Final Performance

Assignment Brief

i think the performance went really well on Thursday. We were all completely focused and different miss any ques. When as an enable we were completely in sync with each other else. I think we all worked really well together and i believe it paid off because all the transitions were seamless and smooth.

One thing we could have worked on was the 4 words that transitioned us all to being back in the jail cell , because it was a bit rocky, but to be fair we changed it just before performing , however we didnt forget it witch was better then having a lul.

Common Ground Review - 13

13

A couple of weeks ago i went to the common ground play 13.  At the very beginning the of play it opens with everyone on stage screaming and a big light swoons down form the ceiling. Being right at the front i thought it looked really bookey and scary. i understood that everyone was having some sort of nightmare.  i think it was really effective repeating this scene though out the play with all the charatures involved because it some how all linked them together.

One thing i really loved and remembered was when we all invited back onto the stage after the interval and they used immerive staging so we were part of the "play" or the crowed as it was. i also really enjoyed jophes speech because it made me really think about everything in my own life.

I thought the white cube was really cool, although it did squeak although when moved, but apart form that i thought it was really cool. It was used form multiple things, like when the American family used it as a kitchen and was used for a jail cell a couple of times. it also helped to emerge the split scene together meaning the different scenes jumped form on group of people to another.

I really enjoyed the choral singing, even though it was a bit random i though it really bought the hole thing together , and showed that all the charatures were linked in some way or another.

It was a shame how some of the actors lines were lost, witch was a shame, because they were all very good. But i think a bit of work on projection would have done the trick. But as a hole i really enjoyed the play and went away thinking about it piecing it all together. 

Self Evaluation of Lesson 16/01/14

Was absent in that lesson

Blackout Review

The BRIT schools interpretation of the play "blackout" was a cleverly directed intake. There were many different uses of theatrical techniques used which were all very effective. 
The physical theatre and ensemble element was very effective indeed. Everyone playing one character but ocationally breaking off in to other character really worked and how everyone was the narature telling the story though out of the play. i thought it brought the play to together for it built tension as well as a illustrating a fluctuation of deep emotion.

The play was performed in Trust, witch in opinion was a good choice for the physical theatre for it was delivered with clarity and sophistication. i can imagine that everywhere and any were you would have sat the performance would have still been delivered with the same amount of brilliance any were on the stage.

Though out the play Aristotle's three unities were broken. them being ...

1. The unity of time: the action in a play should take place over no more than 24 hours." 

The play was set in complete non chronological order and was at set over a long period if time. "James" (the main character cleverly played by hole of the thearter company) was trying to remember his past in order to recall how he had ended up in a jail cell this links to the next broken unities

2. "The unity of place: a play should cover a single physical space and should not attempt to compress geography, nor should the stage represent more than one place."

The play transitions form location to location to location. The setting is changing all the time, seamlessly i must say. One minute James is in a cell the next he's back at school. the constant flash backs he keeps on having take him to different back to times and places in his memory. 

3. "the unity of action: a play should have one main action that it follows, with no or few subplots." 

Because they group have decided to do the play using physical theater, you had to kind of read in-between the lines , and no take it theoretically, especially when we all played multiple charatures.

i think because there was no set nor was there any props it made the acting prominent. i think was really effective how there was no set because it meant that your imagination was left to devise it for you making. 

In my opinion i cant think of any criticism expect maybe being a making it tad bit longer, however i do think the length of the play was good because it crammed everything it making the audience were left wanting more , but also finishing the story at a nice rhetorical ending. it was also sharp and snappy and didn't lag on at all witch can happen although.

Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_unities

Notes on the rehearsal before the performance

When rehearsing before the show we discussed some points which i have elaborated on ...

Getting rid of the luls

A lul is an unnecessary pause of silence which rewinds and brings down the energy of the play. Some luls can be earned , weather it is to used to create tension or to have an emotional effect on the audience , the luls can only be earn t. 

Costume justification 

When in costume i felt more alive and prepared for on did i not only feel like a skinheads i looked like one. At the beginning of the year sir told us to bring a item of clothing or an object that helped us get in to character, so next turn i am going to give it ago because i though it really helped at the time. also having a familiar object with you on stage i think will benefit the performance for me personally.

Poise not pause 

When freeing what your doing on stage, dont pause , but poise. it makes the action look as if it were to carry on making it look realistic.

Transitions should be seamless/overlaying in transitions  

When transitioning it shouldn't be messy but smooth and seamless. It makes the scenes overlay neatly. it is very important because bad transitions can rewin a piece of theartre making it look un organised and hard for the audience to follow.

Carry though the lines 

At the end of a line carry though with it keeping the same energy throughout for what many people do is to descend the energy at the end of a sentence but it loses importance of it.

Not to fidget

if fidgeting on stage it distracts the audiences attention form the main focus. also it is really annoying.

Pause , not drop 

When i director tells you to pause they mean stop exsacally were you are, and is very irritating when you drop your propositioning  because they can not tell were you have just left off from.

Don't lose focus  

when rehearsing it is difficult not to lose focus, but it elongates the rehearsal even more. when the director is focusing on something that dosnt necessaries involve you carry on listen for who knows when you might be needed.

Space

use the space to adjust to the audience. sense of space has to adapted. when rehearsing in the place of performance. 

 

SkinHead Music

When researching the different guere of music skinheads most commonly listen to, it most defiantly took me by surprise. because of the pre made stereotype i had in my head of a skinhead, was a rasic, believer it white supremacy , i don't think you really take into consideration that not all skinheads are like that, in fact the majority of skinheads mainly listen to reggae and i think that music definitely plays an important role in any kind of subculture including skinheads. 

When researching i found that originally, skinheads were mainly associated by having passion to reggae music such as Desmond Dekker and Laurel Aitke Symarip, Joe the Boss, and Judge Dread. All the music being quite upbeat and happy.

Many reggae artist during the 70s wrote songs and albums ,deicated to skinsheads for they knew that they had a big skinhead following. Like Laurel Aitke and Symarip. 

More types of music come besides popular among skinheads such as Northern Soul, Rocksteady, streetpunk, mod rock and, in Usa especially, Hardcore. Neo-Nazi and Traditional skinheads listen to Rock Against Communism.

BLACKOUT ADVERT

"A small room, bright lights, white walls, a metal door. Oh my God! Imagine you wake up in a jail cell and you don’t know how you got there."'JAMES alone and confused try ,to piece back his forgotten past on how he ended up in locked a cell and charged with attempted murder. The 20min performance will take you on a werlwind of events that change one boys life FOREVER ! 

Waking up for the first time

Using the room as a stiumles you image you've just woken up for the first time. As if every thing is new and alien to you.
You look around the room in confusion, explore every muscle in your body, look at everything think in detail and with care.

i like this exercise because it changes every time you do it. its never the same. i also think it looks really effective if you believe it more than if you just do it. when i do it i imagine i have just been born, or i have just woken up form a dream and i am in an infermilar room. i think what ever works for you is best.

We have used this in blackout at the begging when we are on the floor, awaking in the jail cell. i think it workers really well because it makes the us and the audiences share an emotion of confusion and dissertation.

Milling

It's about your ability to fill space by using you collective responsibility and peripheral vision when walking in a room. Walking around freely around the space

Milling 2 - creating spatial relationships with in the space 

energy levels 

1 slow not slow emotion

2 low energy 

3 normal 

4 frantic

5 controlled Caicos (BOM in the room)

I have done this exercise else were and is different every time, for the energy levels varies ever so slightly. but i do like this technique for you act off other peoples energy for example, when someone is has a every low energy it makes your energy level lower.

We have decided to use this in blackout , right at the being when walking in to the room. we all start off at 1 and me being the Protagonist controls when it changes to 4 and then again to 1.

The fishers expertise

The fishers exersize is when there is a leader in the group, and job of everyone else is to follow and copy the direction in witch they are travelling in. If you are unable to see the leader it is best to copy the rest of the group for everyone is moving together as ensemble.  It should look seamless and should be unable to direct who the leader is with in the group . The coral movement should create a wave effect, and should ripple though the group. Following the leader using peripheral vision  is key and will help you greatly.

I like this exercises for not only was it enjoyable but looked good visually. When being part of the group i felt like were as one, like one body, but we were all important in ourself and controlled one part of the body to make it hole. The reasoning for the name "fishers exersize" is because fish travel is groups called "shoal" . when fish travel in a shoal  there is a unannounced leader so they move as one following each other in a way of communication.

We are incorporating the exercises at the beging of black out when we are all entering. 

Hand Raise Fall

• The exercise hand raise fall starts off with a group of people walking in a room making sure you have peripheral vision of everyone. 
• Spontaneously some one with stop. Raise there hand and say "ME" loud enough for everyone in the class to hear. Then with there legs shoulder width apart with fall back. and the aim is for the rest of the group/class is to catch them safely. and then carry on
• When you feel everybody feels they have got the hand of it they start adding in another "layer". This being, instead of saying me and falling, you are to point at someone else and say you, and they are to fall.
• To make the exercise a bit more controversial you when falling you can fall in any direction you feel best, weather that be falling forward, backwards, left , right ...

My honest first impressions of hand raise fall was total uncertainly. Because i am self couscous about my weight and didn't trust that people would be able to catch me when i fell. i tried to avoid the first layer by not falling on demand however on the second layer i had to for it was a spontaneous picking of other people picking individuals to fall. When i fell i felt quite liberated and from then on trusted the class to catch me. i think it is a create trusting exercising because after participating you feel you can depend on the rest of the class.