Drama: Week Fourteen

Monday 12th January 2015

Today we have continued to block the play. We carried on from where we left off last week.
For the first part of the day we were working in the theatre and then in the afternoon we split up the class, some of us in 222, some of us in 226.


We went through each scene a couple of times, planning our staging, just as we had done last week.
A scene we worked on in the theatre which was fun is the scene where Ariel mischievously creates a little argument between Trinculo and Stephano. I enter the scene, invisible, and speak on  behalf of Trinculo, being petulant and provoking Stephano.
It was fun to work on the timing of this scene and work out how to make the misunderstanding comical.
The scene I spent most time working on was the scene between Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano, in which Ariel tempts them with a gown and other clothing, and then they are chased by the magical hounds that Prospero summons.
In this scene I decided that Ariel is simply watching the chaos descend, standing casually as he holds up the gown to tempt them.


We finished blocking just before we reached the start of act five, and then we set out smart targets for this assignment in Proportal.
This is the target I set for myself:
One of my major targets for the Tempest is to reach a very high level of understanding of my character, their motivations, objectives and actions. I wish to get to know my character, Ariel, so well that we are almost as one, and it comes naturally to me to mold into playing him. I feel that the more familiar I am with Ariel, the more accessible each scene will be to me as an actor, and I will be able to portray him as clearly as possible in every scene.
I also aim to look more deeply at the play and develop my understanding of it to the point where I feel as though I know the world of the Tempest inside out.
And I wish to feel at the end of this assignment that I have put 100% into it.

Tuesday 13th January 2015

Today we finally finished blocking the Tempest. We spent the entire day blocking the final scene of the play, in which everyone finally meets again and everything comes together. 

This is possibly the most important scene we have blocked, because it concludes the entire story and I feel it needs to be neat and well executed so that the final tone of the play is portrayed clearly. 

My part in this scene is quite on and off, as Prospero sends Ariel to do his final biddings, before setting him free at last. 

In this scene I really wanted to play on that eagerness that Ariel feels to complete the tasks set for him and finally earn his freedom. I tried out a few different things as we went over the scene, and decided how I wanted to portray this eagerness. 

I follow Prospero around closely, listening closely and hanging on their every word, and although I want to maintain that fairy-like quality in movement, I almost rush off and on the stage to run these final errands.

I also, however, wanted to make sure I didn't disregard the connection between Prospero  and Ariel. We see Prospero show affection towards Ariel on a few occasions in this scene, as he tells him he shall miss him, he has done well and things to that affect. 

I tried to show that Ariel is pleased with this, and is not simply desperate to break free, as he also likes Prospero and feels he has been good to him. 

In terms of the actual blocking, most of my exits and entrances are down stage left, as I exit to bring people back onto the stage, first Alonso, Antonio/Sebastion and Gonzalo, and then Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban. 

When I am not doing my duty and am still on stage, I found myself not quite sure what to do, so I just followed the sure fire way of simply reacting to the scene around me in an appropriate way.

As Ariel knows what is going on, of course I don't act surprised as the other characters do, I simply watch the situation unfold calmly, and almost chuckle to myself at times, such as when Trinculo and co. rush on stage and find themselves utter bamboozled. 

One of the most interesting moments for me was the very end of the play. We set up an interesting visual dynamic, as it is only Ariel, Caliban and Prospero left on stage. Prospero is centre stage, Caliban down stage left, and myself down stage right. 

Prospero first turns to me and sets me free, at which point I exit stage right, jumping with joy to be finally free. 

And then, to conclude the entire play, Prospero hands his staff to Caliban, signifying him handing back what was taken from him. 

It's an emotional moment and I think that the staging is simplistic, but just enough to set the right tone for that last moment. As Caliban slowly, cautiously makes his way to the centre to take the staff, we see the balance of power shift. It's a very interesting ending, and I feel we achieved just the right feeling. It was definitely worth going over as much as we did. 

Wednesday 14th January 2015

Today we just went over our assignment briefs for the voice assignment and the historical context one. After that, we performed the final scene we had blocked yesterday so that the students who were not there could see what we had done.