Monday 22nd September 2014
Today we did a warm up as usual, and some more tongue twisters.
We did some more work on pronouncing vowels and projecting
our voices by using our diaphragm.
We played a game in pairs where you take it in turns to lead
one another around by the nose. To do this, you place your index finger about
six inches away from your partners face, and make slow, controlled movements
with it. Your partner has to keep their nose at that same distance away from
your finger constantly, and go wherever you lead.
This exercise requires a lot of concentration and teamwork.
You need to be focused in order to follow your partner’s finger immediately it
moves and maintain the correct distance between their finger and your nose. It
requires teamwork, because if you don’t work together, you can’t get it right.
You need to be as synchronised as possible. Making eye contact with your
partner can help build a strong focus between the two of you. You also need to
use your peripheral vision in this exercise and be aware of the space around
you, so that you don’t crash into other people.
We did improvisations in groups of four. We were given two
tasks to do in our groups. Firstly, we had to pick a film and do a freeze frame
representing it. Then we had to do a short re-enactment of one scene from the same
film. The film that my group chose to do was the Matrix.
We were also given our assignments on this day. We were put
into pairs and each given a script, a short excerpt from a Greek play. I was
put into a pair with Jerome, and the
script we were given was a scene from Eudipedes’ Medea. We were given some time
to rehearse our script and familiarise ourselves with it before going home.
Tuesday 23rd September 2014
We started the day by doing a warm up and then doing some
vocal work. We did tongue twisters, including “Red lorry, yellow leather, red
leather, yellow lorry” and “Irish wristwatch, Swiss wristwatch”.
Then we had rehearsal time. Jerome and I worked on learning
our lines and trying to familiarise ourselves with our parts and the scene, and
we ran it quite a few times, giving one another feedback and developing ideas
on how to perform the script.
Once we had spent some time rehearsing, we sat down and
watched Didi and Brandon do their scene from Trojan Women. They then did an
exercise for us all to watch in which they had to read out their script again,
but do it in some different styles. At first they had to just speak their lines
to one another as if it was a normal, toned down conversation, then they had to
be flirtatious, and then they had to be drunk.
We had more rehearsal time after that, and then we each
performed two minutes of our script to everyone else.
Once we had finished doing practical work, we watched an
interesting documentary on Greek theatre.
Wednesday 24th September 2014
Today we elaborated further on an exercise we did a few
weeks ago.
What we had to do was each choose a fairytale or myth and
think through the story of it in our minds so we were clear on the beginning,
middle and end.
Then we paired up and told one another the story of our
chosen fairytale or myth. I was in a pair with Nuray. She told me the story of
the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and I told her the story of Hansel and
Gretel. Next, we joined together with another pair, and one by one we told our
partner’s story to the other pair. The pair we joined together with was Katy and Brandon. Brandon’s story was Cinderella, and Katy’s story was Tangled, the Disney
adaptation of Rapunzel.
Once we knew all four stories, we had to choose one of them.
We chose Cinderella. Our task now was to prepare and rehearse a short
performance of the story, summarised so it wasn't too long.
Each group then performed their story to the other students.
Later on in the day, we had to do our stories again, but
this time we were only allowed to use physical theatre to tell the story. I feel that this exercise really helped me to develop my physical theatre skills. Not only did it make me consider different ways of presenting the story, but it also allowed me to put them into practice and get used to using physicality to act. I really enjoyed it.
Again, each group performed the new, physical theatre version of their story,
and we all gave feedback to each group.
This is the feedback which our group received:
- We portrayed our characters clearly
- We used our rehearsal time well, as it was well structured and rehearsed
- Our transitions from scene to scene were smooth
We also wrote log books of everything we did on this day and
on the previous Wednesday.
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