Me and Leona have been given the play Phaedra's Love by Sarah Kane. Phaedra's Love is about a mother and daughter Phaedra being the mother and Strophe being the daughter. We were given the scene three, in this scene Phaedra is not in a good mood and the daughter is not sure why but in the scene shes finds out why and what should happen and what shouldnt.
Friday, 6 July 2012
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Singing Lesson one
In this lesson we went through what we were going to be doing in the lesson. We had a camera recording us all doing the warm ups. We had done the normal warm up to warm up our vocal cords so that when we sing it wont damage it. The warm ups help the statainability, breathing control and diction. We learnt a new warm up where we sang "Hallijuha' and 'Ava Maria', this helps statainability, diction and hitting a high note quickly from a lower note. In this lesson we started to learn the songs and just went through learning each song and just getting the lyrics and tones right.
My strongest point was being able to ring the right tune and lyrics back and learning it quickly.
My weakness was my focus, i could have focused better.
In this lesson, we did the same warm ups again but this time we had 4 people in the group demonstrate each warm up while being recorded. After each demonstration as a group we all did the warm ups. Once all these warm ups were done they had 2 demonstrate 'AEIOU' which helps with diction and had the other 2 demonstrate 'LAs' which also helps with diction and the different notes. As a group we had 2 songs as a group, 1 girls group song and one boys, some duets and solos. We were also assigned a song to choregraph, me, Leona, Laura and Becca were given the song sway.
The songs we sang were: 1. Sway 2. It don't mean a thing (ain't got that swing) 3. Wouldn't it be lovely 4. Got you under my skin 5. Can't help loving that man of mine 6. Sunny side of the street 7. Somewhere 8. We'll meet again 9. Singing in the rain.
We went through learning some songs then we went in to the acting studio to learn a dance for it dont mean a thing. Arnold was assigned to choregraph for this song. In this lesson we learn the movement to the first half of the song.
My strength for this lesson was i stayed focused and so i picked up the choregraphy quickly.
My target for next lesson was to focus on choregraphing for the song sway.
In our next lesson we did we did our vocal warm up and then we went in to our groups to either rehearse the song or to choregraph. Choregraphing sway was not easy but listening to the song and just doing a movement we got there.
Teaching everyone sway was hard because they were not listening and it was really hard to make them and help them learn movement to the song.
Me and Shanice were assigned a duet, we sang Singing in the rain. At first we were assigned 'What a difference a day made' we both listened to the song and tried our hardest to get use to the song but we couldnt get the feel for the song. We then changed to song to singing in the rain and it was really enjoyable it was fun and low tone and there wassnt much movement needed. We listened to the song and decided i would sing the first half of the song then shanice would sing then we both sang the whole song together. We had to get abit of choregraph to the song so we decided to use unbrellas and walked around. We decided not to do much movement so that it wouldnt take the focus away from the singing.
It was performance day and we were all excited. Singing as a group was easy, i felt supported by everyone so that gave me the confidence to sing them. When it came up to me and Shanice singing i was terrified but i had to think confident becuase it was my only chance. In this performance compared to the performance in the rehearsals. I was more confident because i knew the lyrics and the tune, because of my confidence my singing was projected out.
Singing my solo verse in sway went okay i sang it better in rehearsals then the show. My statainability went down i think because i didnt try hard enough in my warm up.
Overall every rehearsal my voice and confidence imporved everytime, the warm ups helped my voice and it was my last chance to get it right so i threw in all my confidence.
My strongest point was being able to ring the right tune and lyrics back and learning it quickly.
My weakness was my focus, i could have focused better.
In this lesson, we did the same warm ups again but this time we had 4 people in the group demonstrate each warm up while being recorded. After each demonstration as a group we all did the warm ups. Once all these warm ups were done they had 2 demonstrate 'AEIOU' which helps with diction and had the other 2 demonstrate 'LAs' which also helps with diction and the different notes. As a group we had 2 songs as a group, 1 girls group song and one boys, some duets and solos. We were also assigned a song to choregraph, me, Leona, Laura and Becca were given the song sway.
The songs we sang were: 1. Sway 2. It don't mean a thing (ain't got that swing) 3. Wouldn't it be lovely 4. Got you under my skin 5. Can't help loving that man of mine 6. Sunny side of the street 7. Somewhere 8. We'll meet again 9. Singing in the rain.
We went through learning some songs then we went in to the acting studio to learn a dance for it dont mean a thing. Arnold was assigned to choregraph for this song. In this lesson we learn the movement to the first half of the song.
My strength for this lesson was i stayed focused and so i picked up the choregraphy quickly.
My target for next lesson was to focus on choregraphing for the song sway.
In our next lesson we did we did our vocal warm up and then we went in to our groups to either rehearse the song or to choregraph. Choregraphing sway was not easy but listening to the song and just doing a movement we got there.
Teaching everyone sway was hard because they were not listening and it was really hard to make them and help them learn movement to the song.
Me and Shanice were assigned a duet, we sang Singing in the rain. At first we were assigned 'What a difference a day made' we both listened to the song and tried our hardest to get use to the song but we couldnt get the feel for the song. We then changed to song to singing in the rain and it was really enjoyable it was fun and low tone and there wassnt much movement needed. We listened to the song and decided i would sing the first half of the song then shanice would sing then we both sang the whole song together. We had to get abit of choregraph to the song so we decided to use unbrellas and walked around. We decided not to do much movement so that it wouldnt take the focus away from the singing.
It was performance day and we were all excited. Singing as a group was easy, i felt supported by everyone so that gave me the confidence to sing them. When it came up to me and Shanice singing i was terrified but i had to think confident becuase it was my only chance. In this performance compared to the performance in the rehearsals. I was more confident because i knew the lyrics and the tune, because of my confidence my singing was projected out.
Singing my solo verse in sway went okay i sang it better in rehearsals then the show. My statainability went down i think because i didnt try hard enough in my warm up.
Overall every rehearsal my voice and confidence imporved everytime, the warm ups helped my voice and it was my last chance to get it right so i threw in all my confidence.
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Abu Hassan
This story was a short comedy. We first had a small group divise this piece as others were working on another story with Gavin. The group join back with the rest of us and they then showed us what they had done. When i first saw this i found it hilarious although it wassnt clear and clean but when we started to work on it, it just became soo much more funny, we had to rehearse the scenes several times as we were unfocused. The divising of this story almost just fell in to place quickly. This story to me was the easiest story that was divised and it was funny to be in. In this story we also involved the audience by having the main character Abu Hassan run through the audience to the back of the room and talk to the audience, this was made funnier by the performance days as of what he said to the audience. During rehearsal time the cloth that was over the people on the floor like a table didnt come over them when they raised up.
Es-Sindibad the Sailor
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| was given the task to create a still image of a Tailor. |
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| This is an image of Becca and her mask that we were given in mask work lesson. |
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| This is an image of the mask i had in mask lesson.The image the mask i thought of was a natural look a normal person look.. |
In this story we had a voice over because we had the people playing characters in masks. Demi, Jonny and Laura were the only three in masks. This story was a story within a story. To me divising this story was one of the longest rehearsals we had as we had to make sure we was on que and that the timings were right. At the beginning of the story we had 4 people in a square holding sticks like its a house and there was 5 people standing inside, we didnt want the house to just be there so we rotated it and had people swap around. Although it sounded easy moving sticks but we had to do it at the right time and all bang the sticks at the same time and doing this got everyone fustrated as it look very long to get it right without Jamie counting, in the end we changed it to what we thought would be easier and cleaner.
The group had team work as a strength but also a weakness, but when it was a weakness we would just work through it making it stronger as a strength.
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The story of the little beggar
The story of the Little Beggar was my favourite story of them all because it was funny and fun to perform. Although in the story i was not given a character i had a part of running props on and off stage.
When we was divising this story people had gone off to revise there lines but i started revising my lines at home myself so i stayed behind to help. This story had made my strength of being focused stronger as i had to learn and remember the que lines for when props come on and off and when im needed on stage to be doing or being a prop. Rehearsing the story over and over again it was almost always made better and made funnier then the last. One part of the story we had placed in slow motion to almost mark the moment to create the atmostphere. The slow motion was placed when the Doctor had kicked the Beggar down the stairs it gave the beggar time to roll towards the audience and to land on an aduience member. The group had made this story to life and was wanted to involve the audience on this story so we had Joe as the little beggar fall on to an audience member and at the end where was had the scene of the the killer get hung we climbed the sides next to the adience involving them as the adiece to the hanging.
My strongest strength was remember my que lines and knowing what was coming up next.
My weakness was trying to keep focus infront of the audience.
When we was divising this story people had gone off to revise there lines but i started revising my lines at home myself so i stayed behind to help. This story had made my strength of being focused stronger as i had to learn and remember the que lines for when props come on and off and when im needed on stage to be doing or being a prop. Rehearsing the story over and over again it was almost always made better and made funnier then the last. One part of the story we had placed in slow motion to almost mark the moment to create the atmostphere. The slow motion was placed when the Doctor had kicked the Beggar down the stairs it gave the beggar time to roll towards the audience and to land on an aduience member. The group had made this story to life and was wanted to involve the audience on this story so we had Joe as the little beggar fall on to an audience member and at the end where was had the scene of the the killer get hung we climbed the sides next to the adience involving them as the adiece to the hanging.
My strongest strength was remember my que lines and knowing what was coming up next.
My weakness was trying to keep focus infront of the audience.
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Ali Baba
When we read The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in lessons story run through we had to write one word that we feel and think desciribes each story. The first half of Ali Baba i felt that the story was about love and jealousy and the second half of Ali Baba was Revenge and forgiveness.
The story came across to me as love as the brothers had that love even after all that they had been through together aswell as apart. The love they had was also shared with their wives but this story was not only about love it had shown jealousy. The showing of the jealousy between the brothers slightly gave off that the wives had that hatetrid between them.
After having read through all the storys when it came to divising for the story the parts were given out, Kasim was played by Jonny and his wife was played by Teri, Ali Baba was played by David and his wife was played by Laura.
The story of Ali Baba gave us the challenge as a group to work together as a team because the Captain had his team of bandits the forty theives.
In this half of the story i played the role of Marjanah, she was the slave girl to Kasim and his wife. In the story Marjanah helped the family but because of what had happened she was secretive and helpful and good at bribal.
In the second half of Ali Baba i felt as the story gave out the feeling of revenge because the Captain was killed for having killed Kasim and planning to plot a kill on Ali Baba. The story to me also felt like there was forgiveness as when Marjanah had killed the Captain, Ali Baba instantly puts hatetrid on her but as she had helped him and his family she was given forgiveness and happiness.
Divising this whole story gave us that challenge to work as a team, to have divised the whole two stories showed that we was capable to doing it. As a whole group our strengths and weaknesses were the same as having the weakness of being un focused not working as a team and listening to each other became strengths as lessons went by.
Getting the role of Marjanah excited me as i thought it would be an easy character to play but as rehearsal days went past i had a weakness of bringing out the character and remembering my lines. It was hard to get in to the characters mind and to get the feel of how she felt. I over came this by just constantly reading through my lines and learning them and just thinking to my self how would she say this what would she do when she says that. I took my own time to sit and read and think of every bit to slowly bring out the character. Althought i had my weaknesses i had my strength of projection and taking and doing what the directions were given.
The story came across to me as love as the brothers had that love even after all that they had been through together aswell as apart. The love they had was also shared with their wives but this story was not only about love it had shown jealousy. The showing of the jealousy between the brothers slightly gave off that the wives had that hatetrid between them.
After having read through all the storys when it came to divising for the story the parts were given out, Kasim was played by Jonny and his wife was played by Teri, Ali Baba was played by David and his wife was played by Laura.
The story of Ali Baba gave us the challenge as a group to work together as a team because the Captain had his team of bandits the forty theives.
In this half of the story i played the role of Marjanah, she was the slave girl to Kasim and his wife. In the story Marjanah helped the family but because of what had happened she was secretive and helpful and good at bribal.
In the second half of Ali Baba i felt as the story gave out the feeling of revenge because the Captain was killed for having killed Kasim and planning to plot a kill on Ali Baba. The story to me also felt like there was forgiveness as when Marjanah had killed the Captain, Ali Baba instantly puts hatetrid on her but as she had helped him and his family she was given forgiveness and happiness.
Divising this whole story gave us that challenge to work as a team, to have divised the whole two stories showed that we was capable to doing it. As a whole group our strengths and weaknesses were the same as having the weakness of being un focused not working as a team and listening to each other became strengths as lessons went by.
Getting the role of Marjanah excited me as i thought it would be an easy character to play but as rehearsal days went past i had a weakness of bringing out the character and remembering my lines. It was hard to get in to the characters mind and to get the feel of how she felt. I over came this by just constantly reading through my lines and learning them and just thinking to my self how would she say this what would she do when she says that. I took my own time to sit and read and think of every bit to slowly bring out the character. Althought i had my weaknesses i had my strength of projection and taking and doing what the directions were given.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Prologue
We worked on the prologue and because the Vizier wassnt there i filled in for him and took down what he does for when he comes back. There photos were taken from setting the first part. As a group we had the strength of keeping focused so we went through to plotting and then in to making it better. At this point we all throw in our ideas on what would look good but as a group we tried it out and if it didnt work we would have changed it.
As we did the first part of the prologue theres a scene where the Vizier would say
'And the halls of this palace would sing with his laughter'
everyone had to raise up from bowing and laugh loudly, Gavin then said who ever laughs the best will win some of Ali Baba's gold(Chocolate coins) this made everyone go in to character and it brought the scene to life.
As it was the first it was best not have everyone center stage doing something so having times where it would need marking the moment it was easy for example when King Shahrayar would say the line
'The King swore that from now on he would marry for one night only'
all the girls accept from Shaharazad and Dinarzad would form a line facing the audience then turning to there backs and dropping on there heads would represent the killing of every wife the King had married and killed.
In the last half of the prologue we had a marrage scene, we thought of different ways to show this scene but at the end we had a white net help over the King and Shaharazad it helped mark the moment as it made them center of attention.
My strengths are that i was focused and on time for cues.
My weaknesses was that i needed to focus more on what instruction Gavin gives.
Strengths of the group are that we were focused and we listened to everyones ideas.
We had some weaknesses when we broke out of focus
As we did the first part of the prologue theres a scene where the Vizier would say
'And the halls of this palace would sing with his laughter'
everyone had to raise up from bowing and laugh loudly, Gavin then said who ever laughs the best will win some of Ali Baba's gold(Chocolate coins) this made everyone go in to character and it brought the scene to life.
As it was the first it was best not have everyone center stage doing something so having times where it would need marking the moment it was easy for example when King Shahrayar would say the line
'The King swore that from now on he would marry for one night only'
all the girls accept from Shaharazad and Dinarzad would form a line facing the audience then turning to there backs and dropping on there heads would represent the killing of every wife the King had married and killed.
In the last half of the prologue we had a marrage scene, we thought of different ways to show this scene but at the end we had a white net help over the King and Shaharazad it helped mark the moment as it made them center of attention.
My strengths are that i was focused and on time for cues.
My weaknesses was that i needed to focus more on what instruction Gavin gives.
Strengths of the group are that we were focused and we listened to everyones ideas.
We had some weaknesses when we broke out of focus
Characters
Marjanah is a slave girl in the story Ali Baba. She seems down to earth and willing to help, but shes water because shes controlling and is being controlled.
Creativity
The words on these postick notes are Man, Hide and Seek, Looked, Fall over, Women, Emotion and Toilet.
In this lesson we got given postick notes. On the yellow one we had to write down a character, the green one we had to write a game, the blue one was had to write down a action word and the pink one we had to write a random word.
With the words my group were given we created a story about a man who played hide and seek looking for the women and fell over, the women was emotional and went to the toilet.
My strongest point was working in a group with people i wouldnt normally work with and i stayed focus.
My weaknesses were that i found it hard to create a good story from the words that we were given.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
The Elements
Explain taking the dynamics of an element in to our bodies
The Elements are Earth, Fire, Water and Air.
'we are like marble,every character is there,waiting to be carver out and created' Leonardo Di Vinci
This sayingin my opinion is a good saying because it shows everyone that were all different but we are start the same.
In the lesson we were laying down and we let our bodies relax to the ground, as we got slowly up we moved around as if we was the elements. after this we put emotions with it for example if we was air with love, the movements would be jumpy, flowy, bouncy and light. the emotions that we did were love,sad,happy,anger and fear.
My strongest point was that i had confidence to express myself through movement and i was focused in the lesson.
My weakest was not being able to let my emotions out clearly
I want to take my focus and confidence across to the next lesson as it helps to get the work done.
The Elements are Earth, Fire, Water and Air.
'we are like marble,every character is there,waiting to be carver out and created' Leonardo Di Vinci
This sayingin my opinion is a good saying because it shows everyone that were all different but we are start the same.
In the lesson we were laying down and we let our bodies relax to the ground, as we got slowly up we moved around as if we was the elements. after this we put emotions with it for example if we was air with love, the movements would be jumpy, flowy, bouncy and light. the emotions that we did were love,sad,happy,anger and fear.
My strongest point was that i had confidence to express myself through movement and i was focused in the lesson.
My weakest was not being able to let my emotions out clearly
I want to take my focus and confidence across to the next lesson as it helps to get the work done.
Monday, 30 January 2012
Coffee and Chocolate
In this lesson we arrive and was told to just sit on a chair, the chairs were set out in ranomly places with a cup of coffee underneath the chairs. Once everyone was settle Gavin played some music like we were in france, he then started to describe more of the place to create the atomosphere. He then went in to giving instructions for example 'Take the time to feel the cup' then he gave us dark chocolate have have a taste to enjoy it slowly. After that experience we did the whole thing again, but we did it without the cup of coffee ir the chocolate just using our imaginations. The feeling to me was incedible because i didnt actually have the cup in my hand or have the touch of chocolate i felt it was there in my hand, running down my throat. This will be an experience i wont actually forget.
The Stanislavski System
There are ten elements in 'The Stanislavski System' and they are:
- Given Circumstances
- Magic if
- Imagine
- Concentration
- Relaxation
- Action/Objective/Units
- Truth/Belief
- Sense Memory
- Communion
- Adaptation
Sunday, 29 January 2012
The New World Order
The New World Order was a book written by Author Gurudas. It was first performed on 19th July at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London. There are three characters in the part of script we were given, those characters are Des , Lionel and Blindfolded Man. We was given the script the lesson before to give us time to read it. Some of the students who didnt get one got theres on the day so we went in to small groups of twos or threes and brought this script to life. Once we were in these groups we gave each person a character. I was in a group with Teri and Charlie, Teri played Lionel, Charlie played Des soI played the Blindfolded Man but because the character has no lines i helped out by being a director for the other two in my group. At the end of the lessons we had to show each performance to the whole class.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Dulce Et Decorum Est
In this lesson, as a group we read through the poem Dulce Et Decorum Est. We then had to write down the emotions behind the words or sentences for example in the poem ts says 'Gas! Gas! Quick boys!' showing a panic emotion. We also wrote down what words or sentences that give off an image for example 'I saw him drowning' gives of an imiage of someone looking at someone drowning. After we read this and analysed it we then had to create an 8 move movement piece. We had 10 minutes to get the movement piece then had to show it in pairs to the rest of the class.
My weaknesses were that i was not so focused in the lesson at the begining as i was at the end. I struggled to get movements from this poem but then got in to to and understood it.
My strengths were that i got focused at the end and my confidence grew towards the end.
In my next lesson i want to bring abit more focus to the whole lesson and to perform with confidence.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
The Seven Levels of Tension
In this lesson we were told about the Seven Levels of Tension.
The Seven Levels of Tension are:
1. The Jelly Fish
2. The Californian
3. Neutral
4. Alert
5. Suspence
6. Passionate
The Seven Levels of Tension are:
1. The Jelly Fish
2. The Californian
3. Neutral
4. Alert
5. Suspence
6. Passionate
7. Tragic
To get a better understanding of how these fit in to acting we started by laying down in a relaxed position, Gavin was then taking us on a journey with just using our imagination. The Jelly Fish is exhusted, floppy, less control and heavy, we had experienced this tension by imagining that we have just woken up, not knowing whats going on whats happening but needing a cup of water. We then went to the Californian as we slightly and slowly woke up then after a while went to Neutral having no story just walking around. After a while we became alert that there was a sound coming from somewhere in a cold snowy place, being alert we started hearing an unusual sound that we walked towards to find it, the comes suspension of getting that feeling of being followed by someone or something, and finding this box on the floor from where that sound was coming from. We then kneeled down next to it to see what was inside, then it was tragic to the bomb going off.
This experience was strange, the words set our minds in to the atmosphere soo quickly but also quiet gradually that it all became real in the mind. This would help in the future to create or gather information on a character.
To get a better understanding of how these fit in to acting we started by laying down in a relaxed position, Gavin was then taking us on a journey with just using our imagination. The Jelly Fish is exhusted, floppy, less control and heavy, we had experienced this tension by imagining that we have just woken up, not knowing whats going on whats happening but needing a cup of water. We then went to the Californian as we slightly and slowly woke up then after a while went to Neutral having no story just walking around. After a while we became alert that there was a sound coming from somewhere in a cold snowy place, being alert we started hearing an unusual sound that we walked towards to find it, the comes suspension of getting that feeling of being followed by someone or something, and finding this box on the floor from where that sound was coming from. We then kneeled down next to it to see what was inside, then it was tragic to the bomb going off.
This experience was strange, the words set our minds in to the atmosphere soo quickly but also quiet gradually that it all became real in the mind. This would help in the future to create or gather information on a character.
My strenghths are that i kept my focus throughtout the whole experience and my confidence grew as i just focused on my self and didnt care about what people were doing around me and didnt care if i looked stupid.
I want to take my focus and confidence to the lext lesson as this helps me achieve better in lessons.
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