility was to take on the role and create the backstage arrangements and hand it to technician/back stage crew, for them to bring to life for the main production.

     The job role I volenteered for was the lighting cue manager.  My task, along with my partner, is to create a list of lighting cues and check with the other actors to see if they agree with the decisions or disagree and suggest another way we could arrange the lighting.  Then once it is all confirmed with the actors and we have created a list of lighting cues we then hand it to the technician so he knows what the lighting cues need to look like and when they need to be projected on stage in the performance.  In today's lesson we had our first production meeting; this was good starting point.  This allowed us to understand the priorities we had to acomplish during each meeting in order to create a lighting cue list.  The priorities listed from having regular meetings and making a 'To-Do' list in order to make a decent cue list for the technicians.
     The ideas I have for the production is to give various amounts of different lighting, with different colours to present the mood and atmosphere.  In our 'Scaramouche Jones' production, the lighting didn't have much to go on with, as there was a single positioning of the lights as well as adding slightly different colours to change the mood.  There wasn't much reliablity with lighting in that production as it was more of a matter of the actors performing with vocal presentation and very little stage changes.  Whereas is our uncoming production 'Shakespeare's House Party' there is a vast amount of movement and vocal performing on stage, alongside a certain amount of set changes.  So I thought it would be better if we were to add more lighting.  To present the atmosphere of all the different scene, as their from different Shakepsearean comedies it would be better to show how different and unique they are from one another.  Therefore I would like to create a lighting cue list that offers different amounts of lights to project the different worlds with different characters, to make each scene stand out to keep the audiences eyes forcused on the production.
     After a short break we returned to start rehearsing what would be an esential part of our production, the dance routine.  Our teachers vision was to open with a traditional Shakespearean prologue, then to give a montage to show all the characters, and present them as friends as well as keeping the importance that this project/production is set in the modern day times, with the theme of a house party.  So the idea was to open with a Puck speech from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' then have a dance routine and begin the performance's by opening with the actor's scene from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.
     Our first session in rehearsing the routine was difficult yet interesting.  Difficult in the way of us having to give dance movement we hadn't come accross before, so it was more difficult to perform first time.  But that's, what I thought, made it interesting because we were learning new techniques in performing strategies for this assignment.  Plus it would also make the performance more fun, not only for us actors but for the audience.  Another contributing port of learning the dance routine was having to present our character through the dance.  The purpose of this was to give an introduction to the actors and for us to present our characterisation to the audience.  So because my character 'Valentine' is madly in love throughout my scene, I had to perform the dance routine showing how dreamy my character is constantly thinking about 'Silvia' (the woman he loves).  To begin with I thought it was making the routine more difficult, as we'd have to focus on the dance movement and focus on presenting our characterisation.  But with time to rehearse I think we might be able to give a decent dance routine to open the production.
     As the lesson came to an end, my input was presenting my ideas for the lighting cues in the production.  Along with aiming to focus in making the dance routine more convincing and entertaining for the main performance.  More news on the production process as it develops, for our production 'Shakespeare's House Party' showing on the 5th and 6th March.

Week Twenty Part 1: Shakespeare

An Entertaining Rehearsal

10th Febuary 2014
Another beginning with another warm up exercise to prepare us for more rehearsal and development towards our main performance.  This entertaining warm up was to get every intch of our body prepared to the amount of physical rehearsals our teacher had in stall for us today.
     Once we finished the warm up we went straight into a circle and read our lines aloud with our partners, to see how far we had come with learning our lines, the majority of us did very well, however while I had learn three quarters of my lines, it was only the last paragraph I struggled with.  So once we had all read our lines we went straight into the on stage rehearsal.  Me and my partner were to go first, as we haven't had much time to develop it on stage, and I think this rehearsal was the best one yet.  With the pair of us presenting our lines, and offering interesting characterisation and almost perfect comedic timing, with positive reactions from both the tutor goup, as an audience, and from our teacher.  It was an entertaining rehearsal leading to many laughing mistakes, but we had managed to create the scene and present our lines in the way of our characters to make the scene more enteratining and realistic.
     Not only did it help us create an entertaining scene it also assist us in developing our characters even more.  To begin with my idea was to present my character, Valentine from 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', as a character deeply in love and show the comedy side to it.  But in this rehearsal we decided to keep the comedy presentation of the scene but have the last few paragraphs of the scene to show the serious reality of the fact that Valentine is in love.  This assisted my character, by for my partner, who has the role of Proteus, Valentine's best friend, he has to portray his character in way in which he has to put doubt into Valentine's mind, to make him like the woman less and less.  Then as the scene draws to an end Proteus has to then see the reality of it as well, giving dramatic pauses, he has to then realise that Valentine isn't joking he is truly in love.  But what makes this scene more interesting and effective is the fact that, in our research into the play we discovered that both male characters are in love with the same woman, which brings dramatic tension between the characters, but in a way it works.  Because this kind of a senareo would make a great plot for a modern day comedy, and again assisted us in making the scene more realistic and comedic.
     Whilst me and my partner worked well together to develop our scene and characters, it was working with the other actors that also help the main performance as well.  Because the other actor particupated in helping make our scene more comedic, and we assisted then in making their scenes more realistic and comedic to give the whole performance an entertaining feel to it all. 
     But then after our rehearsal we all had a simple question to absorb: Do you feel you've embodied the character?   My answer would be a positive yes.  I do feel after learning the majority of my lines and have had a decent few hours of rehearsal, I feel I have created a decent portrayal of the character Valentine.  When on stage I feel very positive about presenting the character, showing his thoughts and feelings and giving a comedic yet serious tone to it.

Week Nineteen: Shakespeare

The Beginning of the Rehearsal Process

3rd February 2014
This week was my week back from being absent, whilst I missed some writing sessions and some rehearsal processes, I didn't hesitate to get straight back into routine.  Today's lessons main focus was rehearsals and character development. 
     My plan for my character development was to present a slightly comedic tone to the performance, mainly to keep the audience entertained and interesed, however another point of the scene is the second character, Proteus.  Our teacher spoke to both me and my partner to see how we could present the characters friendship and how we could deliver the lines in the way that Valentine, my character, has to present the fact that he is deeply in love.  Whereas Porteus, my partners character, has to put denial into Valentine's mind, as we learnt from studying the play Proteus is in love with the same woman.  This was helpful as there was some dramatic tension between the characters, also it assisting my use of comedic line delivering as this would suit a modern day comedy production as this would be a perfect senareo for characters to be put into.  This was only the beginning of the pair of us being able to develop our characters but we still had time to create a scene in which we could give an entertaining performance with a layer of a serious tone to it.
     As the lesson drew onwards, our teacher asked us all the question: Have you been professional so far throughout the rehearsal process?  Now I would think I have taken this assignment seriously because I do have a good liking towards Shakespeares work and I enjoy learning and performing Shakespearean plays.  Also when it comes to the rehearsal process I have taken on the fact that there are deadlines for us to learn our scripts and stageing, along with written assessments being due in, so I take on board what needs to be done with the set work and I take them one at a time to ensure I complete every piece of work and develop it in any way I can.
     This assignment has been very interesting and entertaing to take part in.  Because we were able to learn many interesting facts about Shakespeare's work and personal life, which all supports our performance understanding and we can relate to the storys of both fact and fiction.  It has also been entertaining based on the fact that our extract scenes are taken from three of Shakespeare's comedy plays, and it has been very entertaining to rehearse in a comedy performance and witness what others have to offer towards a comedy to make it more entertaining for us and the audience that'll see the finished performance.
     Another interesting part of this assignment is the new methods and techniques our teacher ahd to offer, for us all to learn, which assisted us in the production process.  Such as the new technique which I find very helpful is the new method of learning you lines.  The method is for the actor to read their lines aloud repeatedly which allows your muscles to memorise the words, so when it comes to the main performance the dialogue should spontaniously occur.  I'd recomend it to other actors because you it speed up the rehearsal process and allows you more time to develop your character and less time to learn lines, as you could of already memorised them.  Although there is another method I though was very helpful, performance wise, was the improvisation.  The improvisation assisted us in creating the scene and getting a decent idea of what the characterisation should be like for the main performance.
     At the end of the day, my imput was offering my character development and exploring ways in which we could develop and present our extract scene.

Week Eighteen: Shakespeare (Absent)

My Absent Week

Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th January 2014

Unfortunately I was off sick the whole week of week eighteen (week four of our Shakespeare assignment), however with some catch up sessions I am able to give a brief note on what where the main discussion points of this week.

     At the beginning of the week, the tutor group began with a trip to the computer rooms, this started the written assessments of the Shakespeare assignment.  Beginning with contextual research into Shakespeare's history and his productions.  With a couple of hours to write as much as they could, the tutor group then returned to the drama room, to continue rehearsals for our performance, which is the main part of the assignment.  Unfortunately my partner, who take on the role of Proteus in our scene from 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona', he was unable to do any rehearsals but he was able to work on his second scene, which is an extract from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

     Whilst I was absent this gave me time to learn more of my script, as well as develop my characterisation.  My plan was to deliver the lines in a slightly comedic tone, to keep the audience entertained and really present the fact that my character, Valentine, was truly in love.  Again with  presentation of the scene being a comedy, but there was to be a sense of a serious reality to it.

     Fortunately I recovered near the end of the week and was able to return to the course the following week.

Week Seventeen Part 2: Shakespeare

Objective

21st January 2014

Today's lesson began with the usual warm up exercise preparing us physically for the for the lessons objective.  Although to begin we with we thought is was to be another session of going over our lines and focusing on our character development, it did not begin all the same.  Whilst we had the warm up exercise, and once that had been successful, our teacher turned to all of us and asked a simple question: What is an objective?  To which we all had to come up with a decent answer.  An objective has a similarity to a goal, where one aims for something and aims to achieve it.  (Dictionary Definition: something that one's efforts or actions are intended to attain or accomplish, purpose, goal, target, etc.)  Then returning to the purpose of the lesson being our character development, our teacher asked us another question: What is our characters objective?  We knew what the plot intended in our scene and what the purpose of our characters conversation and relationship is, but now we had to understand the objective.  For example, I knew my scene (from "The Two Gentlemen of Verona") was about my character, Valentine, informing his best friend, Proteus, that he is in love and it just so happens that Proteus is in love with the same woman.  I also knew that the purpose of their conversation was that Valentine was asking Proteus for assistance to escape with the woman he loves, and the characters relationship is simply the two being best friends.  So when it came to finding out what the objective is in the scene was rather easy, as the objective of my character and the objective of the scene, was for Valentine to gain Proteus' trust and friendship.  This is due to the fact that Valentine need his help in order to escape, however the opposing side of the story is Proteus' objective.  What Valentine doesn't know is that Proteus is also in love with the female character in which Valentine speaks of, so as Valentine speaks of how amazing she is and how much he loves her, Proteus' objective is to protest against what Valentine is saying and tries to change Valentine's mind on the whole matter.
     I think that learning the objective of the characters was incredibly helpful as we discovered it can assist an actor in developing their character.  Using our understanding of the characters objective it can assist in creating the characterisation in how to deliver the lines and how to deliver the physical side of the character.  For example I've only begun to learn my lines and have little understanding of how I am going to portray the characteristic of Valentine, however now I now the characters objective I have a new method in which I can project my lines in a way to persuade Proteus to be on my characters side.  So I think learning the objective of the characters is very helpful for any actor as it helps to explore ways in which the actor can perform their characterisation and give a pitch perfect performance.
     As the lesson drew to an end we spent the final half of the lesson rehearsing what we had already learnt from our scripts and objectives and I began to develop my characterisation.  I started with portraying the character as a very positive person and would have his body language facing to the sky, as if to say he is in love.  Along with giving a positive reaction to seeing Proteus, his best friend, as to show he has a big secret to tell him, and I wanted to present it like he wanted nobody else to know and he had been desperate to tell Proteus.  In the small rehearsal we had, with what I had to offer script and characterisation, it seemed to have a positive reaction from our teacher along with a few downs and problems I needed to work on.  But I felt I was on route to giving a decent portrayal of the character of Valentine, for our scene in our Shakespeare assignment.