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. 

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.