Triple - Historical Context - Blog 16 (Restoration) - 29/02/16

This lesson, we began and completed our restoration theatre performance.

Dan handed everyone a script which contained an extract from, "The Man of Mode or Sir Fopling Flutter," written by George Etherege. This extract featured the characters Young Bellair, Dorimant, Harriet, Lady Woodvil and Busy. I was given the role of Lady Woodvill and the background I was given on her is that she is very high classed and has a rather high pitched voice;  she's also very melodramatic and over reactive.

We began by reading through the script to learn what the scene was about and clear up any issues with our voice. After this we got up and performed it a couple of times to correct any problems.

After this we finally recorded our scene:

Notes to improve:

• My movement was okay but if I made it more feminine it would give away my character's gender better
• My entrance should be a bit later as I stand there awkwardly for a moment until my line

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 15 (Medieval Research) - 24/02/16

Today Rhiannon presented her research for her chosen era of theatre: Medieval Theatre

Medieval Theatre

- started after the fall of the Roman empire; merged into a body of disreputable jugglers and inferior minstrels
- their performances were always crude and immoral
- they weren't stopped because they responded to the demand for dramatic spectacle
- around 1200 AD, performances were spoken in Vernacular, the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people of a country or region.
- Mansion Staging: small wooden platforms used in churches, actors moved between the platforms to represent different places e.g Heaven and Hell
- Saint plays: Skit-like, community gatherings, based on spiritual stuff, broad and melodramatic
-Passion plays: Performed on special days e.g Christmas/Easter, at church at first then outside, bloodily realistic representations
-Mystery/Miracle plays: based on bible stories, became more comic to appeal to a wider range, elements of political commentary, led to backlash from church, often banned, women got more roles, started to add music into it to become more sophisticated.
- Decline in Medieval Theatre: Theatre became commercial (no longer community venture), no longer religious plays, social structure was changing

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 14 (Elizabethan) - 23/02/16

Today in Triple, we started Lorna's Historical Context era, Shakespearean/Elizabethan. For her scene, Lorna wanted it to be conversational as this links to the Elizabethan theme but she still wanted to keep it appealing to a modern audience. Originally, she wanted to use the theme of a Skype video call which would easily appeal to a modern audience. However, Lorna changed her mind on this as she felt her new idea was much better: having Tom and I act out the duologue from her chosen Shakespearean play (Midsummer Night's Dream) whilst Toby and Dan play a gay couple watching this scene on TV at home. She felt this would offer a great deal of hilarity as Toby and Dan would be voicing their opinions on what was happening in the DVD of Lewis and Tom and pausing and rewinding their actions.

Lorna chose Tom to play the role of Demetrius and me to play the role of Helena as it was agreed that Tom appeared more masculine than me due to him being him older than me, his facial hair and upper body strength. Lorna did not play the role of Helena herself as she took a more directing role in this piece and in Elizabethan times, female roles were played by boys while male roles were played by men.

We started by performing the scene with just Tom and I while Toby and Dan read through their script and decide where they would interject (pause) and what they would say. After a ten minutes practise we joined the two together; this went reasonably well but there were multiple improvements to be made:

• Tom and I need to be more fluent with our lines
• Dan and Toby need to keep more in focus instead of rambling for around a minute
• Tom and I need to keep still when we're supposed to be "paused" and I need to make my reversed speech more realistic

After sorting these issues out, we performed and filmed our piece:

Notes to improve:

• My movement and voice needs to be more feminine to give away my character's gender
• I need to slow down my speech as it becomes slurred and you can't understand me.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 13 (Greek) - 10/02/16

This lesson, we finally recorded my Greek Theatre piece after another runthrough.

We began by listening to the audio track I brought in which was edited at the right times. I did this by using audacity to fade the track in and out for when we had chorus lines to speak. This was a lot smoother than having the track paused and played. We also spent a great deal of time learning the chorus lines. I felt that the performance would be less effective if Dan, Toby and I were holding scripts so I ensured we learnt them.

After learning the chorus lines, we rehearsed the scene a couple of times then finally filmed it:

Notes to improve:

• I need to be wary of those around me as I walked into Tom during the performance.
• My stab and barge sequence wasn't as sharp as I wanted it to be.
• The music needs to be better timed with the chorus lines.
• Our movements need to be more in time especially the chorus looking towards and away from the audience.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 12 (Greek) - 08/02/16

Now that we have completed our masks, we started rehearsing the scene wearing the to get used to having our peripheral vision restricted. I also made some changes to how the chorus lines will be spoken.

Firstly, I altered who was actually going to be saying the chorus lines. Originally it was going to be the whole cast but I've made relevant changes based on how things would've been done in original Greek theatre. Tom and Ash (Odysseus and Cyclops) are no longer speaking the chorus lines as they are the main roles. The main roles within Greek theatre weren't also part of the chorus so it would be silly having the mains speak the chorus lines. Additionally, I've excluded Lorna from the chorus lines. This is because although she's part of the chorus as well, as a woman in Greek theatre, she would typically have a lesser role in everything. So to distinguish her being a female amongst the all-male chorus, I've removed her. Now the only one's speaking the chorus lines are Dan, Toby and I. This not only correlates with my research but it also makes speaking the chorus lines easier as there aren't as many people trying to sync up with each other.

Next lesson, we will film the performance and finally move on to a different type of theatre.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 11 (Greek) - 04/02/16

Today, we painted our masks in preparation for my Greek theatre performance. When paining my mask, I wanted to stick with my design and be a golden yellow colour with a tint of brown as this was the colour of typical Greek soldier masks. I also painted the band which held the mask to my face as I felt that the original white band looked odd with my golden masks so I made it the same colour.

I feel like my mask was far too yellow so, next lesson, I will add more tints of brown to the mask and possibly, if the paint dries in time, rehearse the scene with masks on.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 10 (Greek) - 03/02/16

Today in Triple, we continued Papier-mâchéing our masks leading up to my Greek theatre inspired performance. My mask was very uneven in some areas from where I had made a cut around the forehead so that the top of the mask was in line with my hairline. I smoothed out this cut which resulted in me having part of my forehead being shown but nothing too major.

I began bulking out my masks across the bottom, embossing and building a thicker texture making my mask look more protective and threatening. A mistake I made last lesson was leaving my mask face up to dry which resulted in the weight of Papier-mâché to push out the sides of the mask as the face sunk downwards. I fixed this issue by making the mask very wet with glue around the sides then holding the sides inwards slightly as I waited for the glue to dry. When the mask felt more rigid in this area, placed it on the table, face down, to let the glue dry properly.

Next lesson, we will finalise any changes left to make to the masks then finally paint them.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 9 (Greek) - 01/02/16

Today in Triple, we began applying our mask designs to the masks I brought in last week. We all cut our masks to shape them into what our characters would look like. Following my design made last lesson, I cut out the area around my nose and mouth and also trimmed the forehead up to my hairline. I did this as it would make the mask more comfortable for the performance. This makes the mask look a lot more like a helmet which links to the story better. We then glued paper to the mask to strengthen the mask and define certain features such as the cheeks and eyebrows.

Next lesson, we will continue glueing our masks and potentially moving on painting the masks.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 8 (Greek) - 22/01/16

Today, I continued to direct my Greek Theatre physical theatre scene. After last lesson, I devised the rest of the movement for my scene so that I could have a it arranged for everyone the next day. Pictured right, is my choreography.

I began by teaching this to everyone individually. Although this took more time, I feel it's easier to remember something when you're taught it by yourself rather than as a group. Once I had taught it to everyone we began to run it a few times. These runs were very successful but there were some issues to sort out.

Firstly, none of us had learnt our chorus verses so in this run through, we couldn't actually perform the runthrough properly but in the next lesson, we'll make sure we all know the verses. Secondly, Dan didn't feel confident doing contact improvisation because of medical reasons, so for this reason, I changed the scene so that we skip Dan's contact improv so it goes from Lorna's, skips Dan's, then straight to mine.

Finally, upon performing a few runthroughs, I noticed that there were quite a few blank spaces where we were all just standing still waiting for the music to get to the next section; there were only three luckily but they needed to be dealt with. The first was at the very beginning where we don't come onstage for around 30 seconds. To resolve this I will cut the audio from the beginning up to when we enter when I edit the track. The second gap is in between after we take our 4 steps into centre stage and when we turn in our respected directions to then perform our combat sequence. To resolve this Lorna and choreographed a short sequence for that time period; this amount of time lasts 16 bars of the song. For the first four bars we would each swap positions in our formations clockwise four times. E.g. Lorna would step into my position on the first bar, Toby's position on the second bar, Dan's position on the third bar and back to her position on the fourth bar. For the next section we'd all lunge forward in our respected angles twice, each lunge lasting 2 bars. Finally for the last 4 bars, we will turn anticlockwise 4 times whilst marching, one per bar. This is then followed by the turn and combat sequence which was already arranged. The final issue with blank space was when we rise from kneeling and circling Cyclops, by the time we get there we have loads of time until we start stomping. To resolve this we will do rise and circle him in slow-motion.

With these changes, the piece is a lot more fluent. Next lesson, we will focus on creating our masks so that we can finally perform and film the piece.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 7 (Greek) - 20/01/16

Today, I got physical with directing my Greek theatre play. We first started by reading through the script; this meant everyone else understood what the play was about and what happens within it. Following this we got up and started acting.

My idea to make the piece more modern was to create a piece of physical theatre based around the script. The way I wanted to do it was to have all of the actors mime their lines instead of speaking them (except for the chorus). I got everyone to act out the scene with speech first; this got everyone familiar with the story before miming it which is a bit trickier. I also created a new verse for the chorus to say at the beginning of the piece. This is because the story would lack an introduction if the verse wasn't added. 

Partway through trying to mime the whole story, I decided that mime wasn't really fully using physical theatre and decided to start again. I thought about the Greek soldiers being much like the Romans, moving in formation to improve tactical ability. From this I devised a short movement sequence for our formation of 5. Below is the movement I devised:

• SL: Formation facing right (Tom centre, Dan right, Toby front, Lewis left, Lorna back)
• At 0:33, step LRLR, one per bar
• At 0:55, Lewis 90' L, Dan 90' R, Lorna 180'
• Shove shield, stab spear, shuffle forward (and back for Tom) ] x2
• Shove shield, stab spear, go to original stance
• Step back RLRL, turn to original directions, turn heads to audience
• Music fades out, Chorus Verse 1, Music fades in
• Cyclops enters SL, all turn 180'

After this I was planning on having some contact improvisation between each soldier and the Cyclops (excl. Tom) but I will have that devised with the rest of the scene ready for next lesson. In the next lesson, I will aim to teach everyone the newly devised choreography and then iron out any creases.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 6 (Greek) - 18/01/16

Today we moved onto my Greek Theatre play. Beforehand, I chose an extract from, "The Frogs," by Aristophanes but after attempting to alter it so that it appeals to a modern day audience, I felt that a play like The Frogs is very hard to modernise as it would either be totally different or it lose it's original plot. 

Following this decision, I searched for a new play and came across, "The Cyclops," by Euripides. This play featured a lot more movement than the other play so I thought it would be a good idea to convert it to a physical theatre piece. I decided that I would remove all dialogue from the entire piece (minus the Chorus speaking parts) and we'd mime what our lines were saying. For example, Odysseus has the line, "Look- a cave!" so the actor reprising his role (Tom) would probably point to the cave and beckon the other soldiers over with hand gestures.

During this lesson however, we spent some time designing our masks for our characters. There would be 3 different mask designs; one for Cyclops (Ashley), one for Odysseus (Tom) and one for the soldiers (Dan, Toby, Lorna and I). I feel that the soldiers would all have the same mask, as soldiers are very uniform and everyone would look the same. Odysseus would have a very similar mask to the soldiers as he is a soldier too but he would have something which distinguishes himself from the other soldiers. Cyclops' mask would feature gross nose, one bloodshot eye and horrible teeth.

Next lesson, I'll start getting people on their feet and I'll devise what will happen in the scene.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 5 (Post War) - 14/01/16

Today was our performance of Toby's Post-War era play, "A View From The Bridge." We spent a lot of time rehearsing and perfecting our performance!

The only real issue we had was not being loud enough throughout the entire scene. Where we were really loud at the beginning, due to the entrance of the Police, and at the end, due to the exit of the police, the middle section was rather quiet. We rectified this issue as soon as we noticed it and we were prepared for the filmed performance.

After performing the filmed performance, we were very happy with it but I felt I could've done slightly better. I stuttered a couple of times when talking to Lorna's character, Catherine. Although this was a minor issue and that I recovered well, it was still very noticeable. I feel this is because I hadn't learnt the script so I was more focused on getting the words 100% correct which caused me to stutter. Next time, I will make sure I know all of my lines so I wouldn't need to take it onstage with me. Besides this, I feel the performance went very well.




Next lesson, we will start looking at my era of theatre, Greek! For next lesson, I will have a script ready. 

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 4 (Post War) - 13/01/16

Today we started acting out Toby's play from the Post-War era. The play Toby chose was called, "A View From The Bridge."

Our task was to make our plays appealing to a modern day audience and Toby did this by changing the setting from *** to an urban London environment. The main characters have now changed from immigrants to drug dealers and a lot of the dialect was changed to make the characters sound like "Chavs." We spent the rest of the lesson rehearsing and perfecting our performance.

Next lesson, we will finalise our rehearsal process and finally perform it for recording.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 3 (Greek) - 11/01/16

Today we were asked to search for a play from our selected era and cast it. We would then spend around a week practising a section of each play then perform them.

I decided that I wanted my piece to be a comedy as they are rather popular in modern day times so this puts a slight modern twist on a play with Greek Theatre techniques.

The play I found was called, "The Frogs," which was written by Aristophanes. It was performed at the Lenaia, one of the Festivals of Dionysus in Athens, and received first place. I picked this play because of it being critically acclaimed and a comedy.

These are the roles I cast:

Dionysus: Dan

Euripides: Tom

Aeschylus: Toby

Pluto: Ashley

Chorus: Lorna/Lewis

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 2 (Elizabethan, Post War and Restoration research)- 06/01/16 & 07/01/16

Today we performed some of our presentations on our chosen era of drama and made notes. We did this so we have a better understanding on how different eras performed drama and gives us a broader knowledge into the timeline of drama.

We first started with Toby's presentation and these are the notes I made:

Post War Theatre (After War)

1945-Present; Popular between WWI & WWII

ENSA (Entertainment National Service Association)

• provided entertainment for soldiers
• first show in France in 1945

Problems

• Theatre struggles as actors moved to film/TV
• Subsidised theatre: theatre produced no profit so they ran on funds from patrons (Government)

Plays/Musicals

• West Side Story
• A Chorus Line

Playwrights

• Tennesee Williams
• Arthur Miller

Practitioners

• Jen Littlewood - Founder of theatre workshop
• Brecht - Dramaturgy and theatrical production
• Bianway - Theatre in Education

Post War Actors

Richard Todd, Norman Wisdom, Sir Alec Guiness, Lenny Bruce, Marcel Marceau

Staging - Proscenium Arch, Thrust, Arena

Techniques -  Breaking the 4th Wall

Costumes - Suits and dresses

How it changed drama

• Plays became more abstract
• Objects became centre points
• Less popular now and rare to come across

After, I presented my powerpoint on Greek Mythology. Following this, Dan presented his powerpoint on Restoration Theatre. These are the notes I made:

Restoration Theatre

- theatres reopened in 1660 after a 18 year ban

- end of puritan ril

- plays were lavish, immoral and insulted the royalists and roundheads

- lightheartedness reflected a society recovering from division

- comedies were the hallmark

- classics were written and given a happy ending

- restoration comedies involved quick wit and comedic situations

- the recruitment officer was the most popular

- comedies relied on situation humour, disguises, mistaken identity and misunderstanding

- the audience is aware of the trickery but the actors only find out at the end

- they were not a mirror society but exaggerated society

- the typical audience was upper class

- boys played the role of girls

- women played the role of men as a form of situation comedy

- male and female dress began to take on smart elegance

Finally Lorna performed her presentation on Elizabethan Theatre and these are my notes:

Elizabethan

1562-1625

Innyards

- private inns in London

- 1-3 pennies

- indoors/in the yard

- major inns had cobblestone yards

- innyards were then turned into playhouses

Indoor Playhouses

- small, private

- more expensive (2-26 pennies)

- up to 500 capacity

- food and drink intervals introduced

- scenery introduced

- good acoustics

- candles suitable for evenings

Staging and Costumes

- Proscenium arch was used a lot

- blackouts weren't used to move props etc. as the exits were integrated with the performances

- own clothes were used as there was no time for costumes

- only men, women roles were played by young men

- make-up killed the women

Shakespeare

Tragedy - "Hamlet", "Othello", "Romeo and Juliet"

Comedys - "Much Ado", "Midsummer Night Dream", "Twelfth Night"

Levels were used for authority

John Fletcher

"Valentinian", "Wit Without Money", "Wild Goose Chase"

Marlowe

Used Blank Verse and overreached protagonist

"Jew of Malta", "Dr Faustus"

Conventions

- Actors acknowledged audience

- Prologues, epilogues and word puns used for engaging the audience

- extravagant gestures were commonly found too

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 1 (Greek Research) - 19/11/15

Today we started our unit on Historical Context! We started the lesson by deciding who would research which era of theatre; I chose Greek Theatre. Below is my research:

Greek Theatre

Venue:

Almost every Greek city had a theatre; they were called Amphitheatres. The amphitheatres were built on hillsides in the open air and could often hold more than 18,000 spectators. The amphitheatres were open air and built in a semi-circular shape with rows of tiered stone seating around it. The shape of the amphitheatres gave everyone in the audience excellent viewing and also meant they could hear the actors well too. In the centre of the theatre was a circular dancing floor (orchestra), with an altar for sacrifices dedicated to Dionysus. The stage was a raised area within this circle.

Actors:

All the actors were men. They wore large masks that exaggerated facial features and emotions. The mouth hole was large to help amplify the voices. Greek plays were either comedies or tragedies. Comedies tended to be about current and everyday life, whereas tragedies were often about the past. Actors in tragedy roles wore dark colours and boots to elevate them above the other actors. Actors in comedic roles wore bright colours and light thin sole shoes called a sock. The Greeks enjoyed singing and dancing. Plays were part of many religious festivals. The chorus consisted of a group of 12-15 people.The cast of a Greek play in the Dionysia was comprised of amateurs, not professionals (all male).
Ancient Greek actors had to gesture grandly so that the entire audience could see and hear the story.

Some of the costume they wore featured:

• Chiton (robe or tunic)
• Chlaina/himation (overgarment)
• Chlamys (short cloak)
• Cothurnus (short lace-up boots)
• Peplos (cloak)

History

Greek tragedy as we know it was created in Athens around the time of 532 BC; Thespis was the earliest recorded actor. Being a winner of the first theatrical contest held at Athens, he was the exarchon, or leader of the dithyrambs performed in and around Attica, especially at the rural Dionysia. By Thespis' time the dithyramb had evolved far away from its cult roots. Under the influence of heroic epic, Doric choral lyric and the innovations of the poet Arion, it had become a narrative, ballad-like genre. Because of these, Thespis is often called the "Father of Tragedy"

Scenic elements

There were several scenic elements commonly used in Greek theatre:

• A crane that gave the impression of a flying actor

• A wheeled platform often used to bring dead characters into view for the audience

• Pictures hung to create scenery

• More complex pictures built into the second-level scene (3rd level from ground)

• Phallic props were used for satyr plays, symbolizing fertility in honour of Dionysus