Day before the show
Today was a true working day. I felt from the right beginning everyone in to finish anything unfinished and do their best to use all the time we had beneficially. We had special focus on getting the movement pieces to flow and work well as the transitions between different pieces. It was important that they actually had a meaning to them and a link to the scene, rather than just having people randomly moving on the stage. We also worked on the big ending movement piece for the first time in the performance space at Pelham. This brought up some difficulties, since the space where we have been rehearsing is a lot bigger than our performance space, and so we needed to tweak some parts a bit to make it work. For example. when before we had been in straight line creating the tableaux, now we needed to edit it into a semicircle to be able to fit it on the stage.
Even though we did a lot of good work, I still feel there is something we really need to improve on. With the beginning and end chorus poem, we really need to get a perfect complicity to be able to say the poem all together at the same time. Now, it seems that people are not sure when to start and what exactly is the rhythm. This could be fixed with working on our when we all take our in breath. Also, in our final movement piece, in the beginning with the jumps, not everyone is in time with their jumps(including me sometimes). This is about finding the rhythm and focusing on the piece, rather than the things happening around us.
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Monday, 25 November 2013
25.11.2013
Describe all exercises done today and answer the following questions:
- What did you learn?
- What did you achieve?
The first game we played was very simple in theory, but it seemed difficult for some to actually play game well. The exercise start by someone quickly deciding who to run to, and then running to them whilst keeping eye contact with their target. When realizing someone is running to you the 'target' has to then yell the runners name out loud and become the runner themselves by choosing their own target to sprint towards. The difficulty of this exercise was its simplicity, many might have thought that they are too good for this game or won't anyway needed, and so wouldn't put their 100% in doing it. The exercise was really about commitment and focus. You had to be fully committed to the game to make the best out of it. You also needed focus as the game became harder, as there were more than one runners. You really needed to focus on your target for them to notice you, and focus on everyone running, to know if one of them was targeting you. I really felt that this exercise was a good 'test' to see, who is really willing to go all the way and really commit to the game rather just thinking what they do is 'good-enough'.
The next exercise we have done in class quite many times, but it is still very useful. The exercise starts by everyone moving around the space in neutral, playing the game named 'Don't Bump Into Each Other', so basically you make a game out of not bumping into other people. This then goes into the next part where you have to jump in unison with the person in front of you, landing at the same time and then keep walking around. The last phase, what I call the 'Stop and Start', always starts everyone standing all around the space in neutral. The idea of the game is to be able to start or stop walking all at the same time, without communication or anyone leading the group. The movement should start with perfect complicity with everyone else, and getting that complicity is the goal of the exercise. To make the transition from still to walking a bit easier, we joined the stillness with a deep breath in, and as we start to breath out, the group would start walking all in unison. To this breath, we also added a chant "Rose, rose, rose,rose" every time before started to walk again. I think that every time we do this game as a group, we get closer and closer to the point of perfect complicity, but we still have a long way to go. The focus in our group can be extremely terrible from time to time, people starting to talk or giggle, and without some discipline it is unlikely that we will ever achieve complicity. But with some hard work and true focus, I know we have the potential for it.
The Clapping Chain is where the group gather around to a one large circle. One starts the chain with passing the clap to the person next to them by clapping their hands once both at the same time. The next person then turns to the person next to them on the right and passes the clap to them the same way as they received it before, by clapping hands once in unison. This is repeated with everyone first receiving a clap and then passing it down. All the way trough the chain, the group should keep a even rhythm with the claps, because as there are more clapping chains started, it is easy to lose track when is your turn. With focus, being ready to receive the next clap is very important, and so, after passing the clap down, you should right away move back to your left hand side to receive the next clap.
In the next exercise we were divided into four different groups and teach'd this song:
Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose
Shall I ever see the red
Aye, marry that thou shalt
Shall thou art dead.
This exercise was about developing the chorus, as all the four different groups would start to sing at different times, in canon. This exercises was a lot about being able to keep a rhythm within your own group, that would help us further develop complicity.
After the chant we were given a sheet with two songs of Ariel's from the Shakespeare's play The Tempest. We started off by reading each song with the whole group in a circle, each reading one word at a time. This was to find the rhythm within these little songs, but also transfer the words into songs, since we did not really know, how the actual melody went. After this, we were divided into two group, each having one of the songs of Ariel's to work on. We were supposed to learn the song, with each group member having a line from the song. Then we had to perform the song to the other song, keeping a certain rhythm whilst reading it. With this the idea was to really find music within the text. This was a real focus exercise, since you needed to be alert the whole time to hit the beat the right time with your line.
Reaction to Round-By-Trough exercise
This exercise was to eventually turn it into part of our performance, linking each scene together. We were divided into pairs, our partner being someone from our devising group. Our mission was to create a 12 beat movement piece, with using the idea of going either round, by or trough your partner. After this we went back to our full devising groups showing each other the ideas we had and then combining them to create an initial movement piece. With this exercise we really needed to get comfortable with each other and be able to be close to each without feeling awkward or afraid. It was also a sort of a trust exercise, especially when we added some lifts into the movement. I personally really liked this, even though it did feel a bit awkward at first, but after a while I realized how silly it was of me to feel uncomfortable with people I was going to perform with.
- What did you learn?
- What did you achieve?
The first game we played was very simple in theory, but it seemed difficult for some to actually play game well. The exercise start by someone quickly deciding who to run to, and then running to them whilst keeping eye contact with their target. When realizing someone is running to you the 'target' has to then yell the runners name out loud and become the runner themselves by choosing their own target to sprint towards. The difficulty of this exercise was its simplicity, many might have thought that they are too good for this game or won't anyway needed, and so wouldn't put their 100% in doing it. The exercise was really about commitment and focus. You had to be fully committed to the game to make the best out of it. You also needed focus as the game became harder, as there were more than one runners. You really needed to focus on your target for them to notice you, and focus on everyone running, to know if one of them was targeting you. I really felt that this exercise was a good 'test' to see, who is really willing to go all the way and really commit to the game rather just thinking what they do is 'good-enough'.
The next exercise we have done in class quite many times, but it is still very useful. The exercise starts by everyone moving around the space in neutral, playing the game named 'Don't Bump Into Each Other', so basically you make a game out of not bumping into other people. This then goes into the next part where you have to jump in unison with the person in front of you, landing at the same time and then keep walking around. The last phase, what I call the 'Stop and Start', always starts everyone standing all around the space in neutral. The idea of the game is to be able to start or stop walking all at the same time, without communication or anyone leading the group. The movement should start with perfect complicity with everyone else, and getting that complicity is the goal of the exercise. To make the transition from still to walking a bit easier, we joined the stillness with a deep breath in, and as we start to breath out, the group would start walking all in unison. To this breath, we also added a chant "Rose, rose, rose,rose" every time before started to walk again. I think that every time we do this game as a group, we get closer and closer to the point of perfect complicity, but we still have a long way to go. The focus in our group can be extremely terrible from time to time, people starting to talk or giggle, and without some discipline it is unlikely that we will ever achieve complicity. But with some hard work and true focus, I know we have the potential for it.
The Clapping Chain is where the group gather around to a one large circle. One starts the chain with passing the clap to the person next to them by clapping their hands once both at the same time. The next person then turns to the person next to them on the right and passes the clap to them the same way as they received it before, by clapping hands once in unison. This is repeated with everyone first receiving a clap and then passing it down. All the way trough the chain, the group should keep a even rhythm with the claps, because as there are more clapping chains started, it is easy to lose track when is your turn. With focus, being ready to receive the next clap is very important, and so, after passing the clap down, you should right away move back to your left hand side to receive the next clap.
In the next exercise we were divided into four different groups and teach'd this song:
Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose
Shall I ever see the red
Aye, marry that thou shalt
Shall thou art dead.
This exercise was about developing the chorus, as all the four different groups would start to sing at different times, in canon. This exercises was a lot about being able to keep a rhythm within your own group, that would help us further develop complicity.
After the chant we were given a sheet with two songs of Ariel's from the Shakespeare's play The Tempest. We started off by reading each song with the whole group in a circle, each reading one word at a time. This was to find the rhythm within these little songs, but also transfer the words into songs, since we did not really know, how the actual melody went. After this, we were divided into two group, each having one of the songs of Ariel's to work on. We were supposed to learn the song, with each group member having a line from the song. Then we had to perform the song to the other song, keeping a certain rhythm whilst reading it. With this the idea was to really find music within the text. This was a real focus exercise, since you needed to be alert the whole time to hit the beat the right time with your line.
Reaction to Round-By-Trough exercise
This exercise was to eventually turn it into part of our performance, linking each scene together. We were divided into pairs, our partner being someone from our devising group. Our mission was to create a 12 beat movement piece, with using the idea of going either round, by or trough your partner. After this we went back to our full devising groups showing each other the ideas we had and then combining them to create an initial movement piece. With this exercise we really needed to get comfortable with each other and be able to be close to each without feeling awkward or afraid. It was also a sort of a trust exercise, especially when we added some lifts into the movement. I personally really liked this, even though it did feel a bit awkward at first, but after a while I realized how silly it was of me to feel uncomfortable with people I was going to perform with.
Friday, 22 November 2013
22.11.2013
What did we work on today?
After our feedback on last Tuesday, we really wanted to start working on the bit's that were either lacking something or needed more attention from us. Especially getting Paige's characters have more lines and let her personality shine more trough, was a very important point to work on. So, what we did to enable this, we added a new part to the scene. In our scene, we have a moment where the characters start to look for a pack of cards on the boat, but then realize, that the rocking of the boat has knocked the cards into the debts of the sea. Before, this was just a moment that passed in our scene without bigger drama, but since Paige as a character is someone who naturally wants stew trouble, we decided that this could be a good moment to expand on trough improvising. Instead of the group just forgetting about the cards and moving on, Paige starts to speaks against Vera for leaving the cards on the deck, and even make fun of Vera's mishap. Even though the girls calm down quite quickly, this little episode between the two character's gives Paige the chance to keep picking on Vera trough out the rest of scene, bringing more of Paige's personality and character to show. What I really liked about improvising this scene, was that it felt very naturally to act out. Paige stirring up trouble because she feels it is the only thing she does well and Vera reacting to it with her uncertainty towards the group and her effort in it showing clearly and stating to the audience, that these people truly are drifting apart from each other. Still, with Xanthe trying to get over the cards, trying stop her friends fighting, point across that they did use to be better friends.
Another thing we changed was the ending. Before, we had Rick's phone ring after Vera's melt down, revealing that he had a girlfriend all along, something more important than this friend group. From the feedback, we realized that this was a bit unnecessary, taking away emotion from Rick's death and Vera's emotions. What we did to fix this, we simply crossed out all the parts about the cellphone and the girlfriend, and rather had the group slowly realize, that Rick truly is dead and end the piece with them standing in silence, before being knocked out by large wave.
We decided to also work on a Plan B, in case Max wasn't able to perform next week. The biggest changes in this version of our scene was, of course, the absence of Craig's character. Xanthe would be taking on the sailing of the boat, since her character was the only one with a privileged background and possibility to have done sailing before. Craig's lines were then divided between different character's. Hopefully, we won't be having to use this, but it is always good to have, just in case.
After our feedback on last Tuesday, we really wanted to start working on the bit's that were either lacking something or needed more attention from us. Especially getting Paige's characters have more lines and let her personality shine more trough, was a very important point to work on. So, what we did to enable this, we added a new part to the scene. In our scene, we have a moment where the characters start to look for a pack of cards on the boat, but then realize, that the rocking of the boat has knocked the cards into the debts of the sea. Before, this was just a moment that passed in our scene without bigger drama, but since Paige as a character is someone who naturally wants stew trouble, we decided that this could be a good moment to expand on trough improvising. Instead of the group just forgetting about the cards and moving on, Paige starts to speaks against Vera for leaving the cards on the deck, and even make fun of Vera's mishap. Even though the girls calm down quite quickly, this little episode between the two character's gives Paige the chance to keep picking on Vera trough out the rest of scene, bringing more of Paige's personality and character to show. What I really liked about improvising this scene, was that it felt very naturally to act out. Paige stirring up trouble because she feels it is the only thing she does well and Vera reacting to it with her uncertainty towards the group and her effort in it showing clearly and stating to the audience, that these people truly are drifting apart from each other. Still, with Xanthe trying to get over the cards, trying stop her friends fighting, point across that they did use to be better friends.
Another thing we changed was the ending. Before, we had Rick's phone ring after Vera's melt down, revealing that he had a girlfriend all along, something more important than this friend group. From the feedback, we realized that this was a bit unnecessary, taking away emotion from Rick's death and Vera's emotions. What we did to fix this, we simply crossed out all the parts about the cellphone and the girlfriend, and rather had the group slowly realize, that Rick truly is dead and end the piece with them standing in silence, before being knocked out by large wave.
We decided to also work on a Plan B, in case Max wasn't able to perform next week. The biggest changes in this version of our scene was, of course, the absence of Craig's character. Xanthe would be taking on the sailing of the boat, since her character was the only one with a privileged background and possibility to have done sailing before. Craig's lines were then divided between different character's. Hopefully, we won't be having to use this, but it is always good to have, just in case.
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
19.11.2013
Feedback
After showing the project of our devising so far, we were given some really good feedback on our scene. One of the main things was about our boat and how we showed the audience the dimensions of the boat. It was said, that it was very clear that we were on a sailing boat or a small yacht, but the placing and existence of the boom that eventually knocks out Rick in the end, wasn't that well shown by us. We really need to add something to our piece to really make clear to the audience, where the boom is and that it exist in the first place, since it will have a huge effect on the characters. Also, the positioning and blocking should be thought over, ensuring that we take in consideration that the audience will be in a Arena-formation. Right now we have blocked and positioned ourselves to perform the piece in End-On, but we need to make sure that we use our given space efficiently, but also taking in consideration the fact, that we will have audience on 3/4 sides.
It was very important that everyone tried to give their best feedback to other groups, so that everyone's show would be at it's top. Unfortunately, we were quite short on time, and so for the last two groups we had to just listen to our tutor's comments to save time. I still was able to give some suggestions to the first group. What I thought their group had to improve on was establishing the space, since in the beginning of the scene, where they were looking for one of the characters, it wasn't exactly clear where they were or if they were all looking in the same room. Still, the parts in their scene, where they had two people talking to each, and the other two conversing in mute, work very well, and how they transitioned from that muteness was extremely fluid and impressive.
Our group received a lot of feedback also about our ending, with Rick being hit by the boom and the moment after that. Originally, we planned that all of our characters would be so in shock, that they wouldn't exactly know what to do, and so there would be a moment of silence, before my character Vera rushes over to Rick to try to do something. Someone made a comment about it, that it didn't really work, since in a real shock situation it would be more realistic to have people go and try to help, instead of just standing there. This was a good point, in my opinion. Perhaps there should be a brief chaos of people trying to do something, but not necessarily knowing how to help, before Vera would take over and try to calm things down, or rather get her voice heard.
After Vera's speech about Rick's death, the group and her love towards Rick has ended, there is the end bit where Rick's cellphone rings and we find out that Rick has had a girlfriend outside of the friend group all along. When we thought of this, we thought it would be a way to show that Rick truly had something more important than these people he is with on the boat, and also creating a sort of end to Vera's obsession of Rick's, since she wouldn't have had a chance with him any ways. We were also noted about this, than the bit didn't really bring anything necessary to our scene, but rather undermined Vera's feelings and the strong emotions at the end, also completely forgetting about the dead person. Since the feedback, we had a brief discussion with the group, deciding, that it might be for the best to cut out the part about Rick's girlfriend, and perhaps change it so that the silence at the end comes because of the realisation that Rick is actually dead, bringing an end to the original group of friends. This way, we would have more focus on the emotions and the death of Rick.
Many also felt that the character Paige needed to be stronger and more involved into the action happening between the other characters. A good way to get her some more time to shine would be to add more to the part where the group realizes that the poker cards have gone overboard.
After showing the project of our devising so far, we were given some really good feedback on our scene. One of the main things was about our boat and how we showed the audience the dimensions of the boat. It was said, that it was very clear that we were on a sailing boat or a small yacht, but the placing and existence of the boom that eventually knocks out Rick in the end, wasn't that well shown by us. We really need to add something to our piece to really make clear to the audience, where the boom is and that it exist in the first place, since it will have a huge effect on the characters. Also, the positioning and blocking should be thought over, ensuring that we take in consideration that the audience will be in a Arena-formation. Right now we have blocked and positioned ourselves to perform the piece in End-On, but we need to make sure that we use our given space efficiently, but also taking in consideration the fact, that we will have audience on 3/4 sides.
It was very important that everyone tried to give their best feedback to other groups, so that everyone's show would be at it's top. Unfortunately, we were quite short on time, and so for the last two groups we had to just listen to our tutor's comments to save time. I still was able to give some suggestions to the first group. What I thought their group had to improve on was establishing the space, since in the beginning of the scene, where they were looking for one of the characters, it wasn't exactly clear where they were or if they were all looking in the same room. Still, the parts in their scene, where they had two people talking to each, and the other two conversing in mute, work very well, and how they transitioned from that muteness was extremely fluid and impressive.
Our group received a lot of feedback also about our ending, with Rick being hit by the boom and the moment after that. Originally, we planned that all of our characters would be so in shock, that they wouldn't exactly know what to do, and so there would be a moment of silence, before my character Vera rushes over to Rick to try to do something. Someone made a comment about it, that it didn't really work, since in a real shock situation it would be more realistic to have people go and try to help, instead of just standing there. This was a good point, in my opinion. Perhaps there should be a brief chaos of people trying to do something, but not necessarily knowing how to help, before Vera would take over and try to calm things down, or rather get her voice heard.
After Vera's speech about Rick's death, the group and her love towards Rick has ended, there is the end bit where Rick's cellphone rings and we find out that Rick has had a girlfriend outside of the friend group all along. When we thought of this, we thought it would be a way to show that Rick truly had something more important than these people he is with on the boat, and also creating a sort of end to Vera's obsession of Rick's, since she wouldn't have had a chance with him any ways. We were also noted about this, than the bit didn't really bring anything necessary to our scene, but rather undermined Vera's feelings and the strong emotions at the end, also completely forgetting about the dead person. Since the feedback, we had a brief discussion with the group, deciding, that it might be for the best to cut out the part about Rick's girlfriend, and perhaps change it so that the silence at the end comes because of the realisation that Rick is actually dead, bringing an end to the original group of friends. This way, we would have more focus on the emotions and the death of Rick.
Many also felt that the character Paige needed to be stronger and more involved into the action happening between the other characters. A good way to get her some more time to shine would be to add more to the part where the group realizes that the poker cards have gone overboard.
Monday, 18 November 2013
18.11.2013
Since the unfortunate accident that happened to Max during the weekend, our group decided to focus more on the characterization of the other people in the scene and figure out, how we wanted the scene to end, since he wasn't there to do work with us. We had a rough idea of it, but now we had to improvise it and start working towards the perfect finish. We wanted the finish to be quite dramatic, rising in action, since we start our piece with a conflict, then go into more mellow conversation between each character, so a big finish would be needed to make scene work well. We decided that something bad should happen to one of the characters, and that character should be Rick. He is the one talking about having a life outside of the boat throughout the whole scene, desperately wanting to get out. This way, he does get out, but not necessarily the way he would have wanted to.
Rick is hit in the head by the boom of the boat, followed by a moment of silence. Shock and desperation takes over and finally Vera steps out to try and help Rick, but after realizing she can't help, and no one else cannot snap out of their state of shock, Vera can't take it any longer. All her thoughts start to spill in tot he open air, all the doubt she has been having about the groups friendship and the future. She starts to blame the others of Ricks death, resulting in her breaking down into tears. Rick and Vera had a past together, which Rick apparently has moved on from, but we felt as a group that it would give Vera more reason to go Rick first, if she would still have feelings for him., and so, as she begs Ricks cold body to wake up, she confesses her love to him, only to be disturbed by a ringing phone. As she slowly calm down, Vera answers the phone, finding out that it is Ricks girlfriend on the other end. When the phone call ends, all the remaining members of the group look at each other in shock. The scene ends as the boat rocks and knocks everyone of the boat, ending in a blackout.
During the whole scene, Vera has been one of the characters, who has rather stayed away from the arguments, and just tried move on from them. She doesn't show any want to be on the boat, but neither does the desperately want out. Since the friends haven't seen each other in a long time, Vera has started to doubt their whole friendship, if they are friends any more, or does she even want to be their friend. These thoughts come out at the end, when Vera lets out all her feelings to the others, showing them, that there are more important things in the world than themselves. All of the character have selfish features, Paige wanting to cause trouble for her own amusement and Xanthe basically swimming in self-pity, Vera picks up on these traits and uses them against the others to make a point, which is quite selfish of her. But her objective isn't to protect herself or make herself look any better, it is to point out her admiration towards Rick.
"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,"
- a segment from John Masefield's 'Sea Fever'
This first line of the poem really felt close to what is going on in Vera's head, when she decided to participate on the boat trip. On the other hand, she sees the closest friends might have ever had in this group of people, which is why she has hope to their future together, but at the same time Vera realizes the fact, that she hasn't felt like a part of group in a long time any longer. But rather than like the poem, which seems to admire the sea and the journey it will take the person, Vera doesn't dreads the outcome of this trip, because she knows deep down that what ever happens, the result won't be pretty.
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
12.11.2013
Explain what is happening in the except and how it fits with your full scene
In this scene, we start of with Craig(Max) and Rick(Yunuse) arguing about the boat not moving, resulting in aggressive contact between the two of them, almost knocking Xanthe(Lucy) overboard. After calming things down, the group talks about Paige's(Jade) life and how she is having problems at home. We also get a bit of the group starting to enjoy alcohol beverages, Paige and Xanthe than the others. We thought that this could work as the beginning for our piece, since it would right away establish some of the desperation that some of the characters are having being on the boat, and also shows the dynamics between characters.
Describe the process of making decisions shown in the excerpt
With the conflict at the beginning, we first thought that it could be everyone arguing with each other, Craig and Rick obviously talking about the boat and the girls arguing about something else, Still, we weren't entirely sure if it would actually fit the personalities of the characters for all of them to just blow of like that. In fact it might even be against their true nature to do so, since both Xanthe and Vera would just want everyone to get along and calm down. There was no real reason why the girls would fight, so we decided that the conflict would happen between Rick and Craig. Rick's character is very work and family centred, and with a bad temper it would be quite likely for him to get annoyed with the other, especially Craig, who is supposed to sail the boat. We played around with the idea that we could start of our scene right away at the fight, but since Craig and Rick have been good friends, we felt that there needed to be some backing up before the 'explosion'.
Notes
After showing our devising so far, we were given some really good notes on what to work on next. Mainly, we need to ask question from our character and ask them, what is their driving force on the boat. Is it that they want out? Why? Would they show their emotions to the others on the boat? This was really something that hit me about Vera, I wasn't entirely sure if I knew the answer to all of these questions.
I have established before, that Vera isn't entirely sure about the relationship with the other characters. She doesn't feel as close to them as she might have had before, and perhaps this trip is a sort of a test for her to see, if the others truly are worth her time. She isn't exactly eager to stay or get out of the boat, but why is that? Why is she so indecisive about the group? Perhaps there is still a part of her that is somehow attached to the group, or someone in the group, much so that she cannot seem to let go of the past to move on with her own life.
This was a thing that we discussed a lot as a group, the dynamics within the characters and their own little friendship ensemble. It was our starting point for the whole piece that this trip for the characters would be something they have done before together, a tradition, but perhaps in the recent years the friendship of these characters has been pushed aside by other things in their lives. The big question within the group is, if they really even are friends any longer, or if they should be, but from the characters Vera is the only one actually acknowledging it. The others have probably thought about it, but would rather push it aside. Xanthe, for example, sees this group as her foundation and because of depression is desperate to make this group work once again.
In further devising, I feel that we really need to work on getting some dialogue for Vera and Paige, since now they have been more on the background. Both of the characters have great potential on creating some kind of discussion or drama, and it would be important that all of the characters have their time in the spotlight.
Monday, 11 November 2013
11.11.2013
In todays rehearsals, my group decided to focus on our characters, where they are in their lives before the storm and shipwreck. We also discussed the relationship status between our characters. Our characters used to be a tight group of close friends, but they would have not been in touch for a while. All of their lives would have been slowly drifting apart because each of them would have started to focus more on their futures or themselves than the group. This sailing trip would be kind of a 'reunion', a old tradition our characters are trying revive after a year of not properly seeing each other.
To figure out what each one of our characters have been doing for the past year, we played a version of the 'hot seat'- game, where we asked questions from each other in character and improvised the answers. I found out that character Vera has been travelling in America after dropping out of university. During her travels, Vera has tried to find herself, but as she said during the game, 'the travelling hasn't taken her anywhere'. It seems that after returning to England, she has found herself in the same situation as before she left on her travels, a bit list and without meaning. Still, this doesn't seem to depress Vera too much, since she keeps doing things like work, rather than swimming in selfpity. What the travelling did do to her, was to make her question something in her previous way of life, like if her friends are so close to her anymore or is it time to move on?
To figure out what each one of our characters have been doing for the past year, we played a version of the 'hot seat'- game, where we asked questions from each other in character and improvised the answers. I found out that character Vera has been travelling in America after dropping out of university. During her travels, Vera has tried to find herself, but as she said during the game, 'the travelling hasn't taken her anywhere'. It seems that after returning to England, she has found herself in the same situation as before she left on her travels, a bit list and without meaning. Still, this doesn't seem to depress Vera too much, since she keeps doing things like work, rather than swimming in selfpity. What the travelling did do to her, was to make her question something in her previous way of life, like if her friends are so close to her anymore or is it time to move on?
8.11.2013
Describe status exercises. What did you learn?
In the status exercise we were first divided into pairs. Then, as we have done before, we were given a small scene to start experimenting status with. This time the scene was in a work setting, with 'Sir' the boss firing 'Smith' from their position, since the company doesn't allow people with criminal records to be employees. After asking for reconsideration, with lousy results, Smith leaves saying they didn't even want to work there in the first place. Me and my partner did the scene with different kind of statuses for our characters, first with Sir being higher status than Smith. I, playing Smiths part, tried to avoid eye contact in this senario to imply my nervouness around Sir, also hunching and keeping to myself a bit. After this we played around with different status combinations, like reversing Sirs and Smiths statuses, or just trying to one-up each other being both the same status. I found it actually easier playing Smith as higher status, because the last line "I didn't even want to work here in the first place" which, in my opinion, is quite a straight forward thing to say showing higher status rather than lower.
I thought it was also quite interesting to try out showing the room itself having higher status than the character Smith. I tried to do this by showing the uncertainty of my character to even enter the room without permission. Izzy and Lucy also showed an interesting way of doing the scene, in which you weren't really sure which one was higher or lower status. In the scene both of the characters seemed to be uncomfortable with this situation, Smith even breaking into tears, leaving Sir in a very difficult situation. It looked that the Sir might come out and just give Smith the position back, if Smith would have not stormed out before Sir had the chance to add anything. This really showed that lower status doesn't always mean submitting, but it can also be a way manipulation.
Describe and sum up the discussion we had in class.
We started our discussion with writing things on the board that were somehow connected to our theme, La Mer, the sea. Things like, romance, the moon, destruction, waves, and nostalgia were put up, but there was also some things that either directly related to each other or were somehow connected. These words on the board were escape, pilgramidge, wonderlust, (self)discovery, and change. There was also a lot about being trapped or isolated, and someone even drew a triangle representing the bermuda triangle. This really gave us a subject to discuss about and think, whether these repeated phrases could be major themes for our scenes. We started talking about the scenes setting on an isolated island somewhere on the sea, unknown to the outside world. A place that might not have the same perception of time than we do, giving us the possibility to have characters from different times at the same place together. All of the scenes might not have to be set on the island, but there could be scenes from the boat or the characters deciding to leave on a journey.
In the status exercise we were first divided into pairs. Then, as we have done before, we were given a small scene to start experimenting status with. This time the scene was in a work setting, with 'Sir' the boss firing 'Smith' from their position, since the company doesn't allow people with criminal records to be employees. After asking for reconsideration, with lousy results, Smith leaves saying they didn't even want to work there in the first place. Me and my partner did the scene with different kind of statuses for our characters, first with Sir being higher status than Smith. I, playing Smiths part, tried to avoid eye contact in this senario to imply my nervouness around Sir, also hunching and keeping to myself a bit. After this we played around with different status combinations, like reversing Sirs and Smiths statuses, or just trying to one-up each other being both the same status. I found it actually easier playing Smith as higher status, because the last line "I didn't even want to work here in the first place" which, in my opinion, is quite a straight forward thing to say showing higher status rather than lower.
I thought it was also quite interesting to try out showing the room itself having higher status than the character Smith. I tried to do this by showing the uncertainty of my character to even enter the room without permission. Izzy and Lucy also showed an interesting way of doing the scene, in which you weren't really sure which one was higher or lower status. In the scene both of the characters seemed to be uncomfortable with this situation, Smith even breaking into tears, leaving Sir in a very difficult situation. It looked that the Sir might come out and just give Smith the position back, if Smith would have not stormed out before Sir had the chance to add anything. This really showed that lower status doesn't always mean submitting, but it can also be a way manipulation.
Describe and sum up the discussion we had in class.
We started our discussion with writing things on the board that were somehow connected to our theme, La Mer, the sea. Things like, romance, the moon, destruction, waves, and nostalgia were put up, but there was also some things that either directly related to each other or were somehow connected. These words on the board were escape, pilgramidge, wonderlust, (self)discovery, and change. There was also a lot about being trapped or isolated, and someone even drew a triangle representing the bermuda triangle. This really gave us a subject to discuss about and think, whether these repeated phrases could be major themes for our scenes. We started talking about the scenes setting on an isolated island somewhere on the sea, unknown to the outside world. A place that might not have the same perception of time than we do, giving us the possibility to have characters from different times at the same place together. All of the scenes might not have to be set on the island, but there could be scenes from the boat or the characters deciding to leave on a journey.
26.10.2013
Describe the status exercise.
For this exercise we were split into pairs and each one labeled either A or B. We were also given a short dialogue with four lines we were ment to play around with. The idea was to first decide which one would play the higher status and which the lower status character and then try to convey this status difference with our body language, our way of speaking and pacing with the lines we were given. After trying it once or twice now the pair would either switch their statuses or try different pairings, like conversation with both being higher or lower status, even creating a bit of a competition which person from the pair did a better job at conveying their chosen status(which one at being higher/lower status).
What is 'status' for actors?
Status can mean many things to an actor. It can and should be a part of character deveplopment and play a part when creating relationships between characters in that specific projects. But status could also be something that separates actors from each other, wether it is how long you have been in the business or what sort of productions you have been in. A higher status actor might mean someone who is highly respected amogst other actors and people in the business, but it could also mean an actor works in big productions and might be a so called 'star'.
How can you use this in devising ?
You can use it to show dynamics between different characters. I think we used status in our last devised scene, where we used status to show the relationship between The Master and The Servants, by having the Servants be causeaus and rather apogoletic around the Master.
What have you discovered about your character?
My character, Vera, seem to be quite mysterious about herself. This was in a way known before, but I feel that she doesn't really like or want to talk about herself or anything that is too personal, but rather uses her 'deep and meaningful' stereotype as a shield of some kind. So, in other words, I think she is hiding something big about herself. I also discovered that even though she is very accepting and open to new things, in some areas Vera might not be able to bend that easily, and with the right(read: wrong) person at the right time, Vera could possibly get quite defensive about her views.
Vera seems to hold herself upright quite naturally and with her calm warming smile and slow paced walk she seems quite confident, but as soon as she stops, you see her feet pointing inwards, telling something about Veras self-image. Perhaps everything isn't so calm and happy in her head? Especially since after dropping out of uni from studying art history, Vera is probably having a bit of a crisis about what she wants to do with her life. Yes, she says she is going to travel and explore the world, but is it really what she wants?
What other characters could your character know? How?
There was rather many characters that Vera could know. For example Hope, Bellas character, who studies graphic design. Since Vera studied art history in uni for a while, I felt that these two characters might have met in uni in the same artistic circles. They both also seem very laid back kind of people.This is how Vera might have met Jennys character Leila as well, since she is a art student at uni. Both Leila and Hope are very happy and out going characters who Vera could easily be friends with. I also found Max's character Craig to be somehow similar to Vera, since they are both interested in art and other creative medias. Craig as a person still somehow contrasts Vera in certain ways, like Vera is very calm and hesitates before saying anything, and Craig on the otherhand is more unshameful with his words but also gives a restless view of himself. I can see Vera being very attracted to this sort of contrast, since she is all about exploring new things and personalities, as if people would be collectable items. And you know Vera wants her collection of interesting people to be as big and complex as possible.
For this exercise we were split into pairs and each one labeled either A or B. We were also given a short dialogue with four lines we were ment to play around with. The idea was to first decide which one would play the higher status and which the lower status character and then try to convey this status difference with our body language, our way of speaking and pacing with the lines we were given. After trying it once or twice now the pair would either switch their statuses or try different pairings, like conversation with both being higher or lower status, even creating a bit of a competition which person from the pair did a better job at conveying their chosen status(which one at being higher/lower status).
What is 'status' for actors?
Status can mean many things to an actor. It can and should be a part of character deveplopment and play a part when creating relationships between characters in that specific projects. But status could also be something that separates actors from each other, wether it is how long you have been in the business or what sort of productions you have been in. A higher status actor might mean someone who is highly respected amogst other actors and people in the business, but it could also mean an actor works in big productions and might be a so called 'star'.
How can you use this in devising ?
You can use it to show dynamics between different characters. I think we used status in our last devised scene, where we used status to show the relationship between The Master and The Servants, by having the Servants be causeaus and rather apogoletic around the Master.
What have you discovered about your character?
My character, Vera, seem to be quite mysterious about herself. This was in a way known before, but I feel that she doesn't really like or want to talk about herself or anything that is too personal, but rather uses her 'deep and meaningful' stereotype as a shield of some kind. So, in other words, I think she is hiding something big about herself. I also discovered that even though she is very accepting and open to new things, in some areas Vera might not be able to bend that easily, and with the right(read: wrong) person at the right time, Vera could possibly get quite defensive about her views.
Vera seems to hold herself upright quite naturally and with her calm warming smile and slow paced walk she seems quite confident, but as soon as she stops, you see her feet pointing inwards, telling something about Veras self-image. Perhaps everything isn't so calm and happy in her head? Especially since after dropping out of uni from studying art history, Vera is probably having a bit of a crisis about what she wants to do with her life. Yes, she says she is going to travel and explore the world, but is it really what she wants?
What other characters could your character know? How?
There was rather many characters that Vera could know. For example Hope, Bellas character, who studies graphic design. Since Vera studied art history in uni for a while, I felt that these two characters might have met in uni in the same artistic circles. They both also seem very laid back kind of people.This is how Vera might have met Jennys character Leila as well, since she is a art student at uni. Both Leila and Hope are very happy and out going characters who Vera could easily be friends with. I also found Max's character Craig to be somehow similar to Vera, since they are both interested in art and other creative medias. Craig as a person still somehow contrasts Vera in certain ways, like Vera is very calm and hesitates before saying anything, and Craig on the otherhand is more unshameful with his words but also gives a restless view of himself. I can see Vera being very attracted to this sort of contrast, since she is all about exploring new things and personalities, as if people would be collectable items. And you know Vera wants her collection of interesting people to be as big and complex as possible.
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