# data[].attributes.body
Tom Astles

0020046475

# data[].attributes.body
The play we are looking at for this unit is a Greek text called Medea by Ben Power.

Originally. Euripides wrote the play Medea but the version we are reading and looking at is the one written by Ben Power.

Medea is a play about a woman God who married a man called Jason. They both worked together to steal a golden fleece for the throne but Medea's father put challenges into place to prevent Jason from reaching the fleece. Medea was a master of potions so made three to help Jason through the different challenges. Each potion were used useful and Jason managed to steal the fleece. Instead of handing over the fleece, Jason and Medea ran away from Colchis and Medea's Father sent his son to get the fleece from Jason. As the son chased after them, Jason stabbed him, killing him in cold blood and had Medea cut him up and fed to sharks. Medea and Jason fled to Corinth where they had two children. After the children are born, Jason leaves Medea and goes to marry King Creon's daughter, Kreusa. But the king knew about Medea and he potions and the king sought that Medea was a witch and cast her out to exile. With Medea's jealousy growing she planned to burn down the palace where Jason and his new wed would marry. As she is plotting, she got a visit from an old friend where she offered a home in Athens. she then plotted to kill everyone she knew. She poisoned a silk cloak for Kreusa that once she wore it would burn her and kill anyone who touches it. She disguised this cloak as a gift and asked her boys to deliver it to her. The boys delivered the cloak and once Kreusa put it on she burned to ash. Her father ran over to help his daughter as he was killed to. The boys headed back home where Medea decided to kill her children so she had no loose ends and when Jason appeared he saw Medea covered in blood. He is heartbroken that his sons, his only sons are killed. He begs Medea to let him bury them as such mother shouldn't of done such act. Medea denies and fly's away back to the Gods.

The era that Medea is set is from 700 BC in Greek times

A theatre convention from this would be masks as they were used to show several roles played by the same actors and as monsters other mythical creatures.

# data[].attributes.body
In this week's lessons, we read the text of Medea and analyse what the text was really saying. We dived into Greek history to look at Medea's history. We learnt that Medea is from the sun God race and did anything that Jason asked. From reading the text, I think Medea was justified to do what she did in a way to get through to a man so deluded by hatred. In our sessions we also looked at the National Theatre production which we all reference a lot in our own versions. As a class we all thought that the National Theatre production was a solid choice to use as a reference as it hosted a lot of good Greek conventions such as the three unities which as the unity of action, unity of time, unity of place which shown in the National Theatre production was Jason and Krusesa's wedding. We also paired up to work with others for our audition preparation. We picked the characters we wanted to audition as and worked with a partner as most of the characters had duologues. I auditioned for King Kreon with a partner who auditioned for the role of Medea. I aimed to used a very straight posture and puffed out chest to show to the audience how self involved I am and how royal I also am. When it came to doing the audition, I wanted to show how much I did care for Medea's children and how the king does pity the children and not Medea. I successfully did this by raising my voice using my diaphragm to project my voice across the room to show Medea my anger at 01:38 and how I am fed up of her arguments with the King. After my audition, we waited for the cast list to be released and I got the role of King Kreon.

I learnt from some of the activities from in the lesson on how the chorus acts, speaks, moves and works in a group. The activity was to see half of the class split up and on stage. The activity was to show everyone how the chorus are. We were told of different techniques such as count of 8 where there are 8 movements before one person speaks their line(s). This shows unison movements and isolated speech. Another technique we were told about was unison, where everyone spoke as one person to represent one mind and isolated speech was to demonstrate the independence each person has even though they are apart of the chorus. All of these techniques are important for the chorus as it shows to the audience their eeriness as a whole but also as a friend to Medea when she is in distress or freaking out.

As this was only audition week we didn't really have much to do in big groups so as we were only in pairs, it was a 50/50 effort. It was my idea to be calm to Medea as she pleaded to me but I shouted as I asked Medea to leave Corinth. We decided to do this so it shows Keron's anger and power. We both thought it was important for the audition that Kreon got to be angry as I interpreted him to be a very easily irritated even though he is the king and he needs to keep his cool, needs to be calm and collective but very easily agitated by small things like Medea refusing to leave and her womanly sorrows. I thought it was important to get Medea's pleading and Kreon's anger in the audition so I showcased by being more vocal and shouting certain sections. I would say that during this week we did work well together as we both gave all of our efforts in the time we had to prepare for the audition. We both tried to point out where we could improve by commenting on what each of us did. My partner helped me a lot with my placement and the way I faced whilst I was delivering my lines and I helped him with levels and how Medea would be feeling.

My main idea was to showcase Kreon's anger and get that to be my focus for the audition because I felt that it was the most important characteristic of this character. Other ideas that I had was to have Medea really play into her emotions. We decided to do this by the end of the monologue, Medea would be fallen on the floor due to Kreon's anger. I think that these ideas were a good idea for an audition as it highlights the two characters main characteristics, Medea's cunninginess and Kreon's royalty. Using anger in my performance was a good idea as I got to show a side of me that I don't normally show. On the other hand, it shows a side to me that feels unnatural and is harder to perform as I'm not used to performing like that. The success of my idea went well as I shouted the words that needed to be shouted to create a tense scene. Feedback given to me was that my projection was clear and that I was well understood. I was glad to hear this because I was worried that the louder I was, I would come off as clear or I would stumble over my words because of how loud I was. Something I needed to work on was the way I was placed onstage, making sure not to block Medea and how my anger went from 0 to 100 in a second without a reason to do so. I decided to re read the text and find a suitable place to start to get angry.

My ideas and suggestions were relevant to the project because I would capture King Kreon as best as I could with the time we were given to prepare. I did this the best I could and tried my hardest.

I demonstrated engagement in this weeks lessons by focusing on the movements of the chorus and auditioning for roles. I made sure that I followed the lesson plan by noting down the certain ways the chorus moved and acted. We have also then got them for future use. Audition week I made sure that I was respectful when other people were auditioning and not laughing or mick-taking during other peoples performances.

In my audition, I would say I only used one theatre convention which was Melodramatic speech. I used this techniques at 01:25 where I visible loose my temper. I was trying to communicate to the audience how agitated King Kreon was getting so with this massive melodramatic outburst, it shows how furious he is.

Something in my audition that I would say was a strength was how I would look out to the audience and also to Medea to make these scenes seem more directed to her than the audience. A weakness that was pointed out was how quickly Kreon got angry without a reason. I wanted to showcase this anger but now looking back, I notice how I didn't really have a motive or a reason too when Medea hadn't angered me. If I was to perform this again, I would look at the text in a bit more detail and think about what words would have pauses, what words would be sped up, slowed down, shouted on etc.

My Target is to work on my lines and to get an understanding of what I am supposed to be saying. I want to do this by reading over the whole duologue and making sure I say each word correctly. I want to achieve this by the time we are put into our cast. This will be relevant to my performance as it wont only benefit me but my cast members too.

# data[].attributes.body
This week in lessons we wanted to look at the biggest role in our group, The Chorus. We thought it would be best if we sorted the lines for The Chorus before we looked at the duologues. We wanted to have The Chorus starting in an arch around Medea in a way so that they could be seen with Medea in the centre. We based most of our performance around this week around The Chorus. We though that the movements that they do should all be in sync and well timed so it looks smooth. Behind and disjointed from The Chorus is The Nurse who is Medea's own personal assistant who babysits the kids, looks after them and is like a second mother to them. We placed him the way we did as a way to show that he is always watching and looking on but isn't apart of the other members of The Chorus.

We also split some of the lines up to show to the audience how The Chorus have individuality even though they act as one. At 00:11 the whole Chorus speaks as one to show unison between the group. This is effective as it shows they all think the same even though they can speak freely. As they all say "Kreon" I enter at a quick pace and as I reach Medea, I walk hr forwards to downstage centre so The Chorus can still be seen behind us as they need to be onstage all the time as this is a Greek Convention. I don't perform my whole duologue as we wanted to look at The Chorus so I say a few lines of my duologue at the start and end and exit stage right. For this week, we wanted to look mainly at what the Chorus would do, say and move like so we had the biggest role sorted and organised.

What I learnt this week was how hard it is to have a large group of people use techniques such as unison and echo and speak at the same time. Our group has a wide variety of talent and some people can pick up these techniques and can perform this perfectly. However there are others who do struggle. When we practised this on the Tuesday, I thought of counting The Chorus in so that they could all speak together. This worked because when I counted them in, their voices spoke as one and made the scene look beautiful. We didn't have any activities this week but we took it upon ourselves to make sure that we developed out scenes and characters. I must admit that this week we didn't look at anyone else but The Chorus. We all aimed to perfect The Chorus before we looked at the duologues but this took longer than we thought.

I helped with the progress we made in class by helping direct the action happening whilst I wasn't on stage. With my role as King Kreon, I only perform for the first five minutes as Kreon then I don't have any other role. I took it upon myself to help manage The Chorus, Aegues and Medea too. This week, we did spend too long with looking at The Chorus and not at the other members. We though the only person we haven't even acknowledged Jason. So, we had our lecturer help us develop Jason's scene. We looked at how Jason would enter the stage first. We though that he would be shocked and horrified so he would walk through The Chorus slowly and cautions. When we showed this to our lecturer, she decided that Jason should be more rage filled and should have more passion with his entrance. We reworked the opening and had Jason barge his way through The Chorus. This is more powerful now because we showcase how numb Jason must feel. Another part of this scene was when Jason fell to his knees screaming Medea. However, we did not manage to get this scene into the recording as we felt that it was not yet ready or suitable for us to have it added in.

Personally, I did work in a collaborative manner by supporting my group with feeding back ways to improve their sections by the way they are standing or facing. Doing this was really hard as I felt like I was nit-picking and pointing out tiny small things mainly within The Chorus. I felt that with me having a smaller role and sitting at the front watching and helping develop the scenes was crucial to our development as a whole group. Other members of our group like Medea and Jason helped us develop scenes when we first ran them and looked at them. Us three worked in a collaborative manner as we all suggested ideas on what we could have The Chorus do. I think with me doing this really benefits our group as we can help people grasp the movements.

The final piece that we have still needs work as it is not yet complete but what we do have has been a combination of everyone's ideas. Not once has someone felt like their ideas haven't mattered. In some situations we have had to choose someone's idea over another's but we did that with a group decision so it didn't feel like one person was taking control. Ideas that I had was mainly about how The Chorus moved and stood. With talking to the Chorus, all of us managed to create the dynamic of our Chorus. At 00:50 there is movement from The Chorus where there is a zipper effect as all The Chorus members zip together and form an arch. As some members of The Chorus speak, one person in particular walks forwards and picks Medea off the ground and the rest of The Chorus make a triangle, placing their left or right, depending on where they stand, arm on the person in front's shoulder. As Medea stands, the triangle transforms into one line and The Chorus split as the first person goes stage left and the one behind goes stage right and so on. This idea was to show how The Chorus backs Medea in her decisions that she chooses to make. We thought that this was a really good idea and everyone agreed on the scene once everyone got a hand of the choreography. I think this was a smart decision because it shows how The Chorus backs Medea's decision making and will agree on what Medea says to them. However, this could be better if we time The Chorus to do the movements more slicker.

The idea of making The Chorus zip together was a clever way of demonstrating how The Chorus can be two sided as well as thinking as one mind. Other ideas that I contributed were the triangle where all The Chorus lift Medea from the ground. This small section worked well and we thought that next week we could develop it more. This worked well because it showed a different perspective to the audience of how The Chorus moved and support Medea by thinking the same but still being split along two sides. Other ideas that worked well was The Chorus' isolated speech. At 00:56, we have small sections where The Chorus speak. We do this because it shows to the audience how one voice at a time can still influence Medea but by having many, singular voices, it not only persuades her pushes her onto an unintended path. My contributions to our project are relevant because it shows a story through the movement of The Chorus. I personally aimed to have The Chorus as the storytellers in a way to ensure that the tale of Medea gets across. This Week was also very hard in a sense of getting our group to pay attention. When we have duologues, The Chorus stand around looked ominous and mysterious and with us aiming to do this, they have to be still and statue like. This in rehearsals causes people to get adiated easily and want to move around. So the biggest task we had this week was making sure people stayed focused throughout rehearsals.

Some Greek conventions we looked at this week were Isolated speech and also looked at strophe and antistrophe briefly in rehearsals. The isolated speech was a key part in our performance this week along with other conventions like the 3 unities. In this video, We haven't got that much material so my main point to improve next week would be to have more performance material as well as clear 3 unities, and a better, synchronised Chorus too. With these conventions, we wanted to communicate a strong Chorus. With The Chorus always being onstage we needed to have them as our strongest 'character' in a way. This is to show how The Chorus are visible strong and unbothered by them owing the stage. An atmosphere we were trying to get across was an eerie, whirlwind of emotions filled with anger, sadness and heartbreak. This week I do not think we achieve this but this target will definitely be checklist in the back of my head.

The strongest part of our performance was The Chorus as they were the only 'character' with the longest time onstage and with them also having the most speaking parts. Our weaknesses this week would have been the lack of other characters such as Jason, Kreon and Aegeus. If our group was to perform this again, I would have more material to show beforehand to make sure that there was something else to watch.

Last week, my target was to understand the text of Medea as this would help our group by knowing what we would be performing. I would say I did achieve my SMART target as I spent a lot of time at home and during the sessions to make sure that the text became clear to me.

My target is to learn lines on page 11 and I'll achieve this by not using the text and looking at those certain lines. I aim to do this by next week when we show back our work to the class. This is relevant to our production of Medea as it will benefit me to be off script

# data[].attributes.body
On the 21st January, we had a production meeting

# data[].attributes.body
This was how The Chorus stood as we started the performance with The Chorus speaking first.

# data[].attributes.body
This week we looked at The Chorus again this week as we thought that the scene between Medea and The Chorus needed work. In this scene, there is a lot of echo's and unison but we also included isolated speech. We wanted to seal The Chorus into place by having this scene done and dusted off. I do feel that we still are struggling with The Chorus as it seems that the moves are hard to do in unison. After spending this week rehearsing the moves, it seems to look smoother and the moves seem to be in time now as well. After spending all of Tuesday looking at The Chorus, we also wanted to look at Jason as he was the only one who hasn't been looked at. We really took our time looking at this scene because we wanted this scream to look good and to make sure the scream wasn't forced. We tried with the scream aimed at The Chorus. This was really effective as we visible saw the anger that Jason was holding in after he discovered bloody towels. It looked incredible as it made everyone in our group shudder. We kept on trying different ways until our lecturer suggested screaming upwards. Jason tried it and it made the scene more emotional as he added the fall too. This showcased the raw emotions of anger and frightfulness in one line. With this mastered, we wanted to seal it into place by having it on record.

I learnt that some of the other characters that we have in the performance require more attention than they have been given. After looking at the scene between Jason and Medea, It was obvious that we had neglected the rest of the performance due to our focus on The Chorus. Digging deep into the duologue and talking to our lecturer we found the best way to look at the scene and to perform it too. What I learnt from this was how important it is to look at all scenes and spend the same amount of time on all of them as well as making sure everyone has had time to prepare.

This weeks contributions were aimed towards making Jason's scene and also to help develop the Aegeus and Medea scene as I knew it could be better. At this point, the scene was very bland and hadn't got a feeling of watching a performance, more of watching two people reading their lines. I sat as an audience member and directed the scene as best as I could. I asked the Medea to say the first line that she say in role to be light hearted and happy as she has been reunited with her friend. No matter how many times I ask her to try it in a certain way, she would agree but be stuck in this vocal tone. As the session went on, I had to stop because we were running out of time and I needed to start my own rehearsal. We worked in a collective manner by all supporting each other and by coaxing each other different ideas. We always want to make sure that our group is working as a whole because if everyone just shouts over the top of each other, nothing would get done and no one would be heard. This week, my ideas that I suggested into the practical aspect was Medea and Aegeus and aiding them to do better but also tidying up my duologue with Medea too.

My Ideas didn't really develop the outcome because we didn't catch the two scenes on tape. We wanted to spend at least next session we had to look at these two duologues before we put them all together and made it into one big run.

My success of the ideas I came up with this week were possibly a fail. The ideas that I used for my own duologue which was just polishing up where I was standing and facing and how the audience would see me. That was my successful ideas that I would say that worked because my feedback for this week was just to keep rehearsing without my script in hand. What I say was a fail was the scene with Aegeus because we didn't get it on record and we didn't have anything to show for the time we spent.

My ideas this week was relevant to the project because I helped to develop the scenes with some of the members who didn't feel like they were at all ready to be shown. I helped by making them ready for them to be shown possibly even the next recording session we have. I demonstrated engagement and discipline by making sure that the ret of the cast were doing what was needed and for the two actors I was focusing on. This week I can not show in the video where I showed this because there was no recording of what we worked on.

This week, Greek conventions we looked at were The Chorus, the three unities, and we also had our three actors allowing them to leave the stage. Our Chorus is a staple piece of our show as they are capturing and make the audience want to know more. Running throughout the performance, we have The Chorus always on stage and watching the action that unfolds. This communicates how they are always listening and watching Medea even in her most vulnerable times. They act as an entity that is always around and that cannot be shaken, therefore them always being on stage. The three unities are key as it helps the audience see where, when and why the scenario takes place. The three unities are Action, Place and Time and they direct us to why is this happening to Medea, Where does this unfold and when did this happen? We didn't show the three unities in this weeks sessions recording because we didn't think of the staging or what we were having onstage until we had the recording done. With the rule of only three actors leaving the stage, it creates an atmosphere around how important these characters are. With Kreon, Nurse and Medea given this acceptance, it shows how Kreon, the king, has the option to walk into houses and leave at any given time. This is really important because it shows the hierarchy of Kreon. With the Nurse and Medea leaving it shows the freedom they have in there own house for now. Although it is Medea's house, the nurse works there and has to move around to look after the boys. With the three actors leaving, it can be seen throughout the performance but my entrance is at 00:09 which shows me walking into Medea's house and at 00:43 I leave. This shows how my status of king gives me power to do what I like.

The strengths of the performance was definitely Jason's duologue. The pain that he displayed during the performance at 04:28 was the part of the recording that makes me shiver every time I watch it. It made a lot of the audience fell Jason's pain which is what we intended to do. A weakness would be the duologues that we performed, they were not long enough for a complete performance and to get an adequate grade either. If we were to perform again, I think that I would give my performance more of an effort.

Last week, My smart target was to learn lines on page 11 and to perform this off script. This target that I set was not achieved this week because I did use my script as it is clearly visible on the recording. This can be seen at 00:15 where I even walk onstage with my script. Although I did fail my SMART Target, I do think that I have learnt more about King Kreon and that I am starting to understand the character.

My target for this week is to learn my lines on page 11 and some on page 12 also. I will do this by looking over my lines and practise my lines in my free time. I aim to have these lines learnt by next week and its relevant to my the production as it benefits me by not being on script. I want to have this achieved before next weeks recording. Also, I think that we should start to look at how we can start to be synchronized. I think that this is very important for Mainly The Chorus as they have to have very strong element of unison. We did use unison this week but I think that it should be used and looked at a bit more closely next week.

# data[].attributes.body
The production meeting decisions on the 28th January

# data[].attributes.body
This week in production meeting, we all had a talk with our Medea. They personally felt like all the lines that they had were a bit too much so we opened it up for a second Medea to be cast to help the Medea with scenes. The person playing Medea thought giving the two other Medea's who auditioned a chances so we had them turn around and we all voted without them knowing. Once we did, we told the winner with the most votes who the second Medea would be. When we told our second Medea, we needed to look at the scene with Medea and Aegeus as our New Medea was going to play Medea here. So that was our aim for this week, making sure our new Medea knew what scene she was doing and who went where. As well as our new Medea, we also looked at costumes and music being included into our piece too. we collectively decided to put Jason in charge of the music for our performance as we trusted his judgement and we also trusted him to potentially create a really good track. Costumes was all down to ourselves as we needed to all decide what we were wearing. My original thought was to be in a suit but Jason was already going to have the same suit as me and I didn't want there to be any confusion. So I decided to wear a long black coat, white button up shirt and black trousers. I wore this because white can symbolise coldness which I feel would be a trait of Kreon. I also wear black mainly as it foreshadows my death later on in the text.

This week I contributed by helping our group by contributing ideas to the second scene as well as rehearsing my scene too. We wanted this week to get everything on the recording so we could look back at what could potentially be our final piece of what we want in this. This week I would say that I did work collaboratively by always supporting my cast and feeding Ideas like 'raise your voice to show excitement' or 'try saying that line with more shock' to try coaxing them to not just read their lines. This proved to be a challenged because I felt that a lot of my work did get pushed to one side. This week I worked collectively helping them with their work before I did mine and suggesting ways in which I could help.

My ides developed the outcome this week by the scene between Medea and Aegeus. Honestly, I do not think that this weeks scene was at all successful. After all the sessions we have had this week, I did think that this scene would have been better than it was. At 06:57 where Medea says 'Aegeus' We rehearsed it where we tried to have the Medea say 'Aegeus' more higher pitched to show her shock, seeing her friend. When we recorded this, you don't hear or see any shock in the character. Watching back on the tape, I get the impression that Aegeus feels uncertain to his place in Medea's home. We practised how Aegeus would enter, more 'hyped up' as he was seeing an old friend after a long time. Personally, I think that this week was successful but the second scene performed did effect us. As well as this, we did miss out a scene that was meant to be after Aegeus left. I would say that this week was successful with the scenes we did perform however as we did get my whole duologue on camera as well as Jason's. The Ideas that did work this week would be the development of Jason's character where we looked further into his characters emotions to help channel an overall feeling for the character. Ideas that didn't work as well would have to be the ideas that Medea and Aegeus used off there own backs instead of taking the rest of our advise and trying to help them. Next week, my aim is to have the second scene much more engaging for the audience. My Ideas this week were very relevant to the project as it was to help create a scene between two characters to show a deep friendship. We aimed to do this by having a strong sense of discipline running through the group and making sure we were all on task. This was achieved by making sure all of out group was on task and doing what was needed, running lines, blocking certain sections and learning lines.

Greek conventions we used heavily this week was again The Chorus and music too. The Chorus can be seen in any part of the video as we made it our mission not to break any of the conventions that we used and having The Chorus always on stage, it showed that we didn't break our rule. Music however can be seen at 11:57 where Jason is heartbroken at the loss of his children and before Medea enters. We chose to have our music here and only here because we thought it would be extremely effective to have that solemn tone to boost the atmosphere of the scene. I think that it was really effective especially when the track changes. It communicates to the audience how tense this scene really is by having that tone shift in the music demonstrates Jason's sadness and loss to anger for Medea.

Overall, this week was not our best week. Our strengths would have been Jason's duologue. We didn't spend a lot of time on Jason's Monologue but for Jason to perform like this for the first time was amazing and to capture it on the recording too was just as great as we can say it was his first proper run of the scene. The weakness this would would easily be the second scene with Aegeus and also missing out a scene too. If we were to perform this again, I would have that missed out scene in and to also make sure that Medea and Aegeus were more ready and prepared.

My SMART target last week was to make sure that that I learnt my lines on pages 11 and a bit of 12 and I did succeed at doing this. At 00:17 I do have my script but I don't read any lines from the book until I turn the page over to reveal the other pages that I will learn in the coming weeks. Adding on to last week, I would also say that our unison has been used well but not as good as I thought. To keep up our progress, I think that we should keep up pushing for better unison.

My target this week is to focus on my line learning and to make sure that I know more of my script. I will do this by just reading over my lines and trying to remember them. I want to do this by the next recording to see if I made progress. This would be relevant as it would benefit the show. I want to have more lines learnt by next Wednesday.

# data[].attributes.body
Production meeting for the 4th February

# data[].attributes.body
This week we had a lot of stuff completed that we didn't realise we had already done. For example, we didn't realise how well we rehearsed my duologue was with Medea. We took a lot of time this production meeting to see how much we had actually done. We thought that our best shot was to look at the full run of our performance to see if we can get a good flow between scenes. Although we had all the scenes, we wanted to put them all together to make sure that the transitions were ok and suitable. Some feedback we were given was the transition between Medea's was very underwhelming so we needed a way to better that. So we came up with circling Medea so that the two could switch jackets to symbolise who Medea was. Also this week, we made sure that we weren't going to forget any lines or scenes.

This week, I contributed by making sure that the scenes flowed nicely and that everyone didn't break character. I thought it would be important that this week, we should look at how we stood, presented ourselves and how we looked from an audiences perspective. This helped us progress because we made sure that our performance was up to standard to be put on stage. I would say that again this week, I did work in a collaborative manner to help aid my group. I successfully did this by encouraging our group by telling them 'not to break character' and 'stay focused'. I would say that it was helpful as it was a reminder to the cast not to break and to stay in that zone of The Chorus or as a main character. The Ideas that I suggested weren't really ideas but more suggestion on how I could help improve my group. I wanted to make sure that my group was ready for the performance and the tech run too.

My ideas that I had developed the outcome this week by making sure my group knew what they were doing with there bodies. We decided that we needed The Chorus to be more creepy so we looked at ways we could improve upon this. We came to the conclusion of having The Chorus' heads bowed in some scenes when they weren't being talked to or when they weren't talking. This proved to be effective as it shows an eeriness to them by having there heads bowed shows that they do 'switch off' when left idle.

The success of this week was lots better than last. We had more lines learnt, more confidence and less scripts too. Personally, What I feel went well was the whole recording. I felt like there wasn't any major mistakes made and that shows me that we were more successful than last week. We could improve on the Medea and Aegeus' scene as I still feel that it is a bit flat but I think it is time that the two actors take it upon themselves to try and learn their lines and increase the skills they have into making this scene really emotional. We will continue to develop on this scene the week we come back to make sure we are ready for our final performance.

My suggestions this week, I would say are important as they helped to make the performance better in a way. This is because I feel now the pressure is turned up with the performance being 2 weeks away, we have a slight bit of pressure to perfect any final issues.

This week, I would say discipline was my main attribute during the session. With the tech run being the second day we have back, I felt that we had to make sure everyone was engaged and knew what they were doing. I did this by constantly running over scenes until people picked up the new ideas and that certain parts of lines were learnt.

The Greek conventions that we used this wee would be The Chorus. I would say that this week it was the strong convention that we used. They used a loads of other conventions like Isolated speech which can bee seen at 06:18 and unison which can be seen at 00:14. Not only is unison uses vocally but physically too. We applied isolated speech at 06:18 to show how The Chorus are capable of thinking on there own. We wanted to communicate how although The Chorus are one body, they have spirit of individuality and have a sense of there own person. The atmosphere we wanted to make was how even now The Chorus can see how wrong Medea is for the actions she wants to commit.

Overall, I think that the outcome of this week was the best so far. This was down to my own development of my character, The change of Medea, The Chorus being more diverse with action and Jason being more expressive than before. We were successful this week by a lot of aspects but I think that again, Jason and Medea's ending was pure emotion and made me and the audience feel that emotion. If we were to perform again, I would have my scene more filled with anger to make the audience feel threatened by my presence. If I do not do this by the next time we perform, I will aim to do it when we perform it to an audience.

Last week I wanted to learn more of my lines and to be more comfortable and confident being off script. I have achieved my target to an extent as I did have to check a line at 00:41 as I do feel unsure for what I do say, still unsure of all my lines but I think I got further than I thought without my script. Personally, this is an achievement as I didn't think I would remember this many Lines this quickly

My target to complete would be to learn all of my lines by the week we come back. I will do this by constantly going over my lines and trying different techniques to help remember my lines. I want to achieve this by the week we come back and it will help the show as it will have me off script so I shouldn't need it. Realistically, I want it to be on record for the tech run.

# data[].attributes.body
Production meeting on the 11th February part 1

# data[].attributes.body
11th February part 2

# data[].attributes.body
This week we wanted to make sure that everything was perfect. We spent most of the morning running through the scenes over and over before we did the tech run with our lecturer. She pointed out a few issues we didn't even realise and helped us correct them. We had problems like the way that I was facing so I slightly turned my body to open myself up and it made it so that the audience could see more of me. A lot of our group were nervous of confusing part that we changed in the tech run. We changed the way that Aegeus enters and had 3 of our Chorus move forwards the sofa at 07:40. We wanted to make sure that we could achieve the best possible grade we could and by listening to our lecturer, we would make it reachable. We didn't want this session to fail as it was our final run before we performed it as our final piece. After we performed our piece, we watched the other group perform and then helped ourselves by making sure we had the best chance by spending the rest of the lesson rehearsing.

I learnt a lot from this process and with the group of people that I have worked with as well. With this production, I have learnt different ways to perform such as, Melodrama, Isolated speech, unison, Echo. It has taught me that working in a big cast is much harder than a smaller one.

All the ideas I had this week were just mild suggestions. I didn't want to overload everyone with pressure of getting the correct choreography or lines. But by me doing this, I did positively contribute by feedback and support too. This was done collectively as we all did it for everyone in our group because we knew how important it was for us to give it our all. We did this by clapping after every rehearsal, saying how well each of us did and that we had got this.

My feedback was important this week as it made everyone feel a little bit more prepared for the show. We all wanted to feel like we were in it together and by spreading the positivity I made a strong connection between us all. Everything that we said was key this week and although it was just nice things to each other and barely any feedback, we made sure that we took it all onboard and gave it our best shot. We did obviously give feedback like 'Turn more to your left' or 'bow your head a bit more at the start' to make sure that everyone was doing the same thing so we wouldn't mess up on small section such as my scene when The Chorus bow there heads at 04:06 only one of them do it. After we recorded it, we told everyone to have there heads bowed so it was all the same.

Our Ideas were relevant this week because we needed to make sure that the final, small issues were tweaked so they wouldn't be any problems on the day. We made sure that this week, we had no stress but had made sure that everyone knew what was needed of them. The discipline was not at all strict this week but was still a key aspect to our preparation. We demonstrated this discipline by making sure no one broke character whilst performing and stayed in that character right until the end.

Greek conventions we used heavily this week would be the three unities. As we had the space of the theatre, we had access to the props. With this, we could make it feel more homely and have the three unities really tie into this week. It can bee seen throughout the video religiously but is used at points like 08:08 where Medea and Aegeus sit. We had it scattered throughout the performance to make it feel like a home to the audience. We tried to communicate a home to the audience, that was in the kings kingdom and it was where Medea lived. That was the idea we had and I do think we successfully get it across. We did this to not only show but make our actors feel as if they were performing in somebodies living room. We took inspiration from the performance we watched of Medea and tried to make our own version of that.

The performance this week was great. No one messed up, no one forgot lines, we had a solid performance. The strengths would easily be the king Kreon's opening and Jason's ending, with the nurse also closing the show. What we could work on would be the second scene with Medea and Aegeus but it would only be volume and tone. If we were to perform our tech run again, I would make sure that everyone felt ready and have more volume and tone range for Medea and Aegeus.

My target last week was to learn all of my lines and apart from checking a few times, I did successfully do this. I am so proud of what I managed to learn and perform without the script but to improve, I will have no script and will keep learning my lines. It can be seen at 01:15 where I do use my script but nowhere near as the last few recordings. To say this at this stage is slightly worrying as our performance is next week but I am confident that I will manage to learn and correct the few small mistakes.

My final Medea SMART target would be to have a successful show next week and to keep up my characters traits. I will do this by rehearsing and making sure I don't slack and let myself down. I will do it by the next time we do the recording and make sure it is achieved for the show. This will be completed for next week, the day of the show.

# data[].attributes.body
Our production meeting from the 25th February part 1

# data[].attributes.body
25th February part 2

# data[].attributes.body
In my live performance, I would say that I was very Melodramatic during my performance. At 04:21, I decided to raise my voice to emphasis my anger. Using volume, it created this melodramatic atmosphere that displayed my anger and fury but also to make sure that my status was still higher than Medea's. I decided to raise my voice on the line 'that was your fate' to get across how angry Medea's arguing and petty behaviour was getting on my characters nerves. My aim in this moment was to express anger and bitterness towards Medea. I decided to do this because it creates a moment of weakness for Medea to see within Kreon. When I raise my voice and have the line echo across the room, it not only makes the audience tense up but shows to Medea a slight weakness deep within Kreon. I was trying to communicate to the audience that Kreon is a strong enemy of Medea's and from my entrance at 00:35, I enter quite loud, as a way of showing how Medea is already creating an issue without any context given before. From my entrance, I would say I created a unsettling atmosphere due to my character, a king, walking on stage or into Medea's house suggests that something bad will happen. In this part of my scene, I do think that I achieved what i set to desire. I wanted to successfully learn my lines as King Kreon and to also play the role using the Melodramatic Greek convention. In my opinion, the audience responded well to the performance as they felt scared of my character. After talking with people who watched my performance, they said "I was honestly scared of your character...I had never seen you act like that before" Was a response I had once I had the opportunity to go back out from the wings once the doors opened. If I was given the opportunity to use Melodrama again in another point of my scene, it would probably be at 02:43 where I drop my shoulders in relief. To be more Melodramatic, I would of made this a bigger reaction but tried to do it without making it comedic or silly as it wouldn't Aline with my character or my mood. If I could change one thing, it would be my entrance. Although I entered quite fast to show my urgency, I feel that I lost my status a bit until Medea drops and cries at 00:58. From that point onwards, I feel that my status was built back up.

Also, another convention that I used was the rule of having only 3 actors off stage. This was a key convention in the Greek theatre. This can be seen at 05:57 where I, King Kreon, leave the stage. We also have the nurse who goes off stage too at 06:20 where he doesn't reappear until 06:49 to help Aegeus. For our final actor, we had our first Medea leave the stage instead of joining the chorus because we thought it would be more beneficial if we had our 3 actors off stage than just 2. I think during the second scene, which is the Aegeus and Medea scene, having the 3 actors off stage works best here because we can have the audiences attention focused on The Chorus and Medea and Aegeus. What we were trying to communicate was, by having less actors who wouldn't be needed, like Kreon, or the other Medea, gives more for the audience to focus on. We wanted to show also how we wanted the scene to showcase Medea's weaker side so by having the switch of actor and less characters, I think helped this by creating a deep, serious tone. Looking back, I do not think that this tone was created but that was our aim, to show a different side to Medea where she explains to Aegeus her worries and how she is feeling. after hearing feedback from the audience, they felt like Medea didn't portray enough emotion to convincingly cry and embrace Medea's true feelings. If we were to perform this again, I would have had the second Medea try and rehearse the emotion more thoroughly to showcase a more true feeling for the character.

As my final SMART Target, I think that we did have a very successful run apart from a few mistakes that people did make, like starting their lines a bit late or not saying lines quick enough but overall I do think our Medea performance was a very strong performance.

# data[].attributes.body
We recorded our verbal evaluation so we had a written one and a verbal one also.

# data[].attributes.body
From now until May we are looking at the play 'It Snows' By Byrony Lavery, Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham.

According to the synopsis 'Same old story. Boy doesn't meet girl. Girl doesn't meet Boy. Threatened by terrifying Lad's gang. threatened by Awe-inspiring girls gang. Mum and dad have declared war...against each other. Weird neighbours in the building opposite. usual ordinary gloominess. Then, one day, it snows. Everything changes.'

The performance is about a boy called Cameron who receives a camera as a late birthday present. He seems disappointed with it and as he starts to take photos, the group of lads hassle him and aren't very nice. As the lads disappear, Cameron sees the girls and Caitlin Amoretti walking past. Caitlin tells the girls to 'stay still' as Cameron takes a photo of them. The group of girls don't like how they have had their photo taken so they also hassle Cameron. Once they have done what they wanted, they ask Caitlin if she wants to join them but she decides to say. As she does, the lads come back and take the mick out of Caitlin. She uses her 'acting skills' and tells the lads the the 'old bill' (The Police) and his drug sniffer dog is on its way and the lads make off. Caitlin is them on stage telling the audience how she is feeling alone and then goes to sleep the same time as Cameron. As they wake, It's snowing and everyone charges outside. The Lads making snowballs, Girls in awe of the snow, Dads making huge snowballs as the Mums watch. Caitlin hopes that the popular girl, Marlee Homes Spalding, party is still on with all of the snow where Cameron hopes that the party is cancelled. Cameron wanting to be apart of the fun, makes the perfect snowball and launches it at Caitlin's face. Caitlin shouts at Cameron as everyone's phone rings. Its Marlee Homes Spalding's saying that her party is still on. Caitlin then meets up with her friends and is waiting for the taxi to arrive as Cameron is hyping himself up to go to the party to see Caitlin. After waiting and hyping himself up, Cameron and Caitlin decide to go to bus stop and head to the part after Caitlin friends ditch. As they both get to the bus stop, they see each other and then they both wait for the bus. As the bus doesn't turn up, they both decide to play some music and dance under the moonlight. As they wake up the next day, the snow has turned to slush and the Weird Girl across the street tries to send a message to Cameron by pinning a note to a bear but it got covered by the snow. As the snow melted, Cameron and Caitlin discovered the bear and the Note that says Help. They both decide to knock on Weird Girls door but there is no answer. Caitlin mimes opening the door as they talk about being an actress and Cameron being a professional cameraman.

The practitioner that we will be applying to our performance will be Frantic Assembly.

According to the Frantic Assembly Website, It states 'The Frantic Method is approaching devising as a series of tasks, each broken down into building blocks. This is designed to establish progress from the simplest discoveries.' which indicates that Frantic is based on building blocks which are the base conventions to there performances. For Example Round-By-Through and Hymn Hands.

# data[].attributes.body
This week in our sessions we were introduced to four different techniques that we could use when we get cast. We watched different videos on a company called Frantic Assembly who demonstrated these four techniques. The video attached to the top is when we looked at the convention of signs. We did this to add something to the scene to distract the audience from what was being said. It creates a rhythmic feel when performed and when unison and canon are added to it as well, it can create a powerful performance. Other skills we learnt were Hymn hands, Chair duets and Clear the space. Hymn Hands is when two actors use their hands, placing them on themselves or the other actor to create a story with the movements. These techniques are the building blocks for us to use across the whole performance and rehearsals to improve our knowledge and our end performance as well.

From the activities above, I learnt how important it is to have physical actions within our performance as it adds to the quality of the movements that we use. By using Chair duets and Clear The Space, we can show what is meant by the words by showing them with physical movement. If a line suggests to look away, this can be done through a chair duet by someone turning away. This is really effective as it can show many ways of communication and different ways of emotion too. I contributed in class as I managed to help my classmates learn the choreo for ideas that we might use for a chair duet and by helping them remember it, going over it and making sure it was set in stone in their heads. We worked collaboratively this week by taking everyone's ideas into consideration and asking everyone what ideas we thought was best to use, trying them out and adding to them. All ideas that I had this week was just added onto ideas that we decided collectively as a group. My ideas were to maybe turn instead of cross our legs during the Chair Duets. Apart from this, I haven't suggested anymore ideas that could of helped in our chair duet or clear the space clips. In my other videos below, I had to take more of a lead to help my partner/s to help them get the hang of the rhythm of the choreo.

My ideas helped out cast as it allowed us think harder of what our initial ideas allowed us to do and think of other ways we could develop them. This helped as we not only improved our work by adding in more skills and making our first ideas better but made it more entertaining for the audiences to watch. By making our performance entertaining, it allows the audience to notice the skills we use that are Frantic Techniques.

My ideas were a success as it allowed our group to further develop scenes to make them more appealing to the audience to watch by them being slicker and more intriguing. My only idea I had this week did work thankful as it was used it help the development of the Chair Duets to make it more visual effective for the audience. Ill continue to develop my ideas throughout the week and next week too as we make our scenes better.

My ideas were relevant to our performance as it was to elevate our skills to make the performance better. The improved ideas for the chair duet was important as it made the whole scene smoother and more fluid as it allowed it to flow nicer.

This week didn't show much discipline as we all worked very well as a group. I think that this group won't need to be asked to focus as we already are doing it now.

Conventions we looked at this week were Chair duets, Clear The Space, Hymn Hands and Signs. In each of the separate videos attached and below this entry, you can see each cast using these techniques in their own interpretation.

The strengths of our performances this week would be the understanding of the building blocks to start making the performance material more Frantic. Weakness' this week would probably be the how this was also our audition so we would be of been casted by next week. I personally felt that it was a lot more stress free but it felt odd and not right in a very weird way. If I was to perform these techniques again differently, I would try more complex moves.

My target is to start to understand the play and the character of the ensemble. I will do this by looking into the text and trying to find a character that I can perform. I want to achieve this by trying different ways of saying lines as these characters. This would be relevant as it allows characterisation. We would like to do this by our next recording.

# data[].attributes.body
This week was out first week working in our cast. In our production meeting, we decided to what extracts we wanted to perform in the 15 minute window we have. We looked throughout the text and decided on the starting point of page 489. We then thought we would just carry on reading until we all felt a suitable section to stop at. We read the script and on of the ensemble members thought of using a convention from last week, hymn hands, for the mums and dads section. Personally, I didn't think that hymn hands would work here as this convention is very affectionate and can be misinterpreted for Love. We didn't want this to be shown as the Mums and Dads do 'row' a lot according to the text. In the text, there are several mums and dads that are in this scene. As we are a very small cast, having several people for other roles proves to be difficult so we are still finding ways around this. When we were looking at this chair duet, the main characters, Cameron and Caitlin, have a scene which is all about dreams. After we had them polished, we had another ensemble member who helped to direct the scene and make the transition smooth. Although the change in scene was just me and the other actor walking off stage, we think it was important so the audience could see that we have changed character and no longer the mums and dads. Personally, this transition was smooth and quick and really effective. Another convention we used was Clear The Space. We included this at the very end and on the last day before the recording. We think although it was a quick decision and was rehearsed a few times, it was a really good way to have Clear The Space in our scene. The move we have are Split, Change, gather, Fold and Favourite and these moves prove to be effective as they work nicely with the script.

This week we were taught another convention called Quad Jumping which we didn't really use this week and personally, I don't think that Quad Jumping will be really important to our intake of 'It snows' so I don't see our cast using it. Below, I have what Quad Jumping is attached with the video that we did in lesson. From the activities above, I learnt how important it is to have physical actions within our performance as it adds to the quality of the movements that we use. By using Chair duets and Clear The Space in our performances, we can show what is meant by the words by showing them with physical movement. If a line suggests to look away, this can be done through a chair duet by someone turning away. This is really effective as it can show many ways of communication and different ways of emotion too.

I contributed in class as I managed to help my castmates learn the choreo for ideas that we might use for a chair duet and by helping them remember it, going over it and making sure it was set in stone in their heads.

We worked collaboratively this week by taking everyone's ideas into consideration and asking everyone what ideas we thought was best to use, trying them out and adding to them.

All ideas that I had this week was just added onto ideas that we decided collectively as a group. My ideas were to maybe turn instead of cross our legs during the Chair Duets. Apart from this, I haven't suggested anymore ideas.

My ideas helped out cast as it allowed us think harder of what our initial ideas allowed us to do and think of other ways we could develop them. This helped as we not only improved our work by adding in more skills and making our first ideas better but made it more entertaining for the audiences to watch. By making our performance entertaining, it allows the audience to notice the skills we use that are Frantic Techniques.

My ideas were a success as it allowed our group to further develop scenes to make them more appealing to the audience to watch by them being slicker and more intriguing. My only idea I had this week did work thankful as it was used it help the development of the Chair Duets to make it more visual effective for the audience. Ill continue to develop my ideas throughout the week and next week too as we make our scenes better.

My ideas were relevant to our performance as it was to elevate our skills to make the performance better. The improved ideas for the chair duet was important as it made the whole scene smoother and more fluid as it allowed it to flow nicer.

This week didn't show much discipline as we all worked very well as a group. I think that this group won't need to be asked to focus as we already are doing it now.

At 03:04 you can see a successful attempt at us using Clear The Space in our performance. In our feedback, we were told that it wasn't that obvious but once they looked at the techniques it was then spotted almost instantly. We applied this because we thought it would be a clever way to get another technique into our performance but it was also to demonstrate how we were as a whole cast, was preparing for the snow that was outside. We wanted to communicate how we could show the members of the public in our show, getting ready for the snow day ahead.

Personally I think that our performance this week was successful and was really good for our first recording. I would say the weakness would be the lack of cast members we had but it couldn't of been helped. I would also say that the characterisation could be improved on next week by all the characters. If I were to perform this again I would probably make sure my character was starting to be seen even though I am just a part of the ensemble, I still need to characterise.

Last weeks smart target was to allow myself to understand the text and to start to characterise myself. This smart target has been almost achieved as I have got a strong understanding of the story but my characterisation has not yet happened. This can bee seen throughout the performance as I'm not seen embodying a character different to myself.

My target is to look at the mum and dad's scene. I will do this by looking at the scene directions to better understand what the scene should include. I would like to do this by reading through the text and to make sure that I am not missing anything that is key to this scene. It would be relevant as we would understand this scene better and then have a solid opening to our performance. We want this to be done by next week.

# data[].attributes.body
This weeks Production Meeting

# data[].attributes.body
This week in one of our sessions, we looked at another convention called Quad jumping which is 8 jumps which is carried along the rows. When we get to the end, it drops to 6 and is carried back alone the rows again. This process is repeated until there is only one jump left. When the timing for the 8 to 1 jumps are structured and remembered, we change the first two jumps in the count of 8 to a different move. This could be a clap, star jump, leg criss-cross' and any move that the individual row can think of.

# data[].attributes.body
This was from our Production Meeting that took place on the 1st April.

# data[].attributes.body
This week we looked at two new conventions by Frantic Assembly that we could uses in our performances. We looked at one techniques called Round By Through which is a technique where two or three people create a series of movements to make a story. These movements are anything but the title of the convention 'Round By Through' where the movements are around someone, next to or by somebody and through them, which could be through there arm or under their legs. This can be used to show relationship between two people and can also show manipulation and control. Another convention we learnt was Phone Number, where you type out your phone number and swipe it towards your partner to show communication. This can be repeated however many times for the duologue to be done or can be used by feet, head or even eyes. We did add in Phone numbers into our production at 04:24 you can see how we interpret this new convention to show Marlee's call to tell everyone about her party. Also this week we added to our performance by catching up a missing member of our group. We went through the performance and caught our missing member up and then added to our performance. Last week, I said that Quad Jumping wouldn't be a technique we would use in our performance but I was wrong. We found a way to add Quad Jumping and to also make it look effective. This can be seen at 03:52 where the ensemble in the back are 'playing in the snow'. We think that having Quad Jumping here show how the ensemble is outside, making most of the fun whilst Cameron and Catlin are having a small argument. This week, we slightly extended our performance as we added in our weird girl, added more lines and got more conventions in too.

I learnt from Round By Through how you can show manipulation and control but also an intimate scene where you can show the love between characters also, Phone number can show communication on stage. Actors can used these building blocks to show distances between characters or even the uses of mobiles on stage without actually having a phone in hand .

I contributed towards the progression made in class as I helped with the flow of the rehearsal. Personally, I felt that this week we started to see progress being made in our piece. This was crucial as I allowed us keep going and was that catalyst to make sure we put our best into these sessions. I also made suggestions to our work to make them better which was about staging mainly.

This week I would say that we all worked collaboratively as we managed to add in more conventions like Quad Jumping which requires a lot of team effort and timing. The collaboration was done by all of us listening to one of us speaking and acknowledging what they said. The ideas that I came up with this week were placement and movement of the chairs at 03:34 where the chairs are moved by me and another ensemble member. We wanted to achieve an easy way to manoeuvre the chair in a stylistic manner.

My ideas helped to develop the outcome of the performance this week as the movement of the chairs allowed for a swift and easy way to move the chairs/ allowing for more space to be used for the next section of our performance, which in this case was the Quad Jumping bit, letting the audience see us behind as Cameron and Caitlin did there duologue. I think that this worked well this week as we added in another technique and one that I didn't think we would use but also this technique lets us show a playful side to our characters, which I personally think was a nice change to the mums and dads.

My Idea this week I would say was a success as we found a very simple way to expand our stage without any complex movements. I didn't have any other major ideas that didn't work but suggest smaller ideas of potential moving the chairs further backwards or tilting them inwards but after trying this in rehearsals, it didn't look as right as how we had it. We can continue to develop our work next week by focusing on what scenes to add to and look at what other potential character such as Marlee who will be a character we want in our performance, but finding the right time to add the party in, is another challenge as we don't want to feel as if the story is lost.

My idea this week felt as if it served a purpose as it let us to control the stage space without using tape to mark anything. We felt that in some scenes, the stage would be best being quite small and kept where other scenes, it would be better expanded and spread out with more of an area for our audience to see. The actual moving of the chairs was also my idea as it shows the journey that Cameron and Caitlin go on as they are constantly on an up and down rollercoster where they get close and far apart and by having this demonstrated with the expansion and shrinkage of the stage accurately shows this.

This week I demonstrated engagement and discipline as I along with the rest of the group felt that we had to repeat the performance over and over to feel as if we were confident to perform it with all the movement along with line learning. Although I still have my script, I do feel fairly confident with my progress of line learning and this can be seen throughout the recording.

This week in our performance we applied 2 new conventions which were Quad Jumping and Phone Numbers. Quad Jumping was a technique that I was sure we wouldn't use in our performance as it felt like we were lacking the ideas to use it but we found a suitable place to use it and it does seem to work. This can be seen at 03:52 we the Quad Jumping take place. Phone numbers was another technique that I didn't see us using because I had a feeling that the scene that would work perfectly with this wouldn't be used but again, we found a way to add this technique in. This technique can be seen at 04:22 where we use Phone Numbers to demonstrate how Marlee is messaging everyone about their party. With both of these conventions being placed after each other it is an instant change of mood as with Quad Jumping, we are having fun and a great time playing in the snow to 'looking at our phones, reacting to Marlee's message'. Phone numbers is a really easy convention where it can show a mobile phone being used, without having one and this can be used to have a full conversation on stage.

The strengths of this performance would be the dream scene with Cameron and Caitlin where we get to bring their dream to stage. I think that this scene is very magical as we get to see inside Cameron and Caitlin's head. A weakness this week would be the absences that caused us to reteach everything that we had put in place which can be annoying because where other casts have carried on to progress other scenes, we are left to reteach the absent members the work that they missed. If I could perform this week again I would try and perform without the script or as less as possible.

Personally, I think that we have improved on this scene as we have a bit more of an understanding. The feedback we were given was that we are delivering this section wrong as how we are performing it, isn't how the script write intended. After I talk to the group, we will think of a better way to improve this scene to make it more of how Frantic intended. This can be seen however at 00:23 where the scene has a strong foundation now but it still doesn't follow Frantic assembly's intentions.

My SMART target this week would be to re look at the mum and dad's scene again. I will do this by taking a deeper look into the text. I would like this done by potentially changing the scene and how it flows. it would be relevant as it will help our performance. We would like to do this by the week we return.

# data[].attributes.body
After reviewing last weeks feedback, we found that a common theme in a way was the scene with the mums and dads, where we list off a bunch of names meant to be read out by separate people. We spent a lot of time thinking about how we could change and adapt and manipulate this scene so that it fitted the script. So to make it easier for us and to stop wasting any more time, we all collectively decided to scrap that small part as we ourselves didn't know what other way we could perform it. This week we also discussed what props we would need. After going through each scene, we added to our production meeting sheets of all possible props we would need or like to have. (This can bee seen on part 2 of the Production Meeting) With this discussion came a few slight problem such as what we were going to use as Snow. One ensemble member thought that feathers would be the best cause and after he told us more about the idea, we all agreed that we wanted to use feathers. The only issue we had is that the way he wanted to use them wasn't possible with the time we had. I had the idea of using either a sheet to flick the feathers up into the air or use fans to blast them on stage from the wings. I consoled in the group and the most controlled idea was using a sheet as we had more of a chance to catch them as them fell. As well as looking at this idea, we also expanded on our total time, to 9 minutes and 42 seconds. Each week i can see myself growing as see our performance coming to life allowing for more room for success. This week we added Marlee's party scene and looked at how we could explore that. We started to look at the scene and I felt that it was quite a leap from where we finished last week to go straight into the party scene, without a build up essentially. We went back to the script and looked at some scenes we could add and found a part after playing in the snow, which happens to be inside where Cameron and Caitlin are wanting / not wanting to go to the party. In this scene and in others, there was one character that was mentioned but didn't have much of a spotlight which was the Weird Girl. With this new scene that we added, it allowed for us to develop the character more even if it was for her being on stage for a few seconds.

What I have learnt this week is it is important to have these conversations within the casts as it can spark more creative ideas that you might not of thought of initially and can build some amazing final pieces. With the end of It Snows coming close, this whole piece has been a collected build up of of casts ideas and recommendations to make this performance what it is.

I contributed this week by suggesting how we used the feathers in the scene. I felt that it was necessary to use the sheet as it felt that we had more control over the movement and how it would technically fall too. At 03:55, that is where the Snow is supposed to fall but isn't included this week as we didn't have the feathers nor the sheet to practise this as we only thought of this great idea this week. The idea to have the snow flicked up here was my idea as I thought it was look really effective to show to the audience what is happening before everyone plays in the snow.

This week I would say that I worked in a collaborative manner as I suggested to my cast about the idea of controlling the feathers. This was done by me telling our cast what other options we could do when our first idea of using a dropper was not allowed. I stepped up to suggest alternative ideas to still create this almost magical scene. Although I had suggested it, This idea was not demonstrated in this weeks performance as we didn't have access to the materials as it was suggested mid lesson.

My ideas didn't really develop this weeks outcome as it was more of an idea for next week to maybe start exploring. I would like to say that next week we would have the materials to use as see how this looks but I don't know what the future sessions hold. However, other ideas that we had this week that did work and land very well was expanding our time and letting us work with material. This again was my idea and with everyone's input and suggestions we all came up with more scenes to fit in between the playing in the snow and Marlee's party scene. Ideas that didn't work as well this week was our placements of our lifts. From the feedback we were given, the lift we used on Marlee should of been used on Caitlin at 01:49 to give a more convincing 'Flying' approach. We will continue to develop our ideas next week by moving around the lifts and looking at the snow and how to use it. I felt that our ideas this week were relevant as it allows for our performance to grow and get better with each week, letting our knowledge strengthen with the feedback from everyone, it is always nice to see what landed and what didn't.

This week was a slight bit challenging as people started to get bored of repeating the beginning of the performance. With constant upbeat motivation from everyone allowed for the rest of us to keep going even when we were sick to our teeth of performing it.

This week we applied another Frantic Assembly technique to our performance which happened to be lifts. This can be seen at 07:50 where Marlee is lifted into the air. We choose to put the lift here because we wated to communicate how out of control Marlee is as the party isn't going the way he wants it to be. We added this here not only to show to the audience how Marlee had loss of control of the party but to also have another convention in our performance.

I would say that this week a strength would be the new and improved Mum and Dad's scene where we have taken out the names part as we didn't really know what else to do. With this now taken out, I feel that personally the scene feels smoother and runs better. A weakness this week I would say would be the party scene as the feedback that we were given was that the scene lacked energy. We will take this feedback and continue to improve our work to make our performance better and longer. If I could perform this again, I would most definitely not use my script.

Last week, my SMART Target was to improve the Mum and Dad's scene to make it better and I think that finally we as a cast have achieved it. This can be seen at 00:22 where we take out a small section to make the scene flow better.

My SMART target is to implement round by through into our performance. I'll do it by practising different ways of doing it to see what way suits the scene. I would like to do this by adding it to the part scene with Marlee. Its relevant as it helps the scene and improves it. we would like to do this by our next recording, next week.

# data[].attributes.body
This week we were absent for the Production Meeting.

This week we used Lifts differently to last week as we looked at the feedback and decided collectively to move it to the dreaming scene. I feel that this lift now has more significance as it shows what Caitlin is dreaming and bringing that to the stage to see for the audience to witness. This can be seen in the video at 01:35 where I think we accurately demonstrate this flying illusion. As a cast I would say we built a dreamy atmosphere where we saw inside both Caitlin and Cameron's head.

Overall this week, I would say that the lift now moved to the dream section was a strength in our performance as we have reason to now lift up somebody. Also, a strength would be how we added and changed parts to the Party scene. After working around the script and using a lot of creative ideas amongst the group, we made a wild looking party at 07:00 however I am not keen on how I just walk back and forth across the stage. But the part after my walk shows more chaos and craziness. A weakness however this week would probably be the Quad Jumping because as I look back, it is very clear how out of sync we all are with the person next to us. If I was to perform this again, I would most definitely work more on the Quad Jumping to make sure that we are in sync.

Last week, My Smart Target was to implement Round By Through in our performance. This week I would say we have added Round By Through at 05:32 where Cameron and Caitlin use this technique to show a very close scene between the two of them. We also added Round By Through slightly during Marlee's party scene at 07:07 where I knock into Marlee and where Marlee is dragged back to the centre. Next week I think we should add more to this technique to make it more obvious that we are using it.

My SMART target is to look at the Quad jumping technique and improve it. I will do this by accessing the other ways that we can improve the clap. We will do this as a group together to see what we can best accomplish. Its relevant as this will improve the technique we use to best implement the performance. We will do this by the next recording.

# data[].attributes.body
This week was our tech week and we though as a group to focus on the key parts of our performance, like the opening, the snow aspect, the party and the ending. We had a bit of an issue in our session this week as we did struggle with the idea of the snow. Our initial idea was to use white feathers and to flick them up into the air using a white sheet, creating a snow like flow as they fall to the floor. Not being anybodies fault, it has been left tool ate and getting hold of white feathers a week before the show has proved to be a challenge but we do still plan to use them. If we can't get the feathers in time, the back up plan is to use shredded paper to create the same effect. That was our main point of conversation this week within our session as we feel at this point we have all of the performance sorted.

I learnt that communication throughout the performance is incredibly important but when it come to an issue as such, making sure that everyone is clear on the plan is key to making sure that there are no or as minimal mistakes possible.

How did you contribute towards progress made in class?

I contributed this week as me and another member of the cast took on a directorial role during this process and we both looked at small things that could do with being polished, weather it was how a chair was moved or small pauses, we thought of how it would effect the performance in a positive way.

I would say that I worked collaboratively as with the pressure of the performance being next week, we don't want to have any arguments or fall outs causing any awkwardness between us that can be picked up. None of us really suggested any new ideas this week as we just worked on what we had, but we all stylised how we move, change our outfits and move props too. I though that leaving the stage to take off a gown felt pointless when every other cast member was. So I decided to keep my other coat on stage at the back and as I change, the other member come on stage, taking the focus away from me.

This week, We didn't really have any ideas but more tweaks to make this performance flow smoother. We had an issue with our music as not all of it was sent in but we found ways around this. Some tweaks we had were me having my snow gear put at the back of the theatre so not all attention was lost on stage, keeping our audience engaged. Other than this, we didn't really have anymore suggestions or ideas.

This week I would say was the hardest as we were all very worried about our music as it wasn't sent in on time. This caused a few ripples in our cast but by letting people talk and explain how they were feeling, let us find the root issue to try and solve. Other issues that rose was about using the sheet that was a little bit more chaotic but was resolved quite quickly. Apart from this, we did manage to stay very calm and composed.

With this week being our tech run, we haven't got time now to change or add or remove anything from our script. In total, the conventions we used were, Chair Duets, Clear the space, Hymn hands, Quad Jumping, Round by through, Phone numbers and Lifts. In total we used seven techniques to enhance our Frantic Assembly Performance on 'It Snows'. These can be seen throughout the video but my favourite technique we used would have to be the lift at 02:35 and we can see now with the music and lighting, this scene come to life. We wanted to get across how peaceful it is in Caitlin and Cameron's head and we can see what they are dreaming, almost getting an inside to who they are.

Personally, this weeks tech run wasn't very strong as it was a very stop start performance but the strengths of it would be how we performed the party scene at 09:00 where I feel that it is very chaotic and crazy and shows how out of control Marlee is in this scene. I enjoyed this scene as we could delve into Marlee's character to see that he isn't as calm and easy going as he looks. Instead we are greeted to a very manic and almost scared Marlee who doesn't want to feel any worry or pressure of a broken house. A weakness however would be at 03:55 where we needed to be more centre for the snow scene. I feel here we weren't very aware of the amount of staging and when looking on the video, it is very easily seen how we look unsure of where we are. If i was allowed to perform this again, I would look at the snow scene and try to move the others along so we were more centre but also have all of our music sent in on time so that we had all of our cues lined up and ready to go.

Last Week My Smart Target was to look at the Quad Jumping and to remove the clap so that we could explore other options as the clap was too basic. After thinking we found another move but we didn't get to record it this week as we were only really focusing on the cues of the show. The move however is a boot slap normally used in Line dancing and worked a bit better.

My target is to have a successful run of our performance onstage. this will be done by constant self rehearsals and making sure everything is known. We will do this as a group to make sure we all know what is needed to be performed. This is relevant because this is our final performance and will be the part that helps to polish off everything. We will do this for our last recording of It Snows.

# data[].attributes.body
A key moment in our performance where we deployed a stylistic convention would be at 01:39 where we had one of two lifts. We chose as a group to have the lift here as it accurately demonstrated what Caitlin is dreaming. We wanted to get this across because we felt that it was important to let our audiences have their own individual opinion on the characters without us as actors telling them essentially how they act or who they are. With this lift, its clear how imaginative one of our characters are and how freely they dream without limit. we wanted to successfully create a scene where we could wow our audience with something that they wouldn't expect, which was using a lift. Our desired aim with the lift was to create the illusion of flying within the dream section and after reviewing the footage, I would say that we achieved what we wanted. I say this because I feel that we executed this amazingly and without any issue. Feedback that we received abut the lift was that it looked visually perfected but there was a few seconds where I was shaking my arms a bit. This was due to my nerves as I didn't want to drop the main character and that I was the rock to the lift too. Considering that we have used two lifts (The second being at 09:05), I think anymore would of been too many for our performance. Lifts are a really great convention to have in a performance but I feel that if they are over used they can lose the wow factor and feel boring. If I was to perform this again for a last time, I would change the amount of time we have Caitlin in the air, holding her up for longer. Apart from this, I think this technique was used to perfection.

Another technique I think we used to the best of our ability was chair duets. After we were introduced to this technique, I felt that we had to use it as it was a very easy and simple technique that can improve and have a very impactful meaning to a performance. We use Chair duets at 00:27 with the mums and dads displayed by the ensemble which to me shows a disconnect between them even though the technique requires a sort of connection, ours demonstrated the very opposite. With this done, I feel that we used the technique in a very unique way. A chair duet also shown in our performance can bee seen at 09:19 where Cameron and Caitlin are sharing a very special moment whilst waiting at a bus stop. The Chair duet that we did here was to show a close connection between these character, Like how the technique is normally used for. With the contrasting but same technique being used, I think that we used Chair Duets to almost perfection. I say almost as I noticed how the same two Chair duets at 00:27 were being performed slightly different. This was a members fault as they knew what we did in rehearsal, which makes me wonder why they changed the flow by doing the jolting earlier on. We decided to have the two conventions placed at the beginning and at the end to show a kind of full circle moment. We begin with the parents of Cameron and Caitlin being broken and disconnected from each other to the main characters becoming a partnership. To me, this feel like a full circle moment, with both Cameron and Caitlin being happy with each other, unlike their parents. I would say that was the reason behind this convention being used here and at the end, but also as a very calm ending to the performance. Something about chair duets gives off a very slow and calm way to show something special and by closing off our performance with this, show to the audience how we all enjoyed this script and how it was all special to us. Personally, I would say I achieved our intended use for Chair Duets to create a disconnected atmosphere between the mum's and dad's on stage and for the togetherness of Cameron and Caitlin at the end of our performance. Looking back at our performance, I think using a four way chair duet for Marlee's party, when he welcomes everyone in, could look really interesting, having Marlee welcoming them in one by one and having a different set moves for each person. I think this would look really good but if we were to do this, we would have to get rid of one of the other Chair Duets as it would feel over used. If I had the chance to perform this again, I would make sure that all cast members were off stage and wandering on at the wrong time. This can be seen a few times throughout our video where you can see a single cast member at the wings and at one point, walking on stage at the wrong cue. So, if we were to perform again, I would make sure that all cues for being onstage were known and that everyone was well away from the wings if they were moving around.

Overall, I do think that our 'It Snows' Performance was good but could of been better with the mistakes that were made by a single ensemble. This will not drag anybody else's down but it does look bad on the recording.

# data[].attributes.body
We did a verbal evaluation along with a written one above.