Contemporary Theatre 2

                                                       Contemporary Theatre
In this lesson we were given a new member to the group, Montana we explained to her the moral of the story that we are doing for a play and showed her one of the scenes we had done. We all then thought of what we could do for our next scene and make it abstract because we didn’t want it to look GCSE we wanted to show the story through our bodies. So we started with the opening scene, we wanted to sum up a part of the start from the line “I rode on the bulldozer as it repaired the road throughout the day” up to the line “I don’t know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank- shell holes in their walls” but we didn’t add speech we only added in movement because Miss. Day wants us to layer our pieces so we understand each key element to put together a scene which is important to do so we value each element in our pieces for the play which will become more in depth and well thought through, so we all stood together and said ideas of what we could do for the scene and how to make it abstract, we started it off with me and Montana standing doing a sequence with our arms to show that we are protesting, because me and her are playing activist and I’m playing Rachel. Whilst we are protesting Chris, John Luca, Emmy and Shaine who are playing soldiers are driving by and watching us, they stop and get out of the car march in a straight line in front of us and shoot us they stamp their feet they stand up shrug and March away. We originally had them shooting with fake guns with their hands but Miss. Day said what would happen if we took that away, instantly it becomes more abstract so instead they just stamped there feet symbolising gun shots, we really wanted the stamping to be loud and deep because we want to shock or try and scare our audience to the reality of what a gunshot may sound like or how it might feel hearing a gun shot, whilst this is happening me and Montana are falling down in a slow, fast dynamic movement and showing facial expressions in slow motion after being “shot at” I’m hugging Montana’s lifeless body on the flow and the scene moves to the part of me putting Montana’s dead body under a blanket which is when it then turns into a child sleeping in bed I’m tucking her in when all of a sudden there are banging noises in the background symbolising the shots fired from a tank, I’m reacting badly to it worried for the child’s safety, whilst Montana (the child) is thinking what is she doing why is she acting like this. At the end of it I try and comfort Montana when she shrugs it of as if whatever, which is our groups message from this play that the war has made people become used to tragedy like it’s a shrug of the shoulder for them because they get tragedy everyday which is mentioned in the play.
This lesson I think it was very productive, we had a lot of creative ideas from everyone which is going to be useful for the other scenes and hopefully make this play more abstract and different so it has an effect on our audience. Next lesson we are highlighting our lines and officially casting people with characters.

Contemporary Theatre 1

Contemporary Theatre

So Miss Day introduced a play to us about a woman named Rachel who was an activist and when to Palestine in the middle of the Palestine war to protest that the Israeli stop what they’re doing to Palestine there enemies, we read through the script and I really felt attached to the main character (Rachel) until in the end Miss Day revealed that she was murdered by an Israeli tank, Rachel parents tried to sue the Israeli government for murder which didn’t work because the driver of the tank which ran her over claimed that it was an “accident” that he ran her over four times. This started off a class discussion on how silly war is and that it’s so unnecessary, I really liked this because I think this cold tell how passionate we were about this play and that we wanted to talk about it. After we split off into groups to start devising a piece for the play because we was going to do an abstract version of the play, my group started off with devising the water scene it’s when the Palestine are queuing for water but the Israeli can walk right through me and Chris played the two Israeli citizens being smug to the Palestine citizens that they get the water no problem, we showed this by John luca and Emy queuing for water and Shaine as the guard Me and Chris walk through and Shaine attacks the two citizens who become angry at our selfishness, we all walk away together and shrug because that’s our groups message and what we got from the play at how in the Palestine war, war happens every day and how it’s like a shrug of the shoulder, we really felt like this conveyed a message about the war and the citizens of Israeli and Palestine. We tried to make it abstract but I think next lesson we will work on the scene or maybe move onto another scene and try and make it abstract and different.

Overall I’m excited about this lesson and this subject, I think we can really make this play abstract and different one that draws in an audience.

Principles of acting

Overall Evaluation

I think the performance for the assessment went very well throughout all the times we had to go through the script, for other actors who had to play understudy's of some of the main characters. I kept in character the whole time and always performed it full out with my character, I was very happy with my performance I was a successful ensemble member what I like about an ensemble is that everyone has an important role to play if you pulled me out of the performance people in the ensemble would miss cue lines or movements and the performance would fall apart that's the same with everyone because everyone is important with this performance.as an ensemble, we all work as a team, listen and communicate with each other and be constantly in focus whilst being in character. I wouldn't have done anything different I believe that I did it full out and tried my best I never came out of roll and my character was consistent. Throughout rehearsals I realised how important the rehearsals were, they helped me develop my character and let me know how I think the role should be played and also how to show how my character is feeling in the script, I knew this already of course but this style of theatre that Steven Burkoff does for Agamemnon and other plays showed me how important it is to exaggerate physically, facially and vocally and just how important they are. I think my strengths were my facial and vocal expressions I really tried to express how my character was feeling and also to show what was happening in scenes so the audience find it better to understand and are more engaged to the performance, rehearsals helped me develop character and physicality for the performance and I think they definitely worked because my performance, character and us as an ensemble performance was strong and consistent throughout the script.

Overall - The performance went well as an ensemble we were strong and consistent we all worked as a team and responded well to each other and worked as a  team, individually: I was consistently in role and performed as my character full out to the best I could to make a good performance because as a member of an ensemble no one can not be in character from time to time or not putting as much effort in because you'll make the ensemble look weak and you'll be picked out from the group which isn't what its meant to be its meant to be as a whole, I did it full out which is definitely important as a member of an ensemble.



Principles of acting

Line running

Miss day told us that as an ensemble we needed to sound stronger and more in sync as a group, also people with individual lines needed to speak them better. so as a group we all stood in a circle and read through our lines full out and with character, I don't think there was one time were I didn't try my best with my lines in the line run, Laura gave others general directing notes who she thought weren't saying there lines right and was trying to motivate them. The only personal note I gave myself was to make sure that my effort in my lines was continuous throughout my performance for my assessment this line run really helped because I was able to actually hear myself and know how I sound or how I should change things to sound better for the performance, this helped me understand that my lines and how I'm performing them are right to the theme and to my character that I developed with those lines.

Principles of acting

What acting skills are required for performing as an ensemble?

• Team work
• concentration
• listening skills
• continuously in role
• exaggeration
• react well in time
• projection
• strong body language
• communication skills

For our class performance as an ensemble for the play Agamemnon, we all had to use these skills like in the start of the play we all have to do a sequence of symbolised movements to certain lines
 for example the line "clawed hate" we all as an ensemble have to at the same time react to line being read out and reach across our body and claw our hands out and bring them back to our sides, the skills used there would be concentration, listening skills, react well in time, strong body language and team work. Another example would be that I had to listen to my cue line in the 'javelin' sequence, my line was "thrust" my cue line was "cut". so as a class and as a individual we all had to work and listen to each other so that we could perform the scenes well.


You definitely need these skills if you are to perform as an ensemble, because its all about knowing your cue and reacting well, and these skills will help you to perform well and make things easier for people in an ensemble for performance.

Principles Of Acting

What is an ensemble and how is it effective within a play?

An ensemble is when a whole cast in a play performs as a whole, everyone has an important role to play, there isn't times where its all about the main characters explaining and helping carry the story. The whole ensemble helps show a emotion or theme in the performance.


How is it affective in a play?
In my opinion an ensemble is very effective to portray an emotion or help give more detail to parts of the story, I think this way its easy for an audience to understand whatever performance they are watching, this helps them become more engaged to the performance and have more of a reaction to what the cast are doing.
In Agamemnon I believe it looks so much more powerful and really has a full effect on an audience, an ensemble for Agamemnon really works to help show emotions of characters even if its not in there lines its as if the ensemble is showing you what the character is thinking in there head, an extended conscious if you like. But some of the lines spoken together as a whole cast instead of one person just makes the whole play so bold and loud, it really helps with projection with characters instead of one person trying to travel there voice out to an audience and across the room.

principles of acting

Who is the author of Agamemnon? and what is his style of theatre?


Author-
Steven Berkoff wrote his version of Agamemnon but the original author of the story was: Aeschylus an ancient Greek playwright who wrote the story of Agamemnon.


Style of theatre-

“Like smoking, naturalism can damage your health”[3] which sums up Berkoff’s approach to naturalistic theatre. His style is non-naturalistic, often focusing on movement rather that voice. According to him, the only purpose of a script is to help “minimalise and physicalise”[4] the story; stripping it down to its most basic components.

The theory of Total Theatre is key to Berkoff and stemmed from Artaud’s theatre style. Total Theatre maintains that every aspect of theatre must have purpose: every movement, that is choreographed; to each line, that is learned perfectly; to each lighting effect, that is used to convey a mood or message; to each sound effect, that enhances the audience’s experience; to each prop that has a use. The aim of Total Theatre is to create extreme moods to give the audience an overwhelming experience and to shock, amuse, scare, or amaze them.

 Reference : doesn't share name. "Steven Berkoff Theatre Technique" Blogspot.com. http://dramaandsuch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/steven-berkoff-theatre-technique.html?m=1 , 10/02/2013. Web. 11/06/14.

Conclusion - Steven Berkoff didn't necessarily re-write the whole play he just applied his own style of theatre, which is necessary I think with this play because its got such a bold story line and add the exaggerated movements and types of body language you can really make the performance effective to an audience in ways that will engage them and keep them wanting more.