Monday 5 December 2011

Rehearsing Trojan Women extract

I decided that I wanted to perform the Helen and Menalyus scene with James. This is because we paired ourselves together when we did the lesson experimenting with the relationship between the two characters and found that we were honestly good at it. Also as I would be performing the role of Helen it would challange me and put me out of my comfort zone as an actor as she is a very confident sexually strong character and I am neither.

Stanivlaski questions and answers

Task 1: who am I

Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships.

Task 2: the magic if

What if she didn't cheat on Menalyus with Paris?
The war would never have happened, though I believe that the Greek king would have chosen another reason to attack and concure Troy.
She could have cheated on Menalyus with someone else and said person would have been killed but then she would just take another lover and the cycle would go on and on.

Task3: the given circustances

She was married to Menalyus but then she ran away with Paris to Troy and Married him. Menalyus then canpained to get her back from Paris.

Task 4: character analysis

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Exploring the role of the Chorus

Aim
Complete exploration of the chorus looking at group dynamics
Show active verbs in three groups.

In my group we decided we wanted to show the modern day new yorkers who were just there at the time of the attack. We opened the piece one by one just walking down the street in our characters, for example I was talking to my child about going to her grandma's. We said these and ending in a line at the front and when the last person finished we all look diagonally up left to show us watching the attack. We then took an action and a couple of words each to perform one at a time go backwards. This shows the contrast from their every day lives to the aftermath of the attack.

Trojan Women Extracts

For our final performance in greek theatre we had to choose an extract of Trojan women to perform. We were not allowed to change the words of the classical text but we were allowed to experiment with practically everything else.

Once we chose which extracts we wanted to perform and who we wanted to perform them with we had to "develop and understand classical roles through research and anaylsis and stanivlaski tehniques".

Stanislavsky
Stanislavsky quote "Remember for all time that when you begin to study each role you should first gather all the materials that have any bearing on it, and suppliment them with more an more imagination, until you have achieved such a similarity to life that it is easy to believe in what you are doing"
Trained actors in a mododixal way
1863-1938
Physological involvment with actor and character
Realist theatre
Through objective equals the characters overall wants
Unit objective characters want in that moment in time
Obsticales equals things that are preventing them from achieving they're overall want
Emotion memory, using own memory to relate to your character
His theatre creates the issusion of real life
Fourth wall removed
Stanislavisky was a threatee practitioner a director with a theory
Theory was that theatre should reflet reality
Eliminating the gulf between the actor and character
Become the role

Stanislavsky quetioning

Task 1: who am I
Task 2: the magic if
Task3: the given circustances
Task 4: character analysis

Monday 24 October 2011

24 th Oct Period 2
Aim
To exmamine the role of the chorus and experimant with group dynamics

Recap choral functions:
Narrators / story tellers
Back ground with context
Sang and danced in unison
All men
Wore masks
Represented the audience
Bridged the action on stage and the audience they were the link
Would have directly addressed the adience
They perofrmed on flat circluar space called orchestra
Like to create dabate and make the audience question and think

We all chose a line or a coupl eof lines from the play. We then said our lines chronologically in the style according to the word that was said by the teacher at the start of each of the exercises.

The lines is Chose were :
"we were singing our praises to Artemis, Zeus's daughter, maiden of the mountains"
Choral exercise 1
Fear
I thought that this suited the situation of the passage that we all did and because we were all doing it the overall efect was like all the people of troy were crying out in fear.

Choral exercise 2
Gossip
This created the effect that Greeks could be talking about troy, so it was interesting that by changing it to gossip it effectivly changed which side of the fight was saying it.

Choral exercise 3
Threatening
It could be said be either party towards to other, however if the Trojans were saying it it would be like they were just being angry about what happened.

Choral exercise 4
Soothing
This to me seems like it could be a mother retelling the story to her children or something, while keeping the facts the same she doesn't want to make her children sad but she wants them to understand what has happened.

Choral exercise 6
Ball exercise (paw order jesture)
While this was fun most of the meaning was lost from the words because people were more focused on catching the ball. It did create more of a tempo and a rythem though which could be useful if you wanted to do the choral section to music.

Choral exercise 7
Three photo start and finish copying that image to show the universality of war
Israeli vs Palestinian
Bosnia vs Serbia
Callaopse of twin towers nine elleven

Choral exercise 8
Active verbs
Eg. To control
Capture physucalise the words


In my group with Katie, Joe, April & Sarah we were given the stimulus of the terrorist attack of 9/11. We only started to plan what were going to do this lesson and continued the following lesson. We would also use this extract in our chorus performance:
"throats cut, limbs hacked, flesh gashed, hearts pierced, veins opened, heads severed winding pouring gushing through the streets of troy"

Wednesday 5 October 2011

5th October 3rd period
Aim
To continue to explore the relationship between Helen and Menalayus through rehearsal
1) how close circle
2) stepping stone
3) elastic + proxemics
4) circle of friends

From doing these techniques I have Leart a lot about by how different interprtations can be effective in different ways. They were creative way to show the relationship between helen and menalaus. Also that every movememt can have a significant meening and be very controlled and apparent to the audience. For example replacing the elastic with a scarf in a performance.

Monday 3 October 2011

3rd October period three

Aim
To perform and eveluate story boards to music
Reason =other morhods to tell story, start acting like a chorus, preparing us to act like a chorus and to be imaginative in the conventions, voice and working as an assemble
Marked on rehearsels of a teacher lead activity
Music easier to be intime to improve the overall slickness of a performance

Can add words to movement as one and clever

Add in lesson from book

Wednesday 21 September 2011

21st Sept

Aim:
To conclude looking at directors challanges and to effectively capture the play using story boards to music

Activity: storyboards to music

1) the Greeks take troy in an overnight raid

Start with celebrations, burst out kill people

2) the men of troy are slaughtered and the women are rounded up for slavery

Women morning over bodies and they are being dragged away

3) Cassandra prophesies her future

Two cassandrasPeople turn their heads away from Cassandra and go along the audience and turn their faces away

4) Hecuba's lament and Andromache's loss

Andromache with baby or a child holding hands looking at mummy, talthibius takes shoulders then let go and child dies. Hecuba's lament should by all the women mourning round her.

5) Helen takes to the stand

Menalaious stands strong in the middle. Helen dances round flirting with audience even getting them out to dance with her. Hecuba stands next to menalaious tells him not to fall the Helen while he is watching Helen and enchanted. Two helenx one kneeling in front of him.

6) the ships leave for Greece

Tuesday 20 September 2011

20th Sept

Classical performance

Aim:
To have identified and understood the challangeswhat facing dirctors and performers of the trojan women

No. One:
How to show the women running into flames

Rachels:
Portraying the gods to show their immortal state

Answer:
Balcony on the stage fog machine

April:
How to stage astionax and the body comming back on

Hayley:
Making choral interloodes interesting

James:
Understanding and conveying classical language

Rachel:
Making it assesable to a modern day audience could even change the war not Trojan but aghanistsn. Modern costume not the language

Joe:
Acting like a person from that eara or the interpretation of Helen victim of whore

Chloe:
Bury astionax

Becky:
Could stage narrated past events eg. Rape, wooden horse, blood

Leanne:
How to show character statuses eg. Hecuba quenn but she now says that she is equal she takes over as the male figure

Rachel:
How to show Cassandra's visions and communication of dramatic irony that we know she can see these but others think she is crazy

Katie:
Clarrification of character and pronunciation

Me:
How to show the women running into the flames and to stage the burning of troy

Sarah:
Where would you persition the chorus so they are separate to gods and actors. In modern could be people in newyork after two towers.

Presentation of characters and make Helen stand out

How to show that menalaious has been manipulated by Helen at the end

Interpretation of Telthibious the change from being hard to sensitive

Watching A2 performance