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Knowing your audience...

WHAT IS AN ARTIST?

Origins of the western Theatre Tradition. Imagine your ancestors sitting by the fire in the cave. What happened?

6th Century BC – Greece. The first actor, Thespis, steps out of a choir and speaks as an individual for the 1st time in the theatrical history. Why did he do that?

Imagine 3 people sitting in the last row of the audience.

1)      One is blind

2)      One is deaf

3)      One cannot understand the language and subtitles aren’t available.

What a music performance be like for those audience members?

Your task, using your talent, imagination, craft, and passion is to reach each one of these audience members equally, sharing and projecting the story of your character.

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Reflective reading: Performing as a storyteller

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Reflective reading: Performing as a storyteller

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Story Components:

Beginning: setting, characters, relationships

Middle: the conflict

End: resolution

what specific things need to happen in these components?

Beginning: 1-first you need to show and explain to the audience: the setting, who is who, where you are, what your relationship is to the other characters. Time of day, time of year, period, the Society you are in (if applicable). Show your audience these things. Never assume because this is a well-known song,  your audience knows it all and you only need to go through the emotions.

Tell the whole story

Don't cheat the audience and don't cheat your performance. Music tends to be slower the beginning which is the liberated to give you the opportunity to show these details. Take your time and show them.

When your character appears for the first time be sure you ‘introduce’ yourself to the audience.

The conflict - The problem

2) What does your character want? Who or what is preventing your character from getting what they want? Or who wants something from you that you don't want to give?

What strategies and tactics can your character use to get what they want?

How can you put off that person in avoid giving it? What can your character do to win?

The End

3) There is resolution of the conflict. Did I get what I wanted? How did I get it? If I lost, why? Who are the winners and losers?

Remember: your character does not know How the music ends and you must play it for the best outcome the character would want to the very end. Never play a scene like you know how it will end. Create surprise.

The dynamics of the story

stories tend to have a instrumental at the beginning to allow time for the introduction, the tempo sets  the pace for the conflict, leading to  explain the outcome while maintaining the intensity.

Important points to keep in mind:

Learn to play the story like it's the first time it has ever been told. This requires skill.

Make no assumptions.

Explain/show the details in the introduction.

What does your character know and not know?

Don't predict the outcome of the story.

Give yourself somewhere to go

Your character within the music has a story progression, a narrative, so we start at the beginning and move it through the progression of this story. Your character learns and develops as they story unfolds. Find those moments and show those discoveries, realisations, new ideas.

And this applies to each song, scene, each act, to the entire show.

Your character’s story:

By imagining your environment, show us:

·       where you are.

·       What time of the day.

·       The weather.

·       Remember to show us what you think and what you feel about this setting.

CONFLICT MEANS CONTACT.

Use your actions to get what you want

Use actions in phrases of music. Always use simple proactive verbs that can be expressed physically. I want to charm, threat, comfort, tease, patronise, seduce, insult, dismiss, plead, beg, and so forth.

What effect are the actions having on the other characters? Are you making full contact? (i.e. head, heart, guts)

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Interpreting songs in a way that conveys one's understanding with the creator's ideas.

Interview Whitney Houston – I always love you

Whitney Houston short interview:  why she chose I Will Always Love You for The Bodyguard - YouTube

Who wrote it?

Discussion about the original version by Dolly Parton - (Country)

The particularities of the interpretation of Whitney for this movie: context and finding the emotions that would make sense.

One example of a extraordinary performance under  pressure and limiting factors such as time, audience, and judges: Kody Lee - X factor audition - live.

For today’s performance:

THINK-PREPARE-SAY IT

A song of free choice to show your emotions .

Nuria, Elisabeth, Maisa performed to the class.

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Aim
- Understand the process of analysing lyrics trough storytelling to gain the audience.
Develop confidence in performance.

The Isley Brothers - Busted ft. JS (Official Video) - YouTube

Objectives
- Critically analyse a piece of contemporary music
- Read the dialog (lyrics)
- Rehearse a creatively inspired cover of a contemporary piece  and perform it by the end of the lesson.

*The class will listen to the piece, and discuss briefly the lyric to learn more about the story and how it unfolds.
* In pairs, students will work on the lyric, preparing  a dramatic reading based on the story-telling techniques and its components mentioned on the topic above.  The second part of the lesson the duos will rehearse and perform to the rest of the class. By the end of this lesson we have a feedback session.

Duos:

Melissa, David
Nicoletta, Maisa
Evans, Nuria
James, Josiah

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The Isley Brothers - Busted ft. JS (Official Video)

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24/01/23 - Performance techniques  - Thoughts and emotions

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24/01/23 - Performance techniques  - Thoughts and emotions

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Students did a recap about what was learned last lesson and how techniques contribute to a performance.
Building a character and expressing emotions

Exercise 1
·       New thought and Discovery exercise:

·       You have misplaced the book.

·       You remembered you have your wallet in your pocket.

·       Getting home and realise you have forgotten something.

·       Deciding not to answer the phone.

·       Realise you forgotten something while coming through a book.

·       Finding a wallet while on the phone.

·       Cleaning your teeth and decide not to answer the phone

·       Writing a letter and realizing you are in love.

·       While you are reading a letter, you can hear someone coming up to the steps, so you must find a place at to hide the letter.

Students that participated: James, Melissa, Stanley, Archie, Izy, Elisabeth, Nuria, David, Melissa, Rinev.

Practical Work:

Song: Killing me softly - Fugees

I will tell the story with my own words: that’s my true and I will express it through emotions, gesture, and preparation.

Getting the thought

Thoughts are repeatable, emotions are not. Get the thought and emotion will follow simply and naturally.

Think, look, move, sing.

THINK BEFORE YOU SING!!!!

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Fugees - Killing Me Softly With His Song (Official Video)

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31/01/23 Projecting your thoughts to the audience

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31/01/23 Projecting your thoughts to the audience

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Expressing you thoughts trough action is the "glue" that brings the story and the character together .

Discussion: Can the composer "tell" the performer what the characters thoughts are, and what action should accompany them in the music?

Getting the thought example/ class discussion:  Josh Daniel ( audition - X Factor 2015)

Project your thoughts over the audience. Imagine the entire audience space is a cinema screen. Are those stores reaching our three friends in the last row (gods)?

Remember the thoughts must come first and then the actions

Think  - Look – Move (action) – Sing

Exercise1 : The hand:

Thinking in pictures (visualization)

Visualize a gorgeous landscape, a mountain, a light house in a storm (repeat to grow the images on your imagination).

To play the situation, play the opposites.

Where are my feelings the strongest? How do I show that?

Where are my feelings the weakest? How do I show that?

Find the extremes and fill them in.

Find the most important traits and habits of your character and fill them in.

Group exercise: Expressing your thoughts with actions only ( no props, no voice).

Performance Practice:

In group or individually, choose a song that will be rehearsed in the afternoon using the process of expressing emotion trough actions and perform it to the class.

Group 1:
David, James, Stanley, Izy, Maisa;  Roses - Outcast

Group 2:
Nuria, Elisabeth, Nicoletta; Romantic Homicide

Duo:
Rinev, Debora;  Say Something - J.T

Solos:
*Keanu:  Chelsea grin
*Evans: own composition

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07/02/23 Building Characters - Relationships

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07/02/23 Building Characters - Relationships

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Play the situation on the Relationships

Where I am?

Who's also here and what are my relationships to them?

Who has higher and lower status?

Who are my friends and who are my enemies? Do I know the difference?

How do the relationship change? Has trust developed? Growing curiosity? Fear? Love?

How are changes in the situation earned their relationships moving their story on?

Am I showing these things?

Individuate your character

how I am like the other characters and how I am different?

What qualities do we have in common and what makes me different?

Character groupings:

Quartets, couples, duets …

Know and show the character development

What was I like before the curtain went up?

How do I change in each act?

How am I different from the first scene to the final curtain quest from?

Have I learnt anything?

How have I matured or grown up?

Have I aged?

Relationship exercise

Without speaking and not miming show us a relationship:

Teacher and the student

Servant and master

Brother and sister

2 old friends

2 bickering strangers

Band "leader" and Singer

a Princess and a Duchess

Parent and son/daughter

* Remember to show not only the relationship but how the individuals think and feel about each other.