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.