Frantic Assembly's Best Shows & Vocal Work
Monday 15th,
Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th September 2014
To begin our
second week in the Level 3 course, we returned to our previous work in learning
and understanding of the theatre company known as 'Frantic Assembly'. After learning and understanding what type of
theatre company it is, as well as what kind of work they produce, it was now
our chance to see their best productions on screen and take notes on what we
liked, and disliked, but mainly their production techniques involved within the
plays. The two plays were titled:
'Lovesong' and 'Stockholm'.
The first play
we watched was 'Stockholm'. From what I
learnt from the introductory video, 'Frantic Assembly: A Guide to Devising' I
learnt that it was this particular production that was, according to the
artistic directors, Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, was inspired by true
events. Not only has that, but the story
behind ‘Stockholm’ imitated the story of how Frantic Assembly began. In the sense of constant disagreements and
conversations concerning of how they were to progress and if they could achieve
what they wanted. But personally I could
see this within certain plot details amongst the entire play. While, in a nutshell, the story of
'Stockholm' depicts a young couple as they struggle in their lives together,
resulting in some visually amazing choreographed sequences of the couple
fighting and making love. In amongst my
notes I stated of how well structured the stage was, and how it suited the
setting and atmosphere for the characters and plot. As the stage was double sided and rotated to
change rooms amongst the scenes, it did give slight feel of isolation, backing
up the characters tensions and pain, and in a way their love, which increased
and decreased as the play went on.
But not only
that the dynamics of the production was shown throughout the actor’s use of
staging and connection to one another.
Both the actors, and the characters they were portraying, had a strong
bond that, not only made their acting more convincing, but made their movement
sequences more naturalistic. With their
movement backed up by a sense of naturalism, enhances the audiences
understanding of what is occurring on stage, and what the characters are
physically and mentally going through.
The audience could really feel the characters emotions on stage; at
least I could, and felt a sense of curiosity as to what will happen next and
how this story will conclude.
Similar thing
could be said for their second production 'Lovesong', in a way the dynamics
kept the audience intrigued and interested about these characters and what
they’re going through, but I felt there was more dialogue, than movement. This seemed to work better as it increased
the audiences understanding and interest in the production. The story of ‘Lovesong’ tells the past and
present story of a married couple, as we see them in their youth and in their
older ages. We are taken through these
characters timelines and we explore what they’re going through and what they've
already been through. I found this to be
genius storytelling. What I really loved
about this production was the style of the play, the interaction of the past
and present incarnations of the characters, and how their stories developed and
we became increasingly involved in their lives, desperate to know what they
were to do next.
While the play
did use some physicality in certain sequences, which involved the development
of a certain character, and including both the past and present incarnations of
the same character. I found those
movement sequences to be interesting and it showed the evolution and the bond
between these two characters. Along with
the use of lighting and sound to increase the audience’s attention to detail
within the performance, and performers, it truly made each scene stand out and
helped us to further explore their current emotions and thoughts. But one thing that stood out for me in particular
was the characters dialogue. The written
dialogue, I thought, was very well written, and extremely well delivered. In the sense that we believed the older
incarnations, of the characters, had been together for a long time, and didn’t
always see eye to eye. But we couldn’t
also sense a little tension in some scenes where we could feel an argument
developing from, what started as, a simple conversation. This is also similar towards the younger
incarnations, you could tell that they were newly married, you could tell, once
again, they didn’t always see eye to eye, but what stood out to me the most,
was you could tell they were worried.
Worried about where life was going to take them, worried about their
life decisions that they had to make together, but the biggest worry I embraced
the most from this play, was the younger characters worry about if they would
live together until they died together.
This particularly was emphasised vastly throughout the entire play. One piece of dialogue that was repeated throughout
the past and present characters was their wish to be buried underneath their
garden tree. But with use of props and
other secondary plots within the play, it really foreshadowed the end of the
play. The prop devises enhanced the
understanding of the older characters wanted to be back in their youth and
resting in their back garden before they go.
As well as secondary plots suggesting they might pass away sooner than
expected, because other characters wanted to buy their house. All of which gave deeper emotion and
foreshadowed the heart warming and emotion ending, to a brilliantly directed,
well written and acted production.
Breathing
For our second
lesson in the development of the actors’ voice, we turned to improving and
understanding our breathing. The reason
being, was for us to understand how our breathing work’s and how we can
concentrate enough to put enough control for when we’d, for example, deliver a
speech and not forget to take time and breath.
At the
beginning of the lesson we were introduced to a simple yet essential bullet point,
stating: At no point should breathing, the holistic nature of performing be
forgotten. After looking at many
diagrams of the human chest and rib cage and diaphragm, our teacher pointed out
the areas in which ensures that our body inhauls and exhales. Inhaling oxygen and exhaling out carbon
dioxide.
The diaphragm’s
job role, in our breathing exercises, is to help pump carbon dioxide out of the
lungs and pull oxygen into the lungs.
The diaphragm is a muscle that lies across the bottom of the chest cavity. As the diaphragm contracts and relaxes,
breathing takes place. It was in our
physical breathing exercises were we had to place our hand across the lower
part of our chest, were the diaphragm lies, and take in slow yet strong
breaths. This allowed us to maintain
control over our breathing and experimented on whether it had any impact on our
voice. Maintaining our control of our
breathing allowed us to focus and control the three registers of the voice,
high, medium, and low.
Personally I
found this lesson and the exercise to be extremely interesting, and I found it
might come in handy for future reference.
As for performing, a performance role may require the use of maintaining
control of the voice, and I think these breathing exercises were the perfect
exercises in which to focus and control, to achieve what I’m, or anyone in this
matter, is capable of projecting with their voice.
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