28.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

 For the first lesson today we carried on looking through scripts to decide which one we wanted to use for our second piece.  We looked through a range of different texts and found some really good ones.  We decided by the end of the lesson that we would use the text Noises Off by Michael Frayn.  We found it really entertaining and funny which is a good contrast to our other piece 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane.  The only problem we saw arise was the issue with characters.  There are too many characters for just the four of us so we will need to find out good sections of text. 

Later on in the day we continued on with our 4.48 Psychosis rehearsals.  Our group focussed on the pacing of our physical theatre sequence as we wanted to put the song COPYCAT by Billie Eilish.

After figuring out the pacing, we voice recorded a discussion on what our plans were for our future rehearsals.  Then we performed for the other group and got some feedback on what they think.  This was our performance:

28.09.20 - Performance Workshop - Mr Lemon

 Today James and I did a short rehearsal for our scene as Mazie and Jacob.  We had Louis there to give some audience feedback and help direct us a bit.  We didn't have a proper performance place so we had to go in a small classroom.  I felt that I couldn't fully characterise as I had to be more quiet and we didn't have enough space.  This is the recording of the rehearsal:

Louis gave very good feedback and the second time felt so much better than the first.  I'm glad we had this small rehearsal as it helped a lot.  

23.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

I wasn't here in this lesson as I was ill but I believe that the rest of the group helped out the Year 12's again so I didn't miss anything.  

21.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

Today we looked at more scripts and decided one of them we were going to use for our final performance in front of the Year 11s and Year 12s.  We made two separate groups being Louis, Tristan, Silvana and I and James, Seth, Hugo and Amelie.  We both really enjoyed the play 4.48 Psychosis that we previously looked at and decided to both do the text, however we would need different practitioners.  Our group liked the idea of Artaud, but we wanted to add a bit more to it, so we chose Frantic Assembly as our practitioner.  Frantic Assembly uses physical theatre which we thought could be different and interesting.  We then looked at the Bed Scene from Frantic Assembly's Ignition:

After deciding our first piece, we set a timetable for rehearsals which were on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school.

17.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

 Today we looked through more texts to find out which ones we could do for our performances.  We looked at the play 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane specifically.  We all found this text very interesting as it is so abstract and doesn't have any specific characters or stage directions.  The context behind this piece is that Sarah Kane wrote it as at 4:48am every morning, she woke up in a depressed state.  The play is very dark and sinister which we were initially trying to avoid, however we liked the creepy aspect to it and had many ideas we wanted to explore.  We split into two separate groups to perform the first section of the text in the most creative way possible, using the practitioner, Artaud's style.  This was really fun to explore and I think both groups came up with very innovative pieces.  This was ours:

16.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

 We were helping out the Year 12 BTEC group with their improvisation unit as their show is coming up on the 1st October.  As we did this unit last year we had a lot of advice and fun helping them.

14.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

PRACTITIONERS

Today we went through the different practitioners that each individual had done a fact file on.  The practitioners we discussed were Peter Brook, Antoine Artaud, Dario Fo, Harold Pinter, Konstanin Stanislavski, Edward Craig, Jerzy Grotoski and Brecht.   After that we got into two groups of four and spoke about the three previous scripts we had looked at and chose one to apply a specific practitioner to.  The three scripts we looked at were It's not you, it's me by Don Zollidos, DNA by Dennis Kelly and East by Steven Berkoff.  Our group chose to do DNA by Dennis Kelly as it was quite dark and we wanted to switch it up a bit.  We looked mostly at the practitioner Dario Fo who used comedy as one of his key features of performance.  We wanted to keep the underlying message of DNA to stay depressing but we would take influence from Dario Fo to give it a comedic twist.  I like looking at different ways to interpret texts as they can make the moral or story become so different.  I am very interested in looking into Antoine Artaud as I find the theatre of cruelty so interesting as it's uncomfortable yet it's hard to look away.

 Dario Fo

14.09.2020 - Performance Workshop - Mr Lemon

Today we focussed on the transitions between the scenes as each scene is already pretty good but it needs to flow better.  

For a majority of our transitions, we decided to have Louis and Hugo come in as delivery men and move in some props.  We also have James help move the set as a server.  There were a few difficulties with which characters were meant to be on stage and which ones could help with the transitions.  We eventually figured it out and then found out how to include the extra character for each scene.  These included the server, NFL ex boyfriend or monk.  For the last few couples we have the scene set in a restaurant so we've kept the set the same however, we transition the people on and off stage with the help of James as the server.  We used wheelie chairs for getting characters on and off stage.  This also helped make it comedic.  At the end of the rehearsal we did a few very fast run throughs with a lot of energy.  It was very fun and we had to think quickly which helped us engrave the routine into our memory.

13.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

 HAROLD PINTER

Born: October 10, 1930

Died: December 24, 2008

Harold Pinter was a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and director.  His best known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978).  He adapted each of these plays for the screen.  Other screenplay adaptations include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993) and Sleuth (2007).  He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television and film productions of his own.

His plays are noted for their use of understatement, small talk, reticence and even silence to convey the substance of a character's thought, which often lies several layers beneath, and contradicts, his speech.  Pinter's plays are indecisive in their plots, presentation of characters, and endings, but they hold undeniable power and originality.  They typically begin with a pair of characters whose stereotyped relations and role-playing are disrupted by the entrance of a stranger; the audience sees the psychic stability of the couple break down as their fears, jealousies, hatreds, sexual preoccupations, and loneliness emerge from beneath a screen of bizarre yet commonplace conversation.  source

10.09.2020 - Performance Workshop - Mr Lemon

Unit 1 - Performance Workshop

It's not you, it's me by Don Zolidis

Script read & scene decisions

Scene 1

• yes

Split up into 2 groups

Scene 2

• yes

Scene 3

• no

Scene 4

• yes - stage transition

Scene 5 

• yes

Scene 6

• no

Scene 7 

• yes

Scene 8 

• yes

Scene 9

• no

Scene 10

• yes

Scene 11

• yes

Scene 12

• yes

Scene decisions, casting and justifications

Scene 1

• opportunity for more characters - NFL boyfriend & server
• sets the scene for the entire play
• Jack references parts later on
• Tristan = Jack
• interested in the character development involved
• Silvana = Ellie
• likes that she's a playful character
• server = Emma
• NFL boyfriend = Hugo

Scene 2

• has potential for being comedic 
• good paces throughout
• James = Jacob 
• he has good ideas for the sudden switch at end
• Amelie = Catherine
• she thinks she can portray the subtext well

Scene 3

• too childish 
• weird age range to portray
• although has potential for more characters

Scene 4 

• a good transition scene 
• breaks up the long duologues
• James in the last scene as Jacob could be the same person as John 
• Emma walks in when Amelie walks out so cheating could be the reason Mazie is upset
• Emma = Mazie
• good at over exaggeration 
• done the scene before so already have good ideas
• James = John/Jacob
• James is good at the dull but funny characterisation

Scene 5

• funny, confusing scene whether it's a lie or not
• making it a gay couple makes it a bit different
• Hugo = Ashley 
• he likes the scene
• has ideas for it
• Louis = Todd
• works best considering the circumstances
• also has ideas and thoughts about characteristics
• James = assassin 

Scene 6 

• similar to other scene that we cut
• doesn't fit within structure of other scenes too much
• we collectively can't bring many ideas forward for it

Scene 7

• have many ideas for people to involve in the scene
• Louis = Mark
• knows how to bring the comedy 
• knows how to deliver the lines
• Silvana = Gabriella 
• feels connection with the character 
• likes playing this type of character
• Tristan = dog person
• Matt = new Gabriella

Scene 8 

• very short but very effective
• Matt = Sam
• put this scene in between scene 5 and scene 7
• reacts to the name Gabriella after scene 7

Scene 9

• not funny enough 
• don't feel as if we have as many ideas
• although does have ability for more characters like Mad Dog

Scene 10

• references in the last scene of this one
• Amelie = Catherine
• keeping same character throughout
• Hugo = Luke
• has many ideas for the scene
• Louis = monk
• knows how to use the comedic timing

Scene 11

• like the lying scene
• very funny and there are referenced in the last scene of this one
• Emma = Jenny
• will nicely bounce off with Tristan
• Tristan = Jack 
• keeping same character throughout
• Hugo = server
• has ideas already

Scene 12

• good way to end the play
• references back to many memories
• Tristan = Jack
• Amelie = Catherine
• Silvana = server

(scene 8) - between scene 5 & 7

additional characters for each scene - mind map

10.09.2020 - Principles of Acting - Mrs Williams

 BERKOFF

Steven Berkoff is a British actor, playwright, author, practitioner and theatre director.  In our previous lesson, quite a lot of us mentioned that we were interested in looking into practitioners like Berkoff or Artaud, where it is quite uncomfortable for the audience.  We started looking at a couple of A level students performing East by Berkoff.

...

...

My first thoughts about Berkoff were that he made me feel uncomfortable but I was intrigued that that was his goal and he succeeded.  I enjoyed it in a slightly cynical way, as I was uncomfortable but also wanted to know more and also try it out for myself.  After reading through a bit of the script of East, we tried out a few sections.  First, Amelie and I worked through the first scene together and came up with actions for every line or intention.  We then moved on to a scene where Sylvie does a monologue and created our own scene with occasional choral speaking and actions.

...

...

I believe that we could have perfected it or made it more interesting if we had more time.  I'm interested in continuing to look into Berkoff and Artaud and the art of cruelty theatre.  

10.09.2020 - Performance Workshop - Mr Lemon

 In this lesson, we had a group discussion about the text It's not you it's me by Don Zolidis.  First of all we split into two and read through the script, one group reading scenes 1-6, the other group reading scenes 7-12.  After that, in the two separate groups, we discussed which scenes we wanted to use for our performance.  Once we had decided, we all came together and informed the other group about what happened in each scene and if we wanted it in the performance or not.  Then we went through which extra characters could be in each scene and changed the order of some of the scenes to help it make more sense for what we want.  I kept notes of what we were discussing:

Unit 1 - Performance Workshop 

It's not you, it's me by Don Zolidis 

Script read & scene decisions 

Scene 1 

• yes 

Split up into 2 groups 

 

Scene 2 

• yes 

Scene 3 

• no 

Scene 4 

• yes - stage transition 

Scene 5  

• yes 

Scene 6 

• no 

Scene 7  

• yes 

Scene 8  

• yes 

Scene 9 

• no 

Scene 10 

• yes 

Scene 11 

• yes 

Scene 12 

• yes 

Scene decisions, casting and justifications 

 

 

Scene 1 

• opportunity for more characters - NFL boyfriend & server 

• sets the scene for the entire play 

• Jack references parts later on 

• Tristan = Jack 

• interested in the character development involved 

• Silvana = Ellie 

• likes that she's a playful character 

• server = Emma 

• NFL boyfriend = Hugo 

Scene 2 

• has potential for being comedic  

• good paces throughout 

• James = Jacob  

• he has good ideas for the sudden switch at end 

• Amelie = Catherine 

• she thinks she can portray the subtext well 

Scene 3 

• too childish  

• weird age range to portray 

• although has potential for more characters 

Scene 4  

• a good transition scene  

• breaks up the long duologues 

• James in the last scene as Jacob could be the same person as John  

• Emma walks in when Amelie walks out so cheating could be the reason Mazie is upset 

• Emma = Mazie 

• good at over exaggeration  

• done the scene before so already have good ideas 

• James = John/Jacob 

• James is good at the dull but funny characterisation 

Scene 5 

• funny, confusing scene whether it's a lie or not 

• making it a gay couple makes it a bit different 

• Hugo = Ashley  

• he likes the scene 

• has ideas for it 

• Louis = Todd 

• works best considering the circumstances 

• also has ideas and thoughts about characteristics 

• James = assassin  

Scene 6  

• similar to other scene that we cut 

• doesn't fit within structure of other scenes too much 

• we collectively can't bring many ideas forward for it 

Scene 7 

• have many ideas for people to involve in the scene 

• Louis = Mark 

• knows how to bring the comedy  

• knows how to deliver the lines 

• Silvana = Gabriella  

• feels connection with the character  

• likes playing this type of character 

• Tristan = dog person 

• Matt = new Gabriella 

Scene 8  

• very short but very effective 

• Matt = Sam 

• put this scene in between scene 5 and scene 7 

• reacts to the name Gabriella after scene 7 

Scene 9 

• not funny enough  

• don't feel as if we have as many ideas 

• although does have ability for more characters like Mad Dog 

Scene 10 

• references in the last scene of this one 

• Amelie = Catherine 

• keeping same character throughout 

• Hugo = Luke 

• has many ideas for the scene 

• Louis = monk 

• knows how to use the comedic timing 

Scene 11 

• like the lying scene 

• very funny and there are referenced in the last scene of this one 

• Emma = Jenny 

• will nicely bounce off with Tristan 

• Tristan = Jack  

• keeping same character throughout 

• Hugo = server 

• has ideas already 

Scene 12 

• good way to end the play 

• references back to many memories 

• Tristan = Jack 

• Amelie = Catherine 

• Silvana = server 

 

(scene 8) - between scene 5 & 7 

Tristan also voice recorded some of our discussion which can be found in the teams folder.