filming our scenes

During the process of this class i noticed the differences with fiming and stage acting, because the space was more refined we had to define our movement more in a small area, our facial expressions were more important and whereas on stage we could like down and away it did not look as effective on camera. Filming involved shooting at different angles and levels to make it more effective. On the stage whether we were shouting or whispering we still had to project our voices well for the auditorium to hear, whereas on camera we could use our normal everyday voice. The procedure on a whole was quite tiring and repetitive, it allowed us more leeway to experiment though as we could take scenes again and try out new angles to gain he most effective shots as possible, however the acting on the stage felt more real and live and relied on adrenaline and well rehearsed lines to pull through so it was more rewarding to see the results as an actor and challenging, the work we did relied on being proffesional and pulling through without stopping whereas on film there was not such obvious pressure on the actors although we did get put on the spot at times.

The show

Before the show we did a dress run for the national diploma drama students, we manager to get through it succesfully , but i personally felt disatisfied with my scene as i missed out some lines and did not feel 100 percent confident with the way i was moving on stage, thankfully though when the audience came in for our big final performance I felt that after my scene with Aaron i was alot happier and we managed to get through it without any blips. I enjoyed it and the adrenaline spured me on to show the emotion that my character 'Abigail' would have been feeling in scene 1. Our largest scene as a group was scene 3. I also felt scene 3 went quite well and the energy level through out varied in intensity making it effective, as The scene went from being quiet and slow to fast and full of action. I think that everyone managed to stay in character ( i should hope so anyway as our teacher was zooming in whilst filming catching every single facial expression) i personally felt very much in character as one of the girls and managed to finally get in my zone on the night and remeber not to break the fourth wall with the audience, which was something siobhaun had noticed i was doing in the rehearsals. All in all i think we just about pulled it together as a team, but i think that next time we have a show we will definitly be more organised and pace ourselves better, because as a group the stress we all went through in the last week could have been helped if we had been more on the ball. Since it was our first show i think it taught us a very valuable lesson about how we have to all support eachother.

rehearsing for the show

During the 6 weeks preparation time for the show we worked on blocking our scenes in order to make them as effective as possible. We worked on our character buliding and worked using the magic if to help us learn why our character would move or speak a certain way. This was one of the exercises we used to create naturalistic acting. We thought about our costumes. The majority of us were purtians in the performance so we would be dressed in simple and plain clothes and be very demurely dressed and covered up. We though about how we could use the lighting to be more effective in certain scenes and we thought about the props we could use to help reinforce the time era we were showing.

For the Brecht poem we worked on a completely opposite style of acting. Non naturalistic acting invovled outbursts of songs , instruments , breaking the fourth wall with the audience and interacting with them. We rehearsed some tablos of life in Brechtian times and rehearsed it with me playing the piano alongside Sammy and Dan playing the drums. We recited the poem of Marie Sanders. The style we performed it in was almost like slapstick drama and was exxagerated and comical. We wanted the contrast of the naturalistic acting in the crucible and the Brechtian poem.

Mother Courage And Her Children At The National Arts Theatre

Yesterday our theatre group went to visit a Brecht production in the National Arts Theatre.
The theatre was called the olivier and was the first theatre in that style and shape with the stage at times being a semi circle and at other times a full circle

Lessons on Naturalism

During the course of the past 2 weeks as a group and as individuals we have worked on techniques to achieve the most naturalistic methods to act with. We have used exercises from the practitioner Stanislavski to build up naturalistic and believable characters. 

One of the exercises i felt that helped me the most ,although slightly putting me out of my comfort zone was one of where we had to think of a memory that had, had a great effect  on us in the past. Mine was an upsetting memory and we had share it with a partner. Our partner then gave us a separate scene, in which we could apply the emotions from the memory into this scene in the most naturalistic way possible. The point of using the painful memory was to give us a realer and more beilievable insight as to how our character would feel during this scene. It helped us act as 'real' as possible and made us really think deeply into how we would acually feel rather than just trying to act. The process however was quite challenging as i felt it triggered a lot of emotion, therfore we had to be able to learn to disattach from this feeling as well. 

Another exercise we did was more imaginitive, where we had to create what we thought our character look like mentally , this was a good exercise for character buliding as we thought into what they would wear and their appearance. Music was used to help stimualte our minds and give us a sense of being in that time era. It helped us gain focus and make up an idea of our characters background.