07.03.2020 - FEST - Final Performance

WORKSHOP

We did a workshop in the morning with Larisa Faber.  She is a successful actress in Germany and Luxembourg.  We started off with getting our bodies moving with a quick game of Stuck in the Mud.  This was quite a good ice breaker with people we hadn't met before as we had to get quite close to them.  We all worked well as a team.  Then we did some stretches and massaged our legs and feet.  This was very soothing and well-needed.  We then started massaging our faces and stretching them out to make our jaws relaxed.  To help relax our jaw, we put our hands in front of our face and shook them with our mouth open.  We got into pairs and I went with Louis.  We then had to do an exercise where one person was the actor and the other was the director.  We had to each hold the other person's right hand with our right hand.  Then the director would move the person around how they wanted the actor to move.  For example, if the director rolled on the floor, the actor would have to roll too. We had to have a lot of trust in our pairs so we could trust that they wouldn't make us do any movement that would hurt us.  I was quite lucky as Louis and I are friends so we have trust in each other whereas some people paired up with people they didn't know.  Then we switched roles.  Then we started saying our monologues within this activity.  Louis used his fragmented monologue with James and Tristan and I used my monologue after the mirrored chair duet.  When the director would move a certain way, the actor had to try respond with their voices as well as their bodies.  For example, if I pulled Louis closer to me, he would whisper because I would be right next to him and he wouldn't need to be so loud.  Then we did the same activity without holding each other's arm.  If the director ran back super fast, the actor would have to run after them attempting to keep the same distance between them.  This was obviously a bit harder to react to as it wasn't as authentic, but when doing a piece of theatre, it won't be authentic like it's happening in real time, but we, as actors will have to portray it like it is authentic.  Larisa was very accepting of everything we did and praised moments when we felt uncomfortable or shy because we could learn off of them.  After that, we discussed what our objective was for our monologue.  It was a bit more difficult for the characters doing direct audience address, but we soon figured out an objective for why everyone was saying what they were saying.  My reason was to try get the audience to sympathise with my character.  With this new objective in mind, Larisa went round all of us and made us try and get our partner to stay interested on what we were saying and not loose interest.  Larisa wanted us to experiment entirely with absolutely everything, even if we didn't plan on using it in our piece.  There were points where we were shouting, singing, dancing and jumping around.  It was a lot of fun and gave us an entirely new perspective on things which were hilarious.

WARM UP

Once we finished the workshop, we went to go have a little break and eat.  Then we started to do our makeup and get into costume.  We then went upstairs to have a small warm up.  First we played Zip, Zap, Boing to make ourselves more energetic.  After that, we stretched our muscles and then did a speed run through.  This was to see if we knew all of our cues and it was so much fun.  Everyone was saying their lines but in double speed so it was super funny to see us all running around. 

PERFORMANCE

The performance went really considering we were all feeling very nervous.  I think the nerves properly kicked in when we were backstage and we could hear the audience coming in.  Once the music was on I think we all just got our head's in the game and went for it.  I'm glad that we had a physical theatre movement at the start as it was a comforting way to begin the play.  We were all very smooth and made sure we had eye contact so a relationship was shown through the characters.  I like that we all really committed and even though we should have thought of it earlier, we added in a few lines when we thought it would make more sense.  For example, I added that Tristan lied to me too so the audience wouldn't get confused that I'm not a bad person after all.  Although I'm very happy with the outcome, a few things could have gone better.  For example, I messed up one of my lines in the fragmented monologue between Amelie and I.  Luckily, she noticed and picked it up quite quickly.  Another thing that went wrong is that the sound cue was slightly off for our mirrored chair duet.  What made it even harder to fix was that Amelie and I had the first move but couldn't see the other person.  Luckily, Tristan and Louis could see what was going on so they made sure that we timed it perfectly.  When I was doing my scene with Tristan, I spilt the "gin" all down my arm and face.  I tried to carry on and just roll with it.  The final thing that didn't go to plan was that because the staging blocks were too far forward, I tripped on them.  Luckily, as I'm the "local drunk", this wasn't too much of a bad situation.  Overall, the audience reacted very well to this piece.  They were laughing a lot at many different things I didn't expect to get such a large reaction out of.  I'm really happy with how everyone did and the energy we kept up throughout.  I'm really proud of us for creating something so fun and amazing.

05.02.20 - FEST - Mrs Williams

WARM UP

We did a massive warm up with the another year group.  We started off by doing the game samurai which is about concentration.  The class splits into two groups and there is a leader for each group.  The leader then does a movement which the other team has to reply with another movement that correlates.  If the leader punches, the other team must cross their arms.  If the leader kicks, the other team must jump.  If the leader claps, the other team has to spin.  If the leader moves their arm either way, the other team must move in the direction of his arm.  If the leader puts his hand up, the other team must squat.  We then did another warm up which was to move around the space until the teacher said something and then we did what they said.  When the teacher said to clear the space, we had to run to the closest wall.  If they said opposite, we would have to sprint to the other wall.  If they said shell, we had to curl into a ball on the floor.  If they said sprawl, we had to have 3 points of contact on the floor.  If they said neutral, we had to stand in a neutral position and if they said favourite we had to point to a specific point in the room.  Then the teacher played Bohemian Rhapsody and we had to sing throughout the activities.  It warmed us all up and motivated us.

PLOT POINTS

Louis gave us some more plot points which were very useful and gave us a great place to start from when creating the other story lines.  He created a story for Silvana, Seth, Hugo and my characters.  Some of the points he thought of were that Hugo and I are in a relationship but Hugo spends all of our rent money on clothes etc. and then we get evicted so he tries to get us to live with his brother but my character and his brother don't get along at all so I say that I don't want to live with him.  I then go and live with my sister and then when we're more stable I want to get another apartment with Hugo but he's more interested in the rich life with his brother.  We then break up and then I realise how great life is being single and then Hugo wants me back.  We then both realise that we're better off without each other.

IMPROVISATION

We tried to do an improvisation of the bar scene like our Party Quirks exercise in the improvisation unit.  This was to show us going in a bar and meeting some of the people.  We each had objectives for our characters.  My objective was to somehow portray that I had slept with the barman who was Silvana's ex.  I found it quite difficult to show it without straight up saying it.  We then decided to dissect this scene into two different ones as there were too many conversations going on at once.  One of the scenes was focused on my character and her sister Silvana and the bartender.  Silvana and I already knew our objective but James didn't so we tried to show him through the scene.  I started off quite slow but then figured out ways to portray it in a comedic way.  The second scene was Tristan, Louis and Amelie.  Tristan's objective was to get in between Louis and Amelie.  Yet again it was quite slow to begin with but then they came up with some great ideas.  We then improvised some more scenes related to Louis' ideas about Jane and David.  We improvised the scene between Jane and David (played by Louis today because Hugo wasn't here) about when he tells her that they're getting evicted.  After a couple of tries with different ideas, this turned out quite well.  We then did the scene between Jane and Marie which went well so we decided it would be best to script it, and then the final discussion between David and Jeffery.  We thought that it would be best to keep these scenes quite short as there is no need to waste time just to get an easy message across.

SCRIPT

Jane and Marie discussion

*Jane and Marie sitting down*
Jane - Ugh! David!
Marie - What's he done this time?
Jane - Blown all our money.
Marie - *Gasps* On what?
Jane - Clothes and shoes.
Marie - He's so stupid.
Jane - But guess what's even better?
Marie - What?
Jane - He couldn't pay our rent and now we're evicted.
Marie - I told you he was bad news.  Why do you never listen to me?  Didn't I tell you?  Huh?  I'm always right and you never listen.
*Silence*
Marie - So where are you planning on living then?
Jane - Yours?

WARM UP

For our afternoon warm up, we did something quite similar to this morning with the teacher giving us instructions but this time, when "favourite" was called, we had to point at James and he had to face the audience in neutral.  Then pointing just went to looking at him.  We did this with a few other people as well to see which looked most powerful.  I think that it looked most powerful with James.  We also did a game where we all held hands and one person stood in the middle of this circle and then one person on the outside had to try touch the person on the inside but the people holding hands had to try protect that person.

FREEZE FRAMES

We then did some freeze frames.  The first one was of the bar scene which everyone was involved in.  The other freeze frames didn't involve everyone so the other people just pointed at the scene.  Then we made another set of freeze frames for the second plot line in which the first freeze frame was the same.  We then tried to come up with a third plot line / freeze frames for the barman.

RUN THROUGH

We then did a run through which was difficult for my character as Hugo wasn't here so I did the movements at the start by myself.  The rest of it went well and it was helpful to see where we were at.

IMPROVISATION

We did some improvisation for the scenes involving Frederick, Charles, Meredith and Harry.  The rest of us did some script writing and compiled it all in one word document.

04.02.20 - FEST - Ms Trono

WARM UP

For the warm up we did the same game as yesterday with the numbers and actions in groups.  There were a lot more people in todays lesson so at the end we joined into one big group which made it easier to think about what comes next but the flow isn't as good.  We also did some stretching to get our bodies moving.

MOVEMENT

Our movement at the end of the yoga scene is quite good but we thought it should be a little bit longer.  We decided to add the Swindon 5 by Frantic Assembly at the end.  Once Louis gets into the position to propose to Amelie, the rest of us do a Swindon 5 through them with the objective to not let them hold hands.  We also wanted to add another layer to this, so every time Hugo and I walk past each other, we hold the eye contact to portray the relationship.

IMPROVISATION

Then to come up with more ideas, we improvised the scene where David and Jane meet for the first time at the bar.  We gave each character objectives to portray in the scene.  Silvana's objective was to stick with me because she doesn't like being alone in big crowds, my objective was to speak to Hugo (played by Louis in this scene as Hugo wasn't there) and Hugo's objective was to just dance and have a good time.  There were a few good points in this scene but we think that this was more of a character development instead of an actual scene to use.

03.02.20 - FEST - Ms Trono

WARM UP

We started off the rehearsal with a warm up for our minds.  We were in a group of 2 and 3.  I was in the group of 3 so we had to go round and count up to 4 so each time we would say a different number.  We had to concentrate and try be as quick as possible.  After mastering that, we replaced the numbers with actions.  I became more difficult but very fun.

RUN THROUGH

We tried to do a run through but it was very difficult due to the lack of people.  It didn't really go to plan and we all got frustrated and had a lack of motivation.

IMPROVISATION

We then decided to try improvise some scenes.  These were mainly based on the characters Harry and Charles.  The first objective that Tristan had was to plant seeds of doubt in Louis' mind.  This didn't end up working so they changed the objective.  The new objective was that Tristan would try to get Louis to be like how he used to be and drink beer but Louis' objective was to not drink beer.  They then decided to include drinking a shot which looked quite good.  The part about Tristan planting seeds wasn't really working so Louis decided to quickly play Charles instead of Harry to give Tristan some ideas for the piece.  We then came to the conclusion that Louis and Tristan need to script the scene of them in the bar, Silvana and I to script the yoga scene and Amelie to write a monologue about her doubts.

YOGA SCRIPT

*Doing yoga whilst boys are doing their scene*
Marie - Wow what a great class
Jane - Yeah... so Meredith, how's it going-
Marie - With Harry? It seems pretty serious
Meredith - I guess... I mean it's nothing special
Jane - Oh right...
*Jane and Marie look at each other confused*
Marie - Anyway... Love that ring you've got there
Meredith - Yeah it's 100% vegan and made from reeds of hemp when I was in the Himalayan mountains, truly connecting with myself.
Jane - Wow I'm more of the diamond type but to each their own
Meredith - Diamonds?? So tacky
*Jane and Marie look confused again and long silence*
Marie - Could I try it on?
Meredith - Why?
Marie - Oh I've been meaning to buy myself one of those. Save the environment and all hahahah.  I just don't know what size to get.
Meredith - I made this one myself.
Marie - Oh right...
Jane - Yeah I agree with Marie, but I don't know if hemp is really my colour, do you mind? *clearly looking at ring*
Meredith - Sure... I guess
Jane - Mmmm.. I don't think it suits me.
Meredith - Yeah I knew it wouldn't. See I have a calm blue aura so green compliments it, but you... one minute, let me check.  You have a violent orange aura so it clashes.
Jane - Oh okay never mind.  You're right, okay see you next week.
Marie - *whispers* We're coming next week?!?!?

Monologues in the style of different practitioners - Mrs Williams

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These are three videos of the same monologue but performed in different styles from different practitioners.  We had to take inspiration from this and do a monologue that we had memorised in the style of a practitioner.

My monologue was Protecto (Kid Hero) by D. M. Larson.  When I first performed this monolgue, I did lots of direct audience address throughout the piece which could be related to Brecht.  When I changed it to do it in the style of a different practitioner, I chose Stanislavski.  I wanted my piece to be more naturalistic so i used my own experiences from being a child and gave myself units and objectives to follow.  Instead of direct audience address, I spoke to the teddy bear on the bed.  I found this exercise quite interesting because based on the practitioner, the play can be given a whole new meaning.