Greek Chorus –
Orestes by Euripides
For this performance assignment, we have
been tasked to modernise an ancient Greek Chorus using speech extracts from ‘Orestes’
(synopsis for the play: http://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_euripides_orestes.html). The purpose of the assignment was to test our
devising and vocal skills to embrace a contemporary audience into the tragedy
of ‘Orestes’.
Our devising skills were put to the test
via our understanding of the text and our originality by creating a scenario in
the modern era that suited the speech.
While our vocal skills were the main focus and put to the test via our
performance range and techniques used to make the speech all the more engaging.
Firstly, we looked to our group’s scenario
for the speech…
Chosen Scenario – ‘Story Time’
Analysing the final Chorus speech we found
that the Chorus provided the perspective of lower class citizens and speak in a
manner of sympathy towards ‘Orestes’. In
the previous scene the Chorus support ‘Orestes’ in his assassination of Aegisthus,
while in this scene ‘Orestes’ regrets and morns Aegisthus, the Chorus represent
the sympathetic side of his thoughts, telling him that the killing was a good
act. Because of its written style and
sympathetic nature we devised the scenario of ‘Story Time’ at a primary school.
We chose this scenario because of its
nature of the speech’s ‘talking down to the listener’ and reflection of ‘innocence’
styles. We deduced the ‘talking down to
the listener’ through the Chorus’ means to encourage ‘Orestes’ that he did the
right thing (when he believes he didn’t).
We deduced the ‘innocence’ style through the character of ‘Orestes’’
nakedness, as he has never committed a crime on this scale and the Chorus are
more or less “playing the character on”.
We hoped to bring these styles to life in
our scenario of ‘Story Time’ in a primary school; to have us as the
teachers/Chorus and talk down to the children and tell them the story we feel
is good and right, and not dark and wrong in contrast. Giving the feeling of what a Chorus would
look like in modern times and provide various perspectives on serious subjects.
Personal Input
Through our initial read through, of the
Chorus speeches, I pictured the Chorus and the characters in a different manner
and representing different character types.
My personal input was to have them be:
Chorus – The Police Force – To provide the true perspective of what is right
and what is wrong.
Characters – The Royalists – To reflect the
characters’ royal statuses in the play and reflect the moral that too much wealth
and power is not always a good thing.
While we decided to represent the Chorus
and characters through primary school teachers and children; I was still able
to input towards our vocal performance of the Chorus speech. Particularly emphasis; I noticed that we
chose a speech filled with strong and meaningful words that I felt needed
emphasising vocally. These words listed
from:
·
Blood
·
Slow
·
Shout
·
Justice
·
and Guilt
I felt these words reflected the Chorus’
purpose of persuading ‘Orestes’ that his act of murder was not, necessarily, a
bad thing. Plus the emphasis, I felt,
would intrigue our audience a step closer.
Vocal Performance
With our chosen scenario being ‘Story Time’
in the setting of a primary school, we, as an ensemble, took these vocal
performance styles:
·
Slow Pacing – to engage our audience, and reflect the teacher’s methods to get the
children listening to the story.
·
Emphasis on Key Words – to further engage our audience, and represent a teacher’s style to
either scare or get the children excited into the story.
·
Pitch Variations – based through our uses of whispers and sharp belches of key words,
enhancing the dark tragedy elements of the play.
·
Repetition – our chosen pattern of speaking through the text was to read follow a
pattern of one member reading first, followed by another etc. but our pattern
and method of having all of us read the final line out loud enhance the image
of the Chorus being a shared mind/perspective and working a sync with one
another.
All of our vocal performance techniques,
in the end, served as a homage towards previous Greek Chorus performance work
and as a method to further enhance our audience into the story to conclude ‘Orestes’.
A key source of inspiration for our vocal performance
was this example of a Greek Chorus in production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP7_XERqv-Y. I found the performers vocal range, through
means of shouts and whispers and an unwritten pattern amongst their group
members (as in who speaks first) came to great effect. An engaging ensemble piece that I hoped to
imitate, on a smaller scale, to enthral our audience to the performance and story
of ‘Orestes’.
Techniques Used
Through previous assignments and
performances I found these vocal techniques to be the most helpful and
efficient in supporting my vocal performance:
·
Facial and Throat Massages – I find these warmups to be the most efficient of all my used
techniques. The purpose of the facial
massages is to remove any unwanted tensions within facial area. Plus it supports efficient movement within
the lips, cheeks, and nasal areas. On
the other hand, throat massages are used to support vocal cord warmups and
support breath control, as the movements release carbon dioxide and ensure
enough oxygen is delivered to the lungs and support towards the larynx. These images will show the method of the
massages and the support a throat massage can bring:
·
Intercostal and Diaphragm Muscle Stretches – These stretches are carried out through to ensure a
healthy vocal performance. The
intercostal muscles support breath control within the lungs and loosen any
unwanted tensions in between the rib cage.
While the diaphragm on the other hand is essential to support the
respiratory system. This brings about
speech within the human body. When
oxygen is inhaled, it transfers down the lungs and to the diaphragm, where it
can be adapted to support pitch, tone, range, and pacing. These stretches are supported through
physical stretches and breathing exercises to ensure that they are in the right
state and efficient during the performance.
These image show how the stretches are carried out:
·
Alexander Technique – This is more of an actor’s performance technique to support their
acting. The purpose of the Alexander
technique is to help the actor embody their character and given scenario. The method is simply passed around meditation
and relaxation and to slowly embrace their given character/scenario. This can also support posture and relaxation
within vocal muscles, thereby making the vocal performance fresh and adaptable
for the main performance.
Previous Vocal Work
When performing this Chorus speech and
putting our vocal techniques to use in our vocal performance, we looked to our
previous performance work to see what feedback we received and what we achieved
that supported our vocal performance as a Greek Chorus. Two assignments in particular, I found, were
supportive vocally and helped me through this performance process. These assignments were:
·
Radio Play – This assignment was supportive in the sense that we had more focus on
vocal, and not physical, performance, just as we do for this performance. But one aspect that I found the most similar
was vocal range; as stated previously, we decided to give our scenario a
smaller and quieter tone thereby enhancing interest to the story. This, I found, was rather similar to our
audio performance of a radio play, one method that I struggled with was vocal
range. In particular, understanding the
scenes setting to support how the character would be speaking in this
particular environment and how I would project this to a microphone. All very different, in contrast to a stage
performance. Although because of our minimal
vocal range in this performance, I felt a similarity that supported my vocal projection
and bring about a mature and quieter performance.
·
Shakespeare – Having worked on various Shakespearean pieces I became rather fond of
the language and could see minor similarities within the writing of Shakespeare’s
work and the Greek Theatre playwrights.
While not so much in language but more of written pattern. During our first read through I did find it
struggling to master the pattern and certain words, but this reminded me of a
previous Shakespeare performance I took part in. While I understood the language, I was confused
as to how to perform the lines. This was
when I used Iambic Pentameter (Beats Per Minute). The purpose of this technique is to assist in
the performer’s deliver of their lines.
Iambic Pentameter ensures a steady and efficient pattern in which it
gives the speech a rhythmic style that supports the performer’s delivery. This is a technique I used for this
performance to ensure I would not mispronounce any words or give no sense with
the speech.
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