Well done! You have all done so well. We were able to do an entire run through as we have been able to block the whole play. You have some tasks to do now before the next rehearsal:
Learn your lines
Think carefully about your character - physical - how do they move, sit, stand? What little things do they do that make the audience you are the character? - vocally - how does the character speak?
You should write a refection on the rehearsal.
What did you think of the entire run through? Did you learn anything new about the characters/plot?
How does the play look so far?
Which actors impressed you and why?
Did you learn anything from seeing your peers act today?
Remember to upload the peer and self assessment sheets you have been completing in lessons.
Today we continued to block the scenes. If you were directed in a scene then you need to reflect on what you did. If you watched the scenes being directed then you need to reflect on what you watched. In the afternoon you all did some writing in role. You need to either type up what you wrote or scan/photograph the piece of writing you wrote. Reflect on how you were able to write what you did.
Here is the basic configuration of our performance space. It is called THRUST staging.
Give an advantage of using this stage space.
Give a disadvantage of using this stage space.
Question: As an actor what are the challenges you think you will have personally being directed in this space? Below is a plan of a stage. It tells you what we call each area of the stage. Familiarise yourself with this as you will be asked by your director to enter from stage left or right, move up or down stage. This is vocabulary that you should be able to use as an actor.
Today was our first rehearsal for our performance of DNA, which will be on 14th Feb 2013. This might seem like a long time away, however we have lots of work to do inbetween now and then. Your blogs now should track the rehearsal process. Some of you will not have been directed today and will have observed the rehearsal. You need to reflect on what you saw happening on stage. You should have completed a peer assessment sheet. You should scan/photograph and upload the sheet to your blog. If you were directed then you should write about how you were directed, how you found the process and you should complete your self assessment sheet and upload that to our blog. All of you should now create a new role-on-the-wall sheet that shows what you think of your character. Everyone can write about the opening section that you started to devise. Here is the music we are using:
Reflect on why are performing this opening sequence. What will it tell the audience? Describe the section that you have created with you character group. What does it communicate to the audience about the character?
I will be adding lots of little things for you to look at during the rehearsal process. Make sure you keep checking back and keep up to date with all of your reflections. Remember, you can video yourself speaking instead of typing and you can upload photos of written work rather than typing everything. The important thing is that all of your work should be in one place, on your blog!
Today you all observed
a casting workshop. People that wanted to play specific characters had the
opportunity to read in for scenes to show what they thought of the character
and how they might perform in the role.
Q- What was your experience of
participating in the workshop? What characters did you read in for? Why do you
want to play these roles?
Q- What was your experience of observing
the workshop? Who were you most impressed by and why?
The focus of the workshop was to think about creating TRUTH on stage. Q - Why do we want to create truth on stage? We started the session by playing a game called ‘I don’t believe you!’ Q- Why did we play this game? Q- What did you learn from watching it / being part of it? Write about one of the people that took part in the game (Chem, Tyler, Kimberley, TJ, Skye, Ursula) - Q- What situation were they entering the room from? Q- How were they able to show truth? Q- What they change each time they entered the room? Q- Were they successful in creating a truthful performance? How? Why? After the break we explored breaking bad news using non-verbal communication. Q- What is non-verbal communication? Q- What scene did you create and who did you work with? Q- How did you make sure the scenes were truthful? Q- What other pair did you think were successful and why? We then looked at SUBTEXT and I introduced you briefly to a theatre practitioner called Stanislavski. He created the theatre genre that we have now called Naturalism. Task: Look up Stanislavski, find a picture of what he looks like and create a short fact-file on him. You worked on a piece of text. You explored Leah’s first monologue. You worked with a partner to work out the subtext of the monologue. You need to UPLOAD the text you annotated to show what you did. Q- What is subtext? Q- Why did we work out the subtext of the monologue? Q- Did it help you to have a better understanding of the character? Last question... Q- WHY will a truthful performance be important to our performance of DNA?
Today’s lesson focused on creating the history of a character and exploring what we know from the text. Task 1: Firstly in groups of 5 you created a 1 minute version of the play ‘DNA’
Answer these questions:
Q - Why did you do this? Q- How did it help you? Q- What did you notice about all of the pieces that were created? Were their moments that were the same? We discussed the role of the postman - a character that is never seen and doesn’t speak.
Q- What is the importance of this character in the play? Task 2: You created 4 huge ROLE-ON-THE-WALLS for the characters: Phil, Leah, Brian and Adam. Answer these questions:
Q- Why did we create these? Q- Did you find out anything new about the character your group worked on? Below are videos of the role-on-the-walls you created. You can copy these onto your blogs...or make a link to here!
Logbook task: Find a piece of music on youtube that you think sums up your character. Put this on your blog. Task 3: You created a scene to show the backstory of the character you worked on. Answer these questions: Q- What is a backstory?
Q- Why is it important for actors to understand their character’s backstory? Q -What did you create as a snapshot of your character’s world? Describe what you did and link you choices to the play. Q - What did another group create? Was it effective, why?
Task 4:
We discussed the ideas of Nature V Nurture. Are we a product of our environment? Yes or No? Justify your thoughts.
Check back tomorrow for more questions and videos!
-->
What an exciting start
to our new project with a pleasant interruption by Will Bailey - Silver and
Bronze medallist from the Paralympic Games 2012!
Aside from this
brilliant experience you all had you do need to complete some important
response work for the section of text you read in today's lesson.
Answer the questions
below about the scenes we have read so far:
Questions
What is your first response to reading the play? Do you like it? Discuss your response to the characters and the plot.
What are theTHEMES of the text?
What are you most looking forward to during this project?
What do you think the challengeswill be of this project?
Answer the the questions above by Thursday please...I will be checking your blogs...
