My characters

In my first scene I played Viola/Cesario. I found it incredibly hard to embody her/him, because obviously she's a female acting as a man. 

However, after a few of our rehearsals, Yunusa was giving me lessons of how men walk and talk. We'd spend approximately 20-30 minutes most days thinking of different ways for me to act this character. 

The first difficulty we tackled was the way I would talk when I'm talking about "the Count". I thought it would be a good idea if Cesario broke the masculinity for a second or two when she is talking to Valentine as she says "I thank you, here comes the Count", I thought that would be a good touch to the scene because it's showing that Cesario cares for the Count, and that she swoons everytime she initially sees him. It worked really well in our scene because it gave Valentine something to react too and get suspicious about. The count obviously doesn't here her say this, because his next line is "who saw Cesario, huh?".

At the end of the scene after Orsino has asked me to go and announce his love for Olivia, I go off to stage right and say to the audience "yet a bareful strife. Who'er I woo, myself I would be his wife." 

When I say this I'm just viola, not Cesario and in this line, I can really show how hurt I am and show how much I love him, it shows I love him so much I'd do anything for him to be happy, despite how much it hurts and upsets me. 

The next difficulty we tackled was how I was going to walk and stand as a woman being a man. It turned out it wasn't too hard when I got into it, because Yunusa gave me the idea of mimicking the way he walks and stands, so the scene could be slightly comical for the audience to watch.

So, I was analysed how Yunusa walk and turned the way he walked into my character's walk, with a little bit of femininity in it, and everytime Orsino would put his hands on my shoulder I would really react to it by moving backwards slightly and looking out to the audience with a embarrassed, yet excited look on my face. 

I felt that by doing all of these things it really helped me unravle my characters characteristics and sweetness. 

However, in the middle section of my scene, when Orsino is telling me to "unravel a passion of my love" I am trying to convince him that Olivia will not "admit me", so I believe in this part of the scene I'm being a bit sassy and rebellious towards Orsino, attempting to convince him that it'll never work and it's pointless in me trying to get Olivia to fall in love with him. But in the end I give up because I just want Orsino to be happy with me and want him to be happily in love no matter what. 

In my second scene I played Sebastian, I had so much difficulty being Sebastian because I had to portray a man, who is crazy in love-(or lust?) with Olivia and I see my sister who I thought had died and I see my best friend who is under arrest. So I found it so hard to show all of the different emotions he would have been feeling at that very moment in time. 

27/1/15

Once again we were working on our scenes, Harry was working in his other group again so it was just Yunusa and I. Today we were going over and over our scene, we knew all of our lines so we could just go for it. We started moving around the space pretending we were looking at Orsino's amazing paintings in his living area while we were speaking to one another. 

I think next time we really need to start having more fun with our character's and their relationship. Because at the moment I just feel like the scene is very flat and not that interesting, when actually it's a very good scene because it's showing Viola would do anything for Orsino to be happily in love even though she loves him. I feel like I need to show that more in the scene.  

My aim for next lesson is to really focus on Violas characteristics and show her emotions more through her body and the way she speaks. 

25/1/15

Before we could go off into our scenes we had to say what we want to achieve within that scene. What I wanted to achieve was to be off script and be able to body my character and show that I am being a woman but trying to act like a man.

Harry was working with his other group, however it wasn't to bad as it is mainly Yunusa and myself in the scene. Brilliantly Yunusa and I were both pretty much off script and we were going over our lines and figuring out what we'd both be doing. For me, I found it really hard to walk as my character because I'm not a man, obviously, however what I did to overcome this is I watched how Yunusa was walking and I used that as a starting point.

When Siou came and watched us, she said to me to au the game of staying away from Yunusa and for Yunusa to play the game of trying to stay close to me. This was really funny and great to do. I enjoyed because it made it seem as my character Viola wasn't interested in the Duke and the Duke was interested in Viola, when it's the other way around. 

23/1/15

In today's lesson,  we had to bring in one of our blogs we have done and then get into pairs and analyse them, aka check for spelling mistakes, punctuation, and self assessment! 

I thought this was a great way for us all to realise what we need to improve on in our blogs because we could take the constructive criticism to work on and also take bits from our partners blog that was good. 

After the exercise, we went off into our groups and started on our scenes. The aim for the lesson wasn't to block them,  it was to have fun with them and play games with them, so we were more creative and had fun! 

Unfortunately, Yunusa wasn't here, but Harry and I worked on our bit together in the scene. I couldn't do much moving about due to intense back pain and not being able to walk very well. 

However, what Harry and I did was really cool. I was standing straight, awkwardly as Viola while Harry's character, Valentine would be jumping around me and getting right up into my ear when he was saying how the Duke has only known me for 3 days and how we already know each other really well. 

Next time I would love it if my back wasn't acting up, so I'd be able to join in with the moving about more and at around with the scene more!!

Actors in Shakespeare's time

In Shakespeare's life time, acting changed dramatically.

Actors would travel round the country in small towns, cities and in private homes, how by the time Shakespeare died, London had several theatre for the actors to perform in and they would bring "huge" audiences with them. 

Back then, actors also had a "bad reputation". They were seen as "unruly" and a "threat to peaceful society". 

Men playing woman parts:

Back in Shakespearean times, only men and boys were allowed to perform in England, despite there being a lot of female parts in Shakespeare's plays. Even though in other countries in Europe woman were allowed to be in theatre, in England this was not allowed until the 1660s. So due to the lack of female casting, the young boys would take on the parts of playing the females characters.

Actor's training:

As of today there's a lot of training in acting such as; 

Drama clubs,

College, 

And drama schools, and a lot of techniques to know and admire, back in Shakespeare's time the training was a lot less. What happened was when men/young boys would join a theatre company,-(generally young boys), they would join as an apprentice and the senior actors would show them what to do. Yes, it is still a type of training, however, it wasn't as intense as it is now, I wouldn't think. 

"An average day for an actor"

Then, actors would have to perform midday/afternoon as they had to rely on the natural light, so they would spend all morning rehearsing from an early hour and then perform it that afternoon.

Actors wouldn't really have that much time to rehearse on one show either, as they were also working on other shows they're performing the next day etc. 

How actors learnt their part:

Back then they weren't given the whole script, they were only given the pages with their lines and their cue lines. There was only 1 full version of the script, that belonged to the director. You can see because of this, it made it very hard for the actors to understand why their characters are feeling how they are as they didn't know the full show!!

The Tempest by Robert W Smith

And Today we listened to a piece of music that we are going to use in the beginning of our performance for the storm. It was called "The Tempest" by Robert W Smith. After listening to it, we had to write one word/phrase or even draw a picture of how we felt or what we thought about the piece of music. 

For me, this piece of music made me very tense because even though I liked it, it was also quite chaotic and you didn't know when then bangs were going to happen. There's a part of the song where it sounds quite magical and sweet and it reminds me of fairies flying around. 

I think this piece of music is fantastic for the storm, because like I said, it's quite chaotic and it has calm moments, which is what a storm is like. Unpredictable. 

We then had to create a rain ritual-(Antonin Araud technique). We were separated into groups and we had to create this in 10 minutes. In my group we decided to have the eye of the storm in the middle of the rest of us circling around the three people. While the eye of the storm was staying calm and humming and whistling, the rest of us were using different levels and making different noise. We did this because we wanted it to be unpredictable and chaotic. At the end of the ritual we all throw ourselves to the floor and I had to let out a loud scream for the end of the storm. 

In lesson I felt like I was very focussed and determined to do the work, however, when we were put into groups mine was incredibly unsure on what and how to start the piece. We tried out a few things, and came up with it through improvisation. I feel that even though that's a great way to come up with work, maybe we could have organised it better and I think for next time I should speak up and share my ideas more.

Stanislavski

I wasn't here for this lesson, however, my classmates told me that we were focussing on Stanislavski. Which is great!- because we've looked at a lot of his techniques in the past for our previous shows, such as "La Mer" and "Dracula"! 

What they had to do, was start off the lesson by writing down a list of things that they could remember about Stanislavski. 

Such as; 

- His system of naturalistic acting

- Father of modern theatre 

- He was always trying new things out to try and perfect an actor/actress's craft

- Pretty much nearly all other practitioners used him as a starting point

Key factors Stanislavski identified as important for acting: 

- Imaginative 

- High level of concentration- focussed

- Relaxed

- Complete control over body and voice

3 problematic things for an actor/actress:

- Being self-conscious!

- Finding it hard to believe in the lie

- Staying fresh on a run

ALL ACTION MUST HAVE A PURPOSE. 

THE MAGIC "IF" 

Today we started looking at ways to approach Shakespeare's way of writing. Siou mentioned the rhythm of his writing and said how it had a slight beat to it. When Siou said this, it helped me with how to say it and it stopped me from saying the words too quickly or too slowly. 

The exercise is called "tap-rhythm". We were given a piece from Romeo and Juliet, and we would count the beats, and when we counted five we would either tap on the floor or skip, as we said this line. This really helped me, as I said before, it gave me a great idea of how fast/slow I should be saying the line. 

We also played a game with the Romeo and Juliet speech, we had one person reading the speech and while they're doing that the rest of the class would be around them getting really close and pushing them slightly trying to put the person reading off. However, the person reading had the responsibility to continue reading and trying to get the rest of the classes attention. 

When we did this, I was only ever the person pushing, I never got to read. However I did observe the people who did read. When we first started pushing them about the people who were readings response was initially laughter, which to me showed that they were feeling incredibly outnumbered and maybe even intimidated. After a while of them still reading and is still pushing, I think they might have started to get really agitated by us, which is understandable.

When I was pushing them about with the rest of the class, I felt quite mean doing it and thought to myself "I would not like to be in their position right now", it felt like I was hanging up on them and o felt like a bully! I could hear what they were saying properly because their breathe kept goingn from getting shoved about.

Why is it important to warm your voice up? 

. You are able to speak louder and clearer without any stain in your throat.

. You can have a wider range pitch.

. You have more consistency with your voice.

What are the 3 areas in vocal warm up? 

. Breathe

. Posture

. Tension release

Starting Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"

Today we started Shakespeare! I'm really excited to do this because I absutely love the Shakespean language! However, as much as I love it, I have a feeling I'm going to have great difficulty learning the lines because the language, I find can be quite confusing and at times, hard to understand. So what I'm going to do to help prevent such difficulty learning the lines is read though them over and over and over again, and also not be afraid to ask for help from another student/teacher if I don't understand what a word or a phrase means or I will look up the meanings!

We found out that we are doing Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. I don't know too much about the storyline, all I know is that it is a comedy play. 

I also know that we are going to see a show of Twelfth Night, which I'm really forward too, because we get to find out what it's about, and we can see how professional actors interpret the different characters and see what we can use in our show! 

We did some exercises to get us to understand Shakespeare. Siou gave us some lines to say from Midsummer Nights Dream, the characters were Demitrius and Helena. 

We were put into pairs and we had to give ourselves a character to be, and when Siou said we had to swap characters. 

The lines were; 

Demitrius: "I love thee not, therefore persue me not."

Helena: "You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant"

When we said the lines, we got to play games with it, such as something playing the game to avoid contact and the other playing the game to get eye contact. I found this really interesting! Because just from using or not using eye contact, it can change a whole meaning of a sentence! For instance, when I was saying Demitrius' line, and I was trying to get Sophie's eye contact, it was a lot more intimate and made was I was saying a lot nicer and honest, however when I said the same line but I was trying to avoid eye contact, I felt like I was guilty or lying about something to Helena. 

Today we also worked on moulding our partners bodies to match the emotion giving to us. We were given the emotion unrequited love. I thought this was brilliant as I had found out that Twelfth Night is about unrequited love, so it got us to think about how people allow that emotion to take over their body physically.

One of my characters;

Viola;

For me, Viola is an extremely likeable character, and a great female lead! 

She acts as Cesario for the majority of the play, however, a lot of her personality shines through, such as her deep love for Orsino. Also, she's a very selfless character, because when Orsino sends her away to announce his love for Olivier, she does it because she just wants him to be happy.

Viola's love in the play is also the most true, because 
"Orsino jumps from Olivia to Viola, Olivia jumps from Viola to Sebastian, and Sir Toby and Maria’s marriage seems more a matter of whim than an expression of deep and abiding passion"

Themes; 

The main themes are unrequited love, massively! Because Viola is in love for Orsino, who is in love with Olivia who is in love with Cesario-(Viola). So there are lots of people all in love, but in love with different people. However, using the word "love", I also think that there lust is a theme too. Because when Olivia and Cesario meet for the first time, Olivia is swooned by him/her, before she even knows him/her! So because of that I think she just found them extremely sexually attractive and got obsessed with Cesario because of that.

Two types of tension:

1) built up over the course of our lives

2) from circumstances we are in

An actor needs a "free body" from tension that can be used to create + experience a role-(character)

Tension; 10 cate tension

. Sub-conscious- watch yourself

. Relax

. Free imagination

Think about YOU when it come to tension and what you need to do to be relaxed in order to use your imagination. What do you do as an actor to do this? How do you prepare for a show? Breathing? Lay down? Move about? How do you prepare yourself?? Vocally? 

Before a show, for instance I tend to just sit myself down in a corner and work on my breathing and going through my lines in my head. I do this to block everything out around me and it brings me into a more focussed environment where I can just be my character. 

I usually hold a lot of tension in my arms and shoulders so sometimes I'll also do some shoulder role exercises and shake my arms out to release the tension. 

Research!

Assessment Week Work	Date Set: Monday 8th December
UAL Level 3 Performing & Production Arts	Due in: Friday 12th December 5pm Email to suh@ccb.ac.uk And ah3@ccb.ac.uk
Shakespeare Research – Twelfth Night
The hyperlinks will give you a first source for the answers to the questions.
When was Twelfth Night written? What else was happening around this time? Who was in power in England? What do you know about this ruler?
Twelfth Night was written in 1601 and then wasn't performed until 1602 in February. Elizabeth I was on the throne in 1601 to 1603.  In the year 1601, plenty of things happened, such as the first performance of Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. In 1594, there was a war until 1603.It involved the Gaelic Irish chieftains; Hugh O'Neill and the English ruler in Ireland. The war took place in both Ireland and Ulster, but mainly Ulster.  Elizabeth l left the thrown in November, as she was passing it down to Charles l.
What is the alternative title of the play? Why does it have two titles?
The two names are; "Twelfth Night" and "Twelth Night Or What You Will". "Twelfth Night" means 12 days are Christmas, when the Christmas period has ended. "Twelfth Night Or What You Will"-(the actual name of the play) is what people believe in Shakespeare times and modern day.
What are the main themes of the play?
The main themes are unrequited love, massively! Because Viola is in love for Orsino, who is in love with Olivia who is in love with Cesario-(Viola). So there are lots of people all in love, but in love with different people. However, using the word "love", I also think that there lust is a theme too. Because when Olivia and Cesario meet for the first time, Olivia is swooned by him/her, before she even knows him/her! So because of that I think she just found them extremely sexually attractive and got obsessed with Cesario because of that.
What are the main differences & similarities between Shakespeare’s Tragedies and Comedies?
The main difference between a tragedy and a comedy is obviously, tragedies are more intense and maybe even upsetting to watch and usually comedies are more lighthearted, funny and fun to watch. A similarity could be love. Because we all relate to love in one way or another. Like in Shakespeare's very well-known play "Romeo and Juliet"-(tragedy) they are two lovers who both die at the end and in "Twelfth Night"-(comedy) Viola and Orsino get together (along with all the other characters who get together too) and live a happy life.
Name one of the characters in the play and write short character profile.
Viola; For me, Viola is an extremely likeable character, and a great female lead!  She acts as Cesario for the majority of the play, however, a lot of her personality shines through, such as her deep love for Orsino. Also, she's a very selfless character, because when Orsino sends her away to announce his love for Olivier, she does it because she just wants him to be happy. Viola's love in the play is also the most true, because "Orsino jumps from Olivia to Viola, Olivia jumps from Viola to Sebastian, and Sir Toby and Maria’s marriage seems more a matter of whim than an expression of deep and abiding passion"
Malvolio is described as a “Puritan” by Sir Toby Belch– who and what is a puritan?
"A member of a group of English Protestants of the late 16th and 17th centuries who regarded the Reformation of the Church under Elizabeth I as incomplete and sought to simplify and regulate forms of worship."                                  .
Shakespeare introduced more than 1700 common words to the English Language. Name 5 of them.
Shakespeare made up some of the most popular words we use today. Here are some of them;  ·         Eyeball ·         Elbow  ·         Unreal ·         Disheartened            Eventful

06/01/2015

Two types of tension:

1) built up over the course of our lives

2) from circumstances we are in

An actor needs a "free body" from tension that can be used to create + experience a role-(character)

Tension; 10 cate tension

. Sub-conscious- watch yourself

. Relax

. Free imagination

Think about YOU when it come to tension and what you need to do to be relaxed in order to use your imagination. What do you do as an actor to do this? How do you prepare for a show? Breathing? Lay down? Move about? How do you prepare yourself?? Vocally? 

Before a show, for instance I tend to just sit myself down in a corner and work on my breathing and going through my lines in my head. I do this to block everything out around me and it brings me into a more focussed environment where I can just be my character. 

I usually hold a lot of tension in my arms and shoulders so sometimes I'll also do some shoulder role exercises and shake my arms out to release the tension.