Thursday 4th December, Lesson 5

Rehearsing:
This is what we have chosen to be for our configuration of our performance space.

Advantages:

The thrust stage allows for a much closer audience-performer relationship physically, which can become an emotional closeness as the audience will be able to see more clearly the actors actions and expressions. It focuses on the actors, not the scenery. It removes the fourth wall as your reactions are visible to those sitting opposite you (great for plays where society is important).

Disadvantages:

It is tricky to stage as angles become a problem and the actors can't always be seen by everyone if there are many people on stage at one time.

As an actor what are the challenges you think you will have personally being directed in this space? 

I know that when performing in this space, even when i am not delivering a line or specifically involved with the focus of the scene, i will always be seen my audience members and whatever i do will be noted. This means that when i need to be standing still or not moving, i need to remain this way otherwise the focus will be easily drawn to me when it shouldn't be. Projection is also another challenge; i will need to make sure that when I am delivering my lines I am loud enough for all the audience to hear.

Prologue

We have staged the prologue so that we are all equally spaced out in our groups of four, whilst one person in our group sits on the stall, and the other three people are positioned around this person in different ways, depending on how your group decided to stage this. We have made this choice in order to make sure the staging is equally spread out and every group is seen. The torches are used as headlights on taxis and there is also a light above each of the drivers heads. Each driver delivers a paragraph from the prologue- we have chosen to do this as it suggests that all the taxi drivers are one- and are having a conversation with a passenger. The torches also create a mysterious effect as they illuminate the drivers face, whilst everything else is pitch black.

Tale 1-


What is your role in the tale?

My role in the tale is a stereotypical East End girl- and she is describing her idea of what the East end would be if it were a man. I have two solo lines:

"Spiky hair"
"Cos his dad used to smoke"

And two ensemble lines:

"Which is a start"
"Even the traffic stops for him when he crosses the road"

How has it been staged?

Our tale has been staged so all the stalls are in a long zig-zagged line down the center of the stage. The majority of the girls are sitting on the stalls whilst all the other girls are sitting next to them on the floor. Eventually we all end up standing on our own in separate areas of the space, and when we deliver our last line, we all turn to face the middle; shining our torches in the center of the space.

Why have these choices been made? 

It is staged this way as it is quite abstract and allows the audience to have a clear overview of the space. It's also been staged so all the lights are of and the girls have the lights on their phones so our faces are lit. It allows the audience to focus on the words being said as it's in darkness, it also gives a different perspective on the tale as everyone delivers their lines differently with different intentions, for example some girls are either texting, having a phone call or taking a selfie. 

What are the strengths of this piece so far?

One of the main strengths of our piece is the use of light; it is a literal pass of focus and is very effective when creating atmosphere. Another strength is the variation of how the lines are delivered, depending on your intention behind your line and what action you are choosing to do with it.

What developments need to happen throughout the rehearsal period? 

The developments that need to happen are line learning- it will help bring the performance to life if we don't have a script in front of our faces! We also need to ensure that our energy levels are high throughout the whole scene as we cannot allow this to drop, otherwise it will result in a extremely dull scene.

Thursday 20th November, Lesson 3

This is my sheet I was given in the lesson.

Task 2

We were put into groups and given a tale which we were to create a response to as homework. This is my homework. 

We were then asked to develop a scene from the tale. It was physical so no props were used, and we decided to all take on the role of the woman in tale 2, yet we were all representations of her different emotions and characteristics for example I was the business woman side of her, the woman who "worked to live didn't live to work" whereas Harmony was the side of her that went jogging every evening and was a healthy woman.

 Our homework helped us as our we analysed the script in a very detailed way therefore we were able to look closer at the script and make sure we knew exactly how to portray the woman. 

As my character I made a choice to be standing, my laptop infront of me and I was typing. Every now and then I would pause, drink my coffee, take in my surroundings and then get back to work- almost like a repetitive cycle. I decided to make these choices because it shows that her work lifestyle is almost like a routine- the same things are done all day everyday in order to earn a living.

Task 3

In groups we all read over Tale 6 and were asked to underline the people mentioned. I underlined:

I then chose to do a role-on-the-wall for the 'sly man' character. 

After this we then developed a scene in groups. In my group, Matilda had also chosen to be the sly man. We decided to work together, using our role-on-the-walls. We decided to use one of us as a representation of the INTERIOR- the feelings or thoughts that the character had, whilst the other one of us was the EXTERIOR- what people perceived of the character.

 I was the INTERIOR so I was sat on a chair, whilst Matilda stood behind me. One after the other we would read out words from the paper- for example I would say " I'm fed up" and she would answer with " I'm arrogant". This was an effective way to portray what the character was feeling in comparison to what the character was perceived to be. 

We then shared our work to the class.

A scene that was effective for me was the scene with Jed who was the old woman from Tale 6. He went into detail about how the character felt, her emotions towards her son and her emotions towards her illness. It made me think a lot more about this character- she seemed somewhat insignificant before as she was only mentioned once in the tale, but Jed had brought her character to life and it was very interesting to see it happen. 

Thursday 13th November, Lesson 2

Prologue

When we were asked to look at the prologue I was working with Ella and Alex. We decided to have the taxi driver in the middle and then two passengers either side of the driver  who were having two different conversations with the driver although physically the scenes merged into one. We did this because it was interesting to see how we could play around with the different ways of using the simple lines to create a short scene.

Ensemble Taxi Driving
Another pair- Jamie and Sherene decided to have the taxi driver standing on the floor whilst the passenger was standing on a chair behind them. The physicality made the scene very clear and effective, and so did the characterization because although Sherene was fairly quiet and timid, Jamie was loud and angry which made the scene intriguing due to the contrast between the characters. 

Hot seating

Using hot-seating is very effective to use in a rehearsal as it allows you to think deeper about the characters personality traits and how they would react to certain stimuli. As a taxi driver i decided to make a choice to be male who was middle aged, not married and without kids- somebody who was easily bored and did not lead a particularly interesting life. I spoke in a droning- monotone voice and often let my eyes wonder around. One hand was gripped on the steering wheel however the other hand was left casually on my knee. I chose to act like this as i felt it was fitting towards the character yet also gave me a freedom to play around with his characteristics.
Other people chose to this very differently- such as Benji who decided to be an extremely camp and somewhat feminine taxi driver which was an interesting decision and added an element of comedy to the exercise.

Tale 8

What did your group do when you were asked to explore the tales?

In my group we were given East End tales 8, which is about a woman who is often referred to as "the urban lioness" and John, another character who, by the end of the tale, is found out as a policeman. In my group (me, Nina and Danielle) we were given 10 minutes to divise the piece and stage it by transferring the words of the tale into dialogue between the characters.
In the next lesson I was given the same tale to analyse with Alex, Anya, Ella and Nina. We were told to look at how the piece created atmosphere.

What was effective about the sounds they had decided to use?

The sounds we decided to use were effective because they helped to build tension throughout the scene. At first we started of with one of us making a "drip-drop" noise which was used to set the scene (a dark rainy alleyway) and then as the scene progressed the noise became faster and louder until it gradually stopped, to help create a climax in the scene. 

What was effective about the movement you had decided to use?

We used movement in a way that would help us to (like the sound effects) create the illusion of tension, dramatic irony and foreboding. At first we were all stood very still, very spaced out on stage. Then, we started to slowly move simultaneously. As the background noise started to pick up the pace, so did we. It seemed as if we were all moving like magnets- we moved together as a piece to help build atmosphere.

How did the work make you feel?

I extremely enjoyed divising the piece, and hopefully i can take on board the skills i have developed and use these in future pieces of work. The scene made me feel very intrigued- if i were to have been watching it i would've wanted to know more about the story and more about east end tales!

What could have been developed further?

To develop our work further we could have worked on accuracy- for example we could have made sure we were certain we knew who was saying which line, so that the scene doesn't drop and any atmosphere created is lost.  

Do the sounds and movement have the same impact as just reading out the lines? Is it a better way to help tell this story?

When reading the script i think that each and every single one of us interpret the scene in a very different way- which was interesting to hear when we got into groups, as the members of my group had very different ideas about create atmosphere then i did! This was extremely helpful as we tried to combine all of our ideas into one, rather than just using one persons idea. This was very effective and created a different kind of impact on the scene then it would have if it were just read aloud! I personally think it is a much better way to tell the story as it helps readers and listeners to feel more connected to the piece.