LESSON THREE. 26|09|12. - ‘To Be or Not To Be…’

He gave us the famous ‘To Be or Not To Be’ speech from ‘Hamlet’ and we went through each sentence, or a couple at a time, and deciphered them and then created freeze frames each time which showed Mr Chipp that we were understanding the language and what he was trying to say. He then told us, that with using the speech, to use a few lines and incorporate them with the movement we created to add a vocal element to the piece. We made sure that the lines we were saying had a relevance or flowed well. My lines were ‘Or to take arms against a sea of troubles’ which I spoke whilst pulling Matt’s arm back from a threatening position, and then ‘for in the sleep of death what dreams may come’ whilst I cling onto Matt as he’s been pushed away by Hamlet. This added a different affect onto the piece which would of helped explained to the audience what our movement was actually showing in more detail. 

Remembering the lines were harder than we though as they are not the same kind of language that we use today. He made us sit spread out, repeat our lines to ourself, then walk around and say them in different volumes, paces, this helped us learn them and say them on demand without any issue. 

We now have a task of memorizing the entire speech and performing it as a monologue. 

LESSON THREE. 26|09|12. - ‘Hamlet’

We started off talking about how in the GCSE classes we’ve been helping out in have been looking at Hamlet by Shakespeare and how Hamlet has to make a choice between living of the thought of his uncle murdering his father, and then avenging his father and killing his uncle. But there were lots of other factors such as Ophelia, his mother, his mental state (seeing spirits etc). 

We had to create a piece of movement that showed a Hamlet, and all the contributing factors as we moved from one end of the room to the other. A ‘gobo’ of a window projected onto the wall, and on one side there was was a lighter lit side to show him not killing his uncle, and the on the other red lit side to show his more demonic thoughts. We were told to move round one after the other, we always had to have some sort of contact when we reached our next froze position and we had to include two lifts. We all took on a character anonymously accept for Hamlet, who was Jake. I decided to be the mother. So I was scared as I loved the uncle (Matt) and I didn’t want him to be harmed. We did all of this at a medium pace and was all silence with music in the background. Then, we were told to recreate it at a quick pace, keeping all the same rules, contact and one after another. I will attach a video of a run through of this piece. Here are some pictures  some of the freeze frames. 

Here, I am pushing Jake (Hamlet) away from Matt (Uncle). Chris and Emily demonstrating one of the lifts and Kelly and Ciara being spirits that are telling Hamlet to go through with it. 

I really like Matt’s face on the one above, because it shows how as Hamlet is getting close to the red lit side, the uncle is becoming more afraid. I also like Kelly’s because it’s so focused and the position shows the fluidity of the performance.

 

I love the shadows on the wall and this they create a good effort. This was the second lift, and I think we incorporated it really well by the way Hamlet is finally avenging his father by ‘overcoming’ his uncle. The way I’m forward facing the uncle shows how I was more on the uncles side than Hamlets.

LESSON THREE. 26|09|12. - ‘Status’ & ‘Teamwork’

We came in, and he told us to lay on the floor with all of our head touching, and then without talking stand ourselves up. We thought this would be easy but it wasn’t. It took us two tries. We turned ourselves over in canon and then went onto all four simultaneously. He then split us up into two groups to race against each other to see who could do it quicker. Which gained skill and taught me that with practice you learn the basic and then it becomes easier.  He then made it harder and said, stop when you get to your hands and knees, and then move to the wall at the far side of the wall. This just needed awareness of where everyone was and to collectively pick a speed. This was a lot of fun and helped the group work as a team. We also did some getting a person from one side to the other without touching the ground and I will be uploading some videos with footage of that. When we were doing this, we were lifting the person up, and he told the person who was being carried to remain in a state of power and the rest to seem admiring. This was incredibly hard because you were trying to focus on keeping him safe more than your character so getting a balance was hard. 

LESSON TWO. 19|09|2012. - ‘Subtext’

Act I Scene 1

(A room painted yellow)

 BRIDEGROOM: (entering) Mother.

 MOTHER: What?

 BRIDEGROOM:I’m off.

 MOTHER: Where to?

 BRIDEGROOM:To the vineyard (He makes as if to leave)

 MOTHER: Wait.

 BRIDEGROOM:Do you want something?

 MOTHER: Son, your food.

 BRIDEGROOM:Leave it. I’ll eat grapes. Give me the knife.

 MOTHER: What for?

 BRIDEGROOM:To cut them

 MOTHER: (muttering) The knife… The knife.. Damn all of them and the scoundrel who invented them.

  BRIDEGROOM: Let’s change the subject.

 MOTHER: And shotguns, and pistols, even the tiniest knife… and mattocks and pitchforks

 BRIDEGROOM: Alright.

 MOTHER: Whatever can cut through a man’s body, a lovely man, in the flower of his life, who is off to the vines or the olives, because they are his, inherited….

BRIDEGROOM: (lowering his head) Be quiet. 

We were given this script by the famous spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca; to work on for half an hour in partners, and we were to try and interpret the subtext of knife crime within it. I was working with Chris, and we used my fear of a past family stabbing so I could bring that up when he seems so in a rush to leave the mother, and so when he asks for the knife, the outburst afterwards. We then performed them to the rest of the group, and seen where more emotion was put in. He then told us the plot of the story and how there was a history of knife crime as the mothers husband had been stabbed. Then, as a group, we went through each line and read into the subtext more and what they might be thinking. Then, me and Chris paired up with Emily and Matt and they were playing the subtext while me and Chris played the lines. We brought what the mother might of been thinking and used physical theatre to show that. Then we showed the burden that the mother was on her son, by letting Emily jump onto Chris and then hang on his neck. When the subtext goes because it’s being said, we made it so Emily and Matt were suddenly repeating everything we said but with more emotion, this echo gave a bigger effect. 

After performing each groups performances to each other we decided to pick out our favourite parts and develop them as one big group. We focused on ‘burden/death’ ‘knife issues’ and ‘echo’s’. To create the burden, we used Jake as the bridegroom, and Kelly as the mother. As she said “wait” she ran and jumped on his back, then as we were stood in a circle, Emily ran forward and Jake picked her up, Chris and Matt went in at both sides to help support Emily and Kelly and then me and Ciara ran to the legs, and the was to show how the bridegroom felt the mothers sadness and grief a burden. It was hard to get this so it looked effective and not messy. We had to practice it safely to make sure we knew when it was safe to reach our positions. As we ran in, we muttered another line from the script to emphasise the ‘knife issues’ we made this effective by using different speeds and pitches to show the fear of the past situation, this also brought in the ‘echo’s’ that we thought made an effect. 

LESSON TWO. 19|09|2012. - ‘Couteau’

We entered the room and it was lit low with just a light onto the desk where a single knife lay in the centre. He told us to stand two big steps away and then we were to walk slowly towards the table and then reach collectively to the knife and then lift it up together and place it back down in completely silence as he played backing music. We managed this very well, and it showed how you didn’t need to talk to create an impact. 

He then told us to imagine that as an opening; with a camera above the knife that projected onto screens so the audience could see what was happening on the table. He then split the group up and told us to do something more once we reach the table, and add a bit of back story. 

I was working with Matt and Jake, and we decided that we should each show a different side of a knife crime. Jake played the more ‘gang leader’ type figure, and Matt played the follower who was very violent and slightly messed up, and then I played the victim. There was no talking, and we used a gentle push of the knife that seemed to have a mind of it’s own and the reaction of when the knife reach us to show how we felt about the subject. 

We then performed this and watched the other groups performance. One thing I really really liked about the other groups is when they slid the knife across the table and point facing at Chris, he showed the reaction of being stabbed. I think it really caused an effect cos we had no back story, but the way Ciara, Kelly and Emily were pushing it effortlessly showed it was a result of knife crime. 

Then, Sir told us about how in the some French theatre, instead of a person physically being shown as stabbed they used the French word for knife ‘couteau’. 

We then split into pairs. I worked with Matt and using this idea of ‘couteau’ we performed a scene where he slits my neck.  He walks in from the side whilst I sit centre stage and then walks around me, and then blocks me. As I try to move to see the audience, he again blocks my view again. Then walks around to the back of me, as he pulls my hair back he puts his finger across my neck and says ‘couteau’. Once we performed this to the rest of the group, the feedback we received was for Matt to add some whistling while he walks to create eeriness and instead of a physical touch to the neck, he should just pull my hair back and then say ‘couteau’ and I react to it the same way. Once we made these changes we realised that it wasn’t necessarily better, but it was different and gave a unexpected effect because the audience has to focus more. I found this a really interesting approach on the topic, the whole taking away the physical aspect of a stabbing. 

N2C THEATRE. - ‘Guernica’

When the N2C theatre group session started after my BTEC drama lesson, and although this isn’t part of my course I felt it helped with gaining and refreshing basic drama techniques and skills. We were told to create a simple market tableau  that went into a simple scene with no major dramatic elements. We were then told to do this in reverse so - from midday to morning. This made us realise that nothing majorly dramatic has to happen for a scene to be effective, but if you create the right amount of ‘business’ a scene can look interesting as well as being effective. Mr Chipp, then put a picture stimulus on the board. The picture ‘Guernica’ by Pablo Picasso.

Then as two separate groups we were told to pick an aspect of the painting and then recreate it. I chose the woman that’s craning her neck upwards and crawling in a fleeing manner. We then had to create a piece of movement that mixed our market scene to a part where the planes of the Guernica bombing came over and we almost slide into the tableau of the recreation. We did this with the group split in two. We decided that when the music came on, we’d separate from our busy market movement that Emily would walk forwards, and soon we’d all follow with our heads up following the bomb from the sky as it falls to the ground in synchrony. As  soon as all of our heads reached the floor line, we fell down in canon, to show the weakest citizen, to the strongest person who was Adam (from the year below) who was representing a bull. As soon as he fell we all lifted our heads, and the struggle began. we coughed and spluttered. Dragged ourselves around the floor until we were mimicking the Picasso painting in a freeze frame which is where that performance ended. 

He then told us to sit in a space where no one else was within a meter of us. He turned all the lights off and started to speak an improvised account of the Guernica bombing. He then said to think about the character we’d just been previously acting and then speak our own improvised account of it. He then made us repeat it over and over. Then, he arranged a small row of 3 chairs with a very low lit light on  them. We were told to stay in silence to keep the atmosphere dark, and one by one we went up and retold our stories as a monologue. I really liked this idea because it helped me keep focus and I was already in character so repeating my story was a lot easier, even if it wasn’t exactly the same. Watching everyone else’s also made you think about how different characters would be feeling, mothers, children, soldiers. I really liked how individual it was because you knew it was all your thoughts. 

LESSON ONE. 12|09|2012. - 'Subtext'

sub·text/ˈsəbˌtekst/

Noun:An underlying and often distinct theme in a piece of writing or conversation.

I paired up with Chris, and then we were told to have an ordinary conversation. Then repeat it until we knew it my memory.The script of which was:

Chris: Alright love?

Poppy: Yes, thanks.
Chris: Good, how was work?
Poppy: Yeh, good. Not much going on.
Chris: Ah, Jane there?
Poppy: No, ill.
Chris: Again?
Poppy: Yeh, again.
Chris: What was is this time?
Poppy: Just ill, rang in sick last minute.
Chris: Ah. Dave was off.
Poppy: Really? Thought he would’ve needed it.
Chris: He does, he needs the hours.
Poppy: Ah yeh. Money.
Chris: Yeh, not like me eh? I take care of my family.
Poppy: Especially me.

This had no certain meaning behind it, it was improvised and then repeated. Sir then gave us a subtext in which we had to follow. “Chris has been domestically abusing Poppy. It got so bad that a couple of nights ago Chris broke Poppy’s finger. Poppy confided had confided in Jane about the abuse but Chris had found out, and since then Jane has become a rough area to talk about”. 

We were not allowed to change the original script. Only allowed to change the way spoke the lines and the presentation of ourselves. We did this by making sure I sounded more intimidated by him, and he seemed more relaxed but definitely more dominate, this was also shown with the way I was sat down and he was stood up. He also used more intense motions such a neck rubbing, which I then reacted to as threatening which makes the audience know that I am scared of him. When Jane’s name was brought up, I was instantly more stern and scared as I didn’t want any more abuse. The way we could not change the script made me understand that it’s not what you say but  how you say the lines.

LESSON ONE. 12|09|2012. - 'Combat'

This was a completely new skill for me as I have never done fake acting properly in a lesson before. He started off teaching us the basics of: 
- Slap
- Punch
- Kneeling face/chin kick
- Belly kick (when the person is on all fours) 
- Face kick (when they’re laying on their side) 

We went through each of these individual working in different pairs, and once we had the movement and the way the reaction should go down, we added a story and acting to it. This helped us block it out right to an audience as well. 

This is a skill I would really like to develop and continue to improve on, especially the slap and the punch as I think they are used more commonly. 

LESSON ONE. 12|09|2012. - 'Back Story'

We first entered the room into an atmosphere of low lit light. Our teacher then made instructed a small warm up where we walked to certain points in the room and we could not focus on anything but those points. He then made us each individual and anonymously pick another person in the room, and we had to become afraid of that person and we slowly had to show this fear through the pace of our walk and through facial expressions. He then made us increase the fear until it was pure terror that we felt passing this person as we couldn’t take ourselves away from our path.

    Then, I was working in a 3 with Kelly and Ciara. We remained on our original paths, but this time, instead of feeling fear, we had to feel like we wanted to be with them all the time, but we had to constantly move meaning we’d drift at some point. He then asked us to put a story behind the whole movement. We decided that we were 3 sisters that had been separated from a foster home and we were not allowed to see each other until we were all 18, but I was already of that age, so I was trying to sort something out so we could all be together sooner. We wanted to show: urgency, longing, sadness and hope whilst we did this work, using close but brief contact. We were only allowed to use 6 short sentences to get part of the story across. We then performed it to the rest of the group to see how much of the story they could understand with little direct address; they managed to understand the majority of it but would obviously miss out of more intricate details such as the foster home or the age of 18.
     We also had to watch the other performances, and this helped us to think of ways we could improve our own for future references as it’s very difference being the audience than the performer and it’s good to peer assess as it can help to inspire and develop your own creativity. 

Adding a background story helps not only add more depth to a performance but help improvisation as we only had a few minutes to create a story within a group, and devising skills. This was also a good way to start back at drama because it helped us gained focus and gradually built us in to acting.

A Group Is Formed

The group we have is already very close, it consists of me -Poppy Wilcox, Ciara Woodcock, Kelly Van Den Berg, Emily Giles, Jake Bower, Chris Doyle & Matthew Goodband. Our teacher is Mr Chipp.

Poppy Wilcox. (me) http://btecperformingarts.tumblr.com/

Emily Giles : http://emilysdramablog.tumblr.com/

Ciara Woodcock : http://btecdramablog.tumblr.com/ (password:assemble)

Kelly Van Den Berg: http://btecperformingartskelly.tumblr.com/

Jake Bower

Chris Doyle

Matt Goodband