LESSON SEVEN. 31|10|12. - 'The Pillowman'

We have now moved onto the next part of the script, so for the first half an hour, we just went over the last few pages we did which allowed us to get back into the role's and lead us nicely into where we left off. Ciara was unable to attend this lesson, which meant I had to focus on picking up everything for Tupolski, as well as making detailed notes to pass onto her. Jake and Emily went through the positioning together so that Jake wasn't just watching and he could get more involved. It helped for them to improve each others skills because they were able to look at each others techniques and incorporate them into there own performances.

This is the first time we here one of Katurian's sick stories. I use a more direct address approach to this part so the impact on the audience it greater, because we're telling it to the audience. This is when Katurian feels the most confident, because it's about her work, which is her life, she is obviously still nervous, but feels as if she needs to explain her story with restrained enthusiasm. When I look to Katurian to imitate the voice of the applemen, it shows the story teller aspect of Katurian's character, and creates a bigger impact later on when we find out that the stories were re-enacted. I repeat the sentence in a harsher tone to emphasise how sick the thought is. Then saying the next bit more monotone and quicker, so it follows a 'badumdedum' pattern. This gives a contrast to what I'm saying making the audience feel uncomfortable because of the violent ended has no emotion in it. When Katurian pauses, we decided that Tupolski and Ariel should stare and Katurian, because we know these stories were repeated to real children. This gives hints to the audience that there are more to these stories than them just being disgusting. Ariel's anger bubbles out and lets out a little information even though it does not make sense to then audience yet, it provides a link later on in the script. 

When Katurian asks 'Should I have?' it provides a moment for Tupolski clever word play personality come into hand. Tupolski's been silently waiting for a moment to come where he can twist Katurian's words. So when I come in repeating his question, I wanted to make it jumpy, I walk back to the seat whilst saying the line, not very angry, or loud. It's more of a friendly tone emphasising the certain accusations he drew from Katurian's question. He uses this to let Ariel have a chance of violence, and Tupolski can remain to seem like the less violent cop. When Katurian stands up, Tupolski shoves him back down onto the chair and remains unharmed. This is very fast paced which makes it more interesting for the audience to watch because there is more action. I push Katurian back down to show how we don't want him going anyway but it allowed Tupolski to show a more aggressive side. Ariel then leaves and it's now just me and Kelly left on stage.Sir then sent the rest of the group to look at scene 2 and see how that could be done while we worked on the Tupolski and Katurian scenes. 

When Katurian blows up after how casual I am about her brother being there it gives the audience a chance to sympathise with Katurian's character as she has no idea why she's there and she's already been beaten up and threatened many times. I just stare at Katurian in slight amusement because I achieved in winding her up. I then jokily say my line to create humour. We had issues on how the 'ooh's' should be pronounced. We've decided to just go with whatever feels right at the time for now, such as doing the noise through my teeth, as well as a sarcastic type. 'Calm the fuck down.' Is said a lot harsher and broader to assert the authority I have over Katurian and it's also quite patronising creating an intense atmosphere for the audience to react too. This is because of the contrast between the light humour at the beginning of my line and then the abrupt change in tone. 

We found this line tricky to say so we looked at the certain parts to emphasise so that the audience could understand I'm saying I wasn't trying to suggest anything, even though I was. Emphasising the last 'you' makes it accuse Katurian more putting her in an awkward position. We had to cut out the second part of my line and Katurian's response because removed the previous part where it's mentioned. So it goes straight into the 'Blah blah blah' which makes my character seem dismissive to anything Katurian says he believes because we still think Katurian has murdered these children. 

 Here is where we can see Tupolski winding up Katurian more. Katurian has clearly told Tupolski that there is no solution and when Tupolski asks what the solution is, this frustrates Katurian but Tupolski finds it amusing. Tupolski can use his power to suggest otherwise and Katurian has to conform to agreeing with Tupolski. This is where the audience can either feel sorry for Katurian, or find it humorous that Tupolski is winding Katurian up for his own pleasure.

We got only managed to block out slightly the rest of the chunk until Katurian reads the 'The Tale of The Town on the River'. There are more points of comedy leading up to this story that are sadistic. Tupolski uses his power to manipulate Katurian into doing what he wants and uses word clever word play to assert this comedy to the audience, even though Katurian is petrified of everything Tupolski says.


At the end of the lesson Emily Jake Matt and Chris came back through with an idea of how to do the second scene, where the story of 'The Writer and The Writers Brother' is told. They decided it's hard to be seen from every angle if you're were actually laid on a bed, so they thought, using a standing piece made to look like the bed on one side could show his bed, and then him standing up in it so you could still see his facial expressions and reactions to the noises of torture that would be happening on the other side of the board. this makes it easier to show what happened in a more creative way that allows the audience to see both sides. 

LESSON SIX. 24|10|12. - Starting 'The Pillowman'

We have now started working on our first production, ‘The Pillowman’ by Martin McDonagh. As soon as we arrived in the room we were sat down and he handed out the roles. As this performances only has 4 main characters and our group is made of 7 people we decided to have to casts. With the main character to be played by the same person, and the smaller parts will be played by the people who are either not on stage or from the other cast. The cast is as followed: 

Character:        Cast One:       Cast Two:
Katurian           Kelly                Kelly
Tupolski           Poppy              Ciara
Ariel                 Emily                Jake
Michal              Matt                 Chris

We were all happy with the parts we were given and think sir has made the right choices. We then set to work with the script. We first read through the script section we were going to do that lesson as our characters, doing half with cast one, the second with cast two. We then started to block out our performance we worked on the first little section in half an hour, and then we had half an hour to rehearse this on our own and even go a little further on. As Kelly cannot rehearse with both casts at the same time, and Michal is not yet on stage, Matt and Chris took it in turns to help which ever cast that was without a Katurian. We went over parts we thought were good. We did not get any pictures of the first progression. So I took some pictures of the script pages with the stage directions on so I can talk about them instead. 

At the start Ariel (Emily/Jake) walks from centre stage to DSR and pulls down a switch that will make the music stop. They then reach into the crisp packet and chew on the crisp. Katurian makes a flinch towards that direction as she cannot see because she has the hood over her head. Ariel then walks to UPL and takes another bite, when Katurian flicks her head in the direction this time, Ariel almost realises they’re not meant to be there and attempts to walk silently to the chair and sit down on it. then takes another bite of a crisp. This creates comedy straight away. Because this play is black comedy, we want to tell the audience almost straight away that it’s okay for them to laugh so to do this we have to create more humour than uneasiness, for now anyway. 

This is where it starts to become a little more dark because it’s the first time we hear about what’s in Katurian’s stories. When Ariel moves the chair round to the other side of Katurian he is agitated and disgusted. Because we know what the story was and how it relates to the child murders so we try and show that. This is where Ariel really starts to build up anger and Tupolski almost brushes this off because he is used to Ariel’s behaviour. 

For a task, we had to talk to our ‘other’ about our character and go through tone’s we should use. I also wanted to do a little bit more research on the main characters so I had a bit more background. 

Katurian: A guy who writes incredibly gruesome stories involving children, who are often abused. His cruel imagination has evolved from his parents abusing his brother in the room next door to his bedroom to make him a better writer. When he found out about this, he killed both his parents and looked after his brain damaged brother. He is then arrested and unaware of what they’re accusing him of, and is almost innocent. 

Tupolski: The lead detective and the ‘good cop’ in the interrogation, or… so we think. Intelligent, quirky, sardonic, funny despite the police brutality. Cold and uncaring, he sees himself as detached from the people he aims to save, shocking his younger partner Ariel. We may be changing this to a female character but the qualities will stay the same.

Ariel: A brutal and vicious detective who is has a strong hatred to any commits a crime against children because of the abuse he received as a child. The bad cop, or… so we think. More open with anger, fierce and eager to torture anyone on the wrong side of the law. 

Michal: Katurians brain damaged brother who was tortured by his parents to make Katurian a better writer. He is also taken to jail for questioning with his brother because they share there living space together. Michal is simple with a childlike soul and wouldn’t hurt a fly… maybe. 

LESSON FIVE. 17|10|12. - 'To Be or Not To Be'

We were given a task to learn and perform the famous ‘To Be or Not To Be’ speech. This was a lot harder than the whole group thought it would be. We were firstly given a week,  to learn this, but we were then given an extension of another two weeks because of a teacher training day. 

The way I went around learning the speech was to split it into smaller sections. I highlighted them into different colours. I learn went through from beginning to end learning each section. Once I’d learnt a section, I’d go from the beginning and would repeat the whole speech. This meant that I was a lot more confident on the first part rather than the whole thing. I then continued to watch video’s and listen to different version of actors doing the speech to make sure I had pronunciations of words right as well as giving me an idea of a tone I could use. I found that I focused a lot more on the remembering side of the speech rather than the performance and should probably have taken more time to rehearse the speech properly whilst performing this. As it could've helped me remember the speech as well. 

Poppy

This is my own performance of the speech. I think because most of my acting and performance of the speech was either only a thought which I then tried on the spot or complete improvisation, mixed with nerves, it took away the amount of lines I could remember and how well I could perform them. I started to forget some of the lines which meant the performance started to lack. I am happy that I attempted to put quite a lot more tone in my sentences and create a better start for the performance, even if it did deteriorate  I am most certainly not proud of this performance and agree with the constructive critism in the review. 

Kelly

Kelly did an edited version of the speech which means she moulded the speech so she was more comfortable with it. She cut out lines or sections that she found more difficult or weren't as important meaning she could focus more on the performance as the lines came more naturally to her. I think she did a good job with this although I think it’s not clear if some lines she simply forgot or were meant to be cut out. I really think she managed to keep a good clarity of voice maintained throughout. I thought the first line did not have the right tone for the piece, but she picked up a good tone as she went along. It is hard to make the first line your own or original because it has been performed so many times before. I think Kelly managed to pull of a really good performance and I'm very proud of her. 

Matt

I really liked the first half of Matt's speech. I like how he started it laying on his back. I thought he really nailed the facial expressions as well. I think he could've spent longer on the floor as he stood up quite quickly and then just paced around which was very distracting from the performance. Once he forgot lines it was clear his performance was going to slide down a bit. Which was a shame because he did really well with the pronunciation of the first half. He managed to get certain tones for different sentences which meant he was conveying the message of the speech well. He started to break up sentences and the general flow of the performance stopped. It think if he had continued the way the first half had gone and not had as many nerves about the speech the would've been very well done. 

Chris

I think Chris had a very confident start and he had a clear voice but at some points you weren't sure if he fully understood the meaning behind the words. This was more when he started breaking up the sentence structure and taking longer pauses between each. I really like how he decided to sit down in the middle of it, which added levels but I'm not sure whether he put it there to cover up thinking about the next line or whether to show a change in mood. I think Chris did well to remember the amount of lines he did but could've maybe put more thought into the performance side of it, just like I should've, because it might of helped his fluidity and understanding of the lines. 

 Emily

I liked Emily's starting position and how she tilted her head to either side on the 'to be or not to be' line. I think she probably should've stayed on the floor a little longer, she looked a lot more comfortable there. There were moments when she was about to get up but decided not to which showed she was probably improvising the movement. Emily was one of two people in the group to get through the entire speech give or take a few missing lines. But I think because of this, Emily's began to lose performance qualities as it got to further on in the speech and you could tell she was mainly focusing on what line was next and just trying to get through the speech. I think if she worked more on performing the speech it could gain her confidence with monologue's (as I know they aren't her favourite) because she would be able to perform a very difficult speech as well as know all the lines to it. 

LESSON FIVE. 17|10|12. - 'Freeze Frames' (unfinished)

We were to create a variety of freeze frames for a photographer that came in. Our first stimulus was:

Romeo and Juliet: 
Our first freeze was to show a fight scene so Jake and Chris was to show the violence between two sides. Because this was a freeze frame they needed to show a lot more emotion in there face as there was no movement, so it could only be showed through body language and facial expression. Ciara and Emily were to show how it was an almost unwanted battle, by being the people trying to stop and pull them apart. I was a dead person to show that murder had already taken place and that is was a serious fight that had already affected people. 

I really liked the lighting we used for this as well, as it meant that it showed each side in a different colour which created an idea of good or bad. You can also see Emily’s face in this image a lot more. I really like how it shows more than just ‘stop fighting please’ but also suggests that’s she’s trying to make Chris question his actions like ‘is it worth it?’ I think Jakes look shows the clear determination he has to kill Chris where as Chris’s shows how he is more defending that attacking. 

Our second freeze frame was showing a more important figure entering - Matt - and with him a guard - Kelly. We did this to show the reaction of the two fighters when they came in. 

Our third freeze frame was a remake of our ‘burden’ image but to fit the situation of Romeo’s love for Juliet and the difficulties of being from different families. We looked in different directions. Ciara looked up to show hope, I looked down to show the frustration of holding back the emotion. 

Then we looked at Slavery:

We used a tower structure to show how slavery had trapped us all. Me and Chris we more partly out but had the end of chains around are wrists. This was a way to show how even though we were partly out, we were still being attached to the slavery as if it was really hard to escape from. Jake and Ciara we sat on the top of this to give it levels and create a better overall image. Kelly and Matt we sat nearer the floor, you could only see Matt’s face through the gap Kelly left for him, which gave the image a denser feel. We were at first told to look down to show the sadness and depression of the image. This was good and created a interesting image. However, when we were told to look up at a certain point, it showed how we were still holding on, as if there was hope. This created a bigger impact from the image because then me and Chris could pull more on the chains and it then looked more as if we were trying to escape the slavery trap. 

LESSON FIVE. 17|10|12. - ‘Talking Hands’ - Video’s

You can see how we helped and directed each other as the people inside the tower were oblivious to what was going on inside. As we only had half an hour, we didn’t manage to have time to create any serious drama or dialogue for the hands but we wanted to see if it would be effective and even possible in school surroundings. 

LESSON FIVE. 17|10|12. - 'Talking Hands'

We watched a clip from ‘The Labyrinth’ of the helping hands. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIVIDmuJZLI This was our given stimulus. We were given half an hour to create a way to effectively create hands of our own as well as creating a way to disguise the body so the only thing that we could see is our hands. So, Chris and Matt went off to find some pictures of these helping hands so we could create some more ideas and give us a base of how to create the hand faces. So, we used metal structure as a hold for two black sheets to create a tower. We then cut slits into the sheets so we could put our hands through. The bottom part of the structure had a table top so we could fit a person underneath as well as people on top whilst all being inside the tower. 

Me, Ciara and Emily did the first face - we wanted to show either a neutral or happy expression and it ended up like this: 

Then, the next face we just used Jake and Chris, so the face was much simpler. But we wanted to create a generic sad expression: 

Then, Emily Matt and Kelly did another face to show a more angry expression so we had a bit of variety and think this one was probably one of our most successful: 

We then did some movement with the hands so we could see if they would work and look as though they were carrying through speech. 

BLAHBLAHBLAH. 11|10|12. - 'Hide and Seek'

As we had a training day on the Wednesday we missed out on our usual lesson time, so on the Thursday, we got the pleasure of doing a full days work experience with the theatre company Blah Blah Blah (http://www.blahs.co.uk/) 

They specialise in doing Theatre in Education. In the particular performance they were doing for a group of year 8’s and a group of year 10’s they were looking at The Gunpowder Plot. They looked into parts of the priests hiding from the banning of Catholics. Not only is there production acting using direct address, but they got the children to take part to make it clear they understood what they were trying to teach as well as making it more entertaining. Overall there performance was around 1 hour 40 minutes. I will be putting up a video with parts of the performance that I thought were the best.

We arrived at 8am to help unload the theatre company’s van and unload it into the performance area. As there location of performance is constantly changing on a daily basis it was great to see there set and how something that was bigger than I expected in scale was whilst not put together and then how it was all assembled. We helped set out the chairs for 40 pupils, and it fit the circle setting which also worked as a stage. There was also an spacing in the centre so a pathway was made to the back where there was a drum. As the cast was made up of 4 actors, there were often doubling for characters and there costumes were often put on at the side of the stage in audiences view as well as having to do this very quickly it manage to not distract from the overall performance and they did it very smoothly with no complications. 

I thought it was clever how they did a 2012 date, so it was like they were taking the students back in time and therefore engaged them from the very start of the performance. 

This is one of the Priest holds and I think they managed to include it into the set very cleverly. 

The on stage dressing room where there was also a drum similar to the one placed at the back and they incorporated the drum beats very well in their performance. 

Throughout the day we were told we were allowed to ask as many questions as we liked. Especially once we’d seen the performance we could ask many more questions. I will also be uploading a video of the conversations we had. This gave us much more of an insight of how they decide on what they do and how often and such. 

LESSON FOUR. 03|10|12. - ‘The Pillowman’

After the role play, he told us that he’d based the information he gave us on the play ‘The Pillowman’ by Martin McDonagh. He gave us the first few pages of the script which had the characters Tupolski, Ariel and Katurian. I worked with Kelly and Emily, and Matt, Ciara and Jake worked together with Chris helping to direct.
Katurian: Kelly - Matt
Tupolski: Myself - Jake
Ariel: Emily - Ciara.

My group started off my just reading the lines and then deciding where the tension built up the most and then highlighted those points so we could convey them through our delivery.  We made it so that Tupolski had a more ‘good cop’ attitude and Ariel was more violent and intimidating.
 

The play is black comedy, so we made the dark humour come through by showing a small light heartedness in ourselves so it was more noticeable as comedy but yet still felt uncomfortable to laugh with the situation. After blocking it out and adding in some contact, levels and altering our voice volumes and paces the other group performed to us and I really liked Ariel’s (Ciara’s) performance as you’d could really see her holding back her very violent side.
 

I also liked how Tupolski (Jake) and Katurian (Matt) had a really good character chemistry with how Jake intimidated Matt and how he reacted so scared and vulnerable.
 

We then performed our own and I think it went really well. We managed to pull off some lines that were difficult to interpret because the situation isn’t one that we are familiar with. So using Stanislavsky method acting we were able to put ourselves into that position and focus on the ‘what if?’
 

We are going to continue with ‘The Pillowman’ and do it as a production. I’m really excited for this and can’t wait to see how it turns out.

LESSON FOUR. 03|10|12. - ‘Role Play’

We stood outside the drama room where he first asked if anyone was claustrophobic, he then put a make shift head bag over her head and took her through to the drama studio. We remained outside and when he returned sent Matt through into the other drama studio. He then told me, Chris, Emily and Ciara that we were police interrogating Kelly for paedophilia. We were totalitarian and therefore we had the most power and could therefore do or say anything. The police were to be on the scene two at a time, so it would be me and Emily then Chris and Ciara. Everyone in the group was told that if we said ‘saferoom’ we would be taken to the office and that was the only place we were allowed to come out of character. 

When we entered the room there was a table with a stick laying across it, a deodorant spray and some pliers. Kelly was sat on a chair facing the front with the bag on her had and cable ties around her thumbs joining them together. This was a very uneasy image. But, we had to keep in mind what her character had done and act upon this. At first it was really hard because Kelly didn’t respond to anything we asked her. Once she started to reply it was easy to build up more angry responses. Then sir joined in with us, showing us to not be afraid to be more aggressive. It go to a point where I was threatening to cut off Kelly’s little finger with the pliers, and we’d built up so much tension that she called ‘saferoom’ where she was allowed to have a break. Jake had arrived later, so he took the part of Kelly and me and Emily were replaced by Chris and Ciara. Watching a very similar performance was just as unnerving as acting it, very terrifying. We continued switching people as sir introduced more of a back story to the situation, our acting became stronger and very intense. We did this for around 45 minutes, and then reflected on the role play. Using this Stanislavsky method acting we got a strong performance and it allowed us to think ‘what if I was actually in this situation’. It also helped build on improvisational skills with more depth as it was a much longer period of time.