Today we focused on our character superobjectives and objectives and how to bring them out. My character's superobjective: to study the plants.
For the first exercise we had to walk around the space doing a phycological gesture which is a gesture that shows our objective whilst speaking out our objective. I can't say I got much out of this exercise because it didn't help me discover much. I already knew my objective and that exercise wasn't showing me anything new.
We focused on the physical centre next which is the point of the body through which the energy comes from and through which they lead. My character leads from the chin because even though he's not a high-ranking officer, he still feels superior amongst the convicts and has a decent amount of self-respect. This also makes me walk slower and look more manly if I use the chest too.
This lesson helped in some instances but not so much in others. This is character development I could have done in rehearsals or in my own time. I need to do more research into my character before this would be of any help to me.
Thursday, 31 October 2013
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Lesson
This lesson we looked at the techniques used by Michael Chekhov whoo is the nephew of Anton Chekhov.
He was born 28 years after Stanislavsky and was unfortunately caught up in the Russian Revolution whilst he was creating theatre. Stalin didn't like what Chekhov was doing and what his theatre stood for so he was banished from Russia and went to live in America. There he trained many famous Hollywood actors.
He wrote a book called To The Actor in 1953 which explained all of his teaching and methods of acting. He emphasized a lot on movement and imagination because he looked at the difference between the actor and the character they were playing. In most cases, there were big differences and Michael believed you shouldn't try to become the character but pretend to be them instead. Imagine you're them "You don't have to use your emotional memory, you can imagine".
He believed that actors should understand the composition and be concerned about the whole play like a director and not just immerse themselves in their character. Actors should also be able to build atmosphere and bring out their higher ego.
This lesson we looked at our own mannerisms and ways of existing in a space and then becoming our characters then assessing how big of a difference there is between us. The differences between my character and I are:
He was born 28 years after Stanislavsky and was unfortunately caught up in the Russian Revolution whilst he was creating theatre. Stalin didn't like what Chekhov was doing and what his theatre stood for so he was banished from Russia and went to live in America. There he trained many famous Hollywood actors.
He wrote a book called To The Actor in 1953 which explained all of his teaching and methods of acting. He emphasized a lot on movement and imagination because he looked at the difference between the actor and the character they were playing. In most cases, there were big differences and Michael believed you shouldn't try to become the character but pretend to be them instead. Imagine you're them "You don't have to use your emotional memory, you can imagine".
He believed that actors should understand the composition and be concerned about the whole play like a director and not just immerse themselves in their character. Actors should also be able to build atmosphere and bring out their higher ego.
This lesson we looked at our own mannerisms and ways of existing in a space and then becoming our characters then assessing how big of a difference there is between us. The differences between my character and I are:
- I'm female, he is male. there are going to be differences is how I move and speak on stage
- I'm 17 and he's probably in his late 30s. Maturity and difference in age will have to be shown
- I have no army training at all, he does.
- I'm in 21st century Britain, he's in 18th century Australia. There will be very big differences in dressing, speech, movement, interaction with other characters, etc.
Thursday, 24 October 2013
Lesson
This lesson again focused on Mike Alfreds and improvisation however they weren't as gamey as before.
This day the class was split into halves. The first half went and their task was to do something for someone with an objective behind it such as to surprise them, to prove they can keep a promise or to get their own back on someone. Most people did their task as a favour or as a chore and they were things like making scrapbooks, folding clothes, etc. Caroline started to change things such as the weather, whether they were inside or outside, and where they were. From watching other people I noticed that when they started their tasks, they were casual about it and got on with it but the things that were changed worked for only some people. For others it made no sense.
From my experience, It did start to become at bit abnormal. I was washing dishes and all of a sudden I was washing the dishes outside in the scorching heat but I was using a sink. I think if things were changed on our individual situations, it would have been better.
We also did another exercise where we worked in pairs with a shared objective but no speech. My partner was Harrison and we were putting together our new ikea bed. We were given different points of concentration and these would be the weather and how it affected our situation, a shared point of concentration such as we just had an argument, a private point of concentration given to one of the partners such as trying to seduce the other and once the exercise was done (if you did it in front of the class), everyone else had to guess your point of concentration.
I liked these exercises as they helped us with our improvisation skills and this time we were able to settle into our idea and expand it slowly. We were introduced to the ideas one by one and we were given time to adjust to them unlike before. with the second exercise I preferred it to the one from the last lesson because I got to build a relationship with my partner and think about what would be surrounding us, where we were, etc. The first exercise was beneficial because we could look at how normal tasks would be undertaken in different circumstances and this can help in the future when facing plays that play around with mundane tasks.
This day the class was split into halves. The first half went and their task was to do something for someone with an objective behind it such as to surprise them, to prove they can keep a promise or to get their own back on someone. Most people did their task as a favour or as a chore and they were things like making scrapbooks, folding clothes, etc. Caroline started to change things such as the weather, whether they were inside or outside, and where they were. From watching other people I noticed that when they started their tasks, they were casual about it and got on with it but the things that were changed worked for only some people. For others it made no sense.
From my experience, It did start to become at bit abnormal. I was washing dishes and all of a sudden I was washing the dishes outside in the scorching heat but I was using a sink. I think if things were changed on our individual situations, it would have been better.
We also did another exercise where we worked in pairs with a shared objective but no speech. My partner was Harrison and we were putting together our new ikea bed. We were given different points of concentration and these would be the weather and how it affected our situation, a shared point of concentration such as we just had an argument, a private point of concentration given to one of the partners such as trying to seduce the other and once the exercise was done (if you did it in front of the class), everyone else had to guess your point of concentration.
I liked these exercises as they helped us with our improvisation skills and this time we were able to settle into our idea and expand it slowly. We were introduced to the ideas one by one and we were given time to adjust to them unlike before. with the second exercise I preferred it to the one from the last lesson because I got to build a relationship with my partner and think about what would be surrounding us, where we were, etc. The first exercise was beneficial because we could look at how normal tasks would be undertaken in different circumstances and this can help in the future when facing plays that play around with mundane tasks.
Saturday, 19 October 2013
Lesson
For this lesson, we used the exercises of a theatre practitioner, Michael Alfreds. Here are some of the exercises we did:
Impro Tag
We got into partners for this and this was an improvisation exercise. The rules were that each time Caroline (our teacher) clapped, we had to change the circumstance, characters and relationship. I was working with Sophie and the clapping was very frequent so once we got into a scene, we immediately had to change it. This wasn't very helpful because we didn't get to build anything and play around with what we had because at times we had something very interesting to work with. This exercise is good if you want to think on the spot and see how well you can come up with new situations and keep the energy up.
Given Circumstances
We got into new pairs and labelled ourselves A and B. A stayed in the room and B went outside. A had to think of a scenario and when B walked in, the improvisation started and A would immediately begin and B had to pick up on it and cooperate until the exercise was over. I was working with Cassie and I was a police officer questioning her about a murder that took place in her office building whilst there was nobody else in the building but her. I think the exercise was beneficial and slightly enjoyable because we got to play along with that and with improvisations you can't say "no" to what people are offering you, you have to go along with it and you can end up anywhere.
These two exercises would be useful in helping me find my character because if we did these improvisations but as our characters in situations that had nothing to do with Our Country's Good, we would find out more about our characters and how they react in different situations.
Impro Tag
We got into partners for this and this was an improvisation exercise. The rules were that each time Caroline (our teacher) clapped, we had to change the circumstance, characters and relationship. I was working with Sophie and the clapping was very frequent so once we got into a scene, we immediately had to change it. This wasn't very helpful because we didn't get to build anything and play around with what we had because at times we had something very interesting to work with. This exercise is good if you want to think on the spot and see how well you can come up with new situations and keep the energy up.
Given Circumstances
We got into new pairs and labelled ourselves A and B. A stayed in the room and B went outside. A had to think of a scenario and when B walked in, the improvisation started and A would immediately begin and B had to pick up on it and cooperate until the exercise was over. I was working with Cassie and I was a police officer questioning her about a murder that took place in her office building whilst there was nobody else in the building but her. I think the exercise was beneficial and slightly enjoyable because we got to play along with that and with improvisations you can't say "no" to what people are offering you, you have to go along with it and you can end up anywhere.
These two exercises would be useful in helping me find my character because if we did these improvisations but as our characters in situations that had nothing to do with Our Country's Good, we would find out more about our characters and how they react in different situations.
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