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Jacque LeCoqs was a French stage actor and movement coach, teaching methods in physical theatre and exploring the relationships between movement and acting.

His content and structure has revolutionised actor training.

Jacque LeCoqs 7 levels of tension :

1. Exhausted - jellyfish / floppy ; closed proxemics , slurred words ,droopy facial expressions ,(like a melted candle ).

2. Laid back - slouched / unmotivated ,relaxed.

3. Neutral - no story / robotic , neutral facial expressions , naturalist look, casual, good posture.

4. Alert - curious / hesitant ,indecisive.

5. Suspense - questioning / uneasy /on edge, wide eyes.

6. Passionate - flight or fight / very aware,panicked.

7. Tragic - petrified / fossilised.

He also used and explored movement through 3 levels : low / medium / high.

These helped to show character emotions and age better.

Jacque LeCoqs has a theatre school in France , a course for 2 years in which students move along two parallel paths , one studying improvisation and its rules and the other being movement techniques and its analysis, supplemented by ‘auto-cours’ where students own theatre work takes shape, where by students are given themes in such a way to stimulate their imagination and benefit collective creation.

LeCoq uses technique where he has the performers engage listening physically whilst connecting to their space and the ensemble.

As LeCoq grew familiar with anthropologist Marcel Jousse , he developed the term mimodynamic , referring to the energetic force something contain (movement).

The neutral mask: designed so student focus on movement and not facial expressions

The 20 movements: devised by LeCoq , containing fundamental principles in movement .

Practiced in a state of neutrality.

The 20 movements allow an extremely accurate observation

It can help to face one’s own limits and physical habits and commitment to movement and silence whilst losing the opinions as well as making mistakes and stating them and discovering the state of “economy of movement “.

Workshops: we explored movement and space through …

using sticks ; where we were in partners with one of hands either side of the stick controlling the movement with only the palm of the hand, this involved having to explore different levels (high ,medium ,low) as well as trusting each other and putting enough but not to much pressure on the stick so it won’t fall. The more we practiced the more we became confident in using more movement through levels as well as walking around at the same time (without crashing into someone else) by having good special awareness whilst have good control on the stick.

Mime: we improvised being stuck in a box on an empty stage , in this we had to try and demonstrate the box’s ends ,how high and long it was , this was very difficult as I found myself sometimes putting my hand on ‘the glass’ and then with my other hand knocking on the glass but my hand would go past the other hand.

This really helped make me aware of how I in-vision something and make it also clear to the audience.

During this we also had to be very aware of our facial expressions,to which I found was easier to do by really focusing on what my character would be feeling and exaggerate it without breaking character looking at my friends. By really getting into the situation and by almost making yourself believe it’s happening can really set the mood and get the picture/story across to the audience.

Movement is very important as it can establish a lot of things about both your character and the environment around them. It can help communicate with the audience certain aspects like your age or your attitude/emotion .

It’s important for actors to practice movement as it helps to develop focus as well as a deeper understanding of a character and the space around you

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Roald Dahl and his novel Lamb to the slaughter 

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Roald Dahl and his novel Lamb to the slaughter 

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Who is Roald Dahl : originally Dahl was a spy recruited by the BSC to spy on the USA , as well as being an ace fighter pilot . However Dahl was also a chocolate historian and a medical inventor, however Dahl is most well known for his work as a children’s book author.

Dahl had his first inspiration while at boarding school inspiring his Charlie and the chocolate factory book ,he then went on to write many more classics like Matilda , fantastic mr fox and BFG.

Dahl went on to write approximately 50 book,(37 novels for children and two full length novels for adults)

Lamb to the slaughter Summary: This short story based in the 1950s, explores the themes of tragedy ,betrayal and murder where Mary Maloney is waiting for her husband to arrive home to where he has something big , a confession to get of his chest , to this Mary acts badly toward this news and in the act of defending herself and just trying to knock him out she kills him with a frozen leg of lamb.

Mary is horrified by what she has done and doesn’t want to go to jail ,so comes up with a plan to cover up the evidence , which she successfully does by having the police eat the lamb.

Themes: gender : women or pregnant women wouldn’t do any harm ,stereotypical for men to be murders.

Marriage : the thought that you would kill your partner even if you’re angry with them.

Betrayal : Patrick Maloney has betrayed his marriage by possibly having an affair , Mary Maloney has killed Patrick rather than talked it through.

Food/consumption : unknowingly eating the evidence, police being unprofessional by eating the lamb on the crime scene.

The inspiration: The idea originally came from Ian Fleming, over a dinner of leg of lamb Dahl prepared for him , the meat was so tough Fleming thought Dahl should be shot for serving it and so Dahl was inspired to come up with a story in which the murder weapon actually is a piece of meat.

The message: The key message from this short story is that ‘appearance can be deceiving’ .

The theme of appearance vs reality ; where Mary appears to be a grieving housewife but in reality she is a cold-blooded killer.

And the appearance of the weapon must be some sort of heavy tool , when in reality is was the main ingredient Mary had prepared for dinner.

Teaching the readers not to make immediate assumptions about people or objects.

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https://youtu.be/bgT78d_Nmok

In this we used a stage which helped to draw the focus to the 2/3 actors perforating the main character of the story on a higher level/status.

This helped me understand how simply using a few sill images(tableaux) can deliver a message /story of what’s happening just as well as scripted scenes.

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Lamb to the slaughter script and performance

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Lamb to the slaughter script and performance

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https://youtu.be/smXuyJJf9bg

In this I found I focused on certain words like `you’ and really emphasised those words to clearly get across the emotion of my character.

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Greek theatre is from the years 550 BC to 220 BC.

Theatres then were called amphitheaters ,which were usually cut into a hillside, with seating in a semi circle surrounding the stage.

Shows were based of myths and legends , the plays would usually have a Greek chorus which during the show would accompany the actions being made.

The chorus would usually be made up of 15 men.

In with these performances all actors would where masks in which would help establish the character gender and age and how the character is feeling in the scene.

Performances would be based on one of the following; comedy and tragedy , Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Sophocles , Euripides or the Greek gods and mythology.

Greek tragedy:

Oedipus Rex: The story of Oedipus, who unknowingly kills his father and marries his mother, exemplifies the theme of fate versus free will.

Medea: This tragedy explores the themes of passion, betrayal, and revenge through the character of Medea, a woman scorned.

Agamemnon: The first play in Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy, it deals with the consequences of vengeance and the cycle of bloodshed.

research site :https://greek.mythologyworldwide.com/the-legacy-of-greek-tragedy-how-myths-shaped-theatre/

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Vocal elements include:

•vocal resonance-overall sound of voice; how deep , throaty , or nasally.

•Tone -the mood.

•pace/tempo/rhythm -speed.

•pitch -high/low.

•volume /projection -quiet; reflecting scared or sad emotions / loud; reflecting angry or enthusiastic emotions.

•articulation.

•accent- state where your from and how old you are and or what time period.

•punctuation- certain words being exaggerated.

•pauses - helps listener understand what’s being said.

•emphasis -making individual words stand out.

•intonation-rise and fall of the voice.

I’ve found using different vocal element to my lines helps to state the characters feeling towards something and expressing their emotions clearer.

By adding emphasis to certain words can indicate to the audience what my character is trying to address.

Furthermore by using a slow pace/low pitch can indicate my character is board / tiered / unenthusiastic ,whilst a fast pace/high pitch can indicate that my character is excited /overwhelmed. Also by using a high/low pitch can indicate the age of my character.

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In this Sherice uses the line “I didn’t eat your hamster ” where she emphasised each word one at a time to show how emphasis on different words in the same sentence can make that sentence sound entirely different and can change the tone/ mode massively. This demonstrates just how important emphasis is and knowing how to use it in the best way to present your character and how your character would react to what the distraction is about .

This emphasis video really helped me to understand the way in witch emphasis can be used on different words in the sentence to give a totally different tone of voice and emotion and how expressing it in a different way or a need to change what’s happening in a scene can simply be changed massively by simply changing where the emphasis is used in the sentence.

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Devising is where a group of actors work together to create an original performance based of a stimulus.

Practicing devising helps to stimulate the imagination and inventiveness.

The only rules in devising is that you can’t base ideas of a movie and you can’t start with a script.

In devising it’s important to make sure everyone’s ideas have be considered and that everyone in the group knows where the story is going , or having some idea of what will happen and how it will end , having a rough idea of what your group decides is the best beginning ,middle and end is key .

Establishing the atmosphere and time period and the age of the characters is key too , Ed is it medieval or modern ,are you teens or elderly, is it spooky or peaceful.

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A stimulus is what generated ideas for a performance.

In this you discuss with your group what the theme(s) are , the plot of the performance and how you aim to structure it.

Based of the stimulus you also would discuss what time period would be most suitable and show of the stimulus best ,as well as establishing the best kind of character(s) based of this stimulus and what the character(s) character motivation(s) are.

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Rules :

•Don’t say no , make sure the story can roll smoothly and you don’t block other actors

•saying “yes and”.

•Always add new information, change the subject along the way to keep the story rolling and the audience engaged and entertained.

•Avoid question.

•Don’t intentionally try to be funny but if it’s a natural reaction then is good.

•Don’t be brief and bland , be interesting and give a good amount of information to easily feed of .

•Establish your characters and where you are.

•Focus is key and listen carefully to what the other actor is saying.

•Don’t deny.

•You can make yourself look good by making your partner look good.

Actors can use improvisation during a b performance where either improvisation is expected to be use or even when an actor either forgets their lines and will improve roughly along the line of what they were supposed to say , improv can also be used in a situation where there’s been an entrance delay and the actor is not ready to be on stage , in this situation improvisation can be very handy as it doesn’t look obvious that something has gone wrong , improv can also be used with prop fails , either when a prop is droped or perhaps in an incorrect place on stage.

Furthermore improvisation can also be helpful for auditions where you may be asked to improv to see how you do under pressure.

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https://youtu.be/CnhOojkR5P4?feature=shared

Devising the opening scene to the Christmas show. In this session we were put into two groups to devise the opening scene and then we gave feedback to the other group on what we liked or didn't like and we used some of our devised work from both groups in the actual scene as well as devising some completely new parts to the scene and we also used some of the ideas we had as inspiration for new ideas.

In our group we decided to put an eerie twist on the scene and for the one line i shared with Ashleigh we decided to have that line said by characters inspired by the creepy hallway twins. We also had the ensemble at the back, death staring the audience ,to build on the sinister/creepy atmosphere.

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Hot seating is where an actor gets asked questions on the spot about their character without knowing what the questions are .

this exercise deepens the understanding of the character , the actor must answer in the way their character would answer and this helps build on your characterisation.

I've found that its important to really know your character and do research of the character prior ,so that it will be easier in the hot seating to really connect with the character, this making the performance even more believable that you are that character.

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In this we explored using movements to tell a story and express our characters of the investigators , investigating the death of Patrick Maloney , we then also used words like ;whoops, shhh, dam ,ouch and boo.

At the end of our comedic movement piece we used improvisation to finish the scene.

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Monday- we started of the week exploring using slow-mo ,which i found made me very aware of my movements.

We then went into groups developing a possible Mary scene or Patrick scene.

We then explored more of our vocal mementos through the Maia Mayor script.

Tuesday- planned what the Mary and Patrick scenes would look like and made smooth transitions between scenes.

Thursday- We worked on the police scene for the Christmas show where we worked with vocal elements and exaggeration.

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devising the Mary monologue scene

in this we overlapped the last line of each section of the script with the next person talking as we felt this showed that it was the same person speaking (Mary).

we also thought that having the next person to speak walking in gave a aspect of how the more Mary spoke the more her emotions became more aggravated and obvious. we also had the previous speaks sit down after they had spoken to make it clear who is speaking and that Mary is one person played by multiple people.

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In this we practiced individually facing the wall to focus and then turn to facing into the room , repeating the same few lines used different emotions on a highly exaggerated level .

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Monday- firstly we began with a focus exercise where we had to look at our partners in the eyes without breaking character, in this if we laughed we had to step aside and look at the wall to regain focus , I found this task very useful as this will help me maintain focus in a performance when I need to not laugh or smirk.

we did a trust exercise where we were guided by our partners whilst we had our eyes closed , in this we also explored low medium and high levels. This helped me allow to trust my partner and not try to resist.

Pieced together our next Mary scene for the show ,where we all were reflecting Mary’s mind whilst one person was sat front centre stage as Mary in this we explored exaggeration and movement.

We explored the practitioner Harold Pinter who explores using pause , pace and silence. In this we used one of his scripts which included a lot of ellipsis’s which really helped us to understand to importance and impact of pauses and silence , where by when speed up sound like needing to get something of your chest , where as slowing down gives more understanding to the audience in what your trying to address ,as if you want to say something but are unsure on how to say it.

Tuesday- we started of today with a focus exercise where we were in a circle and one person was in the middle and had to go up to some one and say “I love you give me a smile” the task was for the person in the middle to get the person there addressing to laugh , if that person laughs , that person will then enter the middle.

We then added on to the Mary scene.

We finished the day with continuing with our Harold pinter work , which I found got me to step out my comfort zone and just go for it ,by raging at my partner and not laughing,also by using close proxemics and eye contact.

Thursday- Today we ran the christmas show from top to bottom to see what we have and how the story is currently flowing ,this also helped us understand how the story will flow and if we needed to switch scenes around or change something or add something in order for the scenes/story to flow better.

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Harold Pinter is a British playwriter, screenwriter ,director and actor.

Pinter is a practitioner who explores silence , pauses and pace. Pinter is an English playwriter ,in which he achieved international renown as one of the most complex and challenging post world war 2 dramatists.

He won a Nobel prize for literature .

His plays: The room 1957 , the birthday party 1957 ,the dumb waiter 1957 , a slight ache 1958 , the collection 1961 , the lover 1962 , tea party 1964 , the homecoming 1964 , the basement 1966 , landscape 1967 , silence 1968 , old times 1970 , monologue 1972 , no mans land 1974.

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In order for the actor to create the characters world the actor would need to go though and understand the 'given circumstances'.

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His techniques: His techniques focuses mainly on helping an actor recall the emotions needed for their role which is know as emotional memory where you use your own experiences to produce and perform the right emotion, using emotional truth. An actor would also explore deep character analysis to really understand and connect to their character in a truthful manor. This is what's know as method acting where by Stanislavski would have his actor achieve a disciplined ,deep and meaningful performance.

Stanislavski is also known for his help in co-funding the Moscow art theatre in 1897.

Naturalism: Stanislavski uses realism to portray and emphasize a realistic portrayal of characters and the scene, reflecting on everyday life realistically.

In this actors are encouraged to use previous experiences in their own personal life to create genuine emotions (emotional memory), in which would help make the characters emotions more realistic.

Naturalism also involves having no exaggeration in order for the scene to look as real as possible ,in a way that audience members would feel like this scene would play out in real life, as well as making the scene and emotions of the character relatable to the audience.

This technique helps the actor to gain a deeper understanding of their character's motivation and why they might strive towards doing certain actions, or feeling a certain way.

Stanislavski believed connecting with the audience was key and connecting through emotions was the way to go.

Naturalism became a more dominant style of performance in the late 90th century.

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Colin Bloxham-director

Darcy Morland- assistant to director ,stand in (in rehearsals).

Mary- Ava Rogers.

Patrick-Reece Lloyd.

Mary ensemble -Anmol Islania ,Annabelle Brewster, Ashleigh Gurdler, Hayley Gibson, Jaya Bajaj Edghill ,Jaz Bromme , Mily Das ,Myrren Harrison, Ava Rogers, Aphiwe Tole ,Ella Demetriades.

Mary- Ava Rogers, Aphiwe Tole, Ella Demetriades.

The Patricks- Reece Lloyd, Joseph Saunders ,Nate Stasiak ,Tomas Patterson.

Death- Annabelle Brewster

Patrick- Joseph Saunders

Sam- Tom Patterson

Sammy- Reece Lloyd

Mary- Jaz Bromme

Police Oficers:

PC Dumb- Mily Das

PC Dumber- Nate Stasiak

Mary- Ella Demetriades

Lilly- Annabelle Brewster

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Perfect poem by Maia Mayor -vocal elements 

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Perfect poem by Maia Mayor -vocal elements 

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We firstly listened to the poem and then we did some focus exercise where we would focus on emotions and what words where emphasized most. We did this by walking around the room whilst listening the the poem and really focusing on how we would maybe react and the change in mood and pace, we also done another exercise where we laid down on the floor with our eyes closed and focused on breathing and then listened to the poem again and really focused on the words and the change in the tone ,tempo and pitch of her voice.

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In this i was partnered with Anmol and we decided to separate the text between us by doing one big paragraph each and then doing every other sentence and then every other line.

in this text we also decided to say two lines at the same time and those lines having such different tones of voice with the first line "STOP CHEWING ON YOUR NAILS" be in a loud projection and an frustrated tone. compared to the second line " be perfect, like me" in a more quieter projection with a soft tone of voice.

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in this i neatened up my analysed work and decided to work on focusing on emphasis on the words stop ,you, one and i noticed that the end of the lines rhyme and adding emphasis to these words really stood out the emotion of this poem (PHDs and Poetry's).

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Monday- we started of the day with added on a scene to the Christmas show, in with this new scene ,Patrick is dead and is being visited by the character death .

We then looked at a script on an argument scene in which there is a man who books an argument session and stumbles into the wrong room (the abuse room) and then gets to the right room ,however the argument is created by deliberate confusion. In this i felt confused my self and some of the scene i felt plays out almost like a pantomime ,where the script goes back and forth between characters saying the lines "oh yes you did" and "oh no you didn't" which are repeated a lot ,in which over time became kind of funny since the conversation isn't getting anywhere.

Tuesday- we worked in groups of 3 ,working on the shop scene for the Christmas show , where we played 2 shop keepers and Mary , in this I was playing Mary and I used skills such as facial expressions to help communicate my characters feeling , for example in one part of this scene , the two shopkeepers are arguing about something ,whilst Mary awkwardly stands there listening and in another part of the scene Mary says that her husband is sleeping in ,whilst she knows very well that he is actually dead, so by using subtle facial expressions really helped to bring Mary’s thoughts/feelings to life.

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Aeschylus- Known as the father of Greek tragedy. Although we only have 7 of his plays ,it is believed that he has written about 89 plays, in which he was believed to be quite innovative in the structures, personnel and even subjects of his plays.

Sophocles- At the Great Dionysia ,Sophocles won 18 victories in which he would never place lower than second.

He was admired for his writing in good plots about important people.

Sophocles wrote over 120 plays ,however like Aeschylus only 7 of his plays have survived.

Euripides- His plays were criticized by the ancients for being too pedestrian and too easily resolved and had a reputation for literary misogyny, and 19 of his plays still exist today.

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Best know for his plays Macbeth , Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, Shakespeare wrote about 38 plays, in which are comedies, tragedies or histories.

plays were...

Comedies- All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About

Nothing, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Winter's Tale

Tragedies- Romeo and Juliet, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus, Timon of Athens, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida.

Histories- King John, Richard 2nd ,Henry 4th ,Henry 5th, Henry 6th ,Richard 3rd ,Henry 8th.

His background-

Renaissance playwriter

born in Stratford-upon-Avon England ,in 1564

attended grammar school

married Anne Hathaway in 1582 and has three children

part owner of the Globe Theatre

his career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth 1 and James 1 and was a favourite of both monarchs

died in 1616

author of 37 plays and 154 sonnets

Early life- Born to parents of good social standing.

Born in a troubled time; 1564 England was in the midst of an outbreak of plague. Owing to Spanish interruption of the cloth market as well as ongoing conflict between Protestants and Catholics, England also suffered economic hardship and religious upheaval.

His father John Shakespeare enrolled him in the King’s New School in Stratford at the age of 7 despite ongoing problems.

Shakespeare attended grammar school, where he would have been subjected to intensive training in Latin that lasted all day, six days a week. During the Elizabethan era grammar schools had an exclusive emphasis on drills, memorization, and imitation. The study of Latin he did in his time here would of influenced him deeply.

Shakespeare likely finished his schooling around age 15, when his father found himself in financial straits and required his eldest son’s help in the family glove-making business.

his life span: 1564-1616

His family- Shakespeare had an unusually small family for the time period he was in, His father, John Shakespeare , was a glover and public servant with social ambitions, marriage to Mary Arden (Shakespeare), the daughter of a well-to-do farmer. His sister Joan (being the only other sibling to survive, as many of the siblings died a very early age) and the two siblings being 5 years apart, with a good relationship.

Shakespeare married to Anne Hathaway and went on to have 3 children, Hamnet, Susanna and Judith.

Politics and culture of the Shakespearean period-

Shakespeare was thought to have been a genuine political thinker ,politics were quite obviously an important part of Shakespeare life and plays since politics were clearly evident in his choice of subjects for his plays with many types of styles of political action and role, and in with these plays politics was shown in a very realistic and really good way.

In Elizabethan England, Shakespeare's work was a major influence ,and in this era, political stability under Queen Elizabeth I ,and the Renaissance's cultural flourishing ,provided a rich backdrop for Shakespeare's plays.

His political views focused on political theorist and critics as well as his allusions to contemporary political issues (broadly republican / monarchist/ protofeminist / patriarchalist).

From a political view/reading of plays such as Othello, we can see Shakespeare used a variety of political actions and role styles like statesmanship, power, independence, authority, day to day relationships of kinship and friendship that interact with state government and law, and individual struggles against politically established power as in the patriarchy and different classes(lower, middle, and upper), and state law in which oppresses or limits them.

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A director holds a large amount of responsibility , by being in charge of the creative vision of the production and managing how each scene plays out ,having the overall say in which take they will use (how the scene will play out), making sure to bring the very best out of the actors, making the story more exciting and indulging to the audience.

The director must understand the themes ,characters and the message of the play and make sure theses are shown clearly and are communicated well to the audience.

This role has an important task of responsibility for the performance of the company and ensuring the company achieves its mission and objectives for the performance.

Casting; when casting the director will have a pre existing vision of the actor who will play the character and the director will chose the actor who could bring the character to life best ,in the way the directors vison of the character is.

Rehearsals; In rehearsals the director mush assure that the actors understand their character and their character motivation and that the actor interprets the script effectively.

Behind the scenes; the director must make sure that the costume, makeup and hair suites the character and reflects their personalities, the set design must also be carefully set out to reflect the aimed atmosphere and mood for the scene, and where the props are placed need to be placed thoughtfully and where the actors can do movements/ chorography safely and effectively, the movements and or chorography set must also make sense to the characters motivation and mood and how they do these actions must reflect the character well.

As well as the lighting and sound design being accurate to also reflect the atmosphere and mood and that everything can piece nicely together and reflect the vision that the director is aiming for.

During rehearsals the director must give notes to the cast and crew in order to improve the performance further.

Then when in tec rehearsals the director must ensure everything works well together flawlessly.

Pace; Directors must also make sure that the show goes at a good pace and that it isn't too slow or too fast so that the audience continue to be engaged throughout and are not either confused because the show is going too fast or bored because the show is going to slow, maintaining an understandable and engaging pace to the show.

This includes how the dialogue plays out and the rhythm and pace of which these scenes go at and the action that's used to engage the audience.

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In this we focused on projection and pace. I found this quite an interesting task as it had me more focused on my projection and how fast i was speaking ,giving a clearer emotion depending on how my projection i use and how fast my pace of voice is , i although i stubbled upon a few words i just carried on and was more focused on the way that i used my voice.

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Coriolanus is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1608.

Summary of the story; Coriolanus is given a hero's welcome, upon returning from a war that resulted in 'legendary victory' ,and due to this he is offered an opportunity to stand for election ,and the Senate offers to make him consul, however if Coriolanus want to get this role he has to face the task of pleading people for the vote.

In the beginning of this task of plead ,everything seems to be going well and people agree on giving him the vote ,however things quickly take a turn when people start to take back their vote when two tribunes; Brutus and Sicinius, who consider Coriolanus an enemy of the people.

This resulted in Coriolanus becoming Rome's most celebrated warrior to become an enemy and likely one of Rome's most dangerous enemy's.

As revenge Coriolanus visits his enemy and makes peace with him ,and ends up assisting him in planning a new campaign against the Romans.

However he soon makes peace with Rome when his mother pleads him to.

My review/opinions on this show I watched-

I feel that this was a very interesting play and one thing that stood out to me was the set design, I thought is was very unique and cool how they would change the set by using 'columns' ,by hiding different props rather than having to take them on and of and by making each scene clear by showing a certain way the set it layered out ,by how the columns are placed.

Another thing I really liked was the authentic fire pits they used on stage, which gave more realism to the set and atmosphere, the fire gave the audience a sense of auditory imagery and in a way warmth and calmness but at the same time uncertainty for the following scenes to how the fire would play out. Finally one other thing that really caught my attention was when they had a boy come on stage and play with a helicopter ,which they made into a transition which I thought was a really clever way to do a clear transition between scenes.

What I will take from this performance to add to my own performances- I feel what I will take from this performance, in order to improve my own performances ,is the actors emphasis, where by the delivered their lines in a strong and powerful tone and they ,projected their voice in such a way that really grabs the audiences attention and gives you a sense of how serious each scene is, their use of pace of voice was also slow but had a constant iambic pentameter ,which reflect on this being a Shakespearian play, as well as it giving the audience time to really process and understand what is being said ,which I think I could try and use a bit more in certain performances.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=PUx1cCqSuPA&si=_CGfjPsfhAKzZBly

Monty Python

In this I played the role as 3 characters ; the receptionist, the abuser and the argumenter, whilst my partner in this played a man , reacting to the different characters.

One thing I felt quite hard about this was stepping out my comfort zone and shout in an angry tone ,whilst playing the abuser.

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Monday- we started of the day with finishing and polishing what we have so far of the Christmas show.

We then looked into different styles of theatre including classical, comedians dell’Arte, theatre of cruelty, symbolism, naturalism, realism, expressionism, Absurdism, modernism, postmodernism, physical and verbatim.

Whilst discussing these styles in theatre I found it very interesting recapping topic in those’d styles that I’ve done and learning about new styles that I haven’t know yet.

We finished the day by going over all of our Christmas show so far ,and we now have just a few more scenes to block.

Tuesday- continued research in theatre styles.

Thursday- polished up all the scenes we have so far for the Christmas show.

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Mother Courage and Her Children ,Bertolt Brecht

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Classical style theatre is often historic about the romans/ medieval or Jacobean. In which this style is somewhat similar to Greek theatre.

This style relies heavily upon the imagination as it uses minimalistic staging and conveying the setting of the play and the atmosphere with a minimalistic staging means the actors have to convey that through their acting. However the period of the play is show by the themes in the play.

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An Italian style of theatre is often, in which using very few props and no audience.

Characters in with commedia dell’Arte would be based of stereotypes like servants , masters and lovers. The cast would be fully male performers (no female performers).

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The Pond Theatre Company presents “The Naturalists”

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Naturalism , originated from Stanislvaski , persists of realist settings in which reflect everyday life.

In this characters use an unexaggerated performance, using more naturalist movements and use of voice.

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Mystery plays (also know as miracle plays) developed in the 14th century ,based of narration of stories from the bible.

•the church- These plays were presented in Latin on church premises and were usually representing biblical subjects such as Adam and Eve. However the church no longer supported these plays by the end of the 16th century due to how they developed.

•medieval traditions-A major role in with medieval mystery plays was the significance of rituals as they evolved from liturgical practices within the church.

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Expressed by Antonin Artaud.

in this style deep meanings is created through action, movements and dance ,which this creates a deeper meaning than words.

and when showing a 'lack of control' ,extreme actions and expressions are used.

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realism ,the pertrayal of characters in a way thats close to real life. This style uses realistic staging and setting which represents day to day life, making it easyier to connect with the audience.

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Symbolism is suggestive probs or people that represent /symbolise what may happen.

In this characters emphasis an internal life of dreams/ fantasies/spirituality.

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Expressionism on the American stage: Paul Green and Kurt Weill's Johnny Johnson (1936).

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A cultural movement in the start of the 20th century, the stage proception gives an unrealistic portrayal to an eternal truth.

characteristics in this , present the world by distorting it from emotional effect.

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The difference: realism is based of real conditions of day to day life and real life sinerios whilst trying to communicate with the audience a way/solution to improve society and the world we live in , however on the other hand naturalism focuses on more characterisations and the reason of character motivations based of the biological and ecological effects it has on someone.

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Physical Theatre uses physical movement as the main focus of the performance and has little or no dialogue, using actions and movements as the form of communication. These movements may also included mime as well as gestures.

physical theatre is highly influenced by classical and commedia theatre and become a know style of theatre during the 20th century.

In this style of performance ,their is usually no scripts and is all devised. Leaving it to the audience and performers imagination to piece things together.

This theatre style is also seen across the bord of arts seen in dance ,music and visual art.

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From 'I love you mum I promise I wont die' A performance telling the story of a boy who unknowingly took an overdose of MDMA at a rave  which resulted in his death, the actors replay the interview of the people in this experience communicating with the audience the danger of taking drugs without knowing truly what your taking.

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Verbatim theatre replays a documented story using the exact spoken words of the real people who were involved in this situation.

Shows which use verbatim style are usually based of a tragic or serious events that have happened and they replay the interviews, and actors would devise scenarios of how something may of happened, based of everything they know from the interviews.

In verbatim their is also oftenly a minimalistic staging and very few probs used ,and the few probs that are used usually have a big significance or multiuse. for example in 'ILYMIPIWD' there are two main probs used ; clear water bottles to represent the MDMA being taken ,and there are about 4 boxes which light up ,so in the rave scene they flash different colours to deepen the atmosphere, but in interview scene there are plain white.

In these pre-recorded interview the actors who portray the people in the interviews will focus of voice and the accents and their manor of speaking as well as a focus on their emotions and their character motivation and why and what made that person do what they did.

This type of theatre will oftenly also use projection onto a black backdrop where they will show real photos or videos of the actually people involved.

The aim of this theatre style is to communicate with the audience a danger of something , and to give views and meaning to difficult and challenging situations.

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originated in 20th century, this style is seen as detached from life in such a pure way that allows a critical reflection of life.

Modernism pushes boundaries to create new experiences for the audience.

known for its new ideas for form ,structure and content.

reflects the modern life chaos.

minimalistic/abstract set design.

break the 4th wall using direct address to the audience.

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challenges views of the world

paradoxical

fragmented character - forming contrasting /parallel ideas

rehearsals- improvised- no script.

encouraging the audience to gain their own understanding

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Monday- we firstly ran through to whole show so far.

We then got into group of 4 and discussed a improvised scenario based on a theatre style we picked. my group picked absurdism with a theme of a wedding.

Tuesday- polished up scenes for the Christmas show.

continued devising our improv scene and as a group decided to make a story on two dudes meeting and making an agreement that if they were still single in 30 years they would get together and this agreement falls apart when one of them gets married to love at first sight, however the marriage is disrupted by the other dude , we furthermore made this abused by having the dude who was getting married swap positions and have the other dude get married instead.

Thursday- we added on the end scene at the funeral where Mary and lily finally meet and they have a argument.

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Absurdism uses ; a word without meaning, the isolation of the individual, devaluation of language and lack of plot.

This style explores a belief of meaninglessness to human existence , therefore giving us a lack of communication.

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In our devised Christmas show (A Bloody Mary Christmas) , we included themes of :

what is is and where it came from;

Murder- An unlawful action of killing someone - this is shown in the scene where Mary kills Patrick by waking a leg of lamb over his head.

Adultery- having voluntary intercourse sexually ,with someone who is married ,other than their spouse. - this is shown in the scene where Patrick is dating Lilly behind Marys back.

love- deep affection for a particular person. -this is shown through Marys pure love for Patrick.

betrayal- betraying someone, unfaithful that that person, not backing them up. - this is shown when Patrick confesses to Mary his love for Lilly and not her.

manipulation- tricking someone into something in a unsuspicious way without them knowing.- this is shown in the scene where Mary manipulates Lilly into thinking Patrick is the only bad guy and she didn't kill him and Mary gets Lilly to come back home with her.

relationships- how two or more people connect with each other.- this is shown between the relationships of Mary and Patrick, Lilly and Patrick and Sam and Sammy.

revenge- getting someone back equally for an action they did. Also an action of causing harm to someone who hurt or wronged another.- this is shown when Mary gets revenge on Patrick for cheating ,and getting revenge on Lilly for knowing about him cheating and not being bothered by it.

The social system : women and the patriarchy- The patriarchy is usually quite invisible in everyday life and its effects can be quite extreme ,shaping how women live work and think.- this is shown where Mary is presented as a housewife and doesn't have a job but works hard to please Patrick and do all the cooking and cleaning.

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Monday- run through and tidy up of the two end scenes of the Christmas show. Theory work, finished any incomplete work.

Tuesday- ran through opening scene and the first few scenes and really polished them up.

Thursday- ran through the full show and tidied up end scenes

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The Ancient Greek goddess are divided into categories- the Olympian gods , the titan gods, the primordial gods, the underworld gods, the sea gods, the sky gods, the rustic gods , the agrarian gods, daemons spirits, deified mortals and cult of the gods.

The number of gods were huge due to knowledge of the world being very limited and unknown. However in this limited knowledge, love was seen as one of the most fundamental powers in the world.

Gods would have very exaggerated powers such as Aeolus being Greek god of the winds and air. powers would persist of the obvious like water, wind, fire and earth or light and darkness ,atmosphere and relationships, however this went into more complex power such as evil deeds, family feuds ,music ,art, knowledge, God of war, violence , Gods of health and healing and safeness ,opportunities and luck and love.

Greek myths and the way they shaped and changed theatre:

In ancient Greece during the 5th century BCE, Greek tragedy was know foe its categorized themes of moral dilemmas, exploration of human suffering and how its categorized by its serious themes. Oftenly giving a focus of the story to mythological figures and events, and showing how the existence of humans can be so complex.

The different stories in the plays would presented moral and philosophical lessons as well as delivering an entertaining performance.

Myths would give the plays rich narratives to work from.

originating from the ancient religious rituals ,which were dedicated to the god Dionysus.

These performances would originally be performed by hymns and dances however this slowly evolved into storytelling with more structure to the performance.

there was an annual celebration of the God Dionysus , where playwriters would present their work and compete for a prize, providing a platform for new tragedies.

Myths would provide themes of fate, revenge and human relationships and the characters of Gods and heroes and legendary events.

the plays would engage the audience in an emotional and or physically and intellectually way.

pre-researched Gods -

Aeschylus: Often referred to as the father of tragedy, he introduced the second actor and expanded the scope of drama.

Sophocles: Known for his complex characters and moral dilemmas, he introduced scenery and painted sets.

Euripides: He challenged traditional values and often portrayed strong female characters, adding depth to the genre.

Research site: https://greek.mythologyworldwide.com/the-legacy-of-greek-tragedy-how-myths-shaped-theatre/

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Monday-we went through the whole show and discussed what areas of the show needed tidying

Tuesday-we started of by changing the ‘life after death scene’ to giving it an actual choreographed and rehearsed piece which looks more tidier and planned , we also when through a few other scenes where our stage positioning wasn’t thought out and looked messy. In this I stood in for Annabelle ,so that they could get accurate spacing.

Thursday- We ran through random scenes to see if we knew each scene independently without thinking which scene comes next, we also worked on narration lines and having clear projection ,good pace and ability to get what your saying, acroos to the audience, we also worked on projection in the snowy town scene ,as we have decided to have a snow machine in that part of the play ,and we wanted to make sure that our projection was still nice and clear.

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I’ve used a folder to organise my scripts and done this my in the front half of my book I have the scripts from the lessons I practice focusing on certain techniques and in the back of the folder I have in each script for each scene in order so that it’s easy to find and nothing gets lost.

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In this I had only just picked up the script since I had an English exam in the previous sessions ,I found it quite had to pronounce a few of the Shakespearian words and I stumbled on quite a few of them ,however I persevere and I try my best in pronouncing them, I found in the quick run through before filming we read through and I took the lines that Hayley originally had since she wasn't in for the session so that made it easier to sort out line and then I picked out the few words that I stumbled on trying to read and tried to break them down to make it easier to read, we then decided to uses emphasis on a few words by putting an eco on the end of some lines like 'you' to really emphasis the emotion and meaning within the piece.

After this we then had a few minutes to sort out staging and since the script was one person and their was two of us we decided to speak our independent lines back to back at first and when the tension built we started edging forward and on the final line we turned and walked away to show the emotion of becoming fed-up but then the stamp at the end reinforces the anger built up.

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A character profile gets the actor to fully understand their role and gives a very authentic performance.

In order to build a character profile you must firstly read the whole script to get a full understanding of your character motif and the characters role and reason to be in the performance, you then need to deep dive into your characters backstory by taking information from the script and other sources where the same character is present or if there is little to no backstory ,you must carefully create one that first the character well. On top of this you need to explore character relations, who the character interacts with and how ,using what kind of emotions and tone of voice, whether these are friends ,family or other characters. You must also know what the character looks like and how physical they are and what they like/dislike by having your second deep dive into their personality.

Finally you now need to find your emotional connection with your character ,you can do this through emotional memory where you recall something in your personal life that brings out strong and clear emotions that you can use to connect with your character.

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End-on : The audience sit directly Infront of the stage.

Proscenium arch : the audience sit directly Infront of the stage.

Thrust : the audience sit in around the fount and sides of the stage.

Arena stage : the audience sit all sides around the stage.

Traverse : the audience sit either side of the stage.

Promenade : the audience follow/ gather around the actors.

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The behaviour- behaviour in how an audience member reacts ,physically in either movements or voice during performances must be considerate of the performers and it must not be distracting ,for example..

In a play the audience must stay silent until giving a round of applause at the end ,unless the play is a pantomime, in which the audience will be encourage to join in at certain times like the classic 'oh no I didn't' ,'oh yes you did', however in this the audience must be told by and actor when they are allowed to speak, otherwise they must be silent ,to allow to performers to maintain there focus.

However performances like rock concerts ,the audience members are encouraged to sing along and 'rock out' by jumping and 'partying', however there would be moments of silence when the performers are talking to the audience.

Furthermore sports performances like tennis matches ,the audience members are encouraged to stay silent till the one player wins a turn and the audience will clap for a very short time as clapping/celebrating a win for too long may distract a players focus ,it is expected of the audience to remail quite.

However in other sports like the audience in a football match ,the audience will be silent till a strike or the build up to a goal strike where the audience will slowly get louder going 'ohhH' to 'hype' up the players and then either celebrate for a moment or be disappointed, in this the audience are encouraged to cheer. You also see in football matches at the end of a game the traditional songs.

Performances where they are informal like speeches and lectures ,the audience should say silent and really listen and focus to what's being said , till maybe the end where questions from the audience can respectfully be asked.

Lastly performances such as movies should be watched and enjoyed in silence throughout to respect the rest of the audience and the film producers and casts work.

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Source: File:Scena z jasetek.jpg - wikimedia commons

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Plays such as Nativity are classic performances done in most lower/primary schools around the UK ,this play is a Cristian celebration of Jesus ,Nativity is a production based on the event of the birth of Jesus and the communities reaction, where there are three wise men who travel to Bethlehem to bring gifts of frankincense ,myrrh and gold to Jesus.

Mystery plays

During medieval England, religious mystery plays brought Bible stories to life during a time where very little people could actually read and or write or even have the ability to access the Bible , these plays became a huge means in the teachings of the Bible, in which the plays were originally performed by Monks in Latin. However during the year 1210 the Pope Innocent III spoke out about his concerns with the popularity of mystery plays ,so he overall decided that clergy could no longer take part in or write the plays ,which meant the plays had to change from the original structure and the language used was changed from Latin to English for better understanding and more engagement from the audience.

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When I'm performing in fount of the class I expect the rest of the class to be respectful and focus on my chosen performing techniques and how I've used them and how I could better the way I'm using them.

I feel that a good audience etiquette is when they sit in silent and look neutral/ act as if they like what they see, as this helps me concentrate on my performance ,skills and interactions with anyone else on the stage with me. I feel when there isn't silence I need to pause before I start speaking again and I also feel as if I'm not being listened to and it feels disrespectful. Furthermore I feel when people put on big facial expressions in the audience ,I find this may be distracting sometimes and can sometimes be harder to say in character, as well as if someone looks extremely bored/ sleepy ,its distracting in the way it feels like my performance is boring and isn't good.

When i see the audience etiquette differ from one performance to another I oftenly think about the difference between the audience etiquette during a Broadway show being silent and a pantomime performance which is totally different where the audience etiquette interact and react to the performers.

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We had 14 weeks to build and develop our skills and I thought the challenges that I'd face during that time would be my improvisation work and facial expressions however, during the begging of my progress I found that I faced a few challenges that were not these, these challenges were just going for it and fully exaggerating emotions without care of other peoples opinions and speaking up about my own ideas to either improve something or to add something in.

In order to improve my performances I evaluated my self and how I thought I did and what I could do better as well as thinking about peer feedback and I took that into further performances by either using improving on something I previously did or by not doing what I did before as I either thought it didn't work or I wasn't sure have to improve that further.

When playing a character ,in rehearsals I would play around with different expressions and how my voice and movements should be to best suite the character. I also played around with how the scene plays out and what works best around the character interactions, and I would consider the different types of props that would work best in that scene.

I feel that my strengths during this progress where my thought in devising a scene and I think my weaknesses were just acting on an idea and using full exaggeration and seeing how it goes and plays out.