Final
Rehearsal Week
Monday 3rd,
Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th November 2014
Character
Physicality
Beginning our
final rehearsal week, our lecturer had us walk continuously around the class
room, staying on a focus point and changing our directions at random for once
we had reached that point. But we walked
we were told specifically not to give off anything. Staying in ‘Actor’s Neutral’ we had to ensure
that we were not giving any facial or physical expressions and gestures. This way we would not be giving off any characteristics
or story behind our walking pace.
As we stayed
at an average speed of walking our lecturer set us some tasks. While staying in ‘Neutral’, it was now our
chance to fully embrace a new physicality that would soon become our
characters. These tasks were:
1) Reacting – Giving off friendly or
unfriendly gestures or emotions to one another, to suggest a story arch between
ourselves.
2) Communicating – Physically and verbally
communicating with one another helped us see a variety of examples for many
types of character relations.
The results
were pretty humorous and entertaining for both us involved in the tasks and for
those watching. It was a brief, yet
good, introduction to how we could physically change our attitude towards the
simplest of things such as a handshake.
So our next goal was to bring our characters for ‘13’ physically alive.
Having spent
the previous weeks exploring our characters, how they fit into the story, where
they potentially came from, and how they would live in this fictional depiction
of the world. It was now our
opportunities as actors to put our research and understanding of both the play
and our character, to the test and physically become the character. All in preparation for our ‘Production Week’.
·
Standing
Posture – I pictured ‘John’ to have a standing posture of being tall and
upright. All to physically present the
thought of mystery and calculation behind the character and his motivations. Whilst including a little detail of his
fingers twitching and scratching various areas on his upper body and leg
area. I felt this could backup ‘John’s’ emotional
state, and his worry and concern within certain scenes, and embrace the fact
that he is scared of his past.
·
Walking
Pace – For ‘John’s’ walking pace I imagined ‘John’ liking to take his time
mentally and verbally, yet keep an average speed within his walking. This could give of the impression of him wanting
to complete his objectives (of beginning an anti-war protest march). But ‘John’ would also maintain a slower pace
for when he felt the need to think, in deep thought, and pace back and forth
(shown especially in Act Two Scene Three as ‘John’ prepares his first public speech). Plus I felt the need to include a pushed out
chest, this way I could imply to audience members that ‘John’ isn’t in these
scenarios by choice and make it seem he has been pushed back into this world.
·
Sitting
Posture – Referring back to ‘John’s’ standing posture, I wanted to reflect
this within his sitting posture. Keeping
the tall and upright figure to imply a little mystery and a sense of
calculation within his mental state. As
well as showing the character’s instinct and preparation to be ready to jump
toward his next goal for certain scenes (an example would be at the end of Act
One Scene Ten as ‘John’ finds an excuse to exit away from ‘Rachel’ and not talk
about his past).
These were my
final results on the ‘John’s’ physicality and I was eager to put them to use
for the rehearsals and particularly the main performance.
‘13’ in 1
Minute
Taking a short
break from our character work, our lecturer assigned us, as a class, a little
task. Splitting us into four groups, my
group being “group number one” we were all assigned to recreate each act of ‘13’. Having a performance time of one minute, our
groups were allowed to recreate each act in any style of production we liked
(an example would be ‘amateur dramatic’, meaning we would perform in a serious
and dramatic style). Being assigned in ‘group
number one’ it was our task to recreate Act One of ‘13’, and the style we
decided to do was ‘pantomime’.
Using our
scripts we looked at each scene within Act One and decided which moment of each
scene was most important.
1) For
Scene One, it was the lead ‘twelve’ awakening from their nightmares.
2) For
Scene Two, it was ‘John’ arriving in Britain and encountering ‘Ruby’ and ‘Sarah’.
3) For
Scene Three, it was ‘Amir’ being verbally abused by the police officer.
4) For
Scene Four, it was ‘Ruth’ introduction and discussion with her MP’s.
5) For
Scene Five, it was ‘Amir’ taking down a police officer and him being arrested.
6) For
Scene Six, it was ‘Stephen Crossley’s’ atheist lecture all about God.
7) For
Scene Seven, it was ‘Mark’ and ‘Alice’s’ meeting in the park.
8) For
Scene Eight, it was ‘Rachel’ meeting ‘John’ after two years of his disappearance.
9) For
Scene Nine, it was ‘Ruth’ meeting the American politician ‘Dennis’ for the
first time.
10) For
Scene Ten, it was ‘John’ and ‘Rachel’ sharing a moment together in the park.
11) For
Scene Eleven, it was ‘Mark’ becoming ‘Amir’s’ solicitor and tries to support
his case.
12) For
Scene Twelve, it was the Alpha Group discussion concerning Christianity.
13) For
Scene Thirteen, it was ‘Ruth’s’ speech to the general public.
14) For
Scene Fourteen, it was ‘Ruby’ and ‘Sarah’s’ argument at their dinner.
15) For
Scene Fifteen, it was ‘John’ getting ‘Amir’ out of jail.
16) For
Scene Sixteen, it was ‘Edith’ seeing her granddaughter ‘Holly’.
17) For
Scene Seventeen, it was ‘Ruth’s’ meeting with ‘Stephen’.
18) For
Scene Eighteen, the act concluded with a nuclear blast.
Taking these
key moments we all expressed ideas as to how we could make them more humorous and
entertaining for the rest of the class, yet still keep it intriguing as it would
give details towards the plot of ‘13’.
Extracting a few of the scenes/moments for time reasons, I personally
found the end result to be extremely entertaining and a joy to take part in.
But the task
wasn’t over as we were then tasked to all come together as a big group and
repeat the task yet bring Act Two to life.
Once again we all looked at the act and each scene, looking particularly
at the important moments. All
offering/suggesting ideas as to how we could bring this to life in a comedic way. The end result was bound to be entertaining
to all of us.
I found this
to be a great little task. It took us briefly
away from rehearsals and allowed us to express our love of performing as well
as demonstrate our understanding of the play, its plot and its characters.
A Full Run
through of Act Four
Continuing with our rehearsals we began
with act four. The largest act,
containing some climactic scenes involving key characters; it was now time to
finish blocking the act and input any elements to enhance to storytelling.
One scene in
particular, which stands out for me the most out of the entire play was Act
Four, Scene Eight. In this climatic
scene we find the character ‘John’ and his key rivalries/enemies (Ruth and
Stephen) confronting one another.
Resulting in some brilliant dialogue which begins to wrap up the play
and reveals more and more about the characters (particularly ‘John’s’ origin
story), as well as foreshadowing the future of this fictional interpretation of
modern society.
When blocking
this scene I really admired the performers on stage as they delivered realistic
dialogue and developing physicality to make the scene all the more
believable. I also think if developed
any further, this scene will be the highlight of the play for our target
audience, of further education students, as it reflects the morals and truth of
modern society. How everyone should be
treated equally, how everyone’s perspective on a political matter should be
heard, and particularly how there is always a light in dark times.
But what did I
have to offer/input for this Act? When
blocking of Act Four, Scene Nine, ‘John’s’ last speech to the general public I
thought it would be good to input:
1. ‘John’
standing centre back stage (keeping a tall, strong, upright posture) to signify
his willing to stand down from his current position, enhancing his failure to
bring the nuclear war to an end.
2. Having
‘Ruth’ and ‘Stephen’ stand both sides to him on the lower levels. Indicating ‘John’s’ key rivalries/enemies
throughout the play, as well as showing that ‘John’ is willing to step down and
be seen by the rest of the world as one of them (possibly an enemy of the
general public).
3. While
for Act Five, Scene One, instead of ‘John’s’ final speech, I thought it would
be good to end the play on the same note of how it began. With the twelve lying on the floor and
suddenly awakening from their nightmare.
Plus after ‘Rob’s’ monologue telling audience members of how the world
changed to a wasteland of some sorts, and how it impacts the fact that the ‘Twelve’
predicted their future within their nightmare visions of “The explosion. The monsters.” – John, Act Four, Scene Eight.
Concluding on
blocking Act Four, I was pleased to input these elements for the final
production piece, and was eager to see it brought to life.
Returning to Rehearse
on Acts One and Two
To conclude
the week, we returned to rehearsing, what we had already accomplished, in Acts
One and Two. Memorising our entrance
and exit calls and putting our character work to good use. Experimenting with our character’s
physicality and verbal work, we took the next steps towards making the flow and
pace of ‘13’ seem more natural and realistic, all in time for the main
production week.
Plus one area in
particular that needed rehearsal work on was ‘the club montage’ taking place at
the end of Act One. Working on the
montage we could embrace the true meaning and purpose of having various
characters dance on stage at the end of the opening Act. Making our movements seem more fluent and
meaningful, it make the montage more entertaining for us cast members as well
as aim to possibly increase audience members attention to detail within ‘13’. Although from my perspective, the montage
gave the meaning of showing the audience the youth generation of modern society
and how serious debates in politics is something that should be taken more seriously. This is shown especially at the end of the
montage as a nuclear bomb explodes. Interrupting
this specific social event and indicating their lack of focus towards important
matters at hand. Once again reflecting
modern society and how our target audience, of further education students,
should think twice when it comes to important matters within their lives
outside of socialising.
But all in all
the rehearsal sessions were a success.
It helped me to get a better understanding of certain elements within the
play and how it can give those details to our target audience. But what I particularly enjoyed out of these
rehearsal sessions was putting the character work and understanding to the
early test stages. Because it also
allowed me to set myself some goals for next week’s production sessions, seeing
if I could develop any speech dialect or movement pacing, in order to make my
final performance all the more convincing and realistic. As well as constantly working on movement segments,
such as the ‘club montage’, to ensure we could gain a naturalistic flow in time
for our main performance taking place next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment