PROJECT ONE

Project One

WEEK 1

Life's A Stage

Workshop: Healthy Actor

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to improve on my body strength in order to make performing more accessible. Ideally, I''d like to see an improvement within a month. In order to be more efficient, I'd exercise at home, as well as in workshops.I believe I could have achieved more if I was properly hydrated, which I will do following this session.

What did you do in the session?In the session, we began with a guided meditation and then slowly transitioned into warming up in preparation for exercise.We then recorded how long we could each hold a plank along with an L-sit to make record of our progress. Accompanying this, we took part in a bleep test, which took measure of our stamina.Skills/Techniques developed:> Mindful awareness; grounding ourselves> Stretching; improve flexibility> Exercise; basic body strength, supporting others> Running; building stamina

Actors personal techniques

Connection with others

Script work

Warming up

Physically - stretching, exercisingEmotionally - mindful exercises, grounding yourself

Learning the linesUnderstand the contextRead the playResearch the history

What does an actor have to do in order to prepare for a role?

With the steps on the right, I worked in a pair to create a character role. Below is the role description.Caroline, or Kelly for short, is a 47 year old Basildon Tesco's manager. She's a single mother who was, in her own words 'wrongfully divorced'. She has a baby boy, which she leaves round her neighbours, accidentally forgetting to pick him up ever so occasionally. She's always chewing gum, obnoxiously, and she describes herself as a good person, however is very likely to always be the rudest in the room.

Understand where your character fits inIdentify your relationship dynamics with the performance

Stanislavski - emotion memory, staying in character even off script

Workshop: Singing

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to improve on my ability to harmonise, so I'll keep pushing myself whenever we sing, and hopefully see an improvement before next year.I'd also like to broaden my knowledge of vocal warmups, as I really don't want to harm my voice in any way especially as acting requires your voice a lot more than other things.

What did you do in the session?In the session, we warmed up our voices by going through our pronounciation skills then followed up with breathing exercises to understand our lung capacity along with how confident we are with our voices.Overall, we worked on our volume, pitch, pace, pause, timing, accent, intonation, along with range. We learnt the song 'Good Morning Baltimore,' and applied our skills when singing.Skills/Techniques developed:> Range; developed our range further> Intonation; Understand meaning and usage> Accent; Working on our understand of our accent> Volume; Understanding volume control

Following the SMART Targets I set myself, I've looked into getting a singing coach, to allow myself to work on my voice much more. Furthermore, my drama group outside of college is currently doing a project 'acting through singing', which is allowing me to get coached on using my voice and acting at the same time, which is helping me with this SMART target. As well as this, I've started working out outside of the course, which will allow me to improve my strength.I'm hoping to see an improvement over the next month in both of these skills.

SMART Target Progress

Project One

WEEK 2

Life's A Stage

Angry, yelling

Angry/Sad tone

Sad tone

Light tone, quiet

The first picture of me is at my first birthday party. In this one I am screaming with laughter and holding my hands up to show the camera that I am covered with chocolate cake. My face is smeared with it and it is all over the front of my pretty pink dress. [PAUSE HERE] Apparantly I was quite verbally advanced, and my parents were showing me off when my Uncle Jake said "Oh yeah? How smart is she?" "She's a genius," says my mother, "she understands everything. Try it. She'll do aything you say. So... "Rennie," says my Uncle Jake, "smush that chocolate cake all over your face, sweetheart. Will you do that for me?" And I did it of course, because I was just that smart and I ruined my dress and they took a picture of me humiliating myself when I was twelve months old.This one is my my mother's favourite. It's of her [PAUSE] and me on one of our mother-daughter days, we're on the steps of the Met looking very close and what you don't see is mother boring her knuckles into the small of my back saying, "Straighten up, sweetheart, it lengthens your neck. Now glow, come on, glow. We want this one to glow." [PAUSE] For a while there is an absence of photos - when tummies are no longer little girl cute. Mother hides me at family gatherings and I seem always to end up behind pieces of furniture. So we have no extant record of the long years of wanting, of wanting and wanting and being denied. Reaching for bread and peanut butter and having SlimFast thrust into my twelve-year-old fist. Mother says "No, I am putting my foot down." She is putting her foot down, I see, and I see that to want and demand things is bad. And when I finally want nothing, nothing at all, when I finally want so little I can barely get up in the morning, my head feels like a ten ton brick on my shoulders, my knees buckle from walking class to class, when I want so little the gentlest sounds scrape at my ears and my skin is sore and my hair falls out, finally my mother brings me out from behind the chaise longue and says "This is my daughter Rennie! This is my wonderful, beautiful daughter." Out comes the camera.

The Biggest Woman Wins - Rennie

Self Feedback

Upon performing my monologue, I felt as if I could do better, but found myself a bit nervous to perform for the first time in class. This is something I aim to improve upon. I can easily get better at performing in front of people by performing infront of people more frequently.Due to my nerves, I felt myself relying on my hands to carry the script. This was distracting to the monologue and according to some of my classmates, it took away from my performance. I also believed the pacing of the script felt off. It was sped through.

Workshop: Voice Work

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to do some accent work at some point in the future, as I don't have much experience with using accents while acting. I want to do them in the correct way, and am looking forward to the oppurtunity to build upon this skill.

What did you do in the session?With my character Rennie, I experimented with different vocal skills with a scene partner. This allowed us both to work on our scripts, along with giving and receiving feedback. This helped improve our skills as an actor along with taking on a more directoral role.Skills/Techniques developed:> Pauses; to build tension> Pace; to control the effect of the script> Emphasis; to make certain information stand out> Projection; so everyone in the audience can hear

Rennie in the production is getting a liposuction, so is dressed in a hospital gown.She feels insecure enough already, but wearing this makes her feel more vulnerable and exposed.It's important for her costume to explain the story better, along with Rennie's character.

Rennie's Costume

RENNIE

Costume Design

PILLOWMAN

Costume Design

Following the SMART Targets I set myself, along with my own self feedback I gave myself after performing my monologue, I've been doing a lot of self tapes, which has helped me learn more accents, as well as improve my overall performances. Critiquing myself has helped me understand my capabilities more, along with see improvements I've made to my performances, which has been interesting to see.I've seen a drastic improvement since setting these targets for myself. Along with this, I've continued seeing improvements to my voice and general physical health, which was something I've been working on since my last SMART Target Progress review.

SMART Target Progress

Project One

WEEK 3

Life's A Stage

Workshop: Improvisation

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to explore more genres within improvisation, as I feel as if people rely heavily on humour. To improve upon this, I'll continue to do improvisation with my drama club outside of college and of course apply my skills I've learnt in class when we cover improvisation again.

What did you do in the session?In this session, we played the game "Change!" In this game, we covered spontaneous improvisation. The last line said, if someone shouts out change, they must change their line. After this, we got given the objective to sell a random item. This gave us some structure to our improvisation, yet also pushed us on our spontaneous improvsation skills.Skills/Techniques developed:> Voice; projection, pronounciation, pace> Delivery; creating an atmosphere that works> Impact; getting the correct audience response> Commitment; gaining believability in the crowd

In an interview with the co-writer of "The Play That Goes Wrong," he states that "The initial script I think took about a month to put together and we then workshopped the script with the rest of the Mischief team. Everyone's done a lot of improv so we try and take those principles into the writing room and into rehearsal where if someone has an idea you accept it and you build on it." Theatre still uses a lot of improvisation to build upon scenes and can help enhance a production.

Improvisation in Theatre

I approached my drama coach outside of college with the idea of playing around with improvisation in a non-comedic manner and we played several different improvisation games which allowed me to push my skills, which made me more confident as a performer.Approaching this target I was decently confident, however seeing how easily improvisation comes to me, I was pleasantly surprised on how naturally I achieved this target I set myself.

SMART Target Progress

Project One

WEEK 4

Life's A Stage

Workshop: Working with Multimedia

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd ideally like to use multimedia in a longer and more developed piece, as I believe it worked really well in our short piece. If we get the oppurtunity to use multimedia again, I'd love to take on the challenge.

What did you do in the session?In the session, we created an improvised piece called 'The Nightmare,' where we explored making a performance using multimedia in our performance, such as our flashlights on our phones, along with music. The performance showed a person having a nightmare while drowning. We used sounds and lighting to show that they were in a nightmare and drowning. Using multimedia allowed us to emphasise the desired effect and deliver our ideal audience responseSkills/Techniques developed:> Atmosphere; creating a believable environment with multimedia> Dialogue; understanding that words don't have to be used to create an impactful piece of drama.

Key: Red Riding Hood, Wolf, Directing Notes.Red: (Stumble in excitedly, but halt movement upon seeing Wolf.) What big eyes you have! (Worried, nervous laugh.)Wolf: (Slow pace, closed body language, hands by side.) All the better to see you with (Tilt head, kubrik's stare.) my dear.Red: (Crouch get closer to Wolf, kneeling slightly.) Oh! Granny what big (Go to touch ears, but stop.) ears you have!Wolf: All the better to hear you with my dear! (Smile with teeth.)

Workshop: Working with a Director

What did you do in the session?In the session, I directed two people in my group to create a naturalistic reenactment of the little red riding hood. I helped them alter their characters to get our preferred audience response.Skills/Techniques developed:> Describing your preferred audience response to your actors and helping them apply themselves to their characters.SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to have longer in order to help my actors properly deliver what's asked of them.

One of the most innovative directors in today’s American theatre, Anne Bogart has brought her unconventional and often controversial methods into use as she tries to release American theatre from its slavish devotion to realism. In fact, Jon Jory, Artistic Director, Actors Theater of Louisville believes “Anne Bogart is the most important acting and directing theorist since Stanislavski and Brecht”.Anne Bogart believes in 'Viewpoints'. These include the Viewpoints of Time, (Tempo, Duration, Kinesthetic response, Repetition) and Viewpoints of Space, (Shape, Gesture, Architecture, Spatial relationship, Topography.)Reference: https://ibtheatre2015.wordpress.com/anne-bogart/

Anne Bogart

Unfortunately I haven't been given the oppurtunity to use multimedia in a performance, however I would like to use multimedia again, so I've decided I'm going to bring up the idea to use it in a performance that isn't necessarily in need of multimedia - this way I can see how multimedia can improve a piece of drama and also work with my classmates to discover what multimedia works well with certain performances.

SMART Target Progress

Project One

WEEK 5

Life's A Stage

The Big Performance

> Improvisation

Work collaboratively
Use improvisation to cover mistakes

> External (set/costume/directors)

Learn to take direction.
Use the set to get into character.
My costume should allow me to step into role.

What did you learn?If I were to perform, I'd take in Alice Levine's advice. This means;> Developing my character

Understand social/cultural/historical influences.
Get into character, then stay in role.

> Using my voice

Communicate clearly to the audience.
Warm up my voice.

Project One

ALICE LEVINE

Life's A Stage

Alice Levine: Improvisation

What did you learn in the video?In the video, we learnt that improvisation is used to devise, perform and to add insight to a drama. With improvisation, working collaboratively is key, as well as being open, and always saying yes to improvisation opportunities. Improvisation is also used to help develop props along with characters. Playing improvisation games with the people you're working with is an excellent way to sharpen your skills, and build connections with other actors.

Alice Levine: Working with multimedia

What did you learn in the video?In the video, we learnt about multimedia, and how it can be useful to enhance a story. It can help communicate a meaning to the audience. It's important that the cast and crew work collaboratively, like with everything else. Using different variations of media, it can help create a non-naturalistic environment and/or world. Research is absolutely key in multimedia, so referencing social, cultural and historical contexts is very important.

Alice Levine: Working with a director

What did you learn in the video?In the video, we learnt about understanding how a director shapes the performance as a whole. Learning to take direction is just as important as being able to direct others. The director should work with clear intent. Furthermore, researching the cultural, historical and social context.

Alice Levine: Preparing for a role

What did you learn in the video?In the video, we learnt about being clear with our objectives, and understanding what we want from a scene. We also learn about following a rehearsal schedule, and how it helps you feel more confident. Using costume also helps with charactarisation. Working together as a team is also greatly beneficial.

Alice Levine: The big performance

What did you learn in the video?In the video, we learnt Alice's costume greatly helped her form her character. Working with a director really helped her develop her skills swiftly. When Alice failed to deliver a line correctly, her improvisation skills allowed her to not make it obvious towards the audience.I thought this was quite inspirational as it showed me that someone who has no idea about drama techniques can easily become an actor on a main stage through learning about the fundamental basics.

Following last weeks SMART Target Progress review, I approached my drama group outside of college about multimedia, and we incorporated our phones with flashlights on with the performance, which worked super well. After working with everyone in the group to achieve the desired effect, everyone agreed that multimedia enhanced our performance, and allowed for a more interesting response to the stimulus we were given (Creature). We used flashlights to create a horror-like atmosphere, and made a thriller-like performance, which the audience enjoyed a lot.

SMART Target Progress

Project One

PROGRESS REVIEW WEEK

Life's A Stage

A British playwright and director, famous for his contemporary theatre, particularly in social commentary and comedy. John Godber founded the theatre company "Hull Truck Theatre," which has a reputation for producing artistic and engaging plays, often revolving around working class life and humour. John Godber is most famous for his production of "Shakers" and "Bouncers".Along with all of this, John Godber has four key elements in his early work. Imagination, elliptical language, character and transitions. His aim is to reflect the lives of the people around him.

John Godber

A British playwright and director known for his expressionist and physical theatre. He is renowned for his physical theatre, especially his unique movement, combined with his intense performances. Steven Berkoff has most famously directed a very expressionstic production of "Metamorphosis". His plays often use physical theatre techniques such as mime, exaggerated movement and improvisation. He believes heaily that actors' bodies should convey the story, rather than relying on sets.

Steven Berkoff

A British playwright and director known for her innovative work in verbatim theatre. Blythe's distinctive style involves creating plays based on real-life interviews and conversations, often using recorded dialogue. This gives her work a documentary-like authenticity and explores contemporary social and political issues. She founded the"Verbatim theatre" company Alecky Blythe has created multiple plays, such as "Come out Eli", "The Girlfriend experience" and "Do we look like Refugees?"Blythe's method of recording these interviews allows her actors to replicate ocal cadences, right down to the 'umms and ahhs and the b-b-bs'.

Alecky Blythe

A renowned British theatre director, known for an innovative and experimental approach to staging. She pushes the boundaries of traditional theatre by combining elemts of realism, technology and intense character exploration; creating thought-provoking and emotionally resonantproductions.Katie Mitchell has directed a wide range of plays and productions, including classics such as "Beauty and the Beast", "Don Giovanni" and "The Seagull".One of Katie's key acting principals is preparation. She asks her actors to submit the answers to around 200 character questions before the rehearsal process begins, then will write everything a character says about themselves in order to create a more realistic character.

Katie Mitchell

Simon and Amber are the directors of the "Complicite theatre" company. They have produced a wide range of innovative and visually striking performances. They're acclaimed for their use of multimedia, and ensemble-basedstorytelling.Complicite have made a number of productions, such as "A Disappearing Number" and "Endgame".The key features of Complicite are that they use storytelling, intertwining stories, multi-media, physical theatre, mime, slow motion and collaborative work. The company uses extreme movement to represent their work, with surrealist imagery.

Amber Massie-Blomfield, Simon McBurney

Mike Shepherd created the theatre company "Kneehigh," known for its imaginative and visually stunning productions. They focus on telling a story, often including puppetry,music and physical theatre.Kneehigh have made a number of shows and productions, such as "Dead Dog in a Suitcase" and "Fup".Kneehigh is constantly working with an ever changing ensemble and they focus heavily on storytelling, mostly creative adaptations of novels, films, myths and folktales. There's a strong emphasis on the visual design elements; often featuring live music, dance and film, with a high energy and a playful style.

Mike Shepherd

Louisa and Sam are the directors of the "Fevered Sleep" theatre company. Known for their experimental and interdisciplinary approach to performance art. They often have a focus on sensory experiences and audience participation, and all their work is made in collaboration with people outside their company.Fevered Sleep has made a multitude of productions, such as "Sheep Pig Goat" and "The Weather Factory"Their creative process is research-based. They wish to reimagine the complex and challenging world. They invent new kinds of spaces which invite people to come together.

Lousia Borg-Constanzi Potts, Sam Butler

Felix is the artistic director of the "Punchdrunk" theatre company. The storytelling they present is done through fantastic sensory theatrical worlds. They use empty buildings and create a whole story within them, often building asurreal environment.Punchdrunk has made a selection of theatrical worlds, such as "The Burnt City" and "The Drowned Man"Punchdrunk defines its work as site-sympathetic, as works are always created in response to the architecture. They use a combination of lighting, sounscapes and special effects to the leave the audience feeling 'punchdrunk'.

Felix Barret

All the world's a stage task one

Traditional Greek Theatre flourished between 550BC and 220BC. Three dramatic genres emerged: tragedy, comedy and the satyr play. Western theatre has its roots in the theatre of Ancient Greece and the plays that originated there. Greek plays were performed in an outdoor theatre, utilised the use of masks, and were almost always performed by a chorus and three actors, no matter how many speaking characters there were in the play. Contemporary Greek theatre struggles to find a platform to present its identity that’s not immediately overshadowed by the classics of Ancient Greek theatre, however Greek theatrical devices continue to inflict a huge influence on contemporary theatre throughout the world. The number of actors in modern performances has significantly grown from the traditional three, however the masks and chorus’ will often play a significant role. Traditional Japanese drama is called Kabuki. It’s a rich blend of music, dance, mime and spectacular staging and costuming. Kabuki originated around 1603 and flourished for many generations following it. The actors speak in a monotone voice and are accompanied by traditional instruments. The characters are extravagantly dressed in elaborate costumes and makeup, and strike poses, declaring their presence with what’s called a “Mie”.

All the world's a stage task one

Shingeki is another theatre style that’s much more modern, developed in the early 20th century, that presents more Western-style theatrical productions, which are less stylised and contain more realistic situations, dialogues, costumes and set design. The use of costumes and makeup are still apparent, however are much more westernised and toned down compared to the original styles of Kabuki theatre.Traditional African drama is called Koteba National du Mali. It consists of chants, dance, burlesque comedy and comic satires. Its groups purpose was to promote theatre in general, and engaged frequently in modern techniques and methods to preserve and reemphasize the dramatic expression of the Malian people. Over time, African theatre has evolved to introduce more elaborate costumes, music and other elements of drama. The cultural significance and impacts has remained the same, along with the elements of dancing and chanting being involved within the productions as well.

All the world's a stage task two

Kabuki https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Theater_and_Film/Theatre_Appreciation_(Pipino)/03%3A_The_Culture_of_Theatre/3.05%3A_Global_Theatrehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oidE2SSDczw https://www.kabukiweb.net https://www.britannica.com/art/Kabuki Brazilian Theatre of the Oppressed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Oppressed http://actingnow.co.uk/what-is-theatre-of-the-oppressed/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNMC4KA69m4

All the world's a stage task two

What does this tell you about theatre and its social and cultural role and what insights can theatre give us into culture or into a historical period?Theatre has been an important part of history all over the world. It’s a mouthpiece for people to tell stories, whether it be their own stories, other peoples, or the surreal hypothetical situations that some imagine. It’s an important cultural anchor for every place across the world and has found a large political impact in many places. People don’t often realise the history behind certain famous theatre styles – such as Greek theatre being made so that their people would stop partying and acting spontaneous, by placing them in an environment where they’re either an actor, who must stay in a role and stick to a script, or an audience member, who must sit still and applaud when appropriate. Theatre is still a large part of cultures across the world. Even in the UK, we have an excellent culture of theatrics considering Shakespeare wrote some of the most famous scripts there are – which are studied across the globe.

All the world's a stage task two

Socially, drama is an extremely excellent catalyst in bringing people together, as it provides entertainment, and in some cases such as the Theatre of the Oppressed, actively includes audience members to participate within the performance; pushing them to interact with each other. This style of theatre is a reaction of the environment it’s based in. It’s evident that the theatrical performances derived from people feeling oppressed by the government and has thus created a performing style that is somewhat chaotic, with little structure; trying to make as much of an influence as it possibly can. In contrast to this, Kabuki style theatre was much more formatted. There’s an extremely strict colour coding on masks, such as one line of red indicating evil, and two lines of red indicating that the character was a demon. This formatted structure made sure that actors only ever had rotations of four or so masks, where they would put on a performance that was rehearsed beforehand. The theatrical side of this style of acting was more for entertaining, however the audience would need to watch quietly, and pay attention. The characters speak in a monotone style, and would only step out of it occasionally, such as when the character was performing their “Mei” (A statement their character would carry across the performance, along with one single pose.)

All the world's a stage task two

Overall, the environment that the world gives out is reflected onto theatre, and theatre follows on by creating a piece that’ll impact its environment back. By looking at Kabuki and the Theatre of the Oppressed, we can gather huge insights into the society in which they operated. Along with the cultural differences that are apparent, they also show how their history has made an impact on their performances. Kabuki style theatre was introduced in the early 1600s, which is an entire 350+ years before the Theatre of the Oppressed. This extensive time difference would usually be an indication that time is the main factor in their approaches to performing arts being different, however, Japanese theatre still incorporates many techniques from the original traditional Kabuki style theatre. It’s still being performed today in fact, and plays a large part in Japanese culture, seen in comic books, and mainstream media like video games. This is proof that time doesn’t necessarily play a significant impact in theatre changing, and that arguably in my opinion, is largely a cultural thing. However, overall, the cultural and historical context that’s provided with each of the performance styles is important to its originating country. It’s an indication of how they view the worlds around them, and it can generate interesting ideas and concepts coming to life onto the stage.

Workshops: Warming Up

Warm-Up Your Body | Shake OutSkills/Techniques developed:> Stretching; basic movements> Joint movement; utilising with mobilisation> Muscle work; lengthening the muscles> Electricity; filling in the gaps in the room> Relaxing; shaking all of the limbs to let loose

An Actor's Warm-Up | Part OneSkills/Techniques developed:> Aerobic exercises; allowing the body to flow> Mobilisation; utilising all of the body> Stretching; lengthen the musclesAn Actor's Warm-Up | Part TwoSkills/Techniques developed:> Breath work; building up the capacity of the lungs> Movements; pairing with Resonance> Projection; opening up the voice> Articulation; learning to articulate words> Application; exploring a piece of text with these

Workshops: Movement Direction

Creating a characterSkills/Techniques developed:> Transformation; transform into a role, looking at portraits for information> Flowing; dancing by flicking, discovering the tick in your movements> Animal studies; improvisation of everyday, but as a certain animalInformationA movement director specialises in movement, grasping how physicality in theatre works best. They create an environment where working physically is a natural progression, and are the leader for creating and developing an ensemble.History of movement direction:> Physical journeys > Masks > Lighting > Sounds > Animal studies > Dance > Singing

Project One

PRACTIONER STUDIES

Life's A Stage

Workshop: Konstantin Stanislavski

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?Stanislavski comes quite naturally to me as an actor due to using his techniques over a multitude of years, however I'd like to perhaps explore staying in character for exaggerated periods of time.I can do this by waiting for a big performance, and then choosing to stay in role outside of the performance and rehearsals.

What did you do in the session?In this session, we explored the script of 'Look Back In Anger'. Upon doing research into Stanislavski, we looked into our script and were finding the objectives and obstacles of our characters. This allowed us to delve deeper into our characters, and step into the shoes of our roles much more. We explored the identity of our characters by doing this as well, which improved our overall acting skills.Skills/Techniques developed:> Emotion memory; connecting personal experiences> Who, What, Where, When and Why for our roles> Objective; understand our character goal> Obstacle; understanding our roles hurdles

Workshop: Bertolt Brecht

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to improve on the staging of the performance - we used Brecht's use of plaquards, but we didn't use them in a way that meant the performance went smoothly, which I'd really wish to go back and improve upon. So given the oppurtunity, I'd put more time into staging the performance.

What did you do in the session?In this lesson, we covered the script of 'The Good Person of Szechwan'. We looked into how Brecht would use political messaging through his performance and specifically identified what his message was in this performance.Skills/Techniques developed:> Analysing; looking through the script in depth> Understanding; knowledge of immersive theatre> Chemistry; grasping character dynamics> Gestures; defining clear gestures

Workshop: Antonin Artaud

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to improve on my staging abilities, as I felt within the lesson the positionings of our characters felt unnatural - even if Artaud isn't a natural practioner, it felt unusual and it took away from the actual performance. I can improve upon this by having more time, and perhaps recording our performance so we can watch it back and figure out what would make the performance better.

What did you do in the session?In this session, we explored the script of '4.48 Psychosis' practically. We began by researching into the practioner and finding out his key techniques. We found that he loved surreal and dream-like performances, filled with dark and twisted imagery. We developed our piece surrounding this information we had found out.Skills/Techniques developed:> Voice control; screaming with protecting your voice> Fake crying, laughing; understanding how to do so> Overlapping speech; not being afraid to interrupt> Script work; turning monologues to group projects

I didn't have the oppurtunity to improve upon my SMART Targets this week, however I have figured out how to improve them in the near future.With 'The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband' performance coming up, I'm going to experiment with staying in character past rehearsals. As well as this, I'd like to focus a lot on staging, as we want the performance to go as smoothly as possible with little to no errors at all.

SMART Target Progress

Project One

THE WOMAN WHO COOKED HER HUSBAND

Life's A Stage

Character Development

Throughout this process I repeatedly looked back onto my character, doing more and more research about Laura, and how I'd expect her character to come across.I practically explored this with other people also playing Laura, and we found that Laura is polite with the way she speaks; she talks in a high pitch, with a sweet tone. She'd also speak in a quick manner. With her body language, she'd be quite enclosed; her arms would be often close to her body, and her legs would often by crossed - both indicating that Laura is quite a reserved character, with a somewhat high social status. She'd often be smiling, unless her character is angry, which she would respond to the situation with worry combined with anger.

Socially, with the performance being set in the 1970s, Laura would be considered a polite, attractive young woman. She reminds Kenneth of his youth, and is attractive in every way apart from being able to cook, Like Hillary could. This makes their relationship dynamic interesting throughout the performance.Historically, the 1970s in the UK didn't have much impact in the performance that's shown, however there is a mention to 1950s music, specifically Elvis Presley being put on record - to which is a nod to Kenneth's youth, which Laura says to Hillary he's over; hinting that Kenneth lied to Laura, in order to come across as younger.Culturally, Laura would be expected to be a house wife at this moment, and the fact she can't cook would be upsetting for her.

Hillary is about 38 years old. She's a respectable woman who often is left thinking about others at her own expense. In the script, Hillary is introduced as someone who wants to get revenge on her ex-husband, Kenneth, and is mad at Laura for being his new wife. She spends the majority of the production making sly comments at Laura, however the audience recognises her ultimate objective being to cook her ex-husband.

Personality:

Background:

The woman who cooked her husband is set in the 1970s, so the costume for this character would be designed based off of the 70s aesthetic at the time. Hillary's social status would be pretty high considering her attitude as a woman; being to serve a man. Hillary dislikes Laura, and wishes to cook her ex-husband for leaving her.

Character Profile - Hillary

Laura is about 29 years old. She is a kind hearted and a huge party lover. In the script, Laura is introduced as Kenneth's new wife. She spends the majority of the production trying to convince Kenneth to go back home and she'll cook for her husband, however Kenneth absolutely hates Laura's cooking.

Personality:

Background:

The woman who cooked her husband is set in the 1970s, so the costume for this character would be designed based off of the 70s aesthetic at the time. Hillary's social status would be less high than Hillary's considering her love for parties. Laura is anxious around Hillary, and deeply wants to leave her house.

Character Profile - Laura

Kenneth is about 41 years old. He's an overweight, greedy man, who thinks with his stomach. In the script, Kenneth is introduced as an overconfident man, who is filled with hunger, even after eating. He spends the majority of the production trying to get both of the women to stop arguing with each other, just so he can get his own way.

Personality:

Background:

The woman who cooked her husband is set in the 1970s, so the costume for this character would be designed based off of the 70s aesthetic at the time. Kenneth's social status would be a high considering him being a man. Kenneth appears to not particularly love either of the women, however he wishes for the best of both worlds - a beautiful wife and a house wife.

Character Profile - Kenneth

Workshop: Staging Our Performance

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to improve on my collaborative thinking. I often felt as if I wasn't having much of a say in this session, but it was because I didn't give my input that much.Next time I'd be sure to voice my opinions more, especially if I thought of a good direction, or maybe had a problem with the staging in some way.

What did you do in the session?In this session, we began staging and blocking out our performance. With our scripts not fully learnt at this stage, we decided to work on our transitions, specifically sorting how we enter and leave the set, how we set up the performance along with the props, as well as switch between who is acting out what scene.Skills/Techniques developed:> Line learning; understanding the script more> Collaborative thinking; working as a team> Stage presence; working on stance> Pathways; not running into other actors

Workshop: Commedia dell'Arte 1

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I wish to improve upon my usage of different heights when playing a character in usage with Commedia dell'Arte's style of productions. This would further emphasise the different characters I can create in each performance.I can improve this by when given the oppurtunity to perform with the style of Commedia dell'Arte again, I can make use of these different heights within my performance to differentiate my characters.

What did you do in the session?In this session, we explored the usage of masks, covering our facial expressions, which pushed us to use body language to act out emotions and scenarios. We played out some scenes which allowed all of us to emphasise our character in preparation for the play. This also helped us work better together as a team.Skills/Techniques developed:> Sounds; using sounds to show emotions> Body language; emphasising the character> Movement; understanding how a character moves> Strength; being able to hold poses

Workshop: Commedia dell'Arte 2

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?I'd like to improve upon stepping outside of my comfort zone. While I am comfortable acting the majority of characters, I felt myself struggling to convey the emotion 'love', and my movements become repetitive, which I feel wasn't what I wanted to push across to the audience.I can improve upon this by acting out more difficult emotions like 'surprise' and 'love' more, specifically creating more scenarios with them in mind, so I have more to go off, making sure I don't repeat movements.

What did you do in the session?Continuing on with the past session, we worked on our characters, and then moved onto emotions. With this, we looked through the main seven emotions - fear, anger, love, joy, laughter and grief. We developed our emotions by acting out each of these, with saying no words; only using sounds and movements. Working this way allowed us to get rid of a lot of embarassment in the class.Skills/Techniques developed:> Comfortability; learning to step outside of boundary> Emotions; understanding how to show them> Speed; using speed to emphasise certain aspects

Workshop: Technical/Speed Run Through

SMART TargetWhat skills do you wish to develop?In the future when doing a technical run through, I would go over my lines a bit more. I found that often I wasn't on stage going over my scenes, and I feel as if I could have used my time more efficiently.To fix this, the next technical run through I'm in I'll work on other things when I'm not in the scene that's currently on the stage - whether that's helping backstage or rehearsing my own lines.

What did you do in the session?In this session, we looked at making sure all the lighting was working, along with developing our movements in the performance; allowing props to be moved on and off stage swiftly and efficiently, making sure no one is hurt in the process. This session was particularly useful as it eliminated any worries that people had with the final performance, as it showed everyone that the run through went well, which means the final performance would run excellently.Skills/Techniques developed:> Collaboration; listening to everyone and helping> Independence; taking control of your own props

Self Review

How well did you manage to integrate them in the performance?I believe I worked exceptionally well at applying the practioner to the script, and worked especially well with Laura's character development. Doing my own research into this character allowed me to step out of my comfort zone as an actor.

How well did you develop and improve your acting skills during the project?I felt more comfortable acting a character I don't usually act. I'm used to acting out quite emotional roles with naturalistic practioners, however I found that this role actually worked really well for me and I enjoyed playing a part in the performance. I thoroughly enjoyed letting myself go, and have a good time playing a character that was dramatic. The practitioner Berkoff really helped me perform this character and I think it was an excellent choice for the performance. It let me focus on my movements more; unerstanding how actors' bodies are used as objects on stage, and that there should be nothing realistic about Berkoff's movement - which I had fun experimenting with.

Self Review

What lessons have been learned about rehearsing, creating and performing a scripted piece to a live audience?I've learnt that me and my class work better in the final performance than rehearsals - I think going forward it'd be better to stay more focused in rehearsals in order to stop some people from overthinking the final performance, as it was evident from doing really well in this show, that there was never anything to worry about for those people that were worrying. We all did super well, and I was super proud of what everyone accomplished.

How well did your class operate as a company during rehearsals and performances?I felt as if the class overall bonded over this period and we all really came together for the show. We all had each others backs and when things went wrong we easily covered for each others mistakes, and most importantly didn't point the finger at anyone to blame. We all made time for each other to go over lines we already knew just in case, and we all respected on another. Along with this, we were able to give advice to those who were worried about the performance, and comfort them in the fact that the performance would be excellent. It pulled everyone together to be more of a family which was a nice thing to experience and share with everyone.

Self Review

Do you feel that you achieved the Brief of what you were working on for a scripted performance inspired by Berkoff?I felt as if I certainly achieved the brief of the scripted performance - I threw myself into the character, never stepping out of my role, and I had a lot of fun working with my class on this project, applying Berkoff techniques and ideas. I loved using exaggerated vocal work and stylized movement in my performance, I found it really entertaining to perform, and the audience felt entertained too. I also felt as if my use of mime when having to pose was very good, as it showed the character I was playing without audibly performing, which was interesting to perform.

How successful was the final performance piece and why?I thought the performance went super well. Me and my classmates worked really collaboratively, and whenever one of us screwed up even in the slightest, everyone else would work together to cover the mistake - ultimately making it impossible for the audience to detect it. At the end, after talking to my parents who watched the performance, they said me and my classmates did super well and it looked like everyone had great stage chemistry, and everyone collaborated with passion for their art.

Following last weeks SMART Target Progress review, I did infact implement my targets; acting like my character Laura outside of rehearsal time, along with paying close attention to staging.This weeks SMART Target Progress review I ended up doing quite a lot of self tapes on Commedia dell'Arte throughout the week, and I felt more comfortable with the techniques that this style of acting brought to the table.

SMART Target Progress

Project Two

VOICE ACTING

Life's A Stage

Initial Thoughts

I was excited to start working on voice acting, especially for something I take an interest in - horror games. We looked at screenshots, and what the map looks like, along with some of the characters, such as the creature that's killing people on the ships.I've looked into voice acting before, and found that it was harder than I thought it would be, which meant that going into this project I already had some slight prior experience to trying voice acting out. I understood what they roughly wanted from me with my voice, but knew prior to beginning the project that it's much harder than it originally comes across.

Learning it was a horror game gave me the oppurtunity to immediately start thinking about the sorts of roles I could act out. Looking at the characters we saw on the screen and the environment the game was set in, it was obvious it was a sci-fi type of game, which meant the characters should be orientated towards either a certain role on the ship, or at least an objective.

Laura is around 35~. She's a stubborn character, who seems mostly overworked from the tone in her voice, and her attitude to work has a slight worry - as in the recording things don't necessarily go her way

Personality:

Background:

This kind of game, being a sci-fi game is set well into the future. I thought about the ship and what kind of staff members would be on the ship. While most people went for captains or soldiers, I thought it'd make most sense to go for a Scientist. It's a vital role in society, and it'd make a lot of sense for a voice log to be recorded by the scientist.

Character Profile - Laura

First Draft - Laura

"Doctor Laura Stevenson, Employee ID number 27. Test subject beta is responding as anticipated, but the extended test of the alpha genes aren't exactly... Well, no I'm sure it'll work it just needs more time. I don't know, it's not exactly easy to tell, but I'll keep my eye on-What was that..?Hello?Hello?!"

Vocal Exercises

I decided to change my character, as I didn't think the previous one worked as well as I hoped after beginning to record.

Laura is around 25~. She's eager and passionate about her work, however finds herself in a difficult situation when faced with the monster. It catches her extremely off guard, and it truly terrifies her.

Personality:

Background:

Again I thought about what kind of staff members would be on the ship, and it made me think of an engineer. I really wanted to think of how I could include a much more horror-like voice recording, so I thought about the engineer hiding from the monster in the vents.

Character Profile - Ally

First Draft - Ally

Hello? Is this thing on? If there's anyone receiving this message, please, please just stay hidden. It's... I don't know, I don't know what that thing is but if it gets you, it will rip you apart. Jesus Christ, I'm gonna die here aren't I?! I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I'm scared. Please send help, please, I don't want to die, I don't want to die, please-*Scream*

Workshop: Voice Acting - Conflict and Relationships

PROJECT ONE

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Transcript

RENNIE

PILLOWMAN