Blogs (week four, five and six)

Unit 1-4 Blogs: Week 4, 5 and 6

Week 4: Tue 31st & Thur 1st:

(Tue 31) - Today we had come back from half term and it was time for us to start on our new performance project. We received our new scripts for our 'Stanislavski/Chekhov' performance. my group received the play called 'Seagull'. My group decided we should read the entire piece so that we can get an understanding of it. What i got from the play is that Treplev writes up a play and has a women, which he loves, called Nina perform it. The play is performed but it is interrupted repeatedly by Treplev's mother for she hates his play. The show is then cancelled and Treplev runs off. he then comes back with a dead Seagull in his hand and shows it to Nina. To show his love for her. To cut a long story short there is a lot of arguments, love, and in the end the death of Treplev. I was at first not interested in the script but as i gradually got through it, my opinions started to change. The whole plot is amazing and i'm very excited to perform it. Though i was a bit disturbed by how many gigantic paragraphs there were. 
Next lesson the 'Seagull' and 'the Three Sisters' group were given a task on what we thought of our script. We were paired to whoever was near us. In our individual groups of course. My partner was Anakin Fox. We thought of a few things that could help us with the back ground of the story. we understood that the 'Seagull's' main objectives were: Love, Determination and Empathy. Due to information from the script we new that the play was set in Russia. Maybe around the soviet times. We also knew all the characters and what techniques we could fine in the scripts. 
Once we were done others in a group and the 'Three Sister' group shared there opinions of the play. What my we found similar in my group was that the main objectives was definitely love and determination. Also the techniques were similar which is good. When the lesson was coming to an end we were reminded that on Thursday we shall be receiving our characters and which section of the script we shall be performing.

[BOTH TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY WERE NOT PUT IN DUE TO US ONLY JUST READING THE SCRIPT OVER AND OVER AND NOT GETTING FAR IN THE WORK]

Blogs (Thur 1) - Today we were given our characters and the section we had to perform. I was given the Character Treplev and my partners were Daniella. O (who plays Nina) and Harry (who plays Sorin). We given the section from the beginning all the way to pg.89. Once we were got what we needed we started practising. The scene plays out as Sorin babbling about how boring his life is and all Treplev can think about is his performance and Nina being late. Then he complains about his mother doesn't appreciate him. after that Nina enters and we try to comfort her since she is tired from rushing to get to the theatre. My character then tries to move to Nina (engage romance with her) to show his affection for her but she keeps changing the subject. The scene then ends with how she is not really impressed by Treplev's script. It was quite short but we were able to complete the first part of our section, which i was really glad about, because now i have the information i need to play my character. Now I can try  to find the subtext so i knew enough of the back story for my character and i can also try and produce his emotions.

Week 5: Mon 5th & Thur 8th

Blogs (Mon 5) - for today's lesson we came fresh and ready for practising. Dan was the director so she decided we should all go in our individual groups and practice our pieces. Then hopefully before the lesson ends we can perform as a whole. In the first lesson my group was trying to  grow the image of how it will be performed. All we had to do now  is develop it. we got the sections right so now we had to try and use the space and make our characters our own. Not only that, how we enter. When me and Harry enter we had to enter as our character. Meaning Harry had to enter as an old man and i had to pamper him as we walked. That's so it looks like i'm helping out an old man. Afterwards I realise that two of my/Treplov's performers are still on the stage and tell them that they have to go away. From my perspective i feel that i have to say it kindly so i don't come out rude. Harry then tells one of them how their dog irritates him. 
Once he said that, Danielle realised how he wasn't his character any more. She quickly advised him to stay  in character. He repeated his lines and everything went smoothly. After that the performers left and Harry had to talk about his life isn't good enough. I would sit there listening.
 Then when he finished i would tell him about how the stage would be set. I knew i had to be energetic for this because i'm showing my perfect creation. Which i hoped will please Sorin(Harry). This is where i had to be creative and spontaneous. I had to try and paint a picture for him. That meant a lot of hand gestures, pointing and taunting. When i finished we started again and kept going from the beginning to the end of our bit. The end of the lesson had approached us so we didn't have enough time perform as a whole. We promised each other that next lesson it would so everyone can be comfortable with it.

[BOTH TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY WERE NOT PUT IN DUE TO THE HAMILTON EVENT]

Blogs (Thur 8) - For today's lesson we all were ready to divide into groups and work on our sections. This lesson I had to focus on trying to increase the volume of my voice because after last lesson I noticed that I was a lacking in voice. I had a lot of time after school to do some vocal warm ups. such as stretching, massaging the mouth and exercising the tongue (with tongue twisters).
When it came to rehearsal my group and I did the same blocking allowing to go through quickly. Though I have still not remembered my lines so I'm still going to have to work on that. I would mumble on words and I wouldn't understand some of them.

It had then come to the lesson and what I learned today is that I was not bringing enough energy to practise. Though that was due to me not learning my lines so tonight I made it a mission to focus on my lines.

Week 6: Mon 12th - Wed 15th

Blogs (Mon 12) - For today's lesson we decided to try and work as a group so that we can see every groups individual work. The order for the scenes were as follows. First it was Diamond and Pedro's duo scene, then it was my group, then it was Michael and Teigan, then finally Mya, Anakin and Elena. We joined them all together and it seemed to come out pretty well. Everyone was keeping the pace, most of us had learned our lines and the blocking looked fantastic. Though everyone was a bit low on vocals and bringing more energy to the performance. No one really felt there character or had the emotions of their character. That just showed me and everyone else that we had to start doing vocal warm ups and do exercises for making the performance truthful. The director also felt we should do more on the blocking of the performance so we understand how the stage is set.  Blogs (Tue 13 & Wed 14) - In the first lessons we all decided to do focus on our lines. Then next lesson we can perform the whole thing again and it will hopefully produce that showman-ship we want it to produce. I researched some vocal warm up tips for the group that they can choose to do if needed. 
For e.g:
Breathing Relaxation - breath control and removing tension around the nose mouth and throat. 
Jaw Release - stretching and tensing the jaw to remove stress from that area allowing the actor to speak properly. 
Lip Trills - stretching lips so words are pronounced properly when lips come in contact. 
Tongue Trill - stretching the tongue will help with articulation and good pronunciation of words. 
Two octave Scales - going from a high pitch to a low pitch. This will help with showing different tones/emotions in words. 

Humming - vibrating your vocal cords is like massaging/clearing your throat. It helps so you can be able let voice go from a low to high pitch.
Then for the second lesson we performed to each other again and things were very promising. i could hear everyone clearly, I could understand them and they all were really linked to their character and made it there own at the same time, which was quite surprising. We ran through it two more times and as we were going we added more improvements making it better and better. Then when we finished we just went through lines so it will be smoother next lesson.

[The next two weeks were more weeks of practise and there wasn't really that much of a change. I was very excited though for this was this Thursday is the performance and I was focused and ready for everything.]