Week 5 Blog ( Week 2 For Scaramouche Jones )

Week 5, Monday 7th-Wednesday 9th Of October

To start off with our second week on the ‘Scaramouche Jones’ assignment, we began with us having a rehearsal of the dialogue and the chorus preparation.  Since on the previous week we acknowledged that the play of ‘Scaramouche Jones’ consists of only one man performing the whole script on stage telling the story of the events which have happened in his life, and there being twelve members of our tutor group which had to take part somehow in this performance, this lead our teacher to came up with a clever idea of being able to rip chunks of the script amongst the twelve of us so we all have a part to play as in the performance, which is Scaramouche Jones, but we all play different parts of his life, opening with the prologue of the performance, with him coming on as an old man and then going onto his childhood up to the present day again, we all had at least two pages to perform each.   

As the whole group had learnt in the previous Physical Theatre lesson, we used the chorus for this lesson alongside the actor performing as Scaramouche Jones, over our weekend break, we all learned what the purpose of a chorus is and how they were to be presented on stage for the whole performance. But for this week we were having a proper rehearsal, for the chorus especially, on how we were to mime along with the dialogue spoken, our teacher was both giving advice and telling us what she thought from an audience’s perspective.  We began with giving a good layout of the stage with the space we were working in, keeping in mind that we were to perform in a much larger space when it was to come to the real performance.  Alongside the acting student reading through their opening lines, each of the chorus members analyzed each word and we then after discussed how we could present the characters thoughts and feelings as he was saying the dialogue; this was all to be presented through a series of mimes and quiet sounds, such as a whisper along with a certain word.  For example, the opening line: “God, what a day!  What a day,” was to be delivered with the tone of exhaustion and tiredness since we are telling the story of Scaramouche Jones' life after a huge performance as his clown to what we can guess was a bunch of little children.  This was s perfect starting point for both the actor and the chorus, and will help us down the line with later rehearsals.   

To start off with the opening line, we all walked on stage as though we are going backstage after the performance Scaramouche Jones did before the actual story telling. The student actor playing Scaramouche Jones would rest himself down onto a stall, whilst the chorus was to present the feeling of exhaustion and also resting down on a surface, which in the chorus' case was to be a set of tables pressed against each other. We then started to look at the next couple of lines which was: “Good crowd, quite a good crowd, not bad for a swansong.”  This line is to complement and review overall on tonight’s circus audience that he performed as his clown in front of. We then started to wonder how we could present Scaramouche Jones' thoughts and feelings at this moment to the audience.  After discussing this, the chorus group member who had suggested that we should nod in agreement and make silent comments about what Scaramouche Jones has just said came to be used. We thought of that, in this case, the chorus were to be Scaramouche Jones' thoughts and feelings, So the silent comments would represent what all the previous ages of Scaramouche would of thought about these comments, and how he would of responded alongside them.

 

As we went on we came up with many methods to have the chorus use more movement and also to use whispers to echo on key words to highlight important things about Scaramouche Jones within the dialogue.  But once we finished reading the first students part of the play, which was the first two pages of the script, we had to come up with a method as to how we were to change actors on stage without it being awkward during performance to both the audience and cast members.  This is where out teacher suggested that we use a mirror frame on stage. We were to then use our own imagination of this mirror frame so that the student playing Scaramouche Jones at first is looking at his reflection but then pulling his reflection out of the mirror frame and the audience realizing that Scaramouches' appearance has changed and clearly stating along with the lines given, that this appearance change was in fact him going to the earliest part of his life, his childhood. To switch the actors, we used a strategy that required the student actor to say his final lines and the next actor to perform was to say certain parts of their last lines, which would give the audience the knowledge that they are playing the same person, alongside the two actors reflecting each others actions. Then they were to take each others hand and the first actor was to pull the second actor out from the mirror frame and switch places, resulting in the first actor to join the chorus whilst the second actor was to say their part of the script.

The next day we began performing the same as the previous rehearsal, but obviously now we had a different actor playing Scaramouches Jones. This time we came up with more mimes and sounds to create an environment that Scaramouche Jones is describing. As this dialogue was more about telling the story of the characters birth, rather than an introduction to the character. This was to help us as we go along in our rehearsals until our real performance in November.

Week 4 Blog ( Week 1 For Scaramouche Jones )

Week 4, Monday 30th Of September-Wednesday 2nd of October

To Start off this week was our first Btec Level 2 Performing Arts assignment, in which we were given the task to be performing the play called 'Scaramouche Jones'.  The play consists of only one man dressed as a clown for the entire performance, telling his life story of being a Gypsy for 50 years and then performing as a clown for the next 50 years. Scaramouche Jones tells the audience of his life from the moment he was born and how since the first half of his life was a one huge tragedy story to begin with. The first half of his life was dark and dull, and he describes to the audience through dialogue and mime, how his mother had died in front of him, and also telling how he went through the Holocaust throughout the second world war.  But then he goes on describing how his life took a turn for goodness and how he experiences laughter for the first time in his whole life, and then decided to take the role of becoming a clown for the next fifty years of his life.  The play begins and ends with Scaramouche Jones backstage in a circus as he had just performed his last ever show and the audience visualizes his life through all the mimes and dialogue.

The play was to be performed to an audience by all twelve of us in the group, performing at least two pages of the script each. This was a clever technique our teacher decided to do, with each member of the group to be able to perform as Scaramouche Jones perfectly from start to finish, and the audience will then be able to see multiple personality changes and appearances throughout Scaramouche Jones' life as he grows from a young man to an old one. 

After deciding this, we then began a read through of the whole script. The tradition of Script Reading was brought to the table, where all the cast members in the group would have to read parts of the script each to receive a better understanding of the play itself and it was better for our teacher to decide who should get which lines to memorize. When we had finished reading, we then turned to a discussion to both the teacher and the group to their thoughts and feeling towards the play. From what we all individually read, we all had a pretty good understanding about what the character had been through his whole life.  This is all important information, as it would give an actor better knowledge as to how he/she is to perform their character alongside their clown by knowing the origins of Scaramouche Jones. We presented our idea's as to why the character would react to some of the situation's he describes throughout the performance, or even how he's feeling both Physically and Mentally at the beginning and the end of the play. Which could also be linked with the initial idea as to how the character should be staged and how he should move, to make the performance more realistic and believable to an audience, which is an important part of Physical Theatre.

At the end of the day, our teacher revealed to us the real performance of 'Scaramouche Jones' shown professionally to a live audience in 2000. The video showed a talented actors performance of the character 'Scaramouche Jones', this actors name is Pete Postlethwaite. Our teacher showing us this video was very interesting because it can be good to see another actors interpretation of the character. Pete Postlethwaite's performance was very interesting as he was able to perform as comedic clown,  also showing the sense of an old man who knows what has happened to him throughout his entire life, telling us that he has been through a lot in his life and wishes for it to end peacefully.  Because Scaramouche Jones had a dark and dull childhood story leading to to early adulthood would of had a deep impact on him and the audience as they can see how dark it really was through his description whilst miming with dialogue. It was interesting to know to see another actor perform, as the audience can see when he is performing as a clown, he is always happy to see people coming to watch him, and for the imaginary audience when he is back stage after the performance is when he really shows his character and showing his disagreement of life and that he wanted it to end when he turns 100 when Big Ben hits Midnight on New Years Day.

For the final day of the week, we had another Physical Theatre lesson, focusing on the chorus for our 'Scaramouche Jones' Performance. Because since there were twelve people in the group on stage at the same time since Scaramouche Jones never leaves the stage during the performance, there was to be moments when another member of the group would come and perform their part of the play as Scaramouche Jones, whilst behind said actor performing, were the rest of our group mimicking as a chorus for Scaramouche Jones' character. In previous Physical Theatre lessons, our teacher did introduce to what a chorus is and what it does in a performance. And so for this lesson, we had a rehearsal session for both chorus and actor playing Scaramouche Jones. I was to be behind the first member of the group playing Scaramouches Jones as a chorus member whilst they read their first lines in the play, whilst everyone else was to be presenting the same reactions as myself to the lines given by him.  Each member of the chorus presented different ideas as to how they should present these reactions, also sharing how the first member as Scaramouche Jones was to say and present their lines.  Another interesting idea was to offer multiple personality's within the chorus as well as the clown Scaramouche Jones, to show the different ages of his life since he would look different. How we did this was that one member of the group was to be performing their lines in which the chorus were miming the age of Scaramouche Jones they play as.  So in the chorus, we would give multiple reactions, starting with childlike up to more mature actions. But at the same time we tried to use similar reactions and mimes throughout the whole play, as actors would switch places with a member of the chorus and it would be their turn to deliver their lines and the other member would turn to be a member of the chorus.  This lesson was all interesting and helpful for the weeks to come until our actual performance in November.

Week 3 Blog

Week 3, Monday 23rd-Wednesday 25th Of September 2013

To start off on our third week we began with another set of monologue performances for our Acting Skills and Techniques lesson, since last week, we were assigned homework, to learn a new monologue given to us by our teacher, and perform it to the class for this week.  My monologue was from the play called 'Chatroom' Written by Enda Walsh. Just the same as the previous week with our own monologues that we rehearsed, two students were to review another student and rate their positives and negatives in the performance. The purpose of this is the same as last weeks monologues, to see a student’s performance skills and techniques whilst on stage and also to see if the reviewers understanding of drama strategies are correct.

After a short break, we came to our third Singing lesson and for this lesson also we had more homework like the previous week, but this one was a little different, but it still had the same purpose, a great exercise for your vocals before you sing.  The homework was to research into the five singing vowels.  The singing vowels were very similar to the literacy vowels that we already know: A, E, I, O, U.  Except these type of vowels are similar in the sense that they sound the same but the method that singers use in their songs is to put more enthusiasm as they sing them whilst performing.  The purpose of this was to get a understanding as to how a singer would pronounce their strong words, and identify certain skills and techniques whilst they're singing. 

Our final lesson of the day was our third Art Industry lesson. For this lesson we had to look at some important techniques for Drama in general.  Such as looking at character analysis and development, as well as taking notes for when it comes to our own performance's later on in Btec Level 2 Performing Arts. Such as knowing the time period of the play, much like our 'Scaramouche Jones' play we have to perform is set on new years day 1998. The authors intentions and plot of the play that is written.  All of these notes are very important for each performance as it helps the actor know their character more in-depth, as a result this would give a better performance.

 

The next day we began with another lesson of Development of Drama. In this lesson we were looking at the development of Physical Theatre, such as looking at what it is and how it originated. Just the same as Acting and Dramatic Arts, Physical Theatre came from Ancient Greece and has evolved and expanded over time. But Physical Theatre only started to become more popular when the actor Jacques Lecoq became famous for his use of Physical Theatre in his performance's, and then he founded an Acting school in Paris called, L’Ecole Internationale De Theatre Jacques Lecoq, which was created in 1951.  As well as its origins we were to look at its methods, how the technique's behind Physical Theatre was for an actor to perform a mime and also make the story given by the mime believable for the audience.  This would help when it would come to our Physical Theatre lessons every Wednesday, understanding a little bit more about where it originated from and how the technique's are used by an actor in performance and rehearsals.

After all the written work, our teacher then gave us some practical work. Our teacher gave us a task to see if we were capable of performing a monologue with a small group of people. After she had split the class into two groups, our teacher gave both groups a monologue from Greek Theatre.  In our group we were to reflect back on our notes previously to decide how we were to perform it and how to present our lines.  This was a task to see how our Team Building had developed since our first week of Btec Level 2 Performing Arts, and also to see each students understanding of Drama strategies in order to present the monologue. 

Our last lesson for the day was our third Movement lesson.  In this lesson we began with our warm up exercise which we had learnt in the previous two lessons.  Then our teacher started to show us some new dance moves which we needed to practice for our next lesson.

For our first lesson on the last day of the week we had our third Developing Physical Theatre Performance lesson. For this lesson we began with some different tasks. We began the lesson, like the two previous lessons, with the warm up. Then we had a challenge were we had to really focus and think about our inner clown and we all simply had to tell a joke in front of our teacher and the whole class. Our teacher called us up one by one and he asked us to tell our joke, and after we told it, he marked down some notes, which he did not tell us at first what he was marking us on.  And without any explanation at all, he told us to repeat our joke in which he kept making notes. Once every student had gone up and told their joke, we then after sat in a half circle, and then our teacher revealed what he was making notes on. To begin with, he started telling us about the three types of clowns in Physical Theatre. The first type of clown was called, 'Naïve' – a type of clown that is more childlike than the other two variants, and is more anxious and sorry when he tells a joke that no-one is laughing at.  The second type of clown is called, 'Auguste' – a clown which is more angry and arrogant after he tells a joke which no-one may like or not getting more praise than it should.  And the third type of clown is called, 'Surreal' – a type of clown that is the most insane of all variants of clown, and is so crazy that anything he does, he/she finds funny. Our teacher, after telling us all these types of clowns, lead him into showing us what he was taking notes on... What type of clown we are after telling our jokes. The type of clown I was revealed as was a Naïve clown with a bit of Surreal, this then leaded on to our next task for the lesson.

Our task was to prepare for our first performance of this unit, which is a play called ‘Scaramouche Jones’.  This play tells the story of an old clown who had performed his last performance and is telling us that he is about to die, and so he goes on telling us of the events he had encountered throughout his whole life. Our teacher was telling us that to prepare for this performance, we were to act as the clown given to us by him in our performance and throughout all the rehearsals and we were to be marked on how we would portray Scaramouche Jones as our own individual type of clown.

Week 2 Blog

Week 2, Monday 16th-Wednesday 19th Of September 2013

Beginning with our second week, we had our second Acting Skills and Techniques lesson, which was the date our first homework was due in.  Our homework was to learn a monologue.  But it couldn't be any random monologue; the main point of this homework was for each of us to perform a monologue where the characteristics of the character giving the monologue in the script was to be  similar to our own characteristics in real life.  My monologue was from a TV Drama I had been watching since the previous year called 'A Touch Of Cloth'.  I chose this monologue as I had seen this program so many times and the monologue was similar to the language i would use in everyday life, and I had also performed it before in front of many people I commune with. As I performed this as practice, I realized that there were a lot of similarities in both the language given and the way of movement as I watched the real thing before, since they were sort of similar to my own movements.  But before we were all to volunteer to perform, our teacher gave 2 pieces of blank paper to each student in the class room and she instructed to review 2 students using both papers, just like I was to review two students after my own performance.  The purpose of this was to show what the students’ performance was like through an audience member’s point of view; as well as give each student understands of performance techniques.

Our second lesson of singing had us handing in a second piece of homework given on the previous week. This homework was to look at techniques of singing.  The purpose of this homework was for each student to come up or find a technique which allowed a singer’s vocals to be prepared before a singing performance.  For example, mine was very basic but it was to sing the words 'La La La La La' and the method was that you were to sing it in rising octaves, so the first time you sing it, you sing it in a deep note, and the next time a bit higher, and the vocals increase as you repeat the phrase.  This brings your vocals up so they're prepared for a performance with both deep and high notes.  Each student had to give their techniques amongst themselves in pairs, and then they were to share it with the whole class and the teacher after a few minutes introduction to said vocal warm up.

Our final lesson of the day was our second Art Industry lesson; these lessons allow us to take a look deeper into the industry of the art within Acting and Drama. For this lesson we were to focus on individual skill, skill which may help in understanding ourselves a little better, within this subject.  We listed many skills which we kept expanding endlessly, this clearly showed that we know what we are all capable of. 

On our second day, we had our lesson for The Development of Drama, where we were looking at the history of Acting and Dramatic Arts and where and when it originated. To start off, we looked at a documentary of its origins in Ancient Greece and it was showing how it became so popular and where the main three genres of performance came from and how they expanded.  This gave us all better knowledge of the history of  Acting and Dramatic Arts and it may be looked back on for future projects in this unit.

 

Our final lesson of the day in Movement was very much near the same as our first lesson, only this time we were given the task of learning a warm up strategy, which our teacher said should be done before the movement lesson begins. After we went through all the basic dance moves that we learnt on the previous week again, we ended our day.

The next day, was our second lesson of Physical Theatre. We pretty much spent the lesson working on stage movements and techniques similar to the ones we learnt last week. Again, same as the previous week, it was very basic and easy to grasp but the idea was to get a good understanding of an actor’s physicality on stage for when we get into different practical work for the weeks to come.

Week 1 Blog

Week 1, Monday 9th-Wednesday 11th Of September 2013

On our first day on Btec Level 2 Performing Arts, we began to know our classmates a little better  with some simple Drama games. These Drama games helped us work on strategies in which a Performing Arts student needed in order to work well with each other.  For example, team building was required in the game of muddled phrases; this helped us work together in order to make a phrase using separate words, this game helped us a lot into knowing our classmates names.  Alongside were games which had us warming up to be more energized for the lessons we had on the day. All these strategies were amongst some other simple drama games also, leading to a good introduction to the classmates in our course.

After our first lesson came an introduction to our Singing lessons.  Once again this was a simple lesson in which our teacher quizzed all of us in our knowledge and understanding of the music industry and if we had music be a big part in our lives. For me, I was new to music as i recently started listening to it more often than I did in the past and I thought that the timing was great seeing we had to be singing each week on a Monday.

On day two, it was our first Performing Arts Production Process, where we had a gathering as well as a meeting with all the Level 3 Performing Art’s students and our task was to read through the script of the end of term project.  Our end of term project was to work with the Level 3 students as they were to be performing a pantomime version of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and we were to be instructed and trained as the crew for the pantomime, but that will come in later weeks. We spent the whole lesson reading through the first written act of the productions script.  The purpose of this gathering with the Level 3 Performing Art's students was obviously to know the people we would be working with in the future, and also to understand the basics of our end of term project.

After a short break, we arrived to our final lesson of the day, Movement.  This lesson was to focus on our strategies with dance.  This first lesson was different to the previous introductory lesson we had; as we were used to games and quiz's, then to show on our own knowledge of both acting and singing.  Whereas with dance, the teacher went to the front of the class room where we could all see him, and began to show us some warm up exercises for the dance we were going to do in the lesson. After, he then began to show us some simple dance movements as we followed along with him. We did all this to show our teacher our potential in dance movement and also gave us an understanding of what was to come in the upcoming dancing lessons.

On day three, we began with our first Physical Theatre Performance lesson.  This lesson was both exciting as we started and interesting because the teacher indicated on how a real actor should stand on stage and become still, relaxed and focus eye sight dead ahead of yourself.  Then he introduced certain character movements on stage, such as a clown doing a tall comedic jog. This was helpful to us because for our upcoming assignment in Physical Theatre Performance, we had to act as a just turning 100 year old clown whom had finished his final performance on the Eve of the new year which was also his birthday.  After the character movements, we then went to look at still images. The purpose of this task was to look at all our classmates' imagination, as the teacher created a scenario and we had to give a still image of our characters reaction/expression to this scene. This task helped all of us in understanding the use of imagination with the scenario portrayed, as well as creativity with the creation of our characters and how this was to help us in performances later on.

At the end of our first week, I would like to say that we all learned something new with all the strategies and techniques revealed to us, giving us a better understanding in the Industry of Drama.