17/09/18
What did you do?
We experimented with pace at the beginning by doing a walking exercise on a scale of 0-10. We associated each number with an image which gives guidance of how fast we should walk. We built on this by having different people moving at different speeds for example someone in the group would be running whilst the rest of the group were standing still- this showed us how a focus can be created through speed of movement. We began to link arms with the person we passed whilst walking in the space then we let go and moved on which introduced us to making contact in the space and responding to this contact. Finally, we used this to create a movement piece in partners which consisted of 5 actions that were a result of linking arms, and then we carried this into a performance in groups of 4.
What did you learn?
We learnt about how to interact and move around one another fluidly. We also learnt valuable skills about thinking on the spot and creating movement pieces that tell a story. The exercise where we experimented with pace helped us to think more carefully about what an audience would associate with a certain pace and showed us how we can apply this to further improve our characterization.
What can you carry forward for the future?
Doing these exercises showed me how much pace and variation in pace can heighten the effect of a physical performance which will engage the audience and highlight key moments in a piece. Therefore in the future I will make sure to include things like variation in pace and physical movement in pieces that I devise, especially at key moments.
This is my sequence of 5 movements that i created with Nehemie, the fluidity of movement was good however after watching the footage back I felt as though we could have been more creative and innovative with our actions.
When we combined our duet to make a group of 4, we decided to make it into more of a story and used a lot of counter weight within our performance. I felt as though this piece was a lot more creative and conveyed emotion in an effective way for the audience.
Project Workshop 2
18/09/18
What did you do?
Today in our project class we explored moving as a group to achieve synchronized movement. We did this by standing in a formation and having one person leading the group while everyone copied everything they did. We made our way round the room and tried to remain as ‘one’ with the leader. We then explored having no clear leader and sensing each others movements to stay in sync. The technical name for these techniques are 'shoaling' and 'flocking'. However before starting these techniques we played various drama games such as making a letter with our bodies in a restricted amount of time. This encouraged team-work and co-ordination within the group.
What did you learn?
I learnt the importance of staying aware of other people on stage while performing so that the performance comes together and appears unified. This can also be applied to physical theater pieces where actors may have to work together to become an object as part of a performance.
What can you carry forward for the future?
In the future I will reflect on this exercises whilst doing group performances and use this technique to stay aware of all the other actors on stage. Having this awareness also helps aid improvisation if it’s required in a performance where another actor forgets/changes a line on the spot.
Project Workshop 3
24/09/18
In today's lesson we began by focusing on the Laban Theory of Movement and watched several videos to help us understand this.
Laban - Theory of Movement:
Laban went into factory's and studied how the workers moved. he then asked them about there home
life and situation, he used this to create his theory.
He also created his own notation as shown above.
We learnt about Laban's 5 degrees of abstraction that could be applied to any movement. We explored this in detail by creating a series of 10 movements showing a journey where something unusual happens. We starting by making these actions completely naturalistic so in this instance there was no degree of abstraction. We repeated this sequence at all 5 degrees of abstraction and filmed it at both 0 degrees and 5 degrees to see how the actions were refined and exaggerated through degrees of abstraction.
Five Degrees
In these videos I am travelling back from college. However the train I get on is completely packed and then I notice something which makes me uncomfortable. I finally arrive at my station and breathe a sigh of relief as I exit the train and leave the station. I felt as though I included a good variety in pace and levels within my performance however I perhaps could've included a moment of stillness in my performance.
We then learnt about Laban's 8 effort actions...
With each effort, direction, speed, weight and flow are considered. We learnt that each effort action has an opposite where the two efforts directly contrast one another. These efforts can be applied to both actions and characters in drama to help develop a performance.
To further our understanding of these effort actions we came up with a movement for each one.
We performed these actions in pairs and worked on smoothly transitioning from one effort to another.
Here I am performing a sequence based on Laban's 8 effort actions with Alexandra. We both do the action for punch then I take slash, flick, wring and float. It is interesting watching this video back and seeing the massive difference a small alteration can make- such as whether an action is direct or indirect. It conveys a completely different emotion if an action is changed in one of these areas.
Project Workshop 4
25/09/18
We combined our journey to school with another persons to create a duet.
Here I am performing with Sonnah, in her piece there were frantic moments which we decided to incorporate as this added a different dynamic to the performance. This is then contrasted with the stillness of being on the train and the slow movement as were looking round.
Project Workshop 01/10/18 + 02/10/18
We began to pull together all the techniques we had previously learnt to start creating our performance piece. We started learning a simple sequence of moves in a canon and slowly added more and more moves to create a complex movement piece that was representing a party.
We sat down and started brainstorming ideas over these two days for a scene we could devise that's about something happening at a party. I was in a group with Bethany and Valeria. We filmed our initial idea for what our scene could be:
Project Workshop 08/10/18 + 09/10/18
I was ill on the 08/10 however the following day I caught up on the changes that had been made. The party movement scene at the beginning had been simplified to make the piece look cleaner and a slow motion fighting scene had been added onto the end. We also had to put Rina into our scene instead of Valeria as Valeria was not in college. We practiced the scene a few times and then went for our tech run. We didn't have our full class on 09/10 as we went to the theatre to watch half of the acting students perform their Medea scenes.
Acting Class 18/09/18 + 25/09/18
Medea:
We began to explore Medea by reading the opening speech as a class, line by line. We looked at the text and made annotations about change in tone/ intentions. For example we noted that the tone goes from frantic to patronizing. We then each picked a word from the opening speech that jumped out to us and went round saying these words. We practiced adding an appropriate emotion to these words which helped us gain a clearer sense of what the intentions behind the text were.
We then prepared to split off into a group to give a performance of this speech. We did tongue twisters to make sure our pronunciation was clear and to warm up our voice. This exercise allowed us to feel what it was like to perform the text.
In this video I am performing a line by line version of this opening speech with Ella and Nehemie. As a performance, I don't feel like we were successful in conveying the emotion behind the lines and our staging was very basic and didn't create any audience engagement. If we had created some moments where we directed our lines to each other, then out to the audience this would have added some variety into our performance. I think that our projection was good as we can clearly be heard however the lack of staging lets us down.
Acting Class 02/10/18
We took a look at the section of text we were given for our performance of Medea and used a colour coding system to split the lines between us. We then focused in on the lines and thought about the meanings behind them and the shifts of intentions or mood. We then combined with the other group and began staging the piece and creating interactions between us.
Acting Class 09/10/18
We did several run throughs of Medea and began enhancing the performance further by creating a focus point and establishing moments where there was a shift in mood.
Jazz Class/ Musical Theater 13/09/18
Jazz Choreographer
In today's class we completed an intense warm up which was followed by corner work and an introduction to the Jazz 4th position. We did lots of exercises with the feet especially tondues to warm this part of the body up.
Musical Theatre
We came up with character names for our individual characters in 'One Short Day' and started to come up with their characteristics. I came up with the character name 'Carah' and decided she would be excitable, curious and outgoing. This will help me to act through song and dance in our performance. We began to learn our choreography for 'One Short Day'.
We also each performed an audition piece in front of the class and I performed 'Greenfinch and Linnet Bird' from Sweeney Todd.
In this video, I am acting as part of the chorus and performing the opening sequence of choreography. I think my execution of the moves was good however I could have had a lot more characterisation in my facial expressions.We also each performed an audition piece in front of the class and I performed 'Greenfinch and Linnet Bird' from Sweeney Todd.
Jazz Class/ Musical Theatre 20/09/18
In this lesson, Shannon was not able to come in so we had a teacher called Tracy instead who took us through an ab workout and a dance fitness class which helped me with my stamina which was one of my previous goals.
In the musical theatre class we were left to rehearse by ourselves so we took the time to go over the words of the song and run through the dance to make sure it was set in our heads.
We recorded our rehearsal process in this lesson:
In this video I am slightly behind on some moves so I need to make sure I am 100% clear on what the next move is so the performance looks polished.
Musical Theatre 27/09/18
In this lesson we started to put the characters of Elphaba and Glinda into the performance. We also learnt more of the choreography for the song and started to practice without the aid of a backing track. I started to think more in detail about my characterisation on my solo lines and found the character I had earlier created had similar characteristics to that of Glinda. She is a bubbly character who is excited by all the new things she is seeing.
Musical Theatre 4/10/18
In this class, we finished off all of the choreography for our performance and began to polish both the singing and the movement.
Musical Theatre 11/10/18
We sat down at the beginning of the lesson and discussed our performance and how we thought it went. We each wrote 3 things we thought went well and 3 things to improve on.
I wrote the following:
- Things that went well- remembering choreography, good facial expressions and characterisation, good energy through the performance.
- Things to improve on- making sure I stay in time with all the other performers in dances, projecting all the way through the performance, thinking about breath control to hold longer notes.
Below is my Unit 1 & 2 evaluation document
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