September  25th 2013

Establishing Setting, Time, Props and Opportunities

Here is an example of how we broke down the scenes. We were put into groups and given and act each, my group had acts 4 and 5. We looked at the stage directions and from this determined the time of day, the props that may be required e.g An ipad.  The destination is key as the set will have to be representative of something literal and be effective in regard to the given circumstances. The idea of exploring opportunities is about making offers, I think for our director this is really helpful as ideas popped up that no one had thought of as well as being good offers. 

October 1st  2013

1, 2, 3 Exercise 

The space was set up as what is at the moment the configuration of out final set. The performance is on three sides therefore this exercise was great at teaching us how to play three sides, physically and vocally. 

How Does it work?

1. in partners we counted to three me starting with one jesse then with two and so on...
2. concentrating on connecting our breath and listening.
3. walk around the space doing this. Working the audience on three sides.
4. two members of the group (Josh and Sacha) left in the space a the rest of the group stood on three sides.
5. The pair carried on with the exercise, putting tone behind the numbers tested if they were listening to one another. Furthermore they had to work hard to satisfy the audience. As outsiders we as audience were asked to raise our hand if we felt we weren’t satisfied with the amount of action we were seeing and hearing. 
6. Finally the 1s 2s and 3s were replaced with the lines ‘tell me’ ‘no’. 

Sacha and Josh worked the exercise so that they had a connection. There was something real about the relationship that had formed in the space because they we listening and responding on instinct. The use of space is something that will need a lot more work as  everyone who was in the space found this a challenge. In my opinion keeping the audiences focus throughout the performance means keeping the visual state of play interesting and constantly changing and moving.

Scene Work:

Scene 2 - 

This Scene is in an airport, actors were given characters that will exist within those given circumstances. For example Jack and Nora are a couple waiting to get there car to be bought round. 

This scene is an introduction to the Harrison Family, I think that the visual opportunities for this scene will be really engaging for the audience because of the interesting way in which it will be staged. There will be projection in order to make a plain object something to do with what is in the scene. 

This scene was run, everyone watched as it was then put into a Meisner repetition exercise. I have never seen this done on a scene before and without sounding like an idiot it really showed me how brilliantly the technique works. It make actors live in the moment. 

'Britain's ugly.' 

'Britain's ugly.' 

'Britain's ugly.' 

After the watchign the scene again without the repetition, it seemed as though the actors were listening to one another more. Especially Gavin who is simply listening through out the whole scene. He became a more active body on stage. 

In conclusion I think this rehearsal gave me a really good insight into the Meisner repetition exercise, I haven't quite grasped it myself but im really looking forward to working on it in my scenes. 

Read Through 

Having found out our role the company came together today for our first read through. This was really exciting as we got to see the plays story unravel  for the first time. We looked at what makes a good ready through and all came to the conclusion that using as much energy as possible would be vital in order to keep the energy up and sustain focus. Despite us identifying this it was hard towards the end to stay completely focused. Furthermore the idea of not tripping over words and trying ready as fluently as possible was a challenge for me as I'm not great at sight reading. 

Initial character response

My character is Stephanie Crossley. She was originally written as a male part but it has been altered and I think that this adds something to the character. However this is a huge challenge for me as the character is an atheist academic challenging society's  opinions on religion and most prominently the West involvement in  Iran and the Nuclear crisis which occurs within the play. I want to do this rolejustice and portray a strong intelligent woman with everything to loose. 

Actors Process

Below is a picture of my process and the order in which I approach my involvement in creating work as an actor. I'm pleased Will asked us to do this because it can be tweaked and improved but its the first time I have actually fully recognised my method and I now feel more confident about building such a challenging character.


Here is my revisited actors process:

It is now February and I have looked back over my process added and refined things. This is really important to me because its what I am now going to use in every piece of work I do. Of course it will develop over time and change as I learn new things. 

1.

 Learn lines. List you given circumstances these are split into facts and opinions from 'what you say about yourself' and 'what others say about you'. Opinions allow you to make assumptions about your character.

2. 

Research:

-Books.

-Internet.

-Videos.

-Speeches.

-Articles.

-Interview real people.

3.

 Working out your objectives- FIRST ASSUMPTIONS- your objectives will change throughout the rehearsal process as some will not be able to respond to what another actor is offering you or what you have offered them. So these are just some preliminary objectives. The text rides on the action so you must play physical objectives.

4.

 Tactics- how you character achieves their objectives.

5.

 Metaphor- something that resonates with you and your character, almost like a super-objective.

6.

 Approaching the script- actioning. Every thought change is an objective change. Who are you? Where are you? Where have you been? what is the current situation? 

7.

 Live in the world of the play.

8.

 Text de-familiarisation exercises:

- Laban efforts.

- Changing direction with changing thought.

- Speed runs

- Connecting and disconnecting (line proxemics)

- Meisner repetition- this helps find the backbone to a scene.

- Saying the characters thought in a scene.

9.

 Preparing for rehearsal:

- Pre-look at script and think of ideas for a new scene- MAKE OFFERS.

- Put your energy into the other person- actors make offers.

- Act like you have something to lose- we are always in a state of flux, CARE.

10.

 Rigourous warm up:

- Voice.

- Breathing.

- Body - Intense physical 

- Emotions.

11.

 Emmerse yourself in the character. DON'T look at other versions of the character.

12.

 Have an opinion of the people in your scene or the object you come across.

13.

 Play with every way of doing something.