Level 3 Acting Week 4 Synopsis Blog

Monday 29th Of September 2014 Blog Entry

Synopsis Of Day:

Lesson 1 - Physical Theatre:

For the start of this week, our teacher had me and the group look towards more of the origins of Physical Theatre and the performance roles associated with it.

We looked towards the Ancient Greeks for this task and how they had run festivals to help bring people from all across the world to witness their use of theatre.  The theatre of the Ancient Greeks had really flourished in the time span of 550BC to 220BC.

The festivals the Ancient Greeks had ran once a year for 5 days in Athens was in the honor and celebration of the Greek God called Dionysus.  The three genres of theatre the Ancient Greeks had come up with were Tragedy, Comedy and Satyr.  There were some Greek plays that were written for 2 combined genres, these were mostly Tragicomedies.

Western Theatre had gained it's roots from the Ancient Greeks with the plays that had originated from them.  Some modern day plays, such as 'Death Of A Salesman' by Arther Miller, has followed the same concept and materiel's of theatre used by the Ancient Greeks.

Going back to the topic of the origins of Physical Theatre and how it may have come from the Ancient Greeks, the role of the chorus that had appeared in their plays are one of these associated roles and we had spent the majority of our 'Physical Theatre' lesson discussing what their role would have been depicted as.

I had come to the conclusion that the chorus, in a performance, is a collective body which mobilizes communal wisdom and communal memory towards the actors on-stage.  They do not simply interact with the actor in any way, but they will present a background story to go alongside with the lines being announced by each actor in a scene.

I had also considered that the chorus, in Ancient Greek performances, were generally the 'main part' for each play being presented.  I say this because, at the time, there were only three main actors on-stage projecting themselves as certain characters associated with the play, meanwhile the chorus had a group size of over 10 people which was the main focus for the audience so they could get an understanding of what's going on in the performance being shown due to them explaining the story between the characters through physical body language.

This also brought the question as to how the members of the chorus were able to show their reactions towards certain situations that could happen in the performances to the audience members, which were at least in the 1000's.  This brought on the discussion of full face masks that the Ancient Greeks had used in their performances which was meant to show the audience how they felt towards certain characters in the play.  They had used face masks because since the audience for each play were ranged in the 1000's, they wouldn't be able to see what facial expressions/reactions they gave towards the characters.  They had used the element of using the masks and also to project it further in terms of gestures.  This information ties into Physical Theatre and how historical texts may think it had originated from the Ancient Greeks because of how they had used them in performance.

There was one quote of interest that I had received from this lesson about Ancient Greek Tragedy plays: "Ancient Greek Tragedy is simply inconceivable without the chorus!".  Since the person who gave this quote said that Ancient Greek Tragedy plays would be inconceivable without the chorus, meaning that without the chorus they wouldn't be able to show off a good performance, does tie in with my idea that the chorus is, in reality, the 'main part' of each play that was presented.  Of course the acting would be there with the characters but there would be no development of the main story that the chorus presents to the audience if they were not there to show it physically.

After watching a few documentaries about Ancient Greek Theatre, the 'Physical Theatre' lesson for this week had ended.  I had learnt a lot in this lesson about how the chorus is considered important for a performance of any age and genre and later on when me and the group go back to rehearsing '13', we will be devising ways to which we can present the performance with the use of the chorus in certain scenes that seem to tie in well with the role.

Lesson 2 - Contemporary Theatre:

After a short break, me and the group had returned to the theatre to continue with our 'Contemporary Theatre' lessons.  For this lesson, our teacher looked at certain scenarios which required me to present a facial reaction and to present that with a physical position that is associated with it.

For this task, I was presented with 6 different scenarios, although each pair of scenarios announced had been the opposite of the one before, for example, the first scenario I was presented with was 'Happy'.  For this scenario, I had given a big smile and acted as though I had looked at something that has made me happy with myself.  After achieving this, the next scenario that was presented was completely the opposite of being happy and that is to be feeling disappointed about something that has happened.  For this scenario, I had crossed my legs and acted as though I was looking at something in a negative way and slightly nodding my head side to side at certain moments.

When I had fully decided that these are the 2 types of body language I wanted to show, our teacher had announced that I would have to transition between the 2 scenarios in a number of beats starting from 10 - 5 - 2 - 1, 10 being quite a slow transition and 1 being an instantaneous movement.  I had continued with this exercise with 4 other types of body language showing Fear, Empowerment, Love and finally Hate.  I felt that the purpose of this exercise was to get my mind and body into the idea as to how a chorus would perform their reactions to certain scenarios without saying anything and only projecting their opinion with their body language.  This exercise will be useful with how I will project my characters in '13' when I'm in a scene not saying many lines.  If I developed onto both of my characters more by researching about them and their opinions towards other characters in the play, then I can give a more effective, believable performance with my use of Physical Theatre.

After completing the task, the whole group had separated and I had once again rehearsed for the 2 scenes I was performing in for Act 1 in '13'.

Conclusion Of Day:

After rehearsing for a short while, the 'Contemporary Theatre' lesson for this week and the day at college had ended.  I had learnt a lot today about the job role of the chorus in Ancient Greek theatre and research about both my characters, Martin and Paul, and it has inspired me to think more about how I can project both of my characters in '13' physically since in their scenes, they don't have many lines to present, and delving into any form of research about my characters will hopefully award me with the right state of mind, and from doing this, achieve a higher mark for my main performance in November.

Wednesday 1st Of October 2014 Blog Entry

Synopsis Of Day:

Lesson 1 - The Historical Context Of Performance:

To start off today we began with our 'Context Of Performance' lesson which so happened had me and the rest of the group discover the contextual ideas behind our first production for this year, '13'.

First off, we talked about when '13' is set both on stage in reality and the date it takes place in.  Mike Bartlett, the author of '13', had written the book in the period of 2009-2010 and published it in 2011.  Later on the same year, there was a live performance of '13' that took place at the National Theatre in London.  Much the same as the play being performed in London, the play actually also takes place in London.

We then talked about the possible influences that Mike Bartlett may have had before he started to write '13'.  We discussed that it may have been about his personal opinions towards democracy and politics since a lot of this takes place in '13' alongside the main story-arch with John and 'The 12'.  Another influence may have been that the story of '13' is much the same as Jesus and the '12 Disciples'.  Both John and Jesus had died in their story's and somehow resurrected after a period of time.  John returned to fight against the political debates to bring, what he aims to be, a brighter future for mankind and try to get his old friends and colleagues to fight alongside him since they don't know what to do in these dark times.  Much the same as Jesus returning to help guide those lost without him, which are his disciples, and to spread the word of his return as a sign of religious upbringing.

We then after discussed what was going on at the time of the story in '13'.  The group came up with many suggestions about what was happening economically, socially, culturally, even geographically, since there are American characters in '13'.  The idea that caught our teachers attention was if there was a war going on in another country.  This war that our teacher was interested in was the one located in Iran.  During this war, the British and American government had the idea that there was the production of Nuclear Weaponry being made in Iran and this caused a large amount of both political and democratic problems in both country's to the point where the citizens were in an age of protest against the ideas the politicians had come up with.  With all of this in mind, we discussed the purpose behind the creation of '13'.  I had the suggestion that the play further highlights the democratic and political opinions in the world and that the characters in the play, main or side, are the general public caught in these real engagements and Mike Bartlett had adapted a storyline behind all of it to present an effective story.

After our discussion session about the context behind '13', me and the group had received our homework for this lesson that has to be completed and handed in next week.  This homework required all of us to have a partner, and our task was to create a power point presentation showing our physical understanding of '13'.  For this homework, me and my partner will be researching about the plays relevance to contemporary society also giving points about the main purpose and context behind it along with the usage of Social Media.  For this presentation, and the play itself when we come to performing it in November, me and my partner will be marked on our communication skills towards an audience.

After receiving the homework, the 'Context Of Performance' lesson had ended.  In this lesson I had learnt a lot more about the ideas behind the creation of '13' and this research will help me get a better state of mind as to what is really happening in this play outside of the scenes we are performing and it'll inspire me to go and find out what my characters opinions are towards the political and democratic events occurring in this play.

Lesson 2 - Performing Arts Business:

After my lunch break, I reunited with my group in our 'Performing Arts Business' lesson where I had the task to present my slideshow about the career path of the Set Designer with my partner which we didn't get to show in the previous week since we ran out of lesson time.  Me and my partner had put a good effort of work into this presentation, we had come in early on some college days to make sure it was top standard and to our teachers recommended requirements, and I think we had both presented it well.  Doing this presentation was interesting for me as it helped me learn more about the job role of Set Designer and the type of work that they would have to do to become one professionally.

After showing our presentation and watching a few others, we had received our first real assignment for this year, which was to create another presentation about my overall career plan.  For this presentation, I can look back upon the research and decisions I had made for my original 'Five Year Plan' document to help assist further findings.  I'll be awarded with higher marks if I talk about 3 or more courses overall, no higher than 5 however.  For this presentation, I will look into 5 separate courses, since it'll show how much more work I put into this assignment and hopefully award me with the highest grade achievable for it which is a Distinction.

After receiving this assignment, the 'Performing Arts Business' lesson for this week had ended.  I'm very excited to get to work on this assignment and make it to my highest potential standard to hopefully achieve the highest grade which will set me on a good run for this course in terms of assignments.

Lesson 3 - Developing Voice For The Actor:

After another break, me and the group had come to our last lesson for today which was our 'Developing Voice For The Actor' lesson.  In this lesson we looked at how we should write up our portfolio's since some members of the group weren't overall confident with their ideas of presenting it, and we also looked more upon our Posture and the Alexander Technique to see how it helps an actor in performance.  Most of this information was helpful, but I had already done my Portfolio entry for Posture/Alexander Technique before this lesson and most of the things which was discussed and written down on the whiteboard I had already basically written in my portfolio.  So after everyone who needed the help had written down their notes, we received our next bit of the portfolio to complete before next weeks lesson which was to research about the Vocal Cords and talk about it in terms of how it may also help an actor in performance if he/she does specific exercises to help control them.

When I had received my next entry task for the portfolio, we moved onto an exercise which required the group to find their own Larynx in their throat and move it around very gently, which does help some actors with their Vocal Cords.  This exercise wasn't very entertaining for me since it made me feel a little bit under the weather after performing it but if I have to do it more in the future (which hopefully I don't need to since it's not necessarily required) I won't receive the same effects that I had from doing it in today's lesson.

Conclusion Of Day:

After doing this exercise, the 'Developing The Voice For The Actor' lesson and day had ended.  I'm, again, very excited to begin my work on the 'Vocal Cords' entry for my actors portfolio and hopefully it will include the amount of detail I am known to present in my written work.

Thursday 2nd Of October 2014 Blog Entry

Synopsis Of Day:

Lesson 1 - Tutorial:

To start off with today, me and the group had returned to our Tutorial session with our teacher.  In this session, our teacher had briefly talked about the illegal use of Plagiarism, which means the copying of another persons work and handing it in as your own.  I can say confidently that I have never committed Plagiarism in my life, all of my work is mine and mine only, and the fact that someone may have possibly been copying my hard, detailed work or anyone else's disappoints me to the point that I can't believe someone on the course may want to do this.  Our teacher then gave an instruction that if we ever had to copy something needed for an assignment that was someone else's work, we must give reference to the source of that information and show our understanding in our own words.

With the brief discussion about Plagiarism now over, our teacher had marked and given back my essay about 'The Devising Methods Of Frantic Assembly'.  She had reviewed my essay and given it an "Impressive" rating, alongside she gave notes as to how I could improve it and also notes about my punctuation, grammar and vocabulary.  Since our teacher had given everyone specific ratings to their own work such as "Good", "Very Good" and even "Fair", it brought on the conversation of what these ratings mean in terms of grading.  Since for this year our teacher can't actually tell us what grade we get in our written work, she couldn't give too much detail.  But what she did say was the equality of the rating in terms of grading:

Fair/Satisfactory = Low Pass/High Pass
Good/Very Good = Low Merit/High Merit
Excellent/Impressive = Low Distinction/High Distinction

Having knowing this, I discovered that my "Impressive" rating for my essay about 'The Devising Methods Of Frantic Assembly' had achieved a High Distinction grade.  I was very pleased to achieve this grade, even if it doesn't count towards anything, but it shows my teacher and me that I can write a detailed and well structured essay.  My teacher had also given me a note about my use of writing for my essay saying that it was "Cheesy".  I have been told in the past that my writing is considered to be very cheesy but my teacher liked how I had written it this way so it's a positive effect for me.

Having finished our discussions about our essays, our Tutorial session had ended.  Again, I'm very pleased to have achieved what would have been a Distinction on my 'Devising Methods Of Frantic Assembly' essay and I feel confident that any further written work for this year will grant me the same grade.

Lesson 2 - Performance Workshop:

For this lesson we went back to rehearsing for '13'.  For the period of the lesson, we looked at and refined both ways of movements and ways of presenting our characters lines from the very start of the play.

For the beginning of the play (the Prologue for '13'), our teacher had asked if the actors whom were playing 'The 12' characters would come forward and experiment with the opening of the play.  Our teacher had made all 12 actors, including me, lie on the floor in a circular fashion.  We further blocked this to the point were all the characters would be fighting since they are meant to be sleeping and having a nightmare.  For the performance, our teacher said that there will be an alarm clock going off resulting in all of the characters waking up from the same nightmare at the same time with heavy breathing and their hearts beating fast.  The way we are going to let the audience acknowledge that our hearts are beating fast is that a few of the actors will make a heart beating sound with their vocals whilst the rest will be breathing at a higher tempo than normal to signify that something worrying had happened, being the nightmare that all the characters had.

After the intro scene, our teacher had devised ways in which the actors in the next few scenes could project their characters physically and vocally to give a more truthful performance.  For example, in the first real scene of the play, the character Ruby is meant to be showing a feeling of disgust towards the character John because he "smells", and that the actor portraying Ruby's mum would give off a tone of voice that shows anger towards her actions which is then after followed by an apology towards John for her daughters disgusting behavior.  Me and a few others in the group had inputted that the actor who was portraying John could give a reaction showing disgust also towards the bad use of language and could physically walk away from Ruby so she would stop talking about him.  For this scene also, we included background actors using their phones and I-Pads for work or social interaction.  This part of the scene links in with the idea that there is a lot of usage for Social Media within '13' and I'd think for further scenes we will implement this idea further to show that it is an important element of the play.

Doing these rehearsals did make me think about how I could project my characters, Martin and Paul, more physically and vocally to show off a better performance.  When I go back to reading the script again, I will experiment with ways I could announce my lines and also with movement in my scenes.

Conclusion Of Day:

After a few hours of refining the play from the beginning, our 'Performance Workshop' lesson and week at college had ended.  I've had a lot of fun getting to know the other characters in the play more by witnessing what my fellow actors have developed with them and I look forward to further rehearsal/blocking sessions before our main performance in November.